Joshua Chapter 1: God Commissions Joshua

The book of Joshua is all about entering, conquering, and settling in a new land. The Israelites are to go into and live in the land which God had promised to give them, and where their forebears had dwelt many centuries before.

This chapter kicks off the story. Joshua has taken on the leadership of the Children of Israel, and he is commissioned to lead the people across the river Jordan and to take the land.

The inner meaning of this story is not a political one but, because it is in the Bible, it’s a personal or spiritual one. The land of Canaan represents our own personal life (see Apocalypse Explained 569[5]). We have some high ideals and good intentions, which are represented by the people of Israel, and we have some of the common human failings - being self-centred, critical, greedy, judgmental (you name it!). These traits are represented in the Book of Joshua by the several tribes of Canaan who have taken up residence there while Israel was in Egypt. Their tribal names have meanings like ‘low-lying’, and ‘mud-dwellers’. Conquering them symbolizes our need – with God’s help – to overcome our low-life human shortcomings and instead be led by God’s truths (Arcana Caelestia 4816).

Joshua is commissioned by God to lead the people (Arcana Caelestia 8595). Moses has died, and now Joshua is in charge. In commissioning him, God describes several things that we also need to relate to personally. First, we are told we need to cross the river Jordan to go into the land. A river is a very definite boundary and this tells us that there is a sharp distinction between our old life and our new life, without shades of grey.

Next Joshua is told that every place your foot treads upon shall be yours. This brings out our need to use God’s truths practically by living and doing them rather than intellectually just thinking about them, because our ‘foot’ is the lowest point of our body which directly touches the ground (see Heaven and Hell 97). The ground we walk on is life itself.

Then, the borders of the land of Canaan are described by namem and these give us ideas about our need to be challenged (wilderness), to think well (Lebanon), to do good (Hittites), and much more (the Great Sea). Then God says that if we make our decision to live God’s truths, nothing will be able to stand in our way.

After this come the famous words ‘Be strong and very courageous’ (Arcana Caelestia 6343). These come several times in chapter 1, to encourage us and to hold us in the strength of God’s power. We are also told not to turn to the right hand or the left, meaning that we are to obey God and do what is right without deviating. After a great start we can so easily slow down and turn away.

The Book of the Law shall not depart from our mouth but we must meditate on it day and night and keep it in our mouth, in our mind, our heart and our actions and our intentions.

Joshua then gives orders to the leaders to get the people ready to go. This means, for us, that our realisation that we must follow God and conquer our life needs to trickle down from our mind into every part of us in the smallest detail of this and this and even that. And to always be ready.

The last part of chapter 1 is about some of Israel’s tribes – Reubenites, Gadites and half of Manasseh. Earlier on, these tribes made the decision that they would rather settle on the east side of the river Jordan where there were good pastures. Moses had told them ‘Yes’ but now Joshua says that before they do, all the men must go with everybody into Canaan and fight and only then return over the Jordan to be with their wives and children and flocks.

This is telling us that there is place in our lives for external pleasures and possessions, but only when we have owned and lived the things of God first (Arcana Caelestia 870).

776. '[Every] bird according to its kind' means all spiritual truth, 'flying things' means natural truth, and 'winged thing' sensory truth. This is clear from what has been stated and shown already about birds, as in 40. The most ancient people likened man's thoughts to birds, for in relation to things of the will, thoughts are like birds. Since bird, flying thing, and winged thing are mentioned here, and come consecutively in the way that intellectual concepts, rational concepts, and sensory impressions do in man, and to prevent anyone doubting that this is what they mean, let other places from the Word of a confirmatory nature be quoted, from which as well it will be evident that 'beasts' means such things as have been stated.

[2] In David,

You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet, flocks and all cattle, and also the beasts of the fields, the flying things of the air, ¹ and the fish of the sea. Psalms 8:6-8.

This refers to the Lord, whose dominion over man and over what belongs to man is described in this fashion. If this were not so, what would 'dominion over beasts and birds' really be? In the same author,

Fruit tree and all cedars, wild animal and every beast, creeping thing and flying thing - they shall glorify the name of Jehovah. Psalms 148:9-10, 13.

'Fruit tree' is the celestial man, 'cedar' the spiritual man, 'wild animal and beast and creeping thing' the goods of these kinds of man, as in the present context. 'Flying thing' is their truths from which they are able to glorify the name of Jehovah. This a wild animal, a beast, a creeping thing, or a flying thing can never do. In secular literature such statements can be used as hyperbole, but in the Word of the Lord they are never just hyperbole but meaningful signs and representatives.

[3] In Ezekiel,

They start to tremble before Me - the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, ² and the wild animals of the field, and every creeping thing creeping over the ground, and every man that is on the face ³ of the ground. Ezekiel 38:20.

The fact that 'beasts' and 'birds' here have such meanings is quite clear, for what would Jehovah's glory be if fish, birds, and beasts were to start to tremble? Could anyone think that such utterances are holy if they did not embody holy things within them? In Jeremiah,

I looked, and behold, there was no man; all the birds of the air ² had fled. Jeremiah 4:15.

This stands for all good and truth. Here 'man' stands as well for good that stems from love. In the same prophet,

They have been laid waste so that no man passes through, neither do men hear the voice of the herd. From the birds of the air ² down to beasts, they have scattered, they have gone away. Jeremiah 9:10.

This in a similar way stands for the departure of all truth and good.

[4] In the same prophet,

How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds have perished, for men said, He will not see our latter end. Jeremiah 11:4.

Here 'beasts' stands for goods, and 'birds' for truths, which perished. In Zephaniah,

I will consume man and beast, I will consume the birds of the air ² and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off mankind from the face ⁴ of the ground. Zephaniah 1:3.

Here 'man and beast' stands for the things which belong to love and good deriving from love, 'the birds of the air ² and the fish of the sea' for those which belong to the understanding and so to truth. These are called 'stumbling-blocks' because for wicked people it is goods and truths, not beasts and birds, that are stumbling-blocks. These are also plainly referred to as man's. In David,

The trees of Jehovah are watered abundantly, and the cedars of Lebanon which He planted. In them flying things build their nests. Psalms 104:16-17.

'The trees of Jehovah and the cedars of Lebanon' stands for spiritual man, 'flying things' for his rational or natural truths which are like 'nests'. What is more, 'the birds build nests in the branches' was a common saying by which people meant truths, as in Ezekiel,

[5] On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, and it will bring forth a branch, and bear fruit, and it will become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every flying thing of every sort, ⁵ in the shade of its branches they will dwell. Ezekiel 17:23.

This stands for the Church among gentiles which was spiritual and which is 'a noble cedar'. 'Birds of every sort' ⁵ stands for truths of every kind. In the same prophet,

In its branches all the birds of the air ² made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field gave birth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

This refers to Asshur, which is the spiritual Church and is called 'a cedar'. 'Birds of the air' ² stands for its truths, 'beasts' for its goods.

[6] In Daniel,

Its branch was fair, and its fruit much, and food for all was on it. The beast of the field had shade under it, and in its branches dwelt the flying things of the air' ¹ Daniel 4:12, 11.

Here 'beast' stands for goods, and 'flying thing of the air' ¹ for truths. This may become clear to anyone, for what else would bird and beast dwelling there really be? The same applies to what the Lord said, The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, which someone took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a big tree so that the birds of the air ¹ dwelt in its branches. Luke 13:19; Matthew 13:32; Mark 4:32.

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