Oct. 12, 2025

Saints & Sinners – Joshua

Primary Text: Numbers 11:28        

1)  Defeating the Amalekites

Exodus 17:8-16:  The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.  Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.  Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”…  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”  Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.  He said, “For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.  The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”  

DQ 1) Who were the Amalekites?

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2)  Moses’ Aide

Exodus 24:12-14:  The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.”  Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God.  He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you.” 

Exodus 33:7, 11:  Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.”  Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp….  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.  Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Numbers 11:28:  Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”  

DQ 2) What does Joshua’s role as Moses’s aide from a young age tell us about his character and attributes?

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3)  Name Change

Numbers 13:1-2, 6-8, 16:  The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.  From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”  …from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh… from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun….  These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land.  (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)  

DQ 3) What is the meaning of the name Joshua?  How is it different from Hoshea? 

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4)  Honey, Milk, and Giants

Numbers 13:27-30:  They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!  Here is its fruit.  But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”…  Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Numbers 14:2-10:  All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron….  And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”  Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.  Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.  Only do not rebel against the Lord.  And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.  Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.  Do not be afraid of them.”  But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.

Numbers 14:30-31, 36-38:  Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.  As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected….  So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord.  Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.  

DQ 4) How can fear prevent people from experiencing God’s best for them?  

DQ 5) How do fear and faith interact?

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