Introduction: Nazi Germany, the lives of around 6 million Jews were taken. To put it in perspective, that’s over a fifth of Australia’s current population. I was curious about the concept of genocide, so I did some quick googling. It’s amazing how many historical events came up from even the past 100 years that were classified as such. Genocide being defined as “deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” We as humans tend to build prejudices against other people groups. And a quick reading of the Old Testament, you see clear examples of genocide as well. Think of the Great Flood. Sodom and Gomorrah. Ninevah. And in the book of Deuteronomy, God commands the following: “as for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. Instead you must utterly annihilate them” (Deut. 20:16-17a). God doesn’t seem this way in the New Testament, so is it possible God has changed?
The Same God? Richard Dawkins, has dedicated his whole life to undermining Christianity. In his book the God Delusion, he suggests: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Some incredibly loaded language there. And certainly a brief look at the Old Testament and you can see why he says what he does. And growing up in the Christian faith, in recent years, I’ve certainly questioned the same: is Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, the same as the New? And is He good? I know I’m not alone in this questioning either.
Introduction to Joshua: So coming to today, I’ve been looking at the book of Joshua. It’s an important text in the Old Testament. It’s one where the nation of Israel takes the land of Canaan as their inheritance, promised by God. Last time I was here I preached on God’s message to their new leader, Joshua. It was a message to take courage, to be strong, to step out in faith, knowing that his God was with him and would work wonders through him. Today we’re coming to a text a little further along in the book. It’s one that draws closer to this idea of genocide and it raises the important questions I’ve already mentioned. The Israelites are drawing near to the city of Jericho. These people in Jericho know they are coming. They’ve heard the stories. They’ve heard how God rescued Israel from the hands of Pharoah. They’ve heard how He has provided for them. They’ve heard how Sihon and Og’s armies were destroyed by their hands. They know war is coming. They’re trembling in their boots. Utterly scared. Will they survive, or will they all perish? Not many of us can understand this feeling, sure we can empathise, but it’s not the same. These people are absolutely rattled. And no doubt, they’re questioning why this was coming. Why was war on their doorsteps? Is it fair? You can see where Dawkins gets his ideas.
Coming to Jericho: As Joshua nears the city of Jericho, he sends two spies into the city to scope it out. They came to the house of Rahab, there they hid on her roof, as the king of Jericho arrived. We can only imagine what he wanted to do to those spies, but Rahab convinces him they’ve left, and off they go, chasing the spies in the wilderness. And here we come to our text today:
Joshua 2:8-14 ESV:
“8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.”
“10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.”
“11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you”
The Inheritance: It’s prudent to ask why the land was to be given to Israel. There were certainly problems with the people that lived in Canaan. Child sacrifice, sexual worship among them. But I don’t think the goal here was the annihilation of the inhabitants. Rather, it was to provide a home for God’s people. There’s a different focus. And in our lens of knowing God through the New Testament, we understand and we know that God is seeking to grow His Kingdom here on earth. The nation of Israel, in the land of Canaan, was the first step in that process. It was a place where God’s people could be a light to the nations, where God could highlight the problem with humanity: our deep seeded issue with sin and depravity, our need for God himself to intervene through his Son, Jesus Christ. So the people of Jericho are quaking in the boots because Joshua and the Israelites are nearing. But Rahab’s response is and her perspective on these events is quite beautiful:
“For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.”
“12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”
“14 And the men said to her, Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
Rahab does something unique, something no others do here. She acknowledges Yahweh as God. She recognises that He alone is God and she requests that as she has been gracious to the spies, she trusts that they will return that favour. And when the spies return to Joshua, and the nation approaches Jericho later in the book, Rahab and her household are saved.
Guilty of Sin: Earlier I mentioned a text in Deuteronomy 20. In the text God commands the Israelites to utterly destroy everything that breathes in the land of Canaan. Seems pretty brutal. There’s important context here that God provides a few verses later: “so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God” (Deut. 20:18 ESV). So we ask the question: What are the people of Canaan guilty of? Rebellion against God. But if God who is as barbaric as Dawkins suggests, if God meant the words to annihilate everything that breathes in a literal sense, why spare Rahab and her family?
Repentance: In the book of the law, God highlighted the need to care for the alien. In Leviticus 19:34 we read: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” Much like the words Jesus spoke. Love your neighbour as yourself. Recently the young people and I were studying the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s a parable that immediately follow’s Jesus’ instruction to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. The parable highlights 3 people who walked passed a man who was battered, bruised and who had been robbed. A Levite walked by, a priest walked by, but the Samaritan, took time out of his day to care for the man. The Samaritan is just like Rahab. An alien in the midst of the Israelites. In Jesus’ time, the Israelites had failed to care for the alien in their midst. They didn’t allow these people to assimilate into their culture, to become part of God’s people. So even with the law, as 1000 years or so pass under its guidance from the time of Moses until Jesus, the character and fruit of the people was not closer to God’s heart. The law wasn’t enough. But God remains the same, yesterday, today and forever. His character has not changed. He’s still that same consuming fire. His standards are still just as Holy. And we still fall just as short. And returning to the book of Joshua, Rahab is remembered as one of the great women of faith. She’s one of Jesus’ forebears. Through her faith, she and her household are saved.
Who Will be Spared? I have no doubt that if the entire city of Jericho repented, they would have been spared. The Gibeonites, later in the book of Joshua, are also spared. Jonah and the whale, he preaches to the city of Ninevah. They repent, and are spared the wrath of God… temporarily. The only difference between the people of Jericho and us, is that they could see their Day of Judgement. We know that the final day of Judgement is coming soon. We know that Jesus Christ will return. We don’t know the day or hour, but we know it’s coming. In his ministry here, Jesus told of the wide and narrow paths. Wide is the road that many find, but it leads to destruction. The narrow path that leads to life, only few find. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the mediator between us and God. In the words of John 1:12-13: “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (ESV).
Leave a Reply