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A Time to Let Things Fall
JOSHUA 11:1-12:24 | LUKE 17:11-37 | PSALM 84:1-12 | PROVERBS 13:5-6
Joshua is evidently a fearless leader, and continues to do battle with the many native kingdoms in the land of Canaan. There is great bloodshed and total decimation of kings, people, houses, and everything in it.
The text reads: 16 So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death. 18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. 19 Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. 20 For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
It appears things were going according to plan. By the end of this chapter, it appears that we are more or less finished with the business of invasion and conquering of the natives, and a distribution of the “inheritance” of the land is made to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Turning next to our reading in the book of Luke we find the fascinating story of ten lepers who approach Jesus for healing. Jesus simply tells them to go and show themselves to a priest, meaning to have themselves checked for whether or not they had the disease—the implication being that they would be pronounced “clean”. It was the priests’ verdict that condemned or cleared you.
And so, all ten promptly go to the priest and are evidently pronounced to be free from the leprosy, yet it is only one of the ten—and a Samaritan at that, i.e., from Samaria, an area in the north that was looked down upon by the people in the southern kingdom of Judah—that returns to seek out Jesus in order to tell him a big ‘thank you.’
One out of the ten! Yes, all ten had the faith to believe that they would be healed when they heard Jesus instruct them to go to the priest, and yes, all ten followed Jesus’ instructions promptly, and possibly all ten praised the man they called Jesus to have done so great a miracle for them, and yes, they possibly all went on to live good and productive lives following their miraculous recovery to normalcy and good health, but it was only one of the ten who thought of immediately going back to seek out Jesus and tell him how grateful he was, and to thank him for what was done!
Jesus says to this man: “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Jesus goes on to speak about the Kingdom of God, and gives a new twist to the traditional understanding of the term: this is not just Heaven or some far-off place, it is right here, right now, and within you, he says.
Do you follow? When the light of the world, i.e., Jesus enters your heart, that in a way, is the kingdom of God, and it is already within you!
Jesus then goes on to predict the end-times when there will be a second coming, but not before there is a death and a resurrection. All these concepts are easy for us to comprehend because we have had the benefit of hindsight and know what to expect, but the people that Jesus was speaking to must surely been perplexed when they heard him speak about these things, and yet, Jesus tries to help them out by reminding them of their own history of similar sudden incidents and people of yore such as Noah and Lot.
Be on guard, be always prepared, be aware of your prophets who have come to you to tell you to repent, listen before it is too late is what Jesus is saying to them.
Turning next to the Psalms, we find David’s psalm for today is one of great praise. He is utterly devoted to the God of his fathers, and spares no emotion in voicing his praise. He says:
10 Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
12 LORD Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.
And finally, the two verses for the day from the book of Proverbs are worth reproducing here although one might think that the essence of the message they bear is an obvious one. Yet, it is sometimes the obvious that we need reminding of:
5 The righteous hate what is false,
but the wicked make themselves a stench
and bring shame on themselves.
6 Righteousness guards the person of integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
When It Comes, It Comes!
JOSHUA 9:3-10:43 | LUKE 16:19-17:10 | PSALM 83:1-18 | PROVERBS 13:4
The chapter starts out with an account of how some natives of the land scheme for survival when they become aware of the approaching Israelites. These people are called Gibeonites and they come to Joshua as if they have come from afar and ask to live among them. Soon, larger groups of Gibeonites join them and it then becomes clear that these are actually people from a neighboring kingdom who are slowly assimilating themselves among the Israelites.
When Joshua becomes aware of this, he is obviously displeased at being duped by the Gibeonites who had secured a peace treaty of sorts with the people of Israel deceitfully. Nonetheless, Joshua allows the Gibeonites to remain with them and gives to them the occupations of woodcutter and water carrier.
But as crafty as the Gibeonites were in their ways of survival and in transforming themselves into allies with the Israelites, they were despised by the other neighboring kingdoms in Canaan. And so, we learn of five kingdoms that join forces with the view to make battle with the people of Gibeon. And what does Gibeon do? They send word to their brothers-cum-comrades, the Israelites to ask for help! And help does come to them from Israel. Joshua takes his men, and they go up to the hill-country to meet these armies who have beseiged Gibeon. And they are triumphant.
Israel decimates the five kingdoms, but only with some divine help. Joshua asks the Lord for continued daylight so as to continue and complete the battle. And so God allows the sun to stand still for an entire day. This was nothing short of a miracle—the kind that defies logic and reason, but then if one believes in miracles of the most extraordinary kind like the parting of the Red Sea and the staying of the River Jordan, not to mention the many amazing miracles that occurred in Egypt and throughout the long exodus of the people of Israel, then this latest miracle of the sun standing still for an entire day is yet another miracle to behold.
And so, the five Amorite kings are captured and killed, and several other areas conquered. This is what the text says about Joshua’s domination and establishment of the Israelites in the land of Canaan: 40 So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. 41 Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. 42 All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.
Turning next to our reading in Luke, we hear of the story of Lazarus and the rich man. It is a sad story of a rich man who paid no attention to Lazarus, the beggar, who sat outside the gates to his house. But in the afterlife, when he finds himself burning up in the depths of hellfire, he cries out to Abraham—with whom Lazarus appears to be seated—for a drop of water, but alas, he is denied.
He further goes on to plead that Lazarus be sent down as an emissary from Heaven to warn his family about Hades, but to this, Abraham says: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
This, unfortunately, was the state of affairs of the people of the day. The people of Israel knew their history and were acutely aware of the miracles performed by Moses, their leader, and the wondrous history of their exodus during which time God himself spoke to them. And yet, so cynical have they now become that even the raising of the dead that Jesus himself performs on many an occasion is viewed with non-belief and even callous dismissal. Abraham is right—if they didn’t believe Moses and now Jesus himself, who is to say that they would have believed Lazarus if he were to come down from heaven to tell them about the kingdom of God?
Changing topics now, Jesus speaks to the act of forgiveness. He says: “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
This is what the Lord commands, and therefore this is what we must aspire to. It is, of course, easier to grant forgiveness when it is asked of you; however, how much greater is it to grant it even before the person asks it of you– is that feasible? And if it is never asked for, do you then have no obligation to forgive? I don’t know, but it is probably better to err on the side of forgiveness regardless of whether it is sought.
David’s Psalm for the day is one is which he recounts the history of God’s faithfulness to his people, the children of Israel, right from the time of Abraham and Lot, to the days of Joshua’s conquest of the Midianites and the Assyrians. David, the warrior-king, is calling out to the God of his fathers in his own hour of need as he most likely faces the ill will of an advancing enemy. As always, he is passionate in his prayer for help and support from the Lord, and says of his enemies:
17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
Finally, our one verse from the book of Proverbs for today is one that is worthy of reflection:
4 A sluggard’s appetite is never filled,
but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
“Mommy, where’ve you been all day?!
Crossing the State Line Just to Get Back In!
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JOSHUA 7:16-9:2 | LUKE 16:1-18 | PSALM 82:1-8 | PROVERBS 13:2-3
Achan’s sin is found out, and he pays for it with his life. The “devoted things” turned out to be clothing and shekels of gold and silver: plunder that was to be collected and set aside for the Lord’s service, but Achan thought he could stow away a little bit of it for himself. The wealth was his idol, and he placed more trust in it than in the living God of his fathers. And when his sin is found out, he and his entire family are rooted out completely and permanently. Death by stoning was the mode of execution and we see it here again being carried out very effectively.
If the story of Achan’s sin and consequence is unsettling, well then, perhaps that is how it is supposed to make you feel, and the lesson is one that is learned quickly and not forgotten easily. The sin of disobedience bears a heavy price, especially when it is intentional. And in this case, for a people who were on the verge of establishing themselves in a new land as a new nation, perhaps it was imperative that certain basic ground rules be established at the outset; rules for a people to live by and to die by. There was no in-between place.
However, several thousand years later, there will come a man, nay, God incarnate, who will turn many of these precepts of the Law upside down. The woman being stoned will be let go; the prodigal son will be embraced. Strange things will soon come our way…
But returning to our story in Joshua, we see that Israel advances upon yet another city by the name of Ai, and by stealth, captures it. This time they follow all instructions to the last detail in disposing of the people and the loot in the proper manner. After what had happened to Achan, they weren’t taking any chances.
And to further reiterate their commitment to stay on the straight and narrow, the children of Israel led by Joshua renew their covenant with their God. On Mount Ebal, an altar is built and Moses’ law is written on the stones of the altar and fellowship offerings. Let it not be said that Joshua didn’t remind them of the covenant of old.
Turning next to our study of the book of Luke, we encounter an interesting parable that Jesus offers to his audience. Some context is needed in order to understand the moral of this parable although Jesus does go on to offer it himself when he says: 13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
But in light of putting even more context around this: the Mosaic Law forbade charging interest on a loan, and over time, the way around this was to overcharge or inflate the price of the item. In this story, the shrewd manager who reduces the price is actually removing the overcharge that he must have initially marked up to each of the debtors. So, he is essentially coming clean and showing some honesty although his ulterior motive is to gain favor with these debtors if he is fired by his own master.
A little convoluted it might be, but it serves to make the point that this manager is shrewd to understand that it is ultimately better for himself when he forgoes his kickbacks. So, if someone as dishonest as this manager can make wise decisions with money, how much more ought Christ-followers to be able to put their money to good use.
The wealthy Pharisees of the day must not have liked very much these views on money and its recommended use, especially when Jesus goes on to say: You cannot serve both God and Money. Which is to say that the way to use money properly is to use it in God’s service, i.e., to do the things that David the Psalmist is actually pleading of God to do for his people, things such as defending the cause of the weak and the orphans, maintaining the rights of the poor and the oppressed, and rescuing the weak and the needy.
Would that the Pharisees have put their money to such good use! Would that we put our money to such good use! That would be a most desirable way to serve God, indeed.
Jesus’ views on divorce in this passage are also to be put into the proper context of how the Mosaic Law had been practiced in the day where a ‘Bill of Divorcement’ was issued by the man on any pretext whatsoever. Jesus is therefore making the point that the only acceptable reason for divorce is to be adultery, not a whimsical fancy to put away one’s wife and take up another.
The Psalm for the day is one that David must have written at a difficult time in the life of his people. He calls out to God for help by saying this:
3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
Finally, from the book of Proverbs, here’s a verse to keep in mind:
3 He who guards his lips guards his life,
but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
