Prepare your mind and heart to learn. Remove all distractions, and focus on studying and learning. By doing so, you show your willingness to be taught by the Spirit.
Begin your study with prayer.
What makes you stand out as a Latter-day Saint youth?
Watch this video about Brooke Romney, a Latter-day Saint young woman living in Mexico. What makes her stand out? How do her friends describe her?
Have you or someone you know ever questioned why a particular standard of the Lord’s is important to obey? Some youth may find the following standards difficult to obey (these phrases come from For the Strength of Youth [booklet, 2011], 4, 7, 30, 31):
“You should not date until you are at least 16 years old. … Avoid going on frequent dates with the same person.”
“Do not disfigure yourself with tattoos or body piercings. Young women, if you desire to have your ears pierced, wear only one pair of earrings.”
“Honoring the Sabbath day includes attending all your Church meetings. … Sunday is not a day for shopping, recreation, or athletic events.”
1. What other commandments or standards has the Lord given that some may question the importance of?
As the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the Lord gave them unusual commandments or instructions regarding how they were to attack the well-fortified city of Jericho. To some of the Israelites, these commandments may have seemed strange or unreasonable.
As you study Joshua 6, look for truths that can guide you when you or others may not understand the purposes for the Lord’s commandments.
Read Joshua 6:1–5, looking for how the Lord instructed the Israelites to attack the city of Jericho. It may be helpful to know that to “compass the city” means to go around it (see verse 3, footnote a).
Joshua 6:6–11 records that Joshua relayed the Lord’s instructions to the Israelites. If you had been in the position of an Israelite soldier, what might have seemed strange to you about these instructions?
What do you think the soldiers might have been thinking about on that first night as they finished walking around Jericho and then returned to camp?
As recorded in Joshua 6:12–15, the Israelites showed their faith in the Lord and His prophet. They did so by obeying the Lord when His instructions may not have made sense to them and by obeying Him with exactness.
Read Joshua 6:16, 20–21, 27, looking for what happened because Joshua and the Israelites obeyed the Lord with exactness. (You may remember that the Lord had previously commanded Israel to “utterly destroy” the inhabitants of the promised land if they did not surrender to prevent their sins from spreading to the children of Israel [see Deuteronomy 20:16–18; you might also review what you learned in lesson 72 about the Lord’s commandments concerning these wicked inhabitants of the land].)
Imagine yourself as an Israelite soldier who perhaps did not understand the purpose of the Lord’s instructions regarding how to attack Jericho. However, you chose to obey with exactness and then witnessed the walls of Jericho fall.
What principles would you have learned from this experience of following the Lord’s commands?
From the Israelites’ obedience we can identify the following principles: By having faith in God, we are able to obey His commandments even when we do not fully understand the purposes for them. As we act in faith to obey the Lord with exactness, He will be with us and help us do things we could not do by ourselves.
By this time, the children of Israel had been through many experiences when the Lord had required them to obey commandments they did not understand. Yet in every instance, He had blessed them. How can remembering when your faith was rewarded help you face new, trying circumstances with faith when they arise?
2. Answer the following questions:
Why do you choose to obey the Lord’s commandments even when you do not fully understand the purposes for them?
How have you or someone you know been blessed for obeying the Lord with exactness?
Look through the For the Strength of Youth booklet for a commandment or standard you feel you could obey with greater faith or exactness.
How will you obey that commandment or standard with greater faith or exactness? Write your answer on a piece of paper, and place the paper where you can be reminded daily of your goal.
In Joshua 6:17–19 we read that Joshua instructed Israel regarding what they should do once they had taken the city. “The accursed thing” in these verses refers to items the Israelites were forbidden to take from the city for themselves. These items were to be destroyed (see verse 18, footnote a). All the people (except for Rahab and her kindred [see verses 17, 22–23, 25]) and all the objects in Jericho were considered accursed except for the gold, silver, brass, and iron vessels, which were to be given and consecrated to the Lord for the wealth of the city (verse 19).
According to Joshua 6:18, what would be the consequence if an Israelite took something that was accursed?
According to Joshua 7:6–12, Joshua grieved after hearing the news of the defeat of the Israelite army. Joshua asked the Lord to reveal to him why Israel had suffered this defeat. The Lord then revealed to Joshua why Israel had lost the battle.
Read Joshua 7:11–12, looking for how Achan’s choice affected the rest of the children of Israel.
What principle can we identify from this account about the consequences of choosing to disobey the Lord?
One principle we can identify from the account of Achan is that if we choose to disobey the commandments, it brings negative consequences upon ourselves and others.
We read in Joshua 7:13 that the Lord commanded the Israelites to sanctify themselves so they could prevail against their enemies. One meaning of the word sanctify is to become free from sin. You may want to mark this word in verse 13.
We learn in Joshua 7:14–18 that the Lord instructed Joshua to gather the Israelites according to their tribes. The Lord would reveal to Joshua the person who was guilty of harboring the accursed thing. When called upon, Achan stood before Joshua.
Read Joshua 7:19–21, looking for what happened when Joshua confronted Achan.
What truth can we learn from Joshua’s words to Achan that applies to us today?
Hiding Our Sins
From the account in Joshua 7:19–21 we can identify the following truth: We cannot hide our sins from the Lord.
Elder Richard G. Scott (1928–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles helps us understand why we cannot hide our sins from the Lord:
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Richard G. Scott
“Do not take comfort in the fact that your transgressions are not known by others. That is like an ostrich with his head buried in the sand. He sees only darkness and feels comfortably hidden. In reality he is ridiculously conspicuous. Likewise our every act is seen by our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son” (Richard G. Scott, “Finding Forgiveness,” Ensign, May 1995, 77).
How can understanding that we cannot hide our sins from the Lord affect our choices?
We read in Joshua 7:22–26 that Achan was held accountable for his sins. Achan and his children were put to death, and the accursed things he took were destroyed as the Lord had commanded. Joshua would have been aware of the law that children were not to be punished for the acts of their parents (see Deuteronomy 24:16). Thus, the deaths of Achan’s children suggest that they were guilty of the same sin as their father; otherwise, they would have been spared.
Joshua 8–10 records that after the Israelites had punished Achan and removed “the accursed thing” from among them, the Lord helped them to defeat the people of Ai, the Amorites, and many of the cities in Canaan.
Read Joshua 10:42, looking for why the armies of Israel were so successful in battle.
