Joshua

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.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

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,

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,

Deuteronomy 20 · chapter mention

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,

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.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I,

I don't mean to cover over that.

Absolutely.

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,

like,

so,

so there are examples

after Joshua

where there is the,

the complete kind of,

uh,

destruction.

Um,

how,

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,

this,

um,

Agagite,

or,

is the king Agag?

I think so,

yeah.

Hmm?

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,

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,

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.

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,

um,

um,

um,

um,

I,

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,

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,

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,

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,

the Old Testament's

own perspective

on,

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,

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,

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,

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,

to,

uh,

utterly destroy the Canaanites,

so also Christians are commanded