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Joshua....
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Joshua Ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, was the second
person to lead the Jewish people in their early history. He spent the early
part of his life training under Moses, and took over for him when the
Israelites entered the land of Canaan. Joshua's charisma and skill as a
leader are evident from the success of the Jews during his lifetime, and
their rapid decline following his death. Indeed, not until Samuel's reign
hundreds of years later do the Israelites find a comparable leader. |
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Joshua crossing the river jordan
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The first appearance of Joshua in the
Bible is in Exodus
17, where he is called Hosea. When the Israelites are attacked by the Amalekites immediately after their crossing of the Red Sea, it is Hosea who
leads the counter-attack. He defeats the enemy, and subsequently becomes
Moses's assistant and protege. He is next mentioned at
Sinai, where he waits
diligently at the edge of the mountain for Moses to descend; thus, unlike
the other members of his tribe, Hosea was not involved in the sin of the
Golden Calf. Hosea also accompanied Moses when he went to the Tent of
Meeting for the remaining years in the desert.
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As Moses's death draws near,
Joshua is chosen to be his
successor. The Pentateuch ends with the Israelites on the verge of crossing
the Jordan into the land of
Canaan, and the first book of the Prophets,
which is named after Joshua, picks up where the
Torah left off. Immediately,
Joshua demonstrates a duality within his character that was missing from
that of Moses. While Moses was primarily a spiritual leader, who acted as an
intermediary between God and the Jews, Joshua was a capable military
commander as well as a religious leader, |
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By capturing the city of Jericho,
and, eventually, the
rest of the land of Canaan, Joshua shows that his leadership is different
from that of Moses. Indeed, his new role reflects the new reality that the
Israelites encounter in their new homeland: In the desert, where their needs
were provided for by God in a steady flow of miracles, a purely spiritual
leader was sufficient. Now, with their destiny in their own hands, the Jews
need a more practical, physically capable leader. |
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