Readings for today: Joshua 9-10, Luke 3
The Book of Joshua contains some of the most challenging readings in all of Scripture. It forces us to grapple with the nature and character of God on a deep level. His judgments. His wrath. His command to His people to “devote destruction” entire cities and tribes. This is jihad. It is holy war. And honest readers of Scripture should find the reading deeply unsettling. My goal today is not to rescue us from such feelings but to make sure we place them in their proper cultural context. This is yet another example where the gulf between 21st century American culture and ancient near east culture is vast and almost insurmountable. First, let’s get a sampling of the texts in front of us…
“As for Makkedah, Joshua captured it on that day and struck it, and its king, with the edge of the sword. He devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. And he did to the king of Makkedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho.” (Joshua 10:28)
“And the Lord gave Libnah also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.” (Joshua 10:30)
“And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.” (Joshua 10:32)
“And they captured Eglon on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish.” (Joshua 10:35)
“So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.” (Joshua 10:40)
Herem is a notoriously difficult Hebrew word to translate. Roughly it means to “put something/someone under the ban” or “devote to destruction.” Less an act of war, it was more about ritual cleansing. It reflects God’s righteous, holy, and terrifying judgment against idolatry. Israel was His instrument. Chosen to enact this judgment against the Canaanites. And it was a brutal as it sounds. It was jihad. Holy war. Yahweh-sanctioned genocide. And we cannot - again, if we’re being honest - shrink back from the horror of it all.
Too many preachers attempt to justify God’s actions here. Soften them to make them seem more palatable. Glorify them as if this was the set of an epic movie scene. I will do no such thing. What I will say - and what we must grasp - is that Herem is fully in line with God’s eternal character. It is who God has revealed Himself to be. A God of righteousness and judgment and holiness. A God who hates evil and sin. A God who literally fights to eradicate these things from the earth. (i.e. “throwing large stones from heaven...”) And we want God to be this kind of God. We need God to be this kind of God! How else will things be made right? How else will judgment come on 20th century evils like Nazism, Stalinism, or the killing fields of Pol Pot? Don’t we demand God to be a God of justice when faced with these atrocities? Didn’t we, on some level, consider ourselves to be acting on God’s behalf...in service to His righteous cause...when we stormed the beaches of Normandy? Or defeated the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union? Were not those actions a form of jihad? Holy war against an unholy enemy?
But how does this God square with the God we see revealed in the New Testament? The God of love Jesus spoke so eloquently about? Here it is essential we remember how God defines love. It is not an abstract category or warm fuzzy feeling in the heart. It is not soft and sentimental. No, God defines love as sacrifice. Specifically, the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) What we have to understand is the only reason we get to receive the grace of God...the mercy of God...the love of God...is because of what Jesus Christ endured on our behalf. The Father essentially put His own Son under the ban. Devoted Him to destruction so that we may live. This, friends, is the love of God! The Father pouring out His righteous wrath and judgment on the Son. The Son willingly offering Himself up as the sacrifice for all humanity’s sin. Enduring unimaginable pain. Unimaginable suffering. Separation from His Father. Death. Hell. God descending to the uttermost darkness. It was without a doubt the most horrible act of Herem in the history of the world. More terrible than genocide is deicide. God allowing Himself to be murdered by His own beloved creation.
All this He did for us. All this He did for the world. All this He did to cleanse the earth of the powers of sin and idolatry and evil and death. 1 John 2:2 says, “Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” God is the same yesterday, today and forever, friends! There is perfect congruence between the God of the Old and the God of the New Testaments. He acts in perfect concert with Himself. Always within His character and nature. He never deviates. As the old hymn suggests, “There is no shadow or turning with Thee! Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be!”
Does this make our readings any easier? No. Does it help to suggest that some of this is clearly hyperbole? Maybe. It’s clear from later reading in Scripture that all the people Israel was commanded to destroy were, well, not destroyed. And what about the innocent? Why are they killed along with the guilty? Here we have to be careful about layering our 21st century assumptions onto the text. According to Scripture no one is innocent. We are all born in a state of guilt and sin. The culture of the ancient Canaanites was rife with violence like child sacrifice. Nothing innocent about it. Friends, God always speaks to us in a language we can understand. He meets us where we are, in the cultural waters in which we swim, speaking to us out of the thought world we inhabit. This was true for ancient Israel and it is true for us today and it is absolutely critical to keep in mind as we read these ancient words.
Readings for tomorrow: Joshua 11-14, Luke 4:1-41