Jesus: From Genesis to Revelation

Week 28 Discussion Guide: Crossing the Jordan

Opening

Begin by reciting this week’s memory verse together:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

Think about a time when you were asked to step into a role or a responsibility that someone else had filled before you – a job, a ministry, a family obligation. What was it like to stand in the shadow of a predecessor? Did the weight of their legacy feel like a gift or a burden? Hold that memory as we discuss a man who was asked to follow Moses.

Review: The Big Picture

This week we crossed the Jordan with Joshua and a nation born in the wilderness. The readings moved from God’s threefold charge to Joshua – “Be strong and courageous” – through Rahab’s astonishing confession of faith and the miracle of the Jordan crossing on dry ground, to the fall of Jericho by obedient worship and the devastating defeat at Ai caused by Achan’s hidden sin. The week closed with the sweeping southern and northern campaigns that left thirty-one Canaanite kings defeated. The promise that has been traveling since Genesis 12 – “To your offspring I will give this land” – is being kept. The God who divided the Red Sea for the first generation divides the Jordan for the second. His faithfulness does not expire with the people who doubt it.

Discussion Questions

Day 1: Joshua Commissioned (Joshua 1:1-18)

  1. Commanded Courage. God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous” three times in nine verses (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9). The third repetition adds a startling word: “Have I not commanded you?” Courage here is not a personality trait but an obligation grounded in a promise. What is the difference between courage as a human virtue and courage as a divine command? How does the basis of the courage – “the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” – change what courage looks like in practice?

  2. The Book of the Law. Sandwiched between the first and third charges of courage is a different kind of command: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8). Why does God link military courage to meditation on Scripture? What does this suggest about the relationship between obedience to God’s word and the ability to face overwhelming circumstances?

Day 2: Rahab’s Faith and the Jordan Crossing (Joshua 2:1–3:17)

  1. The Unlikely Confessor. Rahab is a Canaanite, a prostitute, and a resident of a city under divine judgment. Yet her confession – “The LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11) – is theologically richer than the report of the ten spies at Kadesh-barnea. What does Rahab’s inclusion in the narrative – and later in the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:5) – reveal about the boundaries of God’s grace? Who are the “Rahabs” in your own community that the church might overlook?

  2. Dry Ground Again. The Jordan crossing deliberately echoes the Red Sea: the waters stop, the people cross on dry ground, and memorial stones are set. But there is a difference – this is not escape but arrival. Why does God repeat the pattern? What does the echo tell the second generation about the God they are following?

Day 3: Memorial Stones and the Fall of Jericho (Joshua 4:1–6:27)

  1. Stones That Ask Questions. God commands twelve stones to be stacked on the western bank “so that when your children ask in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them” (Joshua 4:6-7). The memorial is designed to provoke questions. How do you build “memorial stones” in your own family or community – tangible reminders that prompt the next generation to ask about God’s faithfulness?

  2. Victory by Worship. Jericho falls not to siege engines but to seven days of marching, seven priests with seven trumpets, and a shout. The method is absurd by military calculation. Paul later writes, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). What does Jericho teach about the relationship between obedience and victory? Where in your life are you tempted to rely on strategies that “make sense” rather than trusting methods that require faith?

Day 4: Achan’s Sin and the Defeat at Ai (Joshua 7:1–8:35)

  1. Hidden Disobedience, Public Defeat. Achan takes a cloak, silver, and gold from Jericho and buries them under his tent. No one sees. But Israel is routed at Ai and thirty-six men die. God says, “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant” (Joshua 7:11). The sin was individual; the consequence was corporate. What does this episode reveal about the nature of covenant community? Is there such a thing as “private sin” in a body that belongs to God?

  2. The Valley of Achor. Achan is executed in the Valley of Achor – a name meaning “trouble.” Centuries later, Hosea will prophesy that God will make “the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15). The place of judgment becomes, in God’s hands, a place of restoration. How does this transformation speak to the way God redeems even the sites of our greatest failures?

Day 5: The Conquest Summarized (Joshua 9:1–12:24)

  1. The Gibeonite Deception. The Gibeonites trick Israel into a covenant by pretending to be from a distant land (Joshua 9:3-15). Joshua and the leaders “did not ask counsel from the LORD” (Joshua 9:14). What does this failure to inquire of God reveal about the danger of making decisions based on visible evidence alone? How do you practice “asking counsel from the LORD” in your own decision-making?

  2. The Sun Stands Still. Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still, and “the sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day” (Joshua 10:13). The narrator adds, “There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man” (Joshua 10:14). What does this extraordinary event reveal about the relationship between Joshua’s faith, his prayer, and God’s power? What does it mean that God “heeded the voice of a man”?

  3. Thirty-One Kings. Joshua 12 lists thirty-one defeated kings – a ledger of divine promise kept by divine power. The catalog can feel like a dry list, but each name represents a fulfilled word. How does the specificity of the list serve as evidence for the trustworthiness of God? Where in your own life can you trace a “list” of God’s faithfulness?

Synthesis

  1. The Greater Joshua. The name Yehoshua – “the LORD saves” – is the same name given to Jesus (the Greek Iesous translates the Hebrew Yehoshua). The author of Hebrews writes, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on” (Hebrews 4:8). Joshua led Israel into the land but could not give them ultimate rest. How does the entire narrative of Joshua 1-12 – the crossing, the conquest, the victories and failures – point forward to the rest that only Christ provides? What kind of “rest” is Hebrews describing, and how is it different from what Joshua achieved?

Going Deeper: Connections Across the Week

Application

Closing Prayer

Close your time together by praying through Joshua 1:9. Thank God that courage is not something we must manufacture but something he commands and then supplies. Confess the areas where fear has replaced faith, where hidden compromise has weakened the community, where you have relied on human strategy rather than divine obedience. Ask the God who divided the Jordan and toppled Jericho to go before you into whatever “promised land” you are being called to enter. Pray for the courage that comes not from your own strength but from the unshakeable promise: “The LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Looking Ahead

Next week we will read Joshua 13-24 – the distribution of the land, Caleb’s extraordinary request for the hill country at age eighty-five, the cities of refuge, and Joshua’s farewell at Shechem: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” The conquest is won but not complete. The question shifts from whether God will keep his promises to whether the people will keep theirs.