JOSHUA
Lesson 2 - Introduction Continued

We begin our second week of preparation for studying the book of Joshua by discussing a
subject that is key to our understanding just who God is, and that is His name and various titles
that we encounter in the Bible.
Allow me to remind you that what we are doing is essentially reviewing the Torah before we
transition to the 1st book of the Former Prophets, Joshua; and we are accomplishing this by
following the history of the establishment of a set-apart people group called Israel. In fact I
would argue that the entire Old Testament, the Tanakh, uses the history of Israel as the motif
and means that the Lord employed to establish His laws and principles on earth, which led to
the enactment of His justice system, and subsequently acted as the path to redemption that
mankind desperately needs.
We began and ended our first week of preparation around the life of Abraham.
ANCIENT NAMES OF GOD
Before we proceed to his son, Isaac, a discussion of the many “names of God” is appropriate
because in the Bible we encounter a large variety and we need to understand why that is. The
first thing to grasp is that in ancient cultures a name was far more than simple identification as
it is today. The purpose for a name was to announce a person’s reputation and qualities. It
was believed that a being, whether human or spiritual, embodied the attributes of his name and
this is the sense we must take it in the Bible and it applies very much to the Lord.
It is fundamental for every bible and history student to grasp that the Israelite culture sprang
from Mesopotamian roots; the same roots Avraham was born into. It would in no way be
incorrect to characterize Noah and his family as the first Mesopotamians (after the Flood, of
course). Mesopotamian culture, (or better the many Mesopotamian cultures) was, as were all
other ancient civilizations ever scientifically scrutinized, based on a worship of multiple gods. In
the first few generations following Noach (Noah) man perverted his relationship with God and
quickly abandoned the truth that Noah taught: that there is only one God. The result was the
birth of the notion of a spiritual universe that contained many gods but with “one god that was
above all the other gods”. And the title the Mesopotamians gave to this “highest god” was “Il”,
which eventually morphed into the Hebrew “El”. This “highest god” idea was not monotheism;
rather it was that there was a god of gods, the “El”, that was preeminent over all the other
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gods.
The Canaanite gods that Avraham and later the Israelites encountered in the land of Canaan
were only a continuation and variation of the Nimrod-Mesopotamian gods. When Avraham
arrived into the land of Canaan he would not have found the Canaanite religious structure at all
foreign; rather he would have been well familiar with it.
When Avraham ratified God’s covenant and became the first Hebrew there is no evidence that
Avraham’s clan and offspring instantly swore off all the gods of old in exchange for the true
One God of the universe. Almighty God would have become simply another god in their
hierarchy of gods, even if He were now the “El”…….the highest god replacing the former
highest god. In fact we get constant reminders in the Bible that the Hebrews forever struggled
with idolatry; that is, the worship of these other gods that their gentile neighbors bowed down
to. Let me make this point again: do not make the mistake of thinking that the first Hebrews
discarded one god for the other. Rather they accepted some hybrid mixture of God Almighty
with the other lesser gods that they fully believed existed. If you’ll keep this in mind when
reading the Bible you’ll have a more complete context for understanding the thought
processes of the Hebrews in those days.
Throughout the Bible we have prophets and the writers of the Holy Scriptures finding cause for
anger and complaint against the Hebrews for their idolatry. This is proof in and of itself of the
prevalence of multiple-god worship by the Israelites even at the same moment they were
supposedly pledging their allegiance to Yehoveh, God of Israel. Let us not be too harsh in our
judgment upon them: the Hebrews represented the first organized monotheistic religion and
that was a radical notion in and of itself. The very concept of One God, and only one god, ran
against the confused nature of the human race.
The Bible indicates that God’s formal personal name is YHWH. It is key to grasp that most
other words for God were, up to then, not NAMES, but fairly impersonal titles and
characteristics. There is no universal agreement as to the MEANING of the name Yehoveh.
Theologians refer to the four Hebrew letters representing God’s name, YHWH, as the
Tetragrammaton. Now of course Y-H-W-H is English alphabet characters, which come from a
fairly modern alphabet. In ancient Hebrew these letters as originally written by the finger of
God on those stone slabs, were the Hebrew characters Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. Since whether
expressed in English or Hebrew these letters/characters are all consonants we have had to
speculate at the vowel sounds in order that it could be a spoken word. Due to the extensive
period of time that the Jews no longer pronounced His holy name, the tradition of precisely
HOW to pronounce the name has been lost. The commonly held pronunciation is Yah-Way or
Yah-Vey. I favor the pronunciation as Yehoveh as all recent evidence is that the word
consisted of 3 syllables and not 2. This was later English-ized into the word “Jehovah” that we
commonly use as the name of God in Western Christendom.
A long time later, about 500 BC, following the Babylonian Exile of the Jewish people (Babylon
was in Mesopotamia), we find that the Jews began using the title “El-ohim” whenever referring
to God, or whenever the four letters “YHWH” were encountered in the Scriptures. It is believed
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that “El-ohim” was used because it was a commonly understood word throughout the Middle
East region that meant god or gods and likely was borrowed from the Babylonian culture the
Jews were exiled into (remember, El was a native Mesopotamian word). It is interesting that, in
reality, the term El-ohim is plural. So in modern English we would be correct is translating El-
ohim to Gods (plural). However we would miss the point because in Hebrew grammar the
plural did not always mean “more than one”. It would, as in the case of El-ohim, simply
indicate preeminence or supreme greatness.
We see many Hebrew titles of Yehoveh beginning with the prefix “El” in the earlier parts of the
Bible: El-Roi (God sees me), El-Shaddai (God of the Mountain), El-Elyon (God most high),
and many more. This is unmistakably a result of a continuing Mesopotamian influence upon
the Hebrews that eventually diminished as we get to the last books of the Old Testament.
By the time of Alexander the Great as the Greco-Roman era dawned (around 300 BC), we find
a tradition developing among the Jews against speaking the name of God (YHWH) out loud;
this prohibition exists today among Orthodox Jews. The Talmud says straightaway that this
taboo had NOTHING to do with the commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vein; rather
it was connected with a rather late developing custom of not speaking your own father’s name,
because to do so was seen as disrespectful in their culture. That custom was extrapolated to
mean that to verbalize THE Father Creator’s name was all the more disrespectful, even
amounting to blasphemy. So from about the 3rd century BC on we begin to see the usage of a
new way to refer to the God of Israel in order to avoid blasphemy: Adonai.
From that era forward whenever Jews wanted to refer to God they would employ various terms
including “El-ohim” meaning “God”, or they used the term “Ha-Shem” meaning “The Name”,
or they used the term “Adonai”, meaning “My Lord” or “My Master”, and a few others. They
would do this even when reading Scripture out loud and encountering the Hebrew letters
YHWH. They would substitute one of the religiously correct names or titles for God but NEVER
would they verbalize His given Hebrew name, Yehoveh.
The early gentile Church fathers didn’t agree with the Jews about avoiding saying God’s
name and, in their desire to distance themselves from Judaism, began to once again use
God’s actual name: Yehoveh. As mentioned, “Yehoveh” was later English-ized into the word
“Jehovah” that is commonly used in the Church today when referring to God’s name.
Jehovah became predominant in the Church, and the usage of other and older names and
titles all but disappeared.
But here is the thing that we should understand: more than 95% of the time that we encounter
one of the titles of God in our Bibles…..Lord, God, or whatever……the original Hebrew was
actually YHWH, God’s formal, personal name. Let me say that in a different way: more than 9
out of 10 times that our Bibles say Lord or God, the original Hebrew is Yehoveh. God’s formal
name is written over 6000 times in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, but our modern
translations reduce the use to but a handful. Let’s talk about Abraham’s son, Isaac, now.
YITZ’CHAK (ISAAC)
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The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Yitz’chak (Isaac). He wanders around some but not
nearly to the extent of his father Avraham (Abraham). His wandering is not as an aimless
person; rather it was that he was an owner of substantial flocks and herds that needed fresh
pasture lands on a regular basis. He appears to have done well for himself, inheriting his
father’s wealth [Gen. 25, 26, 27, 28]. God appears to Yitz’chak (Isaac), as He did to his father,
and gives him the same promise about fathering many nations, thus alleviating any doubt that
Isaac would carry on the line of the covenant promise. Rivkah (Rebecca) gives him twin sons,
Esav (Esau) and Ya’acov (Jacob). Esav, being the first one out of the birth canal, was the
traditional and rightful heir to his father’s wealth and authority. But years later in what the
Bible describes as a casual and impulsive transaction, Esav (Esau) sells his birthright to
Ya’acov (Jacob) for the princely sum of a bowl of lentil soup. Actually selling a birthright was a
somewhat common practice at that time, but in this case it was indicative of Esau’s lack of
character.
We fast forward. Yitz’chak (Isaac), now about 135 years old and blind and knowing that his
death is near, decides it’s time to give the customary blessing to the firstborn of his twin boys,
who is Esav (Esau). The effect of this blessing is to validate that son’s right to inherit the bulk
of the family’s wealth and also to assume the leadership role. Yitz’chak (Isaac) is unaware of
Esau’s dumb deal in selling his birthright to Ya’acov (Jacob); and Esav (Esau) intends to keep
it that way. When Yitz’chak (Isaac) instructs Esav (Esau) to go hunting and get him some fresh
meat for the blessing, his brother Ya’acov (Jacob) and their mother Rivkah (Rebecca) devise a
cunning plan. The name Jacob turned out to be prophetic; for, in Hebrew it means heal catcher
(the Bible tells us that when Esav was born, Jacob was hanging on to his heel). However, heel
catcher is not to be taken literally; it is simply an ancient Hebrew idiom that meant deceiver.
Before Esav can return from the hunt Ya’acov (Jacob) disguises himself as Esav, goes into
Yitz’chak’s (Isaac’s) tent and dupes the nearly blind old Yitz’chak into giving Ya’acov (Jacob)
the firstborn blessing; Isaac believes that it is his firstborn, Esav, that he has blessed. Esav
(Esau) returns from the hunt, finds out what has transpired and is devastated; he begs his
father to change the blessing. But such a blessing is, by tradition, irreversible for any reason.
Rivkah (Rebecca) knows her twin sons well and fears that upon Yitz’chak’s (Isaac’s) imminent
death Esav will kill Ya’acov for his treachery. Upon their mother’s urging Ya’acov (Jacob)
quickly packs up and flees north to his uncle Lavan (Laban), far away in Mesopotamia.
YA’ACOV (JACOB)
In Haran Ya’acov (Jacob) meets Rachel, one of Lavan’s (Laban’s) daughters, at the family well
(Lavan is Ya’acov’s uncle, his mother’s brother) [Gen. 29,30]. It’s love at first sight. As a
fugitive, with nothing else to offer, Ya’acov (Jacob) agrees to 7 years of servitude to Lavan
(Laban) in return for the right to marry Rachel. The 7 years pass and in a sure sign to
Ya’acov (Jacob) that what goes around comes around, during the marriage ceremony Leah,
Lavan’s oldest daughter, is secretly switched for Rachel. By the time Ya’acov (Jacob) finds out
it’s too late…….Leah is now his wife. So in a promise for another 7 years of service Lavan also
gives Rachel to Ya’acov (Jacob).
Make no mistake, Ya’acov (Jacob) was not an eager and foolish young man when he married
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first Leah, then Rachel; he was 84 years old! So the giving up of 14 years of his life for Rachel
had to have been well thought out. Not only had Jacob received more than he originally
bargained for but his two wives, sisters, quarreled constantly for the next several years, which
coincides with a growing hostility between Ya’acov and his father in law Lavan. After
completing 20 years of servitude to Lavan (14 for Rachel and Leah, plus 6 more in exchange
for some livestock) Ya’acov, knowing something bad is about to happen, gathers his family
and flees [Gen. 31].
As they prepare to secretly depart Rachel steals her father’s household gods and takes them
with her on their journey. Taking Laban’s daughters and grandchildren is one thing; but taking
his gods is quite another, so Lavan forms a posse, pursues and catches up to Jacob and his
family [Gen. 32]. Rachel is a clever and determined girl so even after a thorough search Lavan
can’t find his missing gods. The issue of the gods is important to Lavan because in that era
the person who possessed the family gods could claim legal inheritance of the family authority
and wealth. Possessing her father’s gods was Rachel’s ticket to all her that her father owned,
when he passed away. Lavan’s sons could not have been happy about this, either.
Ya’acov (Jacob) survives the ordeal by agreeing to Lavan’s demands that he take no other
wives. Ya’acov now moves on and returns to Canaan to face his brother Esav (Esau), not
really expecting to survive the family reunion.
Nearing his destination Ya’acov (Jacob) has an odd but history-changing encounter with what
some Bibles describe as an angel, others as the Lord, and finds himself in an all-night
wrestling match with this being. The result is a changed heart in Ya’acov (Jacob) to go along
with a permanent disability. But, something else gets changed as well; God tells Ya’acov that
he has a new name, and that name is Israel.
It is at this point in history, and not before, that an identifiable people were created that God
would call His own…….the Israelites. While Jacob, his offspring, and their descendents could
rightfully be called Israelites, only some would eventually come to be called Jews. I’ll expound
on that in due time.
Expecting the worst Ya’acov (from here on called Israel) finally encounters his twin brother
Esav (Esau) who, it turns out, is also changed [Gen. 33]. Tears flow. Israel (Jacob, Ya’acov)
offers gifts of reconciliation to Esav. Esav, now a wealthy man, refuses, but Israel insists. They
part in peace.
Israel heads for Shechem, by now a walled city-state in Canaan; this is the same place where
God told Avraham that this is the Land He would give to him and his descendents (but in
Abraham’s time Shechem was little more than a watering hole). Israel purchases land for his
clan from the local dignitary, the King of Shechem, intent to settle down permanently. Being
near a city brings mutual security, and the arrangement is formalized in a pact resembling a
treaty. Part of any agreement of this type is that the residents of the city and the members of
the people, who wish to live outside the city walls, become allies and join each other in fending
off marauders. But things quickly sour when the King of Shechem’s son rapes Israel’s only
daughter, Dinah, and her incensed brothers lead a raid of revenge leaving many of the city
dwellers dead in the wake [Gen. 34]. Israel is heartbroken over the evil and murderous actions
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of his sons. He knows they cannot stay, so they pack up and head to Beth’el. God appears to
Israel with assurance that the covenants given to Avraham, then to Isaac, and now to Jacob,
remain intact. His beloved wife, Rachel, for which he gave 14 years of servitude to marry, dies
giving birth to Israel’s 12th and last son, Ben-Y’min (Benjamin). Its now about 1800 BC.
Back up in Mesopotamia a new Babylonian culture is becoming more powerful and more
sophisticated, and is led by the continuing domination of the Amorites. Using the towers they
build, called ziggurats, they begin charting the skies as expert astronomers. Down in Egypt the
traditional Egyptian culture that has produced such an advanced civilization with its Pyramids,
libraries, agriculture, and science, all under strong central rule, is disintegrating. Foreigners
now sit in the seat of Pharaoh in Egypt. Not just any foreigners, but Bedouin Sheiks, Semites!
These Bedouins were not mindless barbarians. They easily adopted Egyptian ways, even
adopted Egyptian names. But they were, by nature, tribal and wanderers and did not
understand how to establish and maintain a large central government; the native Egyptians
considered their rule almost unbearable. Therefore the so-called Hyksos rulers were never
able to unite Egypt the way the Pharaohs before them did, and Egypt declined for the next 150
years.
YOSEF (JOSEPH)
Just a few years after Ben-Y’min (Benjamin) was born, 17 year old Yosef (Joseph), Israel’s
openly favored son, fell victim to a plot by his 10 jealous and angry older brothers [Gen. 37].
Thrown into an empty water well and sold to a passing caravan of slave traders,
Yosef’s (Joseph) brothers tell his father he was killed by a wild animal. Israel was devastated
and he blamed his other sons, obviously unaware of the truth. He would grieve, needlessly, for
years to come.
The caravan winds it way south to Egypt where Yosef (Joseph) is sold as a house slave to
Potiphar, Chief Steward to Pharaoh. Yosef, young, good-looking and highly intelligent, greatly
impresses his master; nonetheless he soon finds himself imprisoned as a result of false
charges made against him by Potiphar’s wife [Gen. 39, 40, 41]. While Joseph languished in
prison the Pharaoh began having reoccurring nightmares. The local Egyptian wizards were
unable to decipher these disturbing dreams so Yosef (Joseph) was called upon to try. Pharaoh
was so impressed by Joseph’s accuracy that he promoted him to 2nd in command of all of
Egypt. Potiphar now worked for Joseph. Yosef (Joseph), now 30 years old, has not seen his
family in 13 years.
Meantime, up in Canaan where Jacob and his clan still resided, things were not good. Another
famine had taken hold of the land and Israel’s tribe was in danger of not surviving. News
arrived that Egypt had, through the adept management of a foreigner, Joseph, somehow
foreseen the famine and stockpiled abundant grain supplies. Reluctantly, Israel sent his sons
to Egypt to try and purchase food [Gen. 42, 43, 44, 45]. Part of the reluctance was due to not
wanting to lose another child for Israel had never recovered from the loss of his precious Yosef
(Joseph). This fear undoubtedly came from the common knowledge that the poorest of
Egyptian society, who had run out of money and were unable to purchase grain from their
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government, were selling themselves into bond-servitude to the Pharaoh in return for food for
their families. This foreign Pharaoh of a divided country was using the famine and
Yosef’s (Joseph’s) abilities to rebuild a slave labor force to satisfy his ambitions. But God used
the situation to enable Israel’s survival.
When Yosef (Joseph) finds out it’s his brothers who have come asking to buy grain he is
crushed when they don’t recognize him. Hurt and angry he toys with them for a while. But
knowing that any revenge he might extract upon them would only serve to further hurt his aged
father, Yosef not only gives them grain he sends word to Israel that all his family should come
to Egypt where Yosef, from his position of power, can assure their survival.
Israel comes with his entire clan, which now numbers 70 individuals, not counting Joseph
[Gen. 46]. Israel dies in Egypt a few years later but before he dies he pronounces a significant
blessing upon Yosef’s (Joseph’s) two male children, Ephraim and Manasseh, born by
Joseph’s Egyptian wife; this act will have an enormous impact in the future of Israel and the
entire world. This deathbed blessing, the cross-handed blessing, put Joseph’s younger child,
Ephraim, ahead of the older child, Manasseh, for purposes of inheritance [Gen. 48]. But the
blessing also included the adoption of these two boys by Jacob so that they were no longer his
grandchildren, but his own children. This blessing had both immediate, and prophetic, effects.
By adopting these children away from Joseph and his Egyptian wife, Ephraim and Manasseh
were no longer considered Egyptians; they became Israelites. Let’s pause here to examine
this little-known section of the Bible that amounts to nothing less than prophetic dynamite.
READ Gen 48 all
What actually happened here? Well, as I mentioned earlier, the younger child of Joseph,
Ephraim, was in essence given the first-born or double portion blessing that normally should
have gone to the older child, Manasseh. But on a higher level Jacob gave the birthright that by
tradition belonged to his OWN firstborn son, Rueben, to grandson Ephraim. Rueben was
replaced with Joseph’s son Ephraim. How can I know with complete certainty that this was the
result? Listen to 1st Chronicles 5:1…… “……. Rueben the firstborn of Israel (Jacob) for he
was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to
the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; so that he (Rueben) is not enrolled in the
genealogy according to the birthright.”
So here is something we must put into our minds and hold onto for awhile: the firstborn rights
of inheritance for Israel’s (Jacob’s) children, wind up NOT going to the rightful heir that would
be expected, Rueben, but instead those rights are given to Ephraim who is actually a
grandchild of Jacob. That is why Jacob adopted Ephraim (and Manessah) away from Joseph
so that Ephraim became a son to Jacob (rather than a grandson) and he could now legally give
to Ephraim the firstborn blessings.
Let’s fast forward to several hundred years into the future, to the time after the Exodus from
Egypt and even further to the time of Solomon, King of Israel. Solomon is a ruler over a united
and powerful nation of Israel. But that is going to change almost immediately after his death
when Solomon’s son inherits the throne and right away turmoil and a civil war occur; Israel
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becomes divided into two opposing kingdoms. The Bible refers a number a ways to these two
kingdoms of Israel: most typically as the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom…… or….
As the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel (Judah in the south, Israel in the north).
Ah, but there’s a problem here. You see, the northern kingdom was not really called Israel at
that time. Calling that kingdom Israel is a fairly recent redaction in our bibles. The oldest
manuscripts clearly call the northern kingdom Ephraim. By now, of the 12 original tribes of
Israel, 2 (Judah and Ephraim) had become dominant and ruled over the other 10. In Biblical
times territories tended to be named after the dominant tribe who occupied that area. So the
two kingdoms that resulted from the civil war of Israel were eventually called by the names of
the two tribes that controlled them: Judah in the south, and Ephraim in the north.
Fast forward again; this time about 200 more years. Judah has struggled to stay separate from
its pagan neighbors, and close to God; on the other hand Ephraim has worked hard to
associate itself with its neighbors’ false gods. Assyria is now a regional power and it attacks
Ephraim and empties it of its people. The people of Ephraim are scattered all over the Assyrian
Empire and absorbed among the myriad cultures of Asia to the point that the bulk of them lose
their Hebrew identity. Ephraim is no longer a people belonging to God; Ephraim doesn’t even
know its heritage; most members of the10 tribes that formed Ephraim had mixed their Hebrew
genes with the gentile people of the world; Ephraim become lost into the world of gentiles……at
least that’s how it seemed until very recently.
From Genesis forward Ephraim and Judah are referred to as the two houses of Israel.
Ephraim is at times also referred to according to their father’s name, as the Joseph Tribes.
We’ll find that designation for them popping up in the book of Joshua. Together Ephraim and
Judah make up the whole house of Israel. That is these two halves of Israel together make up
all of Israel. Now with this as a background we fast-forward again. Ezekiel, writing about 130
years after Assyria conquered Ephraim, writes about a prophetic future for the people of
Ephraim in the book of Ezekiel 37. Let’s read it.
READ EZEKIEL 37 all
Here we find what has come to be known today as the two sticks prophecy. It says that in the
end times, the latter days, Ephraim will be rejoined with Judah. The two halves (the 2 houses)
of Israel will once again be united and become a whole….the whole house of Israel. Let that
sink in for a second. How could Ephraim, most of whom are so mixed with gentiles that they
have become gentiles… millions of people who don’t even know that they have ancestral roots
to the tribe of Ephraim (and some who do suspect the connection but cannot prove it)…… how
are they going to be reunited with the tribe of Judah? Who is Judah, today? Jews. Jews are
what members of the tribe of Judah have been called since the time of Babylon.
Surprise; another of those prophetic dominoes has taken a tumble. We now know that while
almost all of the Israelites who formed Ephraim joined themselves to the gentiles and have
essentially become gentiles; remnants of each of the 10 tribes that formed Ephraim remained
intact with an ingrained and uninterrupted memory of their Israelite heritage. The largest one
currently known, Manasseh, consists of nearly 2 million people and the Israeli government has
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now recognized that these 10 “lost” tribes aren’t as lost as they thought. Yet because Israel is
officially a “Jewish” nation and because Jews are genetically and tribally the tribe of Judah,
what does Israel do with millions of members of those 10 Israelite tribes who have been
rediscovered and want to come home to join their Jewish brothers? The difficulty lies in the
stance of those 10 tribes that while they are Israel, they are NOT Jews! They are NOT
descendants of the tribe of Judah; they are descendents of 10 other Israelite tribes.
Because a tradition grew that today’s Jews ARE all that remained of Israel, most of the
world’s Jewish communities are confused and perplexed of just how to handle this new reality.
Yet this 2nd house of Israel has been found, and their re-emergence is prophetic. The Israeli
government is now allowing them to return and the church is completely unaware that the 2
sticks prophecy of Ezekiel 37 is well underway.
We’ll continue next time.
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