Joshua 11:16-23
So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and struck them down, putting them to death. Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions.
Then the land had rest from war.
God's hand upon the Israelites enabled them to claim victories upon victories. Perhaps one question upon looking at this passages and all the other stories of Israel's conquest is why did God not spare any of these people, except for Hivites. Why without mercy? I am thinking, the only time when God would not display any mercy to anyone is when he decided to judge the people. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no mercy shown to the cities. But yet, look at Nineveh. The city did not suffer from God's judgement as Jonah had preached. Why?
The key here lies with repentance and sin. Sodom and Gomorrah did not repent even when judgement was upon them. But it was a different situation in Nineveh. God is merciful to those who are willing to repent and humble themselves before Him.
How about in this passage? Accordingly, from what I know, the nations that were being eliminated were known as wicked nations which had strayed away from God. In some sense, they were receiving judgement for their sins. I can almost hear some objection here: 'wait, who said that they were wicked nations?' or 'wait, how come they were not given a second chance?' I think I want to answer these objections by asking back, 'who said that they were not wicked nations', 'who said that they were saintly nations' and 'who said that they were not given the chance?' Moreover, we can consider one specific case example here: the Anaks. Genesis tells us about their ancestors:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Bible scholars have speculated that the sons of God referred here are the fallen angels from the Rebellion. If this is true, then the Anaks were definitely not of saintly origins. I am not an expert in this, but most likely we can say that they were not the most saintly of all nations.
One thing perhaps we can take note here upon considering all these. Thinking about how all these nations were eliminated, we know that God's judgement will sooner or later arrive. It is inevitable. A lot of people dun like this idea of judgement but ultimately, I think I want to say that if God is holy, there exists a need for Him to judge the sinners who are all of us. Yet, these sinners include some of our friends. We need to ask ourselves how to prevent these judgement upon these loved ones. Yet it is one thing to do our part in this, and another to proclaim fire and brimstone over the people. We need to know that repentance, while requiring godly sorrow, is also part of the process of understanding God's forgiveness and grace. To those who had hardened their hearts, we can only pray for God to crush that hardened heart instead of us confronting too judgementally and proclaim fire and brimstone.
Fire and brimstone or eternity? Yet the difference may only be our effort to obey God and go out and share His message to the world.
At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions.
Then the land had rest from war.
God's hand upon the Israelites enabled them to claim victories upon victories. Perhaps one question upon looking at this passages and all the other stories of Israel's conquest is why did God not spare any of these people, except for Hivites. Why without mercy? I am thinking, the only time when God would not display any mercy to anyone is when he decided to judge the people. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah, there was no mercy shown to the cities. But yet, look at Nineveh. The city did not suffer from God's judgement as Jonah had preached. Why?
The key here lies with repentance and sin. Sodom and Gomorrah did not repent even when judgement was upon them. But it was a different situation in Nineveh. God is merciful to those who are willing to repent and humble themselves before Him.
How about in this passage? Accordingly, from what I know, the nations that were being eliminated were known as wicked nations which had strayed away from God. In some sense, they were receiving judgement for their sins. I can almost hear some objection here: 'wait, who said that they were wicked nations?' or 'wait, how come they were not given a second chance?' I think I want to answer these objections by asking back, 'who said that they were not wicked nations', 'who said that they were saintly nations' and 'who said that they were not given the chance?' Moreover, we can consider one specific case example here: the Anaks. Genesis tells us about their ancestors:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Bible scholars have speculated that the sons of God referred here are the fallen angels from the Rebellion. If this is true, then the Anaks were definitely not of saintly origins. I am not an expert in this, but most likely we can say that they were not the most saintly of all nations.
One thing perhaps we can take note here upon considering all these. Thinking about how all these nations were eliminated, we know that God's judgement will sooner or later arrive. It is inevitable. A lot of people dun like this idea of judgement but ultimately, I think I want to say that if God is holy, there exists a need for Him to judge the sinners who are all of us. Yet, these sinners include some of our friends. We need to ask ourselves how to prevent these judgement upon these loved ones. Yet it is one thing to do our part in this, and another to proclaim fire and brimstone over the people. We need to know that repentance, while requiring godly sorrow, is also part of the process of understanding God's forgiveness and grace. To those who had hardened their hearts, we can only pray for God to crush that hardened heart instead of us confronting too judgementally and proclaim fire and brimstone.
Fire and brimstone or eternity? Yet the difference may only be our effort to obey God and go out and share His message to the world.
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