Jesus: From Genesis to Revelation

Week 29 Discussion Guide: Conquest and Settlement

Opening

Begin by reciting this week’s memory verse together:

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:15 (ESV)

Think about a choice you have made – not under pressure or in a crisis, but deliberately, with full knowledge of the alternatives. A marriage vow. A career change. A commitment to a community. What made that choice stick? What tempted you to unmake it? Hold that memory as we discuss a generation that stood at Shechem and swore an oath.

Review: The Big Picture

This week we moved from conquest to settlement. The readings opened with a striking tension – “There remains yet very much land to possess” (Joshua 13:1) – and then traced the distribution of that land tribe by tribe, acre by acre. Caleb, at eighty-five, asked for the hardest territory, where the giants still lived. The cities of refuge were established as shelters for the accidentally guilty, with the manslayer’s release tied to the death of the high priest. The Levitical cities scattered God’s teachers throughout the nation. Joshua 21:45 delivered the theological summary of the entire book: “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” The week closed with Joshua’s farewell at Shechem – the rehearsal of God’s faithfulness, the demand for a decision, the stone of witness, and the death of the man whose name means “the LORD saves.”

Discussion Questions

Day 1: The Division Begins and Caleb’s Mountain (Joshua 13:1–14:15)

  1. Much Land Remains. Joshua is old, and God tells him, “There remains yet very much land to possess” (Joshua 13:1). The victories are real, but the work is unfinished. How do you live faithfully in the tension between what God has already done and what remains incomplete? Where in your own life do you experience the reality of “much land remains”?

  2. Caleb at Eighty-Five. Caleb asks not for a comfortable valley but for the hill country where the Anakim – the giants – still dwell: “Give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day” (Joshua 14:12). Forty-five years of wilderness wandering did not shrink his faith; it sharpened it. What distinguishes faith that grows stronger over decades from faith that erodes? What does Caleb’s request reveal about the relationship between aging and spiritual hunger?

Day 2: Tribal Allotments (Joshua 15:1–19:51)

  1. Theology in Property Lines. The land distribution reads like a surveyor’s report – tribal boundaries, city lists, geographic coordinates. But each boundary is a line that says: God keeps his word. The promise to Abraham in Genesis 13 – “all the land that you see I will give to you” – is being parceled out, acre by acre. How does the specificity of these chapters shape your understanding of God’s faithfulness? Is God’s care more evident in sweeping promises or in their detailed fulfillment?

  2. The Inheritance of the Specific. Peter describes the believer’s inheritance as “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). Joshua’s land could be lost through disobedience. Christ’s inheritance cannot. What is the relationship between the tangible land Israel received and the eternal inheritance the New Testament describes? How does the earthly shadow illuminate the heavenly reality?

Day 3: Cities of Refuge and “Not One Word Has Failed” (Joshua 20:1–21:45)

  1. A Place to Run. The cities of refuge provided shelter for those who killed accidentally – a place to flee from the avenger of blood until the case could be heard (Joshua 20:1-6). The manslayer lived in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. What does this system reveal about God’s commitment to justice and mercy operating together? Why do you think the manslayer’s release was tied to the death of the high priest?

  2. Not One Word. “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:45). This sentence is the theological summary of the entire book. What promises of God have you seen fulfilled in your own life? How does this summary ground the choice that Joshua will demand at Shechem – to serve the LORD who has already kept every word?

Day 4: The Altar of Witness (Joshua 22:1-34)

  1. Misunderstanding and Near-Civil War. The eastern tribes build an altar at the Jordan, and the western tribes prepare for war, assuming it is a rival worship site. Investigation reveals it is an altar of witness, not sacrifice – “a witness between us and you” (Joshua 22:27). What does this episode teach about the danger of assuming the worst about fellow believers? How might the near-disaster have been avoided, and what does it suggest about the role of dialogue in covenant community?

  2. The Fragility of Unity. The crisis in Joshua 22 reveals how quickly covenantal unity can fracture – one altar, one misunderstanding, and twelve tribes nearly go to war with each other. What practices sustain unity in a community of faith? How does Paul’s exhortation to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) speak to this kind of situation?

Day 5: Joshua’s Farewell at Shechem (Joshua 23:1–24:33)

  1. The Rehearsal of Faithfulness. Before demanding a choice, Joshua rehearses God’s history with Israel from Abraham through the conquest (Joshua 24:2-13). The recital is long and detailed. Why does Joshua ground the call to decision in a narrative of what God has already done? How does remembering God’s past faithfulness shape present obedience?

  2. Choose This Day. “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). Joshua names the alternatives explicitly. What are the “gods beyond the River” and the “gods of the Amorites” in your own context – the inherited assumptions and the cultural pressures that compete for your allegiance?

  3. The Stone That Listens. Joshua sets up a stone at Shechem and says, “This stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us” (Joshua 24:27). Then Joshua dies. The stone remains. What does it mean to make a commitment under witness – before God, before the community, before a stone that will outlast you? How does the permanence of the witness intensify the seriousness of the vow?

Synthesis

  1. The Hinge Between Books. Joshua 24 stands at the boundary between Joshua and Judges – between a generation that chose to serve the LORD and the generations that will do “what is right in their own eyes.” The people swear allegiance at Shechem, but the book of Judges will reveal how quickly that allegiance dissolves. What makes the difference between a genuine commitment and a momentary enthusiasm? How does Jesus’ parable of the soils (Matthew 13:3-9) illuminate what is about to happen to Israel?

Going Deeper: Connections Across the Week

Application

Closing Prayer

Close your time together by praying through Joshua 24:15. Thank God that his faithfulness is the ground of your choosing – that you can commit to serving him because he has already kept every word. Confess the areas where competing allegiances have divided your heart – the gods of comfort, control, and cultural approval that whisper from across the river. Ask for the courage of Caleb, who at eighty-five still wanted the mountain. Ask for the clarity of Joshua, who named the alternatives and chose the LORD. And pray that your household – however it is composed – would be a place where the choice to follow God is made visible in daily life.

Looking Ahead

Next week we enter the book of Judges and the book of Ruth – two narratives set in the same era but telling radically different stories. Judges traces a devastating spiral of sin, oppression, and increasingly broken deliverers, ending with the epitaph “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Ruth, set in the same period, tells of a Moabite widow who clings to the God of Israel and enters the lineage of David. The darkness of Judges and the light of Ruth together form a single argument: the nation needs a king, and God is quietly, faithfully preparing the line.