e with it for
hundreds of years. Their destruction was therefore justifiable just as
was that of the old world and the Jews were simply God's instruments
just as were the waters of the flood or the fire and brimstone in the
case of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God was planning to begin, a new nation, to start a new civilization
and by using this method of punishment for the Canaanites he impressed
the Hebrews in a most striking way with the consequences of forsaking
worship of the true God. It was a new thing in the world to have all
idolatrous symbols destroyed and to worship an unseen God and yet
Joshua constantly represented to them that all the evils they had
inflicted upon the Canaanites, and greater evils, would be sent upon
them if they should become idolaters. Little, therefore, need be said
of the cruelty of the Hebrews nor of the suffering of the Canaanites.
The Hebrews were the instrument of God and the Canaanites were reaping
what they had sown.

The Significance of the War Against the Canannites. Of all the wars
recorded in human history this was one of the greatest, if not the
greatest of all. None was ever fought for a more noble purpose and
none has accomplished greater ends. The fate of the world was in the
balance. Old civilizations on account of their wickedness, were to
soon fall and this series of conflicts was to decide whether a new
civilization with a pure and holy purpose to serve God could arise in
their midst. It was, therefore, a war (1) _For purification_. The
individual, the temple and the home must all be pure. (2) _For civil
liberty_. Israel was now, under God, to govern herself and thereby to
give the world a pattern of government as God's free nation. (3) _For
religious liberty_. Idolatry, vice and superstition were everywhere
and the people must be free to worship the one true God and Creator of
all. (4) _For the whole world_. Israel was to be a blessing to all
nations. Out of her and out of this land was to come Christ, her son,
who should save the nations. The war was, therefore, for us as well as
for them.

The Character and Work of Joshua. The name Joshua in the Old Testament
is equivalent to Jesus in the New (Heb. 4:8). His character and work
were well adapted to his age and he therefore made a deep impression
upon this formative period of Israel's history. He was fully prepared
for the work of the conquest by his association with Moses and by such
events as the defeat of Amalek whi