Gods OT Strategy (21) - Joshua

God commanded Israel to drive the people of Canaan out of the land and destroy their idols and temples (Deut 7:1). If Israel had obeyed God, the Canaanites would have carried all their evil spirits out of the land with them. If they had destroyed the shrines and idols, the evil spirits working in them would have fled to the people who had created them. God’s plan was to bring an evil-spirit-free people into an evil-spirit-free land. Unfortunately, Joshua disobeyed God and killed many of the Canaanites instead of driving them out. When the Israelites killed the Canaanites, they the evil spirits move to the people doing the slaying, as their fear and anger made them vulnerable. Contrary to God’s plan, the Israelites allowed a host of evil spirits to remain in the land.

This was an immediate setback to God's plan to re-gain more authority on earth.

Old Testament Violence (14) - Crossing the Jordan

Joshua’s first task was to lead Israel over the Jordan River. God brought them to a river that was in flooded and dangerous, so that he could exalt Joshua as leader and set the tone of ministry. He told Joshua exactly what to do, but not what would happen.

And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river' " (Jos 3:7-8).

Joshua explained to the people what would follow.

And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap (Jos 3:13).

He also explained the reason for this event.

This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites (Jos 3:10).

This is an amazing statement. God dried up the Jordan river to prove that he would drive the Canaanites our of the land. God confirmed what he was planning to do. Joshua knew that God wanted them driven out. He must have known that God did not want them slaughtered.

God also tried to set the tone for Joshua’s ministry. By doing a repeat of the crossing of the Red Sea, God showed that Joshua had the same gift of miracles as Moses. He showed that Joshua could win a great victory by just obeying God. He did not have to anything but stand and watch do his work. That is what God intended for him. He intended that Joshua would make a declaration to release his power. The Canaanites would see the power of God and flee in fear. The Israelites would take the land as God undertook his works of power.

Joshua did not understand this. He worked one mighty miracle at Jericho, but slipped straight back into military action and slaughter. Despite seeing a great miracle of God at the Jordan River, Joshua quickly fell back to trusting in human strength and military power.

Old Testament Violence (13) - Jumpy Joshua

What happened after God defeated the Amorites is bizarre. Joshua told the sun and moon to stand still so that Israel could slaughter the fleeing Amorites.

There are several odd things about this incident.

• The Lord had already defeated the Amorites and chased them out of the area. I am not sure why Joshua wanted more time. It seems like he wanted to get in on the Lord’s victory.
• he Lord had said that he would bring the victory, he did not tell Joshua to slaughter the Amorites.
• God did not instruct Joshua to make the sun stand still.
• Joshua seemed to be trying to go one better. God had sent hail stones, Joshua would control the sun and moon. This seems like hubris.
• I am not sure why God listened to Joshua’s command to the sun. I suspect that because Joshua had made this reckless command in front of the Israelites, God did not want to dishonour his leadership at a critical time during the taking of the land.
• Israel took vengeance on the Amorites, even though God had not commanded it. These particular people had only threatened Israel, so they were was actually nothing to avenge.

The author of the book of Joshua noted the event as strange.

And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel (Jos 10:14).

The Lord had fought for Israel and won a victory, but he listened to a human voice and allowed him to disobey and slaughter the fleeing army. Even the author of Joshua finds this hard to understand.

The problem is that Joshua misunderstood his calling. He had the gift of miracles. God had given him power to perform miracles. Joshua had used this gift at Jericho, when the walls came tumbling down. However, he was not content with this miracle and spoilt it by supplementing his gift with the sword, and the slaughter of all the inhabitants.

At Gibeon, God confirmed Joshua’s gift of miracles by responding to Joshua’s declaratory prayer, even though he prayed for the wrong reason. God is sometimes so keen to get us doing his stuff that he does stuff for us, even when we stuff up. The miracle of the sun standing still was God’s blessing on Joshua’s faith and gifting, not approval for the slaughter that followed.

God intended Joshua to release his miracle power to defeat the surrounding nations. They would see the awesome power of God and be so filled with fear that they would flee. Joshua did not get this and fell back on the power of the sword.

Part of the problem is that Moses had not fully understood his gifting. He had experienced many miracles in Egypt and a great victory over the Egyptian army at the Red Sea.Each time he had stretched out his staff, a miracle followed. God did the work. Moses and the people just had to be still.

Despite these amazing experiences, Moses mixed the power of the staff with the power of the sword when attacked by the Amalekites. He stood on the hill with staff and prayed. Joshua stayed on the plain and fought with the sword. Joshua did not see Moses praying, so he thought that he had won a victory with the sword.Joshua assumed that his fighting was the key to the victory. This was his first encounter with the nations and Moses had trained him to trust in the power of the sword.

If Moses had used the used the power of the staff against the Amalekites with Joshua standing at his side, Joshua would have learned how to release the power of God. Instead he set him on the wrong path by sending him out against the Amalekites with the sword. He taught Joshua to use the sword, when he should have been training him to use his gift of miracles.

Old Testament Violence (10) - Joshua at Jericho

Joshua was much more violent than God. When he was leading the people against Jericho, God gave him very precise instructions.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in" (Jos 6:2-5).

God said they should march round and shout and blast trumpets. He said they should go “straight in”. However, God did not tell Joshua to kill and destroy the inhabitants of Jericho.

Joshua told the Israelites to destroy the inhabitants of the city.

Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent (Jos 6:16,17).

Joshua told the people that only Rahab should be spared. There is no record of God telling Joshua to give a command to destroy the inhabitants.

Joshua went even further and vowed that anyone who did not join in the destruction of Jericho would be under a curse.

Abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it (Jos 6:18).

Joshua went beyond what God commanded. God had told them to destroy the idols and altars, but he had not bound them under a curse. Joshua commanded Israel to destroy everything and put them under a curse if they disobeyed. Achan caused problems for Israel, not because he had disobeyed God, but because he failed to honour the vow that Joshua had made on behalf of the Israelites (Jos 7).

When Achan’s actions were revealed, God did not accuse Israel of disobedience, but failure to keep the covenant.

Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep (Jos 7:11).

There was nothing in the covenant that forbade him plundering of silver and gold that was not part of an idol. However, Achan failed to fulfil the vow made on his behalf by Joshua. The curse came because he broke this vow.

The Israelites obeyed Joshua and slaughtered the people of Jericho.

They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys….Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD's house (Jos 6:21,24).

The people of Jericho were massacred, but there is no evidence that God intended this to happen.

God’s plan was that the people of Jericho would flee the city. Those who survived the earthquake and collapsing walls would have been trembling in fear. They would have done a runner as soon as the Israelites came in over the collapsed wall. God wanted the people of Jericho to leave the city and flee the land. Joshua slaughtered them before they could flee. He was more violent than God had intended.

Old Testament Violence (9) - Batman Joshua

Joshua is a Christian hero, but he got a lot of stuff wrong. He is not listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. In fact the author of Hebrews specifically says that Joshua did not provide rest for his people.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day (Heb 4:8).

Yet God had promised Joshua that he would give the people rest.

Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: 'The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land (Josh 1:13)

Instead of resting in God by trusting him to do the fighting, Joshua tended to get stuck in himself. He constantly relied on the military power of Israel, when he should have been trusting in God. He depended on human strength, when he should have rested in God and watched him drive out the Canaanites. Joshua did not see all that God had promised and he did not gain rest for his people. Unfortunately, Israel remained under threat of war, when it could have been at rest.

Part of Joshua’s problem was that he was not good at hearing directly from God. Joshua was not a prophet as Moses had been (Deut 34:10). He was not skilled at hearing the voice of God. God sometimes had to send an angel to get him to hear (Jos 5:13-15).

Joshua also tended to do what he remembered God telling Moses to do.

As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses (Josh 11:15).

Unfortunately, Joshua did some things that God had not commanded. Getting your guidance second had is always dangerous. Joshua sometimes got things wrong, because he misunderstood what Moses had heard.

When they arrived at the Jordan, Joshua sent spies into the land (Jos 1). God has not commanded him to send spies. He acted on his own initiative.

Joshua acted without consulting God when dealing with the people of Gibeon.

The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath (Jos 9:14,15).

Joshua did not inquire of the Lord, but trusted in the evidence in front of him. This serious mistake caused Joshua to make a covenant with his enemies, something that God had forbidden. Joshua had a habit of acting without consulting God. He often did more than God required. I will look at a couple of examples in the next to days.