D-10ay 64. Joshua 8-10

More of the same—you might say, and you might well ask--Why am I reading this?
Well, beloved, you and I are engaged in a discipline. In a way, we are like the people of Israel, going forward to conquer the Promised Land. It isn't easy to read these chapters with all these bloody details of war and massacre, but they are taking us somewhere we want to go—to a more mature understanding of the faith we profess.
And as we go, on the way we might well consider two men with the same Hebrew name--"Yeshua." One we call Joshua, the other Jesus. Their shared name means "the Lord saves." They are both undoubtedly "saviors"—yet very different kinds of saviors. Yet they represent two very different faces of the God of Israel which are both revealed in the Bible--two aspects of God we are called upon to reconcile into One as we read and mediate together.
In the meantime we are called upon to accept the text as it is.
And from the text it is clear is that pagan Canaanites—they are sometimes also called Amonites in our text (20:6)—are not regarded as fully human by the writer of the Book of Joshua or his original readers. They are dangerous wild animals or venomous insects that must be exterminated (see Joshua 8:25). Modern, enlightened people are not supposed to regard human beings in that way, and yet in our lifetimes whole populations have been massacred as savagely as any in our text. The conquest of Canaan is total war, a campaign of terror launched against not only armies but against civilians as well. Reading these stories opens a window upon the history that lies behind the violent struggle between religions in the Middle East today and the worldwide threat of terrorism that has sprung from it.
In chapter 8 of Joshua the city of Ai is assaulted for a second time and—this time with the LORD's help—taken (8:7). The population is again "devoted"—treated as a sacrifice to the LORD. But there is a difference in the way the plunder of the city is disposed. At Jericho the LORD, the Divine Champion, alone takes the city and the plunder belongs to him solely. At Ai the people take the city—albeit with the LORD's assistance—and the livestock and plunder are divided among them (8:27). The king of Ai is "hanged . . . on a tree until evening" (8:29). Was he crucified? All we can say is for certain is that this was an especially cursed way to die, according to the Law of Moses, and we are told that his body is taken down before evening to prevent uncleanness from being visited on the whole community. (The five kings are treated in the same way (10:26). Remember that Jesus is also hanged on the tree, becoming as accursed, as St. Paul
says, for our sake, and his body, according to the Gospels, is taken down hurriedly before sunset to prevent it for polluting the community on the eve of Passover.)
In Deuteronomy 27:2-8 Moses had commanded the building on Mount Ebal of the altar. And Joshua obeys this command, making it "of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used" (8:31). On that altar a communal sacrifice is made, as Moses directed. And this was followed by a reading of the Law of Moses (8:34-35), which is intended to recall for the people on what terms they were taking possession of the Land of Promise.
And as they conquered that land, the LORD had instructed them not to make any covenant with the people who lived there. But in chapter 9 we are told the story of how the leaders of Israel were tricked by Gibeonites into doing just that. The Gibeonites pretend to be from a far country, and the Israelite leadership, without asking direction from the LORD (8:14-15), makes a covenant with them.
Such covenants, made in the name of the LORD, are sacred and once made cannot be broken, and therefore the crafty Gibeonites are grudgingly spared from the general destruction. But they become a slave caste within Israel. We are told that "on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to continue to this day, in the place where [the LORD] should choose" for his sanctuary (9:27).
No such fate awaits the alliance of the five kings who unite against the invading Israelites in chapter 10. Joshua's battle with them is adorned with fabulous details, like a miraculous hailstorm (10:11). The LORD, the Divine Champion, even stops the sun "in mid-heaven" (10:13) until the Israelite victory is assured. We are not invited to consider how God does it—we are only called upon to praise the LORD who can even stop time in its shoes in order to work his will.
The chapter 10 ends with a dreary list of cities destroyed and kings defeated. But the war of conquest goes forward, and we are carried along with it. . . .