Joshua - Our Leader into the Promised Land

This entry is in the series of Thirty-Nine Reasons Jesus Came to Die, concerning the Book of Joshua.

Joshua is an especially easy book to see Jesus in, since in Hebrew both are spelled, Jeshua. Joshua is an undeniable type for Jesus, leading his people into the promised land (John 14:6), Moses brought the people close, but the law does not lead to salvation, it only leads to Jesus (Galatians 3:24 KJV; The ESV terribly translates this verse). This is the primary prophecy for Christ in the book of Joshua, though it is certainly not the only prophecy. Jesus is seen in the scarlet cord which protected Rahab from wrath, in the leading of armies to accomplish God's purposes perfectly (Joshua 5:13-15), and once again in the new cities of refuge which provided salvation for lawbreakers.

Joshua as the leader of Israel to lead them into the promised land, both as military leader, and covenant maker (Joshua 24:25), is a beautiful look at Jesus who leads his church into Heaven, and the one who makes a perfect covenant with God for a rebellious people, so that they are saved in spite of their failure to keep the covenant.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. – Psalm 25:5

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:1-2

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. – Hebrews 8:6-7,13