JOSHUA 
13-End

For all practical purposes we came to the end of Joshua two weeks ago. The last half of the book involves specifying where each tribe's official territory will be. Rather subtly, the division lays out the north-south boundaries that will underlie the separation into two kingdoms after Solomon's death. In the south lies Judea, Benjamin, and the half-tribe of Dan. (For whatever reason half of the tribe becomes the topmost tribe in the north.)

Your editors have taken a piece of this assignment to emphasize integrity and keeping one's word. No question but both need considerable emphasis these days. So let's look at the situation described.

When crossing the Jordan, Reuben and half the tribe of Ephraim asked to be given land on the east of the Jordan, largely unoccupied and needing no military campaign. Since it would not be fair for them to settle while the other 10 ½ tribes fought, they agreed to join their compatriots in conquering Palestine. This they did, and now Joshua kept his word after they kept their word. 

Next week, we will begin Judges. Both books pass the torch with the mantra, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” My class will touch on the editors emphasis on integrity, but then we'll review the book.

CLASS! What are the major takeaways you can find in looking back over the last four lessons? Be practical.

-------Ori

JOSHUA CONQUERS THE LAND

Joshua  7-12 (and beyond)

He said they could, and he showed they could. Back in the Book of Numbers, Joshua and Caleb said the Israelites could conquer the Promised Land. Forty years later Josh led the people to do exactly that. The last two weeks we saw Joshua succeed Moses, lead the people across the Jordan, and bring down the walls of Jericho.

Now imagine a map of Israel. Starting at Jericho, draw a big figure 8 from south to north. If you carefully follow the individual battles you will find they will roughly follow that 8-track!

Some general things to remember about the conquest. They never completed it. Here and there verses seem to say this, but at the end of the book, Joshua himself tells the people there is land yet to be won. And the whole book of Judges shows enemies from outside and within the land. In some cases, like Gilead, Israel made treaties instead of conquering the city. Later those cities became sources of idol worship that constantly troubled Israel and tempted its people.

We recognize the word “harem” as a separate area of women who serve as wives and mistresses of kings and other important people. The word itself means “dedicated,” as if for some purpose. When the Lord sent Israel into the wars of conquest, He declared each city harem, or dedicated to Him. Israel was not to plunder, take slaves, or in any way benefit from the conquest. The whole shebang was dedicated to the Lord and was to be burned to the ground. That included all of its citizens.

Increasingly, opponents of the church criticize this practice as amounting to ethnic cleansing. How can a God of Love justify the killing of innocent people, especially women and children who were not warriors. We react negatively when we read of modern day fighters in the Middle East and elsewhere doing the same thing. There are several considerations we need to consider if we explore this seriously.

First, one possibility I heard often in my youth, although not very often today, is the concept of progressive revelation. This view states that God revealed to Israel as much as they could understand at the time, and this was how they understood the Lord’s demands in their day. This approach finds the latter Old Testament more advanced in mercy and theological understanding, paving the way for Christ.

Another important concept that I keep bringing in is that of “corporate personality.” The Hebrew mindset, like that of Arabs today, was not individualistic. Rather each considered themselves part of a group, a family or tribe. Thus, it’s a little easier to see why eliminating a person would require eliminating his group. Besides, when you do that, you leave no one to brood and seek revenge.

This last concept helps explain the story of Aachan. When the men at Ai defeated the detachment Joshua sent to conquer them, he was at a loss to explain why. The Lord told him that someone had broken harem, had taken stuff dedicated to the Lord. So they went through a sorting process, and the finger pointed to a man named Aachan, who confessed. He had stolen a rug and money, hiding it in his tent. Soldiers found it there, and Joshua led Israel to execute him and his family and bury the remains along with the stolen property.

The next story where the printed lesson focuses (remember I deliberately use these notes to cover background and not the written material so much) Involves the citizens of a town called Gibeah. Remember Israel is new to the land and does not know where all the villages are. These people had heard of the viciousness of the Israelite army and wanted no part of them. So they came up with a Plan. A delegation came to Israel in old clothes and moldy food as though after a long journey. They flattered Joshua about the prowess of his army and their fear of him.  They sought a treaty that would protect them from military attack. Israel believed them and made that treaty.

The area was a pretty gossipy place and everyone found out what everyone else was doing. So the king of Jerusalem collected an army of other peoples to take out Gibeah, since they would not oppose Israel with them. That army surrounded Gibeah and threatened its destruction. Somehow they send runners to Joshua to let Israel know they were under attack and to remind them they had a mutual assistance treaty.

Whoa! They’re just a few miles away? They lied! They deceived us! Nevertheless, our word must be our bond, and we will do what we promised to do. Israel proceeded to muster its army and with the Lord’s approval, they won the day, winning another victory and saving the Gibeanites. Not to let them off scot-free for their deception, they required them to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” forever – whatever that meant.

The quarterly focuses on the importance of a Christian keeping their word. So does Psalms 15:4: who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind. I’ve sometimes got caught in situations where my previous promise doesn’t look as easy or desirable as it did when I made it. It’s very tempting to change your mind. But when Jesus warned us about swearing, He was not griping about dirty words, but about our having no need to say such things as “By heaven I will do what I said.” Rather people should know if we said it, they can count on it.

            JERICHO

Jericho is one of the oldest towns in the world. Years ago archaeologists found the base of a tower dating back to the stone age around 9000 BC! The tower was 26-7 feet in diameter and 20 feet high. The wall remains are very thick, allowing space for houses or shops to be built into or on top of the walls. The tower was remarkable in that it was built with stone tools. Now Joshua showed up over 7500 years later!

People always try to deal with the walls coming down bit by explaining it, often by the old lock-step thing such as the military discovered on bridges. But these were not flimsy brick walls. Besides, the whole point of the story is that God did it. God let His people to conquer the land. The Biblical writer meant to communicate the Lord did a miracle. The same with Jonah. People keep trying to find a big enough fish or whale that it could swallow a man. But that’s not the point! The point is that Jonah was a miracle. Even if you don’t believe in miracles, it’s  pointless to try to prove something happened naturally, because the writer believed in miracles and that’s what he wrote about.

The book begins with the command and preparations to cross the Jordan. Then, as the Red Sea rolled back for Moses, the Jordan River rolled back as far as a place called “Adam” so Israel could cross on dry ground. The Ark of the Covenant went first, followed by the Tabernacle and the 12 tribes. Joshua had directed leaders of each tribe to take an appropriate stone from the river bed to set up on the opposite band as a memorial. In later generations, children and others would ask, “What mean these stones?” (aka What are these rocks doing here?), and their elders can relate the story of Israel passing on dry land and all that it entailed.

Before attacking the town, Josh sent out some spies to get the lay of the land. Apparently, during the day they could just wander in and look around. But someone tipped off the king, and he sent out a search party. The guys looked for a place to hide, and visited a house of prostitution, run by a woman named Rahab. She recognized who they were and reported the entire town was terrified of them. She hid them in exchange for their promise to save her and her family when Israel attacked. She succeeded and when it was safe, let them down by rope from her windows. She and her family were indeed saved.

A few miles across the river stood Jericho, strategically situated at the bottom of a long pass rising to the hill country where later Jerusalem would stand. That town was their first target, even with huge walls thick enough to support houses, perhaps built into the walls as well as on top. A formidable approach. A major point in the Bible is that Israel wins wars by the power of the Lord and only by His power. One way God demonstrates this is by off-the-wall tactics (pun intended).

You likely know the story. Israel marches around Jericho once a day for six days. On the seventh day, they march around seven times, the priests blow their ram horns (shophars), and the people shout. The walls fall flat. As I said above, the book says God did it. You will find no other answer within the pages. That’s exactly what the author intended.    

With no walls to stop them, the army of Israel rushed straight into the town, captured it, and wiped out its inhabitants. This was the first victory in Canaan itself, and the first piece of the promised land of the covenant that they owned.

One issue increasingly discussed today, which especially mature Christians need to look at is the Lord’s explicit command to kill everyone, men, women, and children. Critics today often point to places such as this and compare it to genocide or ethnic cleansing. How do you deal with that. Look at some facts first. If there are no survivors, there is no one left to take revenge. More important from the Biblical viewpoint, if there are no survivors, there is no one left to tempt Israel into idol worship. This temptation and frequent fall led the nation, along with other things such as injustice, to chase after other gods. Over-riding this from the author’s viewpoint is the fact that the land belongs to the Lord, not the Canaanites, nor indeed anyone. Later one could say that land belonged to Israel, but it was always provisional, so long as they obeyed. When they no longer obeyed, God took away their land.

When I was but a youth, there was a popular theological argument I heard rather a good deal. They called the argument “progressive revelation.” The basic idea was that God revealed Himself to the people as they were able to understand it. Most everyone follows that as far as Christ is concerned. Indeed the NT clearly teaches that Jesus’s revelation was what the prophets had looked forward to and had indeed prophesied. In the case of Jericho and other cities of Canaan, the principle went like this: God as we know Him today would not ask us to do that, but that was the way they understood Him in their culture. There are problems with this viewpoint, but it helps many people to deal with a difficult problem.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Joshua

MOSTLY JOSHUA THIS MONTH

DECEMBER

The Old Testament is history. And lots and lots of stories. The Lord must like history. Sorry if you don’t. Get used to it. One thing that approach shows is that the deists were wrong. God did not wind up the earth like a clock and go off to let it run by itself. God is a God who acts in history. He is involved in His world. He is especially involved with His people. God created the world and time, and He moves within it. That’s the stance of the Bible from start to finish. God’s nature is revealed in His action, and His actions are recorded in the Bible.

Joshua and Judges are part of that history. Indeed, the two books are included in a section of the Bible we have labeled “history books.” We usually begin with these two and go on through Samuel and Kings. (Chronicles is a re-write from a different angle.) Part of the history is woven also in and out among the prophets, explaining what was happening in the world they spoke to. And even before Joshua, significant history begins in Genesis and Exodus.

Let’s review to place this quarter’s study in the correct place.

The story of God’s people begins with Abraham, the father of all Israel. (Three religions trace their story back to him: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They all claim him as ancestor.) In Genesis 12 God calls Abraham to leave his home and country to a land God would show him. In exchange, God would found a great nation from his descendants, a huge family! This was the basic covenant that underlies all the rest of the Bible! God is a covenant-making God. He renewed this covenant with Abraham’s son Isaac, his son Jacob, and his son Joseph. Indeed Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and his 12 sons became the fathers (patriarchs) of the 12 tribes.

Under Joseph, the family went to Egypt for their salvation in a famine. As time passed and the regime changed, salvation turned into slavery. Eventually God sent Moses to deliver them. This Exodus the great saving act in the OT, holding a similar place to the cross in the New Testament. Several of the Psalms praise God for His deliverance in that great event. At Mt Sinai Moses, led by God, established the people as the nation Israel and gave them the Law, the foundation of the covenant until Jesus. The Lord also gave them a tabernacle in which to worship. That great tent was set up in the middle of every encampment, reminding them that God led them and dwelt in their midst.

 In Numbers the story is recorded of 12 spies sent to view and report on the land of Canaan. That was the land God sent Abraham to and where he roamed as a nomad, as did his descendants. From that land they descended into Egypt, and now God was planning to lead them back. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies, and the leadership falls on Joshua.

                                                 CHAPTER ONE

Joshua begins with a strong chapter laying bare a number of truths useful today.

First, note that Moses was a servant of God, and Joshua was the servant of Moses. He was, of course, also serving God by serving Moses, but he was in a training role, a testing role. The Lord had prepared him to lead after Moses. Have you recognized those times in your life that God was preparing you for what is yet to come? The last lesson in 2 Peter included the injunction to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t stay where you are.

In that same spirit, the Lord lays down a hard fact: Moses is dead. I was about 11 years old when I happened to pick up part of a torn-up letter blowing down the street. I remember a phrase from the letter: “the past is dead. Bury it…” I don’t know who wrote it nor why I remember it, but I do. And it’s great advice. Many people seem to be re-living over and over their athletic days, their military days, or other pinnacles of success. It’s ok for Sir Edmund Hillary to remember Everest, but I’m pretty sure he climbed a bunch of mountains afterwards. Are you hung up on something from your past – good or bad? The past is gone. Face the future!

“Now get ready to cross the Jordan.” Prepare to march into the future. God was about to give them a tremendous gift – the Land! The Land He promised Abraham and directed Moses to lead that nation to its borders. God may have blessed you in the past – as He did Israel in the Exodus – but He has more for you ahead. But we must move ahead to receive that blessing.

Notice the Lord says He will give them every place they set their feet. Ponder that a bit. I once heard a devotional asking whether Israel ever received all the land God had intended. Certainly they occupied somewhat less than the dimensions described here. They never took the land we know a Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq, and possibly a good bit of Turkey, which is where the Hittites lived. Maybe they were satisfied with less. I sometimes wonder whether I have been satisfied with less than God would give me. What about you?

In verse 5 He promises to lead Joshua as He led Moses. We must never think we have left God in the past. “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” THIS IS THE BASIC PROMISE OF THE ENTIRE BIBLE! It lies behind every promise to every individual and group. And this promise supports every promise the Bible makes to you. Be strong and courageous, because He is with you!

THE BIBLE AND THE SECOND COMING
2 Peter 1:12-21

The late first century church was in a turmoil. From a small sect of fanatical followers in Israel, the movement had spread across the Middle East into southern Europe, northern Africa, and even to Rome. All sorts of writings flooded the new congregations, both from the eyewitness “founders” and all sorts of other peoples. I have a copy of the “Ras Shamra” tablets and scrolls, a group of writings discovered years ago in Egypt that include many different “Christian” writings from all sorts of viewpoints.

Our New Testament rests for its authority on eyewitnesses. The likelihood is that the gospel was spread by word of mouth in a culture that relied much more than we do on memory. Then as the first generation began to die out, the Gospels were written down to preserve them, based on the testimony of the apostles. Peter may well have been in prison in Rome by this time, and his execution by Nero was impending. So he writes this as a sort of farewell address, reminding his readers of the beliefs they have in common and urging them to remain faithful.

One belief under attack was the “Parousia,” or second coming of Christ. That first generation had expected Him to return much sooner. As the apostles aged and began to die out, others thought the doctrine must be wrong. This is the main doctrine Peter was addressing here. The Lord will return, and He will judge the living and dead. The world is in His hand.

He writes so even after his death he can keep reminding them of that truth. “We’re not making this stuff up, you know. We were there on the Mount of Transfiguration when God revealed the glory of His Son. And we heard the voice of God Himself saying, ‘This is my Son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.’”  So Peter is emphasizing his personal experience with the Lord. Hard to argue against that. (It’s also hard to argue against your own personal experience when you share your testimony as to what the Lord has done for you.)

He further confirms the Parousia by the Old Testament prophets. Remember that the OT was the only Scripture they had. Some of our NT books were being circulated among the churches, but they were still debating which ones were most useful. That’s one reason 2 Peter was written. By extension, we apply the last two verses to our NT as well. BTW, Parousia originally referred to a big shot, perhaps a king or other ruler, coming to town. The church applied it to the Second Coming and that’s pretty much the only way the NT writers use the term.

He states a high view of the importance of Scripture. He repeats that the prophets didn’t make stuff up, but God inspired them and spoke through them. This week’s lesson in the quarterly emphasizes this point, a vital one indeed. We Baptists have insisted from out beginnings that we have no creed by the Bible, inspired by and interpreted with the aid of the Holy Spirit.