What Was So Special About Joshua?

So the LORD was with Joshua, and his reputation spread throughout the land. [Joshua 6.27] 

Why is this verse even necessary in the Bible? What was so special about Joshua?

Joshua was special because his existence was prophetic of Jesus Christ and the time of His Grace following Moses and the time of the law. Joshua was not special because he was a man, but because he was a portrait of Jesus.

Today, I am reminded that manna ceased to appear after Israel entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua.

While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan. [Joshua 5.10-12]

The significance of this fact also points us to Jesus Christ because Jesus said the following:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” [Matthew 4.1-4]

It took forty years for Israel to wander in the wilderness where manna (bread alone?) sustained them. It took Moses 40 days to be prepared to receive the law on Mount Sinai (which occurred twice). It took forty days, after His baptism in the Jordan River, for Jesus to be in the wilderness to be prepared to begin His ministry of grace. Jesus' confrontation with Satan was necessary to mark the completion of the law as given at the onset of Israel's wilderness experience with its "bread," manna. Jesus was very clear that simply "eating" was not sufficient to constitute a walk with God, but instead obeying God's every word, which for Jesus and His genuine followers, involved (and involves) a cross.

It is interesting that Satan tempted Jesus with turning "stones" to bread when we also see today that Joshua had the Israelites collect two sets of twelve "stones": one set placed in Gilgal and the other at the bottom of the Jordan River, both marking the significant event of crossing the Jordan River on dry ground. From what I have researched, it could be quite possible that Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River was very near the spot where Israel crossed the Jordon into the Promised Land.

I know this is all scattered, and, perhaps makes no sense at all. However, Jesus said the Scriptures point to Him (John 5.39), so it is not a mistake to look for Him in Joshua's and Israel's story.

Father, open my eyes and understanding to see Jesus in all the Scriptures. So be it.