By Mike Peek

My reading this morning was of Joshua 6-10. How should Christians understand the conquest of Canaan? We are not a nation like Israel. We are people from every tribe, tongue and nation on earth. We are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus taught his disciples to not hate their enemies but to love them. (Matthew 5:43-48) So how should a Christian understand the conquest of Canaan, where the sons of Israel hacked to death the inhabitants of the land and did not allow any to survive? The history of Israel is real history but there is a lesson for the Christian in it. The church of Jesus Christ is not a physical nation as Israel was but a spiritual people. We are guided by the Word and the Spirit. Our home is not this world but in the world that is to come; therefore, we should remember that the historical books are written about a historical people but the Scriptures themselves are Spirit. There is a message for the Christian in the text of the historical books. Jesus came to save his...

Joshua 1:10-11 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.’” Joshua, יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua; “the LORD is salvation,” Moses’ successor, also the name of a number of Israelites. (NASB Strong’s Dictionary)  The Lord is salvation is his name. Yehoshua was the name of a number of Israelites in Israel’s history. It is also the Hebrew name that was given Jesus by the angel, Matthew 1:21, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Jesus is the English rendering of the Greek Ἰησοῦς Iēsous ; Jesus or Joshua, the name of the Messiah, which is the Greek rendering of הוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua.  I find this to be very interest...