Joshua Bible stories for kids
Joshua starts out as one of twelve spies and ends up as the man who leads a whole nation across the Jordan. In between there are forty years in the desert, waiting on a promise that he and Caleb believed and almost nobody else did. Children usually know him from the walls of Jericho. The better way in is the spying trip, because that is where he decides what he thinks of giants.
All four stories are on this site in full text, all four are told for ages 3 to 8, and they run about twenty-five minutes together. They start in the book of Numbers and finish in the book of Joshua. Rahab and the Spies, which is filed under Rahab rather than Joshua, belongs just before the Jordan crossing if you want the whole run.
4 stories, about 25 minutes of listening
Joshua’s story, in order
The Twelve Spies
Moses sends twelve men to sneak into the promised land and bring back some of its fruit. They all see the same hills, cities and tall people, but they do not all come home with the same report.
Numbers 13-14, 8 min, ages 3-8
Joshua Crosses the Jordan River
It is harvest time, the Jordan River is spilling over its banks, and God's people have no bridge and no boats. Joshua tells everyone to get ready, because tomorrow God is going to do wonders.
Joshua 3-4, 6 min, ages 3-8
Joshua and the Battle of Jericho
God gives Joshua a plan for the locked-up city of Jericho, and it has no ladders, no battering rams and no swords. It has trumpets, a lot of walking, and a rule that nobody may say a single word.
Joshua 6, 8 min, ages 3-8
Joshua and the Day the Sun Stood Still
Joshua and his people have marched all night to help their friends in Gibeon, and now the day is running out. So Joshua does something no one had ever done before.
Joshua 10:6-14, 3 min, ages 3-8
Listening through Joshua’s life
The Twelve Spies, from Numbers 13 and 14, is about eight minutes. Moses sends one man from each tribe into Canaan for forty days, and they come back carrying a bunch of grapes so heavy it has to hang from a pole between two men. Ten of them say the people there are giants and that they felt like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb say the land is good and the Lord is with them. Nobody listens, and the people wait forty more years for it, but the story ends with Joshua, gray-haired now, walking into the land with Caleb beside him.
Crossing the Jordan, from Joshua 3 and 4, is about six minutes. It is harvest time, the river is over its banks, and the priests carrying the ark of the covenant walk in first. The moment their feet touch the edge, the water stops and heaps up far upstream, the priests stand in the middle of the dry riverbed until the last person is across, and twelve men carry out twelve stones. The story opens and closes with those stones at Gilgal, set up so that children would one day ask what they mean.
Joshua and the Battle of Jericho is eight and a half minutes from Joshua 6. God's plan has no ladders and no battering rams: once round the walls each day for six days, seven priests blowing ram's horn trumpets, and not one word from anybody. On the seventh day they go round seven times, the people shout, and the walls fall down flat. The story finishes with the two spies going back for Rahab and her whole family, keeping the promise they made at her window.
Joshua and the Day the Sun Stood Still is under three minutes, from Joshua 10. Joshua's friends in Gibeon send for help, he marches all night to reach them, and the day is running out. He speaks to the sun and the moon in front of everyone, and they stay where they are for the longest afternoon there has ever been. The telling keeps to the sky and leaves the fighting out.
Every page has a free audio preview, the memory verse from the World English Bible, discussion questions and a prayer. The sun story is the one for a night when there is no time left; the spies and Jericho are proper evening stories, and both hold up to being heard more than once.
Common questions
- Are the Joshua stories suitable for young children?
- All four are written for ages 3 to 8. Joshua and the Day the Sun Stood Still is the shortest, under three minutes, and leaves out the battle the Bible sets it in. The Twelve Spies and Joshua and the Battle of Jericho each run past eight minutes and ask a child to follow a plan over many days, so they tend to land best from about four upwards.
- Is the battle of Jericho violent?
- Not in our telling. Nobody is shown being hurt: the walls fall, the dust settles, and the story turns straight to Rahab's family being brought out safe. The Bible chapter does go on to describe the city being destroyed, and the story page has a note for parents on that. If an older child asks, it is fine to say plainly that it was a war, and then point to how carefully Joshua kept his promise to Rahab.
- Which order should we listen in?
- The Twelve Spies first, then Rahab and the Spies, then Crossing the Jordan, then Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, then the sun. That is Bible order, and it means the red cord in Rahab's window already means something when your child sees it fluttering on the one piece of wall still standing.
- What does the Bible say about Joshua that these stories leave out?
- A good deal. Before the spies, he leads the fight against Amalek while Moses holds his hands up on the hill, and goes part of the way up Mount Sinai with Moses. After Jericho come the defeat at Ai after Achan kept stolen treasure, and the dividing of the land between the tribes. At the very end he tells the people, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 10 is also a battle against five kings, which the sun story leaves out.
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