GROUP LEADERS NOTES – STUDY 15
QUESTION 1
a) Joshua turns his attention to the first major obstacle to the
conquest of Canaan; Jericho.
b) He is surveying Jericho as the commander of the army of Israel;
no doubt working out a strategy for its conquest. What a
responsibility he must have felt as leader of this great
company.
When considering who appears to Joshua it would be helpful to
point out that this encounter between Joshua and the man
continues through to the end of 6:5. (It has even been suggested
that the chapter division should come at the end of 5:12).
c) In 6:2 the man is identified as the LORD; the covenant title of
God used throughout the Old Testament.
d) Bearing in mind that no-one can see God and live, we have here
another example of the appearance of the Lord such as found in
Abraham’s encounter with the visitor in Genesis 18.
e) This is therefore another of the pre-incarnation appearances of
the Son of God.
QUESTION 2
a) The sword drawn in his hand signified that he would be
fighting on behalf of Joshua and the people of Israel.
b) Remember that Joshua is a military leader and is in human
terms responsible for leading the people of Israel to take
possession of the Promised Land.
c) In Revelation 19:11-16 we have a description of Jesus
appearing again with a drawn sword. This will herald the final
victory over sin and Satan.
QUESTION 3
a) Our first reaction would be that the Lord would be on Joshua’s
side.
b) However, we see here that Joshua asked the wrong question. It
was not about which side God was on; but who was on God’s side.
c) His was the battle; and His the victory!
d) As we see in the opening verses of the next chapter, Joshua must
take orders from the Lord.
e) On one occasion the founder of the China Inland Mission Hudson
Taylor was addressing a group of missionaries in China. He talked
about the three ways of doing God’s work: “One is to make the best
plans we can, and carry them out to the best of our ability . . . or,
having carefully laid our plans and determined to carry them
through, we may ask God to help us, and to prosper us in connection
with them. Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask
His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.”
QUESTION 5
a) Note that the Lord here does not rebuke Joshua for his actions
in the previous verse.
b) Indeed He goes further by telling Joshua to remove his sandals.
Encourage the group to recall a similar occasion in the story of
God’s dealings with his people in Exodus 3:4-6.
c) In the same way as with Moses, Joshua is to know that he is in
the presence of the Holy God.
d) In the same way that God was with Moses to rescue the people
of Israel; He would be with Joshua to lead them to victory (see
Joshua 1:3 for the significance of putting his feet on holy
ground).
QUESTION 6
QUESTION 4
a) It shows that Joshua was in no doubt that he was in the presence
of God.
b) Remember that the Israelites were to only worship the one true
God.
c) Falling on one’s face was a response to being in the presence of
Almighty God.
d) Joshua is now ready to hear God speaking.
a) The Commander of our salvation still has His sword drawn; for
the Bible is described as a sword (see Ephesians 6:17;
Hebrews 4:12)
b) We should respond as Joshua did in the second part of verse
14. We need to be worshipping and seeking the Lord to reveal
what we should do.
c) Being in the presence of God is always holy ground.