"There has never been a day lie it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man." Josh. 10:14
We don't seem to make as big a deal of God answering Joshua's request that the sun would stand still so that he could continue to route Israel's enemy. But this request and God's answer has incredible implications. God doesn't simply hear us. He listens and acts in miraculous ways. He defies the laws of nature in our behalf. He is willing to change what He has set in order.
This fact may help me as I struggle with the difficult concepts in today's reading. My struggles are summed up in this single scripture:
"He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded." Josh. 10:40
Over and over again in this reading, as Joshua moves North and South, every nation he meets (with the exception of the Gibeonites who use trickery to avoid annihilation), Joshua's army kills not only the ruling king and his army but also everyone in the city. Everyone. Time and time again in this reading, our eyes pass over the poignant refrain: "They left no survivors."
Even the groups God seems to have a heart for elsewhere in scripture - widows, children, aliens, elderly - they all died under Joshua's sword at God's direction and with the Lord's power. This is genocide and ethnic cleansing practiced at a staggering level. How do we, how does God justify this? It seems like a total disregard for human life. And there are detractors today who use these horrendous massacres to call into question the notion of a "loving" God. And if God is truly love, how can He not only allow this but demand it?
The editor's commentary in the Daily Bible seems to dismiss it (unsatisfactory to me) as follows:
"Though it affords little comfort to the modern mind, it must be remembered that extermination of defeated enemies is expected of victorious armies at this time. The record further hints that God is using the Israelites as his instrument in punishing the pagan Canaanites for their continual wickedness." Daily Bible, March 12, p. 322
That explanation doesn't do much for me. I'm of the mind that the right and good is not influenced by culture or era in history. We cannot look back on American history and say that slavery was ever right even though people back in the early days of our country didn't have the sensitivity to the subject we have today. Driving the Cherokee out of their homelands on the Trail of Tears was just as evil then as we is it is today. Evil is always evil.
So how can God order the execution of a nation? Even a wicked nation? I acknowledge that He certainly has the right to do it and that in the eyes of the all powerful it could be chalked up to justice. But then why forgive Israel's sin and idolatry? Yes, He punishes it but He doesn't have the people completely annihilated. Why forgive our evil? Why make allowances and have mercy on us and not on these nations? So there are levels of sin? Children are not born without sin? And God does punish the innocent for the sins of the guilty? The implications of this are far reaching.
So what is it?
First I trust in God's love and I acknowledge I cannot and do not fathom the mind of the Creator of the Universe. All He does, I believe is ultimately for our good and our salvation and I constantly remind myself that He sent His Son to die for all. So comforting myself in those thoughts...I turn to these passages. What can I take away from any of this?
God cannot and does not exercise fully what holiness and justice demands. If He did, we would all be exterminated. And the glimpses we have of pure justice are indeed horrible. This is one of them. It should make us weep for the souls of the wicked...for our souls. And to pray for the souls of the wicked...for our souls. We do not want justice or fairness or equal treatment under the law. We need mercy. We must have it to live. For justice is a thing too awful to behold as are these passages for many.
There are things we do in this age as a people that justice would require our complete annihilation it would seem. We fight for the right to use embryonic stem cells to save lives because we hold our lives so dear and yet sacrifice the lives of so many unborn. I cringe at this slaughter of the innocent just as I cringed at the slaughter of Canaanite children. And God stands by and reserves His judgement though the specter of today's reading should teach us He doesn't withhold justice forever..... Those who know me know this is a tough issue for me because my mother was encouraged to seek an abortion because of the birth defects that were "certain" in my case. But that is another story.
In short, in these passages, we see what absolute justice looks like and we understand we do not want it.
I am also comforted by the fact that earthly punishment doesn't equate with eternal destination. In other words, it is one thing to be sentenced to death and quite another thing to be sent to eternal damnation. All we see here is God's judgement on earth. And as horrible as it might be it pales in comparison to eternity.
I trust the eternal outcome of this might differ slightly from the story on earth. Lord knows.
And I pray daily, it is my continual desire that God save all men everywhere from every era. God have mercy. There but by the grace of God go I. And I know...for in this same reading I am given the hope that God does listen to man.
My post last year on this date.
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