The Story of Joshua Ep. 1 - A New Leader for Israel

After Moses died, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, and Moses' aid, Joshua, get up and prepare the Israelites in the camp with you to go across the Jordan River, where you'll find the land I will give the people of Israel. Do not be afraid, the Lord continued, because I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. Joshua, you must courageously lead the people of Israel, so I may give them the land I promised them for so long. Now go, be strong, and be brave. Then the Lord shared a very important secret with Joshua. Welcome to a new and exciting adventure in Bible Stories. Do you know who will be accompanying us on this new adventure? Let me give you a hint. His name starts with J and ends with Ashuwa. Yes, you're right! It's Joshua! He will be our hero as we travel back in time. But let's not waste any more time, because we have a long and thrilling journey ahead of us. You may be wondering who Joshua was. Well, if you haven't heard of Joshua, you might remember Moses. You know, Moses from the song, Moses let the crowd of Israel? Let's start out by learning more about Moses. When the Jewish people were held in Egypt as slaves, God used Moses to deliver them from slavery. Moses was the one who led the people through the Red Sea that God had parted, freeing the Jewish people from being captured by the Egyptians. In fact, Moses had such a close relationship with God that the Bible tells us that God spoke to Moses just like he would speak to a friend. The Bible even tells us that Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth, although he was not always like that. But after many years of walking with God, Moses became a man of extraordinary character. Let's not forget about the courage Moses showed. Oh, the courage it must take to appear before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, many times, telling him that God will punish him and his people if he does not free the Israelites from slavery. Oh, I tell you, it takes a ton of courage. Yes, Moses was a great man of God. After fleeing Egypt, the Jewish people were headed for Canaan, the land God had promised to their ancestors to give them. But before entering the promised country, Moses sent 12 spies into Canaan to explore the land, because he wanted to find out how tough the people were and if the land was good for farming. Well, the spies were thrilled and horrified at what they had found in the country. So when they returned from Canaan, they shared the news with all the Israelites. Brothers, one of the spies started. The country is truly a wonderful land, but the problem is that we are not the only ones who have figured this out. While he was speaking, two other spies arrived, bringing with them a bunch of grapes. It took two of them to carry that branch on a pole between them. Just imagine how big the grapes were. Everybody became excited and began to applaud. But not for long, for another spy spoke up and said, folks, listen to me and do not get your hopes up. These are probably the only fruits of Canaan you will ever see. The other spy continued. We want to go and conquer this land, but just like we eat this fruit, the people living in Canaan will eat us. These people are giants just like their fruits are giant and they are extremely powerful. We don't stand a chance against them. As they spoke, the people were so terrified that they began to cry and lose faith in God's plan. Oh, didn't we have a better time in Egypt? Some people started murmuring. Why does Moses want to take us to this land where we and our families will be killed? Let's head back to Egypt, others were saying. After they had spoken in this way against Moses and against the Lord, the Israelites began to make plans and said to each other, let's choose someone else to lead us instead of Moses and maybe they will take us back to Egypt. But two of the spies who had been in Canaan, Joshua and Caleb, stood up, tore their clothes and began to speak to the people. Brothers, listen to the two of us, Joshua started. Canaan is truly a wonderful land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will give us this land, a rich land flowing with milk and honey, but this will only happen if we do not rebel against God. And why should we be afraid of these people? Caleb continued. They have no one to protect them. Let us not fear them. The Lord is with us, Caleb added. But the people of Israel did not want to listen to Joshua and Caleb. In fact, some people wanted to stone it. Then the glory of the Lord appeared before the Israelites and the Lord spoke to Moses. How long will these people continue to ignore me? Asked the Lord. How long will it be before they believe me and my promises? After all the miracles I've done among them, do they still doubt me? Until when? The Lord continued. I will punish and destroy them and only Joshua and Caleb will enter the land that I promised you because only they trust me and my word. The Lord commanded. After hearing this, Moses prayed to the Lord for the people of Israel so that the Lord would forgive their rebellion and not destroy them. The Lord decided not to destroy the people, but the consequence of their unbelief and rebellion was that none of them would enter Canaan except for Joshua and Caleb, who acted differently from the rest of the people. They did not lose their faith, but instead showed courage and obedience to the Lord before all of the people. After 40 years of wandering through the desert, a whole generation of adult men did not make it out. Moses grew older and older. When Moses reached the age of 120, he called Joshua before all people and told him, Joshua, I'm old. I will no longer be Besides, Moses continued, the Lord told me that I will not cross the Jordan River to the promised land of Canaan. The Lord wants you to lead the people from now on, but don't be afraid, Joshua. Moses added, the Lord himself will go before you. He will be with you and he will not leave you, not even for a moment, so you have nothing to fear. After sharing with Joshua what God had spoken to him, Moses died at the age of 120 years old. The people cried over Moses' death and mourned him for a while, but they were not left without a leader because the Lord had appointed Joshua as the new leader of the people of Israel. Joshua, left without Moses, suddenly found himself responsible for leading a stubborn and difficult people. On top of that, he was to lead this people to a land of strong and giant men to fight with them and conquer the land of Canaan. And Joshua, well, he was not Moses. So many times, the Jewish people had seen how God used Moses to deliver them from many difficult situations, and yet they still ignored him. Because Moses had such a close relationship with God, he knew his voice so well that he could guide the Jewish people on their difficult journey to Canaan. If only Moses was still around, Joshua thought to himself. He saw himself without much leadership experience. Everything was new to him, and the job that awaited him was not going to be easy. But let's not forget what the Lord said to Joshua after Moses died. Joshua, get up and prepare the Israelites in the camp with you to go across the Jordan River, where you'll find the land I will give the people of Israel. Do not be afraid, the Lord continued, because I will be with you just as I was with Moses. Joshua, you must courageously lead the people of Israel so I may give them the land I promised them for so long. Now go, be strong and be brave. Then the Lord told Joshua a very important secret. This became the secret that made Joshua victorious. If you want to be victorious where God has placed you, listen carefully to the following words. God continued, keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful, the Lord promised to Joshua. And this is how Joshua chose to live. What will you choose? God's promise to Joshua is just as true for you today. God wants us to read the Bible or to ask our parents to read it to us because it contains a very important message from him to us. And after we read it, let's think about what we read and let's try to obey everything God told us in the Bible. Just as we saw in the case of Joshua, God does not leave us to figure things out for ourselves. He is with us and he will help us with any problems we may face. The key to success is to study the word of God and to apply it in our daily lives. Remember that. Oh yes, as you might have already guessed, we are in for a thrilling adventure with Joshua. This was just the first episode and so much has already happened. You definitely don't want to miss the upcoming episodes. We invite you to continue along with us on this adventure and we do hope you will watch all the episodes in the Joshua series. Produced by David and Goliath Productions, if you liked this episode, give us a like and a five-star rating. And remember to tell your friends about us. You can re-watch this episode along with the rest of the series on YouTube on the DG Bible Stories channel. You can also find our series in audio format on most podcast apps. We invite you to check out the Joshua original song on our DG Bible Songs channel on YouTube, where we frequently post Christian songs and animations for children.