David's post does an excellent job of covering today's reading, so I'll discuss instead the constant stream of war, violence and bloodshed that we're going to see for quite some time to come. We read that Achan and his entire family were stoned and burned for Achan's sin, and the entire people of Ai are slaughtered and the king hung from a tree.
WHY? I have no idea--God's ways are his own. We have read in the past that Canaan needed to be cleared of inhabitants so that the Israelites wouldn't be tempted to intermarry and follow their pagan ways, and Achan clearly disobeyed the rules set forth by the Lord in Joshua 6:18-19. This won't be the last time we read of swift and sure punishment from the Lord, and we'll even have a couple of examples in the New Testament (November 12th and 17th have vivid examples), but we need to remember the time and place.
You'll get tired of hearing or reading me write "We're in the Age of the Law" as the year progresses, but get used to it--the Age of Grace doesn't begin until November 11th. If you were awake and listening to me last week, you heard me state that the people of Israel's righteousness was through observance of the law (quick plug--don't remember that? Click on the YouTube link at the right and watch it again--works GREAT as a sedative). Over and over, the people of Israel had promised to obey the Lord, and he was clearly still speaking to them through Joshua--they didn't have to guess what his will was.
Even though we live in the Age of Grace, we still have an obligation to follow God's law. The fact that Jesus' death and resurrection serves as the ultimate sacrifice doesn't remove our obligation to obey the Lord. We may not be stoned and burned to death along with our family and our possessions, but salvation doesn't grant freedom from obedience. Indeed, I would argue that because of our complete inability to even remotely thank God for what he did for us, we're even MORE obligated to obey him--he gave us more.
Scott
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