June 21, 2026, Sunday School Lesson

God’s Mercy in History

Lesson Text: Joshua 24:2-13

Related Scriptures: Genesis 11:27-12:9; Exodus 14:1-31; Numbers 21:21-35; 22:36-23:12; Deuteronomy 9:1-5

TIME: about 1390 B.C.

PLACE: Shechem

Golden Text – “And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat” (Joshua 24:13)

LESSON OUTLINE

1. GOD’S GRACE FROM UR TO EGYPT – Josh 24:2-4

2. GOD’S GRACE FROM EGYPT TO MOAB – Josh 24:5-10

3. GOD’S GRACE FROM MOAB TO THE PROMISED LAND – Josh 24:11-13

QUESTIONS

1. Who did the account in Joshua 24 begin with, and why?

2. Why did Joshua mention that Abraham worshipped idols?

3. What four action verbs describe God’s intervention toward Abraham?

4. What three instances of divine generosity does Joshua 24:3-4 list?

5. What does the comparison between Jacob and Esau reveal?

6. What would some of Joshua’s hearers have witnessed?

7. What did Balaam do after blessing Israel?

8. Why might Joshua have listed seven of the groups the Israelites defeated in the land?

9. What did God send before the Israelites?

10. How did God emphasize the grace shown in giving Israel their new home?

ANSWERS

1. Rather than beginning with Abraham, the Lord began the story with Terah, Abraham’s father. Moses too began the Abraham story with Terah in Genesis 11:27. Genesis unfolds as a series of literary units that begin with the Hebrew word tole-dot, meaning generations, or genealogy. Why did both Genesis and Joshua’s narration of Abraham’s life begin with Terah? There are at least two reasons. First, Terah emphasized that Abraham had no tole dot (family record) of his own. Second, Terah’s obscurity to Bible readers emphasizes the obscure beginnings of the great man Abraham. God did not choose a renowned man by choosing him.

2. Why does Joshua 24 mention that he worshipped idols? Verse 15 reveals the reason. This is not mere storytelling hour; this is a retelling of Israel’s history aimed at discouraging idolatry and encouraging faithfulness to the Lord.

3. God’s intervention is described with four action verbs: “took,” “led,” “multiplied,” and “gave.”

4. Perhaps to emphasize God’s generosity, Joshua 24:3-4 strings together three instances of divine generosity. First, God gave Isaac to Abraham. Second, God gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac, for Isaac and Rebekah also grieved because of their infertility. Then one would expect the text to say that God gave sons to Jacob. That is not what the text says, however. Instead, it says God gave land to Esau’s descendants.

5. While Esau’s descendants got to put down roots in the hill country of Seir, Jacob’s family embarked on what would be a four-hundred-year sojourn in Egypt. God was kind to both Esau and Jacob, but Esau was not the recipient of the descendant promise from Genesis 12:1-3. Sometimes God leads His people on a more difficult, circuitous path than others experience. Jacob’s clan of seventy did not settle in the Promised Land permanently but became sojourners in Egypt.

6. Some of those listening to Joshua would have witnessed the exodus and wilderness events, albeit as young people below twenty years old at the time of the exodus (cf. Num. 14:29).

7. More than that, Numbers 23 through 24 describe how the Lord comically overrode Balaam’s oracles to issue blessings over Israel. God caused Balaam to reiterate the promises made to Abraham (23:9-10). Balaam even prophesied the victory of King Jesus (24:17). Because the curses failed, Balaam advised King Balak to tempt Israel to incite God’s discipline through idolatry and adultery (25:1-9; 31:16).

8. Then the Lord listed seven people groups defeated by the Israelite army. Seven represents complete divine work. Israel defeated more than those peoples in this list, for in Joshua 24:11-13 and Deuteronomy 7:1-2, these seven groups represented total, divinely accomplished victory.

9. To emphasize the divine origin of these victories, God sent something ominous ahead of Israel to defeat their enemies: hornet. That means that God sent vicious insects ahead of Israel’s army to disorient and terrify the inhabitants o Canaan. The word for “hornets” conveys the chaotic reality inflicted on the Canaanites when news came about Israel’s military success. Joshua 2:11 describes the heart-felt fear in Jericho as Israel’s army approached.

10. To emphasize grace, Joshua escribed three unearned aspects of Israel’s new home: they did not work for it, they did not build its cities, and they did not plant its ready-made vineyards and olive orchards.