{"id":143,"date":"2014-06-04T16:36:37","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T16:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e.jesuscentred.org\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-02-25T22:37:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T22:37:28","slug":"joshuas-greatest-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/joshuas-greatest-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua and the day of Jesus’ greatest victory."},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>

\"ladder<\/a>The Old Testament leader Joshua is called \u201cJesus\u201d in the King James version of the New Testament, (see Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8). Technically Joshua, (Hebrew \u201cYhowshua\u201d) is a more formal version of Jesus name, \u201cYeshua\u201d. But it is still the same name. In fact the Old Testament uses the more \u201cmodern\u201d spelling \u201cYeshua\u201d for \u201cYahowshua\u201d when newer books refer back to the ancient hero, see Nehemiah 8:17 for instance.<\/p>\n

In modern English we still see how variant spellings of a name develop with the fashions and over time, \u201cStephen\u201d becomes \u201cSteven\u201d and colloquially just \u201cSteve\u201d.<\/p>\n

And so \u201cYahowshua\u201d becomes \u201cYeshua\u201d which in turn seems to have become simply \u201cYasha\u201d or \u201cYeshu\u201d in day-to-day talk by Jesus\u2019 day (see the Arabic Peshitta or the Jewish Talmuds). All \u00a0of these Hebrew variants for the word or name “Salvation” can be found in the Old Testament and can therefore point us towards Jesus of the New Testament..<\/p>\n

But sticking with Joshua, the Old Testament makes the connection between Moses’ successor Joshua and Jesus even clearer. Joshua had a father called \u201cNun\u201d. According to Strong\u2019s Concordance \u201cNun\u201d means \u201cperpetuity\u201d from a root that means to \u201cre-sprout\u201d or to \u201ccontinue\u201d or to be \u201cperpetual\u201d, so by extension \u201dNun\u201d can be \u201ceverlasting\u201d or \u201ceternal\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoshua the son of Nun\u201d, Joshua 1:1, is equivalent to \u201cJesus the perpetual\/eternal Son\u201d!<\/p>\n

And indeed there are lots and lots of ways in which Joshua stands typologically as a model of his future namesake, Jesus.<\/p>\n

But for the purpose of this post I just want to highlight the parallels between the heavenly signs that accompanied Jesus\u2019 and Joshua\u2019s greatest victories.<\/p>\n

\"joshua<\/a><\/h3>\n

Days when \u201cThe Sun failed and the Moon was presented\u201d.<\/h3>\n

Joshua\u2019s greatest victory came on a day when he defeated five Ammorite kings including the King of Jerusalem, and the King of Hebron. In popular tellings of the story we say that the Sun and the Moon \u201cstood still\u201d or \u201cstopped\u201d in the sky. Although the Bible doesn\u2019t actually say that this was what happened!<\/p>\n

What the Bible actually says is that: \u201cThe sun was silent<\/strong> and the moon was presented\/present.<\/strong>\u201d \u00a0It then goes on to say how another book (but not the Bible) recorded how :\u201cthe sun was silent<\/strong> in the middle of the sky, it did not rush to set, it was a whole day\u201d, Joshua 10:13.<\/p>\n

This is actually a description of a solar eclipse, the sun stops shining in the middle of the day without setting and the moon is in the sky at the same time. It was not a short day with the sun setting earlier than expected.<\/p>\n

If we accept that Joshua’s victory was accompanied by a solar eclipse then we can actually date it quite precisely. There was a total eclipse over Gibeon on July 14th<\/sup> in 1406 BC which has been identified by archaeologist David Rohl as Joshua\u2019s eclipse, it started at 3:15pm.<\/p>\n

Before this according to the Bible there had been a huge hail storm before the Sun “ceased”, Joshua 10:11, so the sun would have been partially darkened by clouds for some time even before it was totally obscured (for about seven minutes) by the moon. The eclipse would have caused people to look more intently at the sky even in the middle of the battle and they would have seen the moon present in the middle of the afternoon, just as recorded.<\/p>\n

Now the Bible calls this a unique day, because \u201cYHWH listened to the voice of a man and YHWH fought for Israel\u201d, Joshua 10:14.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The day was unique in the Old Testament but it foreshadowed the day when Jesus in His humanity would offer a sacrifice that released victory through His Divinity. There is not the space\u00a0in this post to explore\u00a0 just how both Jesus’ humanity and His divinity worked together to produce the full impact of the Cross, but both were required. And the image drawn from Joshua 10 of the full Godhead acting for humanity in response to the intercession of a man captures the truth of the Cross very well in deed.<\/p>\n

\"Calvary\"<\/a>And so it is interesting to see how on April 3rd<\/sup> 33AD, the day Jesus was crucified, the day He won his greatest victory, we find Old Testament events repeating themselves as they so often do in the life of Jesus.<\/p>\n

First there is a strange darkness from about 12pm to 3pm paralleling Joshua’s storm. The Easter darkness was almost certainly a Kamsin Dust storm in the high atmosphere. While common in April these dust storms normally occur at ground level, very occasionally they can get trapped in the higher-layers of air pressure, when that happens they create an eerie still darkness as they block out the sun’s light.<\/p>\n

Just after 3pm, at the same time that Joshua’s eclipse happened, (3:15), Jesus who is called the \u201cSun of Righteousness\u201d cries out for the last time and is then silent; He ceases or stops, just like the sun of Joshua’s day.<\/p>\n

Now the moon was not immediately present after the Easter darkness because this darkness was not a solar<\/strong> eclipse. \u00a0That can only happen at the start of a lunar month and Passover happened in the middle of the month. But people would have looked for the moon’s rising because sunset heralded the start of Passover. And on April 3rd<\/sup> 33 AD at 6:20pm the moon rose blood red in a lunar<\/strong> eclipse… it presented itself in an unusual way that caused people to talk. So that at Pentecost seven weeks later Peter can mention the blood red moon of PASSOVER and say \u201cas you yourself know\u201d, Acts 2:17-22.<\/p>\n

Darkness, the Sun\/Son stopping and the Moon presenting itself as a sign… and there is a final piece to the picture; Joshua started and finished his day from a place called Gilgal.<\/p>\n

There are actually several places called Gilgal in the Bible, the name is made by doubling up the word “g-l” which can mean “a stone”, “a wheel”, “circle” or even “rolling”. Joshua had erected a circle of stones at his Gilgal. But it is as “round-stone” rather than as a “stone circle” that the name makes it way into the New Testament. We know the name now as “Golgotha” or the “place of the skull” where Jesus won His great victory, because the skull is the round-stone when it comes to describing bones. A quick check of Strong’s concordance will show you that the Greek “Golgotha” was from the Aramaic “G-lg-lth”, “Gilgal” with an extra letter, interestingly that letter is the Hebrew “tav”, which in Joshua’s day would have been written as a cross. “Gilgal” was “Golgatha” minus the Cross.<\/p>\n

There is one key bit of symbolism in Joshua’s story that reflects a difference between the Old Testament victory and the New Testament one. In the Old Testament Joshua wins by putting the five kings in a cave and sealing it by rolling a stone in front of the entrance, whereas in the New Testament Jesus is sealed in the tomb, but the stone gets rolled away.<\/p>\n

So What?<\/h4>\n

The paralleling of significant historic events in the Life of Jesus is a part of Christo-typology that doesn\u2019t get written about much, perhaps because people don\u2019t know what to make of it! But there is more of it in scripture than people realise.<\/p>\n

Matthew \u00a0points out some instances of it in his gospel, leaving it to the reader to work out what the significance is. For instance, Jesus goes down to Egypt to escape death and then returns to the promised land just as Israel was called \u201cout of Egypt\u201d, Matthew 2:15.<\/p>\n

There is though much more of this than Matthew shows us. \u00a0In the Jesus Centred Bible notes we will highlight these parallel events as they happen.<\/p>\n

In trying to explain what they mean and why these patterns exist I can only offer you my own experience. As I\u2019ve seen these patterns it has shaped my understanding at an emotive level of how all things are summed up in Christ, even the patterns and seasons of history. It seems that the life of Christ is the source of all of many life patterns whether personal, national or global.<\/p>\n

Jesus recapitulates history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Old Testament leader Joshua is called \u201cJesus\u201d in the King James version of the New Testament, (see Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8). Technically Joshua, (Hebrew \u201cYhowshua\u201d) is a more formal version of Jesus name, \u201cYeshua\u201d. But it is still the same name. In fact the Old Testament uses the more \u201cmodern\u201d spelling \u201cYeshua\u201d for Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,19],"tags":[40,52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesuscentred.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}