The Lord Will Fight For You

At the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army bearing down on them, mountains on either side blocking any escape, and the sea before them, The LORD tells Moses to tell the people --
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Exodus 14:13-14
..Israel went through the midst of the sea upon the dry ground...
and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. Exodus 14: 27-28

Also, referring to the story of Hezekiah when the Assyrians had besieged Jerusalem, God told them He would take care of the Assyrians, and the next morning when Israel arose, they found the whole Assyrian army dead. 2 Kings 19

Therefore the Sabbath School lesson guide puts forth this idea:

God never intended Israel to fight and kill the Canaanites.
God Himself would clear the land for Israel, they would not need to use swords and spears. The just needed sufficient trust in Him.


But others see this as presuming too much?
True, without God there is no possibility for Israel to be successful in any of these campaigns, as was demonstrated in the campaign against the small town of Ai (Joshua 7). Without God there was no success, but defeat.

With God, even 300 men (Gideon's army) could defeat a huge army. (Judges 7)

At Jericho, it was God who demolished the opponent's defenses, but Israel still had to take the city.

I suppose the bottom question, going beyond even the historical events is:

Does God enable His people to fight against sin?
Or
Does God tell people to relax and He will do it all for them?

There are times when we call upon Him in trust, He will just take the temptations and problem away for us. Like God did for the Israelites at the Red Sea.

Other times He wants us to work with Him, trusting in Him, fight along with Him, as demonstrated by Gideon, Deborah, Joshua, and others who took up the fight fully trusting in God to give the victory, and God worked marvelously for them. Yet they first had to stand up, by faith, against the "enemy".

The lesson shares a quote from EGW:
"He did not design that they should gain the land of promise by warfare, but through submission and unqualified obedience to his commands." {Signs of the Times, September 2, 1880 par. 4}

Doesn't this settle the questions asked in the previous post?
It's always wise to read sentences in their context to see the full meaning. Israel had just sent 12 spies into Canaan (this was 40 years previous to Joshua's conquest of Canaan) Ten came back hugely complaining that conquest of Canaan was impossible. They had forgotten something very important: that of God's enabling power when following His directions. So they were sentenced to 40 years in the wilderness. But then they got a bright idea.

What was wrong with their thinking?
1. They sensed God's rejection due to their unbelief but didn't repent and seek heart change.
2. They would go and conquer without God
3. They would show God they were capable
4. They would earn back His acceptance by their works.
5. And they would take the glory of any victory to themselves.

This was totally against God's plans.
God's plan was for Moses and Aaron, his appointed leaders, to conduct the expedition under his (God's) watchful direction. With such supervision, no harm would have come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God, and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark of God and without Moses, and without God, they march out to meet the armies of the enemy. It was a large, tumultuous, disorganized company. The results were bad. It was absolutely impossible to succeed on their own terms.

Fighting against evil saves people from even worse horror and escalating brutality, one only needs to look at Stalin and Hitler in current history..

Lesson Five Link
God Fights For You

This weeks lesson deals mainly with the issue of "why" would God want the Canaanites destroyed?
And how were they to be cleared from the land.

The concept of a God of love and peace being a warrior and leading battles that eliminate whole groups of people raises questions.

Here are some points to explain:

1. God takes absolutely no delight in the death of the wicked.
Ezek. 33:11 As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?

2. Christ died upon Calvary bearing all mankind's sin to the cross, so that everyone who believes and turns to Him need not perish but have life.
1 Peter 2:24 Christ, Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. John 3:16 That whosoever believeth on Him need not perish but have everlasting life.

3. Real love and peace will never be part of humanities experience as long as sin reigns in this world. Sin mars everything and brings all manner of problems. Sin has caused all this terror and trouble in the world. Sin offers nothing but an alluring thrill followed by misery, ruined lives, and death. Isaiah 57:20-21 The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

4. God hates sin, he abhors wickedness. Sin is the opposite of His self-denying love and holiness.
Proverbs 5:16-18 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.


5. God patiently works to draw people to Himself and away from the destructive forces of sin, but there comes a point when "the cup of iniquity is full" when sin and all who cling to it will be wiped out, so peace can reign. The destruction of Canaanites demonstrates this. The Patriarchs lived among them as witnesses of God's truth. Though Abraham was promised the land, he could not take possession of the land, as the inhabitants still had another 400 years of probation, another 400 years to recognize and turn to the true God.
" Genesis 15:16[God told Abraham] In the fourth generation they (Abraham's descendants) shall come back here again: but for now, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

6. God is the supreme judge, His war is against sin. Satan has claimed humanity as his, and holds them hostage. God has declared war on sin, to open the door of salvation to all who choose His righteousness and seek escape from sin. He shows no partially. When Israel trusted and followed God, He gave them victories. But Israelites experienced the reversal of holy war when they practiced sin as their way of life, then God did not fight for them but against them. God will not tolerate and give life to sustain evil forever.
Eze. 8:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Rev. 2:21-23 And I gave her time to repent of her fornication; but she would not repented .
She and her children I will kill in death; and all .. shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

7. In the final, everlasting promised land, all sin will be gone, wiped out, burned into non existence. Love and peace and holiness will be everywhere. No more war, strife and confusion, no more selfish exploitations and ruinous passions -- no more sin. It will be glorious life, everlasting life, a life beyond our every expectation of happiness in holiness and harmony with Jesus our Redeemer and Savior from sin.

Rev. 20:13-15 they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire....
Rev. 21:4-5 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
Rev. 19:5-7 Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him

There are three major approaches (and you can probably find subgroups of these three) to the conquest:
The Biblical minimalists say it never happened, that as people who lived/immigrated into the land became a nation, they made up this history.

Among the Biblical maximalists some believe that Joshua just entered the land and mowed everyone down.

Other Biblical maximalists believe that Joshua and the people entered the land and Joshua conquered enough to establish the people, but the book of Joshua would summarize what was begun but took to the time of David to complete and the highlights were telescoped into the story of Joshua. Also that the Israelite attacks were mostly at the walled cities, where the elite lived and who oppressed the common people who lived outside the walled cities; or the cities daughters. While some cities were destroyed with their daughters, that mostly, the daughters, the common people, ended up being liberated from the walled city people and were converted and absorbed into Israel. That there was as much, if not more evangelism going on than killing.

So why the emphases on the killing? One theory is that the final editor of the Deuteronomic history (The books of Joshua through Kings) was either the prophet Jeremiah, or someone in his inner circle. Jeremiah was getting people ready to face the Babylon invasion, and if our final form of the history was to prepare for the on coming Babylon evasion, that he would draw lessons from the fall of Canaan and the killing. (an interesting thing about the theory that the final editor of the Deuteronomic history is Jeremiah is that one theme is how God can bless people, but the blessed people can turn their blessings into a curse. And God can curse people, yet, turn the curse into a blessing. Also, if you were to trace the curses in these books, not all of them, but most of them end up on one person: You guessed it, the prophet Jeremiah.)

So why would the Canaanites be destroyed?

First: with few exceptions (like the Canaanite King Danel) most pagans did not see their gods as personal. They were worshiping the forces of nature and personalizing them. They believed that if the gods of life were pleased and excited, then there would be a lot of food, animals born to their flock and children born to their wife. If they were not happy, or mad at you, especially if the gods of death were mad at you, then you had either famine, or too much rain causing mold. Much of paganism in their worship would put on what can be described as "X" rated sexual actions hoping that these actions would make the gods of life all excited and productive.

In addition to the general description above, the Canaanites had an additional situation. The Bible calls the land as flowing with milk and honey. In our culture these terms symbolize everything good, predictable, easy exciting. However, that was only a part of the understanding in the ancient world. These terms were geographic terms. Honey included not only what the bees make, but any preserved food. A land of honey was good agricultural land, and thus fits our western picture of the terms "milk and honey. " However, the "milk" gives the complete opposite picture. Milk came from animals mostly kept in the desert. Your garden might give good, bad or in the middle crops, often poor crops and you hope for a better garden next year. Moving around a lot looking for food for your animals to eat, and you may not have much more food than what you get from your milk animals. Most places were either seen as lands of milk or honey. Egypt was seen as having both milk and honey, but in an organized land of honey along the river, but then once you leave the river area you are in the milk of the desert.

Canaan is where Europe, Asia, Africa, and Arabia all meet. The plants and animals of these parts of the world compete there, as well as the weather patterns. The Jordan was not a great river like the Nile or Tigris. The major god for the Canaanites was the storm/rain god Baal. Thus in addition to what pagans in the other parts of the world believed in making the gods of life excited by their sexual behavior, the Canaanites had more of a focus on this due to the intensity of the unpredictability of living in a land flowing with both milk and honey. They also added two other superstitions. One is that they felt that if they united their life forces in sexual orgies with your neighbors, across generations, including children and animals, that they were somehow giving Baal more strength and power to defeat the leviathan, and thus bring the life giving rain. They also came to believe that if they raped someone from another part of the world, that they could steal the life force of their victim: That food that would have grown in the victim's home garden will now instead grow in my garden in Canaan. That animals that would have been born to the flocks of their victim's family at their home, would now be born to my flocks in Canaan. That children that would have been born to the wife of their victim will now be born to my wife here in Canaan. And if they rapped the victim to death, then they would have stolen all of their life forces.

These are empty superstitions that does nothing but hurt others including abusing children. These actions do not affect the weather, nor the amount of food growing in your garden, animals born to your flocks or children born to your wife. The the Canaanites actually believed that this did and that they needed to "unite their life forces" or else they and their children would starve; and that they could add a little extra to their family if they rapped someone passing through the land.

Now this piece of land was quite literally the center of the ancient world. This was the most important trade intersection between Africa, Arabia, Europe and Asia. Yet, the worship services and superstitions made this most important intersection one of, if not the most dangers place on earth.

A big part of the conquest of Canaan was to make this all important intersection safe for the people passing through, and for a simple worship of a personal God who actually loved them was in charge of both the milk and honey aspects of their life.

In our culture, we have a picture of the devil as this red man with horns, tail and pitchfork. The ancient world also had a picture. They pictured him as a 7 headed sea monster, the leviathan. (Job and his friends understood what we see in the front of the book in what God had to say about the leviathan). One of the names of the leviathan was Rahab. Names were character. There was a woman in Jericho named Rahab, named after the devil. Her name indicates that she was the worst of the worst. She was so evil that the wicked Canaanites saw her as a wicked person. She was on the top of Joshua's list of Canaanites who were so wicked that they needed to die for their wickedness. Yet, even the worst of the Canaanites was not outside of grace. The fact that God could save the very worst Canaanite, shows that the others had no excuse, that God could have saved them all if only they would have let him.

I don't have time to go into the details, and I posted them in another thread, but the Hebrew of Joshua 10 could be understood as either the sun did not move and was just shining in the sky all day and all night, which is the popular understanding. But it could also be understood as the sun being quiet that day, not shining.

Yes, I think there is considerable agreement that the inhabitants of Canaan -- the Canaanites, had fallen into grievous depths of sin. Everything was being sacrificed to satisfy the lowest passions capable of developing in humans. Destruction of life, immorality, sexual abuse, satanic ritual abuse, hundreds of babies sacrificed, -- Babies, maidens, boys and respect for life, and nobility of an upright character, all was being destroyed on the altars of evil.
They served demon "gods" and sank to the level of demons.

They had received "light" and "warning" years earlier. Abraham and Isaac had lived in their midst as witnesses of the true God. Sodom and Gomorrah (they were Canaanites) had already reached the depths of sin and were destroyed by fire and brimstone. But did the Canaanites take warning and turn? Maybe a little for a short time, but then they sank ever deeper till their 400 years of probation were ended.

The Bible is clear -- once evil sinks to irredeemable levels God will destroy that society that clings unrepentingly to the evil.
The Flood.
Sodom and Gomorrah as examples.

The evil was to be rooted out, giving the land space to breath again and refocus on better things, seeking after the True God!

It's also true that Israel did not root out the Canaanites.
Was that God's plan?

Exodus 23:31-33 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and you shalt drive them out before thee.
You are to make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
They are not to dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto you.

Contrary to God's command, they let many of them stay.
Oh, yes, Israel did knock out numerous strong holds,
But also, yes, they allowed smaller settlements and country residents to stay, and just as God predicted these Canaanites taught them how to serve other gods.

Scripture tells the sad story about all that Baal worship over the succeeding years, amongst the people of God! -- It did NOT come from God, it came from Canaanite worship.

Psalm 106:34-36
They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

In the end, Canaanite worship destroyed Israel.
First the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed because of their acceptance of Canaanite worship.
Later Judah was destroyed by Babylonian armies, also because of their acceptance of Canaanite worship.

By allowing the Canaanites to remain among them they ended up
2 Chronicles 33:9 to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

When dealing with the stories in Joshua we need to understand that this demonstrates the end result of rejecting the true God.

The command to destroy was not given to Abraham. He was to be a witness. His mingling with Canaanites was to be witness concerning the true God, to draw them to seek the true God.

Joshua faces a people that God has been working with for hundreds of years. They have repeatedly rejected God's ways, sunk deeper and deeper under the control of evil, and filled their cup of iniquity.

We do not know the condition of our neighbors.
Our work is to portray Jesus to them as the One seeking to save them.

The time will come, when probation closes -- The reality in Joshua assures us evil will be destroyed. But God has NOT given us any commission to destroy anyone, our commission is Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.

But there are some strongholds we do need to root out!
And we can learn an important lesson from the book of Joshua -- don't allow any of these strong holds to remain, but by the grace and power of God, root them out.

2 Cor. 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Seriously we are to consider the question, have we humbled ourselves before God, that the Holy Spirit may work in and through us with transforming power? To cast out these strong holds within that cause us to resist.
Is Jesus our all in all, or are we going after other gods?