June 26, 2011
Background Scripture: Joshua 5:13-6:27
Devotional Reading: Psalms 98:1-6
As I write this, it is just a few weeks after Easter and the celebration of the victory of Jesus (Yeshua), the Savior with a cross. But our lesson for this week is about Joshua (Yeshua), the savior with a sword. And I am troubled by the contrast.

Sometimes we ask if it was God’s plan for Jesus to die on a cross, and most of us decide that the cross was not a divine idea, but a human one. What God wanted was for Jesus to remain faithful to his mission – and that’s what Jesus wanted.

What Jesus’ enemies wanted was to eradicate this man and his teachings. But God was able to use this terrible human act to demonstrate that the Lord alone is able to turn defeat into victory.

Was it God’s will, then, not only to destroy Jericho but, worst of all, every living being in it? As presented in the Book of Joshua, it would seem the writer is answering with a resounding “yes” – God willed it. In fact, according to the writer, it was God, not the Israelites, who demanded total annihilation – except for Rahab and family.

A misunderstanding?

Assuming that the God of the sword is also the God of the cross, how can we handle that? Did God change His mind or His nature? Did Joshua misunderstand what God was telling him? Surely we wouldn’t ask if Jesus had misunderstood the Lord.

I can approach answers to these questions in two different ways. First, I can assume that while God did not change His mind, the world and humankind had changed. The world of Joshua was not as spiritually advanced as the world of Jesus 1,300 years later. Why did God wait 13 centuries to decide that the time for the incarnation had come?

One answer might be that the world was not ready until then. In the time of Joshua, God used the Israelites as the best means available to accomplish His will. Of course, that still leaves us with a house of cards. Would the God of Jesus have called for the obliteration of every living thing in Jericho (except the Rahab family)?

The second way would be to realize that when God reveals Himself to us, often through intermediaries such as Abraham, Moses and Joshua, the understanding of the recipient passes through his own thought-patterns and along the way, the revelation takes on some of the culture of the world.

The Jewish law was believed to have come as revelation from God, but Jesus said that the common understanding of the Sabbath law, was not what God intended. Jesus was not calling for the abolition of the law, but he was saying it was at least misunderstood.

A crucial problem

This problem is just as crucial (“crucial” coming from the word “cross”) for us as it was in ancient times. For several hundred years in America, many Christians believed that slavery was condoned by God. Did God change His mind? Did our forefathers misunderstand God’s will?

I believe the latter, because I see that lots of things that we accept as God’s will are, in reality, God’s will reshaped by human values. In most churches today men and women will be sitting next to each other. In the time of Jesus and Joshua, this would not have been so.

They were separated then because it was believed that was God’s will. We still see that cultural value in the Middle East and elsewhere. We see it also in Islam, but many Islamics believe that is not the will of Allah.
So what can we take from Joshua’s story that is relevant for us
as Christians in this century? Dwight E. Stevenson says the message of Joshua for us is “that of crossing new Jordans, entering new Canaans, subduing new enemies, enduring new hardships, resisting new temptation to plunder, remaining faithful against great odds.”

Joshua and his people exemplified all of those attributes and in our own time, we are called upon in the name of Christ to do so as well.

A farmer decided that God was calling him to preach. He was sent to three different churches and in succession, each complained to the bishop that this man was no preacher. So the bishop met with him and asked him about his call. The man said he had been plowing in the field and the clouds began to move and formed themselves into a giant “C: “Preach Christ!”

“Oh,” said the Bishop sadly, “I wish you had told me that earlier. ‘PC’ doesn’t mean ‘PREACH CHRIST.’ It means ‘PLANT CORN!’”

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.