Editor’s Note: This series on the Bible is from the book Catholicism & Scripture. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The postal address and the email address are listed at the end of this column.)
Special Course On Catholicism And Scripture (Chapter 9)
After the death of Moses, God told Joshua that He would be with him every step of the way. He told him to “observe the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined on you. Do not swerve from it either to the right or to the left, that you may succeed wherever you go. . . . Then you will successfully attain your goal” (Joshua 1:5, 7-8). Joshua sent two spies to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, especially around the city of Jericho. They found lodging in Jericho in the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
When the King of Jericho heard about the spies, he ordered Rahab to put them out of her house. Instead, she hid them from the King’s men and helped them to escape from the city after they promised that she and her family would be spared when the Israelites attacked Jericho. Once again, God uses an unlikely person to further His plan.
Meanwhile, Joshua led the people across the Jordan River. When the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant entered the water, the river stopped flowing and a solid wall of water allowed the Israelites to cross on dry ground, as had also happened at the Red Sea, and they all reached the other side safely. As they approached the major city of Jericho, God ordered Joshua to have the people march around the city seven times, blowing ram’s horns and shouting, and after the seventh time the walls came tumbling down. The Israelite army entered Jericho and killed all its inhabitants, except Rahab and her family.
This slaughter was morally wrong, but God tolerated it to give His people the land promised them to protect Israel from the idolatry and immorality of the Canaanites.
After the victory in Jericho, however, some of the army disobeyed God and stole items from the defeated inhabitants. God punished them by allowing them to be defeated in the next battle against the city of Ai. God told Joshua that they had lost the battle because they stole items of value. Once those who stole the goods were punished, God told Joshua to attack Ai again, and this time they were successful.
This same pattern would continue until the Israelites had defeated all their enemies. Military victory would be followed by sinful actions, the Lord would withdraw His help, allowing the Israelites to suffer defeat, they would repent of their sins and turn back to God, and the cycle of sin would start all over again — from sin to suffering to sorrow to salvation.
We go through the same cycle of sin in our lives. We live in God’s favor, then we choose some “forbidden fruit” or sinful pleasure, we humbly admit our sinfulness and seek forgiveness in Confession, and we are restored again to God’s friendship. Our Promised Land is Heaven, and, like the Israelites, we have to fight off temptations from the false gods of the world — money, power, pleasure, fame — and keep our eyes focused on Jesus, who is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
As Joshua neared the end of his life, he told the people to remain faithful to God and to the law of Moses and warned that if they ever turned away from God, “the anger of the Lord will flare up against you and you will quickly perish from the good land which he has given you” (Joshua 23:16).
With Joshua gone, God sent Judges to rule the people. These were not courtroom judges, but rather military authorities whose job was to protect the people from external enemies. Three of the most famous ones were Barak, Gideon, and Samson. Barak was assisted by the prophetess Deborah, who helped him to defeat the Canaanite army. When their general Sisera escaped, he fled to the tent of a woman named Jael, who got him drunk and then killed him. Deborah praised her exploits, saying, “Blessed among women be Jael” (Judges 5:24).
After Barak came Gideon, who told the Lord that he was too insignificant to lead Israel in battle against the Midianites. “I shall be with you,” God said to him, “and you will cut down Midian to the last man” (Judges 5:16). Gideon raised an army of 32,000 men, but God told him to reduce it to 300 so that he would know that the victory came from God, not himself.
The most famous Judge was Samson, who was born when Israel was ruled by the Philistines. Samson had superhuman strength, as indicated by his killing a lion with his bare hands and killing 3,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. His strength was the result of a vow to avoid strong drink and never to cut his hair. The Philistines offered money to a woman named Delilah to discover the source of Samson’s power and, after repeated efforts, she got Samson to reveal the secret.
While he was sleeping, she cut off his hair and his enemies were able to subdue him. They gouged out his eyes and threw him in prison, but did not notice that his hair had grown back. One day when three thousand persons had gathered to offer sacrifice to their pagan god, they brought Samson in and tied him to a column holding up the roof of the building. Samson prayed for the strength to “avenge myself once and for all on the Philistines” (Judges 16:28), and he knocked over the column, bringing the building down, killing him and all those present.
The time of the Judges was coming to an end, and the people were calling for kings to rule them.
List of Answers:
ARK
CYCLE
DEBORAH
DELILAH
GIDEON
GOD
HEAVEN
JAEL
JERICHO
JUDGES
KINGS
RAHAB
SAMSON
Quiz:
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