Manifest Destiny
“So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: ‘Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.’ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, ‘Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.’”
Today’s Text: Joshua 2:1-7 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Is lying ever justified? God alone is holy and righteous, and He has established the morality of the world. God alone defines what is good and evil. And according to God’s morality, lying is a sin (Exodus 20:16; 23:1; Proverbs 12:17; etc.).
I think it’s interesting that the conquest of the Promised Land by the Israelites begins with such questionable circumstances. First of all, they receive aid from a prostitute. There is much to reflect on as far as that is concerned. And second of all, that prostitute, Rahab, lies to her governing authorities and does so quite convincingly (perhaps because she was practiced in lying for her clients as a part of her job).
Everything about the conquest of the Promised Land may make many Christians today very uncomfortable. In the past, politicians have used the Book of Joshua to justify something called “manifest destiny”—a policy of expansion in the 1800s by the United States that led to the overthrowing (and sometimes annihilation) and displacement of Native American tribes. Of course, the imperialism of the United States is nothing new, and it is not unique to the United States.
I have no doubt that it was God’s sovereign plan for the United States to have political hegemony from coast to coast. However, I cannot fathom that it was God’s desire to acquire that hegemony through deception and military force.
And I say that for a couple of reasons. First, the word of God never prophesies such brutality on the part of the people of God. Some people might say that the Book of Joshua is that prophecy. But the Book of Joshua is more a historical book and less a prophetic one. It certainly does prophesy God’s desire to fill the earth with His glory. But if anything, the word of God says, “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
Second, Jesus has come, and He sits at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:23) as Lord over the universe. The hegemony of Christ over all has been fulfilled at His ascension.
It is wrong to believe and to say that the ends justify the means, except when it is directly and clearly ordained by God. Rahab, the prostitute, lied—not for the sake of Israel, not for the sake of God—but for the sake of her family. More than anything, she lied because she trusted in the sovereignty and power of God.
God would have overthrown Jericho with or without Rahab. But faced with a decision of whether to trust in the world to protect her and her family or to trust in God, she chose wisely. And because she chose God, she became one of the most important women of the Bible. That certainly was not her ambition.
Father, You are sovereign over all things. You are all-powerful and all-knowing and eternal. Help me to think and to act wisely moment to moment. Forgive me for the foolish choices I make. I know that even in those foolish choices, Your will will prevail. But protect me and my family and this Canvas community and use us for Your glory. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
