Tag: covenant

Daniel 1 Part 1 (1:1-1:3) The True God: Why the Defeat of Judah Did Not Compromise God’s Sovereignty

The defeat of God’s nation and people by Babylon did not compromise His sovereignty. Instead, this event – the loss of national sovereignty and people being led away in captivity to the land of Babylon – highlighted His sovereignty in a powerful way. God demonstrated both His judgment and compassion through this event. At the national level, He executed His judgment on Judah for their collective sin. However, at the individual level, God showed compassion and grace to the captives, including Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Summary

The LORD God gave Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. In addition, Nebuchadnezzar took some of the vessels from the house of God and also selected some of the sons of Israel – youths who showed intelligence and discerning knowledge – to educate them for three years in order to serve him personally. Among these youths were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

However, Daniel was determined not to defile himself with the king’s food and wine. He sought permission from the commander of the officials to avoid consuming it. With God’s favor and compassion, the commander agreed to test Daniel and his friends by allowing them to eat only vegetables and water for ten days. When they appeared healthier than the other youths, the commander withheld the king’s food and continued to provide them with vegetables.

God gave these four youths knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. After three years of education, they were presented to King Nebuchadnezzar and found to be ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers. Daniel continued to serve until the first year of King Cyrus.

Collapse of Judeo-centric Worldview

“God is on our side” is a phrase we often use to comfort ourselves, but it must be taken with caution. We need to be on God’s side, not the other way around. When Joshua met the captain of the host of the LORD before Israel’s first battle in the land of Canaan, he asked which side he was on, to which the captain replied that he came as the captain of the host of the LORD (Joshua 5:13-14). This reply implies that it was irrelevant which side he, who was representing the only true God, was on. Joshua immediately postured himself to the listening and obedience mode to the captain. As such, Joshua and the Israelites needed to be on the LORD God’s side. 

Approximately 600 years later, it appeared that the people of Judah had forgotten this important lesson. They believed that God was on their side unconditionally and would protect them from Babylon, despite prophet Jeremiah’s warning. However, they failed to understand that their obedience and reflection of God’s holiness were necessary for God’s protection. They were chosen by God, but with the condition that they follow His commands (Deuteronomy 28). Continuing to sin and refuse to repent, they falsely believed that God would defend them. Although God had protected them in the past, deliberate sin and injustice could not be tolerated forever.

Therefore, Jeremiah’s prophecies and warnings of the collapse of Judah and the plundering of the Temple of God were fulfilled, which bewildered the leaders and prophets of Judah. Their Judeo-centric worldview and perhaps their understanding of the sovereignty of God also collapsed.

However, the national defeat and plundering of the Temple of God did not demonstrate the collapse of God’s sovereignty. Instead, they revealed a different aspect of God’s sovereignty, one that was wider and deeper than their formal understanding of God

The Sovereignty and Faithfulness of God in Defeat of His People

The book of Daniel opens with the “defeat” of God’s people and their nation. King Zedekiah of Judah was captured and the Babylonians completely overran Judah and Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took vessels from the house of God and brought them into the temple of his own god. Additionally, he took many fine and intelligent youths from among the sons of Israel as captives to eventually serve him and the kingdom of Babylon. At face value, this appeared to be a complete defeat of Judah and its God, the LORD. However, this event in no way compromised the absolute sovereignty of God. In fact, the defeat of Judah only highlights the sovereignty of the LORD.

In ancient times, conquests and wars were believed to be the result of struggles between different gods. The Babylonians, for example, believed that the defeat of Judah proved that their gods were stronger than the LORD of Judah (Daniel 1:1-2). Similarly, other nations believed in their gods within their own understanding. Their gods operated according to their respective beliefs of how gods should operate. When they won wars, their gods were praised as stronger than the gods of the defeated nations. When they lost wars, the power of their gods was nullified.

In other words, the value of these gods depended on the winning and prosperity of the people who believed in them. This is a great irony because if gods were dependent, then how can they be gods? In fact, they were merely just idols, created in the image of sinful and limited man. For gods to be considered true God, they need to be completely independent and transcendent over the understanding and reasoning of people.

In contrast to the gods of other nations, the true God, the LORD, does not operate within the realm of reason and understanding of finite human minds. The LORD God is a God of absolute principles that do not depend on the winning and prosperity of His people. The defeat of Judah and the plundering of God’s temple do not nullify God’s sovereignty. Although this event must have been a great shock to many in Judah, as many prophets continued to falsely prophesy that the LORD God would deliver Judah from the Babylonians, the defeat, deportation of the Jews, and plundering of the temple, in fact, testified to the faithfulness of the LORD and one of His principles: absolute justice.

  • God of Principle I (Justice): God hates sin. As the people of Israel and Judah failed to obey the LORD, depriving justice to orphans, widows, and aliens, God delivered Judah to the Babylonians.

God, in faithfulness to His principle of justice, executed judgment on Judah at a national level. He had warned the Israelites in His covenant with them, spoken through Moses, that failure to obey His commands and show justice and mercy to the weak of society, such as orphans, widows, and aliens, would result in being removed from the land He had given them (Deuteronomy 28:58-64). During the last few kings of Judah, God sent many prophets to exhort their leaders to repent and obey His ordinances and statutes. However, the people of Judah repeatedly defied God’s call to live a holy life, resulting in oppression of the weak and injustice. God removed them from their land and delivered them to their enemies, as He had promised. Along with the defeat of Judah, God willingly allowed Himself to be humiliated as Nebuchadnezzar plundered the temple of God (Daniel 1:2).

Conclusion

The book of Daniel begins with a cataclysmic event of the collapse of Judah, which posed a great crisis to the identity and future of God’s people. However, this collapse was also an opportunity for the remnant of Jews who survived by God’s compassion to understand and experience His grace in a new way.

Likewise, we may face similar crises in our own lives, but let us stand firm and cling to God, for these moments may be opportunities to deepen our understanding of Him.

Joshua 9: Silent God =? Merciful God

Summary

After hearing the news of the defeat of Ai, six nations of Canaan came together to wage war against Joshua and Israel. In contrast, the Gibeonites took a different approach and acted craftily to make a covenant (peace treaty) with Joshua and Israel. Not having asked for the counsel of the LORD, Joshua and Israel accepted a covenant with the Gibeonites to let them live. Three days later, Israel found out that the Gibeonites were their neighbors, not a nation far away, and the Israel congregation started to grumble. Because of the oath made before the LORD, however, Joshua let them live as wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD. 

Conventional Message vs. Unconventional Perspectives

When a message is preached from this passage, a usual focus is on two aspects: 1) a national mistake committed by Joshua and Israel by not having asked for the counsel of the LORD when the Gibeonites approached to make a covenant; and 2) the deception and trick displayed by the Gibeonites. Often, the main application that arises from this chapter is that we should be diligent to seek God’s counsel for every matter in order not to be deceived. 

Although I do not entirely disagree with these interpretations and associated applications, I would like to extract a new insight by examining this event from the perspective of the Gibeonites and by focusing on the grace and inclusiveness of the LORD our God. 

What Gibeon Did Well

Although not explicitly stated in the book of Joshua, here’s my educated imagination of what the Gibeonites did prior to sending their delegates to Joshua. The Gibeonites took a different approach from the rest of the Canaan nations. Having heard many mighty miraculous acts by the LORD, including the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River on a dry ground and the defeating of many kings on both sides of the Jordan River, Gibeonites started to fear and recognized that the land of Canaan was given to the Israelites by the LORD God. They finally concluded that they would not stand a chance against the Israelites. Having made this decision, Gibeonites formulated a strategic plan to maximize their survival and devised two major tactics to do so. 

From the Gibeonites’ “negotiation” with Joshua and Israel, we can learn a few lessons on what the Gibeonites did well. From verse 6, what the Gibeonites said to Joshua, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us” indicates that the Gibeonites conducted a thorough research of the Law of Moses. In this statement, I want to highlight two elements: first, they told Joshua that they came from a far country; second, they want Joshua to make a covenant with them. 

First, the Gibeonites told the Israelites that they were a far away nation because the LORD instructed the Israelites through Moses that if a nation that is far away offered a peace treaty, Israelites were to accept it (Deut 20:11-15). If the nations were nearby, such as the nations in the land of Canaan, they were to be utterly destroyed (Deut 7:1-2). The Gibeonites knew this aspect of the law of Moses and used this to maximize their chance for survival. 

Second, the Gibeonites wanted to make a covenant. Gibeonites also knew that the oath made in the name of the LORD was not to be recanted in Israel (Numbers 30:1-2). Therefore, if the Gibeonites were somehow able to make a covenant with Israel, they knew that their chance of survival would be assured.

In addition, in order to make their case of a far country  more compelling, the Gibeonites showed the worn out sandals, crumbled bread, and torn wine skins. 

Finally, the Gibeonites timed their delegation well. They might have looked for an opportune time to send their delegates. Israel and Joshua just came from a difficult, one day fight against the Ai inhabitants. It was possible that Joshua and Israel were spiritually and physically exhausted, and perhaps, for that reason, they did not ask for the counsel of the LORD. Also, the food that the Gibeonites brought could have won the hungry Israelites. Anyways, the Gibeonites fully used their knowledge to convince the Israelites to form a covenant with them.

It worked!

What does God think about this? 

Achan’s sin in chapter 7 was taken very seriously by God. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel (Josh 7:1). Regarding making a covenant with the Gibeonites, however, the LORD God did not say anything to Joshua. Nor did God let Israel be defeated by enemies in the subsequent battles. Why did God overlook the covenant made between the Israelites and the Gibeonites?  

Although we cannot possibly fully understand God’s silence in chapter 7, we may be able to project God’s mercy and encompassing heart for all the nations. When God commanded the Israelites to completely destroy nations that resided in the land of Canaan, it was primarily because of their evil acts (Lev 18:25-30). Absent evil practices and institutions, God, being merciful, may have given an opportunity for the Gibeonites to live. Perhaps, seeing a softening process of the heart of the Gibeonites as a whole nation, leading to a genuine attempt to turn around from evil acts, God kept His silence to give an opportunity for them to live. 

Joshua’s Brilliant Decision

Joshua decided to put the Gibeonites close to the presence of God. God forewarned that the nations in Canaan, if they were not utterly destroyed, would lead the Israelites away from worshiping the LORD. Perhaps for this reason, Joshua placed the Gibeonites very close to the presence of the LORD by forcing them to serve the altar. Even though Joshua cursed them to do this job, it could have been a blessing for the Gibeonites to be influenced by the presence of the LORD. 

Gibeonites vs. Rahab 

Rahab and the Gibeonites were the only survivors from the expedition of the Israelites. The major difference between the two was the degree of their confession before the LORD. Rahab made an explicit, full confession that the LORD God is the God of heaven above and on earth beneath (Josh 2:11)  whereas the Gibeonites greatly feared the power of the LORD God, but stopped there. If the Gibeonites had made a full confession, they might have been integrated to the Israelites in a different way. 

Gibeonites Many Years Later

The decision that God and Joshua made in regards to the Gibeonites did not turn out in vain. Many years lates (about 900 years after), when Nehemiah, a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, came to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall from the Susa Palace, men from Gibeon played an important role in repairing the wall (Nehemiah 3:7). 

Lessons

The Gibeonites had some fear of the LORD, although not perfect. The LORD grasped that small seed of the fear of the LORD and gave an opportunity for the Gibeonites to live.

I see the God the LORD who gives a second chance. Our God gave many second chances for us. Let this encourage you today.