Reading Joshua can be a shock to the system. The book details the conquest of Canaan by Israel which often involved war and violence. Modern readers, especially Christians, can feel uncomfortable with the narrations of violence in the book because they seem so contrary to not only what contemporary people believe about human rights, but also, Jesus’ teaching on love and refusal to take revenge (Matthew 5:43-48). Since Joshua recounts various battles and acts of violence, how can readers begin to think through these episodes? Is there anything that they can teach us about God, his plans, and the good news of Jesus?

God’s Righteous Standards Do Not Change

God is not a moral relativist, a position which argues that the standards of morality change from era and era. When God commands Israel to take the land, he is not being capricious against the Canaanites. God demands complete devotion to himself from both the Canaanites and the Israelites. Any violation of his standard results in judgment for both groups of people. In Joshua 6, Rahab, who is a prostitute and Gentile, ends up pledging fidelity to the God of Israel and is spared judgment. She believes in God and is counted as righteous. She becomes part of Israel through faith. Yet only one chapter later, Achan, who is biologically a Hebrew, is stoned to death because of his disobedience to God. A native Israelite “de-Israelited” himself due to his sin. God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34 KJV). In other words, God doesn’t care about where you’re from or even what family you’re born into (even Abraham’s family!). God cares about your worship of him. Therefore, the Canaanites would have been spared if they pledged fidelity to God. Instead, most chose to remain devoted to their pagan gods and they suffered the consequences for it.

We Are Not the Center of the Universe; God Is

It’s hard for modern people to accept that there is a higher purpose in the world above human flourishing. But there is: living according to God’s will. All people are called to submit to God’s will because he is our Creator. Since God is our Creator, he can do with us as he wills (Romans 9:14-23). Now, some people may object and think, “I just can’t worship a God who kills people. He seems so capricious and unfair!” But as the previous point argues, God is not unfair. He judges people according to his holy and righteous standard. The problem for us comes in when we realize that the Scriptures tell us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Like it or not: we deserve to die. In fact, every moment God doesn’t destroy us and cast us into hell is a moment of unmerited common grace, giving us time to repent and trust (2 Peter 3:9).

Jesus Changes Everything (And Nothing)

Some people try to set the God of the Old Testament against Jesus as he is revealed in the New. “The God of the OT is all about wrath and killing people, while Jesus is all about love,” they attempt to argue. Such sentiment is not true. Sin attracts God’s judgment. And all of us deserve to die because of our sin. When Jesus came, he did not overturn God’s justice; he satisfied it. So, in one sense, Jesus’ death on the cross changes nothing. Justice must still be upheld; and it is. The cross of Jesus is the perfect revelation of God’s love and God’s justice (Romans 3:23-26). Jesus received the justice we rightly deserve, so that we might be forgiven of our sins and receive God’s favor. Yet, in another sense, Jesus’ death changes everything for us. The old covenant God made with Israel is now over; the new covenant has come (Hebrews 8:13). The justice God meted out in the old covenant through a national people was received by Christ on the cross. In the new covenant era, God’s justice is not enacted through violence but proclaimed as a prerequisite to receiving the good news of Jesus through a spiritual and transnational body, the church. In the Old Testament, Israel bore the sword of God’s justice against evil. In the New Testament, God’s sword of justice fell on Jesus to free us from our sins. In this era, God’s mission rolls forth as Christians suffer persecution yet pray for us who persecute us. Christians do not need to be (or should be) violent towards others, precisely because Jesus took on God’s justice towards us.

These considerations do not necessarily make reading about the violence in Joshua any easier. But maybe that’s actually a good! As Old Testament Robert L. Hubbard explain, “Readers’ discomfort with Joshua is a good sign: it shows the depth with which the gospel has transformed them. Few of us would rest easy with a Christian whose response to the destruction of Jericho was, ‘Hurray! That’s exactly what some people I know deserve!” (45). Christians worship a God of justice; justice which is so clearly on display in Joshua. Thankfully, Christians know that God’s justice was laid on Christ.