“So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded.” (Josh 10:40-41 NIV)
As I read through the above text, it occurred to me that Joshua was very thorough. He “went through the whole region”, he “left no survivors”, he “totally destroyed all who breathed”, and he did it, “just as God had commanded”.
Now some would say that this total annihilation of entire cultures and people groups is what we would call in our day and age, “genocide”, and we would all agree that this is a very cruel practice. So why was it not only permitted, but commanded by God? And what lessons can we learn from it today?
To answer the first question, we have to go back into the books of Moses. Here we find numerous references to the people of the land of Canaan, and we find just as many references to the land being “defiled”. In fact, God said that because the people of Canaan defiled the land in such a significant way, it “vomited” them out: “Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” (Lev 18:25-26 NIV)
And just what was it that had “defiled” the land? Lev. 18 gives us an entire list, and almost all of them have to do with perverse sexual sins: Don’t sleep with your brother’s wife or your neighbour or your sister or your step mother, don’t sleep with animals, or with others of the same sex, or with your uncle, to name a few. And the list also includes the horrible offence of sacrificing children to Molech, one of the gods of the land. In other words, perverseness rampaged in the land of Canaan, and God wanted to cleanse the land of these sins!
But God is good. He didn’t wipe out the people immediately. In fact, He waited 400 years to do so. Why? The Bible says it’s because the sin of the people had not yet reached its full measure. (See Gen. 15:13-16) I believe this was because God wanted to give them every chance possible to escape this punishment!
We are also told that God cleansed the land of the Canaanites so that they and their perverse practices wouldn’t corrupt God’s people: “For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (Deut. 7:4-6)
You see, God knew Israel was weak and would fall quickly back into idolatry. He wanted them to have the best chance possible of staying “clean”, of “breaking free”.
So what can we learn from this for today?
Several things, actually.
First of all, the Bible tells us that the end of time is when it is “as in the days of Noah” (Matt. 24:37). In those days, the earth because so perverse that God cleansed it with water. In the days of Joshua, the land of Canaan was so perverse that God cleansed it as well. And what about our day and age? Perversity rampages, and every sin listed as one of the reasons for the total annihilation of Canaan rampages today! As a result of our perverseness, the world will again be cleansed, but this time, with fire, and only those covered by the blood of Jesus will survive.
Secondly, just as Joshua systematically went through the land and attacked the cities, killing kings, destroying cities, killing people, so we must also systematically go through our lives, renouncing the things of the flesh! For if we don’t, these perversities of the world will surely be our downfall! We, also, need to take measures to not even expose ourselves to evil, for if we do, we will certainly fall back into it!
And finally, just as God helped Joshua in the conquest of Canaan, He has also promised to help us rid ourselves of perversity! “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24-25 NIV)
So what do you say? Shall we get started cleaning our hearts? Why not today?
When the stories of miraculous conquest in the Promised Land come to an end, the book of Joshua devotes the next 9 chapters focus on the division of the land. After reading about the excitement of the conquest, the book suddenly becomes a bit slow-Boring, if you please. Certainly unrelated to anything that we could relate to today! But would God devote 9 chapters of a book to a subject that does not relate to our day and time? Please join us next week for LESSONS FROM JOSHUA, Part 15: The Division of the Land, Part A.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.
(To access the entire “Lessons From Joshua” mini-series, please click here.)