Joshua
JOSHUA
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer. We have already met Joshua. Where? He was one of the spies sent by Moses to report about the Promised Land. Of the twelve spies, only Joshua and Caleb believed God could give the Israelites this land; the rest were afraid and wanted to turn back to Egypt!
- Scripture Reference: Joshua 1-3, 6-11, 24. Another long section; but, don’t read it aloud in class. Have all the students briefly scan Joshua 1-3 and 24. Then, give each teen a particular battle to cover; have him or her prepare an army-style briefing (weapons, commander, location and identity of enemy, battle strategy) for the others from the master strategist, Joshua. Assign Joshua 6, Joshua 7, Joshua 8, Joshua 9, Joshua 10, and Joshua 11:1-15.
- Service References: On the feast of the Holy Cross and again on Holy Saturday, we read “Joshua, the son of Nun, stretched out his arms crosswise, O my Savior, mystically prefiguring the sign of the Cross: and the sun stood still until he had defeated the enemy that resisted Thee, O God. And now this same sun is darkened, seeing Thee upon the Cross destroying the power of death and despoiling hell.” What is the relationship between the cross and the sun in each instance?
Of course, the crossing of the Jordan is considered to prefigure Theophany. Joshua 3:7-17 is read at vespers of Theophany and at matins we hear, “Of old the Jordan was parted in two, And the people of Israel passed over on a narrow piece of dry land, Prefiguring Thee, O Lord most powerful, Who now makest haste to bear the creation down into the stream, Bringing it to a better and a changeless path.” Joshua and Jesus both went to the Jordan: compare and contrast. How did one prefigure the other?
St. Andrew of Crete, in his canon, sung on the first week of Great Lent, exhorts us all “Find the Promised Land and explore it secretly as Joshua, son of Nun, once did. See what kind of land it is and settle there, obeying the Law of God… As Joshua subdued Amalek and the lying Gibbeonites, arise, O my soul, and subdue the weakness of your flesh, subduing everything which leads your mind astray.” What enemies do I need to defeat? How can I enter the Promised Land?
- Discussion: Canaan contained many city-states, each with its own king, who joined together to fight a common threat, the Hebrew people. And the Canaanites were not about to allow the Hebrews to take their land without a fight. The Hebrew people were also composed of 12 tribes, each bound to help the others claim their inheritance before settling down in their own land. So, too, teens face numerous battlegrounds in their desire to serve the Lord and must work together to gain victory.
Begin by forming 2 teams of 4 people each. Each team will consist of a farmer, a chicken, a bag of grain, and a fox. The chicken, grain and fox must all be carried across the river by the farmer; none can move without being carried. The farmer can carry only one at a time. The foxes cannot be left alone with the chickens or they’ll eat them; the chickens cannot be left alone with the grain without eating it. See which team can successfully complete the task soonest. Did teamwork help?
Ask a series of “battle questions”; allow each student to answer each:
The toughest battle I fighting now is…
In my faith, I constantly battle the question of…
The battle I fight most often with my parents centers around…
At school, one battle I fight continuously is…
My friends and I seem to battle most about…
A promise I have made but failed to keep is…
How do we decide if something is worth fighting for? Do we ever get tired of fighting battles? Why or why not? Joshua did not fight each battle the same way, but, with God’s help, His people won battle after battle. Is there one battle right now you’re fighting that you feel you must win? Is God helping you fight? How? Are your Christian friends helping? How? Or how could they?
- Close with prayer: Pray for each battle the students have mentioned that they will have the wisdom and faith of Joshua with the help of their fellow-Israelites to win the battles.
