Intro
This is the fifth and final post in a series about the people groups who occupied the Promised Land at the time of the Judges. To read a previous post, 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 lived in that land, namely the Canaanites, Edomites, Moabites, Amonites, Arameans, and the Philistines.1 These people groups would cause the Israelites some trouble as they tried to take 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 Philistines and Arameans might stand for.
The Symbolic Philistines
The Philistines opposed the Israelites during the times of the Judges, King Saul, and King David. According to Mazar's Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, the Philistines were part of the sea people who immigrated from the Aegean and Anatolian regions due to various cultural crises.
In ancient times, the sea was often associated with chaos, or things that were not yet in God’s order.2 The Philistines’ association with the sea could give us a clue as to what this people group might symbolize. Israel’s skirmishes with the Philistines might be likened to our struggle with chaos.
An heir to the Kingdom of Heaven confronts and puts chaos into God’s order.
War and Culture
In addition to this, to be a Philistine is to be hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts. Culture and the arts are not synonymous with God’s Kingdom, but all learning, beauty, and invention are gifts from God.
We see this in Genesis 4:20-22 when Cain’s descendants develop agriculture, music, and industry in the city they build. God gifts Cain’s descendants with these good things. This is not to say that those who murder their brother and build a town are gifted with the arts, but rather, even those whose sacrifices aren’t right are graciously marked by God and are given the arts and culture. God then uses art and culture as vehicles to communicate His grace.
We also see this theme in the roles of David and Solomon. While David was a poet-musician who was at the forefront of many battles against the Philistines, he did not establish the arts, agriculture, or building projects in Israel. That was Solomon3. David had too much Philistine blood on his hands to build God a house. However, David’s victories against the Philistines made it possible for Solomon to usher in the arts.
Pioneers and warriors make it possible for artists, architects, entrepreneurs, and inventors to build a beautiful culture.
Another way to say this is: the hand that fights chaos will not be the same one that invents, builds, and creates. But both the Chaos-tamer and the Bringer-of-Arts shall reign in God’s Kingdom.
Summary and Application
In summary, let’s say that to have a Philistine attitude is to reject God in our culture, education, and art, and to fall prey to chaotic ways of acting, thinking, and feeling—“tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people” (Eph 4:14 NIV). While successful conquests make way for the arts, God uses both warriors and artists as His instruments of grace to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Contemporary Message: We can view the arts and education as gifts from God that can help us bring God’s order to earth’s chaos. Halloween is merely a cultural creation awaiting Christian’s conquest and reclamation. AI is merely a human invention waiting to be tamed into God’s good purposes.
A Message for Parents: As a parent, I am called to rule my children’s chaos. And let me tell you, it feels quite chaotic these days. God has gifted us beauty, education, industry, and nature to bring my children into the song and dance of God’s kingdom of love.
The Symbolic Arameans
Since the Arameans in the Bible sometimes work against and sometimes work for the Israelites, they don’t seem to represent a right or wrong way of thinking or behaving. They’re amoral, so to speak.
The Aramaic language also developed among the Arameans. Aramaic was what the Jews spoke at the time of Christ. While the Jews maintained Hebrew as the sacred language for their scriptures, they adopted Aramaic after the Babylonian exile. This means that Jesus spoke Aramaic and taught his disciples to pray in Aramaic.4 This paved the way for various cultures and people groups to communicate God’s Word in their own culture and language.
Therefore, the Arameans might represent any culture in which we live and share the news of God’s Kingdom. No culture is right; No culture is wrong; it is merely the means by which we transmit God’s message.
Babel vs God’s Kingdom
This message reminds me of the story of the Tower of Babel. Babel’s people seemed to be trying to establish their own language and name until God confused and dispersed them.
No single people group or language would become the sacred culture or language to transmit the Kingdom of Heaven to others. Because of Christ, all people from all cultures, speaking all languages, may be part of God’s Kingdom and may transmit God’s Kingdom to others.
In this, the Arameans stand for the opposite of what the Canaanites, Moabites, and Ammonites stood for. God did not specify one gender, generation, or family as the primary rulers in His Kingdom. Rather, he invited both genders, every generation, all families, and all cultures to be servants of all.
Application
Contemporary Message: Children of God inherit the Kingdom of Heaven by using their culture for Kingdom purposes. Culture actually helps us communicate God’s message to the world in words, images, and actions that people can understand and receive. Christians’ ability to speak other languages and to “do as the Romans do” helps others understand, accept, and follow Jesus.
Parents’ Message: God provided my children with different learning styles and strengths. If I learn my children’s heart language and adapt to their different stages and ages, I can better communicate God‘s message to them.
That’s All Folks!
Thank you for joining me on this journey through the ancient people groups of Canaan. If you enjoyed this study, here are links to similar blogs.
Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. New York, Doubleday, 1990.
Walton, John H. The Lost World of Adam and Eve. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2015. (pp 40)
Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. New York, Doubleday, 1990. (pp 375)
Bailey, Kenneth E. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2008. (pp 95)
Interesting to learn about these ancient people groupsQ