Joshua
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SAB: Joshua

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"So Joshua smote all the country ... he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded." -- Joshua 10:40

Joshua for Skeptics

If you believe in a God of peace, you won't much like the book of Joshua. Because Joshua's God is a God of war, and he isn't bothered by collateral damage. Rather, he insists upon it. "So Joshua ... utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded." (10:40)

And he's not just an innocent bystander either. He is an active combatant. "The Lord God fought for Israel." (10:42) God "slew them with a great slaughter" and even "chased them along the way." Sometimes he "threw down great stones from heaven," and once he even stopped the sun from moving so that he and the Israelites could finish all their killing before sundown. (10:10-12)

Here are a few highlights.

  • Joshua killed "everything that breathed" in each of the cities that he conquered, "as the Lord God of Israel commanded." 6:21, 8:24 - 40, 11:8 - 21

  • A family is stoned and burned to death (along with their animals) to punish the father (Achan) for looking at "the accursed thing." "So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger." 7:24-26

  • God gets right in and fights with the Israelites. He "slew them with a great slaughter" and even "chased them along the way." What a guy. 10:10

  • God threw down "great stones from heaven" so that he could kill even more people than the Israelites "slew with the sword." 10:11

  • God makes the sun and moon stand still so that Joshua could get all his killing done before dark. It was the first Daylight Savings Time. 10:12-13

  • "The Lord fought for Israel." 10:14

  • "For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly." 11:20

  • Remember that God "is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins." 24:19