Joshua – Lesson 5

One of the greatest events in Moses’ life was when he went to the top of Mount Sinai to be with God face to face. Joshua went with him and they were gone for 40 days. Aaron remained with the Israelites and was in charge of them. Joshua was not allowed to enter the cloud which covered the top of the mountain as Moses met God. So Joshua was alone for 40 days. And when nothing was heard from Moses for this period of time, the people thought that he was not coming back and they went to Aaron with a proposal.

· Exodus 32:1-2, When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." 2 Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." From this gold Aaron made a golden calf which the people worshiped.

The man who was to be the high priest of Israel gave in to the demands of the people.

After 40 days Moses and Joshua came down from the mountain.

· Exodus 32:19-21, When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. 21 He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?"

It is not difficult to imagine the anger level of Moses. He has just come from an amazingly intimate extended period of time with the God of the universe and here he faces his brother who was supposed to keep order and instead he has assisted them in idol worship.

So he hurls the two stone tablets that contained the Law of God to the ground and smashes them. Jesus said that if you break one of these commandments, you break all of them. Do you find that interesting in view of Moses actions? He broke all ten of them at once. Of course, we are making a play on words.

Aaron pleaded with Moses not to get angry with him, and then put the blame on the people. Remember, it was the same thing that happened in the Garden of Eden and the responsible party tried to put the blame on somebody else.

· Exodus 32:22-24 "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' 24 So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"

Then Aaron makes a completely ridiculous statement; He threw the gold in the fire and out came a golden calf.

Well this truly angered Moses. He took the calf, burned it and ground it up into dust, put the gold dust into some water and made the Israelites drink the water.

After this Moses goes outside the camp as a test to see who wanted to truly worship God. The Levites responded to his call and Moses sent them back into the camp to kill those who were worshipping the golden calf. There were three thousand killed that day. I think that it is interesting that there were three thousand saved on the Day of Pentecost.

Another mention of Joshua is in Numbers.

· Numbers 13:1-8, The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders." 3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;

The name given to him in this passage is “Hoshea”, which means salvation. Moses changed his name in Numbers 13:16, These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. Many times in Scripture we see names changed and there is always significance to the new name.

· Numbers 13:17-33, When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) 21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. 26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." 30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

The majority report was very negative and had nothing to say about the power of God. They said the Israelites could not win a battle there.

Caleb and Joshua on the other hand, showed their faith in God when they reported that the land could be conquered because God was with them. They said it would be as easy as eating bread.

· Numbers 14:19,  In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."

· Numbers 14:26-35, The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 27 "How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: 29 In this desert your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But you--your bodies will fall in this desert. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. 34 For forty years--one year for each of the forty days you explored the land--you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' 35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."

Now notice two things in the verses we have just read. First, Moses is a type of Jesus as the intercessor as he goes to God asking God to forgive the Israelites for their faithlessness, and second notice that God makes a major exception to His commitment that all those over 40 will die in the desert and will not be permitted to enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb and Joshua will live to enter there. Their faith is to be rewarded.