Problem with the Book of Joshua?

Question

I can read the whole New Testament and see a loving God, and even in most of the Old Testament, God seeks to differentiate Himself from false gods by His respect for life and rejection of human sacrifice.

So how do theologians justify the Book of Joshua, which makes it look like Yahweh is encouraging genocide against the people who were in Israel before the Jews arrived? Or is this book simply wrong?

Answer 1

The land that the Israelites were overtaking were filled with corrupt and idol worshipping people who did not believe in the one true God--Eliohom. In order to receive God's promise of this land the Israelites had to fight and destroy these wicked people and they had to destroy all of their false gods and idols!

Answer 2

God gave the Jews a gift: the land of Israel. The purpose of this gift was to promote the holiness of the Jewish people and bring the Jewish people closer to the Almighty. There were other people in Israel who understandably denied the Jews the right to enter the land, which they had the right to enter, considering that God's authority is perfect. So, the Jews had to conquer the cities of Israel which involved killing people. These were nations steeped in immorality who were getting in the way of the greater good. These nation's rejected God's Torah and thus lost their chance to live in the land. These nations presumably rejected God's noahide laws for the non-Jewish majority. Remember that the Jews were the last people to whom God offered His Torah. So, in order to achieve the greater good, there was bloodshed. What's the lesson? Sometimes the ends justify the means. When there is an insurgent force living within a Jewish land that threatens the land's power to provide a relationship between the righteous and the divine, and those people are defaming a land of holiness, those people need to be removed.

Answer 3

Acts 13:17-23;

They had to destroy seven nations. The Promised Land covenant given to Abraham,
and at Josh.5:6,10,14 the 40 years ends 14th day into the New Year, 470 years after the the land is to be theirs. In the 14th chapter of Genesis are the land pirates, coming through the wilderness, the orders are to buy water and ask to cross the land.

With never any help from these people, the orders are to wipe them out, but that was not done and so they had trouble all the way down to David got so much done that Solomon could see peace 480 years 1Ki.6:1;

Abraham was a rich man, Gen.13:2; No amount of money could buy from land pirates.
From him to half a million heirs this nation had nothing. No Nation cared.

Answer 4

U have made a mistake concerning how an Earthly time period functions. Yes, the Earth does Orbit the star we call the Sun, but we measure the length of a Year, not a Day, utilizing this event. To measure the time span we call a Day, we utilize the Rotation of the Earth on an imaginary Axis. This being said, yes the world at the time that God Stopped the Rotation of the Earth, believed (Erroneously) that the Sun was Orbiting the Earth. We of course now know that the Sun does Not Orbit the Sun. So before U hit this with any "Man Wisdom" that U have just Proven the Bible Wrong, Science has PROVEN that the EVENT DID HAPPEN!!! And it has been made into a Documentary played on Satellite & Cable!!! So I think that Man of that time period did pretty well describing, as best they could for the time period, the Actual Event!!! John

Answer 5

This is an excellent question.

I don't think God is giving permission for anyone to take over another's country on the premise that this is God-granted, like we did here in the USA.

I believe God gives the answer in Deuteronomy. Actually, in Genesis, he promises the land to Abraham and his descendants. In Deuteronomy, before the Israelites enter the land, God tells them he is driving out the Canaanites and other peoples in the promised land because of their wickedness. Their practices were so bad and depraved that God finally got fed up with them.

God also told Israel that if they did the same things, God would drive them out too. In Ezekiel, God accuses Israel of acting worse than their predecessors did. God eventually drives them out into exile in Babylon for seventy years. He brings a remnant back, but in 70 AD they are cast out and scattered again. The Israelites don't return as a nation until 1948. God has a soft spot for Israel, and I understand that country is an important part of His plan for the world.

Answer 6

Many cults throughout the ancient world practiced human sacrifice.

Key lesson from Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is that God does not require human sacrifice - in fact, it's an abomination.

God would not tolerate this, and other cruel antediluvian defamations going on in His special land. So, God ordered the Jews to purify the land of the Canaanite savagery. He also told the Jews that if they fell in idolatrous ways, they would get kicked out of the land, too.

God has given Israel a few chances over time, kicked them out, and brought them back to try again.

Answer 7

God is loving and He is also a righteous Judge. The ones who the Israelites fought against were receiving judgment for living in idolatry etc...
God is the same yesterday today and forever, He is the same in the New Testament as in the Old.

Answer 8

I'm a faithful christian, but I too have a few questions, like what about that poor guy carrying the ark, and when it started to fall, he caught it, and was killed for touching it? Doesn't seem very "good" to me. Also, I forgot his name, but he made a "deal" with God, that if they won the fight, he'd sacrifice the first person who met him when he returned home. They won, his young daughter met him, he gave her some time, and then killed her. I don't think God ever agreed to this "deal", but the fact that He let it happen at all disgusts me.

So you see, you're not the only one who questions things in the bible. This doesn't mean I don't believe in Him, or worship Him, but I do have some misgivings about some of the OT.

Sorry Tony, but the flood is what God used to rid the world of the nephilim (the half angel/half humans), and that was way before Joshua.

Answer 9

The book of Joshua records the instructions from God to eliminate the idolaters in Canaan before the Israelites moved in. We also read that they didn't follow those instructions and the idolatry spread like a cancer within the tribes.This is one of the reasons for the Israelites captivity and continuing to fall away.

Answer 10

One of the things that the Bible teaches throughout it is the concept that God owns everything. It's ALL His. So the people living in any part of the world, whether they believe in Him or not, belong to Him.

That's why the fear of God is actually healthy. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

God isn't worried about seeming unfair. He's the boss, the King.

So theologians do not need to come up with a reason to excuse God or the scriptures. As alien to modern thought that it is, God is to be revered, worshiped, bowed to, and yes; loved. Loved not because He will crush anyone He wants to crush, but loved because He has mercy to share in abundance to you, and to me.

Answer 11

I first got disillusioned with religion when I got bored with
sermons and started reading Joshua in church. Couldn't believe they TOOK the Holy Land!
But I've learned that not only humans, but artifacts can hold
negative spiritul energies. That is why they had to wipe everyone
out, and couldn't keep anyhting. Those people used Black Magic and there are real dangers behind these things.