{"id":450,"date":"2025-10-17T21:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/?p=450"},"modified":"2025-10-17T21:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:03:16","slug":"lesson-4october-18-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 4October 18-24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Conflict Behind All Conflicts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Weekly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sabbath Afternoon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read for This Week\u2019s Study:<\/em> Josh. 5:13-15; Isa. 37:16; Rev. 12:7-9; Deut. 32:17; Exod. 14:13-14; Josh. 6:15-20<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memory Text: <\/em>\u201cThere has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel\u201d (Joshua 10:14<\/a>, ESV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading the pages of Joshua, we are confronted with the aggressive military campaigns carried out at the command of God, in the name of God, and with the help of God. The idea that God was behind the conquest of Canaan pervades the book of Joshua, and it is expressed in the assertions of the narrator (Josh. 10:10-11<\/a>) in God\u2019s own words (Josh. 6:2<\/a>, Josh. 8:1<\/a>), in Joshua\u2019s addresses (Josh. 4:23-24<\/a>; Josh. 8:7<\/a>), by Rahab (Josh. 2:10<\/a>), by the spies (Josh. 2:24<\/a>), and by the people (Josh. 24:18<\/a>). God claims to be the initiator of these violent conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reality raises unavoidable questions. How can we understand that God\u2019s chosen people carried out such practices in Old Testament times? How is it possible to reconcile the image of a \u201cwarlike\u201d God with His character of love (for example, Exod. 34:6<\/a>, Ps. 86:15<\/a>, Ps. 103:8<\/a>, Ps. 108:4<\/a>) without diluting the credibility, authority, and historicity of the Old Testament?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week and next, we are going to explore the difficult question of divinely commanded wars in the book of Joshua and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Study this week\u2019s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The Conflict Behind All Conflicts<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conflict Behind All Conflicts Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week\u2019s Study: Josh. 5:13-15; Isa. 37:16; Rev. 12:7-9; Deut. 32:17; Exod. 14:13-14; Josh. 6:15-20 Memory Text: \u201cThere has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel\u201d (Joshua 10:14, ESV). Reading the pages…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdasomersetwest.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}