Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Article: “God’s Word Tested And Proven” by Harry A. Ironside
• Sermon: “A Battle Plan to Possess the Land” by Brady Cooper

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training podcast. Today we are in Unit 7, Session 4, God Keeps His Promises, with the key concept of God fights for His people and is faithful in keeping His promises. Our core passage is Joshua 11:16-23. Let’s dive in.

Last week we saw what happened when one of the Israelites failed to obey and honor God, and in battle, they lost to a minor town. But they rectified the situation and God continued to go with Joshua and His people.

In today’s passage, we see a summary of all God did through Joshua to fulfill His promises. Joshua was able to conquer the land as God was faithful. On p. 56, circling all the ‘alls’ help you get a picture of the totality of the conquests. Imagine the Jews of old reading this passage and emphasizing all the ‘alls’ and all that God did.

“So Joshua took all this land—the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the foothills, the Arabah, and the hill country of Israel with its foothills—from Mount Halak, which ascends to Seir, as far as Baal-dad in the Valley of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and struck them down, putting them to death.”

We find in Joshua 11, then, the last battle and victory against the Canaanites and the fulfillment of what God had promised. In our passage’s summation of the events, we see God’s faithfulness to Joshua and His faithfulness to Israel. Joshua is the main hero here, mostly because he was faithful and obedient to God, in contrast to the Canaanites who were enemies to God and His people, as it states that “no city made peace with the Israelites,” meaning that had they only surrendered to God, they might have been spared. This is seen in the Hivites who inhabited Gibeon in chapter 9. Though they deceived Joshua, they were spared because of what they heard about the Lord: ““It was clearly communicated to your servants that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you. We greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. 25 Now we are in your hands. Do to us whatever you think is right” seen in Joshua 9:24-25. They became woodcutters and water carriers, but they got to live and not be destroyed. They surrendered to the Lord.

This takes us to verse 20 which your group may have questions about: “For it was the Lord’s intention to harden their hearts, so that they would engage Israel in battle, be completely destroyed without mercy, and be annihilated, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” Hmm, that sounds like a harsh God; what are we to make of Him here? Well, this isn’t the first time we have heard of God hardening hearts. He did so with Pharaoh in Egypt in Exodus 7:3, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.” But in both instances, what you find is God giving opportunities for the offender to relent. He even gave miraculous signs to Pharaoh but he would not let the people go. For the Canaanites, He made it known that He would conquer the land and the Israelites were winning battles, sometimes miraculously too, but the kings of Canaan would not relent there either. They would not surrender. So after ample opportunities for them to turn to God, God gave them over to their own inclinations and desires—to try to beat God, to put their foot down and say, I want to do it my own way. And when that happens in the past, or present, disaster will strike.

And in one sense, that’s why Israel also had to wait for the promises God had for them. God was giving their enemies an opportunity to turn and surrender, but they never did. And He was also giving the Israelites time to grow in their faith and wait on God. Sometimes our waiting on God may be about us, but sometimes it will grow our faith but the main reason may be about someone else or other circumstances that need to align in God’s timing. Knowing this and knowing that waiting produces perseverance and faith helps us in the waiting because we are putting God’s will first before ours. We are trusting that God has got it together. He knows exactly what He’s doing and is never surprised by anything.

So through this passage, we learn that God is faithful to His people and fulfills His promises. We see that He is merciful, like how He deals with the Gibeonites, but also how His justice ultimately reveals itself, in letting people choose their own way and not surrender to Him and thus, receive the judgment they incurred upon themselves, warring with God’s people and getting defeated.

Moving on to verses 21-23, then, we continue to see where Joshua and the Israelites have been victorious, in Hebron, Debir, and Anab. We see him destroying the Anakims, the very people that scared the Israelites in the first place when Moses sent out the spies and they cried, “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there ​— ​the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them” In Numbers 13:32-33. So we have come full circle in showing that those enemies they were so scared of have been “completely destroyed.” God is able to do it all and He will accomplish what He says He will. His Word is true and His promises are true. The Theological Connection here is in our understanding of Scripture. It might seem like an odd disconnect but the point is that God’s promises in His Word will be fulfilled; no doubt about it. We can trust in it and, thus, live by it. The Israelites only knew part of His Word at the time as He spoke to their leaders but now we have Scripture, God’s Word to its fullest, and we can trust in His promises. Like for the Israelites, our trust in God’s Word and promises protects us from fear by reminding us of God’s character, His actions, and His faithfulness in the past. With God, there is truly nothing to fear.

And thus. Verse 23 ends in the idea of rest. “Joshua took the entire land” “in keeping with all that the Lord had told Moses,” meaning God kept His promise, and “Joshua then gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. After this, the land had rest from war.” This idea of rest is not only that the Israelites had rest but that “the land had rest.” War uproots everything, the people, the land, the animals, lifestyles and cultures. So when war was over, the land and all that encompassed found rest, rest from Egyptian slavery, rest from the wanderings in the wilderness, and rest from warring with Canaanites and enemies of God. The land and the people now could rest, and settle. Like the end of a movie with a happy ending, the weight was lifted and a sigh of relief and a time of celebration came for the people of God.

Yet this land rest, this physical rest, was nothing compared to what God had in store. It was a foreshadow of the “rest” to come, the assured peace and spiritual rest that would be made available through trust in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Hebrews 4:8-9 elaborates: “8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.” As Joshua was a type, pointing to Jesus, so is the idea of the rest the land had after the conquest to fulfill God’s promise. God’s people will find spiritual rest as they trust in the  fulfilled promise found in Christ.

On to the Group Experience, go through the icebreaker question and connect it to the Context portion. Note that God is the most reliable person we know despite maybe knowing some pretty reliable people. Summarize how after the debacle with Achan, Joshua led the people through many victories, conquering the land.

As you Recap, take out Pack Item 3: The Conquest Map and point out key events. Start right in the middle of the map in the red, the Central Campaign, then go to the blue line, the Southern Campaign, then the purple line, the Northern Campaign. Also take time to make copies and pass out Pack Item 4: The Conquest Summary to give your group the details of the various conquests, highlighting God’s faithfulness through it all. This isn’t in your Leader Guide, but someone wrote in about wanting to see the map of the division of land to the tribes. If that is of interest to you, you can take out Pack Item 9: The Judges of Israel which shows the tribal allotments in map from, but in relation to the judges which will come up later. But if you want to see how that land was divided up, feel free to bring out that map as well as it might be interesting to your group and a visual of God’s fulfilled promises there. As always, as you Recap, fill in any details you found interesting and ask your group if any questions arose.

On to the Group Activity, as the maps and charts concentrated on the conquests, here we will focus on the rest, the result of victory. The idea here is that rest comes after battles and in our context we battle modern enemies. Have your group write down in the margins, modern enemies that we battle. For example, addiction, doom-scrolling (for you younger generation), self-loathing, the need to compare, workaholism, depression, isolation. Then Engage and in pairs, describe what kind of rest the Israelites experience. For example, they probably could settle and start planting gardens or vineyards, build a home that wasn’t a tent, raise livestock, sheep and cattle, etc. Then in pairs, draw what rest looks like today, maybe sleeping in a hammock, or swimming at the beach or reading a book. Then write down words that Describe rest. Then Define what true rest looks like found in Jesus. Use the additional passages found on the bottom of page 61 of your Leader Guide to help your group see examples of rest in other portions of Scripture. Maybe distribute one passage to each pair to summarize if needed.

Then Debrief with the question, How is true rest in Jesus more than just physical peace in this world? Answers could include true rest in Jesus is an inner peace that comes from knowing God is always in control, knowing Jesus loves us unconditionally and has already forgiven us of our sins. True rest isn’t fearful of the future or of death, knowing we will be with Jesus. What have been some enemies of your own soul that God has given you victory over? It may include some of the things written in the margin earlier. Give time for people to share but don’t force anything as it may be a sensitive topic. How does today’s passage help you remember that God is faithful to His promises as He is faithful to you? We’ve seen God faithful over and over again. Knowing that we’ve seen His faithfulness should assure us of His faithfulness to us.  

How do we handle passages like this one when we have a hard time accepting the idea of total conquest as God’s plan? We have to hold in balance God’s compassion and His justice in desiring to destroy evil. But only He is the true judge and has the perfect balanced look. We can never judge like He does because we are not God. But our own desire to see good win and evil lose should help us understand God’s heart and character. How can we see the truth of mercy, judgment, and authority and still find comfort? Because God is all-knowing and all-good, He knows exactly how to administer mercy and justice. That should be enough to comfort us and let us leave things to God.

Summarize to end as you go into the Head, Heart, Hands section.  Highlight the Head question if time is limited, How does the historical proof of God’s work in this world help you know He is true to His Word? God has always been working in the world and we can see in Scripture and in history how kingdoms rise and fall, yet the people of God still remain. He is true to His Word of creating a new covenant with those who trust in Jesus and desiring all to follow Him. Go over Next Steps, maybe focusing on the third bullet point. Have your group reflect on or journal about how their life might reveal God’s faithfulness to them. End with prayer requests and praises and point to Psalm 50 to pray through if time permits, focusing on verses 3-6:

3 Our God is coming; he will not be silent!

Devouring fire precedes him,

and a storm rages around him.

4 On high, he summons heaven and earth

in order to judge his people:

5 “Gather my faithful ones to me,

those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,

for God is the Judge. — Psalms 50:3-6 (CSB)

Thanks for joining me on another Leader Training Podcast. Feel free to write me a note at [email protected].  And hope you have a great group time!