Book of Joshua Lesson 1

As the book of Joshua begins, we see the people of Israel camped at the edge of the Promised Land. They did not look like the great nation God had promised to make them. They were descendants of slaves. They had lived for decades as nomadic wanderers without a permanent home. Their military skills were mostly untested. And they were politically powerless in a region inhabited by warring kings.

God had made a promise to their ancestor, Abraham: He would make Abraham’s descendants a great nation, and He would give them the land of Canaan as their inheritance. The people of Israel had spent 400 years as slaves in Egypt. They had followed Moses across the Red Sea into freedom. But then—because of their rebellion against God—they spent the next 40 years in the wilderness. They wandered the desert until they all died, leaving their children to claim the land. God chose Joshua to lead the people into Canaan.