Joshua BONUS - An Introduction, including handout notes

Andrew Grey introduces a new series on the book of Joshua. This was recorded in the adult Sunday School session on Sunday 7th Sept 2025.

Handout Notes

Introducing the book of Joshua
While waiting to begin
1. Share briefly anything you know about the book of Joshua:
favourite events… or characters…. or verses.
2. Look at Joshua 24:31. Does this feel to you like a positive or a
negative statement? Why?
1. Where does Joshua come in the Bible?
What’s happened before Joshua?
What happens after Joshua?
2. What is Joshua about?
See 1:1-3
= the Lord… Joshua… the people… the LAND (x87)
3. What happens in the book of Joshua?
= enter… conquer… inherit… obey
= the 4 sections of the book

4. Getting a flavour of Joshua: let’s read…

Part 1 ENTER: entering the land – chapters 1:1 - 5:12
1:1-18 Yahweh still faithful
2:1-24 The spies report: “Canaan defeated”
3:1-4:24 Crossing the Jordan
5:1-12 Ritual preparations
Part 2 CONQUER: taking the land – chapters 5:13 – 12:24
5:13-6:27 Battle of Jericho
7:1-8:29 Achan’s sin and the Battle of Ai
8:30-35 Covenant renewed at Mount Ebal
9:1-27 Treaty with Gibeon
10:1-43 Conquest of the south
11:1-15 Conquest of the north
11:16-23 The conquest summarised
12:1-24 List of defeated kings
Part 3 INHERIT: allotting the land – chapters 13:1 – 21:45
13:1-7 Land still to be taken
13:8-33 Distribution of land east of the Jordan
14:1-19:51 Distribution of land west of the Jordan
20:1-9 Cities of refuge
21:1-42 Levitical towns
21:43-45 *Summary of God’s amazing faithfulness
Part 4 OBEY: keeping the land – chapters 22:1-24:33
22:1-34 The eastern tribes’ altar of witness
23:1-16 Joshua’s farewell address
24:1-28 Covenant farewell at Shechem
24:29-33 Three funerals… but buried in the land

5. What will Joshua teach US NOW? and HOW?
= the Lord… “Joshua”… the people… the land
Things to think about:
- what has / hasn’t changed with the coming of Christ?
- “typology”
Consider:
The Lord
Joshua = Jesus
The people
The land
See Hebrews 4:8-16

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

And what we've got this morning is an introduction to the book of Joshua. So, God willing, over the next term, our Sunday preaching, our fellowship group Bible studies will be in the book of Joshua. And we're just going to spend a few minutes this morning introducing that book. Hopefully, it'll help us feed better on that part of God's word this term. So let me pray and then we'll begin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your wonderful word. Thank you too for the Old Testament. You tell us that everything that was written in former days was written for us. That through endurance and through the encouragement of those scriptures we might have hope. And so we pray for ourselves as we receive from you, from this particular part of your word, help us to endure and persevere on the road to heaven. Encourage our hearts along the way, and we pray that you would give us hope. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. What do we know about the book of Joshua? Shout some things out. Maybe favourite events or favourite characters or favourite verses. What were you just talking about?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13

Jericho.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15

Jericho. Wonderful favourite. Yeah, awesome. Teach your children to play the trumpet. That's the application of that story, is it? Is that right? And any other sort of favourite corners of Joshua? Anyone else?

SPEAKER_02: 1:29

The sun standing still.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30

Yeah, the sun standing still. Yes. Awesome. What else?

unknown: 1:37

He was a spy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

He was a spy. Who is a spy?

unknown: 1:41

Joshua.

SPEAKER_00: 1:42

Yeah, yeah. Spy, yes, among other things. Yeah. What else?

SPEAKER_03: 1:49

He had very big shoes to fill.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52

Big shoes to fill? Yes, exactly, after Moses. Thank you. Yeah. What about so we mentioned Jericho? What about Rahab? That has to be one of the most glorious corners of the whole Bible, I think. We'll get there in due course. Anyone want to mention anything else? All right, well let's. Yeah, punishments, punishments for disobedience. Yeah. So rewards and blessings for obedience, punishment for disobedience. We'll think about that actually. That's actually quite important. Yeah. Anyone want to mention anything else? Okay. Well, look, let's let's get stuck in. On the handout, we'll begin. Number one, where does Joshua come in the Bible? So think about in the Bible story what happened before Joshua. Well, yeah, Moses. Brilliant. Moses dies. Actually, open up the book of Joshua, chapter one, verse one. After the death of Moses. So that kind of locates Joshua, doesn't it, in the story of the Bible. So go all the way back to the beginning. Creation, Adam and Eve given fellowship with God in a perfect place, a garden temple land. It's like a mini-promised land, and that's very important. With our first parents' disobedience, their hearts are changed, our hearts are changed with them. But also they and we then live east of Eden, out of that blessed land. With the Exodus, well, okay, before we get to the Exodus, even, God makes covenant promises to Abraham. Promises to Abraham, the great, but this is the gospel, actually. Galatians says God preached the gospel to Abraham. I'm going to make you a great people. I will bless you with myself. That's the great blessing of the gospel and of the Abrahamic covenant. And my people will dwell in a blessed land. Abraham's family multiplies, they find themselves enslaved in Egypt. God brings them out with mighty acts of judgment. But then that whole generation, including Moses, die in the wilderness. And that's there where we now find ourselves, at the very start of Joshua, Joshua 1, verse 1, after the death of Moses. So people of Israel, they've been wandering around in the wilderness, and they're now perched on the edge of the promised land. What happens after the book of Joshua? Well, once in the Promised Land, and we'll kind of obviously fill in the middle bit in a minute, it's really a story of ups and downs, but mainly downs. Led by faithless leaders, broadly speaking, God's people turn away from God, and God will eventually spit them out of the land in judgment. And the Old Testament will end with the people of God essentially oppressed. They were exiled in Babylon, a remnant returned, but they're not possessing God's blessed land. The Messiah comes, the Lord Jesus, through his death and resurrection, he becomes king over all things and places and all people. He inherits the earth. And then he offers to his people to us an inheritance with him. So that's kind of Joshua. Then Joshua is right in the middle of that. What's the book about? Have a look at the first three verses of chapter one. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. Now those verses give us the key, the key characters, if you like, of the book of Joshua. There is the Lord, there is Joshua, the people, and the land. And on your handout, I've written land in capital letters because of all of the promises of the covenant, the book of Joshua concerns most of all the land. People who've actually counted it would say the book of Joshua talks 87 times about the land, the promised land that was actually promised to Abraham and to his descendants as part of the promise of the gospel, part of God's answer to the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Well, what happens in the book of Joshua? You can sum it up really in four words, which correspond to the four sections of the book. Enter, conquer, inherit, and obey. So enter. So Joshua and the people enter the land, go into it. Cross over that Jordan River. Conquer the land. There are people there who you will dispossess and on whom you will enact the judicial ban, the judicial judgment of the holy gods. And when we get to those chapters, we will deal with some of the issues that arise. They were to put to death the inhabitants of the land. So enter and conquer and then inherit. The Lord actually gives as an inheritance the entire land. And several chapters in the book of Joshua, basically chapters 13 through to 21, they're just lists. We'll skim through in just a minute and have a look, but they're just lists of place names. And I don't know, you get there in your Bible reading and you fall asleep in those chapters. It would have been a bit different, though, for them. So imagine listing, hearing a list of funny sounding place names. But then imagine at the beginning being told, all of these places that you hear, they are now yours. Imagine being at the reading of the will. I don't know if you've ever been at the reading of the will. I haven't. You sort of see it in films, don't you? And your ears would prick up in a particular way if that Ferrari or that country estate or whatever it was had your name attached to it. And so when we come to those chapters, we're actually hearing the Lord bequeath, gift land to real people. And we're gonna we're gonna talk a bit a little bit about how we hear those chapters too. And then the last part of the book, obey. So enter, conquer, inherit, and then uh obey. That is, the Lord's people who have received of the Lord's grace are then called to walk with the Lord in faith and obedience. Um, I've put, if you just turn over to the second side of the handout, I've stuck down here a fairly standard uh outline uh of the book. Chapters 1 to 5, uh entering the land. Chapter 2, conquering the land. It starts off with you know the Battle of Jericho. Uh the third part, chapters 13 to 21, uh, allotting the land. This is the business of the inheritance. So such and such a tribe gets this bit, such and such a tribe gets that bit. And then the last three chapters. Uh, well, how do you keep the land? Uh it's not it's not a guarantee you're gonna keep the land, Israel, and it's it requires faith and obedience. And I thought what we would do uh for uh a few minutes would be just to get uh a flavor of each part of the book. So that's heading number four in the handouts. So we're just gonna read a few verses from each section: the intersection, the conquer, the inheritance, and the obedience, and then hopefully that will give us a feel for the flow of the book as a whole. So we've we've read the first uh three chapters of chapter one, which is where the book begins, and that's a very good summary of uh everything that will follow. Go in, uh possess, and possess everything that I am going to give to you. You notice that in chapter one, verse two. God gives the land, but you need to actually enter it and possess it. Now, look on to uh chapter three and verse eleven. This is what happens when they actually cross over. 3 verse 11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man, and when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. The Lord shows in Joshua in so many ways how it is he who possesses the land and gives it to his people. And even in their crossing. It's like it's actually like another uh Exodus moment, isn't it? The Lord makes the waters of the river to stand up. The Ark of the Covenant symbolizing the presence of God. And as soon as the priests' feet touch the river bank, the water piles up, and then uh the great hordes of the men of Israel can cross over to fight and to possess. So let's let's go on to that uh second section, the conquer section. Look at the end of chapter 5. Chapter 5, verses 13 to 15. This is one of the most amazing, slightly puzzling chapters of passages in the book. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted his eyes up and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. And then, next chapter, they go and take the first city, the city of Jericho. And the question is, who fought the battle of Jericho? So, those of us who are children from certain backgrounds, we probably sang a song about that. You know, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. He actually didn't. And the end of chapter 5 makes that abundantly clear. Who is the commander of the army? It's actually the Lord. So this mysterious figure who is called in the text of scripture the commander of the army of the Lord comes and stands before Joshua in human form. It's a theophany, you know, it's an appearance of the glory of God in uh visible form. Many people down the centuries have speculated that it's actually Christ, it's a Christophany. And here is the one, though, who will fight the battles. Joshua sort of comes to him and says, Are you on my side or the enemy's side? I think the implication here is, are you under me or are you under the king of Jericho? And the answer is I'm not under anyone. I am the commander of the army of the Lord. You know, let's get this the right way round. And hence Joshua is left on his feet in worship. And then, uh, as the battles go on, it is the Lord who fights for his people. However, look on to chapter 7, verse 1. But, chapter 7, verse 1, but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. So the Lord gave very precise instructions to his people about what they should do with the things, particularly the shiny things, the nice things that they discovered when they conquered the cities in the land of Canaan. And in chapter 7 we read, they broke faith. Or rather, one man broke faith, with disastrous consequences for the whole people of God. And we get shown here in seed form something about the human heart and something that would dog the people of Israel, all through the story of Joshua, all through the story of the Old Testament, but also the consequences. You know, how one man's sin, how one person's sin can actually infect and bring the Lord's discipline and pain upon a whole people. Yeah, and we'll we'll get there in a few weeks' time. And what should have been an easily conquerable little city, it ended in a terrible defeat. Come on, though, to the end of uh chapter uh eight. Chapter eight and verse thirty four. When the Lord's discipline and judgment has been enacted, mercifully this city has been captured. Joshua renews the Lord's covenant with his people. So eight thirty-four, and afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There is not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them. So he's reminding the Lord's people you are bound to the Lord by covenant, and there are blessings, but there are also curses that come with being in covenant relation. You trust and obey, and the Lord will bless you. You walk in disobedience and disbelief, and the covenant contains judgments and punishments and pains. Even as the body of that man who brought such disaster lies in the ground, he reminds the whole people that following a holy God is a very serious business. Coming into this land, uh walking on the way to heaven, if you like, and put it like that in our terms, it's a serious business. There is blessing, but there is also cursing as well. Come on to chapter 12 and verse 7. This is from towards the end of that second section, the conquering bits. And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the people of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan. And then those next few verses, we get this list of local kings, you know, the king of Jericho, one, the king of Ai, one, and so on, the king of Jerusalem, one. Uh every every city, every king, uh every people subjugated under the rule of God. So enter, conquer, and then uh inherit. So have a look down to chapter 13 and verse 8. With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, the Reubenites and the Gadites, received their inheritance, which Moses gave them beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them. So the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve sons of Jacob and the peoples that grew out of them, uh, they're making their way to the promised land, and then two and a half tribes say, before they get over the Jordan and into Canaan, actually, we like it here. Moses, can we stop here, east of the Jordan, and with the Lord's blessing? And yes, yeah, you can. Your men are going to have to go over and fight with your people. The unity of the people, the people of God, actually, by the way, is a theme in the book of Joshua. But here is the land to the east of the Jordan given to these two and a half tribes. And then uh it just gets listed. You know, just look down, say, verse 9, from Aroa, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tabland of Mediba as far as Dibon, and all the cities of Sion, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundaries of the Ammonites. And it goes on. Just look down at the rest of that chapter. You know, verse 15, and Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the people of Reuben according to their clans, and then it's listed. And if you were there that day, you'd have been listening. Okay, I'm one of the clans of Reuben. There's my land. You know, there's the city and the surrounding villages and the pasture land. So that then is mine, you know, for me and my family. You know, how how amazing. And within this section, just come to chapter 21 for a minute. So this is right near the end of this third section, the inheritance section. And these are probably the key verses of the entire book. So Joshua 21, verses 43 to 45. Thus, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there, and the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. Now wonderful words, aren't they? The theological message of Joshua is really, Great is thy faithfulness. So all of God's promises came to pass. Not one word failed. Literally, not one word fell. There are no fallen words from the mouth of our God. The final section, obey. So keep the land. God has given it to you. You're in it, now keep it. Have a look to chapter 23 and verse 14. And now I'm about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God has promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so, and this is the this is the flip side of the faithfulness of God. He's faithful in blessing, but he's also faithful when he warns of judgment. Just as all the good things the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. So the the people of God can go in one of two ways at this point in time. We won't look at those verses in chapter 24, but as the book of Joshua finishes, there is a slightly ominous feel about it. I don't know if you discussed right at the beginning, chapter 24, verse 31, how it was that Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. We obviously we know how the story finishes, don't we? When they died, so did their faith and obedience. And it's this great grief. And we see actually there were already seeds of it during the book of Joshua. They didn't always completely obey. They did hang on to some of those shiny and those good things. They didn't actually drive out everyone who they were supposed to drive out. And they even were still hanging on to idols, false gods, who they served beyond the river and in Egypt. It comes out at the very, very end of the book. You know, little signs, little seeds of destruction. And I guess for us that's got some fairly obvious sort of applications. Now, just before we uh finish up, back page of the handout, what will Joshua teach us now? And how will Joshua teach us? Well, the same big four characters, if you like, are set before us the Lord, Joshua, think about him in a minute, the people, and the land. And in our minds, we have to think about what does change with the coming of Christ and what doesn't change with the coming of Christ. And one of the ways that the Old Testament works is through typology. That is, God builds into the story of the Old Testament people, events, institutions that don't just exist in their own right, but they're intended to be pictures, foreshadowings of the Lord Jesus. So the Passover Lamb is a is a shadow of the cross. Uh, and and this this is a huge feature in the book of Joshua. So the Lord, let's think about the Lord. Well, the Lord hasn't changed, he is faithful, uh, he is kind, he gives to and for his people, and he is holy. So this is the same God of holiness. Well, he is never changed. Second, what about Joshua? Well, very simply, Joshua is a type of Jesus. I mean, his name even means Jesus. We see a Saviour who is commanded to perfect obedience, uh, perfect fidelity, and who saves his people. So we see in Joshua Jesus. The people, uh, the Old Testament people of God coming into the promised land, possessing the promised land. Well, actually, the people too are also a type of the New Testament church. And the New Testament actually draws parallels in various places such that we can see us in them. We don't principally see ourselves in Joshua, actually. We see ourselves in them. We are also on an earthly pilgrimage, yeah, we are waiting to enter the land. Uh, there is a greater obedience possible to the New Testament church. That's a really wonderful encouragement, actually. In union with Christ, by the power of the Spirit, there is a greater obedience that is possible, but we are still called to covenant faithfulness, uh, just like the Old Testament church was. The Lord is faithful, will we be faithful? And the land. This beautiful, desirable, wonderful land of promise. It teaches us obviously about our heavenly inheritance, uh being with the Lord and the renewed creation which we will enjoy with the Lord one day. And actually, Joshua knew that. It was never about a patch of land in Canaan, ever. The Old Testament saints, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the New Testament tells us that they were always looking forward to a better land that was to come. You know, whose architect and builder was God, a heavenly inheritance, a heavenly home. But even as we look back at them entering the land, well, we all learn so much about our earthly pilgrimage towards our home. Uh let's finish up just in Hebrews 14. Lots of this gets summarized for us in Hebrews, in just a few verses from Hebrews 4. If you've got a Black Church Bible, you are on page. 1002. 1002. So Hebrews 4 verse 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So do you see, do you see exactly the same covenant grace, but also covenant warning for the New Testament church, as for the church in the days of Joshua? He was commanded to bring them into the land and give them a sort of an interim rest. But it was never about the land. There was a rest, you know, a Sabbath rest that was still to come. We enjoy that in part now, don't we? In union with Christ, particularly on the Lord's Day. But there is there is a fullness of Sabbath rest which we are still waiting for. Um we're still on that journey if you if you like. We're still crossing the Jordan, um, and that's the shape of the Christian's uh entire life. So let us strive to enter that rest. The Lord does get his people there. He is faithful. But God's people, we need to stay faithful to him along the way. I'm going to pause there. Why not take? Actually, let's see if we've got any questions before we do anything else. Does anyone have any questions? Perhaps based on something that I've just mentioned. If you've got questions about puzzles in Joshua, mention them. I will probably answer them by saying wait for a sermon in six weeks' time or something. But yeah, if anyone wants to chip in with a question, that would be great. Matt Evans.

SPEAKER_03: 30:48

So just interesting anything particularly that you and the elders might be discussing in deciding to preach Joshua at this time or anything in particular that we as a church family.

SPEAKER_00: 31:01

Thank you. So why preach Joshua and why now? I mean, like with our like with our bodies, we we need a kind of a a varied diet of God's word. And you can think of the Bible as a bit like you know, it's a smallest word, isn't it? And it leads us to Christ and faith and obedience in many different ways. But I guess it's helpful and wise for a church to feed in different ways. We haven't preached and studied uh any Old Testament narrative for really quite a long time. So I think we just we just thought, oh, actually, there's a bit of a hole uh in our feeding on uh the Old Testament, and particularly Old Testament stories. So that that was that was probably what directed us to that part of the Old Testament. If you looked at what we had taught before, Joshua was quite a big hole. Um I think the the faithfulness of God and simultaneously the Lord's covenant faithfulness, but also the call upon us to covenant faithfulness to him. I think we all sort of thought it was timely. I mean, whenever is that not timely, but that was, I guess, what was in our kind of talking and prayer.

SPEAKER_03: 32:22

Um, I'm interested in the phrase sublimate. So he told the Lord the assembly and the women and the little ones and the subject. Yeah. And I just wondered how that looked in a newcomer from text. Are we subjects or are people who aren't registered yet?

SPEAKER_00: 32:43

Yeah, okay. So for example, I I read that in Joshua 835. So if you you might have a quick look there. Uh Joshua 835, there's a list of all of the people in the assembly of Israel. So it was men, it was women, it was little ones, and it was sojourners. So that the assembly, that's the ecclesia, that's the church, that is the this is the gathering, this is the churching of the people of God. And who is there? Uh so men and women, pretty obvious. Little ones, pretty obvious. It's one reason, by the way, we encourage children to worship, because they are in they are, you know, by uh birth and covenant, they are members of the church, so worship. Um sojourners, so these are people who back then, these were people from not the family of Abraham who chose to come in. So these were people from pagan backgrounds who chose nonetheless to associate themselves with the people of God. This would be someone like Aruth. You know, so she was a Moabites, but said actually, uh, your God is going to be my God. Okay, your people is gonna be my people. So those are sojourners, so outsiders who came in and joined the Old Testament people of God. Is there an identical sort of category in the New Testament? Not quite. Um, not quite. Um, anyone joins the New Testament church uh in exactly the same way, on exactly the same terms. Um there is a sense in which the entire people of God can be rightly described as sojourners. So there's a the I guess the the idea behind the word is you're not in your home. You're not in your home. So we are aliens, that's using another similar sort of word. We're sojourners, we're not in our home yet. So same word but used in a slightly different way uh in the New Testament as opposed to uh chapter 8, verse 34. Anyone get gone, Dan?

SPEAKER_01: 35:05

When considering typologies, how does one do so safely without overliteralising or I know it's that's quite a vague question. Brilliant question. Are there any good guide rails for yeah?

SPEAKER_00: 35:21

So when considering typology, how do you do so safely? I.e. you could, and people have, I can assure you have done, taken obscure words, phrases, events, ideas, characters in the Old Testament and read in everything under the sun that you can possibly imagine. So how do you how do you approach typology uh safely? There are probably quite a few um answers to that. I think one answer would be uh we shouldn't ever study scripture in isolation, we want to do it in the company of the church. So, in other words, um every Christian is meant to be in a church with pastors and elders, but actually, if we've got any sense, we'll be we'll be in a in a in a company of pastors and elders, and if we've got any sense, we will listen to our fathers in the faith. So you don't ever come to the scriptures thinking I'm on my own, I will get this right on my own. So it's not that other churches or other Christians are all authoritative, but I think one great big guardrail is actually church history, the wider church and the elders that God has given to us. Um, as to sort of specific um helps and guards, I think as you as you read the Bible more over the course of a lifetime, and as you see the rich connections that there are all through the scriptures, you you do get a better seventh sense, uh second sense or whatever it is, for how the Bible fits together. Um it's not a it's not a kind of mystic thing. You know, as you as you kind of learn your good hermeneutical tools for coming to the text of scripture, but as you just read the Bible more and more and more, and as you read lots of it, you do just see wonderful connections. You know, God the Holy Spirit authored this book, and there are wonderful riches to mine here. So I think time you know time and experience as well as the church does help. Um yeah. I'll I'll have a think about that one. It comes up, so by the way, so on this on the on the church weekend away, I'm I'm I'm preaching a Song of Songs. It obviously comes up in spades in terms of how you interpret a poetic book like that.

SPEAKER_02: 37:40

Um also I think you can, in terms of sort of Garbra's typology, maybe as well, you can think, well, what's going on in this particular this particular part of salvation history, and how does the things I'm looking at relate to some sort of theme, the invention of the Lord, the land, the people, the cabinet, um and think, well, what's going on in that particular e-part and how do those things kind of think, those kind of key parts of biblical revelation, how do they relate to what's going on in the later? Do you want to have any hand reports if you like?

SPEAKER_00: 38:20

That's super helpful. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 38:23

I'm good to keep it abstract rather than too detailed.

SPEAKER_00: 38:29

Uh keep it keep it abstract rather than too detailed. Um it's quite hard to answer that without concrete examples because there are sometimes actually in the nitty-gritty, there are actual real, I think that things that the spirit intends us to see. And hopefully we'll see good examples of this as we go along. And if you ever detect implausible ones, please um shout. Let me pray. Uh let me pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your covenant faithfulness by which we are here and blessed and in Christ on our way to glory. Uh we pray for our receiving of this particular part of your word, that it would give us endurance. Um, help us to faithfully persevere with Christ. We don't want to be without him through the ups and downs of our earthly pilgrimage. Uh, strengthen our whole church family through this we pray in us as individual pilgrims. In Jesus' name. Amen.