From Joshua 10:29-43
When I was a seminary student, I took a course called “The Offensive Passages of Scripture,” where we studied parts of the Bible that, from a certain perspective, can paint God in a negative light. The conquest of the Promised Land can fall into this category. God has instructed His people to ruthlessly conquer the existing inhabitants of the Promised Land, instructed them to violently take land from other people. In each of the cities we read about in these verses, Joshua leaves no one left standing and God is given the credit for his victories. There is a perspective that would recoil at this. That perspective would ask how a good God could allow or instruct His people to commit violence, would ask how a good God could allow for people to take land that wasn’t theirs. And there is a perspective that would respond saying that God has the power so He can do whatever He wants.
Both of those perspectives need to shift to a better understanding of the entire situation.
First, we need to deal with the idea of God administering violence. The core issue with the perspective described above is that the idea that those people don’t deserve to suffer or die. It’s a complaint that comes up a lot when God is punishing different people. We need to shift our perspective, because no one is righteous, not a single person. And the consequences of not being righteous are death. Fundamentally, you, me, and every other person to ever live deserved nothing more than death. When we shift our understanding to that the violence that God commands from the Israelites is less difficult to wrap our heads around, and everything else around us takes on a new light of grace and mercy. Second is the perspective that God is having the Israelites take land that isn’t theirs. Well, the land didn’t belong to the people before them either, or the people before them, etc. The land, the material possessions, everything Israel “took” belonged to God before it was Israel’s, and continued to belong to God after Israel took it – God was just giving it to a different steward.
We get so caught up in viewing the world through our limited perspective, and sometimes we need to step back and remember that we don’t deserve nearly as much as we think we do, to remember that we are just recipients of God’s grace and stewards of His gifts.
Focus on God
We are reminded in these verses that God graciously shows grace and gives gifts to His creation.
Function in Our Lives
We are encouraged to humble ourselves and broaden our perspective.
Topics to Pray About
- Thank God for the gifts that He has given to you.
- Confess to God the times where you don’t think about His involvement in your daily life.
- Ask God to lead you to take care of His property well.
In His Service,
J. LeBorious