Peter continued our series on Joshua.
Joshua presumed God's blessing, and had been beaten in battle.
Cash machine
You presume it will give you money.
What we forget is that when we treat God like a cash machine, sometimes He says I don't like what you are going to spend the money on, so I am not dispensing any money!
God allows harm to come as his people go outside his will.
The family of achan take the spoils of war despite what God had told them.
Stoning of the whole family is how we finished.
All complicit? Maybe they all at least knew.
This week, Israel return to Ai.
Genocide? Ethnic cleansing?
Norms of society were very different.
Child sacrifice.
Sexual liberty. Multiple wives. Intermarriage within a family. Marriage as a young teen, or even before.
Capital punishment, even for what we would see as minor crime, like stealing.
Views on this passage have changed over the years.
Matthew Henry, died 1714
The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. ie it's fine to plunder those who don't know God.
Crusades.
Rwanda
Oliver Cromwell used Jericho as a justification for persecution of Catholics, and even their death
Spanish Inquisition used the Bible as it's justification.
God has told me to do this......
We believe God speaks and tells us to do things.
Murderers and rapists use this justification.
God's judgement.
Plenty of warnings to those rebelling against him.
How could God condone death?
Noah, what about those killed.
Exile Israel, Egyptian army killed.
Sodom and Gomorrah
Jericho
Death Jesus.
They are all judgements
God spares the ones he loves......
But doesn't he love all mankind?
Jesus died for all.....
Some things happen in the Bible that weren’t meant to be repeated.
But they repeatedly were, due to sin.
All changed with Jesus. This is the key.
God kept trying to get people to follow him, but they rebelled. After Jesus, they had a real choice....
God is just and loving and cannot do wrong.
It is God's place to judge.
God made us, and can destroy us if he chooses.
God cannot abide sin.
But…..
God made a way out for us.
Ps94
God of vengeance v1. Giving people what they deserve.
V23. God destroys the sinner
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Ephesians 1:4 NLT
God had a plan, despite knowing what Israel would do, turning away from him again and again.
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 NLT
New covanent, old covanent
Today, do not harden your hearts as they did in the rebellion….. Heb 3:15
Mercy of God?
Salvation for all.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NLT
Questions
