The greatest type in the Old Testament is the history of the people of Israel, who typify the church, composed of the New Testament believers as God’s elect (1 Cor. 10:1-13). Coming after the five books of the law, the books of Moses, Joshua is the first book of the twelve books of Israel’s history, from Joshua to Esther. The twelve books of history are not concerned merely with history; they are a part of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy, which concerns Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the organic Body of Christ for the consummating of the New Jerusalem. The intrinsic revelation of the books of history in the Old Testament is to unveil to us how the eternal economy of God is carried out by His elect on the earth. The eternal economy of God is altogether concerning Christ and for Christ, mainly in the person of Christ and the kingdom of Christ. Regarding the person of Christ, the record of history in the Old Testament keeps a line of the genealogy of Christ for His coming through incarnation to be a man. Regarding the kingdom of Christ, the Old Testament history maintains a line on the kingdom of God for Christ to establish His divine kingdom on the earth. These two items form the governing line of the divine revelation in the books of the history of Israel.

To take possession of God’s promised land for Christ and to provide the proper persons to bring forth Christ into the human race are the spirit, the intrinsic significance, of the section of the Old Testament history in the three books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. In the book of Joshua the central thought is that God intended to fulfill the promise concerning the good land that Israel might have a place to carry out God’s economy, especially to keep the line of bringing in Christ to the earth through His incarnation.

Meaning Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. The Greek form of the name is Jesus (see note Matt. 1:21^1b). Joshua was the writer of this book. Through Moses God brought Israel as a people out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the border of the good land. After Moses, Joshua led the children of Israel to enter the God-promised land and to take it, possess it, allot it, and enjoy it.

Joshua typifies Christ and also grace (Christ) replacing the law (Moses) (John 1:17). It was when Moses the lawgiver died that Joshua came in (v. 2) to bring the people into the good land (v. 6), typifying the Lord Jesus bringing the people of God into rest, into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ (Heb. 4:8) as all the blessings ordained by God (Eph. 1:3-14). Christ has brought us into the good land, has taken possession of the land for us, and has allotted the land to us as our inheritance for our enjoyment. Christ has gained the good land for us, and eventually He is the good land for us to enjoy (see note Deut. 8:7¹).

God’s charge to Joshua was that he should enter into God’s promised land. The land of Canaan with all its riches typifies the God-given Christ with all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12-13). For the carrying out of His economy, God needs a people and a land (see note Gen. 15:3^1a). For Christ’s person in God’s economy, there is the need of a people to be His genealogy to bring Him into humanity. For Christ’s kingdom, there is the need of a land. Although the earth was created by God, it has been usurped by Satan. Thus, God uses His people to gain a part of the Satan-usurped earth to serve as a base for Him to set up His kingdom.

On the one hand, God had given Israel the good land; on the other hand, Israel still needed to take the land by rising up to fulfill God’s commission (cf. Phil. 3:7-16). In order for God to regain the earth from the usurping hand of Satan, God’s people needed to be in full cooperation and coordination with God as in the principle of incarnation (see note 1 Cor. 7:40²). They needed to sacrifice themselves, deny themselves, give up their own interest and preference in all things, put their full trust in the moving and operating God, and risk their lives for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.

I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. So throughout the book. See note Deut. 11:24¹.

Joshua was to be occupied with God’s word and to let the word occupy him (cf. Col. 3:16). By being occupied and filled with the word, he would have prosperity and success in taking the God-promised good land. See note Psa. 119:15¹.

The charge in vv. 12-15 to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh was a reminder of Moses’ word in Num. 32. This charge indicates that the possessing and enjoying of God’s promised land was a corporate matter among all God’s chosen people, requiring all God’s elect to rise up, fight for the land and for one another, and gain and possess the land so that everyone would be able to enter into his particular portion and be at rest (cf. Eph. 3:17-19).

The children of Israel agreed with Joshua in taking God’s commission. Their response implied their willingness, their readiness, and their being in one accord not only with Joshua but also with Jehovah their God, as expressed by their blessing Joshua in the name of their God. They were one with the Triune God in the move of His economy for the purpose of gaining the good land.