Joshua – Lesson 8

Canaan---A Type of Faith Warfare

Before diving into this portion of our study let me say a few words about “types”. At the risk of repeating the obvious, it may be well to describe what we mean when we use the term “type”.

A Scriptural type is a biblical person, thing, action, or historical event that foreshadows new truths, new actions, or future events which most often are made plain in the New Testament.

 The Book of Joshua gives us a history of Israel’s entrance into and conquest of the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. It is commonly believed that “Canaan” is a type of heaven. Some argument can be made for that. However, as we will see this is probably too much of a stretch when we discover what happened there.

As we review Israel’s experiences from their deliverance from Egypt to the conquering of Canaan we will see how beneficial these types are and how they apply to the Christian life. There are three stages in all.

First, we saw the people of Israel in Egypt. They were slaves and had to be submissive to their slave masters, the Egyptians. They were not free and had to live under the rules of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Some Christians are still in that condition spiritually. They try to make themselves live godly lives by following certain rules and regulations instead of allowing Jesus to dwell in them and live through them.

The second stage involved Israel’s being freed from Egypt and their deliverance at the Red Sea. Following their Red Sea experience they spent the next 40 years wandering in the desert. During this time the people were a burden to God and to Moses. This can also be true of us as Christians. We can burden others around us, maybe friends, church leaders and pastors, instead of helping to carry the burdens. In the desert the Israelites were self-centered and largely useless to God.

It was not until they entered Canaan under Joshua’s leadership that they became spiritual warriors and went on to a succession of victories. This was the third stage of their experiences. They turned from being defensive to going on the offensive against the enemy.

There are two basic truths taught in the Book of Joshua, one is that God is a “God of war”. The second is that “the just shall live by faith”. There has been some criticism of Joshua for his role in conquering and utterly destroying the Canaanites. As we will see there was unbelievable carnage heaped on the Canaanites by Joshua and the Israelites. But wait. You haven’t seen the rest of the story.

Now let’s look at this matter of the two sides of God. How can God be a God of love and not be a God of wrath against sin? The fact is that if He were not a God of wrath against sin, He would not be a God of love. Now a day is coming when His wrath will be poured out as never before, followed by a time of total righteousness. The reason that we have some difficulty understanding this is that we have such a low concept of sin. We simply do not see sin as the terrible thing that it is to God.

As we study the Book of Joshua we will see that Joshua was commanded to completely exterminate the seven nations of Canaanites. Why would God order such?

First, God gave the land of Palestine to Abraham. This is clear form Genesis.

· Genesis 15:18, On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--

We can wonder why God picked this particular land for the Israelites. Wasn’t there other land that He could have given them? This very same question is being asked today with the result that the Arabs want the land that the Jews presently occupy. Couldn’t God have given them the United States? The fact is that this was a sovereign decision of God and therefore not open to question. This was the land that suited God’s purpose.

And what was that purpose? Well Israel did not go into Canaan to murder and plunder the land of kindly, simple, loving people. The Israelites came as God’s chosen people, as instruments to inflict proper judgment upon sin and sinners. God uses man to punish men, and such punishment was long overdue the Canaanites. From God’s perspective, they had forfeited their right to the land and to life.

Listen to what God said to Abraham>

· Genesis 15:13-16, Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

It is evident from this that God was going to give the Canaanites an opportunity to change their evil ways. He gave them more than 400 years, but they did not repent.

Now some may say that they didn’t know about God. Yet, this cannot be the case when we consider the history of the area. Wasn’t there Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and their history in that area?

Melchizedek lived in Jerusalem in those early days and was known as the king of righteousness. He testified to the truth of God and was held in such high esteem that he received tithes from Abraham. No, God knew what He was doing and, like us, He gives every opportunity for repentance.

You would like to think that there were some Canaanites who believed God; but if so there were very few. Most went on their willful, sinful ways. They left God no choice but to bring judgment on them.

When the Israelites left Egypt God had this warning for them.

· Leviticus 18:1-3,  The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.

· Leviticus 18:24-28, "'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

Israel then did not come to Canaan with an impulse to selfishly conquer the land. They came as executioners of God’s will against a very sinful people. It was God’s decision that they were not redeemable and therefore must be destroyed. Sound harsh? We haven’t seen harsh. The biblical description of the Great Tribulation is harsh.

We must remember that there have been other times when His patience ran out. He sent a variety of pestilences on Egypt. He has sent earthquakes and floods. Remember Noah? All human beings except Noah’s family were destroyed. As one writer has put it, “The cup of sin for this world is fast reaching the full mark.”

God has chosen to deal with nations and individuals in mercy, but His extending mercy depends on their response to Him. Can I ask you to mark down in your notes, or better still in your hearts, the word “response”? This is a very important concept in the matter of Christian growth and maturity.

Our response to God for what He has done for us in Jesus is at the very heart of our commitment. Obedience to God is nothing less than our response to Him. Response is the feet we give to the words we say. It is the action following our claims.

Our response is probably the best self-evaluation tool available to us to measure our Christian maturity. You see we know the degree to which we are committed Christians by the way we respond to what we know is expected of us.

God is not mocked. Whatever a man or a nation sows that is what they will reap. The Canaanites were warned; Israel was warned and the church has been warned.

So the history that we see recorded in the Book of Joshua shows us that God wars against sin. It shows how He deals with sin. And it goes on to declare how God gives victories to the person who will dare to stand with and for Him. This is the truth that we want to emphasize over and over in this study.

Israel as a conquering nation is a great type of our spiritual warfare and conquest over sin in our daily lives and the entering into the possession of spiritual blessings in Jesus.