The conquest of the Promised Land involved two opposite effects: the blessing of land to the Israelites and the destruction of its former inhabitants. The Lord was in control of both!
In Joshua 10:24-25, Joshua tells the men of Israel, “Come near; put your feet on the necks of these kings...Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.” The Lord was the primary warrior of Israel’s conquest! He put Joshua in command. He leveled the walls of Jericho. He sent hailstones. He caused the sun to stand still until complete victory. The Lord was causing the Israelites to inherit the land!
The Lord was also causing the destruction of the inhabitants of the land. Joshua 11:20 says, “For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.” So the Lord caused them to battle Israel so He could destroy them? Yes. There comes a time when mercy comes to an end! These people could have repented when they heard news of the Lord’s mighty acts as Rahab did. These people could have acted wisely like the Gibeonites. But no. These are the people who sacrifice their children to false gods. They live by their own rules. They will not have a foreign “god” telling them what to do. They have lived in luxury amidst their idolatry and immorality for years. They refuse to change now. These are the people who stood in defiance of the Lord; and he crushed them to pieces.
Both were God’s doing, the giving of the land and the cleansing of the land.
Here are 3 things I've wondered about in today's reading:
ReplyDelete1) When I read about Joshua stretching out his javelin toward Ai as the sign for the ambushing troops to capture it (8:18), I immediately remembered Moses stretching "the rod of God" out over the Red Sea (Ex. 14:16+26). Interesting that the rod, a shepherd's tool, was what God used in Moses' hand--Moses being the shepherd for Israel as they traveled through the wilderness. But it is a javelin that God uses in General Joshua's hand, a soldier's weapon. Sometimes Moses' rod is called "the rod of God", but I haven't yet studied out when it is called that and when it is only Moses' rod. Do you suppose there is any significance to that? I wonder if Joshua's javelin (God's javelin??) is mentioned again. I don't recall it. Time to get out the Strong's Concordance!
2)It seems like other than Jericho and Ai, many (most?) of the battles and conquered cities are the result of Israel being forced into a defensive position by city-kings who band together to fight these "invaders." Joshua 11:20 says that God hardened their hearts to come against Israel. These Canaanites make me think of the line in Art Garfunkel's song, "don't know much about history..." Rahab and the Gibeonites had access to the reports about what happened to hard-hearted Pharaoh in Egypt! The same reports must have been available to other Canaanites!
3) The conquest seemed to be going well UNTIL the land was allocated and individual tribes had to finish up in their own territories. Later on in Judges 1, some of the tribes band together to conquer more territory, but all of the "buts" and "howevers" and "yets" begin when the tribes are on their own. Yet in 13:6+7 it is God Who says to go ahead and divide up the land. What's happening here?