The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The Land Covenant (Continued)

Entering the Land

Warfare and Welfare

The land was to be ordered as a kingdom, where each inhabitant had a place, with security and benefits, and where they would be able to fulfill responsibilities and perform duties.  It is the book of Joshua that describes the entering, conquest and settling of the ‘promised land’. The book can be divided into two halves.  Chapters 1 to 12 deal with the conquest of the land, and describe Israel’s warfare.  Then chapters 13 to 24 deal with the division of the land, which is welfare.   The first half mainly concerns the strategy of warfare. It describes the three main campaigns of the army. The second half concerns the structure of welfare, which was the division of the inheritance and the placing of the cities of refuge.

The Strategy of Warfare

In the strategy of warfare, victory depended on purity. Disobedience in warfare is a capital offence.  In God’s army it is called ‘sin’ and was committed by Achan. The key issue here is the breaking of the very covenant into which they had so recently entered wholeheartedly. They had said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Exod.19.8; 24.7) But so soon on entering the land under a covenant relationship with the Lord, the covenant is under threat. Achan’s sin was first covetousness, (“you shall not covet” is the 10^th commandment of the Decalogue); theft; (“You shall not steal” is the eighth commandment); and his theft was of the worse kind because it was taking for personal use, something dedicated to the Lord. Added to that was concealment and lying, which was against the essence of the ninth commandment, “you shall not bear false witness”. The army was weakened and defeated as a direct result. The situation was only recovered when the ‘treason’ was discovered and punished. 

 In God’s army victory depends on unity as well as purity. An indirect result of Achan’s sin was that the army was divided for the only time. As a consequence of the trespass committed at Jericho, Joshua failed to realize that the presence of the Lord was not with them as before. He did not seek guidance, and relied on his army to accomplish victory. Sending only enough men as were needed for victory, or so he thought, his army was routed. It was only after they had purged the sin of Achan was the army able to resume their campaign. Never again, in the invasion of Canaan, did Joshua divide his army.

 Furthermore, victory also depends on recovery. After each campaign the army returned to Gilgal, there to rest, recover and restore their weapons to battle condition.  They did not go from campaign to campaign. Gilgal, of course, was where the ark was kept.

 The application of these truths is clear.  For those engaged in spiritual warfare the importance of individual obedience, corporate unity and universal communion cannot be over-emphasized.

 But even though their three pronged campaign was successful, the conquest was still only partial. This was not by chance but a part of God’s strategy in the education of the nation. When the Land Covenant was granted, Israel was still a pilgrim nation in the wilderness. They were instructed to possess the land by conquest, but it would only be achieved if they had faith in the Lord. The conquest would be progressive and not immediate. In other words, on their part it would not be one act of faith but a continuing life of faith that would obtain Canaan as their homeland. “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. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you." (Exod. 23:29-31)

 And since they had been given title to the land in the grace and gift of the Lord, then their conduct and actions needed to reflect His character - they were to act with justice and with mercy. “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Lev. 19:33-36)

 Moreover, it was required that they not repeat the folly of the Canaanites. The culture of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, had been condemned by the Lord which was the reason for their expulsion from Canaan. “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled)”. (Lev. 18:24-27) Indeed, the period of time that Israel spent in Egypt was partly dictated by the need to wait until the Canaanites were ripe for judgment, as indicated at the ‘cutting’ of the Abrahamic Covenant, the ceremony which provided entitlement of Canaan as a homeland for Israel. The promised territory remained a ‘pleasant land’; an ‘exceeding good land’; a land flowing with ‘milk and honey’, even though the inhabitants were evacuated because of their culture.

 But if possession of the land was conditional for Israel, so was blessing. The land, in which the ‘seed’ of Abraham was to be transplanted, would only remain fruitful and give of its strength if the occupants remained faithful to the Lord. “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” (Lev. 26:3-4) If they apostatized, “you shall sow your seed in vain” and “your enemies shall eat it.” (Lev. 26:16) Furthermore, “your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.” (Lev. 26:20)

Next Time: The Structure of Welfare