Bible Challenge Week XIII

At the end of his life, Moses said “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your god, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them , I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”

The Israelites crossed the Jordan and struggled to establish their place in the land they were promised. They attacked in many cases with shock and awe. I am troubled by their utter destruction of the people who were in the land, some of them possibly their ancestors from Abraham’s line who settled there and never left for Egypt. I am also amazed by their confusion on how to deal with their neighbor nations that held different beliefs and how we are dealing with the same issues today.

Joshua said at the end of his life “Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. For if you turn back, and join the survivors of these nations left here among you, and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours, know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you.”  For me this could be a turning point and an opportunity for Israel to further God’s kingdom with their God as the God of all nations. Instead, paranoia takes over and Joshua continues “but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord you God has given you.”

Joshua continues “put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve….but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Even the Judges do not always trust God completely as evidenced by Gideon’s testing of God. The paranoia and suspicion of their stranger neighbors and of their own trust in God continues throughout Judges. The authors of this book justify the presence of the other nations as necessary to test all those in Israel who had no experience of war!  Why is the knowledge and experience of war necessary to avoid war? There is blood on the hands of both the men and women of Israel and sometimes the innocent, like Jephthah’s daughter, get caught up in the drama.

The adventure continues and is beginning to look very familiar to me.

Dan Ries