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Everyone who has ever attended Sunday school has heard this famous Biblical account. What is overlooked in Sunday school is the passage after the walls fall down, “They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys” (Joshua 6:21). This is one of the more difficult passages in the Bible. It raises many questions, questions that are not easily answered. In fact, scholars today still debate them. Reading this section of the Bible, found in Joshua chapter 6, you ask yourself: how can we worship a God who permits His own people to slaughter innocents? How did the Israelites justify breaking one of the Ten Commandments (or ‘Words’ as is the more accurate translation)? If God is just, then how can he allow the slaughter of innocents? Is God really a just god? Such are the questions that come up whenever the slaughter at Jericho is brought up. Further seemingly brutal violence is found within God’s own people. If you read on an Israelite named Achan steals some of the bounty from Jericho when God commanded them not too. He was stoned along with his whole family! God seems to be a violent, harsh god in these passages. How can this be if He is supposed to be the God of love, compassion and mercy? Israel, at this point in their history is very young as a nation and a people. Actually, it can be argued that they didn’t emerge as an actual people until the Exodus. The people of Israel were the children of those who marched out of Egypt and crossed the Reed Sea. God was willing to give their parents the land 40 years earlier but the people were afraid of the inhabitants of that land and they doubted Yahweh. Thus, they were doomed to wander the desert for forty years and therefore not enter the Promised Land that their children would inherit in Joshua’s time. Joshua was hand picked by God to lead the people into Canaan. Way back in Numbers chapter 13, God shows that he is special by having Moses change his name from Hoshea to Joshua which means Yahweh saves. When Moses died the Lord told Joshua to take the people and go into the land that he had chosen for them. This is Yahweh’s call for the obedience of Joshua and his people. What is Joshua’s reaction? His reaction is found in Joshua 1:10-11, “So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD you God is given you for your own.’” So Joshua does not question, he does not doubt, he does not hesitate and he does not falter in the task given to him. He simply goes and does it. This is an example of his great faith in God which we must assume is based on his time with Moses and his experience in Egypt since Joshua definitely was one of the ones who was present and would remember the events in Egypt and at the Reed Sea. So the children of Israel go forth into the land of Canaan and there they are met with the challenge of the great city of Jericho. Joshua, therefore, sends two spies to investigate Jericho. These two spies would have been found out, put to death and their accounts never heard if it were not for a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab, whose story we will look into later. In order, to show the children of Israel that this victory will be by Yahweh’s own hand He gives them a very peculiar method to go about razing the city. He says in Joshua chapter 6 verse 3: March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets…in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times…When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse. Without a doubt this is one of the more peculiar war tactics ever heard of. However, Joshua, being a loyal servant of Yahweh does not hesitate but does as the Lord commands. One of the reasons Yahweh has his people conquer Jericho in this bizarre way is to show them and the people of Canaan that this victory is not Israel’s but the LORD”S! Thus the people of Israel, seeing the walls of Jericho falling down and that their faith has rewarded them, march into the city and kill every living thing. They utterly annihilate Jericho! They destroy all the people and livestock. It seems to be a very gruesome and brutal scene in the Old Testament. However, Yahweh’s will does come about and the people are victorious! What are we to think of this event? Is He a god of love or a god of violence? Does God allow his people to get away with breaking one of his laws? The answer is no. If we look further into the Bible we see that Yahweh actually commanded his people to slaughter all the living things of the city. He says, “And when the LORD your God has delivered them [speaking of the nations occupying the Promised Land] to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally… and show them no mercy” (Deuteronomy 7:2). Now what do we say to that? Not only does the Lord condone this violence but he is also the instigator of it. It was His command to His people! This is the issue we must look into if we are not to doubt the Bible’s authenticity or the authority and legitimacy of LORD’S own word. This is an issue of much debate among scholars and theologians. One scholar, Paul Heinisch calls this story “one of the imperfections of the Old Testament” (Heinisch 214). This is a very troubling thing to Christians who are supposed to believe that the Bible never contradicts itself and that our God is a good and just god. We must first, then, look at it from Israel’s point of view. They were told by God that this city (and others later in their conquest) would fall in a miraculous way and they were to utterly destroy all the inhabitants of that city. What then did they know about God? They knew He was their god, at least of their clan (Israel), but they also knew that He was the god over all as He had proved with His dealing with the Egyptians a few decades earlier. So they did not doubt His power, but what about His love? Did they even think He was a loving God? Of course they must have, for they knew that He demanded love from them for that is the first commandment and the second is that they should love their neighbor as they loved themselves. Then what did they think when Yahweh told them that the way they were going to love their neighbor’s in Jericho was to annihilate them entirely? Obviously, they must have thought this to be insane, right? In all reality, however, they probably didn’t. At that time in history the practice of ‘herem’ or utter destruction of a city was the way conquests were carried out. For example, “Surley you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely” (2 Kings 19:11). There is evidence that other countries were ‘completely destroyed’ when they were conquered, so this act would not be all that alarming to the Israelites. Furthermore, in their society something which was found to be impure or against Yahewh would be declared ‘herem’ or banned for ordinary use or contact. A city which turned away from or was in defiance of Yahweh would be declared a ‘herem’ and must be ‘heremized’ (Hamlin 52). It was simply the way conquests were carried out at the time. It must also be emphasized that this destruction had nothing to do with political reasoning it was purely a religious act. We cannot therefore compare it with other acts of conquest in which the motives behind them were purely for political or military reasons (Davis 49). We also know that while this appears to be the act of genocide it really was not that at all. The Israelites were not commanded to destroy entire races of people, they were only to destroy those occupying their land. This is known because this event is not the end of nations such as the Canaanites or the Amorites, because in Judges 3:5 we see the Israelites living with the Canaanites and Amorites as well as other pagan nations. So this had nothing to do with race it was simply God giving this land to His people and making sure that it was truly theirs by removing all other people in the land. There is also, the view that maybe the slaughter of the people of Jericho is not the emphasis of this story. Let’s look again at the prostitute, Rahab. She was the epitome of everything Canaanite. She was a prostitute and a woman, who should have had no rights anyway. However, she and her family were the only ones spared, why? Well, she hid the spies sent by Joshua and saved their lives, in return they promised that only those of her household would be spared. After the fall of Jericho, she (along with the rest of her family), were accepted as full members of the Israelite community. It has been suggested that the climax of the story of Jericho is not the fall of the city but the salvation of Rahab (Hamlin 153). This sounds a lot more like our God. A God who focuses not on the destruction of a city but who rejoices in the salvation of just one family. The story is beginning to make more sense if we focus on the good parts but it still does not justify the slaughter of an entire city. Does anything justify this act of extreme violence? Well, as odd as it may seem this act is in a way showing mercy to the Israelites. Yahweh is omniscient. He knows all. He knows that were the people in the land of Canaan allowed to remain there they would influence the children of Israel to stray from the way of the LORD. As Irving Jensen, a professor at Moody Bible Institute puts it, “The annihilation of the entire population of Canaanite cities was purposed by God to purge the land of the Israelites future dwelling place of all the corruption of its heathen polytheism” (Jensen 63). Evidence of this can be found in the Bible “you must destroy them totally… for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’S anger will burn against you” (Deuteronomy 7:2-4). Yahweh then is trying to save His people from falling away from His way by removing the temptation of evil from their land. As brutal as it may seem this is an act of grace by Yahweh because He knows how week humans are and how easily we can be influenced to go against His will. Actually later in the Old Testament we see the abominable practices of other nations polluting Israel (Hamlin 154). For example, in 2 Kings 23:7 King Josiah, when renewing the covenant, tears down the quarters that housed “male shrine prostitutes,” which had become a religious practice. This was a common thing among pagan religions but was loathed by God. Also just prior to Josiah’s time King Manasseh, who was Judah’s most evil king, “sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted with mediums and spiritists” (2 Kings 21:6). Which again is evidence of pagan religions influencing Israel’s people. This is what Yahweh was attempting to spare His people from when He had them slaughter all the inhabitants of the cities of Canaan. This event shows the LORD’S view of the “unmixability of sin and holiness” (Jensen 69). Not that Israel was holy, they were merely His chosen people and were to strive for holiness. More evidence is shown that the LORD emphasizes the fact that the ‘unholy’ must be purged from the land in the next chapter of Joshua when Achan, of the tribe of Judah, takes some of the spoils from the fallen city of Jericho. Joshua and his army suffer a bitter defeat at the city of Ai because they are not pure. One among them has sinned against Yahweh, so before Yahweh will deliver any more cities to them they must purge their nation of its unholy member. Achan is found out to be the guilty one, and just like Jericho, he is punished. Achan and his entire family are stoned to death! This may seem cruel but as we have just seen in the previous chapter the LORD will not stand for unholiness around or among His people. This also emphasizes that these destruction of Jericho is no crueler a fate than the one that Yahweh pronounces on one of His own people when they sin against Him (Pink 207). “All sin reaps judgement” (Jensen 69), regardless of who you are, you must answer to God, for He is pure and it is His sovereign right to punish the wicked. One of the most justifiable reasons for the slaughter in Joshua is that of divine judgment. It is an accepted fact in the Christian faith that God and God alone has the right to judge His children. God is a divine and just judge. There is evidence of this especially in the Old Testament where His people live under The Law, but also in the New Testament there are many passages describing the Day of Judgment when God’s final judgement shall be pronounced on all of humanity. Throughout the Old Testament Yahweh punishes the wicked. In Genesis 6 and 7 Yahweh punishes the whole of the earth for its wickedness when He floods the earth. Later in chapter 11 he causes men to speak in different tongues to punish them for trying to reach God in the Tower of Babel. One of the more famous incidents of God’s divine judgement can be found in Genesis 19, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. These two cities were so wicked that “the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 19:24). The story of Jericho is like that of Sodom and Gomorrah. This was not an act of violent conquest by Israel but an act of judgment by God, who uses Israel as his instrument of judgment. God knew that He would have to punish the people of Canaan when He told Arbraham “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16). Yahweh told Abraham that He would judge the people of that land and He fulfilled that promise with Joshua. Remember, God could have destroyed Jericho and all the cities in the land of Canaan anyway He wanted to. He could have brought famine, pestilence, earthquake or even rained fire down on them, but He chose to use His people as the vehicle of Canaan’s judgment. If the LORD had asked an angel to come down and punish Jericho, as He did against the Assyrian army in 2 Kings 19:35 would people worry about the morality of it? Of course not! No body doubts the morality of an angel. The fact is that God wanted to use His people to judge the cities in Canaan, probably as a test of faith and to show His people what happens when you put your faith in God. God’s justice was then poured out in Jericho and His people were no more than instruments of His judgment. Does that effect us today in the twenty-first century? Yes, very much so. An issue very much connected with the account of Jericho is; why does God allow tragedies today? For a Christian, explaining an event like September 11th is extremely difficult because the question is often posed: why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? This is a very valid question, one that is very often faith shaking and sadly in some instances faith shattering. If we believe in God, then in light of tragedies such as September 11th, we must believe that, “Either God is not the agent in these calamities…or they must consist with the most perfect goodness” (Pink 175). In all mass tragedies and national disasters innocents get hurt. How can God, who teaches of His love for us, allow that? This question is very difficult to answer. Obviously, we can never know what God has in store for us and can never truly understand Him. The finite can never grasp the infinite. We can, however, get an idea. Yahweh is a god of the ‘Big Picture,’ He knows the future, and furthermore, He knows how the events of today will influence the future. For example, the high school students who were shot and killed in the tragic “Columbine Shootings,” were thought to have died a tragic death. However, hundreds of people came to Christ because one girl in that event who stood up for her beliefs and admitted to being a Christian and was shot for it. No one, thought any good could come of that tragic incident but some good did come of it and God knew that it would. Does that mean that the good things that come from tragic events make the events themselves worthwhile? Do they pay themselves off in the end? Only God can answer those questions. We can never truly know, for it is not for us to judge. Only God is the one true judge. He is the sovereign just LORD, He is our Creator and as such He is justified in all of His acts. His actions were justified in the book of Joshua and they are justified today! Now the question is posed, what right have we to question God? I believe that answer is that we have every right to question God. In Exodus chapters 3 and 4 Moses questions God, and God answers his question’s not with anger but with new insights into His character and personality. Revelations which include the divine name of Yahweh! God welcomes questions, because it means we are taking His word seriously and are meditating on it enough to find areas that bring questions to our mind. Yahweh reveals Himself in mysterious ways, and one of those ways is questioning Him. Not questioning Him in defiance but genuinely asking “why?” The answer may not always be so clear to the finite mind, but it helps paint a better picture of who Yahweh is. He is righteous! He has given us everything and yet we still knowingly sin against Him. This alone is reason for Him to declare ‘herem’ on us. He could have, and maybe should have but He didn’t. Instead He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us so that we, like Rahab could be accepted as full members of His children. Was Israel right in their actions to annihilate all of the inhabitants of Jericho and the other Canaanite cities? Yes, they acted on a direct order from Yahweh and they were acting as instruments of His judgement. God was the protagonist in this event, not Israel; they were merely the tool that He used. Is God a just god? The answer is… absolutely! He alone knew the big picture and how the events at Jericho would affect the rest of history. He alone knows how the events of today will affect what is to come. Dare we question him? Yes, because Yahweh has a true desire for us to know Him personally and have a personal relationship with Him. How can we do that without asking questions and studying His word? We can’t. In the end it comes down to the fact that He is in contro1, He is always right and He is a just god! Bibliography: Works Cited Davis, John J. Conquest and Crisis: Studies in Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. BMH Books. Vinona Lake, Indiana. 1969. Hamlin, John E. Joshua - Inheriting the Land. Wm. B Eerdman’s Publishing Co. Grand Rapids MI, 1983. Jensen, Irving L. Joshua: Rest-Land Won. Moody Press: Chicago IL, 1966. Paul Heinisch, Theology of Old Testament. Liturgical Press. St. Paul MN, 1955. Pink, Arthur W. Gleanings in Joshua. Moody Press: Chicago IL, 1964. Yahweh. The Holy Bible: New International Version. Broadman &Holman Publishers: Nashville, TN, 1973 Word Count: 3471
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