Session 4
Joshua 6:12-25
Memory Verse: Joshua 6:20
Successful coaches put the right people in the right places
to lead teams to victories.
Managers increase sales and profits by employing
successful plans and processes.
But perhaps nowhere is strategy more important than in warfare.
Strategy on the battlefield becomes a matter of survival
for individuals and for nations.
What is a strategy?
A general definition identifies it as a plan of action designed to achieve a major aim.
More specifically, strategy is a plan for military operations or movements during a battle or war.
However, the strategy for the Israelites’ conquest of Jericho
did not fall into the category of traditional tactics.
The ultimate Commander was God Himself,
and His ways often differ from our ways.
Parents of toddlers want to teach their children to trust them.
Building this trust involves providing for their needs
and protecting them.
Some parents build trust by encouraging their child
to leap into their arms when the jump appears to be
a very long, dangerous leap to the child.
When the child makes the jump and the parent catches him,
both the parent and the child are exuberant.
God often calls upon His children to make what appears
to be enormous leaps to demonstrate to them
that they can always trust in Him as they obey Him. (PSG, p. 37)
Israel was learning to trust God under Joshua’s leadership.
Around 1406 BC, Joshua led the people across the Jordan
and toward the city of Jericho. Summarize this information from page 38 of the PSG to provide context:
“In chapters 3-4, God exalted Joshua as His ordained leader
over Israel as He parted the flooded waters of the Jordan River and led the Israelites into the land of Canaan on dry ground.
In Joshua 5, the men of Israel renewed the covenant
with the Lord by being circumcised as He had commanded.
They celebrated Passover and ate from the bounty
of the land of Canaan.
A mysterious figure identified as the “commander of the Lord’s army” (5:14)
appeared to Joshua, confirming the Lord’s presence with Joshua as they prepared for the conquest of Jericho.
Chapter 6 recounts the dramatic and miraculous conquest
of Jericho, the first major Canaanite city the Israelites faced
after crossing the Jordan River.”
Joshua was an experienced military leader,
but today’s session reveals his willingness to surrender his ideas
to the plans and strategies of God.