Tag: kings

Covering A Lot Of Ground

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Joshua Chapters 11 thru 21

Yes, I’m covering eleven chapters, but don’t worry, many of those chapters are about splitting up the land among the tribes. I am also not going to bother summarizing much of anything here. Instead, I want to talk about a big, huge, glaring, issue I have with chapters 11 and 12 (along with every chapter of this book so far).

God commanded the Israelites to conquer the kingdoms in Canaan and wipe those names from under the heavens (or something like that). Yet, here I am reading a book that contains all of those names of all of those kings and their kingdoms. The list of the kings that Moses conquered and the list of kings that Joshua conquered. Isn’t this kind of counterintuitive? Sorry, strike that “kind of,” because it is counterintuitive. Of course, I guess God moves in mysterious ways or something.

Then chapter 13 starts off with this verse:

13:1Now Joshua was old and advanced in years; and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed…”

Bibles, Harper . NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (p. 535). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

That verse just made me chuckle because this is like a line out of a Mel Brooks or Zucker Brothers production. Of course, this verse is the lead-in to a discussion regarding more people who have to die, and die they will.

I would like to take a moment here to discuss these conquests because some apologists will attempt to say, “not everyone died in these towns…” to which I have to remind them that the bible states quite clearly that EVERYONE IN THESE TOWNS WAS PUT TO THE SWORD. They all died. Men, women, and yes, even children. OK, I’m done…for now.

The rest of chapter 13 and on through 19 discuss the allocation of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel. It’s a lot of relative repetition from chapter to chapter naming a tribe and which piece of the land they get. The only break in the monotony is when Joseph protests, but it’s short-lived as they get more land. Finally, at the end of chapter 19, Joshua gets his inheritance which is a town of his own that he has rebuilt.

Chapter 20 is the realization of the cities of refuge as discussed in Numbers and Deuteronomy. And Chapter 21 is the allocation of cities for the Levites.

It’s Like Time Stood Still

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Joshua Chapter 10

Here we come to one of the parts of Bible that apologists will point to as some sort of proof of a miracle. Five kings decide to attack Gibeon because they made peace with Israel. The Gibeonites called upon Joshua to help. They slaughtered the Amorites and God killed even more with hailstones.

12On the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD; and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.”

13And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in midheaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Bibles, Harper . NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (p. 528). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

OK, let’s break this down: In order for the sun to stop in the sky, the earth must stop rotating. That would be catastrophic to say the least. Also, the length of a day is measured by the transit of the sun across the sky, so if the sun hung in the sky for a day or so, then… it was one day when it set. I have heard apologist Ray Comfort call this “the only time in recorded history that the sun stopped in the sky”. Except, this isn’t recorded history according to many, many, MANY biblical scholars.

This could all be metaphor, but we’ll never know because this poem was written in the Book of Jashar (or Jasher) which is a book that has been lost. There are some who tried to claim that they found the book, but they were discovered to be forgeries.

The five kings escaped, but they hid in a cave and were sealed in until the Israelites destroyed Makkedah. Then the kings were brought out of the cave and great mercy was… oh who am I kidding They were killed and their bodies hung from trees. 

I’m not going to go into any more detail and just say that Joshua and the Israelites did just as God commanded and much blood was spilled. And to think, I was glad to get to this book.

Psalm #2

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The second Psalm is a warning to any ruler who dares to go up against the Lord and his chosen people. As I read this I can see Christians co-opting this psalm as being a prophecy of the coming of Christ. Sure enough, there are apologists that do this. Reading scholarly sources, it was probably sung during the coronation of a king, the anointed being the king. The last verse is God telling all rulers to bow and pay fealty to the Lord and kiss his feet and no harm will befall their kingdoms.