(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Joshua 6:17–27. “And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD. So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.”
During that time soldiers in any army weren’t paid. They were allowed to take booty from the battlefield instead. In this case, Jericho represented the beginning of the Lord’s judgment on the Amorites. The entire city was unclean before the Lord and Israel were allowed to take no booty from the city at all. The Lord promised them a rich and prosperous land so they had to trust the Lord and refrain from taking everything they could at the first battle. If everyone was allowed to take as much as they could from Jericho then they would lose their incentive to keep fighting and carry out the Lord’s judgement on Canaan. The Lord gave them the victory and the Lord promised them many more victories so they were to trust the Lord and not the immediate rewards they could take. On the other hand, they really didn’t do anything to take the city, it was the Lord’s miraculous intervention on their behalf and that fact had to be honoured as well. Joshua remembered that a sacred promise had been made to Rahab as well. The spies, who had made the promise, were given a special mission of rescuing Rahab and her family according to the promise that they had made when she saved their lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment