An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 39: Parting the Red Sea (Lite) (Joshua 1-5)

Joshua 1-5
Parting the Red Sea (Lite)

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. 

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Joshua 1
"Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel“

With Moses dead, the leadership passes to Joshua, and interestingly God speaks to him directly, and repeats the usual exhortations to keep the covenant and go forth boldy and to conquer the promised lands, which Joshua passes on to the people. Although this is the start of a new chapter, so far it is much the same but with different names, the main thing of interest is that God is still communicating directly with Joshua, but one can perhaps assume that He is not appearing visually, since it was mentioned at the 3end of the last book that Moses was the last prophet who spoke to God so closely.

Joshua 2

“And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there.”

The story of Rahab, the original tart with a heart. The spies are obviously not very subtle because the King of Jericho soon learns that they are in the city and sends men to find them. Luckily for them, Rahab hides them and sends the king’s men on a wild goose chase. She then makes a deal with them – in return for hiding them she wants amnesty for her family when the Israelites come, because the locals have heard of the incident with the Red Sea, not to mention the destruction of the kingdoms of Og and Bashan (No, wait, Og was the kingdom and Bashan was the king. Or vice versa) just across the Jordan, and are scared of what is going to happen. With good reason, because we know the ruthless plans that the Israelites have for the conquered nations.

Rahab lets the spies escape over the city wall, and they promise to save her family provided she keeps her word, and that the family don’t go out the front door. The spies escape back to Joshua and report back to him.

Pretty straightforward, I do wonder what the relevance of Rahab being a prostitute is – perhaps some strange men staying in her house is a good cover for the spies, because otherwise there doesn’t seem to be much of a “redemption” moral to the tale. However, it’s quite nice that the story is utterly non-judgmental about not only a foreign woman, but an “immoral” one as well.

Joshua 3

“And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.”

In this chapter the Israelites gather together and cross over the Jordan, and they do so in a fashion very reminiscent of crossing the Red Sea. The Levites come up bringing the ark of the covenant, which gives some indication of exactly why Indiana Jones and the Nazis wanted to find it so badly, because the ark causes the waters of the Jordan to stop and allows the Israelite armies to cross.

That’s about it, it’s a short chapter. The re-used plot idea isn’t too bad, especially as it is done differently, but still it does feel like a re-used plot idea. I have seen commentaries, however, that liken this and the Red Sea as a kind of baptism, which is a nice idea, although the point with both is that nobody actually gets immersed.

Joshua 4

“And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.”

Joshua orders twelve stones to be taken from the dry river bed of Jordan and to place them on the far side as a memorial of the deed of crossing the river. This done, the priests bearing the ark are the last to leave the river which resumes its normal course. And thus 40,000 Israelites cross the Jordan, and build a little cairn on the far side, which we are told is still there. I’m intrigued if this is still the case – twelve stones are very easily misplaced, but perhaps there are twelve stones by the Jordan that are claimed to be this monument. Again, quite a short chapter, to the point (well, Joshua repeats himself a bit); I’m thinking Joshua might be quite an easy read.

Joshua 5

“At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time”

After crossing the Jordan, the Israelites are then told to circumcise any of those who have not yet been circumcised (because the older generation from the original Exodus is not dead). Uh, okay. They’ve just crossed into enemy territory and now they do this? Do they not recall the story of Dinah and what happens there? And then they celebrate passover as well. Since the first verse of this chapter opens with the Amorites and the Canaanites watching and worrying. I’m just thinking that if you are going to enter hostile land, do the debilitating operations and religious ceremonies first, then cross over. But then what do I know?

Two final things happen at the end of the chapter. The supply of manna ends (as it’s not needed any more now they are in the “land of milk and honey”), and Joshua is visited by some kind of angelic messenger, a “captain of the host of the Lord”, who tells him to take of his shoes (holy ground, you see). And, that’s about it.