Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [68]
With that in mind, imagine the disappointment if you’ve been waiting for forty years to get into a place and then at the last minute you’re told, “Sorry. You’re not good enough to come in.” That’s basically what happened to the Hebrews who left Egypt with Moses. When Moses died at the age of 120, he was buried in a place known only to God. He and Aaron weren’t able to enter the Promised Land and neither were any of the people who came out of Egypt, because of their sin and griping in the wilderness. Permission came at last for the Israelites to “conquer” the Promised Land after forty years of waiting, and the book of Joshua tells the story of that “Conquest,” an account that has undergone considerable revision. Evidence in the following book of Judges, as well as archaeological discoveries during the twentieth century, have shown that the Israelite conquest of Canaan was not the grand holy war it was cracked up to be in Joshua.
The military leader chosen by Moses as his successor, Joshua was, according to tradition, the book’s author. Most modern scholars believe, however, that Joshua’s material was drawn from different sources. The only widely accepted fact is that the oldest passages of the book, which may date from around 950 BCE, were completely rewritten in the seventh century BCE. Later on, probably after 500 BCE, someone else revised and rewrote much of the book’s second half, which is largely devoted to issues concerning the priesthood.
The God of Joshua is a War God, a purely nationalistic deity who seems far removed from the Lord who had ordered Israel, only a few chapters earlier in Leviticus, to love its neighbors. The central theme of Joshua is that God will lead the people to great victories if they observe the law but will turn from them if they deny the Lord.
PLOT SUMMARY: THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN
Like many war stories, Joshua is not a pretty picture. The story opens with the miraculous passage of the Israelites over the Jordan River, which temporarily stops running, and the bloody sack of Jericho. It goes on to recount how the Hebrew armies moved from the Jordan Valley up into the highlands to capture the city of Ai, and records a great battle with the chieftains of five other Canaanite cities. The Israelites could prove to be quite ruthless in war, as violently illustrated in the complete devastation of the cities of Jericho and Ai. A final battle in the north results in the complete destruction of Canaanite power in Palestine. Following a brief summary of Joshua’s triumphs, the book describes the division of the land among the tribes.
How did a prostitute help destroy Jericho?
Before leading the Israelites into Canaan, Joshua sent two spies to check out the land, and the city of Jericho in particular. In Jericho, the spies go directly to the house of Rahab, a prostitute, who shelters these Israelite spies from Jericho’s king. The spies promise this “holy hooker” that when the Israelites conquer Jericho, Rahab and her family will be spared if she will tie a crimson cord to her house to identify it and gather her family inside the house.
The spies safely return to Joshua and the Israelite camp. After waiting on the banks of the Jordan River for three days the tribes finally cross the river. When the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant touch the water of the Jordan River, the water stands still. The priests stand in the dry riverbed while the entire Israelite nation crosses into Canaan, a symbolic reminder of the escape from Egypt when the Sea of Reeds was parted. The chapter records that forty thousand armed men—there’s that mystical number forty again—lead the Israelite tribes. The priests come out of the riverbed and the water begins to run again, overflowing its banks.
To commemorate this crossing of the Jordan, twelve river stones are set in a pile at Gilgal. The first Passover in the Promised Land is celebrated here and a mass circumcision is performed with flint knives—Ouch!—because all the men