Joshua God of War I did this because

Joshua God of War?

• “I did this because they had rejected my commands, broken my laws, profaned the Sabbath, and worshiped the same idols their ancestors had served. Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not bring life. ” (Ezekiel 20: 24 -25 GNB)

• “They answered Joshua, ‘We will do everything you have told us and will go anywhere you send us. We will obey you, just as we always obeyed Moses, and may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses! Whoever questions your authority or disobeys any of your orders will be put to death. Be determined and confident!’” (Joshua 1: 16 -18 – GN)

Joshua’s final sermon • “Now then, ’ Joshua continued, ‘honor the LORD and serve him sincerely and faithfully. Get rid of the gods which your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only the LORD. If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve the LORD. ’ The people replied, ‘We would never leave the LORD to serve other gods!’” (Joshua 24: 14 -16 – GN)

• “The LORD’s servant Joshua son of Nun died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was buried…That whole generation also died, and the next generation forgot the LORD and what he had done for Israel. (Judges 2: 8 -10 – GN)

The High Road • “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. ” (Joshua 1: 5 -6 – TNIV) • Rahab • Caleb

• “So the priests blew the trumpets. As soon as the people heard it, they gave a loud shout and the walls collapsed. Then all the army went straight up the hill into the city and captured it. With their swords they killed everyone in the city, men and women, young and old. They also killed the cattle, sheep, and donkeys. ” (Joshua 6: 20, 21 – GN)

Achan • “The people of Israel proved to be disloyal about the things claimed by the LORD. Achan…a member of the tribe of Judah, took something that had been claimed by the LORD. So the LORD became angry with the people of Israel. (Joshua 7: 1 – GOD’S Word) – Drawing lots: Judah, Zerah…. . Zabdi……Achan – “So Joshua sent some men, who ran to the tent and found that the condemned things really were buried there, with the silver at the bottom. They brought them out of the tent, took them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and laid them down in the presence of the LORD. Joshua, along with all the people of Israel, seized Achan, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, together with Achan's sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys, and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned; and they took them to Trouble Valley.

• “And Joshua said, ‘Why have you brought such trouble on us? The LORD will now bring trouble on you!’ All the people then stoned Achan to death; they also stoned and burned his family and possessions. They put a huge pile of stones over him, which is there to this day. That is why that place is still called Trouble Valley. Then the LORD was no longer angry. ” (Joshua 7: 22 -26)

• Why so severe? – “Whoever questions your authority or disobeys any of your orders will be put to death” (Joshua 1: 18 – GN) • Why did the kids and the pets have to die too?

“Corporate Personality” • “The extension of a person’s personality beyond himself in time and space. In other words, the effect of a person’s sin extended beyond himself to affect others in a family or tribe (space), even when the one who committed the sin was dead and gone. ” – H. Wheeler Robinson, Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964).

• “Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about the things condemned to destruction; the whole community of Israel was punished for that. Achan was not the only one who died because of his sin. ” (Joshua 22: 20 – GNB)

• “The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai. Don't be afraid or discouraged. I will give you victory over the king of Ai; his people, city, and land will be yours. ’” (Joshua 8: 1 – GN) • “The Israelites in the city now came down to join the battle. So the men of Ai found themselves completely surrounded by Israelites, and they were all killed. No one got away, and no one lived through it except the king of Ai. He was captured and taken to Joshua.

• “The Israelites killed every one of the enemy in the barren country where they had chased them. Then they went back to Ai and killed everyone there. Joshua kept his spear pointed at Ai and did not put it down until every person there had been killed. The whole population of Ai was killed that day---twelve thousand men and women. The Israelites kept for themselves the livestock and goods captured in the city, as the LORD had told Joshua burned Ai and left it in ruins. It is still like that today. He hanged the king of Ai from a tree and left his body there until evening. At sundown Joshua gave orders for the body to be removed, and it was thrown down at the entrance to the city gate. They covered it with a huge pile of stones, which is still there today. ” (Joshua 8: 22 -29 – GN)

• “The LORD made the Amorites panic at the sight of Israel’s army. The Israelites slaughtered them at Gibeon and pursued them down the mountain pass at Beth Horon…While the Amorites were running down the pass from the Israelite army, the LORD made large hailstones fall down on them all the way to Azekah. More were killed by the hailstones than by the Israelites. On the day that the LORD gave the men of Israel victory over the Amorites, Joshua spoke to the LORD. In the presence of the Israelites he said, ‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon; Moon, stop over Aijalon Valley. ’ The sun stood still and the moon did not move until the nation had conquered its enemies. This is written in The Book of Jashar. The sun stood still in the middle of the sky and did not go down for a whole day. ” (Joshua 10: 10 -13 – GN)

• Samuel to Saul: “Go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Don’t leave a thing; kill all the men, women, children, and babies; the cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys” (1 Samuel 15: 3 – GN)

• “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. ’ But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you…You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies. ’ But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. ” (Matthew 5: 38 -45 – GN)

• “Instead, ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. ’ Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. ” (Romans 12: 20 -21 – NLT)

The Canaanite nation • “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. ” (Genesis 15: 16 – GN)

• “But when GOD pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, ‘It’s because of all the good I’ve done that GOD has brought me in here to dispossess these nations. ’ Actually it's because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that GOD, your God, is dispossessing them…” (Deuteronomy 9: 4 -5 – The Message)

• “Completely destroy all the people: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD ordered you to do. Kill them, so that they will not make you sin against the LORD by teaching you to do all the disgusting things that they do in the worship of their gods. ” (Deuteronomy 20: 17 -18 – GN)

• “No man or woman is to have sexual relations with an animal; that perversion makes you ritually unclean. Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these acts, for that is how the pagans made themselves unclean, those pagans who lived in the land before you and whom the LORD is driving out so that you can go in. Their actions made the land unclean, and so the LORD is punishing the land making it reject the people who lived there. They did all these disgusting things and made the land unclean, but you must not do them. ” (Leviticus 18: 23 -26 – GN)

• “If any of you give one of your children to Molech and make my sacred Tent unclean and disgrace my holy name, I will turn against you and will no longer consider you my people. ” (Leviticus 20: 3 – GN)

Canaanite religion • A very crude and debased form of ritual polytheism • “El had three wives, who were also his sisters, and who could readily step down from his eminence and become the hero of sordid escapades and crimes. Philo portrays El as a bloody tyrant, whose acts terrified all the other gods, and who dethroned his own father, murdered his favorite son, and decapitated his own daughter. ”

• Baal was the son of El • “As the giver of rain and all fertility, he figures prominently in Canaanite mythology in his struggle with Mot (Death), the god of drought and adversity. In his grapple with Mot, he is slain. As a consequence, a seven year cycle of scarcity ensues. Thereupon the goddess Anath, the sister and lover of Baal…goes in search of him, recovers his body and slays his enemy, Mot. Baal is then brought back to life and placed on Mot's throne”

• Anath (sacred prostitute) – sister and spouse of Baal, was one of three Canaanite goddesses. The other two are Astarte and Asherah. – All three were patronesses of sex and war -sex mainly in its sensuous aspect as lust, and war in its aspects of violence and murder. – “…she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. ” (1 Kings 15: 13)

• Sacred prostitution, fertility cult worship, temple prostitutes – Fertility of the soil was linked with fertility of the gods • Extreme cruelty and violence • Child and human sacrifice • Snake worship

The Israelites were tempted • “When the LORD your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, because then they would lead your children away from the LORD to worship other gods…Destroy every nation that the LORD your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal” (Deuteronomy 7: 2 -4, 16).

• “After the LORD destroys those nations, make sure that you don't follow their religious practices, because that would be fatal. Don't try to find out how they worship their gods, so that you can worship in the same way. Do not worship the LORD your God in the way they worship their gods, for in the worship of their gods they do all the disgusting things that the LORD hates. They even sacrifice their children in the fires on their altars. ” (Deuteronomy 12: 30 -31 – GN)

• King Solomon: – “He married them even though the LORD had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods…by the time he was old they had led him into the worship of foreign gods…On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon” (1 Kings 11: 2, 4, 7 – GN). • Rehoboam: – Who’s “mother was Naamah from Ammon” (1 Kings 14: 21 – GN) • Things deteriorated: – “So he sent some messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, in order to find out whether or not he would recover” (2 Kings 1: 2 – GN)

• “I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. You must not make any covenant with the people who live in this land. You must tear down their altars. ’ But you have not done what I told you. You have done just the opposite! So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods. ” (Judges 2: 1 -3)

God did not want them to fight • “Don’t be afraid of them, for the LORD your God will fight for you” (Deuteronomy 3: 22 – GN) • “I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you travel and to bring you to the place which I have prepared” (Exodus 23: 20 – GN) • “For my angel will go before you, and bring you in to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. ” (Exodus 23: 23 – NET Bible)

• “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them? ’ You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out; so will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. You shall not be in dread of them; for the LORD your God is in the midst of you, a great and terrible God. The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed” (Deuteronomy 7: 17 -23, RSV).

• “As you advanced, I threw them into panic in order to drive out the two Amorite kings. Your swords and bows had nothing to do with it” (Joshua 24: 12).

• “Joshua did to them what the LORD had commanded: he crippled their horses and burned their chariots. ” (Joshua 11: 9 – GN)

God didn’t like the fighting – David could not build the temple: “…he has forbidden me to do it, because I am a soldier and have shed too much blood” (1 Chronicles 28: 3 – GN) – “Come and see what the LORD has done. See what amazing things he has done on earth. He stops wars all over the world; he breaks bows, destroys spears, and sets shields on fire. ‘Stop fighting, ’ he says, ‘and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world. ’” (Psalms 46: 8 -10 – GN)

God – the patient missionary

• • • Polygamy Divorce laws Violence – “eye for an eye” Private vengeance Slavery Women

The danger • “But you’ve got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I’m for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord. ” (Jerry Falwell)

• “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, My followers would fight…My Kingdom is not of this world. ” (John 18: 36 – NLT)

• “And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. ” (Matthew 5: 41 – GN) • “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. • If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one too; • if someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. • Give to everyone who asks you for something, and when someone takes what is yours, do not ask for it back. • Do for others just what you want them to do for you. • Love your enemies and do good to them

• • Lend and expect nothing back. Do not judge others…. do not condemn others…. forgive others…” (Luke 6: 27 -37 – GN)

• Until 313 AD – “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” - Tertullian • 312 AD, Constantine legalized Christianity: “By this sign you shall conquer” – The first time anyone ever associated the Christian faith with violence • 380 AD the official religion of the Roman empire – a crime not to be a Christian.

• The militant church • “If there is anyone of the Saxon people lurking among them unbaptized, and if he scorns to come to baptism…and stay a pagan, let him die. ” – Charlemagne (742 -814 AD) • Inflicting temporal pain to help someone avoid eternal pain is justified.

• “…I happened to visit a July Fourth worship service at a certain megachurch. At center stage in this auditorium stood a large cross next to an equally large American flag. The congregation sang some praise choruses mixed with such patriotic hymns as “God Bless America. ” The climax of the service centered on a video of a well-known Christian military general giving a patriotic speech about how God had blessed America and blessed its military troops…

• “Triumphant military music played in the background as he spoke. The video closed with a scene of a silhouette of three crosses on a hill with an American flag waving in the background. Majestic, patriotic music now thundered. Suddenly, four fighter jets appeared on the horizon, flew over the crosses, and then split apart. As they roared over the camera, the words, “God Bless America” appeared on the screen in front of the crosses. The congregation responded with roaring applause, catcalls, and

• A standing ovation. I saw several people wiping tears from their eyes. Indeed, as I remained frozen in my seat, I grew teary-eyed as well – but for entirely different reasons. I was struck with horrified grief. Thoughts raced through my mind: How could the cross and the sword have been so thoroughly fused without anyone seeming to notice? How could Calvary be associated with bombs and missles. . . How could the kingdom of God be reduced to this sort of violent, nationalistic tribalism? Has the church progressed at all since the Crusades? ” – The Myth of a Christian Nation, Greg Boyd