From the transcript
Why were the promises of the Abrahamic covenant so important for Joshua and Israel as they secured the boundaries of their inheritance?
Back in the book of Genesis, God establishes a covenant relationship with Abraham, and he promised to Abraham four great blessings, the first one being that he would be the father of a great nation, that his descendants would number like the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. And in the book of Joshua, of course, we’ve seen that. We’ve seen it earlier, but God’s people are numerous; they’re a great nation. The second thing that he promised was a land for those people in which they could dwell, and of course in Joshua, in those particular chapters, we see them taking possession of the land and distributing it. So, there’s another aspect of the Abrahamic covenant being fulfilled. A third promise there is that God will protect Abraham’s descendants, that he will be their God, they will be his people, he’ll be their shield and defender, and of course, everything we’ve read in the book of Joshua up to that point shows that God is the Lord of Hosts and is fighting with them and for them as they take possession of the land. And then, finally, there’s that great promise to Abraham that out of that nation of whom he’s a father, God will send forth a Messiah to redeem; he’ll be a blessing to all nations… One of the clearest foreshadowings of Christ in all of the Old Testament is in the book of Joshua, in the person of Joshua, who leads God's people in a great deal of righteousness and faithfulness to God, trusting in him, and leading them in procession to take possession of that which is theirs according to God’s grace.
A covenant is a set of rules that governs the life of ancient Israel. And the primary covenant that governs the life of ancient Israel in the Old Testament is the covenant made at Sinai with Moses, the covenant of Sinai. Sometimes people call it “covenant of Moses,” “Mosaic covenant.” And that’s a set of rules and regulations that govern the life of Israel. But you can’t understand Sinai without going further back and understand where at Sinai, how it fits within the Israelite history, and it comes from the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant made with Abraham. And so, starting there, the covenant made with the towering tribal figure of Abraham is one where God makes a promise to him, and he says, “This is what I’m going to do for you: I’m going to give you a progeny, lots of children, and they’re going to become a nation. And I’m going to give you a land where these people can live.” … And of course, when they come into the land of Canaan that God gives them, the Promised Land, the land promised to Abraham, when you fast-forward the storyline to the time of Joshua and when they conquer the land, and you read the story with this lens, you realize it was really God’s doing, God’s promise. And so, that’s the foundation.
Continue reading the full transcript