Joshua was a great military general, through the training and encouragement of Moses he was able to orchestrate many victories for the children of Israel. There is however a reason why a book in the bible has been named after Him, Joshua was no ordinary general. He had studied and mastered the ART of WAR under the leadership of Moses and later under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but even He found his match in the battle of Ai. The reason he lost this battle, and why Christians loose battles is the topic of this article.
The bible depicts war as a necessary practice in order to acquire dominion, Joshua’s stories are a reflection of what was expected of Adam.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it Genesis 1:28
The word used in the above verse is a military word Subdue – ‘To put down by force or authority’. Could it be that God had commissioned man to subdue the darkness that existed in Genesis 1:2. From the text this can be inferred, therefore Adam was created for conflict, to rule through force and authority. The conquest of the Promised Land is the best picture of what having dominion looks like, there are many rich illustrations of how Christians can wage war and have dominion.
The Purpose of the Enemy
The theme of children of God being surrounded by darkness/enemies starts in Genesis and ends in revelation. God had the option of destroying darkness but instead he allows it to play a role in the testing of Adam and his Children, the truest purpose of the enemy is described in Judges
These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses. Judges 3:1-4
This verse best describes why the serpent had access to the garden of Eden, why God has permitted the children of God to live in a world surrounded by the enemy of our soul the devil. It is intentional, the devil or the Canaanites had never been a match for God. Remember God’s angels had kicked out Lucifer from heaven (our true promised land) and God had single handedly defeated the kingdom of Egypt, that was at the time greater and bigger than any civilization of that time.
The covert war
Every time Israel lost a battle, the bible points us to the fact that they lost it first by interacting and copying the surrounding cultures, therefore failing God’s test of obedience. The enemy’s first step was always to infiltrate, not by force but by ungodly ideas. In the case of Eden the infiltration was an ungodly relationship between Eve and the serpent, in the children of Israel it was intermarriage with the wives of their enemies. Infiltration always starts with ungodly relationships or exposure to ungodly cultures.
So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of… Judges 3:5-8
The children of Israel always first lost the infiltration war before they lost the physical wars with their neighbors. The bible precedes the loss of the infiltration war with the words he sold them into the hands of, therefore it is only logical to believe that as children of God we should spend our resources fighting the covert war or the war of ideas, customs, ideology and culture.
The war of restoration
Whenever Israel went into captivity, God raised up a King or Judge who would first have to deal with the ungodly ideas that had been adopted by the children of God through infiltration, before they dealt with the Captors. These ideas were the source of sin and therefore the cause of defeat in the wars with their neighbor’s.
Two stories best illustrate how this was done
Gideon
The first assignment God gave Gideon was to take down the Altar of Baal
pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here Judges 6:25 – 26
The idol was the source of their captivity and bondage, before they waged war they had to remove it. The process of removing it was the first act of courage Gideon had to execute, because at the time the people believed and put their trust on the power of Baal to protect and fight for them. Gideon replaced the altar of Baal with the altar of God, laying the foundation for the people to put their trust in the true God that Gideon served. After this the physical battle was won easily.
King Asa
And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment. He also took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom had rest under him. 2 Chronicles 14: 2-5
King Asa made religious reforms to turn the children of Israel back to the true God, this gave him great favor with the lord “and the kingdom had rest under him” . Just like king Jehu, Asa had zeal for the lord and it is recorded that he removed the privileges of His own mother, because she had an idol. The bible describes in great detail the religious reforms that King Asa brought to the land, and is a good example of what a reformist should look like. The bible reiterates the results of this reformation, which included a covenant
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side. 2 Chronicles 15:12-15
Blessings or Curses 
One thought on “Culture Wars Part II – Infiltration”