On the other hand, see an act of integrity in the case of the Gibeonites. They deceived Israel; but because Israel had sworn a solemn oath, they kept it, even though they could easily have justified doing otherwise.
PRAYER: When I am inclined to despair, help me first to see where I may have erred, and help me to deal with my mistake; in Christ. Amen.
What insight about the communal nature of life do you gain from the Achan story? How is this different from our more independent way of approaching life?
| JOSHUA 10–12 | Week 11, Day 7 |
What difference does it make today that millennia ago several scores of city-states, with kings whose names are hardly a speck in history, were defeated by Israel? To a scholar, it means one more small piece in the knowledge of the ancient world, the kind of information that, added to some archaeological finding, becomes a segment in the human story.
But for Israel the importance is far more than the data of history. It is the stuff, eventually, of hymns of praise to God, with each name a reminder that “the LORD fought for Israel” (10:14, 42). Religion for the Israelites was no theoretical study; it dealt with specifics of names, dates, and battles. And when the event was marked by what seemed to be the cooperation of nature itself, the victory was all the more memorable.
When we are far removed from the circumstances, we may not be especially empathetic with a testimony about a God who marches with a nation’s armies. For that matter, a comfortably middle-class person today may not appreciate the emotional witness of a ghetto mother who says God sent the relief check just in time. But when one lives in the midst of some kind of oppression or peril, whether political, economic, physical, or emotional, and the answer comes in good time—well, the story looks different from that position. Then one wants not so much to analyze as to sing.
PRAYER: Give me a heart, O God, for the rejoicing of others. Amen.
How do you understand God’s role and purpose in the conquest of the land?
Prayer Time
Make a list of groups, small or large, where transitions are occurring, and pray daily for them.
How the Drama Develops DEUTERONOMY 27—JOSHUA 12
I have seen several notable changes of leadership in my lifetime. Presidents, for example, even in times of economic depression, war, and assassination. The papacy has had as big a transition in our time as perhaps in any single century, in the reigns of John XXIII and John Paul II. Each of us knows such a transition at a highly personal level, when a parent dies (especially the second parent) or when a parent is largely disabled by age or illness. Changes of leadership can be a painful affair, sometimes even disastrous.
But they can also go well—especially if the predecessor is happy about the successor and if the successor feels no need to discredit the predecessor. Israel went through a change of leadership at a time when that could have been fatal. The nation, after forty years of wilderness living and wandering, was now at the door of the land they sought. But their leader, Moses, couldn’t make the trip with them. It wasn’t a matter of age, though he was indeed old, because the writer says “his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). God had ordained, however, that Moses should not enter the promised land. It might have been an exciting time to succeed him, but it was also a hazardous time.
Joshua had two things going for him. One is that he had been trained by Moses. Second, and much more important, Joshua was called of God to his role. The call did not come to him as dramatically as it came to Moses, by a burning bush, but it was altogether as authentic. And it was reinforced when Joshua needed it most, just after the death of Moses: “As I was with Moses,” the Lord said, “so I will be with you” (Joshua 1:5). It was important for the people to know that Joshua was now their appointed leader, but it was even more important for Joshua himself to know it. Because if Joshua weren’t sure, in time the people would doubt it too.
Moses had been primarily the liberator, the guide, and the lawgiver. Joshua is to be a general, a man of war. That role may not appeal to our modern sensitivities, but the hard fact is, it was a job that had to be done. Joshua didn’t live in a perfect world (nor do we). It was his job to lead his nation into what was seen to be an area that was morally depraved, whose evil had become an abomination to God. So much so, the writer of Leviticus said, that “the land vomited out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25).
This comes around to what I perceive to be a basic conviction of the Scriptures that ours is a moral universe, and as such it cannot forever endure immoral behavior. When the Scriptures say the land vomited out its inhabitants, the language is symbolic; but in some profound sense it is also factual. Everything about our universe, including nature itself, is meant to run on a pattern of goodness and purity. If that ultimate fact is violated over a period of time, something will happen. With nature, it may be the depletion of the soil, destroyed by human greed. With humankind, it may be the plagues we set lose. And also, with humankind, it is our wars, our economic depressions, our systems of self-destruction. I believe Joshua was an instrument in this process. In a perfect world Joshua’s invasion and its violence wouldn’t have been necessary. But this isn’t a perfect world.
Seeing Life Through Scripture
I wonder how many times in our lives you and I will be parties to a change in leadership? Not too many of us will play a strategic role at a governmental level, though some will. But all of us will be involved at other, often highly personal, levels. It happens, as I indicated earlier, in the circle of family. It also happens in churches and in church school classes and groups. Sometimes we are lead characters in the change; more often we are among those who respond, and who by our response determine whether or not the change will be successful.
We give power to leaders. At best, it is by our conscious support; but at other times, by our acquiescence. Often poor leadership is sustained simply because the body goes along with it. And sometimes good leaders are frustrated by persons who carp and complain without really knowing what issues are involved.
A Christian ought to be the best of followers as well as the most significant of leaders. Leaders come and go, removed in some cases by vote, sometimes by death, sometimes by weariness. Then new leaders arise, sometimes again by vote, and sometimes by little more than because life abhors a vacuum. How does a Christian fit into the political process, if one truly believes that all of life is lived under God? I speak not only of the larger body politic, but of all the groups to which we belong; how do we belong effectively when a Moses must be followed by some Joshua?
The Sum of It All
“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).
| JOSHUA 13–15 | Week 12, Day 1 |
In the midst of what might seem a rather tedious geography lesson, we are re-introduced to that doughty man of faith, Caleb. As he looks back on the events forty-five years before, he sees the report that was then controversial as nothing other than good sense: “I brought him an honest report” (14:7). When one views life with faith, one sees a logic in the data that another might miss.
His zeal has not been diminished by the years. He has grown old victoriously. “I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me” (14:11). So much so that he wants to take on another challenge: Show me the Anakim and their fortified cities “and I shall drive them out, as the LORD