So the plan was put into operation. The ark of the Lord went with them. Success can only come if the Lord is with us.
This went on for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around the city seven times. On the final circuit the people were commanded to shout. So Joshua had to ensure that they persisted in carrying out the task for seven days. He believed that God would give them victory, but he had to persist for seven days. If he had told them to shout for victory in the 1st or 3rd day it would have done no good. If he had given up after five days they would not have seen victory. We have to persist in carrying out the Lord's plans, victory will only come at the right time.
Rahab was to be saved, and the people were to ensure that they did not defile themselves with the devoted things.
The city and its walls fell and there was a wholesale slaughter of its inhabitants. This is difficult for us to take. What sort of God commands wholesale slaughter? There is no simple answer, but there are several things that can be said.
- The sins of the people had built up over many years, and this was not some nice quaint village. People will receive judgement for their sins. This is still true now as one can see at looking at Jesus' teaching on hell. There is a way to avoid this, namely by turning to Christ. Rahab was saved by helping the Israelites.
- There are some who way there is exaggeration here, and it was quite normal for terms such as complete destruction to be used when in fact what happened was just a very good victory. This may well be true (and indeed does seem to be supported by the Bible), but it does not get over the fundamental issue.
It seems best to day that the reason we object to this is that we object to the concept of God's judgement. We find it so difficult to accept that we do actually deserve hell, we do not realise the awfulness of sin. Our goal should be to fully appreciate the horror of sin, then we will focus more on salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment