Resources

If Christianity is such good news for the world, how come the Christians have been the cause of such hurt and hypocrisy? I was asked that question a few months ago on a WhatsApp group I’m part of. I wonder if you’ve been asked something similar? I wonder if you’ve asked something similar yourself? The person who asked me gave examples; the crusades in the 10th century, the Spanish inquisition in the 14th century. These are just two instances in the church’s history which seem uncomfortably similar to our passage today; where God says to his people: Destroy them utterly. Show them no mercy.

How is it good news for the world if more people go about believing in a God like that? If you’re not a Christian and you’re with us, or watching online, I’m so glad you’re here! This is not the first passage I’d choose to look at with you – but it’s the passage we’ve got today as a church as we’re walking through our Bible reading, and we don’t want to duck the hard bits because we believe that all of the Bible is God’s word and all of it is good for us to listen to and learn from. And the last thing I want to do is to explain this bit away – it is deeply relevant to us today.

If you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian, if you’ve still got questions about Jesus Christ, then the main thing I want to show you is God’s purpose for humanity; which I am convinced is utterly good. And I am convinced that the best thing you could do with your life is to put your trust in Jesus and let him take charge of your life and lead you into those good purposes that God intends for his people. If you are a Christian then obviously all that applies to you too, and it is the motivation for our obedience. So let me pray for God’s help and we’ll begin:

Father in Heaven, we thank you for your Word, the Bible. We thank you that you don’t leave us guessing and groping in the dark but you speak to us and give us light. Please open up our ears and go to work on our hearts by your Spirit in these next few minutes and make us a bit more like your Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

So how is a passage like this good news for the world? It shows us God is utterly and uncompromisingly against evil and he wants his people to be too. The uncomfortable thing in this passage is that the evil God is against are other human beings. The brutality of the conquest of Canaan is a terrible and real picture of God’s judgement on human beings who have set themselves up against God and become defiled by evil and in their wickedness defile the world God has made.

If you read Leviticus 20, Moses reads out a list of horrific acts that God’s people are forbidden to do, including bestiality, incest, adultery and child sacrifice. This is not just Moses being prudish, these crimes destroy families.
God’s hatred of these crimes is his desire to protect families. It’s an outrageous thing in God’s eyes for a family to sacrifice the smallest and most vulnerable in an effort to secure the blessing of the gods. And that’s a good thing – that God is uncompromisingly opposed to evil like that. He’s against abuse. He’s against selfishness. He’s against greed. Because he’s for people.
And Leviticus 20.22-23 goes on to say:

You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

The ferocity of the Canaanite conquest, the utter destruction of the inhabitants of the land, is the result of God’s deep, deep love for his world. He is outraged at evil that threatens his world and there comes a time when he says no more. And even though humanity, made in God’s image is deeply loved by God, God will not turn a blind eye to the wickedness we commit if we will not turn from it, then with no pleasure but with total commitment to his creation, he will intervene.

So this passage is good news for the world, because it shows us that God is absolutely against evil. But here’s the thing, he wants his people to be too. Have you ever wondered why, if the utter destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan was so important for Israel’s covenant loyalty, why didn’t God do it all himself? I mean, Israel didn’t have to do anything to Pharaoh. God took care of Pharaoh and his armies all by himself – “All you need to do is watch” he said to Moses and the Israelites. 10 plagues on Egypt – all God. The red sea – that was God. What’s the difference here? Why does he want Israel to participate in his destruction of the Canaanites? I think it’s because we’re the other side of the Covenant. God brings Israel into the Covenant all by himself (Deuteronomy 7.7) Israel’s got nothing going for it – not more numerous than other peoples but the fewest. Later on in Deuteronomy 9, Israel not more righteous than others – in fact they’re a stiff necked people who’ll build a golden calf the second Moses takes his eye off them. God brings Israel into Covenant with himself (Deuteronomy 7.8):

because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors…

Israel are in the Covenant because of God’s love for them and for no other reason. But the goal of the covenant is to restore humanity to the position it fell from. Israel are to fulfil the role that Adam was created for (to be God’s vice regent over the world) to serve as a kind of steward protector of God’s world. And part of that role is sharing God’s hostility to evil and going to war against it to protect and defend God’s good world. When God placed Adam in the garden, Genesis 2.15 says the man was to work and keep it. Now those two words, work and keep, come up again and again in the Old Testament in the context of the priests in the sanctuary of the tent of meeting. They are to guard it (Keep it) and they are to do the work or ministry of priests.

This is probably a complete coincidence, but the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department is ‘To Protect and to Serve’ which is one way those Hebrew words could be translated – though I doubt the LAPD think of themselves as performing a priestly function when they do their work! But for the Israelites, the priests had a responsibility to serve the community by protecting the sacred space of the tent of meeting from anything that would defile it. Just as Adam should have done in Eden – he should have protected the sacred garden space from anything that would threaten it – such as a serpent who wanted to destroy the paradise God had created by turning the humans in it against their creator.

But instead Adam stood by passively as the serpent deceived his wife, then he joined her in her disobedience and in just a few moments the human beings God had instructed to protect and serve his creation became the biggest threat to it. God’s covenant with the Israelites restores them to Adam’s original role as steward protectors. Adam was supposed to be a king priest in the garden sanctuary of Eden. Israel are supposed to be a kingdom of priests in the promised land of Canaan. Therefore, Canaan is to be sacred space, protected from anything that would defile it. Do you see what God is doing by making this covenant with Israel? He is giving humanity a second chance! Where Adam failed in the garden, Israel has an opportunity to do in Canaan.

And the amazing news is: what the Old Covenant promised to us the New Covenant guarantees in Christ. The Old Testament in many ways is a story of human failure again and again. Israel are given a second chance, but they fail – again and again. The Old Covenant held out to Israel rewards for obedience and curses for disobedience but Israel is not able to keep the Covenant God made. Deuteronomy 7.4 happens – Israel turn away from God, time after time after time (just as we do) and there comes a time in Israel’s history where God says enough, and the curses of the Covenant fall on them and they are invaded and it’s the conquest stories all over again, except this time it’s Israel who is vomited out of the land into exile. But what is held out in the Old Covenant is fulfilled in the New Covenant, where Jesus Christ, the offspring of Abraham, the true Israel, the second Adam, the new head of humanity keeps the covenant perfectly on our behalf and earns the blessing for his people.

And Jesus Christ, as head of humanity assumes the responsibility for our covenant betrayal and bears the curse on our behalf when he died on a cross for the sins of the world. God’s covenant restores human beings. The amazing news about God’s covenant is that it restores us as human beings to the position God intended for us. And Jesus Christ guarantees its fulfilment to anyone who puts their trust in him. This covenant that God has made with Israel is about restoring human beings. That is why God is so concerned that Israel keep it. He says to Israel “will you love what I love and say yes to my covenant purposes? And will you hate what I hate – which is anything that would threaten or hurt my good purposes for my world which I love?”

That is why they must show no mercy to the inhabitants of Canaan. Because God’s anger and judgement on evil is his love in action towards his creation. Ok let’s come up for air there – what does this mean for us today if we want to say yes, I want to follow in God’s good covenant plans? Well it does not mean and it will never mean justifying a similar war of conquest, either for Israel/Palestine or anywhere else. That is because under the new covenant, the sacred space where God chooses to put his name is not a land – but it’s in you, if you’re a follower of Jesus. When a person puts their trust in Jesus, God by his Spirit comes to make his home in your heart. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians (1 Corinthians 6.19):

your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God.

The meeting point between God and Humanity is not in the temple in Jerusalem, but it’s in people who have turned back to God and put their trust in Jesus Christ. And in this part of God’s word, God is calling us to go to war against evil – to protect the sacred space where he chooses to make his dwelling from anything that would defile it. Because you are God’s treasured possession. And in Christ he is restoring you to the position of honour and dignity for which you were made. So don’t settle for giving in to temptation to sin. And over the past two years there has been massive progress.

What would it be for you? What would it look like to take a similarly radical and ruthless attitude to other sins in our life – sins that threaten and destroy relationships. Sins like resentment or bitterness or envy. Maybe there’s someone you find it hard to forgive. Maybe there’s someone you find it hard to say sorry to. Maybe your marriage is on the ropes and you don’t know the way forward. Maybe you’ve fallen out with your parents. What would it look like for you to take one baby step toward reconciliation, because you know that God’s covenant is aimed at restoring humanity? Just imagine if the Christians at JPC were known for being people who were radically against evil and committed to helping one another rid it from their lives and from their church. Wouldn’t that be good news for their families, for and for Newcastle? Let’s pray God would make us a little bit more like the people he wants us to be:

Father in heaven, thank you so much for your amazing gracious covenant that gives us second chances and restores us to be the people you want us to be. Thank you so much for Jesus Christ our king and our saviour who rescues us from our failings and wins the blessing your promised for us. Please help us follow him wholeheartedly, make us radically against evil, help us as we go from here to fight against sin in our lives, and help us make our homes, families and our church beautiful, safe and sacred places. Amen.