Joshua 16

Joshua 16:10

But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and they became forced laborers.

Again, the people failed to do as God commanded, and left some of the inhabitants alive.  However, this time it wasn't a failure to conquer them, as it has been with Jerusalem.  Here it appears that the Canaanites were defeated, just not destroyed or forced out.  Instead, some kind of treaty was made, and they became workers for the new inhabitants.

This brings back some earlier issues that I've discussed before.  Leaving the inhabitants alive was not allowed by God, presumably for two reasons.  First, God brought back the Israelites to punish the inhabitants for their evil, and the punishment was not carried out if they still lived.  Second, their remaining exposes the Israelites to their false religions, allowing for contamination of the truth that God had given them.  The Israelites are setting themselves up for what will later befall them.

Joshua 15

Joshua 15:63

Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.

Why couldn't the Israelites drive out the Jebusites?  This is the first time that a failure to eliminate the inhabitants is mentioned, where there was no sin or lack of trying.  It seems that the tribe of Judah tried to take Jerusalem, and failed.  Why did God allow this?

I personally have two theories, though I don't really believe the first.  That first theory is that God intentionally left them be so that David could take the city later, and who his prowess.  However, I don't believe that because it doesn't fit with the command to drive everyone out, and who knows what contamination to the people the Jebusites caused in the mean time.  My second theory is that Judah didn't try long/hard enough.  We know that Jerusalem was a city with very good defensive positioning.  To assault it was nearly impossible without first tricking them into coming out to fight, which would mean they had to besiege it.  I'm guessing that they gave up the siege too soon, and that God would have given them the victory if they had persevered.  Since they did not, they now have to live with the consequences for generations.

Joshua 14

Joshua 14:11

I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.

As He had done for Moses before, God has preserved Caleb physically.  Forty-five years gone by, and he still has the same health as before.  It's likely that Joshua has been similarly "preserved."

God didn't really have to do this.  He had promised that land to Caleb, but He could easily have made it so that the people as a whole conquered it, and then Caleb was simply given possession.  But that's now how God arranged things.  He gave Caleb the strength to go himself and drive out the inhabitants, so that he would also know that God had saved him for this time.  When God wants someone to do something, He gives him the tools necessary.

Joshua 13

Joshua 13:13

But the sons of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurites or the Maacathites; for Geshur and Maacath live among Israel until this day.

God had commanded the people to destroy all the inhabitants of the land, but they apparently didn't do this.  They had made a treaty with the one tribe, against God's will, but all others were to be destroyed.  How different would the Israelites' history have been if they had followed this command, and removed all others from the land?  How much of the trouble and testings they went through would have proven unnecessary if they had?  Would they have clung to God better, with fewer outsiders to pollute their culture and religion?

We today are called to be set apart in the world, yet we are surrounded by the world.  We can't disconnect from it like they should have, but we are called to the same purity.  I hope we learn from their mistakes, and don't allow the evil influences to infiltrate our lives.

Joshua 12

Joshua 12:24

the king of Tirzah, one:  in all, thirty-one kings.

After the quick conquest described in the past chapter, it's easy to overlook the significance of what the Israelites did.  They've now taken out 31 kings, which means 31 nations.  Given that these were small, fractious nations, it's not as significant as some might think (31 "kings" would be most of the western hemisphere, for example), but still is notable.

This is an army that has been in exile for 40 years, with no support base to be seen, and relatively few battles fought.  Now they have taken the territory of over thirty peoples and united it into a single domain, and from all appearances they've lost very few people in the process.  This is now a large country for the area, and in a key strategic location.  In some ways, they've become a new superpower, especially with God on their side.

Joshua 11

Joshua 11:20

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

It always bugs me when I come across a passage where God says He has caused someone to seek their own destruction.  For some reason, my reaction always bothers me, though.  Today, in my opinion, most Christians tend to get overly hung up on God being focused on love.  I've always been one who isn't bothered by the fact that God does not save everyone, or that He knows who will live.  In the Old Testament times, this is even more true, but the Jews were His chosen people, and the rest were essentially stuck.

But it still bothers me when the text describes God as forcing someone to do something against their own best interests, like when Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go, or here where the kings would not consider peace.  I guess I just don't like the idea of God choosing someone's path for them, apparently removing their free will.  While I accept that not everyone will be saved, I still believe that everyone should have that choice, conscious or otherwise.  The idea that God does not give that choice to some is disturbing.  I realize that this is Old Testament times, as I said above, and these people are essentially doomed already, but that doesn't mean I like dwelling upon the results.

Joshua 10

Joshua 10:11

As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones that those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

This just impresses me.  This, and a couple other miraculous things God did in this battle, show His direct intervention for Israel like never before.  This is the fourth battle of the invasion, and for the first He very clearly was with them, and gave them the city without a shot being fired.  For the second, they messed up, so God went against them and they were defeated despite numerical superiority.  For the third, they corrected their error, and God gave them victory in a much more conventional battle.

Now for the fourth battle, they are counterattacking, and defeat their enemies handily.  However, God doesn't just want these people defeated, able to run back to their cities and fort up.  He wants them smashed, so He steps in more directly.  Here He kills more with hailstones than the Israelite army had.  He makes sure their ranks are decimated during the retreat, so that their cities will be so understaffed that they can't provide any effective defense.

Joshua 9

Joshua 9:23

Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."

The basic sentiment of this verse is repeated several times in the chapter, but this one caught my attention.  First, it refers to the people as cursed, and gives their punishment.  Today, if someone makes an promise based upon false pretenses, most people would simply consider the promise invalid.  However, the Israelites kept the promise, because it had been sworn to God.  Even the treachery of the other side did not remove them from being bound by their word to God.

However, the liars did not get off unpunished.  They are described as cursed, and the punishment will be perpetual, to all their descendents, because they lied.  However, they are given a specific duty, and it's one that will keep them in proximity to the Temple.  Even though they are not believers, and have lied, they are made to work around God's holy place.  Normally, wouldn't someone cursed be forbidden from approaching the temple?  Their mere presence would be seen by many as a pollution of the place's purity.  But that is where they are assigned.

Why do this?  I have two theories.  First, it means that the Israelites themselves would not have to do this low duty, which frees them for other works.  Second, their constant proximity to the Temple would allow them to learn the ways of God, and perhaps come to believe and/or worship Him as the Israelites do.  While this is just theorizing, I hope that I'm right, and that these treacherous people eventually came to know God as the one true God.

Joshua 8

Joshua 8:26

For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Why did Joshua keep his hand outstretched?  Before, it appeared that the javelin being extended was simply the signal for the ambushers to attack.  When Moses held his hands up, it was guidance from the Lord, and they would lose the battle when he put his hands down.  No similar inference is made here, so why does he do it?

I guess that either he takes God's command to extend the javelin as an indication that he is to continue to do so until the conquering has been completed, or else he did it as a show of command for the people to not stop the slaughter.  My personal feeling is toward the latter, since even bloodthirty men can grow tired of it after a time.  By keeping the javelin extended, he's showing that they're not done yet, and there is still work left that God has commanded them to do.

Joshua 7

Joshua 7:19

The Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God if Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done.  Do not hide it from me."

This last Sunday, the lesson in the E&E class I'm in was regarding worship.  We talked about the different types of worship, but I don't recall this being on the list.  From how I'm reading this, Joshua is saying that confession is a form of praise.  How does this work?

I can only speculate here, and this is not my area of expertise.  But my guess would be that we don't confess to someone who we don't trust, or that has no bearing on the situation.  When we confess to the one we have wronged, it is because we know we have done wrong.  That knowledge comes from God Himself, because He created the law we broke.  Also, we are asking forgiveness, which He has the power to grant (not that He did in this case).  We are acknowledging God's sovereignty over us, which is a form of praise.

Joshua 6

Joshua 6:20

So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

Back the engineering side of my brain.

The walls fell flat.  That's, of course, miraculous, but the significance is probably missed by most people.  When a wall is normally destroyed during a siege, it's basically crumbled to destruction.  It's taken apart, piece by piece, until there's not enough left to hold together.  That didn't happen here.  Instead, the wall came down as a unit, in one piece.  The only breaks were probably at joins between sections, vertically split, to allow for it to come apart in collapse.  It might be better to say it was knocked over, rather than fell down.

Also, the men were able to walk in, each going straight ahead.  Again, that's not normal.  When a wall is breached, only a small part is clear.  The men must all funnel through that breach, causing a bottleneck where the defenders can still rally a defense.  As anyone out there who has seen The Two Towers should realize, a breach can still be fought for.  However, in this case, there was no breach.  There was just no wall left.  The defenders had no bottleneck to try to hold, they just had no wall left, and it would have suddenly looked much like our modern cities.  With each man able to walk straight ahead, you're fighting an open-field battle, which means the larger force is almost certain to win.  Since it says the walls fell down flat, it's even possible the stones of the wall embedded themselves into the ground so that the Israelites didn't even have to climb up and over them to go in.

Joshua 5

Joshua 5:8

Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

The other day I had my engineering brain going.  Today, it's tactical brain.

As was previously mentioned in Genesis, circumcision as an adult basically takes you out of it for a few days.  In those days, you're not good for much of anything, far less fighting.  If the Canaanites had realized what was happening and launched an attack in those couple days, they could have obliterated the Israelites without much difficulty.  From a tactical viewpoint, it would have been much safer for them to have been circumcised before crossing the Jordan.

However, God saw to it that they were safe.  The word of their crossing had gotten out, and the inhabitants were terrified.  Rather than band together and attack immediately, they pulled in their horns and forted up in their cities.  God used their fear to give the Isrealites the time they needed.  He used this as the staging ground to consecrate the people to Him more directly, while showing that He would protect them in danger.

Joshua 4

Joshua 4:6

Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?'

Children somehow seem more inquisitive in Jewish culture than ours.  I've participated in a couple of Passover celebrations, and the child is always the one asking key questions.  Looking around, and remembering back to when I was a kid, it seems that today's children aren't that inquisitive.  They may see something unusual or interesting, but it gets filed away as "cool."  There isn't that next step of analysis, to ask why.  Now, I will grant that my own childhood is far enough away that my memory is spotty, and since I have no kids of my own, maybe I'm just missing those moments where they do ask why.

However, it is important to ask those "why" questions.  Without them, there is only the present, being lived without regard for the future or past.  I fall into this trap too often myself, or else look to the future with crazy hypotheticals that will never happen.  Too rarely do I look upon something and wonder how it came to be, or why it is there, much less what will become of it.  Even those times when I do look back, it is difficult for me to then take that knowledge and apply it forward.  In this case, the "why" is so that those who come later, weren't there, will know what God did, and through it believe in His power.  Where else do I see God's evidence, and yet not see?

Joshua 3

Joshua 3:16

the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.

OK, my nerd/engineer brain engaged on this verse.  What caught my interest is the description of how the waters stopped.  When I think of crossing the Jordan, the picture that comes to mind is similar to that of crossing the Red Sea in "The Ten Commandments."  I see a big wall of water on both sides of this skinny little dry ground.  Maybe the river just stops flowing, and goes into stasis with a dry line through it.

However, that's not what happened.  Instead, the water is still flowing, but God has created a supernatural dam upstream to hold back the waters.  The water is piling up higher and high up at Adam, and downstream from there, the river is more or less drying up naturally, as the water downstream from Adam continues to flow.  Meanwhile, the water is getting deeper/taller upstream, waiting for when it will be released, while downstream the river is just steadily drying up.  I wouldn't want to be near that river when the "dam" goes away...

Joshua 2

Joshua 2:4

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.

Once again, the Lord's work is done through sin.  A harlot (prostitute) takes in spies (treason, though I don't blame her for that part) and lies about them.  Yet this woman is chosen as a direct ancestor of David, and through him Jesus.

These stories where people sin "to do God's will" always bug me, but I think this one may be near the top of my annoyance list.  In most of the cases, it's somebody sinning because they thought God wasn't going to help them, so they had to take care of it themselves.  This one at least makes some sense, because Rahab isn't an Israelite, doesn't know the Law, and is doing this to save herself and her family from God's direct condemnation.  However, I have to wonder what would have happened if she had told the truth?  Would the spies have escaped, or been caught and executed?  If they had gotten away, how?  What would have happened to Rahab as a result?  Would God have saved someone else from Jericho, or would David's genealogy just have been a bit different on the descendants list?

Joshua 1

Joshua 1:7

Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

At first glance, it appears that the semicolon between the first and second parts of this sentence is misplaced.  The second and third parts go together.  They both talk about remaining faithful to the Law, so it would make sense that they would be linked.  But what does being strong and courageous have to do with it?

I have a theory on this.  The strength and courage that God is referring to here is not what we might first think of.  It's not the strength of arms, or courage in the face of battle, at least not exclusively.  It's also the strength of character, the courage to face adversity and remain true to the commands we have been given.  It's about keeping your promise to God, even when the way would seem easier if you just took this shortcut.  It's about continuing to rely on him, even when you outnumber the enemy.  If your courage falters, or your moral strength withers, you will turn from God's path, and you will fail

Deuteronomy 34

Deutermonomy 34:7

Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.

Today, when we think of Moses, we tend to think in terms of something like Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments," a man who is not quite "old" yet, but well on his way.  Certainly not a man who was still as able as he was in middle-age.  Even if he kept the same level physically as when we was called at the burning bush, he had been near 80 at the time.

However, in this case, it appears that he was perhaps still physically in his 40's or so.  He was still able to see fine, which I can attest from personal experience isn't the simplest thing even for young people today.  And he still had the vigor, the energy we would say, of someone much younger.  He didn't hobble about with a cane or a walker, and I don't think he needed his staff for support.  If he had been commanded to lead the armies of Israel, he probably could have acquitted himself well.

This was apparently not normal for people of his age at the time, as we have seen before that people's lifespans decreased after the flood.  120 may have been the record-holder on earth at that time, though we certainly don't know that.  God gave him the physical abilities to do what He wanted done, and he died in fine form, without being debilitated or broken.

Now it's up to the people to carry on without him.

Deuteronomy 33

Deuteronomy 33:5

"And He was king in Jeshurun,
When the heads of the people were gathered,
The tribes of Israel together.

First off, the easy part.  According to a footnote in my Bible on verse 26, Jeshurun means Israel.  I guess it's some kind of rarely-used name or translation.

This verse speaks of a good time in Israel's history, when God was their direct ruler.  He was their king, with no human ruler over them.  The people still had leaders, but God was in charge.  I guess the heads of the people were more like city councilors or judges today, where they saw to administrative affairs and local issues, and ruled on disputes, but they did not make the law.

Also, when God was the king, the people were united.  Israel was a single nation, gathered in one place, while God was in charge.  There are two sides to this coin that would be told out through history.  First, when God was obeyed and in charge, the people were there, unified.  They were secure and satisfied as long as they recognized God's authority.  However, at the same time, when God was ignored, or "deposed," the people were scattered.  This would be seen through in Israel's later history, but not for centuries.  When they refuted God, He in turn abandoned them to others, and they lost their land and unity.

Deuteronomy 32

Deuteronomy 32:27

Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,
That their adversaries would misjudge,
That they would say, "Our hand is triumphant,
And the Lord has not done all this." '

I forget who it was that originally penned "There, but for the grace of God, go I."  Whoever it was, I've used that old saw enough in my time, either spoken or mentally, to have probably robbed it of some of its meaning.  However that works, this verse brings another aspect of our being spared to light.  An aspect we probably don't consider frequently enough.

Humans are generally not known for thinking in monotheistic terms, when it comes down to it.  From the times of the primitives, man has always worshiped something or other as supernatural, and given that something credit when things go their way.  If you beat the other guy, you give praise to your god, and go on and on about how he has been proven superior to the other guy's god.  However, they don't think about the other guy's god having decided that they had screwed up, and needed to be taught a lesson.  After all, why would your god give you over to the other guy's god, instead of using his own direct power to straighten you out?

Instead of "but for the grace of God," this verse shows it as "but for the foresight of God."  Rather than his being gracious, he's applying his knowledge of human nature.  If God had destroyed the Israelites, who would have been left to worship Him?  The other side wouldn't have decided that God was supreme if they defeated His people.  Instead, they would say that He had been weak, unable to even save His people from them.  So this restraint on God's part is a method of...well, not self-preservation, but maybe self-worship preservation.  If He got rid of everyone who failed Him, using others as His tools, there would be no one left for Him to consider worth saving before long.

Deuteronomy 31

Deuteronomy 31:8

The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed."

This is one of those verses that I always hate when someone talks about.  No matter how serious they are when they say it, or how many illustrations of its truth are used, it always seems to come across to me as trite.  One of those things that a "good Christian" is supposed to say whenever the slightest uncertainty arises.  I always hate those, and have never been able to figure out if I hate them so much because of how silly it sounds when viewed from a non-believer's perspective, or just because it's used so often that it's been cheapened to the point where it loses its power.

However, right now this is of some comfort to me.  The company I work for has been bought by a place in Milwaukee, and I don't know what's going to happen to my job once the acquisition process is complete.  On top of that, my roommate will probably be moving out by the end of the year, after my other roommate's temporary absence became permanent, so when I let my guard down on such things, I'm feeling rather lonely and vulnerable.  This verse does help, especially in the context of being said to Joshua as he faced a new experience.  I can only pray and hope that my path be as clear as his was.