Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Violence, whether on the battlefield in war, or urban gang violence, or individual criminal activity, or even family abuse, is hard to witness isn’t it my friends? Yesterday I left you with Joshua in the middle of some serious violence in our journey through the ‘Grand Narrative’ of the Bible.
Today the two chapters we’re reading are Joshua 11 & 12 and they describe several years of unprecedented violence as Joshua and the Israelites conquer city after city as they reclaim the land of God’s Promise. It’s hard to read and it begs the question WHY? Is God a violent God or a peace seeking God? Is God a loving God or a hate filled God? Today, let’s try to understand the WHY of the violence as Joshua and the Israelites move into the land God had given to their ancestors’ centuries before.
Peaceful living, love rather than hate, compassion rather than aggression are some of the evidences of a life experiencing great influence from our Holy, Loving God, right? There’s a powerful series of verses in the New Testament making very clear the CONTRAST between people living under the control of the sinful nature and people living under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. I urge you to read it carefully. It’s found in Galatians 5:16-25.
Here’s a portion of it: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19-21) Now pause a second and look around your world and I have no doubt you see all these words on display in abundance, am I right?
Now the contrast is a life lived under the strong influence of the Holy Spirit of HOLY God as these words describe: “But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires…” (Gal. 5:22-24) And there are several other similar verses, in the teachings of Jesus and writings of the apostles in the New Testament, which portray the contrast of dark kingdom living and kingdom of God living.
But can you see this was God’s desire for His Old Testament era people the Israelites, and therefore the laws which God gave to Moses at Mt Sinai were intended, at least in part, to help them understand HOW to live God honoring lives and stay away from the debased, destructive lifestyles our sinful nature naturally awakens in us.
From the beginning of the nation of Israel, God had warned His people about the dangers of living too easily influenced by or actually intermarrying with the wicked, violent, sinful people living all around them. A prime example is found in Numbers 25. Those Israelites who had been rescued from slavery in Egypt had been wandering in the desert for almost 40 years because they had refused God’s invitation to enter God’s Land of Promise, remember? (Numbers 13,14) Most of the older adults had died in the desert and the next generation was soon going to have a second opportunity to enter the land, this time under the leadership of Joshua.
In Numbers 25, however, we find this dreadful situation: “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to join in the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before their gods. So, Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor…” (Numbers 25:1-3)
There we have, in graphic reality, the reason WHY Joshua was directed by God to drive out the people already residing in the Land of God’s Promise, when the Israelites crossed the Jordan river to take possession of this land. Those Israelite men who failed so badly at Shittim were many of these same warriors with Joshua now driving out the wicked people in the conquest of Joshua 11 & 12. These Israelites were very immature spiritually.
Please remember the fatal decision of their parents recorded by Moses in Exodus 20:18-21. While the Israelites had encountered God at Mt Sinai and actually heard God speak His 10 Commandments, the people backed away, insisting Moses go up and meet with God and report back to them whatever God wanted to say. They couldn’t handle such closeness, such intimacy, such an authentic relationship with Holy, Almighty God!! That decision was repeated over and over both in words and actions over the generations, as the people of Israel refused God’s continual invitation for closeness with HIM.
As a result, God knew that WHILE the people of Israel lived WITHOUT the authentic, dynamic, personal relationship God wanted with them and kept offering to them… they would be particularly VULNERABLE to the appeal and invitation of the pagan people living around them who worshiped man-made statues and had virtually NO moral ethics guiding their lifestyles. Thus Israel, without a passionate desire to honor Holy God with their lives, would be easily drawn into the immorality, infidelity, debauchery of those pagan people.
The violence depicted in these several chapters in Joshua are hard to read as Joshua and the conquering Israelites drove out the people who had settled in this Land of God’s Promise while the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had abandoned this land and lived in Egypt for several centuries. Still, it’s important we understand God’s hatred for the effects of the kingdom of darkness in our world… sin, immorality, decadence and debauchery.
It’s important we understand the EXTREME to which God has gone to provide an escape for people who live in bondage to the dark kingdom. In the Old Testament centuries, God’s plan was that His people Israel would “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and make the Almighty, Creator, Holy God known to the world. It was God’s purpose that the evidence of Israel’s relationship with God would be so attractive to all other nations, they too would want to know and worship the God of Israel.
Then, of course, God came here to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ. He made Himself fully available to everyone and made God’s truth understandable to all. Finally, He paid the ultimate sacrifice with His life paying the sin bondage, rebellion price for our human race and therefore ANY person can enter into that intimate, sin forgiven, closeness with God which God has been offering for all time.
The warning of the violence of these mid chapters in Joshua is a call to understand the wickedness of our sinfulness and the vulnerability we all have of being drawn away from what we know to be good and true, and drawn into the destructive darkness.
There are more study notes available in the Grand Narrative link below, and I’ve found a great worship song of gratitude to God for His mercy for us this weekend! And I’ll meet you here again on Monday.
Today’s Scripture: Joshua 11 & 12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Joshua 12
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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