Inheriting the Land (Part 4)
and wiping out Canaanite attitudes
Intro
This is the fourth post in a series about the people groups who occupied the Promised Land at the time of the Judges. To read the previous posts, click a link below.
At the beginning of the book of Joshua, God tells Joshua to lead the Israelites to inherit the land. However, various people groups already inhabited that land, namely the Canaanites, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Arameans, and the Philistines.1 These people groups would cause the Israelites some trouble as the Israelites took possession of the land.
If the Promise Land is a metaphor for the Kingdom of Heaven, what might these different people groups symbolize? What are the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that we’ll need to kick out of our lives, homes, and churches to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? In this post, let’s explore what the Ammonites and Moabites stood for. This gets really interesting!
The Symbolic Ammonites and Moabites
The Ammonites and Moabites were the descendants of Lot’s daughters, who inebriated their father to get pregnant through him. The Ammonites and Moabites, therefore, have a similar meaning to the Canaanites, save for one difference. The Bible doesn’t tell us Ham’s intentions in seeing his drunk parents’ nakedness. It does tell us Lot’s daughters’ intentions. Lot’s daughters slept with their dad to continue their family line.
Remember, drunkenness symbolizes having too much of a good thing, causing a numbness to our need for God.
Incest exalts one family over another.
Elder/Parent Sexual Abuse exalts one generation over another.
Lot and his dysfunctional family are often associated with the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, where homosexuality and the abuse of women and foreigners for pleasure were normal. As mentioned in the post about the Canaanites, this kind of lifestyle exalts one gender &/or people group while excluding and degrading others.
Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt in Genesis 19, demonstrated a hunger for that kind of lifestyle. Lot’s daughters’ behavior demonstrated how the Sodom and Gomorrah mentality guided their methods in making descendants.
What is the result of making kids like this? What’s the result of misusing another to make descendants for oneself? Lot’s daughters’ descendants, the Ammonites and the Moabites, opposed Israel’s taking of the land. Thus, we can say that taking advantage of others to grow a kingdom produces people of opposition.
Two Ways to Have Children
But let’s not forget a rather famous Moabite woman named Ruth. Ruth was an immigrant woman of noble character seeking to carry on her family line. She does this by pursuing her Israelite Kinsman Redeemer, Boaz. Ruth’s story is the exact opposite of Lot’s daughters’.
To make children, Lot’s daughters got Lot drunk and preyed upon him in his weakness. Their offspring opposed Israel.
To have children, Ruth loyally followed her mother-in-law’s instructions to honorably pursue Boaz. This eventually won the attention of her Kinsmen Redeemer who then became her husband. Ruth and Boaz’s descendants produced the true King and Savior of Israel: Jesus.
*Side Note: I find it interesting how Ruth won Boaz over in the barley fields while Lot’s daughters used their father over a bottle of wine. Wine and bread symbolize Christ’s body, which was broken for us so that he might redeem us. In both places, Jesus’ blood and body covered the cost of how we make descendants for ourselves.
*Another Side Note: Also significant is how Ruth petitions Boaz by lying at his feet to make her request. This humble seeking of help echoes the actions of others who sat at Jesus’ feet, cried at his feet, begged at his feet, perfumed his feet, and washed his feet. Their actions model a humble and meek approach to Jesus. Jesus declared this approach to Himself beautiful and that such faith was able to heal (Mark 14:6, Matthew 26:10, Matthew 15:28, 7:25-29, Mark 10:46-52).
Jesus also modeled this way of growing His kingdom by humbly washing His disciples’ feet.
Jesus’ and Ruth’s actions both answer the question: how do we approach others with our deep desire to grow God’s Kingdom? Not by using others or taking advantage of them in their weakness but in humbly seeking and serving (Mark 10:42-44).
Sum It Up
In conclusion, the Ammonites and Moabites might represent two ways of creating offspring for God’s Kingdom.
The Ammonites represent the belief that we must trick, take advantage of others, or use others in their weaknesses to create offspring for God’s kingdom. The result is descendants who oppose the spreading of God’s Kingdom. Here are some examples of what that might look like:
wives using their husband’s typically inferior verbal skills or absence from home life to manipulate their husbands or their children into following women’s ways
women using men’s weakness towards women’s beauty to trick men into getting women what they want
men using women’s typically inferior physical strength, lack of opportunity, and absence of representation to make women follow men’s ways in the work place, government, or church leadership
younger generations using the older generations’ slower pace and difficulty with new things to devalue the older generations’ Kingdom work
one influential family using another family’s obscurity to prove that one family’s ways are superior to another’s in performing Kingdom work
The Moabites represent the belief that we might humbly seek help from each other in growing the Kingdom of Heaven. Our humble asking for help at the feet of others allows the Body of Christ to act nobly and honorably in ministering to one another’s needs through the power of the Holy Spirit. This spreads God’s kingdom within us and through us as we give one another the freedom to serve for the sake of love and unity.
How did Jesus honorably and humbly gain help from others to create brothers and sisters of God? Not by lording his superiority over them or tricking them into doing His will, but by serving them humbly, washing their feet, and giving up His life for them. Through this, He made us his brothers and sisters with full access to His inheritance.
An Application
Contemporary Message: When Christians trick, coerce, or take advantage of others in their weakness in order to do what we think needs to be done to spread God’s kingdom, we create obstacles to the growth of the kingdom. On the other hand, when we humbly seek help, we allow God’s mighty hand to work through His body to minister to us and through us.
A Message for Parents: What parent hasn’t used their children’s love of candy, media, or games to trick their children into doing what they want? And who hasn’t used their superior intellect, power, and freedom to coerce their children into doing housework? However, if we are to inherit the kingdom of heaven by driving out these Ammonite attitudes, we are invited to parent the Ruth way. That is, through honorably pursuing our Kinsman Redeemer for the formation of our children. By this, I mean we might humbly seek help from Christ, our head, and from Christ’s body, our faith community, for all that’s needed to do His Kingdom Work.
To read about the next ethnic occupant of the Promised Land, click the link after next Sunday.
Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. New York, Doubleday, 1990.