Jesus and Joshua

Before we leave Joshua 7, let’s be reminded that in the Bible Joshua is a picture of Christ, called a ‘type’. The man, Joshua, portrays Jesus, the Son of Man.
Their names are the same. Both names, Joshua and Jesus, are from the Hebrew ‘Yeshua’, which means, "he will save."
Their men number the same. Joshua appointed twelve men, one from each tribe; Jesus appointed twelve disciples.
Their hearts are fashioned the same. Grieved over sin, Joshua falls face down and carries out the judgment of God; Jesus came first as Savior, "and call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins" and will come again as Judge.
Joshua led the people into the Promised Land of Canaan; but Jesus, not only leads us into victory in the land of the living, He is the Only One who can lead us into heaven – into salvation – the greater Promised Land.
Jesus is our Joshua, but a better Joshua.

Thinking along those same lines, here is what one Crossings class member wrote to me:

Dear Suzanne,
I've been thinking a lot about Achan after our small group earlier today. One woman in particular was struggling with "That is not the God I know. A God who would punish innocent children because of the sins of their father - and not only punish them, but allow them to die."

Your reminder today that Joshua is a "type" of Jesus led me along this path of thinking. What if I were to think of Achan as a "type" of Adam? Adam like Achan was one who KNEW what God had commanded, willfully chose to disobey and took what God had forbidden him to take and then tried to hide. The wages of Adam's sin was death - not only for him - but for all of mankind. Our sin nature is a direct result of Adam's disobedience - because of his sin, each of us is sentenced to death. Because of Adam, we live in a fallen world. We are like Achan's family. Then the other part of struggle - would the God "I know" allow an innocent child to die because of the sins of someone else? The answer is YES!!!! He who knew no sin became sin. God allowed His precious child Jesus to take my place - the innocent lamb of God died, so I could live. I'm not so sure that Achan isn't with the Lord. In the end, he confessed and he believed and his honesty glorified the Lord. - isn't that the conduit for grace?

Quite a bit of food for thought. It is so good to walk throught these lessons once more. Take time to process... I'll give you a rest over the weekend. Be blessed!