Before we walk through the book, it is worth meeting the man it is named after. He had been in the story a long time already — more than forty years of it — before God gave him the leadership.

The name of the book

It is called Joshua because it is his story. It begins with his commission, and ends with his death after he has led the Israelites in victory.

The name Joshua is the Hebrew form of Jesus, and means “Yahweh is salvation.” Joshua is the type of Jesus leading His people into rest, having gained victory over all their enemies.

His life before the Jordan

He was the son of the leading family in the house of Ephraim, born while they were slaves in Egypt. He was named Hoshea, meaning “salvation.” He remembered those days when the Israelites worshipped the gods of Egypt. Joshua 24:14

He took part in the Exodus, and his grandfather Elishama led the tribe of Ephraim through the wilderness. The family probably had charge of the embalmed body of Joseph, the father of the tribe, that was to be buried in Canaan. Numbers 32:11–12 · Numbers 1:4, 10 · 1 Chronicles 7:26–27 · Genesis 50:24–26

He came into prominence leading Israel against Amalek. Exodus 17:8–13 · Deuteronomy 25:17–18

It was at this time that he was renamed. As leader of the armies of Israel it might have been thought that he was their salvation — which is what Hoshea means. However, that was not so, for Yahweh was their salvation, and that is what the name Joshua means.

He exhibited, along with Caleb, true faith in God when returning from spying out Canaan. Because of his faith he was one of only two adults to enter Canaan from among those who left Egypt. Numbers 14:6–9 · Numbers 14:30

He was the constant companion of Moses, and was discipled for leadership. Exodus 24:13 · Exodus 33:11

He was invested by Moses, under God’s direction, with the authority to lead the people after his death. At the age of eighty-five, Joshua took leadership of the covenant people, and he led them for twenty-five years. Numbers 27:18–23 · Deuteronomy 1:38; 3:28; 31:14, 23 · Deuteronomy 34:9

Why this matters

Notice how long the preparation was. Joshua spent forty years as the assistant, watching Moses do it, before he ever gave an order of his own. He was one of only two men of his generation who believed God when it cost him something to say so, and he waited out the whole wilderness for the rest of them.

And notice where the training actually happened. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend; then Moses would return to the camp — but his young aide Joshua did not leave the tent. Exodus 33:11

Read that again. Moses had the conversation, and then went back to work. Joshua stayed behind in the presence of God after the meeting was over, when there was nothing left to see and no one telling him to. That is where a leader was being made. Not in the battles he had already fought, but in the hours he spent lingering where God was.

Then read his name again. The man who leads the people into everything God promised is called Yahweh is salvation — which is to say, it was never going to be about Joshua at all.

Now go on to Joshua the Book, and walk through what happened.