A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 8 / 334and burn all the towns and Joshua does just that. When there is dissension in his ownarmy, like when Achan keeps a few trinkets back from the destruction, the revenge isas implacable and Achan’s whole family is burned in a holocaust. This horror is toldin the Bible in an impersonalised, un-human way.The Bible writers tell a few more human stories however. A prostitute at Jericho helpsJoshua’s spies and she is saved from the slaughter. The Gibeons enter the Israelitecamp in disguise and win their lives as well as a place within the Israeli communityby ruse. Yahweh does not object to this.We only hear something of Joshua’s character when he nears death. He thenassembles all the tribes at Shechem and makes them vow to Yahweh. Here he appearsas a man without illusions, who predicts that the people will not be able to facehardships before a jealous God. His last words are terrible with premonition, but theyare the conclusion of hundreds of years of Israelite history as written down by learnedand devote Jews. Joshua says, ‘You have chosen Yahweh to serve him.’ Saying that topeople only too eager to serve nobody but themselves, is indeed a terrible message.And these words Joshua carved in stone.Stone is the material we think off when we see the image of Joshua. He was a warrior,merely driven by a God who wants to destroy and to conquer. Whenever Joshuareached a major breakthrough, the Israelites took stones together, and piled them up toa mound in remembrance of the original conquest of Palestine. It happens from thebeginning, when stones are taken from mid-Jordan and piled on the other shore of theriver and it happens after the conquest when the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribeof Manasseh build a huge altar of stone near the stone circle by the Jordan. Thesestone mounds will be the only but during witnesses that remain of Joshua’sdevastating passage. They are the signs of a rapid and devastating campaign ofYahweh to hand over the Promised Land to the Israelites. After that only came humanfickleness, the eternal flux of arrogant refusal to serve a god and the humbleobedience after the punishments.Copyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001