So, if this is your first time with us, we're going through the summer in Sunday school,
we're going through a big picture overview of the big narrative of the Old Testament.
And each Sunday we're taking a little bit of a snippet of a different section of the Old Testament.
We started off with creation and fall, Abraham, we talked about the Exodus,
and now we come to the book of Joshua.
And to start, I'm going to read two stories, one from the news and one from Joshua, from this page.
On the last day of his short life, 10-year-old Sami had something important to say to his friend.
This will be the last time I see you, the boy said.
I have a feeling that I will die.
His friend, Hussein Hatem, loyally told his mate that he wished he could take his place and die instead.
That afternoon, a group of IS fighters came to the boys' primary school in a suburb on the outskirts of the city of Mosul.
They knocked on the door of every classroom.
Let them come out, we'll teach them a lesson, the fighters told the teachers.
Outside in the cement schoolyard, the men held Sami as the rest of the school gathered to watch.
Then my friend got really sad.
He was all alone, Hussein remembers.
One of the men raised his sword and hacked off Sami's head.
They told us to learn like this.
This is the way to cut people's heads off, Hussein says.
The girls were crying on his body, and I thought,
My poor friend.
We took his body.
One of my friends carried his head, and I carried his body.
We threw him on the garbage pile.
Shout, for the Lord has given you the city of Jericho.
So the people shouted, and the wall fell down flat,
so that the people went up into the city, and they captured the city.
Then they devoted all in the city to destruction,
both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
Our world is no stranger to religiously motivated violence.
I was 10 years old on September 11th.
I feel as though, I and my whole generation,
feels as though our whole lives have been characterized with this narrative of religious violence.
And though we worship the Prince of Peace,
we now come to the book of Joshua.
As one commentator puts it,
a bloody tale of battle, violence, and wholesale slaughter.
A slaughter in which God assists with his mighty acts.
The smoke of burning towns, and the stench of rotting flesh,
hangs over its pages.
How can we worship such a God?
How can we make sense of this story,
knowing that we worship the utterly non-violent crucified one,
Jesus?
And can we dare hope that even in this book, in Joshua,
we can find something to teach us today as believers in Christ?
I start this way not to introduce turmoil into your faith,
but because this is something a lot of Christians really struggle with, this book.
And if you haven't struggled with it,
then part of my hope this morning is
that you might understand better why some people do struggle with this.
And to put my cards out on the table,
before I was a Christian,
the book of Joshua was a big reason
why I didn't want to take Christianity seriously.
So this is a big deal.
This is a challenging book for us today.
But before we deal with some of these really challenging questions,
we first need to understand the book of Joshua on its own terms,
in its own context.
How does this book function within the big narrative of God and Israel
in the Old Testament?
And to do that, we need to think back to Abraham.
A couple of weeks ago, we read in Genesis 15,
God made a covenant with Abram saying,
to your offspring I give this land,
from the river of Egypt to the great river,
the river Euphrates,
to the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, etc., etc.
The book of Joshua is a story of God fulfilling his promises.
Taken on its own terms,
this is a joyous narrative of God fulfilling what God had promised 400 years earlier.
Now, after 40 years in the wilderness,
as a result of fearful disobedience that we talked about last week,
now finally Israel is finally entering that land that God had promised to Abraham.
Centuries earlier, this is a climactic moment in Israel's history.
And most of the book is stories of taking the land violently,
or dividing up the land among the tribes of Israel.
And we're not going to read those stories at length.
But the first big paragraph of Joshua, Joshua 1,
we will read, if you have a Bible,
you can turn to Joshua chapter 1.
Because it is...
Well, we'll see. Let's read it first.
All right.
After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,
the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant,
Moses, my servant, is dead.
Now, therefore, arise.
Go over this Jordan, you and all this people,
into the land that I am giving to them,
to the people of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon,
upon, sorry, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon,
I have given to you.
Just as I promised to Moses.
From the wilderness, in this Lebanon,
as far as the great river, the river Euphrates,
all the land of the Hittites to the great sea,
toward the going down of the sun,
shall be your territory.
No man shall be able to stand before you
all the days of your life.
Just as I was with Moses,
so I will be with you.
I will not leave you or forsake you.
Be strong and courageous,
for you shall cause this people to inherit the land
that I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous,
being careful to do according to all the law
that Moses, my servant, commanded you.
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left,
that you may have good success wherever you go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,
but you shall meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do according to all
that is written in it.
For then you will make your way prosperous,
and then you will have good success.
Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
I love that at the end.
Have I not commanded you?
And Joshua might be sitting there
if he wanted to do some sassy backtalk to God,
which he doesn't.
He'd say, yeah, you have commanded me.
I get it.
Be strong and courageous.
Because that is repeated over and over
in this first section.
There's a mug over at Trinity House
that says, be strong and courageous,
Joshua 1.9 on it.
Sort of plucking that out of the context
of what he's being strong and courageous for.
But there's a lot here for us to meditate on.
After all, fear is what kept Israel
from the promised land 40 years earlier.
And God knows how Israel is being tempted now.
They're afraid.
And God responds accordingly by saying,
over and over, I am with you.
Be strong and courageous.
There is a word of comfort for us here
in showing us the character of our God towards us.
If we have ears to listen,
God is not subtle in directing us
on how he wants for us to live.
He's not subtle with Joshua, certainly.
Be strong and courageous.
I mention this because I feel like so often,
especially in my generation I've seen,
at the seminary and in my time with campus ministry,
people can get very anxious about trying
to discern God's will for their lives.
And yet, if you open up to the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus is not at all subtle about how he wants us to live.
He's not at all subtle about the things
that are important to him.
And maybe the issue is that the things
that are important to us are not the things
that are important to him, at any rate.
You can see there's no military advice
in this opening paragraph of Joshua.
That's why it's so easy to take a verse out of this
and put it on a mug.
There's a sense in which,
as Nick was preaching last week,
Israel is actually,
there's a sense in which Israel isn't fighting these battles.
God is.
And so, Israel's success in the coming battles
that take up about half the book of Joshua
is not contingent on typical military measures
like the size of their army
or the kind of tactics they employ.
I mean, the first battle they do,
their tactics involve marching around it
and shouting at the city of Jericho.
No, but their success in battle
depends on their fidelity to God.
Then, why does Joshua need to be obedient?
What is the command that they are being obedient to?
Well, I mean, on one level,
it's all of the commands in the book of the law, right?
But the specific unique command
that they're carrying out in most of the book of Joshua
is this harem command.
That's a Hebrew word.
I'm sorry, please forgive me.
But it's difficult to translate words.
That's why I have a section on the handout about it.
It comes up first a couple of times
in the book of Deuteronomy.
And I have a couple of sections there that I'll read
from chapter 7 and from chapter 20 in Deuteronomy.
When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land
that you are entering to take possession of it
and clears away many nations before you,
you must devote them to complete destruction.
That devote to complete destruction,
that's the word we're talking about.
You shall make no covenant with them
and show no mercy to them.
And then later on,
in the cities of these peoples
that the Lord, your God,
is giving you for an inheritance,
you shall save alive nothing that breathes,
but you shall devote them to complete destruction,
that they may not teach you to do
according to all their abominable practices
that they have done for their gods.
And so you sin against the Lord, your God.
So this utterly unique command in the whole Bible
is that Israel would devote
all the inhabitants of the promised land
to complete destruction.
This Hebrew word is harem.
You gotta have some phlegm in the back of your throat
to say it right.
I don't.
If anyone actually knows Hebrew,
forgive my pronunciation.
And this word is not just go and kill them all,
but it involves consecration,
the giving over of the captives of war to God.
It's almost like a sacrificial idea.
As Israel kills every living thing in the promised land,
it's almost an act of worship,
which is chilling.
Chilling.
You know,
almost an act of worship insofar as sacrifice
in Israelite religion is an act of worship.
It's just as chilling for Jesus to tell us
that we have to fight sin in our own bodies.
We'll get there.
Well, it's not,
but we'll get there.
We'll get there.
It's chilling because I'm not perfect.
We'll get there.
Wait till the last page.
Where was I?
I.
Yes.
There was something I was going to say,
but then I forgot it.
So it was clearly not important.
Yeah.
Okay.
So one might,
one might say,
well,
this isn't this command.
If you know the book of Joshua
and one of the most famous characters in the book,
Rahab,
you'll think,
well,
not actually every living thing is killed in the land.
Oh,
before.
Okay.
I remembered.
Who?
Yes.
Okay.
So if you,
if you know the King James Bible,
I think it translates this,
devote to complete destruction.
It says,
put the ban on so-and-so.
The idea is that they are to ban these people and objects
from ordinary use.
You're banning it from ordinary use
and to be used exclusively by,
by God.
So it's a kind of a consecration almost,
which just makes it all the more chilling,
frankly.
But we'll talk about that.
But then one might say,
well,
what,
what about Rahab?
She shows up in chapter two of Joshua.
And then in chapter six,
it specifically mentioned that she is spared her
and her whole family.
Um,
Rahab cooperates with some Israelite spies,
hides them from the,
from the authorities of Jericho.
And then her family is spared.
Um,
well,
this shows us that,
uh,
this is not ethnic cleansing going on
in the book of Joshua.
Uh,
it's not that God hates these people groups.
Uh,
God hates their pagan practices,
which includes such things as child sacrifice.
We'll get there in a little bit,
but God doesn't hate these people groups.
And we should expect that because God said
to Abraham 400 years earlier,
that Abraham and his family would be a conduit
of blessing to the nations.
So God doesn't hate all the people who aren't Israel.
Um,
and that's,
and that's why Rahab,
even though she lives in Jericho,
uh,
is,
is spared.
Um,
now that still doesn't,
I don't mean to say that so that
we're no longer uncomfortable
with what goes on in the book of Joshua.
According to the UN definition of genocide,
it's still genocide going on in this book.
Uh,
it's just not based on ethnicity.
It's based on,
on religious affiliation.
It's still chilling,
but we should at least get straight
what is going on in this book.
It's not that God hates these ethnic groups.
Um,
and as we look back on Rahab
in the book of Joshua as a Christian,
um,
she is one of the very few women mentioned specifically in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.
Uh,
so as we look back on Joshua,
we can find a seed of messianic hope,
uh,
even in the morass of violence in this book.
Um,
even,
even though there's a lot in this book that makes us uneasy,
uh,
that might horrify us.
Nevertheless,
uh,
God is,
is working,
uh,
working in the midst of this situation.
Uh,
and,
and even in the midst of this situation,
we have Rahab,
who is,
uh,
an ancestor to Messiah,
um,
the,
the savior of the world.
Um,
and,
and Matthew makes sure that we know that.
Um,
but that,
that is really the broad overview of the book.
It starts out with,
uh,
the first 13 chapters or so,
all about battles and taking the land.
Then,
um,
uh,
dividing up the land.
Um,
you know,
when you do your Bible in a year plans,
that's usually where you,
you peter out in Joshua because it's,
uh,
it's almost like surveying data.
Um,
um,
but then,
and then at the end,
there's a,
a reaffirmation of the covenant.
Um,
but then now that,
that question from the beginning of how do we make sense of this as a Christian needs to come back on the table.
Um,
how,
how do we understand Joshua,
uh,
and,
and particularly the violence in this book,
uh,
as a Christian?
Because it's,
it's not just our sort of 20 or 21st century,
uh,
Western inclinations against,
you know,
war,
uh,
that,
that make us feel uncomfortable with this book.
Uh,
rather we,
we can look at the words of Jesus.
You have heard that it was said,
you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you,
love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your father who is in heaven.
There is an incongruity just within the text,
uh,
between the violence in Joshua,
and,
uh,
the words of Jesus,
or at least what appears on the face of it to be an incongruity.
Um,
so how do we make sense of this book in light of Christ?
Um,
first,
I think we need to recognize what Joshua is not.
Uh,
I'd already mentioned this,
but this command for this particular kind of warfare,
uh,
of devoting everything to utter destruction.
It's not a generalized perpetual command,
um,
for Israel.
Uh,
it certainly is not a command for us.
Uh,
but it isn't even a command for Israel in all of their wars throughout the history of ancient Israel.
Um,
um,
Deuteronomy chapter 20 has,
uh,
a bunch of laws,
uh,
concerning warfare.
Um,
how,
how is Israel supposed to wage war?
And the first half of it,
you have,
um,
a whole bunch of regulations about war.
Like,
well,
if,
uh,
a soldier in,
in the war recently got married,
uh,
well,
don't,
don't have him fight,
have him go home and enjoy,
you know,
his,
his new marriage.
Um,
things like that.
Or if you come to a city and,
and,
and besiege it,
offer terms of peace to it.
Uh,
this is how it ordinarily,
in almost every war that Israel ever fights,
that's how it ordinarily goes.
And we have this specific,
uh,
and then the latter half of that chapter,
you have this specific command for these,
this one moment in Israelite history,
uh,
in the book of Joshua.
Um,
it's unique.
It is never to be repeated.
Um,
so I,
I started out,
that,
that's why I almost didn't start with these two stories
and one of them about ISIS in Mosul.
Um,
because this is actually the key difference,
or one of the,
I think the biggest key difference
between what is going on in the book of Joshua
and religious violence that we see around the world today.
Um,
in the perverted ideology of ISIS,
there is a perpetual war between them
and everyone they perceive to be the enemies of Islam.
Um,
which,
ironically,
includes a lot of Muslims,
um,
at any rate.
Um,
but,
this is a one-time thing
in Israel's history.
Christians have killed Christians too,
ironically.
Yeah.
I,
I don't mean to cover over that.
Absolutely.
Um,
so that's one thing we need to recognize
that Joshua is not,
uh,
this is not,
uh,
this is not,
uh,
a command to go start a crusade
and,
and say,
Deus volt,
God wills it.
No,
no,
it's not,
it's not.
Um,
and also,
our horror at the book of Joshua
is not something new.
Um,
this isn't something we just realized
in the last generation or two
is chilling.
Rather,
this is something that Christians
from very,
very early on
have recognized
is,
is an incongruity
in,
in scripture.
Um,
and we have inherited
from generations of Christians
different ways of,
of addressing
this,
this tension in the text.
Um,
so,
let's look at some of those.
Um,
but before,
before we do that,
uh,
I should stop for a moment.
Uh,
are there any questions
or concerns
so far?
Yeah,
Sam?
I guess,
like,
in 1 Samuel,
for example,
like,
uh,
when God mansalts
the,
um,
uh,
to,
to kill,
um,
a God,
right?
Yeah.
And destroy the city.
Um,
like,
so,
so there are examples
after Joshua
where there is the,
the complete kind of,
uh,
destruction.
Um,
how,
how would you square that
for,
um,
this being like a one?
Yeah.
Uh,
good question.
That is the only other,
yeah.
So,
um,
there is this episode
in the life of King Saul,
uh,
where,
um,
Saul is supposed to devote
this,
um,
Agagite,
or,
is the king Agag?
I think so,
yeah.
Hmm?
Um,
but this particular king,
uh,
to destruction,
and he instead takes him
as a prisoner,
uh,
and that is,
uh,
disobedient to God.
Um,
I would actually say
that's an extension
of this,
of this command.
That,
that,
I think that's how
it's framed
in the life of Saul.
Um,
so I'd say
it's actually part of
the one and the same thing.
Um,
yeah.
Um,
I used to work for a rabbi
and he told me
that Rahab
was,
uh,
a Hebrew,
was a Hebrew,
a widowed wife
of a merchant.
So that's why
she was saved
as well as
helping the spies?
Um,
I think that
there's a sense
in which she becomes
an Israelite.
She's sort of
adopted in,
uh,
because of her faith
in,
we don't see
anything in the text
suggesting that.
So I,
I think that's interesting.
Yeah.
Uh,
it might be a later tradition,
but Joshua doesn't
tell us that.
So I'm not gonna,
I'm not gonna go along
with that.
Um,
yeah.
That's interesting.
I've never heard that before.
Um,
maybe,
maybe it's in Talmud
somewhere.
I,
I don't know.
Um,
that's interesting.
Okay.
So first,
some helpful,
but not quite sufficient.
Some helpful,
but not all the way,
uh,
approaches to dealing
with the conquest
as a Christian.
Um,
I mentioned these
because I think,
I think these two approaches
are really popular.
Um,
and I think they're helpful
to some extent.
Uh,
but I don't think
they're,
they go all the way.
So first,
um,
this thing called
Marcionism.
It's named after this guy
named Marcion.
Uh,
he was a second century,
so very early on,
right?
Second century,
uh,
Christian thinker.
Um,
and he saw this tension
in the text
and he said,
well,
the God of the Old Testament
therefore is evil
and a different God
completely
than the God
and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Uh,
now,
Ecclesiastes is right.
There's nothing new
under the sun.
Uh,
you hear this kind of thing
all the time
today.
Um,
or even if it's not
explicitly stated
like that,
sometimes we will say,
well,
that's the Old Testament.
We don't really care
about that.
What we care about
is the New Testament,
which is sort of
the same thing.
Uh,
so his,
his teaching
was quickly denounced
by his contemporaries
as,
as heresy,
uh,
because Jesus said
the whole Old Testament
is about himself.
So,
um,
we are indebted
to this,
this Marcion,
uh,
the second century guy,
uh,
for recognizing
and raising the concern
that there is,
uh,
there is an incongruity here,
um,
between,
uh,
the God of Canaanite conquest
and the God of Jesus Christ.
Uh,
but his solution
is not viable,
um,
because Jesus said
the whole Bible
is about himself.
So,
we can't,
we can't go along with him.
Um,
and then some,
some Christians,
uh,
throughout history
and especially today
I hear this,
uh,
approach the book of Joshua
using what's,
what's known as
divine command theory.
Um,
I,
I pulled up this quote
from a blog
that describes it well.
Um,
our moral duties
are constituted
by the commands
of a holy and loving God.
Fair enough so far,
right?
But,
since God doesn't issue
commands to himself,
he has no moral duties
to fulfill.
He is certainly not subject
to the same moral obligations
and prohibitions
that we are.
For example,
I have no right
to take an innocent life.
For me to do so
would be murder.
But God has no such prohibitions.
He can give
and take life
as he chooses.
God is under
no obligation whatsoever
to extend my life
for another second.
If he wants to strike me
dead right now,
that's his prerogative.
And then he goes on
to say,
God has that prerogative
with the Canaanites
as well,
to kill them all
in a moment.
Uh,
so in that view,
if we're uneasy
about the Canaanite
genocide,
it's what it is,
by the UN definition.
Uh,
we are actually
in the wrong
and need to be corrected.
Uh,
in this view,
God is morally perfect
and unquestionable
even when God
kills the innocent
because God
has no moral duties,
no moral obligations.
Um,
in the way that I framed that,
I've probably tipped my hand
how I,
how I feel about it.
But there is,
there is a lot of good here.
Uh,
having a heart that trusts,
I,
I think I've said something
like this a couple of weeks ago
with Abraham
in Genesis 22.
Having a heart that trusts
God's commands,
uh,
and actions
is a good thing.
Um,
there are commands of Jesus
that don't make sense
to us sometimes.
Uh,
whenever the gospel
intersects with the culture,
there are going to be things
in the culture
that the gospel affirms
as good,
good,
and then also things
that the gospel rejects
as not quite right.
Um,
and,
there are things
in that latter category
that,
that don't make sense to us
in,
in the teachings of the Lord.
Uh,
and it's good simply to trust
that God knows better
than we do.
Um,
that,
that heart of,
of trust and faith
is,
is a really good thing.
And this kind of perspective
of whatever God commands,
whatever God does is good
simply because it's God
fosters that kind of
heart posture.
Uh,
and I do think
that,
that's a good thing.
Um,
but then
there's also precedent
for us
to grapple with
and question
God's actions,
God's justice.
Um,
I,
I'm afraid that this perspective
can make us,
uh,
to put it perhaps provocatively,
too deferential to God.
Um,
because we have the,
the,
we have the story of Abraham,
uh,
in,
in Genesis 18.
God says to,
to Abraham how he's going
to destroy the city of Sodom
completely.
Um,
and Abraham says in response,
shall not the judge of all
the earth do what is just?
Abraham saying,
this seems really unjust,
God,
for,
for you to be killing
everyone in Sodom.
Are,
are you going to kill the innocent
with the guilty?
Surely not.
You know,
far be it from you,
God,
to,
to do that.
Uh,
and that's our father Abraham
saying this.
Um,
under divine command theory,
there's no,
under this perspective
that we're talking about here,
there's no place for questioning
God's justice,
for grappling with God's justice.
Um,
Abraham,
under this perspective,
was wrong for,
for,
for saying this to God.
Um,
but the text doesn't tell us that.
The text doesn't suggest
that Abraham was doing wrong there.
Uh,
my concern is that a faith
that does not permit questions
is not a faith that lasts very long.
Um,
we need,
there needs to be a place
in,
in the,
in the spiritual life
to really grapple
with difficult things.
And also,
if we're made in God's image,
then our moral intuition
is not to be completely discounted.
Um,
we have
an intuition that genocide
is a bad thing.
That's a good intuition,
especially because it's,
it's reinforced
by the commands of Jesus.
Um,
and also,
um,
non-Christians
share this intuition of ours.
It's moral law.
It's written into everybody's heart.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You shall not kill.
Exactly.
Right.
Uh,
so,
the,
the guy who,
who,
um,
that quote that I pulled
is,
is from this Christian apologist
who's,
who's somewhat well-known.
Uh,
I knew about him
before I was a Christian.
Uh,
and that perspective
of his really turns people away
from considering
the Christian faith.
Um,
so on a sort of practical evangelistic
kind of a,
kind of a note,
uh,
we,
we should
affirm
when non-Christians
have
a moral intuition
that is in line
with the gospel
and,
and not try to,
to say,
actually,
everything that God does
is just
even when it seems
like it's unjust.
Um,
we,
we should,
we should affirm
someone's disgusted
something like
the Canaanite conquest.
Um,
okay.
So,
I'll stop for,
for questions
because that was perhaps
a little heavy.
Um,
so,
yeah.
Um,
um,
I,
I wonder if,
if one casts
this,
um,
uh,
this,
this view,
divine command
theory,
in such a way
that
one thinks
that God
could simply
assert things,
moral things,
arbitrarily.
Uh,
I,
I don't think
that that,
and that's,
that's,
oh my goodness,
this bears no relation
to our moral intuitions
at all.
It cuts completely
against the grain
of our moral intuitions.
Uh,
I don't,
I don't think
that that's what,
at least with John
Hare and some
of the foremost
proponents of this,
uh,
because God's commands
are tied up
with his will
and his character.
Uh,
so,
it's not as if
they're going to be
anything that's
completely arbitrary.
In fact,
they will always be
in line with
his perfect righteousness
and perfect holiness.
Uh,
so,
this sense
of arbitrariness
wouldn't,
wouldn't really fit.
Uh,
so,
and,
um,
I think we're,
we're going to be
inclined to be
suspicious
of anything
that doesn't go
with our intuitions
anyway.
So,
as Christians,
I do think
that we,
we do want
to be inclined
to be more
suspicious
of our own
moral instincts
than the clear
commands of God.
Uh,
I'm afraid
it turns
the sail
into the wind
of this culture
to give them
even more reason
to be suspicious
of God's
clear commands.
Uh,
and,
uh,
you,
you helpfully
and rightly say,
uh,
well,
gee,
we,
we ought not
to be too
deferential to God.
Um,
yes,
he invites us
graciously to process,
and he indulges
us for the sins.
But at the end
of the day,
they're right.
The,
the God of the universe
will always do right.
And if we don't
see it as right,
then that is our
moral failure.
And,
and,
it might be,
there will certainly
need to be a process,
but that's a process
that's part of our
sanctification.
Hmm.
He says,
it is,
my thoughts
aren't your thoughts,
my ways
aren't your ways.
Yeah.
So,
I,
I certainly,
uh,
this is not,
what,
what I put here
is,
is almost certainly,
I,
yeah,
it's not the best
representation of
this divine command
theory.
It's the sort of
street level,
what you see on the
street.
Um,
but John Hare
is brilliant.
Uh,
yeah.
Um,
yeah.
Yeah.
I,
I would want to be
careful not to suggest
that someone who is
grappling with,
with something like
the Canaanite conquest
is morally failing.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Um,
so,
that's something I'm
very careful about.
Sure.
Um,
but I might,
this might just be
because I'm this
21st century postmodern
millennial,
uh,
who only came to faith
like five years ago
and maybe I am
morally failing.
That,
that is actually,
no,
I'm,
I'm serious though.
Um,
yeah.
I have no problem
with,
uh,
what you say,
you're outraged by the,
I'm not out,
I'm outraged by what
ISIS is doing.
Yeah.
And about what the
Khmer Rouge did
and what the Nazis did,
but I'm not offended
at what Joshua did
to the Canaanites
because it was
God telling him
what to do.
Yeah.
And part of my hope
for this morning
by putting those two
stories at the beginning
together is that
I would rattle some cages
and say,
actually,
maybe we should be
outraged about this
a little bit.
Maybe we should at least
see that this is
something very uncomfortable.
Um,
yeah.
Because there isn't,
on the face of it,
nothing really all that
different between
what the Nazis
or what ISIS is doing
and what Joshua does.
The Israelites
deserve to die
and the Canaanites
deserve to die.
And the whole generation
that before they went
into the promised land,
they all died off.
God has no problem.
He's impartial.
He's not respect
to other persons.
We all deserve to die.
Yeah.
And that is a good note
as well,
that,
um,
just as God
drives the Canaanites
out of the land.
Uh,
you know,
several generations later,
God turns around
and said,
actually,
Israel,
now you're just as bad
as they were.
I'm going to turn around
and use Assyria
and Babylon
to drive you
out of the land.
Uh,
so yeah,
that,
that is,
that is a good note.
God is no respecter
of persons.
Uh,
that,
that's got to be
a King James
idiom,
isn't it?
At any rate.
Okay.
Yes.
Just a question.
How would we deal
with this
if we as Christians
were,
instructed to follow
these same instructions
today?
Uh,
I wouldn't be a Christian.
It wouldn't happen.
Yeah.
It can't happen.
Uh,
if,
if we were instructed
to do these same
things today,
then,
if that were the case,
then the Christian faith
would be evil.
It's not the case.
The Christian faith
is not evil,
but,
yeah.
We have his final
testament.
There isn't any
extra words.
The,
the,
the climactic
revelation of God.
the,
the clearest picture
of who God is,
is Jesus.
Jesus,
who was utterly
nonviolent.
Jesus,
who,
rather than call
in angel armies
to defeat the Romans
who were crucifying him,
said,
Father,
forgive them.
They don't know
what they're doing.
Um,
so,
no command like this
would,
would come now.
Yeah.
Um,
I,
I do,
I do want to get to
what I think are
some really
much more helpful
perspectives on,
on,
I,
I want to land on
something positive
rather than
just saying maybe
this isn't quite
sufficient.
Um,
okay,
so we already
alluded to this.
Uh,
the conquest is
divine judgment.
Uh,
this is,
I think,
uh,
the,
the Old Testament's
own perspective
on,
um,
on what's going
on in Joshua.
Uh,
in Deuteronomy,
uh,
I have a footnote.
In Deuteronomy 9,
uh,
Moses says,
not because of
your righteousness
or the uprightness
of your heart
are you going in
to possess their land,
but because of
the wickedness
of these nations,
the Lord your God
is driving them
out from before you.
Um,
God is using Israel
as an agent
of divine,
judgment.
Uh,
just as,
as I already
mentioned,
just as God
will later on
use Assyria
and Babylon
as an agent
of divine judgment
against Israel,
which we'll talk
about in a few weeks.
Um,
so Leviticus 20
suggests that
the worship
of Moloch,
uh,
an Ammonite God
included child sacrifice.
That's pretty chilling.
Child sacrifice
is incredibly rare
in the ancient world
because children,
you invest a lot
in them,
right?
The parents
in the room now.
Um,
child sacrifices
is an unbelievably
evil thing,
even,
even within the context
of the ancient world.
It just doesn't happen.
Um,
and yet,
it seems,
uh,
if we are to believe
Leviticus,
the word of God,
um,
that the worship
of Moloch
included that.
Um,
and so if this is
God's judgment
against the Canaanites
and we're horrified
at that,
then as challenging
as this is to say,
I think our response
ought to be,
uh,
remembering
that Jesus says
he will judge
the whole world
at his return.
Um,
as we say
in the Nicene Creed,
he will come again
in glory to judge
the living and the dead
and his kingdom
will have no end.
Um,
and,
God is not capricious
in his judgment.
It's not just that
God woke up one morning
and thought,
these Canaanites
are really getting
on my nerves.
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna have Israel
kill them all.
Uh,
no,
we're told,
uh,
in Genesis 15,
uh,
so God says to Abraham
in Genesis 15
that it would be
400 years
before his offspring
inherited this land.
One might wonder,
why 400 years?
Why not just give him
the land now?
Well,
God's rationale,
uh,
that,
that he says
in that chapter
is that the iniquity
of the Amorites
is not yet complete.
It seems that God
is patiently waiting
for centuries
with the hope
that,
that the Amorites,
one of the,
the,
one of the Canaanite groups,
um,
would repent,
it seems.
uh,
400 years
of patience.
Um,
that,
that's,
to me,
uh,
a stunning picture
of,
of God's
long suffering.
Um,
and this is,
this is what we see
incidentally,
this is,
this is what God
is doing now too.
Um,
in 2nd Peter,
uh,
towards the end
of the letter,
Peter writes
that the Lord
is not slow
to fulfill his promise,
that is,
his promise
to come in judgment,
um,
as some count slowness.
But is patient
towards you,
not wishing that
any should perish,
but that all
should reach repentance.
This is what's going on
in,
in that old story.
God,
God is patiently
waiting,
in hope,
that,
that the Canaanites
would repent.
400 years.
So God is not capricious
in this judgment.
Um,
so,
But he waited
generations
before Noah,
and there was no change.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah,
God is not,
God is not cruel
and capricious
in his judgment,
but,
but is patient,
wishing that all
should reach repentance.
Now,
one might say,
in response to this
judgment perspective,
which I,
which I maintain
is,
is the Bible's
own perspective
on this Canaanite conquest,
one might say,
what about the Canaanite infants?
They're killed too.
Young and old,
we're told.
Um,
now,
I,
I confess,
I don't have a great response.
Um,
infants,
one thinks,
they're,
they haven't done anything.
You know,
they're not.
Yeah,
maybe,
yeah,
maybe if you're changing diapers,
uh,
maybe you,
maybe you might feel that way,
but,
uh,
you know,
at least my conscience
cries out in,
in,
in outrage
over,
over the,
the slaughter of infants.
Um,
so,
I confess,
I don't have a super great response to this,
but,
it does seem to be the case
that the Bible has a much,
has a different perspective on guilt
than,
than we do in the contemporary West.
Uh,
a much more communal perspective on guilt
than,
than we typically have.
Um,
as one of our pastors will be preaching
out of,
out of Exodus 34,
later this summer,
um,
when God,
you know,
goes by,
uh,
Moses,
uh,
and,
and sort of discloses his name to him.
Uh,
the Lord,
God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
but then also at the end of that,
uh,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers
and the children
and the children's children
to the third and fourth generation.
Um,
this is a,
to our modern Western ears,
very strange.
And yet,
uh,
this seems to be
the perspective,
or at least one of the perspectives
on,
on a kind of corporate communal guilt,
um,
in,
in the Old Testament.
Um,
then one might say,
isn't this awfully violent?
Uh,
don't we worship a God of love?
Um,
you know,
a God of love
is not going to execute
violent divine justice,
right?
Uh,
I'd say that is,
uh,
a very kind of,
um,
middle class Western
kind of,
uh,
thing to say,
frankly.
Um,
God's judgment,
even violent judgment,
is not incompatible
with his love.
Uh,
but rather,
it is actually good news
for the poor and oppressed.
Uh,
the,
the victims of violence
and injustice.
Um,
one theologian,
uh,
New Haven's very own
Miroslav Wolf,
uh,
writes,
uh,
one could argue
that in a world of violence
it would not be worthy
of God
not to wield the sword.
If God were not angry
at injustice and deception
and did not make a final end
to violence,
God would not be worthy
of our worship.
True.
I,
I think Wolf is right.
Um,
Psalm 96,
uh,
cries out in,
in joy.
The,
the trees clap for joy,
um,
because the Lord
is coming in judgment,
uh,
the psalmist writes.
Um,
for,
for the poor and oppressed
who are the real audience
of the Bible,
they're,
they're the real model readers
of the Bible.
Um,
God's,
God's judgment is a,
is a good thing.
It's good news.
Uh,
it means that,
that the oppressor
will not
and the final calculation
win.
Okay,
real quick.
Um,
also,
uh,
I,
this can be brief
because Nick basically
preached this last Sunday.
Um,
conquest is an allegory
for the Christian life.
Uh,
this is a really old perspective.
Um,
I,
uh,
you can look at,
there's this fourth century
monk that I'm really fond of
and he talks about
these seven nations
as,
uh,
an,
sort of allegorically
representing seven different
kinds of sin
and,
uh,
that's a little,
that's a little bit
of a stretch.
But,
uh,
this is an old perspective.
Uh,
and ultimately it's rooted
in Ephesians 6.
Um,
where we see that our enemies
are not flesh and blood.
Uh,
and yet,
the Christian is to fight
a battle,
but not against flesh and blood,
not against human beings,
but rather against,
uh,
sin,
against the spiritual forces
that choke out human flourishing.
Um,
just as Israel is commanded
to,
uh,
utterly destroy the Canaanites,
so also Christians are commanded
to utterly kill sin.
Um,
Joshua is a challenging
and even horrifying book,
but there is a good word
for us here as Christians.
Uh,
we are not to toy around
with sin.
Um,
if we read Joshua
alongside Ephesians 6,
we are not to toy around
with sin.
Uh,
we are to destroy it
to the last man.
Uh,
if I'm audited by the IRS,
which I,
I won't be,
because only the wealthy are,
right?
But,
um,
if,
if I say to them,
yeah,
I was honest on 90%
of my tax return,
but then in that last 10%,
I committed tax fraud.
They won't say,
yeah,
okay,
that's fine.
You know,
90% is,
is good enough.
No,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna get written up
for tax fraud.
You don't toy around
with sin.
Uh,
you destroy it
to the last man.
Um,
in order that just as God
plants Israel
in the land of promise,
so also we might enjoy
the eternal rest
promised to us in Christ.
That,
I think,
is,
is one of the,
uh,
if we read Joshua
alongside the New Testament,
one of the ways
that we can read this
profitably as Christians.
Uh,
there's like two minutes
for final questions.
Uh,
two minutes isn't enough,
but,
yes.
So when you pray
that kingdom come,
thy will be done,
without praying
for the established world.
Right.
Yeah.
There's something
that comes to mind
is thinking about
following this
in the context
of eternity
like in young,
for example,
um,
as Christians,
we hope that
because we believe
in Christ now
and we're tuttling
as our God
of Savior,
that in eternity
we're spending
it.
And anyone who rejects
him,
you're going to
eternal nation.
And so God,
eventually there's
that huge,
even more scary
judgment
beyond the
massacre.
And so,
like,
he's going to believe
that God is
being created
from his death
and that he's
a just God.
If people
that are innocent
die at this
end of the world,
in his justice
and his wisdom,
you will have
a way to judge
them in eternity
such that the
right judgments
will still be
their end.
It's what I mean.
Children,
I mean,
I don't have
the answers,
but if
innocent children
die now,
what happens
beyond,
you know,
how does God
judge that?
And his
in the midst
of the
healing,
probably
have a
good job.
And,
like,
even prior to
having men
kill other
men,
God wiped
out their
entire earth
with a
flood because
essentially
people were
singing and
all of that.
Another uncomfortable
part that I just
skipped completely.
Yeah.
So,
he chose to
wait in
that way.
And in this
other context,
he chose to
wait in
this book.
Eventually,
he's choosing
to do it,
it turned
out of
hell.
So,
like,
in his
justice,
it's not
just in
a good
sense,
like,
good people
will have
good stuff.
So,
people who
sin also
have the
consequence,
but all the
in-between
that they don't
understand,
it is just
hate.
Yeah.
And that is
actually good
news for the
oppressed.
Yeah.
All right.
It's 950.
That's when I'm
told to say
that.
So,
let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
you say that
you will come
again in glory
to judge the
living and the
dead.
Lord,
help us to
think about
that rightly
and let us
fear,
lest any
one of us
should seem
not to be
entering into
this eternal
rest.
But also,
Lord,
give us hearts
that trust
your justice.
Give us hearts
that rejoice
in knowing
that the
oppressor
will not
have the
last word,
but that
you will
put the
world to
rights.
Amen.