Joshua Installed as Leader

Chapter 1 

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ² “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.

⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ 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. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

¹⁰ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ¹¹ “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”

¹² But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, ¹³ “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you after he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ ¹⁴ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, ready for battle, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites. You are to help them ¹⁵ until the Lord gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

¹⁶ Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey it, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

Rahab and the Spies

Chapter 2 

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

² The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

¹² “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”

¹⁴ “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”

¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. ¹⁶ She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

¹⁷ Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. ¹⁹ If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. ²⁰ But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

²¹ “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²² When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. ²³ Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Psalm 37

Of David.

¹ Do not fret because of those who are evil

    or be envious of those who do wrong;

² for like the grass they will soon wither,

    like green plants they will soon die away.

³ Trust in the Lord and do good;

    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

⁴ Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him and he will do this:

⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

    your vindication like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the Lord

    and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways,

    when they carry out their wicked schemes.

⁸ Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

    do not fret—it leads only to evil.

⁹ For those who are evil will be destroyed,

    but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked will be no more;

    though you look for them, they will not be found.

¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land

    and enjoy peace and prosperity.

¹² The wicked plot against the righteous

    and gnash their teeth at them;

¹³ but the Lord laughs at the wicked,

    for he knows their day is coming.

¹⁴ The wicked draw the sword

    and bend the bow

to bring down the poor and needy,

    to slay those whose ways are upright.

¹⁵ But their swords will pierce their own hearts,

    and their bows will be broken.

¹⁶ Better the little that the righteous have

    than the wealth of many wicked;

¹⁷ for the power of the wicked will be broken,

    but the Lord upholds the righteous.

¹⁸ The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care,

    and their inheritance will endure forever.

¹⁹ In times of disaster they will not wither;

    in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

²⁰ But the wicked will perish:

    Though the Lord’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,

    they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.

²¹ The wicked borrow and do not repay,

    but the righteous give generously;

²² those the Lord blesses will inherit the land,

    but those he curses will be destroyed.

²³ The Lord makes firm the steps

    of the one who delights in him;

²⁴ though he may stumble, he will not fall,

    for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

²⁵ I was young and now I am old,

    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken

    or their children begging bread.

²⁶ They are always generous and lend freely;

    their children will be a blessing.

²⁷ Turn from evil and do good;

    then you will dwell in the land forever.

²⁸ For the Lord loves the just

    and will not forsake his faithful ones.

Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed;

    the offspring of the wicked will perish.

²⁹ The righteous will inherit the land

    and dwell in it forever.

³⁰ The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,

    and their tongues speak what is just.

³¹ The law of their God is in their hearts;

    their feet do not slip.

³² The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,

    intent on putting them to death;

³³ but the Lord will not leave them in the power of the wicked

    or let them be condemned when brought to trial.

³⁴ Hope in the Lord

    and keep his way.

He will exalt you to inherit the land;

    when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it.

³⁵ I have seen a wicked and ruthless man

    flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,

³⁶ but he soon passed away and was no more;

    though I looked for him, he could not be found.

³⁷ Consider the blameless, observe the upright;

    a future awaits those who seek peace.

³⁸ But all sinners will be destroyed;

    there will be no future for the wicked.

³⁹ The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;

    he is their stronghold in time of trouble.

⁴⁰ The Lord helps them and delivers them;

    he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,

    because they take refuge in him.

The Church and Its Leaders

Chapter 3

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” ²¹ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.