Skip to main content

Joshua 11:12-15 - Summary of Israel's conquest - Day 190

As Jonathan pointed out in recent sermon (originally from 3/15/21) , judgment day is an important concept and something we cannot shy away from.  Today's passage is a "small judgment day" that took place over years of conquest of Canaan.  Using Israel to temporarily put things right points to the day when God will put all things right.  I hope consideration of this passage makes us all more aware of God's holiness.

Blessiings,

Jeff

Repetition of "all that the LORD had commanded Moses."  Observations & comments:

Israel was carrying out the divine judgment of the various Canaanite peoples.  This was not genocide as we think of it.  Murdering groups of people based on ethnicity or race is not condoned.  Executing people for what they have actually done (human sacrifice, gross immorality) is retribution.  God had allowed these people groups to occupy the Promised Land for hundreds of years.  Much as He had allowed man to go astray prior to the flood. Noahic covenant not to destroy all mankind again by water is not a promise not to judge nations.  

God does not require perfection in the nation(s) He used to carry out His judgment at various times in history.  Israel was not morally perfect, but they were God's chosen instrument to carry out justice on the Canaanite cultures.  Centuries later, the Assyrians and Babylonians were pagan but God used them in executing judgment on Israel and Judah.  Imperfect human government is used to carry out judgment on individual law breakers.  

While nations carrying out some of the genocides that have happened in the last 100 years may have claimed divine authority based on passage such as this, God has not repeated this command.  Therefore, all genocides since OT time are mass murder and therefore unbiblical and unjust.

However, that does not mean sin is insignificant.  Every sin is cosmic rebellion and deserves divine condemnation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 30:16-20 Hearts set to seek the Lord - Day 359

Good morning fellow members of the household of God, After writing the devotional, I am thinking about the Passover as a household event.  In ancient Israel, the physical household of man was covered by the blood of the lamb.  Now, it is the spiritual household of God that is covered by the blood of the Lamb. Blessings, Jeff The account of the greatest celebration of Passover since time of Solomon (v 26).   Observations: One of the things that made this one great is participation of some of the tribes from the northern kingdom.  Israel was a united kingdom and Solomon and now toward the end of the northern kingdom, there is at least a semblance of being united. God allows some exemptions: Who offers the sacrifice:  The original Passover was a family by family sacrifice of a lamb.  However in  Deuteronomy 16:5-6 this changed to a centralized location once they entered the promised land.  (You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Chronicles 35:23-26 Lament for the last good king - Day 364

Good morning fellow exiles and pilgrims, One more day of devotions.  We are indeed exiles and pilgrims in this world as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  The 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks can serve as a reminder that this world is not our home. Blessings, Jeff The lamentations for Josiah written by Jeremiah.  However, the book of Lamentations does not include any reference to Josiah as they are focused on the fall of Jerusalem.  While these lost lamentations were "made the rule" there are only 4 more kings and none of them were good like Josiah and none died in Jerusalem.  The phrase "to this day" generally refers to the time of the author (post exile).  Taken together, it may be that these laments were for the last good king and during the exile the people were longing for the next good king. Zerubbabel in a way was the next good king as temple and Jerusalem were rebuilt. But Jesus truly was the next king and He...
Post a Comment
Read more