31. Ablazing Grace: Jehovah, Joshua and Genocide

this will be my last sermon for a couple Sabbath's and the way that the schedule has fallen this is the most difficult sermon I've ever preached I can say it that way being a true statement I would have spent I tried to calculate it I couldn't quite come up with an exact tally but I would have spent not less than 20 hours this week getting ready for today's sermon and as of 10 o'clock last night you can ask my wife she'll tell you it's true I went to sleep and I said sweetheart at this point there is an 80% chance that I'm gonna stand up in front of the church and say beloved I've studied and I don't have anything to say but god bless you let's have prayer and that was gonna be in and at least half of you would have would have let out a giant cheer I'm sure but as it turns out I woke up early this morning about 4 o'clock and continued to get my nose into the book and and the books and try to come up with something coherent and cogent and meaningful to say on what is in my estimation my opinion I don't know anything what that's about mommy just to switch over to one of these but they sound terrible though tell me what to do back there go with this one okay we'll just I'll try not to be so electric I'm trying to find something that is coherent and and compelling to say on what I regard as the single most difficult thing in all of Scripture now if you're familiar with the text of Scripture you know that that's a very big thing to say because there are a lot of troubling difficult confusing mystifying passages in Scripture but in my humble opinion there is none more mystifying than the specific commands that God gave to Israel to go into Canaan and to wipe out the seven nations that were occupying the land of Canaan we know them as the Canaanites they were in fact seven different nations but because that was the land of Cain and they were known sometimes just homogeneously as the Canaanites and God gave the Israelites after there are many years of wilderness wandering a very specific command to go in and to dis possess and utterly destroy them and that is an I will say a very difficult thing to reconcile with the picture that we have of God in Christ tremendously difficult some would say impossible I think that there is a way a circuitous way to navigate ourselves through this difficult section of Scripture we're gonna try and do that today because frankly if we can't answer this question to at least some level of basic coherence and satisfaction it doesn't make a lot of sense to continue on with the rest of the story because the rest of the story from the Kings to the exile and culminating with Messiah proceed on the assumption that God is good that God is fair that God is kind that God is just and indeed everything that we've encountered up to this point indicates to us that God is fair and just and good and kind and gracious and yet we we encounter in parts of Deuteronomy parts of Exodus parts of numbers and most of Joshua and some of judges what would not be described as a speed bump but for some an insurmountable hurdle to belief in God and especially to belief in God's goodness can we affirm the basic goodness of God in the in light of and in the context of the commands that he gave to the Israelites to destroy and dispossessed the Canaanite so we're gonna try and answer that question today I'll be honest with you I find elements of my answer very satisfying and other elements not as satisfying and I'll leave it to you to decide which of those are which I wouldn't want what I'm gonna say today to be regarded as anything like the final or even the definitive word on this subject but I do think and not just the hours of study that I've done this week but the years of study that I've done on this topic that God has given me something of value to say and I I hope that it will be a blessing to you if you're sitting there thinking man what's the big deal that would only be a confession of your basic ignorant about the biblical text the text is tough it's thorny it's problematic it's difficult and so if you're a bit dismissive about this long preamble that I'm giving that means to me that you just haven't wrestled with the text it is not an easy thing I've been wrestling all week and I find myself bloodied and bruised here on Sabbath morning gonna try and make some semblance of an answer for this very thorny and difficult question so without further preamble we're gonna pray and we're gonna get right into the text of Scripture this is going to require a lot of thinking and a lot of believing and faith and confidence in God's basic goodness as manifested in His Son Jesus so let's pray together Father in Heaven big day today you know I've been looking forward to would not be exactly the truth I have been anticipating this day for months now and Lord I've had the privilege to preach all over the world on many different passages but I've always been able to sort of preach on what I wanted to preach on but here father when we as a pastoral team elected to preach through the Old Testament we knew good and well they were going to be some thorny passages some problematic and difficult passages and we find ourself here father at the most thorny and the most monumentally problematic at least from my perspective father I pray that you'll give me something of coherence to say something that is persuasive and compelling and beautiful and father while I am confident that not every answer will be given and that there will still be questions that remain I pray that we will be able to see that there is a way to navigate ourselves through this and still retain our picture of the goodness of God the mercy of God has shown to us in your son Jesus and so father please help us as we wrestle with a thousand-year-old document and we come to grips with it and help us to see it for what it is not to sweep it onto the rod but to try and see what it is that your community here and father if there are lessons of encouragement may we receive those and if there are lessons of warning and surely there are help us to receive those as well father I pray that you will give us a double portion of your spirit today aluminous that we might come away with a more robust and biblical understanding of these problematic passages of Scripture this is my prayer for your spirit in Jesus name let everyone say Amen all right I want to start by just going sort of a big overview of the topic I'm calling the sermon today jehovah joshua and genocide write jehovah joshua and genocide one of the chief complaints and one of the chief concerns and even objections that are raised by non believing peoples atheists in particular is how could you conceivably regard the bible as some kind of a holy book or a moral book or a virtuous book when it unashamedly unapologetically and unabashedly affirms what is tantamount to genocide and this is a claim that is not easily answered we're going to do our best to answer it today and we're gonna try and wrestle through jehovah joshua and genocide know why joshua well because we find ourselves here in the fourth of seven chapters Jarrod's sermon next Sabbath will be a summary of the book of Joshua where the Israelites are finally after their many years of wilderness wandering going in to take possession of the land the problem is is that there are people in the land people that regard the land as their own people who have lives and families and occupations and homes and cities and God has promised this land to his people and a clash is coming an inevitable consequence is coming in which those people are going to have to be either dispossessed or destroyed in order for God to put his people where he had promised he would when he made his promise to Abraham many hundreds of years before and so we find ourselves precariously perched here at the end of Torah those are the first five books of Scripture Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy and we're moving now into Joshua and later judges and then into the Kings eventually we'll be into Kings how is it that God can say the things that he says in Scripture and how is it that we can then regard him as good when he says those things that strike us as very problematic and hard to harmonize with the larger picture that we have of the goodness of God we're not going to read through every problematic passage and there are even some that come later not just in the possession of the land of Canaan we don't have time to deal with the giant conversation of religion and violence and particularly with violence in the Old Testament but I think if we can get our bearings in the story of Joshua it will set a trajectory for us for all of the rest of Scripture and so we're gonna be dealing specifically with the situation that Joshua and the Israelites found themselves in when God said to them go in and possess the land of Canaan now some of the passages that are the thorniest of them are numbers 33 Deuteronomy 7 Deuteronomy 20 the entire book of Joshua especially the first 11 chapters and then also the book of Judges which really functions in the Bible is a kind of Joshua part 2 and this is not an exhaustive list of the problematic passages but it does sort of orient us to the passages where God says go into Canaan dispossessed and destroy if necessary but he doesn't just say destroy in some specific sense in fact there's almost no specificity he doesn't say only military men or only men . he says the men and the women and the children and even he says the livestock everything that breathes everything that moves go in there and put it to the sword how do we make sense of this well let's start with a big context first of all let's remember where we are in the stream of what we've been learning going all the way back to beginning family and Exodus where are we and I'm going to race through this so for those of you that have been with us on this journey this will move you'll you'll be right with me those of you that are you know maybe just coming here for the first but they're just visiting this might be a little quick first of all going all the way back to Genesis chapter 6 God told no one to make an ark and the ark was for the righteous now only eight people went on that ark but it's implicit in the text and explicit when you look at the size of the dimensions of the ark that there was room for many more it wasn't just room for the eight there was room for many more in Genesis chapter 15 when God makes a covenant with Abraham he expressly says Abraham I'm calling you so that through you I can bless all the nations okay so there's this global scope both in Genesis 6 and also in Genesis 15 to bless the earth in you God said all the families of the earth will be blessed in Genesis 18 and this might be the key story at least in the book of Genesis that gives us a way to unlock this problematic issue you might remember that God has appeared to Abraham and he has said to Abraham Abraham I'm going to go destroy or at least investigate what's happening in Sodom and implicit in that investigation abraham understood was a destruction and Abraham knows that his nephew law is there and so he protests and he's like whoa whoa whoa surely you wouldn't destroy the righteous with the wicked and then he says this fascinating thing he says Abraham speaking to God wouldn't the judge of all the earth do the right thing now just let the force of that settle in Abraham understood the basic fairness and necessity of God if he's going to be good has to be fundamentally fair and his question is what you're gonna destroy he knows that his nephew law is there who he regards his righteous would youwould with the judge of all the earth destroy the righteous with the wicked will not the judge of the earth do what's right and so this bargaining begins and it starts at 50 and then finally to 40 and 45 it begins to make its way down all the way to 10 and God actually says to Abraham if there were ten righteous in Sodom I would preserve it Abraham ceases his his bargaining they doesn't go any lower than ten because Abraham cannot imagine that there couldn't possibly be at least ten in a city that numbered probably in the thousands and certainly the hundreds surely surely there would be ten righteous and so Abraham thinks incorrectly that he has preserved Sodom when in fact goes when God arrives and he finds that there were some righteous but nowhere near ten and the city is destroyed but this provides us an insight into this basic idea this fundamental idea that is not foreign to Moses that God can't just go around wiping the wicked out and the righteous together unilaterally and and that's not fair that's not right well not the God of all the earth you write abraham pleads for sodom that's in Genesis 18 God sends Moses to Pharaoh just a big picture here of how God there's a universality of God's love there's a universality of God's attention and even his affection and it's quite interesting because when you study this through God actually sent Moses to Pharaoh twice the first time he sent him as a little baby to Pharaoh's daughter actually you could say three times he was then returned and then sent back probably at the age of twelve thirteen or fourteen and he lived in Pharaoh's house with a knowledge of the true God for decades he didn't leave until he was until he was 40 and then later at the age of 80 God sends Moses again and so you could make a case that God sent Moses to Pharaoh not just once but twice and even in a way three times and in each case Moses was there with the knowledge of the true God first of all that had been given to him from his mother and then later that had been given to him from God himself at the burning bush and the initial request that was made of Pharaoh I remind he was a very reasonable request it wasn't hey Pharaoh let the children of Israel go and may your entire economy be utterly eradicated the original request was let my people go for three days journey into the wilderness to hold a feast to me it's as if God was testing the waters to see is there any acquiescence is there any reason is there any room for negotiation here is there any elasticity give me give me my my son my firstborn for just three days and Pharaoh as the text says hardens his heart and he hardens his heart and he hardens his heart and he hardens his heart God sends successive plagues in chapters 7 to 11 God didn't just come right out with the death of the firstborn oh it began with plague number one it's Pharaoh's heart softened no it's hardening plague number two is his heart softening you get this sense that God is laboring with Pharaoh it wouldn't be too far a reach to say that God is interested in Pharaoh that God is invested in Pharaoh that God wants Pharaoh's heart we're going to see an instance of this later in Scripture with a man named Nebuchadnezzar look at this very interesting text from Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 7 Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 7 Moses speaking to the children of Israel says do not despise an Edomite the descendants of Esau for the are related to you yeah you think of them as Gentiles but don't look down your nose at the they're related to you and I thought this was very interesting God said to the children of Israel through Moses do not despise an Egyptian because you resided as foreigners in their country what a fascinating thing that even though eventually the Israelites would become slaves it didn't start that way originally it each IFFT opened its borders with a kind of kindness with a kind of fraternal care and compassion yes by all means and of course they had benefited hugely from the ministry of Joseph but but there was this mutuality there was this hey yeah you come and we'll help you out you scratch our back we'll scratch yours and so I love this that even many years later in Deuteronomy God says don't look down your nose at an Egyptian you used to be a foreigner in their land and so you see this sort of desire of God to reach out to Pharaoh he sends successive plagues and then we come into the actual giving of the law in all of Exodus and later books of the Torah as well and this phrase comes up again and again where God says hey look the same law that applies to the Jew applies to the foreigner as well in other words the Jews were not elites they were not regarded as somehow genetically special or as God's favorites in fact they were simply the Covenant people they were the descendants of Abraham but I remind you again that they knew that the whole purpose of the call of Abraham was to bless the not to become simply the repository of the riches of God for themselves and so we have this idea here that that the law for you and the law for you that God is treating people with them impartiality that he's treating people with kindness and with fairness then we have in Deuteronomy chapter 2 when the Israelites were preparing to go into the Canaan land God is very explicit he said do not bother the Moabites the ammonites or the leave them alone in other words this wasn't just like an absolute ransacking of every nation that was non-jewish know the specific and I can't emphasize this enough the specific and unusual call that God gave to the children of Israel applied to these seven nations and these seven nations alone in fact God was explicit he said if you go into the land of Edom or Eman or Moab don't don't even don't take any of their stuff that land doesn't belong to you don't even put your foot in their land in terms of taking up residency you can pass through so we have this idea here that that God is not just unilaterally saying kill them all slay them all they're not Jews they're not my favorite people just reckon that's not what he's saying there was something peculiar about these seven nations we're going to get to that in just a bit that God said okay these nations leave them alone we're gonna see in a bit these cities you can make treaties with will see this but these they have to be dispossessed or utterly destroyed and that's the next point there and Deuteronomy chapter 20 you find Moses giving very interesting instructions he says if you come to a far-off City you can make a treaty with them in fact you can go and present yourself peacefully and say hey look we want to occupy this land that's just adjacent to you and he says if they're peaceful with you you can be peaceful with them if they attack you God says you can respond but here's the point God is making a sort of hierarchy or a sort of differentiation between the Canaanites who he regards as needing to be treated in a certain way and the ammonites Moabites and the who were related to Israel going back to Lott and Esau and then these cities that were afar off that have nothing do with nothing do with the particular reprobate and debauched practices of the canaanites he says those people oh no no no don't go don't go slaughter them don't just go marching into their cities and make war with them this isn't their fight this isn't their battle and he even gives them permission make peace with them make peace with them when it actually comes time to go in to Kanan Moses has passed away we're told that the Israelite spies encounter a woman named Rahab now Rahab according to the text of Scripture was a prostitute and she operated a kind of hostel or an inn this wouldn't have been an unusual situation in an ancient fortress or city and and she is befriended by the Israelite spies and she essentially says to the Israelite spies hey we know I know who you are and the people in this city are terrified please and she makes this confession in the early chapters of Joshua please preserve me and in fact she's preserved and we'll talk more about that in just a second and so even here as the story is unfolding here's a Canaanite woman that was in the very first city that God told him to take which was Jericho and she saved she's preserved as a noncombatant she was preserved because she confessed faith in the God of Israel we'll see that it'll be very interesting in just a bit finally and here's a fascinating little point make a note of this Caleb of Caleb and Joshua Fame right one of only two adults from the original generation that came out of Egypt that was allowed to go into Canaan scripture expressly says in Joshua 14 14 that Caleb was the son of a man named Jeff Oona who was a who was a kid a sight he was a Canaanite when you go back to God's original promise to Abraham God says to Abraham I will give you the land of the amorite the hittite so he starts going down the list and one of the the nations that he lists is the Kenna sites and yet here is Caleb faithful biblical Caleb and he had Canaanite ish heritage his father was a Canaanite and yet God regards him as faithful God regards him as kind he regarded him frankly as a Jew as then Israelites the Canaanites were utterly corrupt and we're gonna see this in more detail in just a second and God warns Israel of the same thing that's sort of the Torah narrative that's the that's Genesis to Deuteronomy the picture of God's overtures and God's accommodation and God's kindness toward Gentile peoples now let's just take a brief look at the larger Old Testament narrative do we have any other pictures in the Old Testament where God shows an interest and compassion and affection for non-jewish people's and the answer is yes the Old Testament is is is over brimming overflowing with incidences of this I've given just a single page for a time sake first of all we see God's love for a pagan King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel but not just any ordinary pagan King mind you Nebuchadnezzar was the king responsible for the destruction of God's temple and God's City I mean this guy was a real character he was a piece of work and yet we see in the Book of Daniel that God's overtures to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel were overtures of love and of attraction and of wooing and you even get the sense in Daniel chapter 4 that Nebuchadnezzar a little if you can believe it becomes a follower and a worshipper of the true God this is just mind-blowing stuff that the very one who had been commissioned by God to execute a judgment on God's own people would himself eventually this was unheard of in ancient times because in ancient times if the god of one area or one state or one nation or one region conquered another God by definition my god was stronger than your God so for Nebuchadnezzar to be on the losing gods side and to profess faith and and worship of the of this God is just wild well because he had seen miracles and he had seen primarily the character of Daniel also of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego but here's a little window a little picture into God's love even for a pagan King ruth the moabite was david's ancestor right he was david's great-grandmother in isaiah 50:6 we find God saying my house will be a prayer a house of prayer for all nations this has echoes of the original Abrahamic promise in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed and then finally and perhaps most amazingly of all Israel itself and Judah are eventually dispossessed from their own lands which if you're paying attention to the chapters here you'll notice that two of the chapters begin with X which comes from the Latin f which means out originally they came out of Egypt into their land where they resided for many hundreds of years but eventually even Israel will be F exiled out of their own land in other words God is not showing favorites here the Canaanites needed to be dispossessed and destroyed and have judgment on them and later Israel and Judah needed to be dispossessed and destroyed and have judgment levied upon them now a New Testament context we come to the New Testament where we see the shining wonderful beautiful face of Jesus Christ can the church say Amen and we're introduced to Jesus as never ever ever giving any indication that he is concerned about being polluted or contaminated either culturally or physically or socially he just mingles with anybody and everybody Gentiles no problem a woman that's bleeding which was forbidden in Jewish custom mingles with her a leper which were forbidden to be touched Jesus is just waltzing through the New Testament making his way through the New Testament touching all kinds of people and associating with the most unclean he was breaking tons of societal norms and effectively saying this is what God is like God is not into building barriers and building walls God is into building bridges God is reaching and touching the leper God is affirming the Roman god is speaking peaceably to the tax collector I mean Jesus shows up as a man who seems to have zero prejudices at all no biases no prejudices in fact if he has any prejudice it would have been against his own people who he held to a very high standard he was forever rebuking in the strongest language the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees but those that were weak and those that were vulnerable whether they were out caste because of bleeding or they were outcasts because of disease or leprosy or because they were outcasts because of their national heritage Jesus is like extending his hand to them who is this guy and here's just a few of those instances Jesus affirms the Roman centurion jesus touches and heals a leper Jesus speaks to the Samaritan a hated race of people at the well Jesus speaks to a woman of Canaan fascinatingly the syrophoenician woman in matthew 15 and he says to her woman your faith is great this is Jesus speaking this is God in the flesh this isn't Joshua this isn't Caleb this isn't Moses this is Jesus in the flesh relating to a Canaanite and he does so with affirmation and with kindness and without any hint of prejudice in fact in Matthew 15 he actually highlights the prejudice of the disciples and then treats her with great kindness and magnanimity Jesus and the Good Samaritan a parable that violated tons of cultural norms in the days of Jesus a Good Samaritan a contradiction in terms many would have thought Jesus and Zacchaeus who was a tax collector freely mingling not just across nations but across social strata he didn't make a difference between them and Austin and you and your below and I'm above and you're beneath know Jesus and the bleeding woman Jesus and the demon-possessed man Jesus and the adulterer even the resounding New Testament point is that God looks like Jesus can somebody say Amen and I appreciate the the pensive nasai feel in the congregation today I really appreciate that because this is a big issue and it does require our attention and I appreciate that but it's also an opportunity to rejoice that the God that shows up in the New Testament I want to say this if that's what God looks like that is really really really good news can the church say Amen jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the father God looks like Jesus all right New Testament context continues we come to the book of Acts we're almost done with the New Testament in the book of Acts Pentecost is the reversal of Babel in the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11 people's languages are confused and so the message is not spread in Acts chapter 2 the gift of tongues is given and lots of people hear a single message about the crucified and risen Messiah and you see the unraveling of humanity in Genesis 11 being put back together by the Holy Spirit beautiful you have an ax chapter 10 where Peter had that vision where he was told repeatedly kill and eat kill and eat kill and eat and he's just like what are you talking about I don't get it you want me to eat an iguana sandwich you want me to have some camel soup he didn't get it and then finally God says now it's not about camels and iguanas and eating bats it's about not thinking of other people as inferior or as worse or as somehow below you when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles they're in the house of Cornelius Peter exclaimed these words Peter began and said I now realize how true it is look at this that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right can the church say amen to that God shows no favoritism every nation Australia yes America maybe Jamaica yes Russia yes you know God he's not showing favoritism and Peter it's like you can just almost feel through the text of Scripture the scales dropping from his eyes the scales of prejudice the scales of bias the scales of hatred I mean I just recently saw it's probably a month ago now the movie Selma brand-new movie about the experience and the life of Martin Luther King jr. when he and a bunch of people non pacifists nonviolent people marched into Selma Alabama it is a very hard movie to watch to see even in theatrical or cinematic portrayal human beings treating other human beings as lesser or worse because they're black or because of the color of their skin or because they're sympathetic to the blacks or to the black costs and here Peter you can just feel the scales falling from his eyes I get it now God doesn't hate anybody he shows no favoritism the church of course was composed of Jews and Gentiles we then come to the New Testament God is not willing that any should perish Jew and Gentile alike sinner and righteous alike the three angels message of course which is very near and dear to the heart of us a seventh-day Adventist is for every nation kindred tongue and people which is one of the reasons I'm proud to be a seventh-day Adventist the seventh-day Adventist is the most expansive in terms of nations Protestant Church in the world this is a church that takes very seriously the mission to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world we're not just primarily located in and around America or primarily in and around Australia this is a global church with a global message of God's global love for the whole globe can somebody say Amen and finally for God so loved the world and I ended on that point that's the that's the orientation that's the big picture now I'm going to walk you through ten other considerations and these are going to require some fairly significant thought on your part I want to start by going to Genesis 15 go with me there Genesis 15 the original call of God to Abraham join me in Genesis 15 Genesis chapter 15 hey Nate the battery lights blinking on this I don't know if you just want to run up here and give me to double to triple A's maybe it'll make it through I don't know in Genesis chapter 15 God has made a promise to give Abraham the land of the Canaanite peoples but he says a most interesting thing in verse 16 Genesis 1516 in fact this is a pivotal crucial determinative passage for understanding what's going to come later listen to what God says God speaking to Abraham says in the fourth generation they will return from here they will go into captivity he says but then they will come out listen to this for the iniquity of the amorite is not yet full the iniquity of the amorite s' is not yet full or some translations say it the iniquity of the amorite has not yet reached full measure what a strange thing to say God says to Abraham hey you're gonna get that land and that's gonna be your place and your descendants are gonna be there you actually won't Abraham this was gonna happen many generations from you but that is actually going to happen but not yet well why not why can't we just march in today why can't we March in next Thursday why can't we March in next week and God's response is well because their iniquity is not yet full there are still people there that have a soft heart there are still people there that are savable there is still the possibility or the potentiality there that some of those people could be rescued and so god I want you to think about the magnanimity of God here God puts his own plan and his own people and his own promise on hold so that he can hold out for this this nation over here who is wicked but not yet fully and irredeemably and incorrigibly wicked so God says hey I'll inconvenience you I'll inconvenience my people I'll inconvenience my covenant nation I'll inconvenience myself so that I can hold out the last little glimmer of hope for these people over here their iniquity is not yet complete the patience of God here is on gigantic display from copán and Flanagan's book did God really command genocide I read hundreds of pages this week alone and cumulatively on this topic I would have read thousands of pages in their book did God really command genocide they say look the account of entrance into Canaan where we are now in the book of Joshua comes after a long narrative that begins in the book of what where does it begin Genesis the point is that Abram Givet was given this land as a means to bless the whole world and reverse the curse of Babel this is not God playing favorite with the Israelites this is God preparing to bless the whole world through the Israelites so if something goes wrong here something will go wrong not just for Israel but for the whole world you could say that God has all of his chips on the Israelites table God is betting on the success of the Israelites and if you're sitting there thinking well that bet didn't go so well you would be exactly right but also exactly wrong we don't have time to develop that you would be right that the children of Israel failed miserably but there was an Israelite who succeeded marvelously and his name was Jesus and he kept covenant with God but at this point it's hugely important to recognize that this isn't the Bible doesn't open with God on some kind of a war mongering rampage Joshua doesn't show up until we've been through Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy and for much of that time God has said to his own people wait the iniquity over here is not yet full I need patience I need compassion I need you to bear with me so that's number one a sec a secondary consideration is that the land was legally the Israelites now this is an important point I want you to join me in Genesis 49 Genesis 49 that's a bold claim I'm making right there that the land was legally the Israelites think about this simple illustration if you are to go into somebody else's home and dispossessed them you will be charged with assault but if you come to your own home and there's a hostile party there who refuses to leave you could under certain circumstances dispossessed them with no punishment you see it's the difference between me going to somebody else's house to inflict an external punishment but what if somebody's in my house what if I'm not the trespasser but somebody else is the trespasser so this is a big claim for me to say that the land was legally the Israelites look at Genesis 49 Genesis 49 and pick it up in verse 29 Genesis 49 29 this is just as Jacob is about ready to die this is right at the end of the book of Genesis it says then Jacob charged them in said I am about to be gathered to my people bury me with my father's in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan which Abraham what did he do he bought which Abraham bought with the field which he bought as a possession for a burial place there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife and there I buried Leah the field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth and when Jacob had finished commanding his sons he drew his feet up into the bed and he died what a fascinating little detail here hey don't leave my bones here he says Jacob says the grandson of Abraham don't leave my bones here because my granddad purchased a field and that field had a cave in it he purchased lands and he's buried there and his wife is buried there and my dad is buried there and my mom is buried there and I'm going to be buried my wife there and I'm going to be buried there don't leave my bones here interestingly look at Exodus you're in Genesis look at Exodus 13 when the Israelites went up out of Egypt not only did they bring jacob's bones which may have been transported earlier but look at who else's bones they brought Exodus chapter 13 and verse 19 it says and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him well why as some kind of a relic or a lucky charm no 4 he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath saying God will surely visit you and you shall carry at my bones from here so they took their journey from Sukkoth and camped at Ethan on the edge of the wilderness joseph said don't leave my bones here put them in the cave of machpelah now this is hugely significant and it's legally significant in the ancient Near East notice what is said here the land belong legally to Abraham and his descendants at least portions of it did again copan and Flanigan in their book did God really commit ghent command genocide the reference to a burial site is significant in the ancient Near East acquiring a burial plot was a sign of permanent you patient much like a cemetery today so the commands occur in the context of the Canaanites living on land that Israel's ancestors had watch this lived on owned property in and to which they had legal title for the purpose of establishing a community through which salvation would be brought to the world hence as the commands occur in the biblical narrative the Canaanites are strictly speaking trespassers moreover the book of Joshua portrays Canaanites as aware of this fact and this is very interesting Rahab when the Israelite spies encounter Rahab look at what she says to the Israelite spies the Hebrew spies in Jericho I know that the Lord has given you this land if she knew it it meant all of Jericho knew it and all of the Canaanites knew it in fact you find again and again in the book of Joshua that when the Israelites come to a certain city or a certain region they say our hearts were melting with fear because we knew that God had given you this land this is a frank admission of being a trespasser it goes on to say similarly the men of Gibeon who were Canaanite peoples that came to Joshua they say to joshua hey we were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his Moses most his servant Moses to give Israel the whole land hence when Israel is commanded to attack these nations they are not as far as the narrator is concerned conquering or attacking an innocent nation and stealing their land rather Israel is repossessing land that already belongs to them and evicting people who are trespassing on it and refusing to leave now this is a very different scenario breaking into somebody else's house is an act punishable going into your own house and finding somebody who doesn't belong there and who refuses to leave is a very different situation the land was legally the Israelites after all God owns the earth the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and God had given it to them number three this is a hugely important point this is why one of the main reasons why what we encounter in the Old Testament is not genocide because the dispossession and destruction of the Canaanites listen very carefully was not on ethnic grounds it was not on ethnic grounds it was on moral grounds now let me just show you a couple texts to this effect go to Deuteronomy chapter 9 Deuteronomy chapter 9 Deuteronomy chapter 9 beginning in verse 1 Deuteronomy 9 1 here o Israel you are to cross over the Jordan today and to go into dis possessions greater and mightier than yourself cities great and fortified up to the heaven a people great and tall and descendants of anak am they were giants whom you know and of whom you've heard it said who can stand before the descendants of anak therefore understand today that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a consuming fire he will destroy them and bring them down before you so that you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord has said to you now watch this do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you and say this he says to the Israelites don't say this because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me into this to possess this land but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess the land but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you that he may fulfill the word which he swore to your father's Abraham and Isaac and Jacob therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness because you are a stubborn people wow this is fascinating God is clear here he essentially is saying hey this isn't about you at the end of the day I'm not blessing you because you're a little more righteous or a little more pious or a little more you know good God says I'm kicking them out for the reason that I told Abraham way back when I said their iniquity is not yet full no one could have said well we're a little better they could look down their nose at those black people or those Canaanite people or those white people or whatever the the divisions that we make among people's God says this is not about you being better this is about them being bad really really bad what was the nature of their badness Leviticus 18 beginning of verse to speak to the Israelites and say to them I am the Lord your God you must not do as they do in Egypt where you used to live and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you do not follow their practices you must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees I am the Lord your God keep my decrees and laws for the person who obeys them will live by them I am the Lord that's verses 2 to 5 now we jump all the way down to verse 21 do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Moloch for you must not profane the name or the character of your God one of the major facets that was taking place one of the major worship facets that was taking place in and around Canaan this comes up again and again and again in both Torah and in Joshua it comes up a few a couple times in Joshua primarily in Torah is these people sacrifice their children to gods don't even dream of doing that in my name he would defame and defile my character do not defile yourself with any of these things for by all these the nations are defiled which I am casting out before you for the land is defiled here Moses gives this picture God through Moses gives this picture that it's almost like the land is disgusted with these inhumane practices in fact the language that he used is quite picturesque watch this therefore I visited the punishment of its iniquity upon it the land vomits out its inhabitants wow what a picture what a picture here that the land is defiled and the land it's not even primarily God here who's like man I just can't handle these people they drive me crazy they're annoying what what it ends up being is that God says the land is defiled the land is profaned the land is disturbed therefore you shall keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not commit any of these abominations either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you for all these abominations the men of the land have done who were before you and thus the land is defiled lest the land vomit you also out if you defile it as it vomited out the nation's that were before you for whoever commits any of these abominations the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people notice that God is an equal-opportunity judge he says hey look they've defiled the land they will be dispossessed and destroyed if you defile the land it will vomit you out too so God here is not cleansing on ethnic grounds he's not saying oh man I just can't stand Canaanites I the shape of their nose drives me crazy or I don't like the color of their skin that it has nothing to do with genetics or with genealogy it has to do with their behavior with their moral attitude and especially with their worship which God regarded as abominable because it involved among other things temple prostitution and the sacrifice of innocence to some God that scripture says were actually demons they were sacrificing their children to demons another passage here from Leviticus therefore you shall keep my Commandments so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you and that you do not defile yourselves by them I am the Lord your God now this is a very interesting point just before Joshua is about ready to go into the land okay he has a dream he actually has a vision you might remember this is in Joshua chapter 5 and Josh was about ready to go in to take the children of Israel they've come over the Jordan and he's about ready to go start taking first Jericho and later I and March into Canaan and a fascinating thing happens Jesus shows up now the Bible doesn't say Jesus here it says the commander of the armies of the Lord but it's clearly Jesus in the context now watch this this is absolutely mind-blowing Joshua chapter 5 verse 13 and it came to pass when Joshua was by Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and he looked and behold a man capital M stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went him because he looks like a warrior it was like whoa because he's a warrior as well and he recognizes but there must've been something about his posture or his stance and he thought he's not attacking me that's not a that's not an aggressive posture and he says he's got his hand on the sword I can just imagine are you for us or our adversaries what an interesting question hey are you on our side or their side and get his answer his answer what an unusual answer and he said no no is not an answer but it is see Joshua is saying are you on the Jews side or the Canaanite side are you on our side or their side are you for us or for them and Jesus says no or as many translations say neither neither no I am the commander of the army of the Lord and I have now come joshua fell on his face to the earth and he worshiped then the commander of the lord's army said to Joshua take the sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy and Joshua did so I want you to think about that right there Jesus shows up to Joshua just as he's on the verge of the conquest of Canaan Joshua's question is are you for us or for them are you on our side or their side are you for us or against us and Jesus says neither because Jesus is for everybody can the church say Amen Jesus loves everybody he loves the Canaanites and he loves the Jews this wasn't about some division ethnically or some division even covenant aliy because God brought the covenant to Abraham for the purpose of letting everybody in the front door this is why when we come to the New Jerusalem there are 12 gates in the city the only reason you would put 12 gates on a city is if you're trying to maximize access get as many people in as possible and so Joshua's question as a warrior is are you for us or against us and God's answer is no because God so loved the world now here's an interesting one number 4 when Joshua actually goes in and takes Jericho and I'll be very brief about this point Rahab is preserved because she put that little red cord out her window you might remember that but akin who was an Israelite took a Babylonian garment and he took some silver and he took a wedge of gold and he hid it now these two stories are in Joshua five and six and they are purposefully set in juxtaposition to show you that God is not dividing on ethnic grounds because akin was a Jew and was stoned to death for his crime and Rahab was a Kay night and was preserved alive he hid his sin she showed her faith what other purpose would this little detail about a conserve in the story what other purpose would this detail about Rahab Rahab was only one person among perhaps a hundred or perhaps hundreds or maybe even a few thousand that were killed in Jericho by the way don't think that Jericho was this teeming metropolis like hundreds of thousands of people no it would have been I listened to a scholarly report a scholarly lecture just this week there could have been as few as two hundred people in Jericho it was a military fortress it was an outpost you had hundreds of thousands of Israelites and they marched around it seven times in a day it wasn't a giant big you know metropoliz metric metropolitan area there could have been you know maybe a couple thousand people there but there wouldn't have been many more than that I don't think in ancient times first of all there were many fewer people than there are today so why include this little detail about a single woman who saves her family and some of her friends well because God wants you to see here's akin he's a Jew he hides his sin he's killed here's Rahab she's a Canaanite she professes faith in the one true God and she's preserved said in immediate contrast in juxtaposition to let you know this is not an ethnic cleansing and for that reason it's not a genocide this is a judgment on disobedience not a genocide against people that God is prejudiced against her otherwise hates now child sacrifice and idolatry are absolutely key and I need to spend just a little bit of time on this not a ton again copán and Flanagan it is worth noting that most of these practices okay now I just want you to think about the things that we're doing he's gonna give us a list here what if these things were happening in Australia in 2015 how would the Australian government relate let's see it is worth noting that most of these practices are illegal today even in modern Western nations and no religious group that practice incest ritual prostitution bestiality or human sacrifice would be tolerated even in contemporary societies with freedom of religion laws and that's a great point I actually spent some time reading this week about the specific practices of the Canaanites and frankly I couldn't even communicate about 75% of them because they would be totally inappropriate in a in a situation where there are young people John sacrifices already pushing the edges but the stuff that we're taking place in Canaan you can't even say in a public forum you'd have to have all adults that people sign like a consent form like are you willing to hear this yeah I'll hear that okay if that was happening right now in Australia in some religious compound the Australian government wouldn't just say all freedom of religion no they would act because that freedom of religion was truncating and destroying the rights and lives of young people perhaps by the hundreds or thousands remember God gave them generation after generation after generation to come to repentance but instead of coming to repentance they perfected demon worship look at this moreover in many jurisdictions such as various states of the United States adults who engage in human sacrifice would face the death penalty and I support that incidentally no it's not popular in Australia but if somebody is going to take life I stand by the simple biblical maximum Maxim not out of revenge or out of any sort of punishment but that's just a consequence I I tooth tooth death death doesn't mean that somebody can't come to repentance but certainly in biblical times certainly in biblical times if a life was taken a life was demanded and today in Australia if people were practicing these things we wouldn't just say all religious liberty they would be severely punished and if some of those things happen in certain states even Western countries people would be punished by death so why is it so much different what God is doing now hence the practices in question were not are serious crimes not trivial practices of mere personal preference Richard swin born and what does the Old Testament mean says this God's reason for issuing this command according to the Old Testament was to preserve the young monotheistic religion of Israel from lethal spiritual infection by the polytheism of the Canaanites he was deadly afraid that there would be a mingling in the course that's exactly what happened a religion which included child sacrifice cultic prostitution such a spiritual infection was without a doubt a very real danger I'll just read you briefly if you want to join me I should be able to land the plane here in about ten minutes I know this is long but it doesn't you don't put 20 hours of study into something to stand up for thirty minutes go to Psalm 106 Psalm 106 if you're still tuned in if you're not enjoy those comfortable chairs Psalm 106 beginning in verse 34 I'll race through this Psalm 106 beginning in verse 34 the psalmist here is recounting the experience of the conquer of the conquering of Canaan and he says they did not destroy the people's concerning whom the Lord had commanded them but they mingled with the Gentiles and they learned their works they served their idols which became a snare to them now this is Israel verse 37 Israel even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons they shed innocent blood the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood thus they were defiled by their own works and they played the harlot by their deeds therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people so that he abhorred his own inheritance notice that God is equal in his opportunity of judgment he had said these people are being kicked out of the land because they commit these abominable practices that defile the land and then he said Israel if you do it you will be similarly dispossessed and they did and they were that's the point it's not genocide God if that kind of terrible treatment of young people which we understand intuitively is wrong and you might wonder like maybe have read the Old Testament thought why is there all these weird things in the Old Testament especially in the Book of Leviticus where it's like you know don't sleep with an animal and don't boil a kid in its mother's milk and don't sleep with your niece and and it's like all this weird stuff you think why does God is God some kind of a pervert he's mentioning all this weird stuff no they were going into a land where these things were common practice so he lists all of that to say hey I know what's going on over there don't do that and there's this weird one three times in the law it says really strange don't boil a kid in its mother's milk but somewhat strange they don't boil a little goat in the milk of its mother what why well this was apparently a heathen practice and God find it found it particularly affronting for this reason the milk of a mother is designed to bring life and health and nourishment and God says if you take that thing that's designed for life and make it bring death I find that abominable don't do that God essentially is saying that's disgusting have you lost your mind that's what he's saying about the whole situation so a few more things here very quickly dispossession vs. destruction this is an important sort of sin this is a very important point in terms of the way that God said that the is the Canaanites were to be destroyed if you do a word study on phrases like drive out or thrust out or send away it occurs 33 times this is in Torah and in Joshua and if you do a word study on destroy or perish or kill it occurs 11 times now I could spend a lot of time going through the textual reasons for this but let me just give you the very short reason what appears I believe what's happening first of all Joshua did not just go marching into Canaan in a week or a month it took years in fact even when Joshua dies Canaan has not yet settled it went years in fact the whole book of Judges Canaanites are everywhere they're all over the place we're gonna spend a whole we're gonna spend a lot of time three sermons in the book of Judges seeing that the Canaanites are still around so God was not saying go and exterminate these people what he was saying is kicked them out of the land and the the expectation was as you probably would too if you knew that a people were coming and you knew that they'd marched around a city seven times and that city had fallen supernaturally you're gonna flee God's expectation he says it again and again I will drive them out I will drive them out I will drive them out and only those listen carefully because this is a crucial and subtle distinction only though who refused to leave and who remained in a military posture against the Israelites who were eventually destroyed I hope you get the point in fact here's a subtle hugely important but subtle point God never gives a command to pursue and hunt down the Canaanites he never says go into the hills and go into the hedges and go into the rocky crevices and find them and exterminate them no God wasn't interested in blood he just wanted the land which I remind you was legally theirs anyway so here's what's happening over the course of years miraculous deliverances are happening and the word is getting out among the Canaanites that Israel is marching through the land and I believe that the vast majority of those people and they saw that Israel was coming were fleeing and we know that because they show up again later in the book of Judges and when they fled the cities that were fortresses and strongholds they the people that remained in there in a hostile posture toward God and his people they were eventually killed and it's very unlikely that there were many women and children that remained they would have fled so you have a three to one ratio of drive out thrust out send away to kill perish and destroy very important the judgment upon these kingdoms was to dispossessed them of the land and thus to destroy their kingdoms not necessarily to destroy every single person God wanted those kingdoms erased from the earth there was no command to pursue and hunt down the Canaanite people's God is not a bounty hunter he's not a war monger Israel were not so much conquerors as refugees in need of a home and this is particularly poignant for us right now with the massive refugee crisis that's going on let me ask you this question how do you feel about those people that have driven these refugees by the hundreds of thousands out into the streets how do you feel about that you feel like that's acceptable behavior well remember the Israelites are not so much a conquering nation they have been oppressed for hundreds of years in a foreign nation they're now refugees going back to their own home and here are protesters and trespassers who refuse to leave and who are sacrificing among other things there children two demons and gods like those people got to go but of this statement here from David Lam God behaving badly unlike Assyria and Moab which were expanding their own borders to enrich their own kingdoms Israel were refugees who had experienced hundreds of years of oppression in a foreign land they needed a place to live and they were attempting to gain a homeland how very appropriate in playing it that we would be coming to this point right now and we are in the midst of a massive global crisis of refugees and immigrants looking just for a place to lay their head that's the Israelites not a conquering marauding army but people who have been in Egyptian captivity and wandering in the desert for years who need a place to live a place that was rightfully covenant aliy and legally theirs cities were fortresses and strongholds don't think of cities like Gold Coast ok the cities were not like to woomba these were these were fortresses they were Citadel's there were military establishments and they were taken out because they were in a hostile posture to God in his possession Israel was similarly dispossessed as we've already mentioned here are the dates I'll let me just give you a quick quote here the text therefore continually and repeatedly states that the Canaanites will will will not be exterminated in the sense that the Israelites were to kill every single man woman and child in Canaan rather it states that they are to be driven out for example this is a good illustration if you if you state that you had driven an intruder from your house no one would assume that the intruder was dead on your living room floor similarly if you said you killed an intruder one would not normally think that this meant that the intruder had been driven out the command you go back and you read it it says it again and again drive them out drive them out drive them out it wasn't an extermination it wasn't a genocide and Israel themselves were similarly dispossessed Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC and Judah was eventually destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar we've already mentioned him very likely he became converted in a follower of the one true God though astonishingly he was the one responsible for the disruption of Jerusalem and the final destruction of Judah by Babylon took place right at the end of the sixth century BC right so this is the point here is that God is not and I know I've said this arms gonna make one last point on this he's not favorable to the Jews because their ethnic ly superior or because he's got you know some sort of prejudice or bias toward them no God says these are people that are worshiping in a demonic way they are sacrificing their children they are participating in all kinds of corrupt and abominable deeds and think about it this way every passing generation the city gets larger the community gets larger and more children are subjected to a situation that they wouldn't be subjected to if those cultures didn't exist now that's a little tricky thing to think about and gotta kind of put your God hat on for a minute and think big picture not just one person but think big picture I actually heard an illustration that I found very challenging and let me put it to you I know it's a little late on time let me put this very challenging illustration to you imagine that there are three airliners that have been hijacked that's not difficult to imagine in the post 9/11 world three airliners have been hijacked filled with say three hundred people each the first one has already been flown into a large building and thousands are dead the second has been flown into a sports stadium and thousands are dead and the third one is still in the air and your government let's say it happened in Australia or an America your government has scrambled jet fighters that have pulled alongside of that jet and have said land this plane there's an airport right over here if you don't immediately make a turn in your trajectory to land this plane safely over here then you will be shot down now you and I know that there are innocent people on that plane but we also can look at the trajectory where they're going and let's saying they're going to a populated center where thousands will stand to die let me ask you a question what do you think the Australian government would do and even though innocence may die in the process most us in this room would say that is the thing they should do now I wouldn't want to be the one that pulled the trigger but it would be incorrect to think that ninety nine out of a hundred governments on planet earth wouldn't do exactly that faced with that situation well this is the situation Godsey this airliner is set to kill generations and generations and generations of people who will never have an opportunity to know the true God so what's God supposed to do sit idly by all right you guys have been very generous God is necessarily accommodationist the destruction and dispossession of the Canaanites is embedded in a concessionary permissive context over all the commands were contingent on a situation where things have badly broken down clearly this is a post Eden world this is a post-fall world where things have gone to hell in a handbasket God is making an accommodation he's making a concession by the way God is always doing this the police force right now we got Brendan in here somewhere maybe but we have we have members of this congregation who are who are on the police force but the police do not do a good job of stopping all crime they do a good job of stopping the crime that they stopped but God could do a much better job of stopping crime don't you agree yeah because God could do it 100% effectively so why does God allow a police force to do it because this is the world we live in we live in a world where God is accommodating himself to humans to their language to their lives to their diseases to their hypocrisy to their inconsistencies and to their immorality God could just show up and wipe the slate clean of course the great story of Scripture is that he'd be wiping all of us clean but God could have done far more efficiently for the Canaanites the conquering of the land himself so why does he use Canaan to do it because he's accommodating a badly fallen badly broken perverted terrible world that we were never designed to experience or see in a fallen world there are things which are sadly commanded and I love this and commanded sadly God didn't say with a general military triumphalism go in there and whack those people God's heart would have been broken in fact in Isaiah 28 when it comes to destruction the destruction of the wicked it calls it God's strange act it is a strange thing for somebody to create something and then destroy it a sculptor sculpture to make a beautiful sculpture and then destroy it for a builder to build a beautiful house and then burn it down wouldn't that be strange and yet all of us are God's creations and there comes a time sadly tragically when even some of God's own creations have so modeled themselves after the image of this world and the image of Satan that they themselves have given themselves over to these practices they have so identified at these practices that God has to destroy his own creation or better said allow them to destroy themselves and scripture says this is a strange weird unusual thing for God to do because God is the giver of life look at this these commands do not so much reveal the glories of God's nature but rather the dreadfulness of human fallenness I'll probably never preach on this again so I'm just gonna give you the whole enchilada you're gonna get it all because this is not like I've looked forward to preaching on this subject alright two final quotes and I think we're there patriarchs and prophets from Ellen White which he's describing the taking of the land this is one of the most powerful power-packed quotes that she ever wrote I remember the first time I was exposed to this I wasn't even yet a believer I was becoming a believer and I was like whoa that's a heavy quotation Satan deceives many with the plausible theory that God's love for his people is so great that he will excuse sin in them it's plausible it's almost believable because God's love is so great it's almost believable he represents that while the threatenings of God's Word are to serve a certain purpose in his moral government there are never to be literally fulfilled but in all his dealings with his creatures God has maintained the principles of righteousness by revealing sin in its true character by demonstrating that it's sure result is misery and death the unconditional pardon of sin never has been and never will be such pardon would show the abandonment of the principles of righteousness which are the very foundation of the government of God it would fill the unfallen universe with consternation God has faithfully pointed out the results of sin and of these warnings were not true how could we be sure that his promises would be fulfilled that's so-called benevolence which would set aside justice is not benevolence but weakness this is an interesting one God is the life giver this is the point I was just making about how it's a strange thing for God to destroy God is the life giver from the beginning all his laws were ordained to life I am the resurrection and the life Jesus said but sin broke in as an intruder as a trespasser sin broke in upon the order that God had established and discord followed so long as sin exists suffering and death are inevitable and God knows this so he is trying to put an end to sin and death but some people have so identified themselves with sin that they themselves have to be destroyed or otherwise dispossessed final quotation you guys have made it you've made it you've survived this comes from Miroslav wolf wolf a Yale theologian and read this he's one of the best-known contemporary theologians of the day listen to what he says I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God isn't God love shouldn't divine love be beyond wrath God is love and God loves every person every creature we've labored to make that point here this morning that's exactly why God is wrathful against some of them my last resistance to the idea of God's wrath was a casualty of the war in the former Yugoslavia the region from which I come says Miroslav according to some estimates 200,000 people were killed and over 3 million were displaced my villages and cities were destroyed my people were shelled day in and day out some of them brutalized beyond imagination things that you couldn't say in a mixed audience and I could not imagine that God would not be angry or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century or 800,000 people were hacked to death by dull machetes in a hundred days how did God react to this carnage by by doting on the perpetrators in a grandfatherly fashion should he have smiled and patted them on back by refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead of firming the perpetrators basic goodness wasn't God fiercely angry with them of course he was though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God's wrath I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn't wrathful at the sight of this world's evil God isn't wrathful in spite of being loved God is wrathful because God is love and in the same way that you and I would be indignant at a rape indignant and abuse indignant at injustice God is infinitely holy what did he see when he saw Canaan he saw something that had gone so far off the rails it had to be stopped it wasn't just about the Canaanites genealogically because God gave the same punishment to Israel centuries later God's passion is for holiness God's passion is for righteousness God's passion is for love God looks like Jesus and God is love and precisely as Miroslav Volf says because he is love he cannot tolerate Rabbids in gross injustice and perverse demonic iniquity I want to thank you for your attention to this presentation it's not been an easy one to study out or to present but I think the takeaway lesson for me is and the takeaway lesson for you is the practical application apart from the apologetic needs that we have to give a good answer to those that would ask you cannot make peace with the Canaanites in your heart you cannot make peace with the things in your life that God hates you can't dwell peaceably with things that kill Jesus we cannot dwell peaceably with things that are built around injustice and unkindness and and the worship of demons and I suppose to put maybe a fine point on it it doesn't look well for us when we entertain ourselves with movies or books or program where things that God hates are on full display as entertainment God can't make peace with that not in a cinema not in a theater and not in real life and not in a book and so the giant take away from me in this study and I hope takeaway for you is that God is not out to make peace with the Canaanites in my heart and in your heart God wants them eradicated he wants them extirpated he wants all of us to become descendants of Abraham to become followers of the one true God to become Israel father in heaven you've been with us today this has not been easy to deliver and I'm certain it's not been easy to hear either for the length or for the conflict complexity of the topic or of the disturbing nature of the topic the Father here it is and we can preach flowery happy sermons all day long and and I love those flowery happy sermons but father sometimes we have to wrestle with the text and you know as well as I know and many biblically literate people here would know this is only the scratching of the surface of the problematic text in Scripture but at least it shows us a way forward we don't have to leave our brains on the door we don't have to leave our hearts on the door father we can we can journey through the Old Testament and into the New Testament with a renewed and robust confidence that you that God looks like Jesus the Jesus who said come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest father not just rest from work not just rest from anxiety but rest from sin rest from the Canaanite tendencies in our lives rest from the tendency to be entertained by things that kill Jesus father teach us how to rest in holiness how to rest in righteousness and how to rest in love this is my prayer in Jesus name but all of God's Saints say amen

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Length: 77min 40sec (4660 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2015