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How can the total destruction of Jericho be morally justified? Joshua 6:21

The Fall of Jericho (Joshua 5:13-6:21)
20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

Joshua 6:20 - 21

ESV - 20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

Clarify Share Report Asked January 30 2019 My picture Jack Gutknecht Supporter

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Emilio 1992 Emo Tenorio Supporter Shomer
I humbly submit for your consideration some simple thoughts. Sometimes the whole must be removed to save the greater, i.e. with cancer sometimes much tissue or organs have to be removed to save the patient's life. Thus sometimes an evil gene pool must be removed to save a polite society the future damage it will do.

(Genesis 9:5) And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

(Deuteronomy 32:39) "'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Even if you may not agree, it's something to consider as possible. He is management after all and our department is in sales. (Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 54:15)

Think about our culture's evil infanticide craze and fashionable morality: Consider that in the US since 1973 when seven lawyers in black robes were looking for and surprisingly found the hidden RIGHT they were hunting. Since that devious ruling known as "Roe vs Wade" we have murdered 60,880,636.6 innocent unborn on this leftist alter. Murder-incorporated "Planned Parenthood" has spread the blood from this sin among us, all via its taxpayer funding money.

Today some states within our union are racing to outdo each other with their now very public infanticide craze. New York Governor Cuomo signed a law that makes murder "abortion" legal, even after the unborn child is viable, so long as the non medical murderer "abortionist" makes a “reasonable good-faith judgment” that murdering it will protect the pregnant woman’s health (a simple headache qualifies). 

This barbaric mindset was presented to a standing cheering crowd. 

A Virginia legislator Kathy Tran introduced legislation that would make murder "abortion" legal even at term or in the middle of live birth. And the Rhode Island Governor has signaled that she wishes to support a similar bill, joining with her fellow Democratic travelers. Making the United States the only so-called civilized nation in the world that has codified and legalized infanticide.

The sovereignty of the Lord expressed as management rules with the legal and moral authority to carry out His will in anyway He deems appropriate. We on the other hand are limited to His directions, not having that authority as a creation known as humans. 
(Exodus 20:13) You shall do no murder 

In The Lord's Freedom and morality.........warrior on

January 31 2019 2 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army
I see no difference from a moral standpoint between the devoting of Jericho to complete annihilation by Israel (as part of the destruction that was commanded by God through Moses in Deuteronomy 20:16) and actions taken by God Himself such as the Flood (which killed everyone on earth except for Noah and his family); the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (with all their inhabitants except for Lot and his daughters); and the annihilation of other populations in Canaan that He commanded. (In fact, in the case of Jericho, the sanctioning of that destruction by God was specifically demonstrated by God Himself making the city's walls fall down.) 

I think that any modern-day qualms about such actions arise from a failure to understand and appreciate the actual degree of wickedness and evil of the entire populations in question. (As Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 9:5, "It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.") In fact, the peoples inhabiting Canaan showed no greater concern for the "innocent" ones among them than Israel did, through such abhorrent practices as child sacrifice, in which both men and women would have been complicit. (And, even at that, God still showed mercy to Rahab and her household when Jericho was overrun (Joshua 2:1-21; Joshua 6:22-25).) 

Aside from the aspect of the peoples whom Israel destroyed deserving their fate, God in His omniscience also knew that such actions were needed to fulfill His promises to His chosen people; to prevent the Israelites from falling inescapably into idolatry and immorality through association and intermarriage with the peoples of those lands; and (above all) to preserve the lineage through which the Messiah would be descended. Without Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, the entire human race (not just selected populations) from the beginning to the end of time (including we ourselves) would be eternally (not just temporally) lost.

January 31 2019 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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