The
station of Joshua
10:26 points to the hanging of five Amorite kings on a tree. It is set in the context of the victory at
Makkedah as written in Joshua
10:22-27.
Let
us look at the meaning of names for some typology.
Typology
In
theological terms, typology is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship
of the Old Testament to the New Testament.
In the fullest version of the theory of typology, the whole purpose of
the Old Testament is viewed as the provision of types for
Christ, Who is the antitype or fulfillment.
A type can therefore be understood as a representation of Christ.
Joshua
First
up is the name Joshua.
The
name Joshua is from the Hebrew name Yehoshua’a meaning "YAHWEH is salvation“. Sounds
familiar? It is from two root words referring to “God” and “to save”. The name Jesus means “The LORD is salvation”
as written in Matthew
1:21.
Biblical Number “5”
Five
is the biblical number for grace and we know from John
1:17 that grace and truth came in the Person of Jesus.
Amorites
The
Hebrew word for Amorite comes from another Hebrew word meaning, "to say,
to utter". Besides referring to the
Amorites' zest for publicity, for hearing their name uttered and revered by
others, it also implies that Amorites love to "say", and have
people "obey".
Christocentric
interpretation
From
a Christocentric
interpretation of Joshua
10:26, it can be read that Joshua (“The
salvation of God”) refers to the striking of the
five kings (with the number five as the
biblical number for grace typifying Jesus) and he hung them on five trees (grace crucified). And grace (Jesus of Nazareth) obeyed (as
in the word Amorite) even to death.
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Joshua 10:26
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Christocentric interpretation
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Then
afterward Joshua struck them [with his sword] and put them to death, and he
hung them on five trees; and they hung on the trees until evening.
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The salvation of God refers to the striking of Jesus
and putting Him to death by crucifying Him on the Cross.
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On another dimension, it can be read
as Jesus was struck and hung on the Cross as in He willingly laid down His life
to save the world. In Isaiah
53:4, we read that “Yet we
ignorantly assumed that He was stricken, struck down by God and degraded and humiliated by God”. Jesus of Nazareth was not murdered and neither did He commit
suicide. He allowed Himself to be struck
and hung on a tree to fulfill the redemption plan. As Jesus Himself said in John
10:18, “No man can take His life from Him but he laid it down
of Himself”.
The five Amorite kings were hung on
the trees until evening just as the body of Jesus of Nazareth was taken down
before evening, the start of Sabbath. The evening aspect points to the ushering
in of The
Festival of the Paschal Lamb as will be discussed when we tread
on the path of Exodus
12:16. It alluded to the deliverance from the penalty of sin after the
crucifixion of Christ Jesus, the Passover Lamb.
Makkedah
Makkedah
means a place of shepherds.
Victory
at Makkedah can typify the ultimate victory of our Good Shepherd on the Cross
when He said or Amorited, “It is finished!”
as recorded in John
19:30.
If
that sound contrite, it probably is. It
is an attempt at Christocentric interpretation of a verse.
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