Joshua

Joshua served as Moses' assistant for decades before becoming Israel's leader after Moses' death, tasked with leading the nation into the promised land and overseeing the military campaigns that established Israel there.

Joshua first appears leading Israel's army in battle against the Amalekites while Moses prays on a nearby hill, and he is later one of twelve spies sent to scout Canaan, one of only two, alongside Caleb, who returns with a confident report of faith rather than fear.

Numbers 13:30 records Caleb, and by implication Joshua's shared conviction, calming the people's fear: "let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." The other ten spies' fearful report instead leads to forty additional years of wilderness wandering, a consequence Joshua and Caleb alone are spared from experiencing personally.

God formally commissions Joshua as Moses' successor before Moses' death, and Joshua 1:9 records God's direct charge to him as he begins to lead: "be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Joshua leads Israel across the Jordan River, its waters miraculously stopping just as the Red Sea had for Moses a generation earlier, and oversees the fall of Jericho, its walls collapsing after seven days of a specific, unusual ritual of marching and trumpet blasts rather than conventional siege warfare.

Joshua's military campaigns continue across Canaan, and the book bearing his name records the eventual division of the conquered land among Israel's twelve tribes, a significant administrative undertaking following the years of warfare.

Near the end of his life, Joshua gathers the tribes and issues a direct challenge, recorded in Joshua 24:15: 'choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD,' a declaration that has remained one of the most quoted statements of household commitment throughout church history.

Joshua dies at 110, and the book that bears his name closes noting that Israel served the LORD throughout his lifetime and that of the elders who outlived him, a period of relative faithfulness that would not persist once that generation of leadership had passed away entirely.