Dale Ralph Davis on Joshua I
Last Monday (May 7) I heard Dale Ralph Davis, an Old Testament specialist from the Deep South of the USA, talk about the book of Joshua. He's a man whose brain appears to move just slightly too fast to be a genuinely effective public speaker—words rushing out in an attempt to keep up with ideas—so I'm not sure why I found I couldn't stop listening. I was part of the crowd at the Sydney Missionary Bible College Preaching conference, where, having failed to register (I O SMBC $20), I snuck in with a laptop and managed to collect a few ideas.
Ralph (every learned American seems to be known by their middle name) thinks that these verses in Joshua are the key that unlocks the whole book:
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 word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45)
This, said Ralph, is the hinge of the Book of Joshua. Chapters 1-21 are an extended, enjoyable and important prologue that introduce key themes: assurance, grace, power, the wrath of God, true wisdom, admonition. Read those chapters and learn, and realize that the three verses of Joshua 21 that Ralph quoted summarize all of these ideas. They then lead us into the final three chapters, where the key concern of God is obedience to his command.
Let me be honest and say, not having read Joshua closely for several years, I have no idea whether Ralph was right. But when I next read the book, I'll start not at the beginning but at Joshua 21:43-45, so that I can test the theory.