the book of Joshua let's back up and
remember the story so far so God chose
Abraham and then his family became the
people of Israel who are then enslaved
down in Egypt and so through Moses God
rescued Israel out of Egypt he made a
covenant with them at Mount Sinai and he
brought them through the wilderness so
Israel then camped outside the promised
land and Moses called them to obey God's
commands so that they could show all the
other nations what God is like the book
of Joshua picks up right after Moses has
died and Israel's ready to enter the
land so the story of Joshua is designed
with four main movements Joshua first
leads Israel into the Promised Land and
then once they're there they meet all
this hostility from the Canaanites and
so they engage them in battle then after
their victories Joshua divides up the
promised land as the inheritance for the
12 tribes and then the book concludes
with these final speeches that Joshua
gives to the people so let's dive in and
we'll see how all of it flows together
the first section begins with Moses is
death and Joshua is appointed as
Israel's new leader and the author
intentionally presents Joshua as a new
Moses so like Moses Joshua calls the
people to obey the Torah which means the
Covenant commands that they were given
at Mount Sinai and then Joshua sends
spies into the land just as Moses did
back in numbers chapters 13 and 14
except it goes way better this time in
fact even some Canaanites turn and
follow the God of Israel
Joshua then leads all Israel across the
Jordan River and into the land just like
the sea parted for Moses in the Exodus
so here the River Jordan parts and the
priests carry the Ark of the Covenant
cross leading all Israel with them now
in chapter 5 the story transitions so
the people look back to their roots as
God's covenant people and so the new
generation is circumcised and they
celebrate their first Passover in the
land but then they turn and prepare to
go forward and Joshua has this crazy
encounter with a mysterious warrior who
it turns out is the angelic commander of
God's army and Joshua asks are you for
us or are you for our enemies
the warrior responds neither which shows
that the real question here is whether
Joshua is on God's side it makes clear
that this whole story is not about
Israel versus the Canaanites rather this
is God's battle and Israel is going to
play the role of spectators or sometimes
supporters in God's plan which leads to
the next section we find stories about
all these conflicts that Israel had with
different Canaanite groups and the first
part retells the story of two battles in
detail and that's followed by a series
of short stories that condense years of
battles into a few brief summaries so
the first two battles are against
Jericho and then ie
and they offer these contrasting
portraits of God's faithfulness versus
Israel's failure at Jericho Israel is to
take a completely passive approach so
they let God's presence in the ark lead
them around the city to music for six
days and just like Rahab turned to the
God of Israel maybe the people of
Jericho would do the same but they don't
and so on the seventh day the priests
blow the trumpets and the walls come
falling down leading Israel to victory
the point of the story is that God is
the one who will deliver his people
Israel simply needs to trust and wait
now the next story of the battle at I
makes the opposite point so there's this
Israelite named akan and he steals from
Jericho some of the devoted goods that
were to belong to God alone and then he
lies about it it's a pretty lame move
after all that God has done for Israel
and so Israel goes into battle with the
city of eye and they're totally defeated
and it's only after humble repentance
and severely dealing with Han sin that
Israel gains victory and so together
these two stories they're placed right
up front to make a important point if
Israel is going to inherit the land they
have to be obedient and trust in God's
commands they don't get special
treatment now the second part of this
section begins with the Gibeonites
a Canaanite people group and they do
just what Rahab did as they turn to
follow the God of Israel and they make
peace with Israel
this is in contrast to all of these
other Canaanite Kings who start to form
alliances and coalition's and they want
to destroy Israel so Israel engages them
in battle and they win by a landslide
and so this whole section concludes with
this summary list of all of these
victories won by Moses and then by
Joshua now let's stop for a second
because odds are that these stories and
the violence in them they're going to
bother you and if you're a follower of
Jesus you're bound to wonder like didn't
Jesus say to love your enemies why is
God declaring war here so first why the
Canaanites the main reasons are actually
given earlier in the biblical story it's
that the culture of the Canaanites had
become extremely morally corrupt
especially when it comes to sex
go check out Leviticus chapter 18 and
they also widely practice child
sacrifice go see Deuteronomy chapter 12
and so God didn't want these practices
to influence Israel the Canaanites had
to go which raises the second question
did God actually command the destruction
of all the Canaanites like a genocide so
at first glance you know you look at the
phrases used in these stories they
totally destroyed them they left no
survivor or anything that breathed but
when you look a second time more closely
you'll see that these phrases are
clearly hyperbole and not literal so go
back to the original command about the
Canaanites in Deuteronomy chapter 7
Israel is first told to drive out the
Canaanites but then to totally destroy
them and then that's followed by
commands to not intermarry with them or
enter into business deals with them so
you can't marry someone that you've
destroyed I think you get the point the
same idea applies to the stories in
Joshua look closely so for example we're
told in Joshua chapter 10 that Israel
left no survivors in the cities of
Hebron or deBeer but then later in
chapter 15 we see these towns and
they're still populated by Canaanites
and so what we're seeing is that Joshua
fits in with other ancient battle
accounts by using non literal hyperbolic
language as part of the narrative style
and so the word genocide doesn't
actually fit what we
see here especially in light of the
stories about the Canaanites who did
turn to the God of Israel like Rahab
where the Gibeonites God was open to
those who would turn to him the last
thing to think about is that these
stories mark a unique moment in Israel's
history these battles were limited to
the handful of people groups living in
the land of Canaan with all other
nations Israel was commanded by God to
pursue peace go read Deuteronomy chapter
20 and so the purpose of these battle
stories was never to tell you the reader
to go commit violence in God's name
rather they show God bringing his
justice on human evil at a unique moment
in history and how he delivered Israel
from being annihilated by the Canaanites
now let's go back to the books design
after years of battles we see an aging
Joshua and he starts dividing up the
land for the 12 tribes of Israel and
most of this section is like lists of
boundary lines and let's be honest it's
kind of boring
it's like reading a map that has no
pictures but for the Israelites these
lists were super important this was the
fulfillment of God's ancient promises to
Abraham that his descendants would
inherit the promised land and so now it
was all coming to pass right down to the
detail which leads to the final section
Joshua gives two speeches to the people
they're very similar to the final
speeches of Moses in Deuteronomy Joshua
reminds them of God's generosity how he
brought them into the land and rescued
them from the Canaanites and so he calls
them to turn away from the Canaanite
gods and be faithful to the Covenant
they made if they do it will lead to
life and blessing in the land but if
they're unfaithful Israel will call down
on itself the same divine judgment that
the Canaanites experienced they'll be
kicked off the land into exile and so
Joshua leaves Israel with a choice what
is Israel going to do that's the big
question that looms as the story ends
and that's the book of Joshua