Jesus Or Joshua
WHY DID GOD USE “JESUS” INSTEAD OF “JOSHUA” IN ACTS 7?
Yeah, that’s a great blessing. Get Hebrews 4:8 in one hand, and then in Stephen’s sermon get Acts chapter 7 verse 45. Hebrews 4:8: “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.” Now, plainly, that’s a reference to Joshua coming into the land.
And, in Acts chapter 7, verse 45: “Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David.”
Now, the way that thing works is, that word in the Old Testament looked like this. Hebrews write from right to left. Or, a combination of that. YESH-UAH. Maybe sometimes like this, and sometimes like this. And that thing in Hebrew will come backwards. Y-S-H-U-A-H. In English, Y-S-H-U-A-H. Masoretic vowel pointing will put “YESH-U-AH.” Something like that. And we pronounce “J.” That’s one of them, that’s one of them, that’s one of them, and in the New Testament–this. Now, those are all the same word. Those words mean, “Jehovah saves.”
In the New Testament, the Greek will come out, “Iesus,” in Greek–like that. Now, that word in all the Greek texts in Acts chapter 7 and Hebrews chapter 4 is “Iesus.” So, if the new bibles translate “Joshua,” they’re not translating the Greek text correctly–after complaining about the King James not doing it. If you want to hang a scholar, hang him right there in Acts chapter 7 and Hebrews chapter 4, because in those passages right there, they have said there that it should be translated “JOSHUA.” That word in any Greek text is not Joshua–it’s Jesus.
Now, the question is, Why did the Lord do that? And the answer is, the Lord did that to show you that the book of Joshua is a picture of the Second Coming. And the word “Joshua” means “Jesus.” That’s what it means.
Now, I’ll show you what I mean. When Jesus Christ comes back, He attacks a cursed city–Babylon. Right? There’s a cursed city in here, in Jericho. When He comes back, He comes back at the end of seven years’ tribulation–right? They go around Jericho seven times. When He comes back, He’s the Angel of the Lord coming back, and the Captain of the Lord’s Host in the book of Joshua is the Angel of the Lord. When Jesus Christ comes back to set up the millennial land, He divides the land for an inheritance; so when Joshua goes in, he divides the land for the inheritance. That’s the Holy Spirit showing you that the book of Joshua is a type of the Second Advent.
In the book of Joshua, the sun and the moon stand still, and in the Tribulation the sun and the moon do the same thing again. King James, then, is superior to the Greek. It’s superior.