And Their Hearts Melted Within Them…

1 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

Reports of God’s supernaturally opening a crossing struck fear into the Canaanites. The miracle was all the more incredible and shocking since God performed it when the Jordan was swollen to flood height (3:15). To the people in the Land, this miracle was a powerful demonstration proving that God is mighty (4:24). This came on top of reports about the Red Sea miracle Rahab had said that this was an amazing thing to those in the area (understandably!). God’s drying up the waters of the Jordan caused the inhabitants of Canaan to fear Israel greatly. Such reactions of fear or opposition were common as Israel entered the land (see 9:1–4; 10:1–2; 11:1–5).

...and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. (Joshua 2:9)

For the Canaanites, the events of the preceding days were a horror story. They had been terrified enough by seeing the Israelite hordes—some two million strong—spread out along the eastern bank of the Jordan. It was obvious that the Jews intended to invade the western lands. But the water was at flood stage. The people could not cross. There seemed to be time to get ready. Suddenly the waters ceased flowing, the people crossed over, and a battle was imminent. The suddenness of the crossing terrified everyone.

The people of Canaan had counted on the Jordan’s acting as a barrier against invasion of their land by the Israelites. Although this would seem to be the best time for Israel to strike, important spiritual matters (circumcision and the Passover) had to come first. This verse forms a transition between the Jordan crossing in chs. 3; 4 and the adversaries to be encountered later in chs. 6–12.

Word of this crossing of the Jordan spread like wildfire among the Canaanite nations, causing their hearts to ‘melt’ within them. We might say that Israel’s conquest of Canaan began before a single arrow was shot or a single spear thrown. The Lord of Israel prepared the way for conquest and assured its success by causing Canaanite hearts to be smitten with this debilitating fear. What can we learn from this?

1. The importance of knowing God

This passage is here to tell us about God. In our best moments, we have never come anywhere near an adequate understanding of the greatness of the God we serve. We are quick to forget that knowledge when we do remember it! He is great in power, overriding the laws of nature. He is great in grace, doing for his people that which they could not do for themselves. He is worthy of our worship and our obedience. To say that it is imperative for us to remember and KEEP ON remembering it is an understatement is silly. Rather we ought to say it in the other direction! It is imperative that we both know Him and that keep that knowledge in the front of our minds!

2. The importance of honoring God’s appointed leaders

The Lord magnified Joshua in the eyes of the people. He wanted the people to honor Joshua and to follow him. People these days feel very free to complain about their leaders and to criticize them, not realizing that we honour God as we honour the leaders he has appointed and we attack God when we attack them. Likewise, they feel free to shop around for whatever leader they like, putting they, and their own preferences and hence their own authority and perception of God ahead of God and His voice speaking through His leader. Now, it is certainly true that there comes time for godly people to leave churches from time to time. But those times are virtually ALWAYS over matters of doctrine and NOT over matters of preference. In all other matters we are to honor our leaders and submit to them.

3. The importance of letting children know

Throughout the Bible, the Lord puts great emphasis on godly parents instructing their children in his ways. The Israelites were to teach their children as they walked along, when they lay down and when they arose (Deut. 6:6–7). The prophet Malachi tells us that the Lord desires ‘godly offspring’ from his people (Mal. 2:15). This does not happen by accident. It requires diligent effort on the part of Christian parents, grandparents, and others. We are always but one generation away from paganism!

If OT Israel teaches one thing (of course they teach us many things) they teach us how very, very quickly any people (any family) can slide downward into ungodly and hence into the judgement of God. Obedience is not a national affair, it is individual. It is not something a nation, a church or a family can do for each other. It something that each person MUST do for themselves. This passage says that the fear of God came upon ALL the countryside. It wasn't the national leaders fearing while the people wandered around happily in ignorance. God calls all men to submit and to obey - or He will judge and call each man to account before Him.

4. The importance of Remembering

If it seems that we do not have much in common with the Israelites crossing the Jordan, we need to think again. The same God who did mighty and wonderful things for those people has done even more for us. All of God’s people have been saved with a glorious and mighty salvation. The Lord has taken all of us out of the dominion of Satan and has placed us in his own family. He has forgiven us of our sins, and he will finally bring us all home to eternal glory. He has done all of this in and through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that this is the God who set up the memorial in the midst of the Jordan. The God who has done these things for us has also given us a way in which to remember them. He knows how we are constantly inclined to forget! The Lord’s Supper is the memorial that God has appointed. As we come to his table, we are reminded of our sinful condition and how helpless we were to do anything about it (more helpless than the Israelites were before the swollen Jordan!).

We are also reminded that the Lord Jesus did for us everything that was needed. He lived the life we have not lived, obeying God in every respect. He died the death that we deserve to die, receiving on the cross the full measure of the wrath of God. As we come to his table, we remember how much we owe, and as we realize how much we owe, we are more resolved to live for the glory of our God.

We should note also that at the end of the first main section of the Book of Joshua, the Israelites stand well-prepared for their first major encounter with the Canaanites whose land they were to inherit. They were well prepared because

1. God was very much with them,
2. Because he had given them a leader who was already in process of becoming a worthy successor to Moses,
3. Because the entire nation was taking care to obey God’s commands to the letter (from Joshua and the priests on down to the people), and
4. Because they were careful to sanctify themselves properly before engaging the Canaanites.

Moses Had to Die First

“Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. (Joshua 1:2-3 2)

It just makes perfect sense that Moses had to die before God's people could enter the promised land. Moses was the vessel through whom God gave His Law. The purpose of that Law was neither to bring saving righteousness nor to bring the blessings of that righteousness.

Rather, it was to do quite the opposite. It was to show man the absolute holiness of the Triune God. It was always God's intention that, in seeing the Law, man would be forced to see his own nature. Confronted with his nature, and his own inability to fulfill the law and thus be acceptable to God, man will then turn to God's mercy offered by grace for another solution.

Further God knew and told Moses, and through Moses, the people of God that they would never live up to his wall. The apostle John, in the introduction to his Gospel, told us that this was true. In verse 16 and 17 of chapter 1, he said that

"... of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

There is a contrast there. Moses gave the Law, but grace and truth, the only means by which anyone can actually GET INTO God's presence and emerge, comes by another means.

That means, John says specifically, and the Old Testament tells us in type, was the person and actions of Jesus Christ, God's Only Begotten Son. What the Law could not do, what the Law, in fact, was not ever designed to do, and what men had no desire to do because of their fallen nature, Christ came and did for them. He walked perfectly and acceptably before His Father, and then He laid down His life a sacrifice for sins.

Both His active and passive obedience qualified Him as the perfect Lamb of God which then served to satisfy God's wrath against the sins of a depraved people. It is that gift that we celebrated Christmas. That just would not have been possible if Moses had not died. No one would have been able to enter the promised land if Moses had not died (and I speak metaphorically here) because the Law could not get anyone there. At least not the law with Joshua at the helm. Only the Law as fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Incorrigibility – Cities Burned With Fire (Part 2)

Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

     Strangers is a word meaning to be alienated, or estranged. The verb form of the word is used back in verse 4 where Israel was said to have “turned away backward” or become “estranged” from God. As is normal for most words in Hebrew, it can have several shades of meaning. It can speak of that which is “illegitimate, unauthorized”, i.e., pertaining to that which is not allowed according to a standard, as in a sin or wrongdoing, for instance as in Lev. 10:1:

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.

     It can also speak of that which is strange, foreign, or alien, i.e., namely pertaining to that which is not of a native group or land, and often with an associated meaning of latent or overt hostility. 2Ki 19:24 uses it in this fashion:

“I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense.”

     It can also be translated “other”, i.e., pertaining to that which is of a different class or kind compared to a standard group or class. Ex 29:33 uses it in this fashion:

33 They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but an outsider shall not eat them, because they are holy.

     It can also be used to speak of a distant place, formally, foreign place, i.e., a place relatively far from the speaker’s perspective This is the fashion in which it used in Jer 18:14:

Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

     Finally, it can speak of that which is illegitimate and formally, foreign, i.e., pertaining to a child born of a mixed marriage (a marriage where one is a native and the spouse is an unauthorized foreigner as in Hos. 5:7:[1]

They have dealt treacherously with the Lord,
For they have begotten pagan children.
Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.

     It is applied to foreigners, that is, those who were not Israelites, (Ex. 30:33); and is often used to denote an enemy, a foe, a barbarian; (Ps. 109:11):

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, And let the strangers plunder his labor. (Ezek. 11:9; 28:10; 30:12; Hos. 7:9; 8:7).

The word refers here particularly to the Syrians. (Foreigners does, by the way, have a very negative context here. To be a “foreigner” was not a good thing in the way that it is used here). Now, when Israel was being obedient in the land, foreigners were welcome and could live in the land. We’re told that they chiefly consisted of six major elements[2]:

• The remnant of the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt. (Ex 12:38)

A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.

• The remnant of the nations of the land. (1Ki 9:20; 2Ch 8:7)

9:20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel

8:7 All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel

• Captives taken in war. (De 21:10 )

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,

• Foreign servants. (Le 25:44,45)

44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property.

• Persons who sought employment among the Jews. (1Ki 7:13; 9:27)

7:13 Now King Solomon sent and brought Huram from Tyre.

9:27 Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon.

• Persons who came into Israel for the sake of religious privileges. (1Ki 8:41)

“Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake

     But this is assuredly not the sense in which it is used here. The “stranger” here is in not any of those classes, nor is he, properly in the class of the invader. He is almost in the class of the invited guest. One who has been allowed in and is ransacking the nation and consuming those provisions intended and laid in store for God’s children.  We’ll look further in our next post…

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[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 2424, #5). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[2] Torrey, R. (1995, c1897). The new topical text book : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos research Systems, Inc.

Spiritual Incorrigibility – Cities Burned With Fire

     Having spoken of the desolation of this land of milk and honey brought on by the disobedience of the people of Israel, Isaiah goes on and speaks of their cities, cities God had promised to bless and protect, being burned with fire.

Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. (Isaiah 1:7)

     “Cities” is a common word that can refer to anything from a population center ranging from a small un-walled hamlet to a large, walled city.[1] There is no inherent size reference.

     “Burned with Fire” obviously speaks of the act of burning objects by fire. It is a verb and in the passive and so speaks means to consume objects by fire. Ex 29:34 uses the word in conjunction with the fire used to consume the left over portions of offerings from the Tabernacle: [2]

34 And if any of the flesh of the consecration offerings, or of the bread, remains until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

     We ought to note that the OT can use this word in this fashion, however, to refer to giving a sacrifice or offering to any deity by fire.[3] That makes this use significant. It is as if God is saying that the land itself has been offered on a foreign alter as a burnt offering! It is worth noting, in conjunction with this idea, that one of uses of this very word can also refer to burning as a form of execution, killing by fire in conjunction with the offering of children to a foreign God that was strictly forbidden to Israel (not to mean a horror!) This could be an oblique reference to that practice coming into use in Israel as well, as we know it did. (Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 33:6)[4] We should not miss the irony in this phrase. The use of the word and mention of an act that should have been a sacred one, in the face of rampant idolatry and abominable practices that were going on, boldfaced in the land, blandly being called acceptable with the people and their leadership acting as if all was well.

     The parallel to today is both staggering and unmistakable. Our own land, while professing to still be “godly” and to maintain some semblance of a connection with God and with His Spirit, and to reaping His blessing; we see more abomination than at any other time in our nation’s history and we see horrible things happening and treated as if they were non-events.

     The only thing missing is as truly frightening as it is needful to mention. The truth of the matter is that when there is this kind of false profession, there is no real spiritual connection with God present! In Israel’s life they had a covenantal relationship with Him, but no generational one. God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and had reiterated that promise time and again. But over the years, the nation had left the Lord and moved over to the pursuit, not of holiness and Him, but of idols and false gods. For this, God judged them.  How can we but not believe that He will judge us?

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[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 9039, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 8596, #1). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Spiritual Incorrigibility – A Desolate Land (Part 2)

Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. (Isaiah 1:7)

     We considered the first part of verse 7 yesterday and want to finish up this idea today.  It is a fairly full and unpleasant idea, but very definite in the Scripture. 

     “Is desolation” is a Hebrew mode of emphatic expression, denoting that the desolation was so universal that the land might be said to be entirely in ruins. This is in line with the prior picture drawn of the human body being so badly beaten that was unrecognizable. The picture here is that of being entirely empty of anything valuable or desirable. This is especially significant since just some 700 years before Israel had been given a “good” land “flowing with milk and honey”!

     In Exodus 3:8 we read:

So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

     Exodus 3:17 & Exodus 13:5 say God will bring them:

…up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

     Leviticus 20:24, quite naturally, puts it in terms of Law when it says:

But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.

     Numbers 13:27 records the report of the spies who went into the land who indeed said that the land was all that God said it would be and provided examples of its fruit:

27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

     Deuteronomy 1:25 is the reminder to Israel after the punishment of their wanderings that this was so:

25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

     Deuteronomy 1:35 reminds them of the words of the sentence of God in Numbers 14:21-23 as He condemned that entire generation to wander in the wilderness for 40 years while at the same time reminding them that it was, indeed, a good land that they were missing!:

35 ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers,

     Deuteronomy 4:21 speaks of Moses being forbidden from entering “that good land” because of his lapse at Meribah (Numbers 20:11-12)

21 Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

     Deuteronomy 6:3 and Deuteronomy 11:8-9 both urge Israel to be sure that do, indeed see to it that they obey the command of God and follow after Him that they are blessed and inherit the land “flowing with milk and honey” that He has promised them:

Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you— ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

     Deuteronomy 26:9 tells the nation that they are at brink of that inheritance:

He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;

     In his prayer in Deuteronomy 26:15, Moses acknowledges that God has done His part and brought them to that land, a:

“ ‘…land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

     A part of this charge is a bit further in the book, in Deuteronomy 27:3 where Moses goes on and says:

You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you.

     The lands was indeed all that God had promised! But Moses knew that they would turn away. Through him, God warns them in Deuteronomy 31:20:

When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant.

     And that is the record of the rest of the Old Testament. Joshua 5:6 tells us that the generation that sinned in the wilderness was consumed as God had said. They did not enter that “good land”, the land “flowing with milk and honey”.

     For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

     700 years later, the great prophet Jeremiah spoke for God, warning of the coming judgment on the Southern Kingdom, in Jeremiah 11:1-5:

     The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them,

‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant 4 which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’ that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day.” ’ ” And I answered and said, “So be it, Lord.”

     The nation, whom God desired to bless by causing to dwell in a good land, a land of milk and honey, are reminded that cursing follows disobedience (just as Moses had told them)!

     Later in Jeremiah 32:21-23 this same prophet tells them that the calamity that has befallen them (the Babylonian captivity) is because of their own disobedience. It was small wonder that Jeremiah was not the most popular guy on the block!

21 You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror; 22 You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them— “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 23 And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.

     Ezekiel in Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15 makes references of similar vein, which in context, end up being like condemnations.

On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands.

So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands,

     The point of all of this is that God had brought His people into a land flowing with milk and honey, a good land, plentiful provision and abundant supply. The clear implication is that this land was different that lands around it. God was giving them as land that was special and would see that it remained special.

     All of that stands, therefore in stark contrast to the statement in Isaiah 1:7a:

Your country is desolate…

     The land that was good is now not good. The land that flowed with milk and honey now flows with nothing! The land that would have support the lives of millions will now barely support the lives a remnant. The contrast is striking, as it is intended to be!

     “Desolate” is a ruin, a waste, i.e., a state of utter ruin, often relating to uninhabitable land as a sparsely populated area as in the state that God promised to make the other nations before Israel when He brought them into the land in Exodus 23:27-29[1]:

27 “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

     Metaphorically it can also speak of being in despair, and formally, being clothed in ruin, i.e., be in an emotional state of worry and anxiety as in (Eze 7:27+), (note: some sources translate “clothed in horror.”)[2]

‘The king will mourn,
The prince will be clothed with desolation,
And the hands of the common people will tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
And according to what they deserve I will judge them;
Then they shall know that I am the Lord!’ ”

     The point is that the land had become the opposite of what God had intended for them. God had promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but it had become a land empty and devastated and unable to support any live at all. All of this because of their sin and the judgment that God had pour out upon them.

     Isaiah uses this language later in the book as well:

And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. (Isaiah 5:5)

     Isaiah 6:9-11

9     And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10     “Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”
11     Then I said, “Lord, how long?”
And He answered:
“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,

     Isaiah 24:10-12

10     The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12     In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.

     None of this was unexpected. None of it was unexpected by Isaiah himself. He knew that his ministry would be a long one and one that would be largely unfulfilled.

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[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 9039, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[2] Ibid.