Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 6–10): The twelve men saw the same land; what Joshua and Caleb said was different from the others, and the whole congregation threatened to stone them. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verses 8–9 and 24 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down one thing that makes them feel like a grasshopper and copies out the line from verse 9 under it; then keeps company with someone who is afraid. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: Read ‘another spirit’ as written; the passage’s own way of saying it is “has followed me fully” (v. 24). Don’t analyse Joshua’s or Caleb’s character, don’t say they were braver than the others or saw more clearly, and don’t guess what ‘another spirit’ means. Don’t name the other ten men or make them villains; ‘all the congregation’ was against them, but don’t turn that into ‘the majority is always wrong.’ Read “they are bread for us” and “Their defense is removed from over them” (v. 9) as written; there is no need to explain them. There is no need to count which ‘ten times’ verse 22 means. Read the plague in verse 37 as written; don’t make it ‘unbelief brings disaster.’ Read ‘forty days,’ ‘forty years’ and ‘twenty years old and upward’ as written; don’t calculate. Joshua’s change of name (Num 13:16) is only told at the start; don’t explain what the names mean. Moses’ prayer (vv. 11–19) is told in one line; don’t expand on it. There may be people in the group in deep fear right now — don’t press on question 9; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 5–9): Three times the LORD says to Joshua “Be strong and courageous” (v. 9), and each time more words follow. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verses 5 and 8 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone reads verses 5–9 once a day, and says a word of encouragement to someone who has just taken on a load. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: Don’t turn ‘be strong and courageous’ into self-confidence, positive thinking or a secret of success: each time the passage says it, what follows is a ‘for’ or a command; just read it as written. Read “make your way prosperous” and “have good success” (v. 8) as written, following on from “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth” (v. 8); don’t make it ‘read the Bible and things will go well.’ Read “shall himself be put to death” (v. 18) as written; don’t expand on it. Don’t explain the geography of the borders in verse 4, or apply them to borders today. Why the two and a half tribes already had land east of the Jordan (Num 32) is not gone into in this lesson. Moses’ death was read in Moses, Lesson 7, and is not gone over again. Joshua is called “a young man” (Exod 33:11); read it as written, and don’t calculate his age. There may be people in the group who have just taken on a load, or who have just been replaced by someone else — don’t press on question 9; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 10–12): Caleb at eighty-five remembers a promise from forty-five years before, asks for a hill country where the Anakim are, and says, “It may be that the LORD will be with me” (v. 12). Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verses 10 and 12 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down one thing they have waited for a long time, tells someone they trust, and asks them to pray together. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: Don’t make this a ‘still going strong in old age’ pep talk: “As yet I am as strong today” (v. 11) is Caleb’s own word about himself; read it as written, and don’t turn it into ‘old people still have battles to fight.’ In verse 12 Caleb says ‘it may be’; don’t change it to ‘surely.’ Read ‘wholly followed’ as written; don’t analyse Caleb’s character. Read ‘the Kenizzite’ as written; don’t guess at Caleb’s origins. Read ‘forty years old,’ ‘forty-five years’ and ‘eighty-five years old’ as written; don’t calculate how old Joshua was. The crossing of the Jordan and Jericho are only told at the start; don’t expand on them. Read “I shall drive them out” (v. 12) and “Then the land had rest from war” (v. 15) as written; don’t make them a lesson about war. There may be people in the group who have waited a long time and still have not seen it, or whose hope will not now come — don’t press on question 9; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 15–24): Joshua says his own choice first; the people say they will serve, and he says, “You can’t serve the LORD” (v. 19); the people answer three times and are witnesses themselves. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verses 17 and 19 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down one small ‘as for me’ thing and does it this week, and prays once a day for one person in their family. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: Read “as for me and my house” (v. 15) as written; don’t turn it into ‘parents can decide faith for their family,’ or into a method for ‘bringing the whole family to faith’; don’t judge which families are good and which are not. Read “You can’t serve the LORD” (v. 19) as written; don’t explain it as a challenge to spur them on or as irony, and there is no need to harmonize it with other passages; the reason he gives is the ‘for’ in verse 19. Read “he will turn and do you evil, and consume you” (v. 20) as written; don’t expand on it. There is no need to discuss which oak or which sanctuary verse 26 means. Read Judg 2:10 as written; don’t make it ‘when the next generation leaves God, it is the last generation’s fault.’ ‘Pointing to Christ’ only reads Josh 21:44 and Heb 4:8-10, 14 together; don’t say Joshua is a type of Christ, and don’t bring in the idea that Joshua and Jesus share a name. There may be people in the group who are the only believer in their family, or for whom faith has been a hard road with their family — don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to. Question 11 is for looking back.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.