Some people get bent out of shape when they read about Israel’s wars in the Old Testament. For example, much of the book of Joshua is about Israel’s conquest of Canaan and it is not pretty. Entire cities were wiped out and even though there are notable exceptions like the conversion of Rahab and the rescue of her family (Joshua 2 and 6) as well as the Gibeonites who pulled the wool over Israel’s eyes (but were spared by Joshua who felt obligated to keep his word to them, see Joshua 9), nevertheless, sensitive hearts have been appalled by the carnage. Some people even wanted to exclude the Old Testament from the scriptures because of this (e.g. in the second century AD, a member of the prestigious church of Rome, Marcion, began to advocate the exclusion of the Jewish scriptures and caused quite a stir before he was excommunicated). This is an issue which challenges anyone’s theological acumen and space does not permit us to attempt our own “defense” of the Book of Joshua and the Jewish scriptures in general, except to say that God went to great lengths to preserve the spiritual integrity and purity of Israel’s religion especially since they were being established as the people from whom the Savior of the world would eventually come. The peoples they eliminated were very wicked (child sacrifices, spiritism, demonically controlled, just to cite a few examples, see Deut. 18:9-14) and they could have fatally corrupted Israel. Furthermore, they were warned that judgment was coming; thus Rahab’s “conversion” and the Gibeonites desperate strategy to ally themselves with Israel by “hook or by crook.”
But in getting entangled in a heated discussion about these horrible wars, one can lose sight of the immensely valuable lessons that we can glean from these scriptures. A case in point is the manner in which God employed his people in bringing judgment and justice on these recalcitrant peoples. In just about every war that Israel fought, they were overmatched and outnumbered. When the Israelites were obedient and put fear aside with God’s encouragement, they won amazing victories as God did extraordinary things among them. In fact, one could even ask why Israel even needed to show up and fight at all (except for mop up activity, e.g. see II Kings 7) considering how powerful The Lord was. For example after the Gibeonites “made peace” with Joshua, they signed a peace treaty with Israel whereby Israel would need to come to their aid if the neighboring countries attacked them. No sooner was the “ink” dry on the “mutual assistance document,” when these new “allies” were attacked by a powerful alliance of five armies, see Josh. 10. Joshua honored his “treaty” with the Gibeonites and needless to say Israel routed a much stronger and better armed enemy but only because Joshua had an “otherworldly” secret weapon. The Lord caused huge hailstones (the Old Testament’s version of a “blitzkrieg”) to wreck havoc on what now had become a hapless enemy. So again, why does Israel have to fight at all?
May I suggest the following thoughts. 1. Israel needed to learn trust in the midst of battle. This generation of Israelites discovered that if God be for them, who can be against them (Romans 8:31). This is not a bad lesson for this generation to learn also. 2. Obedience in the service of faith make a powerful force. When Israel disobeyed the Lord, they encountered calamity as in their initial attempt to capture Ai (see Joshua 7). When we are living in obedience we can weather life’s storms and life’s battles with greater effectiveness than if we are careless about our Lord’s teachings and admonitions (see Matthew 7:24-27). Finally, the Lord expects us to “show up” and give it our best effort in resisting temptation and serving him in the ministry(s) he has given us regardless of our “official” role in the church. God is worthy of our best efforts instead of half hearted commitment or lukewarmness (See Revelation 3:22). We need to be faithful servants who will experience marvellous victories simply because God honors our commitment by bridging the gap between what we can do and what is really required for success. In fact the relationship between grace and works (our efforts) is that God demands our best which alone cannot make us a winner, but then his grace carries us the rest of the way. With God as our partner, we become overcomers, see Revelation 2,3. Who is your partner?
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