The Bible

Excellent point, PM. This is something I've struggled with for a while, and I'm just seeing it come to bear fruit. Not coincidentally, starting to see big ministry opportunities open up in my life has been proportional to my obedience level to God.

 

:applause:

 

From the NIV

Tid-bits on Joshua
Earlier in his life Joshua was called simply Hoshea, meaning "salvation". But later Moses changed his name to Joshua, meaning "The Lord saves". When this same name (Greek form Jesus) was given to Mary's firstborn son, it became the most loved of names.
In the judgement of many scholars Joshua was not written until the end of the period of the kings, some 800 years after the actual events. But there are significant reasons to question this conclusion and to place the time of the composition much earlier. The earliest Jewish traditions (Talmud) claim that Joshua wrote his own book except for the final section about his funeral, which is attributed to Eleazar (son of Aaron, Moses' brother and high Priest).
Joshua's remarkable life was filled with excitement, variety, success and honor. He was known for his deep trust in God and as "a man in whom is the spirit". As a youth he lived through the bitter realities of slavery in Egypt, but he also witnessed the supernatural plagues and the miracles of Israels' escape from the army of the Egyptians when the waters of the sea opened before them. In the Sinai peninsula it was Joshua who led the troops of Israel to victory over the Amalekites. He alone was allowed to accompany Moses up the holy mountain where the tablets of the law were received.
Only Joshua and Caleb were ready to follow Gods will and take immediate possession of the land. The rest were condemmed to die in the desert. Even Moses died short of the goal and was told to turn everything over to Joshua. God promised to guide and strengthen Joshua, just as he had Moses.

 

Joshua 9-15

At this point in time many of the kings in the region had heard of the Israelites and their march through Canaan. Many prepared for war and joined together with the surrounding cities in the region. But the people of Gibeon had a different plan. They had devised a plan to act as if they were poor and from far away. They dressed in rags and made their way into the Israelite camp. Joshua, after speaking with them and hearing their story, accepted their plea for a peace treaty. He later learned that they had tricked him and made this demand....that the Gibeonites would be spared their lives in exchange for their sevices as slaves to the Israelites. The Gibeonites had no choice but to agree.
Five Ammorite kings, Adoni-Zedek (Jerusalem), Hoham (Hebron), Piram (Jarmuth), Japhia (Lachish) and Debir (Eglon) all met and decided to attack the city of Gibeon for making their treaty with Joshua. When the people of Gibeon heard of this they called on Joshua and Israel marched all night to defend the Gibeonites. Israel defeated the Ammorites and the five kings hid out in a nearby cave but were found, captured and later killed by the Israelite soldiers. On this day Joshua prayed to the Lord and asked for the sun to stand still. "Sun stand still over Gibeon. Moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon." That was the day that the Lord listened to a human being as God granted Joshua's request.
Joshua and the Israelites marched on in their conquest of the southern most cities...Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir...all the cities from Kadesh-Barnea to Gaza and from Goshen to Gibeon then returned to their camp at Gilgal.
On to the northern kings...Jabin, king of Hazor sent word to the tribes of that area and brough together an army of great magnitude to fight the Israelites. "There were as many soldiers as grains of sand on the sea shore." Joshua and his entire army surprised them at the waters of Merom. They chased them to Greater Sidon and beyond. Israel fought until none of them was left alive. So Joshua defeated all the people of the land. He had control of the mountains and the area of southern Canaan, all the areas of Goshen, the western hills and the Jordan Valley. Joshua then set out to divide it amongst the tribe. But there was still some land left to be taken.
Joshua was very old at this time and had fought many battles. The Lord spoke to him and reminded him of the regions of Geshur (Phillistines), areas near the borders of Egypt and Lebanon. He was to remember this land when he divided Canaan amongst the tribe. The land was divided (you can read this for yourself 13:7-33, 14:1-5). Land was also provided for Caleb, the brave soldier and spy who, along with Joshua obeyed the Lord in Moab. And land for the tribe of Judah was provided (we will make further reference to Judah later on in our reading). This land is in the southwest region of Canaan and Judah faced struggles obtaining some of the cities there. The army of Judah was unable to force out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem so they lived among the Israelites while they were there.

Next week: Joshua 16-24 (end)

 

VI - I have two questions for you:

1) Are you using The Message to paraphrase these passages, or are you doing it yourself?

2) What do you think about God's order to the Israelites to put every living being in those city-states to the sword?

 

1. A little of both.
2. In the past, people from other tribes outside of the Israelites would bring idol worship into the camp. Baal worship was quite common in the region during this time. When the Israelite men would take women from outside the tribe as their wives they would be "seduced" into partaking in worshipping their gods too. Of course this was'nt the only way but probably the most common. When they were to take Canaan for their own, God's will was for them to purge the land of all other gods, thus those that worship them. Reading the accounts of this slaughter and then digesting the reality of them leaves one pondering the question "why". Why did all these innocent people "have" to die? It was harsh indeed and I'm certainly thankful for the New Covenant that Jesus brought us. The Old Law was weak through the flesh IMO.

What is your take on it HB?

 

As I understand it this Idol worship was pretty bad stuff. They actually had human sacrifice. God was using Israel to do what He used a flood to do earlier. The only way to stamp it out completely was to kill everyone.

Problem was they didn't do it and it caused problems for many years later arguably to this day.

 

I can only draw the conclusion that there was no other way to 'cleanse' the land. There was no Savior in place at that time, but even so, it seems harsh to the point of being frightening. And I think that deterrence was a factor, too. Why He made Israel do His 'dirty work', I don't know. I mean, I can see the lessons He taught them in battle, but putting women, children and even livestock to the sword is a different matter.

Then again, we've all seen some cultures even today using children as combatants. Maybe that was a factor.

Perhaps these whole societies were demon-oppressed from worshipping false gods. I'm just speculating here, but I feel there's just got to be more to the story than what's written.

 

We can't forget that God is without a doubt a loving God, but he is also a vengeful God. This was a horrible time, but imagine how bad it's going to be before the Jesus returns for those who aren't saved. God uses many means to get people to turn towards him. From what appears to be horrible acts to ultimate acts of love and kindness.

Just a few rambling thoughts there.

 

Thanks and dont be a stranger 'round here.