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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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A Willing Judge |
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Septuagesima Sunday January 20, 2008 There is much for us to learn in this book of Joshua. We can see in Joshua himself a great foreshadow of Christ as he leads the people of God, conquers their enemies, and brings them safely into “the Promised Land.” We can see God’s instructions to leaders as He says to Joshua, “do according to all the law which my servant, Moses,
commanded thee; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left.” How different this world would be if our civil and ecclesiastical leaders simply followed this advice. But I want to look at one of the less popular teachings found in this passage; the teaching of the judgment of God. God is willing to judge those who refuse Him and thereby become criminals against His righteous law. Several of you have said to me that you wonder if God is punishing America through some of the recent events in our national life. While we are not prophets to speak for God, we can certainly say that God’s law guides us into the ways of life and peace, and that to break and reject that law is to walk in the ways of strife and death. Just as keeping His commandments has its own reward, so also, breaking them carries its own consequences. We can also say God does act in judgment in the lives of the nations of this world. We see this very well in the book of Joshua, for the conquest of the land of Canaan is clearly presented as the judgment of God upon the Canaanites for their sins. You will remember that God’s explanation for sending the Hebrews into Egypt was that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full (Gen. 15:16). In other words, God is patient and long suffering, and slow to anger and would not move in wrath against the Canaanites until it was clear to all that He was justified in His actions, and would have been justified had He acted generations earlier. There was a time in which the opportunity to repent was given to the Amorites, which here symbolize all the Canaanite tribes, but when that time had expired, God would arise and judge. I see no indication in Scripture that God has changed. This brings up another issue, why would God tell the Hebrews to go into Canaan and make war on the poor innocent Canaanites? I have heard people actually say this was not of God. This was a terrible perversion of the mind and will of God and is not to be believed by Christians. I disagree. I caution people today against attempting to justify our wars by appealing to the conquest of Canaan. We cannot blatantly say, “God told me to attack these people.” We must evaluate enemies and allies by the clear teaching of the Bible and make every attempt to fight only just wars. But I accept the Book of Joshua as the revelation of God, and I believe God did send the Hebrews into Canaan to possess the land as part of His judgment of the Canaanites for their sins. It follows, then, that the Canaanites were not innocent. History shows that these were violent, warrior tribes who often preferred swooping into small villages at night to kill and plunder, rather than doing the work of planting vineyards and tending flocks and working with their own hands to provide for themselves. Furthermore, their religion was a self-indulgent glorification of every sexual desire and perversion imaginable, including burning babies alive. God had given them hundreds of years to repent, but they did not. So He sent judgment upon them. There is something else going on in this passage. God knew that the sins of the Canaanites would become stumbling blocks to Israel. God has always called His people to lives of stern self discipline. We are called to control our physical appetites and live quiet, holy lives. It is no mere literary allusion that following Jesus is compared to crucifixion, for following Christ requires us to crucify our own desires that we may live for God’s. The Canaanites lived by the opposite rule. Theirs was a life of wanton self indulgence, self will, and greed. This was so deeply ingrained in Canaanite culture that it was the heart of their religion. God knew the Jews would be tempted by the self indulgent lifestyles of the Canaanites, so He called the Hebrews to drive them out of Canaan. We know the Hebrews failed to do this. Instead they settled beside the Canaanites and adopted Canaanite ways. Soon they began to dress like the Canaanites, and talk like the Canaanites, and think like the Canaanites, and act like the Canaanites, and worship like the Canaanites, and, after a while, you couldn’t tell the Jews from the Canaanites. This was a grievous sin, and grievously did they answer for it. God’s people are still at war with the world. It is not a physical war, but a spiritual war. We are in a war against the values, and morals and life-styles of the world. Our weapons are love, compassion, and the Gospel of Christ proclaimed and lived by the power of the Spirit of God. Israel often left God to follow the Canaanites, and they brought untold misery upon themselves. I see the contemporary Church trying to be both Israelites and Canaanites with disastrous effects. God grant that we may not make the same mistake. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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