Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway!

Scripture: Psalm 46.

Prayer

Intro

Good morning!

Connection cards, introduce yourself.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde was published by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886.

It’s about a kind Doctor Henry Jeckyll who drinks a serum and becomes evil Edward Hyde.

Stevenson was fascinated by human nature and how one person could grapple with good and evil within themselves.

The story become so popular that “Jeckyll and Hyde” has become a common phrase even today.

Maybe you’re reading the Bible and you think, God is kinda like Jeckyll and Hyde.

God in the Old Testament SEEMS angry and violent, causing a flood, striking down his enemies, getting angry at his people, commanding his people to wipe out other people groups.

And then we get to the New Testament, and God takes his happy pills and becomes Jesus.

Kind, submissive, gentle, and lowly, blonde haired blue eyed guy who cuddles with lambs and leads your kids Awana class.

Is God different from the Old and New Testament?

Does he change?

As Christians we say resoundingly, NO, but at the same time, we’re Americans in 2022 reading our Bibles and we can be legitimately confused.

How do I square the God I read about in the OT with the Jesus I read in the New?

We’re calling 2022 the Year of Biblical Exploration, inviting you to read through the Bible Jan-Dec Genesis thru Revelation to see how this is

The Bible is a library of texts - both divine and human - with a unified story that leads to knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus.

How do I connect the God who tells Joshua, as Marissa just read, go and take out those people, with the Jesus who says, “those who live by the sword die by the sword”?

How is this one unified story when it seems like God commands genocide?

Does God actually command his people to wipe out an entire nation of people, to invade their land just because of their nationality…or in other words, is God just like Putin?

This morning we’re going to be in the book of Joshua.

And if you’re never felt uncomfortable reading Joshua, read it again.

The goal of this sermon is not to make us feel perfectly content about warfare in the Bible, but to at least clarify some things about what really is going on, how this connects to Jesus, and what it means for us today.

And I think Joshua is hugely important for our Christian witness, because if you have friends who you want to know Jesus, or maybe friends who are walking with Jesus, or maybe you yourself might come to passages like this and say, “I cannot follow a God who would command genocide.”

And to that I would say, “Me neither.”

That’s not what’s going on.

This sermon is a compilation of material from several sources, Bible Project resources, lectures from Tim Mackie at Western Seminary, and the book The Skeletons in God’s Closet by Joshua Ryan Butler, which I find very helpful.

Again, I can’t cover everything, violence in the OT is a thousands year old discussion with a litany of nuances.

My goal is to help you not be afraid of your Bible, but to see God as good, loving, just throughout the Scriptures.

But let’s use the book of Joshua to briefly address three questions: Why did God command Israel to invade Canaan?

What actually happened or did God command genocide?

and How does this connect to Jesus?

Pray

Why did God command Israel to invade Canaan?

Or, in other words, is God like Putin?

I imagine texts like Joshua have been used to condone violence against innocent people…think about the Crusades, the Spanish conquistadors coming to the Americas, our own country’s history of displacing Native American people.

Well, God did it, so we’re just doing what he told them to do, right?

Something unique is going on in Joshua.

First, let’s remember the whole story of the Bible, specifically Genesis through 2 Kings.

God makes the universe.

He makes humans to rule on his behalf and take his creation onward in this beautiful place called the Garden of Eden.

What do we do?

Mess it all up and get evicted from Eden.

Genesis 3-11 show us how bad things get when humans deny that God is truly in charge and take control for themselves.

And so in Genesis 12, God decides to restore Eden blessing to the world through who?

Abram and his family.

And God says this,

So part of God’s plan to save the WHOLE WORLD, including us, involves making this nobody Abram into a great nation with a land.

So Joshua fits in this story because part of God’s plan to redeem the world and take it back to Eden is to give Abram’s family a place.

The problem is, Eden is occupied.

By who?

By the people who who made Babylon, which we read about in Genesis 11.

They’re architects of an anti-Eden, creating cultures of violence, destruction, sexual perversion against the will of God.

God wants a people who will represent his goodness to the world, and not be corrupted by sin and death.

So he says to his people in Lev 18:3

Okay, so what are their statutes?

Are they really that bad?

Adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, bestiality…this is the darkness of the Canaanite culture that God wants his people to avoid.

They’re sinking to a new low of moral corruption.

God wants Eden, we choose Babylon.

And so the rest of the story in the Old Testament is how Israel was supposed to remove the darkness of Canaanite culture from their midst in order to restore Eden to the world…but they don’t, they hold onto the Canaanite ways and it results in their own destruction.

It’s like if you’re trying to eat better and clean out your pantry but you decide to just leave a few bags of Dots Pretzels, just in case.

Eventually their own exile by in 586 BC by none other than…Babylon.

So why did God command Israel to invade Canaan?

For the sake of the world.

To restore Eden blessing to all nations.

So Joshua fits into this story of God’s promise to Abram…I want to give you a land and move the world back into Eden blessing, relationship with me and drive out the forces of darkness and save the universe!

Joshua is not about God is a racist who kills other people heartlessly…he is wholeheartedly pursuing the restoration of all nations world thru the people of Israel.

But maybe you say, “But Chris, haven’t you read Joshua?

It’s really bloody and sure seems like God is commanding genocide of innocent people?

What’s going on here?”

What was the invasion actually like?

Was Joshua and the Israelite’s invasion into Canaan actually like Germany invading Poland, Russia entering Ukraine, or was it something else?

The book of Joshua has many different battle sequences, but three encounters come first: Jericho, Ai, and Gibeon.

These first three encounters have the most detail and seem to be representative of the whole.

So let’s take a look at each of these and see how they show what Israel’s invasion was actually like and actually about.

The first is Jericho in Joshua chapter 6.

Jericho

Before we get to Jericho, there is this important scene in Joshua 5.

Are you with us or with them?

Neither.

Huh?

These battles are not Israel vs Canaan, but God vs those that oppose him.

God is not racist.

He is not just for Israel, he is for all people who trust him.

And those who don’t will face his wrath.

In world history, we know stories of people who fought battles for God.

Or suicide bombers take their own life because God has to be defended.

Is that what’s going on here?

God is fighting for Israel, a tiny tribe of refugees.

It’s almost like he’s saying, “Watch how great I am…just march around that castle and play ‘Good Good Father’ on your acoustic guitar and I’ll bring the whole place down.”

In Jericho, we see Israel as a tiny humble people defended by God in a miraculous victory.

Second encounter with the people of Ai:

Ai

Israel was not to plunder Jericho for their stuff, but Achan, an Israelite, took something and disobeyed God.

So what happens?

You know in Mario Kart when you get the star, and you go really fast and you run people over.