Lesson 26 – Joshua Settles the Land

1.    Joshua 5 – the stay at Gilgal and the circumcision of the children

  • Reading the Scripture
  • Responding to the story
    • What emotion do you feel in response to the following actions:

1.    Verses 17 and 25: God protects Rahab the prostitute.

2.    Verse 19: Joshua commands the Israelites to plunder for the treasury of the Lord.

3.    Verse 20: The Israelites shout together and the walls of Jericho fall.

4.    Verse 21: The Israelites kill men and women, young and old, and animals.

  • Examining the story
    Review the last paragraph of the “Bible Background” in Session 25, page 81.  The author states that the story of the conquest seems to glorify war and show the Israelites as God’s favorites. 
    Do you agree with his claim that such views are immoral and need to be identified as immoral?  Why or why not?
  • Making the story your own

According to Augustine, one of the bishops of the Christian church of the second century A.D., a war can only be just if it meets all the following criteria:

The war must protect people from a real and certain danger.

The decision to go to war must be made by a capable authority.

The rights and the values in conflict must be important enough to justify killing.

Unnecessarily destructive acts or unreasonable demands that would limit the possibility of making peace should be avoided.

The war should be used only as a last resort after all other methods for solving the conflict have been tried.

Those who go to war must think they have a good chance of winning.

The damage caused by the war must not be more than the good that could come out of the war.

If one side is attacked, it may only counter-attack with the same amount of force.

Innocent citizens must never be killed.

Only military targets may be attacked.

Which criteria of a just war did the invasion of Canaan meet?  How could just war criteria be helpful in making decisions about warfare today?  How can we apply the just war theory today in light of the amount of destructive force now available?

  • Thinking about God’s role in warfare

According to the biblical story, the Israelits believed they were following God’s commands when they took the land of Canaan by bloody military conquest.  They believed the fall of Jericho was an act of holy warfare in which the victory belonged to God. 

Which other wars in history have been fought “in God’s name”? 

Do you believe God takes sides in a war? 
Why or why not? 
Is violence ever justified?  Why or why not?

 

  • Memory verse: Joshua 24:15

“Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

 

Bible Background (taken from Journey through the Bible, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 84)

 

The story of the spies sent to Jericho has a familiar biblical theme: A foreigner shows faith in God and allies himself or herself with the cause of God, thereby putting to shame the faith of the Israelite people. In this case, it is Rahab, identified as a prostitute, who gives shelter to the spies, does not betray them to the citizens of Jericho, and is later spared when the city is taken. Since Rahab's house is located atop the city walls, according to the story, the spies are able to escape from the city by sliding down a rope from the window. The spies arrange with Rahab that she will leave a red cord hanging from the window

This long, detailed story of Rahab also illustrates another theme. Frequently in the Bible, persons who are living immoral lives are singled out by God to have a hand in fulfilling the divine purpose. Here, Rahab saves the lives of the spies so that they are able to bring back information of importance to Joshua. The news of God's saving the Israelites at the Red Sea and of Israel's defeat of two kings in Transjordan has spread throughout the land, and the inhabitants are in terror of what awaits them. It is Israel's God who causes them to fear. This is a God who hates oppression, who cannot endure to see people enslaved and brutalized. When the cry of pain reaches this God, things begin to happen!

After Joshua's encampment at Gilgal, further word spreads among the inhabitants of the land. The God of Israel can even stop up the Jordan River so that these intruders could cross the river on dry land! The story of the conquest of Jericho reads like a solemn religious act rather than an attack on a walled city. The warriors are divided into two groups, one leading the way and one in the rear. In the middle of the two groups of armed men is the ark of the covenant, carried by seven priests, each with a ram's-horn trumpet. Each morning for six days this procession moves around the city, with the priests blowing fiercely on the trumpets, but with everyone else marching in dead silence. On the seventh day, the procession goes around the city seven times. As the seventh procession ends, all the people-utterly silent for seven days –cry out with a massive shout at once, and the walls of Jericho simply fall flat to the ground, and the city is taken with hardly any opposition.

This was an act of holy warfare, as it is called. God decrees that a given community or group is to be handed over for utter destruction, and if the Israelite warriors do their part, they cannot lose the battle, for it is God's battle, sure to succeed. Such an understanding of God is hard to fathom today. Indeed, the whole story of God's fighting with the Israelites to assure that they win the other battles with the Canaanites is just as hard to understand. We know that in the acts of warfare we have witnessed, one side may have a more nearly just cause, but sometimes these battles in the book of Joshua leave us unable and unwilling to share the outlook of the storytellers. God does not demand the slaughter of the entire population of a captured city-men, women, and children.

Two facts do come to our aid. First, the archaeological work done at Jericho makes it clear that there was not a walled town at the site during the time when Joshua is believed to have entered Canaan. Massive walls were dug up at Jericho, but they were destroyed about a thousand years earlier than Joshua. Probably, the biblical story developed from ceremonies that were regularly repeated at Jericho.

The other fact is the clear biblical and archaeological evidence that the Israelites settled into the land of Canaan by establishing alliances with the peoples of the land (see Joshua 9 for one such story), by struggles for freedom against some of the overlords of the city states of Canaan that ended with the Israelites in possession of land that once they had tended for the state landowners, and only occasionally by armed warfare. No doubt, Joshua did lead Israel's armies against some cities and destroy them. But much of the territory came into Israel's hands in peaceful ways.

Even so, the biblical stories are there, in our Bible, telling of God's demand that the people take the land of Canaan by bloody military conquest. We have no choice but to say that our biblical ancestors misunderstood the will of God, as people through the centuries have also done --indeed, as we have done! The biblical stories of destruction of lands and peoples in the name of God can be understood, but they cannot be accepted as guidelines for us today. Think, for example, of how Native Americans must feel when they read these stories. Will they not have to think of how their ancestors were conquered by white settlers convinced that God was giving them this new land? It is good that we can point out that the biblical record is exaggerated and that the Israelites actually settled in among their neighbors quite peaceably in many localities, and lived as good neighbors.

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 Scripture

JOSUAH    CHAPTER 6                                                                                  

Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in. 

The LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldiers. 

You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. 

When they make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead." 

So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark of the LORD." 

To the people he said, "Go forward and march around the city; have the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD." 

As Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. 

And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 

To the people Joshua gave this command: "You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall you utter a word, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout." 

So the ark of the LORD went around the city, circling it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp. 

Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 

The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD passed on, blowing the trumpets continually.  The armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. 

On the second day they marched around the city once and then returned to the camp. They did this for six days. 

On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 

And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city. 

The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent. 

As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it. 

But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD." 

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 

Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys. 

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house, and bring the woman out of it and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." 

So the young men who had been spies went in and brought Rahab out, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her--they brought all her kindred out--and set them outside the camp of Israel. 

They burned down the city, and everything in it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. 

But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 

Joshua then pronounced this oath, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be anyone who tries to build this city--this Jericho! At the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates!" 

So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

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