What's Your God Language?
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Good morning, Gateway!
Scripture: Psalm 46.
Prayer
Intro
Good morning! Connection cards, introduce yourself.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde was published by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. It’s about a kind Doctor Henry Jeckyll who drinks a serum and becomes evil Edward Hyde. Stevenson was fascinated by human nature and how one person could grapple with good and evil within themselves. The story become so popular that “Jeckyll and Hyde” has become a common phrase even today.
Maybe you’re reading the Bible and you think, God is kinda like Jeckyll and Hyde. God in the Old Testament SEEMS angry and violent, causing a flood, striking down his enemies, getting angry at his people, commanding his people to wipe out other people groups. And then we get to the New Testament, and God takes his happy pills and becomes Jesus. Kind, submissive, gentle, and lowly, blonde haired blue eyed guy who cuddles with lambs and leads your kids Awana class.
Is God different from the Old and New Testament? Does he change? As Christians we say resoundingly, NO, but at the same time, we’re Americans in 2022 reading our Bibles and we can be legitimately confused. How do I square the God I read about in the OT with the Jesus I read in the New?
We’re calling 2022 the Year of Biblical Exploration, inviting you to read through the Bible Jan-Dec Genesis thru Revelation to see how this is
The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.
The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.
How do I connect the God who tells Joshua, as Marissa just read, go and take out those people, with the Jesus who says, “those who live by the sword die by the sword”? How is this one unified story when it seems like God commands genocide? Does God actually command his people to wipe out an entire nation of people, to invade their land just because of their nationality…or in other words, is God just like Putin?
This morning we’re going to be in the book of Joshua. And if you’re never felt uncomfortable reading Joshua, read it again. The goal of this sermon is not to make us feel perfectly content about warfare in the Bible, but to at least clarify some things about what really is going on, how this connects to Jesus, and what it means for us today.
And I think Joshua is hugely important for our Christian witness, because if you have friends who you want to know Jesus, or maybe friends who are walking with Jesus, or maybe you yourself might come to passages like this and say, “I cannot follow a God who would command genocide.” And to that I would say, “Me neither.” That’s not what’s going on.
This sermon is a compilation of material from several sources, Bible Project resources, lectures from Tim Mackie at Western Seminary, and the book The Skeletons in God’s Closet by Joshua Ryan Butler, which I find very helpful.
Again, I can’t cover everything, violence in the OT is a thousands year old discussion with a litany of nuances. My goal is to help you not be afraid of your Bible, but to see God as good, loving, just throughout the Scriptures. But let’s use the book of Joshua to briefly address three questions: Why did God command Israel to invade Canaan? What actually happened or did God command genocide? and How does this connect to Jesus?
Pray
Why did God command Israel to invade Canaan?
Or, in other words, is God like Putin?
I imagine texts like Joshua have been used to condone violence against innocent people…think about the Crusades, the Spanish conquistadors coming to the Americas, our own country’s history of displacing Native American people. Well, God did it, so we’re just doing what he told them to do, right?
Something unique is going on in Joshua.
First, let’s remember the whole story of the Bible, specifically Genesis through 2 Kings.
God makes the universe. He makes humans to rule on his behalf and take his creation onward in this beautiful place called the Garden of Eden. What do we do? Mess it all up and get evicted from Eden. Genesis 3-11 show us how bad things get when humans deny that God is truly in charge and take control for themselves. And so in Genesis 12, God decides to restore Eden blessing to the world through who? Abram and his family.
And God says this,
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So part of God’s plan to save the WHOLE WORLD, including us, involves making this nobody Abram into a great nation with a land. So Joshua fits in this story because part of God’s plan to redeem the world and take it back to Eden is to give Abram’s family a place.
The problem is, Eden is occupied. By who? By the people who who made Babylon, which we read about in Genesis 11. They’re architects of an anti-Eden, creating cultures of violence, destruction, sexual perversion against the will of God.
God wants a people who will represent his goodness to the world, and not be corrupted by sin and death. So he says to his people in Lev 18:3
3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
Okay, so what are their statutes? Are they really that bad?
20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. 21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
Adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, bestiality…this is the darkness of the Canaanite culture that God wants his people to avoid. They’re sinking to a new low of moral corruption. God wants Eden, we choose Babylon.
And so the rest of the story in the Old Testament is how Israel was supposed to remove the darkness of Canaanite culture from their midst in order to restore Eden to the world…but they don’t, they hold onto the Canaanite ways and it results in their own destruction. It’s like if you’re trying to eat better and clean out your pantry but you decide to just leave a few bags of Dots Pretzels, just in case. Eventually their own exile by in 586 BC by none other than…Babylon.
So why did God command Israel to invade Canaan? For the sake of the world. To restore Eden blessing to all nations.
So Joshua fits into this story of God’s promise to Abram…I want to give you a land and move the world back into Eden blessing, relationship with me and drive out the forces of darkness and save the universe! Joshua is not about God is a racist who kills other people heartlessly…he is wholeheartedly pursuing the restoration of all nations world thru the people of Israel.
But maybe you say, “But Chris, haven’t you read Joshua? It’s really bloody and sure seems like God is commanding genocide of innocent people? What’s going on here?”
What was the invasion actually like?
Was Joshua and the Israelite’s invasion into Canaan actually like Germany invading Poland, Russia entering Ukraine, or was it something else?
The book of Joshua has many different battle sequences, but three encounters come first: Jericho, Ai, and Gibeon. These first three encounters have the most detail and seem to be representative of the whole. So let’s take a look at each of these and see how they show what Israel’s invasion was actually like and actually about.
The first is Jericho in Joshua chapter 6.
Jericho
Before we get to Jericho, there is this important scene in Joshua 5.
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Are you with us or with them?
Neither.
Huh?
These battles are not Israel vs Canaan, but God vs those that oppose him.
God is not racist. He is not just for Israel, he is for all people who trust him. And those who don’t will face his wrath.
1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.”
In world history, we know stories of people who fought battles for God. Or suicide bombers take their own life because God has to be defended. Is that what’s going on here? God is fighting for Israel, a tiny tribe of refugees. It’s almost like he’s saying, “Watch how great I am…just march around that castle and play ‘Good Good Father’ on your acoustic guitar and I’ll bring the whole place down.”
In Jericho, we see Israel as a tiny humble people defended by God in a miraculous victory.
Second encounter with the people of Ai:
Ai
1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.
Israel was not to plunder Jericho for their stuff, but Achan, an Israelite, took something and disobeyed God. So what happens?
2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. 3 And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” 4 So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai, 5 and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.
You know in Mario Kart when you get the star, and you go really fast and you run people over. You’re invincible.
God is not Israel’s star that they get to wield and assume instant victory. God wants people who trust him and listen to him. And they failed to do that here.
So Achan is an Israelite, who’s name in Hebrew is just “Canaan” rearranged. Achan disobeys God, takes something that isn’t his, and it results in the death of many Israelites. Joshua deals ruthlessly with Achan, and Israel ends up defeating Ai. A lot more cool stuff with this story that we don’t have time for.
But what do we see in these first two military encounters? Jericho shows God miraculously fight for Israel, and then we see how even Israel can experience God’s judgment when they fail to disobey him. So again, Israel’s invasion of Canaan is not about a race or ethnicity, but about God wanting people who trust him and listen to him.
Third and final encounter: Gibeon.
Gibeon
By Joshua 9, word gets out that Israel is on a winning streak. Kings gather and come to fight Israel. Which is another point, most of Israel’s battles in Joshua were not instigated by them. But these people, the Gibeonites come and pretend to not be from Canaan, and they dress up in worn down clothes and say, “We’re not from here! Make a covenant with us!” They trick Joshua. Well, Joshua finds out, he’s upset, but he has to honor his word to protect them. And they say this to Joshua:
24 They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. 25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.”
So we see a Canaanite people recognize God as truly God, and even the Canaanites know the promise made to give them the land. They seem to know it better than the Israelites themselves! Their nationality does not determine their fate before God, but their trust in him does.
We see in these first three battles in Joshua a representation of the conflict at play. The conflict is not Israel vs Canaan. It is God vs his enemies. And Israel, Canaan, Ai, Gibeonites, all have a choice. Who’s side are you on?
However,
You’re like, “Chris, I’m reading my Bible and I come across verses like...”
38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Debir and fought against it 39 and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king.
You may say, “Chris, I hear you…but I’m still reading this thinking, ‘How is this not genocide and murdering innocent people?’” Again, I cannot settle the argument in a 30 minute sermon, but I can say wholeheartedly this is not genocide, this is not murdering innocent people needlessly…because there are some important considerations as we read this.
Important consideration
Ancient Trash Talk
Ancient Trash Talk
Imagine I tried playing soccer against Emily Mosely, you guys know Emily, former D-1 soccer player. Emily would crush me, and imagine Emily says, “Chris, I crushed you. I wiped the floor with you. I destroyed you!” Now I don’t think she’d say that but that’s stuff we say in sports.
Did she literally smush my body and crush me? No. Did she me as a mop to wipe the floor? Did I actually die? No. It’s a saying.
The ancient world had ancient trash talk and idioms for battle just like we have today. In one ancient Egyptian tablet, Pharoah Merneptah boasted of his military exploits by saying,
Egyptian tablet - “Israel is laid waste and his seed is not.”
Egyptian tablet - “Israel is laid waste and his seed is not.”
Moabites against Israel in 8th century BC - “Israel is utterly perished for always.”
Moabites against Israel in 8th century BC - “Israel is utterly perished for always.”
We expect to read the Bible like a news article about Ukraine. But the Bible is less about facts and figures and more about God and how we are to respond to him. It is less informative than it is persuasive. Joshua wants you to be convinced of God’s power against all human institutions that oppose him.
Take the text we just read for example that Joshua and Israel went to Debir and killed EVERY PERSON IN IT.
But then you get to chapter 15 and it says...
15 And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher.
How can their be inhabitants if everyone died? You see…it’s ancient trash talk and not an actual journalistic retelling that every woman, man, child was killed.
Not only that, but the battles Israel fought were not against metropolitan centers, but military outposts. Richard Hess an OT scholar says,
“All the archaeological evidence indicates that no civilian population existed at Jericho, Ai, and other cities mentioned in Joshua…Jericho was a small settlement of problem one hundred or fewer soldiers. This is why all of Israel could circle it seven times and then do battle against it on the same day.” Richard Hess, The Jericho and Ai of the Book of Joshua cited from The Skeletons in God’s Closet by Joshua Ryan Butler
It is incorrect to characterize what happens in Joshua as genocide for these reasons and more. Here’s another quote by Paul Copan,
“A closer look at the biblical text reveals a lot more nuance - and a lot less bloodshed…The language is typically exaggerated and full of bravado, depicting total devastation. The knowing ancient Near Eastern reader recognized this as hyperbole; the accounts weren’t understood to be literally true…Joshua was just saying he had fairly well trounced the enemy.” - Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament
You say, “Okay Chris, that’s great. But I’m still seeing Jeckyll and Hyde. Where do I see gentle and lowly, nonviolent Jesus in texts like this?”
How does this connect with Jesus?
Well first, Jesus’ great great grandmother is found in the book of Joshua. Where? Rahab. Fletcher preached on Rahab being in the lineage of Jesus during Advent. Who was Rahab? She was a Canaanite prostitute living in Jericho. To an Israelite, she’s as heathen as they come.
But Rahab recognizes that Israel follows the true God, and she surrenders to God and to his people, and saves the spies who come to check out Jericho. Israel could not have won without her. Rahab is celebrated in Hebrews 11 in the “Hall of Faith” because of the faith shown in God. She risked her own life, was willing to die for the sake of obeying the true God.
And one day, through her very own line, comes Jesus. Jesus knew what it was like to be on the outside. He was born into a poor family with a mom who many assumed was immoral which was a crime punishable by death. He was a part of an oppressed people group, the Romans had invaded his people’s land. But Jesus wasn’t just pro Israel, here to take down to the Romans like Joshua took down the Canaanites. Actually, Jesus seemed to be more friendly with the outsiders than he was the insiders. He crossed tribal, ethnic, and cultural boundaries to offer love and grace, even to the Canaanite woman at the well in Mark 7.
Maybe you’re saying, “Well that’s just it…God is using violence in Joshua, but now Jesus is love, grace, compassion…he seems different!” He’s not. In the Bible we see God remains the same, but he does take different action at different points in the story.
In Joshua, we see God breaking into history, acting decisively to make good on his promise to Abraham to give his people a land and drive out evil.
But we still see God’s compassion, even for his enemies.
11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
God weeps over the disobedience of his creation. And he’s not happy with the death of the wicked, even in the Old Testament.
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?
I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed, we were chanting, USA! and rejoicing! God is grieved by every loss.
And so just like God entered history in a unique way in Joshua, so he does when he comes on the scene as Jesus of Nazareth. Everyone expected the Messiah to be a violent warlord, wiping out the Romans like the Canaanites of old. But Jesus came to inflict violence on violence itself by letting his enemies kill him. Rather than perpetuate the endless cycle of violence, The Prince of Peace suffered a violent death, withholding his own angel army, allowing his violent enemies, people of his own nation to kill him.
And on the cross, Jesus drew the enemy fire of Satan himself, and exhausted the power of evil, drinking the cup of God’s wrath, carrying all our violence and evil we carry towards each other, all the ways we inflict pain on each other through not only our fists and guns but through our words and hatred for people unlike us. And on the cross, we see that it’s not just the “other” people who must respond in faith to Jesus, not just Putin and the Romans and the Canaanites, or the Democrats or the anti-maskers…it’s me! It was my sin that put him there. I deserve the destruction of the Canaanites, I deserve the death Jesus died. And on Calvary, Jesus won the war against the true enemy.
And because Jesus didn’t stay dead, he rose to new life, death and violence do not have the last word. There is hope and life in Jesus and the way to everlasting life is not by conquering lands but by submitting our life to him.
But I don’t want to over-spiritualize this and deny the existence of human evil to this day. We exist in the messy middle between God’s decisive act on the cross, and his Day of the Lord when he returns and fully silences evil and installs his kingdom on earth. While God gives his enemies time to repent, we see Ukraine happening, we see cops shot, we see domestic violence, sexual abuse, horrible things that people do to each other. And so I’m thankful for government and order and police, firefighters, for the fact that we don’t live in anarchy but have a God-given system in place to help hold back the forces of darkness by using physical force.
So what do we do with this? As far as I know, none of you need to repent of being a part of a local militia.
Here’s my thought for us:
Surrender to the True King
Surrender to the True King
Just like Rahab, a heathen, surrendered to the true God and was given life, just like the Gibeonites surrendered and became slaves because they knew who the true God was, just like Jesus surrendered to God’s will and went to the cross…so we must surrender to Jesus, the true king.
I was talking on the phone with someone this week and they said, “Yep, dependence and surrender to God is what life is about.” And I said, “I know doggonit.”
So much of life is about struggling for power, from individual relationships, marriage, parenting, interactions with coworkers, sales negotiations, neighborhoods, governments, and certainly warfare. But as Christians, we recognize that Jesus has all the power, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to HIM. And my whole life is about surrendering to his power, and letting his power, the Holy Spirit, work in my life.
And so Christianity isn’t about trying harder and winning more battles for God through success at work, winning souls for Christ, but surrendering to Jesus, trusting that he is my only hope and letting him live through me.
I hope this message helps you see there’s not some Jeckyll and Hyde dynamic going on in the Bible. God is not like Putin, he is not a moral monster, but weeps over the destruction of his good creation and the humans who invite darkness and chaos and violence into the world. He is patient, but he will act. The book of Joshua points to Jesus by showing us that God keeps his promises and will go to great lengths to save his people from evil. He is patient even with his enemies, giving them time to repent. And God alone is King and he wants people to trust him and experience life by surrendering to his good and gracious will.
What do you need to surrender to Jesus today? Is there an outcome you fear? And so you must manage your life to make sure that thing doesn’t happen? Surrender to Jesus. Is it your very life? Is today the day you say, “Jesus, it’s your show. Forgive me for the ways I grab power. I trust you.”
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10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.