This is the first of the 12 historical books, and it gained its name from the exploits of Joshua, the understudy whom Moses prayed for and commissioned as a leader in Israel (Num. 27:12–23). “Joshua” means “Jehovah saves,” or “the LORD is salvation,” and corresponds to the NT name “Jesus.” God delivered Israel in Joshua’s day when He was personally present as the saving Commander who fought on Israel’s behalf (5:14–6:2; 10:42; 23:3, 5; Acts 7:45). 

When Moses passed the baton of leadership on to Joshua before he died (Deut. 34), Israel was at the end of its 40 year wilderness wandering period ca. 1405 B.C. Joshua was approaching 90 years of age when he became Israel’s leader. He later died at the age of 110 (24:29), having led Israel to drive out most of the Canaanites and having divided the Land among the 12 tribes. Poised on the plains of Moab, E of the Jordan River and the Land which God had promised (Gen. 12:7; 15:18–21), the Israelites awaited God’s direction to conquer the Land. They faced peoples on the western side of the Jordan who had become so steeped in iniquity that God would cause the Land, so to speak, to spew out these inhabitants (Lev.18:24, 25). 

 He would give Israel the Land by conquest, primarily to fulfill the covenant He had pledged to Abraham and his descendants, but also to pass just judgment on the sinful inhabitants (cf. Gen. 15:16). Long possession of different parts of the Land by various peoples had pre-dated even Abraham’s day (Gen. 10:15–19; 12:6; 13:7). Its inhabitants had continued on a moral decline in the worship of many gods up to Joshua’s time.