PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Joshua 11-12
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed…” (Joshua 11:11)
This was a very different world than our world today.
This kind of violence and bloodshed was normal then, by all people.
The northern kings would have done the very same back to them.
Our world has been shaped by Jesus and the teaching of Jesus.
Jesus introduced the new arrangement (covenant), which was very different.
Instead of killing one’s enemies, Jesus taught to love one’s enemies.
I am not saying that Jesus disagreed with God, or was different from God.
But I am saying that things changed after He came.
God worked through sinful humans in the bloody mess of the world.
But when the time was right, He chose to end the bloody mess.
He did this by enduring it in Jesus, taking it upon Himself, to break the cycle.
The gruesomeness of the old covenant reminds us of what a bloody mess our world is.
The gruesomeness of the Jesus’s death reminds us what God has to endure to save us.
God works through the bloody mess to end it; we are saved to love, not kill our enemies!
PRAYER
Lord, I cannot stomach what happens in these chapters; what must it do to You? You not only see it, You experienced it so that I might have rest. Thank You for bringing an end to this bloody mess.
Ethnic cleansing. Still happens -we see it with the Rahingya people pushed out of Myanmar – I witnessed it in the ‘them’ and us attitude growing up. I know God had said he would punish the peoples living in Canaan and that is what Moses and Joshua did to make room for Israel – the nation that was to be a nation of priests – to be a blessing. Yet, evil is real and war is real – it exists because of sin – and sin has a ugly price of death – death which Jesus paid for all who believe. Jesus was an Israelite – he became the source of blessing for all peoples – for all who believe.
In touch with the Lord God. Joshua listened and did Moses before Him. ‘Not my will but Yours be done.’ God created His people tp serve Him but as we see time nd time again the people listened to their own voice. Yet they came back to Him because of their leader. As the leader went so did the people. May our leaders today also open their ears to hear His voice and walk in His way.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.