The Outstretched Arm of Yahweh

Displaying Divine Power in the Battle Postures of Moses and Joshua

Jul 07, 2025

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Joshua Outside Jericho Joshua was the successor chosen by Moses. When Moses died, Joshua took leadership over the Israelites in the wilderness. He was the one to lead them into the land promised by God—the “Promised Land”—Canaan. He performed miracles and provided leadership. He helped them to know how to defeat the army of Jericho. Joshua sent spies into investigate. They were helped by Rahab. She hid them and then covered for them when the soldiers asked questions. When Jericho was defeated and destroyed, Rahab and her family were spared. Joshua instructed the Israelites to walk around Jericho one time each day for six days following the priests who were blowing ram’s horns. On the seventh day, Joshua told them to march around the city seven times. On the seventh time around, the walls of Jericho fell and the Israelites were victorious. After Jericho, God allowed the Israelites to prevail over other cities and to capture and kill evil kings. Joshua lived a long and successful life honoring God and leading the Israelites. They honored him when he died. joshua battle stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Under Joshua’s leadership, the second city to fall in the promised land was Ai. Joshua’s activity during the battle is reminiscent of Moses, and both Joshua and Moses represent something true about the Lord.

Let’s break it down.

The battle with Ai included an ambush, in which forces behind the city would enter and burn the city, afterward joining with the Israelites who were in front of Ai to enclose the Canaanite soldiers. The soldiers of Ai would be caught, so to speak, in the jaws of death, with Israelite forces behind them and in front of them.

The ambush sprung at the appropriate signal. The Lord told Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand” (Josh. 8:18), and Joshua did so. The ambush was then underway, and they city was captured (8:19).

But Joshua didn’t lower his hand. He “did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction” (Josh. 8:26). Behold the outstretched arm of Joshua, his hand holding the object which God specified. Joshua held forth the javelin until the battle with the forces of Ai was over.

Doesn’t that scene remind you of an episode in the Pentateuch?

In Exodus 17, the Israelites faced their first post-Red-Sea-crossing battle. The Amalekites had come against them, and Moses gave instructions to Joshua to fight with Amalek. Moses added, “Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand” (Exod. 17:9). And Moses did precisely that. He went to the top of the hill, and the Israelites were prevailing as long as Moses’s hand was raised (17:10–11). In fact, when Moses became weary, Aaron and Hur held up his hands (17:12). The Israelites were victorious over the Amalekites (17:13). And Moses held forth God’s staff until the battle was complete.

In the days of the conquest of Canaan, Joshua is the new Moses. And the scene where Joshua stretches out a javelin (until the battle with Ai was complete) is an allusion to his predecessor. The biblical author shows continuity between these leaders, and the author also demonstrates the same heavenly origin of their commission. The God of Joshua is the God of Moses. And even though Joshua held a javelin instead of the staff of Moses, victory was the outcome because the common denominator was the power of God.

Neither the wooden staff of Moses nor the javelin of Joshua were magical items. Those objects possessed no innate power. Rather, they represented the authority and power of God on display in the battle episodes.

Before the plagues upon Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, God had told Moses, “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment” (Exod. 6:6). And after the Lord destroyed the Egyptian forces in the crushing water of the Red Sea, the Israelites sang to the Lord, “You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them” (15:12).

The Lord stretches out his hand to deliver his people. One way this metaphorical truth gets communicated is through the literal outstretched hands of Moses and Joshua. When Moses stretched out the staff of God in Exodus 17, God was stretching out his arm and hand to rescue his people and to subdue his enemies. When Joshua stretched out the javelin in Joshua 8, God was stretching out his arm and hand to rescue his people and to subdue his enemies.

The outstretched hands of Moses and Joshua not only connect those two characters, they also connect those characters to Yahweh whose power is displayed both to save and to judge.

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