여호수아
Summary Joshua is a book that shows the process by which God actually gives His people the land He had already promised. It shows the faithfulness of God, who fulfills His promises to the end.
- Date written
- c. 1400 BC (traditional)
- Historical period
- Era of the conquest of Canaan
Background
Joshua is set after Deuteronomy, at the point when the people of Israel cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan, the Promised Land. Moses has died and Joshua has been established as the new leader, but this change is not merely a change of leaders; it is a scene showing that God’s covenant continues on. The land of Canaan was not an empty land but a place where many peoples already lived. Joshua does not explain the conquest of this land as the result of human strength or strategy, but emphasizes that God is the One who gives, at the appointed time, the land He promised to Abraham. Behind this book lies God’s covenantal declaration, “I gave you the land that I swore to your fathers.”
Content
Joshua unfolds broadly in a flow of entry into Canaan, the distribution of the land, and the reaffirmation of the covenant. In the early part of the book, through the crossing of the Jordan River and the fall of Jericho, it shows that the process of entering the Promised Land was accomplished not by human ability but by the power of God. The conquest stories that follow do not emphasize Israel’s military excellence so much as reveal that trust in God’s command and God’s intervention determined the outcome. Even the accounts of failure show what follows when people do not rely on God, testifying that both victory and defeat lie under God’s sovereignty. In the latter part come the scenes in which the land of Canaan is distributed to each tribe. This distribution is portrayed not as the result of a competition to seize land but as an act of grace in which God allots an inheritance to each tribe. Finally, Joshua reminds the people once again of who God is and urges them to remain within the covenant. In the end, Joshua is not a story of human beings fulfilling a promise but a book that shows the process by which God brings about, in actual history, the promise He made.