Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Series: The Promised Land - 6 Sermons From Joshua
Sin and a failure
Sunday, 27 April 2003
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Two weeks ago, in the first of our sermons on Joshua I said this about the issue of Holy War:
Few of the issues raised by the book of Joshua create more difficulty than the question how could a loving God command the wholesale extermination of cities and nations who inhabit the Promised Land. In Joshua 2:10 there is a reference to how Israel completely destroyed Sihon and Og and it introduces the concept of cities being "devoted to the ban." This phrase recurs throughout the record of Joshua's conquests as God claims the conquored people and their possessions for himself. The Canaanite people and their possessions were forfeit to God because of their sinful behaviour. Archeologists have found records that reveal their brutality, corruption, child sacrifice, serpent worship, and male and female temple prostitution. God used Israel as his instrument of judgement on the Canaanites. In Genesis 15 Abraham received a vision from God concerning the Israelites exile and enslavement in Egypt and later return to the Promised Land bringinging God's judgement on the people there whose sin "had not yet reached its full measure."
Today as we look at the incident involving Achan and the attack on Ai I want to talk further about the ban.
The Israelites were not just moving into a previously unoccupied land. Canaan, which was roughly the tract of land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean coast, was already settled by the Canaanites who had an established agricultural economy centred around a series of fortified cities. The cities operated as independent kingdoms or city states, each with its own king and aristocracy. As well as the great agricultural centres, the Canaanites also had a number of sea ports from which they traded all over the Mediterranean and even as far as the British Isles. They were known to the Greeks and romans as the Phonaecians. The most famous of these sea ports are Tyre and Sydon.
As I said, the Canaanite peoples were under God's judgement because of their abominable religious practices which included child sacrifice and male and female temple prostitution. Back in Deuteronomy 20 there is a description of how the Israelites are to conduct themselves towards the cities they come against. Let me read it to you. The first references are to cities before they cross the Jordan, the second is to cities in Canaan.
Read Deuteronomy 20;10-18
Notice that through Moses God gives a supplementary reason why everything and evertbody are to be destroyed. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God. So the ban is not only to punish the Canaanites, it is also the protect the Israelites.
When the Israelites conquored Jericho, the city, because it was part of the promised land, was subject to the ban. Everything was dedicated to the Lord and was to be destroyed. The only exception was Rahab the prostitute and her family who were taken to safety outside the city before it was put to the torch.
The next city on the agenda was Ai, some…
