From 1473 B.C. to 1117 B.C. The conquest of Canaan. The period of the Judges

After Moses’ death, Joshua and the people prepared to cross the Jordan and to begin conquering Canaan. This land consisted of many independent nations which did not really form a unity. On the other hand, the towns in the territory that had to be conquered were protected by strong walls. Moreover, the armies which were to defend the towns were well - armed and well - trained. The army of Israel realized that they really needed their God to be successful in the battles that awaited them.

During the forty years in the desert, Joshua had ample time to prepare himself for his task as the spiritual and military leader of God’s people during the critical years in which the Promised Land had to be conquered. During those forty years, he had served as Moses’ assistant and he had been able to learn a lot by just watching his master.

Joshua sent two spies to Jericho, the first big town that had to be conquered. When they came back, they reported that not only the inhabitants of Jericho, but all the inhabitants of Canaan were very afraid of the armies of Israel. Furthermore, it was obvious that JHWH wanted to give the Promised Land to His people and was going to help them in conquering it.

Shortly after receiving this good news, the army and the people began to move in the direction of Canaan. However, they first had to cross the wide Jordan River before entering this country. Again, JHWH proved to be there for His people. As soon as the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant (the chest covered with gold with the two stone “tablets” inside) stepped into the water, God did what He had done forty years earlier at the Red Sea. He stopped the current of the river so that the people could walk to the other side: on dry land.

On that very same day, God stopped giving manna to the people. Now, they could live from the products of the land.

As mentioned before, the first town to be taken was Jericho. God Himself gave Joshua highly detailed and specific instructions on how to take over this town. For six days, the people and the army should walk around the town in complete silence. The army would be in front, followed by the people, with the Ark of the Covenant at the back. On the seventh day, this procession would walk around the town seven times, and at the end of the seventh time, all the people would shout as hard as they could.

The instructions were followed to the letter. As a result of the extremely loud shouting at the end of the seventh round of the seventh day, the walls of Jericho tumbled down. The inhabitants were slaughtered and the town was destroyed.

The next town to be conquered was Ai. Israel attacked the town with a small army, but was defeated. When people consulted God about the cause of the defeat, God told them that among the people, there was a person who had sinned badly. Instead of obeying God’s command to destroy everybody and everything, he had failed to destroy some valuable objects. Instead, he had kept them for himself.

When the people found out who had done this, they stoned him to death. Now, God was prepared again to let the people know His strategy for the capture of Ai. JHWH advised them to lure the army of Ai away from the town, then to ambush and destroy them completely. The trick worked. Ai was captured and destroyed and all the soldiers of Ai were ambushed and killed.

For many months, the people of Israel continued acting this way. At least twice the nations who lived in Canaan tried to stop the advance of God’s people by uniting and marching together against the Israelites. But they acted in vain. The Israelites took over one town after another: Makkeda, Libna, Lachis, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir. After a tour of conquest that lasted about six years, they had defeated 31 kings and conquered their territory. Though large portions of the Promised Land had not been conquered yet, Joshua, now 80 years old, decided to stop the fighting and divide the conquered land among the tribes of Israel.

It was 1467 B.C. Among the territories that had not been conquered yet was the land of the Philistines near the coast. For centuries, the Philistines and the people of Israel continued to wage war against each other. Also, there were territories in the north which were never conquered. In addition, there were centers of resistance throughout the captured lands for a very long time.

Joshua did not give any territory as a hereditary possession to the tribe of Levi. The members of this tribe were spread all over the country and lived on the tithes which were given by the other tribes.

To complete the number of twelve tribes, the descendants of Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were considered two separate tribes and each got its own hereditary possession.

After 1467 B.C., Joshua and the tribes, which had settled in their hereditary possessions, enjoyed a period of relative calm. In those days, Joshua wrote the sixth Bible book which carries his name. About 1450 B.C., he felt his end was near (he was 110 years old then). He addressed his people with a farewell speech, just like what Moses had done. In this speech, he thanked JHWH for the help He had given in conquering the Promised Land. In addition, he begged the people not to allow any marriages between Israelites and the remaining original people of the country. Neither were they allowed to worship the Canaanite idols. In short, they were to remain loyal to JHWH and the covenant they had concluded with Him.

(It is very worthwhile to read the stories about the conquest of Canaan by the people of Israel in the Bible itself. These very exciting stories are to be found in the sixth Bible book, Joshua.)

A few decades after the death of Joshua, all Israelites who had personally experienced the journey through the desert, the conquest of Canaan, and God’s great miracles on these occasions, had died. New generations rose up for whom JHWH and His powerful works were only stories.

These generations, who lived after about 1420, failed to conquer the remaining Canaanite towns and territories. They were satisfied with a situation in which these towns and territories were willing to accept their dominance and to work for them.

The Israelites also began to worship the local Canaanite idols. Prominent among these was an idol that was worshipped throughout the region: Baal. In the following three centuries, until about 1120 B.C., the people of Israel repeatedly and on a large scale showed disrespect for their God JHWH and the covenant they had made with Him. In this respect, they were stubborn and were not prepared to listen to those people who called upon them to remain loyal to their God and their covenant with Him.

Deeply hurt by all this, JHWH refused to help the people of Israel in driving out the Canaanites who still lived in their territory. JHWH allowed those pagans to stay where they were and used them to put Israel to the test with their idols and their pagan religion. From about 1420 B.C. to around 1120 B.C., the religious ideas and practices of the Canaanites and the accompanying worship of idols like Baal appeared to have a tremendous appeal to the people of Israel. The descendants of the people who had concluded a covenant with JHWH at Mount Sinai forgot this covenant. They did not keep the agreements they had made with JHWH. They worshipped Baal and other idols all the time and on a large scale. They also built altars and sacred poles for these idols and offered sacrifices to them.

Every time when this idol-worship took on unacceptable proportions, JHWH warned the people by allowing them to be cruelly oppressed by neighboring nations. In the centuries which we are talking about now, Israel was oppressed at various times by the Assyrians, Moabites, Midianites, Ammonites, and even by tribes like the Philistines who lived in their own territory.

When the Israelites were cruelly oppressed, they realized again that they themselves were to blame for all the misery. The people began to feel remorse and were ashamed of what they had done. JHWH allowed Himself to relent and show His endless patience with His faithless people every time. He then raised a liberator for them who freed the people from their oppressors. This liberator was called a judge. Every time this happened, there followed a few decades in which the people reasonably lived up to their covenant with JHWH and could enjoy a period of rest and prosperity. This went on until the masses again began to forget to worship JHWH. They started to make idols again, erected altars for the idols, and proceeded to offer sacrifices to Baal and other Canaanite gods.

This continued for about 300 years. In these three centuries, God appointed a liberator or judge for the Israelites on no less than 12 occasions, after the people had forsaken Him the same number of times. The most well-known of these judges are Gideon (read Judges 6:1 to 9:57) and Samson (read Judges 13:1 to 16:31).

In addition to the fact that the people of Israel underwent a lot of suffering caused by neighboring nations during the three centuries mentioned, they also experienced a lot of misery as a result of the fact that occasionally, there were serious tensions among the twelve tribes. The Bible describes these tensions, with their accompanying crimes, intrigues, and even wars, with an astounding and absolutely unique candor. This fact in itself again demonstrates that the Bible is not a book which deals with pious ethical and moralistic views. It is a history book that gives us a perfectly true and objective account of the role God has played in the history of mankind.

(The heroic deeds with which the twelve judges liberated Israel twelve times from their oppressors are very exciting and can be read as adventure stories. They are to be found in the first 16 chapters of Judges. The chapters 17 to 21 describe the tensions among the twelve tribes, including the horrible punitive expedition against the tribe of Benjamin, which was almost annihilated on that occasion.)