The Greater Joshua: How the Incomplete Conquest Points to Revelation’s Final Victory
Part 2: When Two Witnesses, Seven Trumpets, and Hidden Kings Tell the Same Story
Hello brothers and sisters.
In Part 1, we discovered that the Septuagint’s rendering of Joshua 13:5— ”the land of Galiath of the Phylistines” —wasn’t a translation error but a theological statement. The LXX translators knew that Philistine territory was giant country, the refuge of the Anakim that Joshua had failed to completely eliminate. They named it after its most infamous champion because they understood what we often miss: the conquest narrative isn’t complete. There’s unfinished business.
But the incomplete conquest isn’t just a historical footnote. It’s a prophetic pattern. And when you see the pattern, the entire Bible comes alive in ways you never imagined.
For all his inaccuracies, Chuck Missler was a masterful Bible teacher who spent decades exploring the deep structure of Scripture. And he noticed some remarkable things. In this case, it’s that the Book of Joshua and the Book of Revelation follow the same template.
Not loosely. Not vaguely. But with stunning precision.
Let me show you what he saw.
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The Structural Parallel: Joshua and Revelation Side by Side
Consider the sequence of events in Joshua’s conquest of Jericho and the surrounding narrative:
Joshua’s Conquest:
Two witnesses sent in (Joshua 2 - the spies to Rahab)
Crossing into enemy territory (Jordan River - Joshua 3-4)
Spiritual preparation (circumcision and Passover - Joshua 5:2-12)
Encounter with the Divine Commander (Joshua 5:13-15)
Seven trumpets blow as weapons of war (Joshua 6:4-20)
Silence before the final assault (Joshua 6:10 - “you shall not shout”)
Victory through divine intervention, not human might
Kings defeated with signs in the heavens (Joshua 10:12-13 - sun and moon stand still)
Kings hide in caves (Joshua 10:16-27)
Incomplete conquest - enemies remain (Joshua 13:1-6)
Revelation’s Final Conquest:
Two witnesses sent (Revelation 11:3-12)
The redeemed cross over (symbolic entry into promised rest)
Spiritual preparation of the saints (Revelation 7 - sealing of the 144,000)
The Lamb as Divine Warrior (Revelation 5:5-6; 19:11-16)
Seven trumpets blow as divine judgments (Revelation 8-11)
Silence in heaven (Revelation 8:1 - “silence in heaven for about half an hour”)
Victory belongs to the Lord and His Christ (Revelation 11:15)
Kings of earth defeated with cosmic signs (Revelation 6:12-14; 16:8-9)
Kings hide in caves and rocks (Revelation 6:15-17)
Complete conquest - all enemies destroyed (Revelation 19:19-21; 20:7-10, 14-15)
Do you see it? The pattern isn’t coincidental. Joshua’s conquest of Canaan is the prophetic template for Jesus’s conquest of the entire earth. The first Joshua was a type; the second Joshua (Ἰησοῦς - Jesus in Greek) is the fulfillment.
And here’s what makes “the land of Galiath” so significant: it represents the unfinished part of the first conquest that demands a second, greater conquest to complete.
The Divine Commander: Same Person, Same Mission
Let’s zoom in on one of the most overlooked passages in Joshua, the encounter with “the commander of the army of the LORD” in Joshua 5:13-15:
“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’ And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?’ And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.”
This isn’t an angel. Angels don’t accept worship (Revelation 22:8-9). This is a theophany (a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ). And His identification is crucial: “I am the commander of the army of the LORD.”
Who really fought the battle of Jericho? The Sunday school song gets it wrong. It wasn’t Joshua. It was the Divine Commander, the Lord Himself, leading His heavenly armies.
Now fast-forward to Revelation 19:11-16:
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself... The armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations... On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Same Commander. Same mission. Same army.
But this time, the conquest will be complete.
The Nephilim Factor: Why God Commanded Total Destruction
Now we need to address the elephant in the room; the troubling question that bothers many modern readers: Why did God command Israel to “devote to destruction” entire populations? Why the herem— the ban —that required the extermination of men, women, and children in certain Canaanite cities?
The answer lies in understanding what— and who —Israel was really fighting.
Genesis 6:1-4 records a mysterious and disturbing event:
“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose... The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”
The Nephilim. The word literally means “fallen ones” (from the Hebrew naphal, “to fall”). These were the offspring of a union that was never meant to happen; the intrusion of the Fallen Angels into the human gene pool.
God’s response was the Flood. Genesis 6:5-7 is clear: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually... So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land.’”
But Genesis 6:4 includes a haunting phrase: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward.”
After the Flood, the Nephilim reappeared. How? The text doesn’t fully explain, but by the time Israel approached Canaan, they were there again and concentrated in specific tribes and regions.
Numbers 13:33 is explicit: “And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
The Anakim— the giants who terrified the spies —were identified as Nephilim. They weren’t simply large humans. They were the continuation of a corrupted bloodline, the offspring of what 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 describe as angels who “did not stay within their own position of authority” and are now “kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness.”
The Seed War: Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 12
This brings us to the cosmic conflict that runs from Genesis to Revelation; what some scholars call “the seed war.”
In Genesis 3:15, immediately after the Fall, God declares war on the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Two seeds. Two lineages. The seed of the woman (ultimately Christ) and the seed of the serpent. The entire biblical narrative is the story of this conflict.
The Nephilim were the serpent’s attempt to corrupt the human line. To prevent the promised seed from ever arriving. If all humanity became corrupted, there would be no virgin-born Messiah. No Second Adam. No Redeemer.
The Flood was God’s response: preserve Noah’s family (”Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation”—Genesis 6:9, with the Hebrew tamim suggesting genetic purity), and start over.
But the corruption returned. And by the time of the Conquest, it was concentrated in Canaan. Primarily in the Anakim, the Rephaim, the Emim, but there were also other giant clans.
God’s command to devote these peoples to destruction wasn’t arbitrary genocide. It was surgical removal of a cancerous corruption that threatened the entire Messianic line. The herem was an act of spiritual warfare, a continuation of the battle God had declared in Genesis 3:15.
And it was incomplete.
Why the Incomplete Conquest Matters
Joshua eliminated most of the giant clans. But Joshua 11:22 tells us plainly: “Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.”
The Anakim survived in Philistine territory. In “the land of Galiath.”
And this is where the typology becomes piercing. Joshua, for all his faithfulness and military brilliance, couldn’t finish the job. He was told in Joshua 13:1, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.”
The first Joshua’s conquest was real, though incomplete. He drove back the enemy, but failed to eliminate them. The first Joshua gave Israel rest, but it was temporary.
This is precisely what Hebrews 4:8-9 tells us: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
The incomplete conquest demands a complete conquest. The temporary rest demands an eternal rest. The earthly Joshua demands a heavenly Joshua.
And “the land of Galiath” —that unconquered giant territory —becomes a symbol of everything that waits for the greater Joshua to defeat.
David: The Transitional Figure
This is where David enters the narrative as a transitional figure. He bridges the gap between Joshua’s incomplete conquest and Christ’s complete victory.
When David faced Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, he was facing the direct result of Joshua’s incomplete conquest. Goliath was from Gath, one of the three cities where the Anakim had survived. He was a gibbor, a mighty one, the same term used for the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4. He was, in both lineage and vocabulary, the seed of the serpent.
And David— from the tribe of Judah, the line through which the promised Seed would come —was the seed of the woman.
The Valley of Elah was a microcosm of Genesis 3:15.
Notice what David says in 1 Samuel 17:45-47:
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down... that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
David understood what Joshua’s generation had failed to grasp: the battle isn’t won by human strength. It’s won by the LORD of hosts.
And David did what Joshua couldn’t do; he killed the giant from Gath. And then his mighty men systematically eliminated Goliath’s brothers (2 Samuel 21:15-22). They were finishing Joshua’s work, cleaning up “the land of Galiath.”
But even David’s victories were incomplete. The Philistines remained Israel’s enemies for generations. The giant clans were suppressed, but not completely eradicated. The seed war continued.
Because the battle couldn’t truly end until the promised Seed Himself arrived.
The Revelation Pattern:
Complete Victory
Now watch how Revelation takes Joshua’s pattern and brings it to completion.
Two Witnesses: Just as Joshua sent two spies into Jericho (and Rahab the Gentile prostitute preserved them), Revelation 11:3-12 describes two witnesses who prophesy in Jerusalem, are killed, and are resurrected. The parallel to Joshua’s spies is unmistakable; and like Rahab, there will be Gentiles who side with God’s people and are preserved through the judgment.
Seven Trumpets: Joshua 6 features seven priests with seven trumpets marching around Jericho for seven days. Revelation 8-11 features seven angels with seven trumpets releasing seven judgments. In both cases, the trumpets are instruments not of music but of warfare. These are ram’s horns (shofars), not the silver trumpets of the Temple. These are sounds of conquest.
Silence: Before the walls of Jericho fell, there was commanded silence: “You shall not shout or make your voice heard” (Joshua 6:10). In Revelation 8:1, before the trumpet judgments begin, “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” In both cases, silence precedes the storm; a short period of calm before divine judgment falls.
Signs in the Heavens: In Joshua 10:12-13, the sun and moon stand still at Joshua’s command, creating cosmic signs to accompany the defeat of the Canaanite kings. In Revelation 6:12-14, the sun becomes black, the moon like blood, and the stars fall from heaven. In Revelation 16:8-9, the sun scorches people with fire. Heaven and earth bear witness to the battle.
Kings Hiding in Caves: After Joshua’s victory at Beth-horon, the five Amorite kings flee and hide in a cave at Makkedah (Joshua 10:16). In Revelation 6:15-17, the kings of the earth, the great ones, the generals, the rich, the powerful— everyone —hides “in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.’”
Same pattern. Same terror. Same futility of trying to hide from the Divine Commander.
Complete Conquest: And here’s where Joshua and Revelation diverge. And fulfill each other.
Joshua 13:1: “There remains yet very much land to possess.”
Revelation 11:15: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Joshua 13:13: “Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.”
Revelation 20:10: “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
Joshua left enemies in the land. Jesus will eliminate them all. Every last giant. Every last demon. Every last corrupted seed. “The land of Galiath” will be cleansed forever.
The Christological Connection:
Jesus as the Greater Joshua
The name connection isn’t accidental. Yehoshua in Hebrew means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” The Greek form of this name is Ἰησοῦς—Jesus.
When the angel appeared to Joseph in Matthew 1:21, he said: “You shall call his name Jesus [Ἰησοῦς], for he will save his people from their sins.”
Joshua son of Nun saved God’s people from their earthly enemies and brought them into the earthly Promised Land.
Jesus son of Mary saves God’s people from their sins and brings them into the eternal Promised Land; the New Jerusalem, the new heavens and new earth.
Hebrews makes this connection explicit in chapter 4:
“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9).
The Greek text uses Ἰησοῦς (Jesus/Joshua) in verse 8—the same name, the same mission, but the earthly Joshua couldn’t complete it. His rest was incomplete. His conquest was partial. His victories were temporary.
But the greater Joshua— Jesus Christ —will bring the final rest, the complete conquest, the permanent victory.
And when He does, “the land of Galiath”— everything that Joshua couldn’t conquer, everything that David suppressed but couldn’t eliminate, every remnant of the seed of the serpent —will be utterly destroyed.
Spiritual Warfare Today:
We Live in “The Land of Galiath”
So what does this mean for us?
We live in the time between the times, between Joshua and Revelation, between the first conquest and the final one.
Christ has already won the decisive victory. Colossians 2:15 declares that “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” The cross was Christ’s crushing of the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The resurrection was proof that death— the serpent’s ultimate weapon —has been defeated.
But we still face enemies. We still battle. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 6:12:
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
We are in enemy territory. Like Israel after Joshua’s conquest, we live in a land where the enemies have been defeated but not yet eliminated. “The land of Galiath” still exists in the form of giant bloodlines* (highly conjectural, see note below), demonic/fallen angelic principalities & powers, and the spiritual corruption that we face daily.
But we are not left to fight in our own strength.
Joshua 5:14 records the Divine Commander’s declaration: “Now I have come.” He didn’t send Joshua to fight alone. He came Himself. He led the battle.
And in Matthew 28:20, the greater Joshua makes the same promise to us: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Commander who toppled Jericho’s walls is the same Commander who fights with us now. The Commander who will ride out of heaven on a white horse in Revelation 19 is the same Commander who indwells us by His Spirit today.
We are not fighting to gain victory. We are fighting from a position of victory. The outcome is certain. The giants will fall. The serpent’s seed will be eliminated. “The land of Galiath” will be cleansed.
Our role is faithfulness, not fear. David showed us the way: “The battle is the LORD’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).
***Textual Note***
*There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the idea that literal giants exist today, nor that they ever existed. However, there is a significant body of believers who do put stock in such stories.
There is a conjectural view that throughout the generations, the blood of the giants diluted further and further across the centuries until those with giant blood would be roughly the same size as any human, thereby making them invisible to us. Similarly, if the blood could dilute to such a level, it is theoretically feasible that without knowing what to look for, modern genetics would not be able to find such an anomaly.
However, there is an alternate view that has been put forward by minority groups that suggest giants might live in isolated or hidden communities, or have abilities beyond those of average humans, and that the lack of evidence is a result of them remaining intentionally concealed.
Although these views are quite provocative, for those who take the Bible seriously, I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to suppose that, in some form or another, there might still be people on earth with at least a hint of giant blood in their veins.
The Pattern Holds:
Incomplete Now, Complete Then
The Septuagint translators who rendered Joshua 13:5 as “the land of Galiath of the Phylistines” were doing more than geography. They were doing theology. They were connecting Joshua’s incomplete conquest to the larger narrative of Scripture; the seed war, the ongoing battle, the unfinished business that awaited a greater Joshua.
When they named that territory after Goliath— a giant who wouldn’t even be born for several generations after Joshua —they were telling us something profound: this land is defined by what it will produce.
Giant country.
Enemy territory.
The refuge of those who oppose God’s purposes.
But they were also telling us that giants can be defeated. David proved it. And the greater Joshua will prove it finally and forever.
The Book of Joshua doesn’t end with complete victory. It ends with unconquered territories and the death of Joshua, leaving the question: Who will finish the job?
The Book of Revelation answers: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7).
The same pattern. The same Commander. The same mission.
But this time, the conquest will be complete. No Anakim will escape to Gaza or Gath or Ashdod. No giant clans will find refuge. No “land of Galiath” will remain.
Because the Commander of the army of the LORD has come, and He shall reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Standing in the Gap
There’s one more parallel we need to see. In Joshua 10:16-27, after the five Amorite kings hid in the cave at Makkedah, Joshua commanded his men to bring the kings out. Then he did something remarkable:
“And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, ‘Come near; put your feet on the necks of these kings.’ Then they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, ‘Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you fight’” (Joshua 10:24-25).
The warriors of Israel placed their feet on the necks of defeated kings. It was a symbolic act, a demonstration that the enemy was utterly vanquished, a fulfillment of the ancient Near Eastern practice of victorious kings standing on the necks of their conquered foes.
Now read Psalm 110:1:
“The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’”
And 1 Corinthians 15:25:
“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
And Revelation 20:10:
“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
The pattern holds. The enemies are defeated. The kings hide, but they cannot escape. The giants fall. The Commander wins.
And we, the people of God, will reign with Him.
“The land of Galiath,” that symbol of everything Joshua couldn’t conquer, will finally be conquered. Not by our strength, but by the strength of the Commander who fights with us and for us.
The incomplete conquest awaits completion. The temporary rest awaits eternal rest. The earthly Joshua awaits the heavenly Joshua.
And when He comes, every giant will fall.
What’s Coming Next
Speaking of incomplete battles and final victories, our next series explores the Bible’s most detailed prophecy of the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53. The chapter that’s been called “The Holy of Holies of the Old Testament.”
And when you compare what the Hebrew Masoretic Text says against what the Greek Septuagint (and the Dead Sea Scrolls) preserve, you discover textual differences that are nothing short of explosive.
Did you know the ancient manuscripts contain a phrase the modern Hebrew text lost— ”he will see light“ —making the Servant’s resurrection explicit? Or that where your English Bible says God was “pleased to crush him,” the Septuagint says God desired to “cleanse him,” offering a radically different atonement theology in just two words?
The Suffering Servant didn’t just suffer and die. According to the most ancient witnesses, he rose, he cleansed, and he will startle nations.
I promise you won’t want to miss this one!
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