The Promised Land

After the Israelites received God's Covenant at Mt. Sinai, God began leading them toward the Promised Land, which is also called Canaan. The cloud of God's presence showed them the way.

God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give the Promised Land to their descendants, but now there were many tribes of people living there. They were called Canaanites. The Canaanites did not believe in God. They worshiped false gods.

Moses chose twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel. He gave the men instructions to go and spy on the land of Canaan. They were to see what the land was like and see if the Canaanites were strong or weak.

The men spied on Canaan for forty days, then they came back. Ten of the spies gave a bad report saying, "The land is very good and the crops are great! But the cities are very strong and the people are giants! We felt like grasshoppers next to them! If we attack them, we will surely die!"

Immediately Caleb and Joshua, the other two spies, said, "It is true that they are tall and strong, but we can certainly defeat them! God will fight for us!"

But the people began to cry and said, "Oh, why did we come to this horrible place, we should have stayed in Egypt rather than be killed in battle and our wives and children made slaves." Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb all begged the Israelites not to rebel against God.

But the people wanted to kill them and choose a new leader to bring them back to Egypt. God was very angry and His presence appeared at the Tabernacle. God declared, "None of these people who are twenty years old or older will live to enter the Promised Land. They will wander in the wilderness until this whole generation dies. Only Joshua and Caleb will enter the Promised Land."

When the people heard this, they were sorry they had sinned, but they rebelled again by taking their weapons and attacking Canaan, even though God had not told them to. Moses warned them not to go, but they did not listen to him.

God did not go with them into this battle, so they were defeated and many of them were killed. Then the rest of the Israelites turned back from Canaan and wandered through the wilderness for forty years.

During that time of wandering, God provided for them. He gave them bread from heaven, called manna. From time to time He also sent quail into their camp so they could have meat to eat. During those forty years, God kept their clothes and shoes from wearing out.

God even miraculously gave them water from a rock. But despite all this, the people of Israel complained and grumbled against God and against Moses. Even though the Israelites complained and grumbled, God was faithful to His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Eventually, after they had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, all the people had died who were more than twenty years old when they first went to Canaan. Then, God led the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land again. Moses was now very old, so he had Joshua to help him lead the people.

When they got to the border of the Promised Land, God brought Moses to the top of a mountain so he could look at it. Then Moses died and Joshua became the new leader. Joshua was a good leader because he trusted and obeyed God.

Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, Joshua sent two spies to the powerful Canaanite city of Jericho. This city was protected by walls that were very thick and very high. The spies went to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. She protected the spies and helped them escape through her window. The spies promised to protect Rahab and her family when Jericho was destroyed.

To enter into the Promised Land, the Israelites had to cross the Jordan River. God told Joshua, "Have the priests walk into the river. As soon as their feet touches the water, I will make the water heap up so the Israelites can walk through on dry ground." When the priests' feet touched the Jordan River, the water stopped flowing so the Israelites could cross over on dry ground. Once everybody had crossed, the river started flowing again like normal.

After the people crossed the Jordan River, God told Joshua that they should attack the powerful city of Jericho. God commanded Joshua to have the soldiers and priests march around the city of Jericho once a day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day.

At the end of their seventh trip around the city on the seventh day, the soldiers all shouted while the priests blew on their trumpets, and the walls around the city fell down! The Israelites captured the city and destroyed it. Only Rahab and her family were saved because she helped the spies. They became a part of the Israelites.

The people throughout the rest of Canaan quickly heard about the destruction of the great city of Jericho, and they became very afraid of the Israelites. One of these tribes was called the Gibeonites. They were so afraid that they decided to trick the Israelites into making a peace treaty with them, even though God had commanded Joshua not to make peace with any of the Canaanites.

When the other Canaanites heard what the Gibeonites had done, they joined their armies and attacked them. The Gibeonites sent a message to Joshua asking for help.

Joshua gathered the Israelite army and they marched all night to reach the Gibeonites. In the early morning they attacked their Canaanite enemies.

God fought for Israel that day by sending large hailstones that killed many of the Canaanites,

and by making the sun stand still so that Israel could finish defeating the Canaanites. God won a great victory for Israel that day.

After this defeat, the rest of the Canaanites who were left gathered together to attack Israel. Joshua and the Israelites attacked them and destroyed them.

After this battle, God divided up the Promised Land and gave each tribe of Israel their own section. Then God gave Israel peace along all their borders.

When Joshua was an old man, he called all the people of Israel together. Then Joshua renewed the covenant that God had made with the Israelites at Sinai. The people promised to remain faithful to God and follow his Law.