ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE (Joshua 22)

I slept the morning away. I'm still sick, but I quickly realized that I need to start my writing day
where I always do: in God's word. It's not "urgent" or contracted, but it may well be the most important thing I do all day.

Today I finished reading Joshua. Boy, that went by fast! It seems like I hardly started. The final chapters finish up things. The final parcels are alloted to the remaining tribes, the 2½ tribes east of the Jordan are reminded of the importance of staying true to the Lord their God, and Joshua leads the tribes in a recommitment to their covenant with God.

After charging the eastern tribes to remain true and to not rebel against God, Joshua adds an interesting statement: don't rebel against us by building your own altar apart from the Altar of our God. (Joshua 22:20, MSG)

In the case of the nation of Israel, it was always a case of "one for all and all for one." Remember the case of Ai, the city they attacked after Jericho? They lost the battle--because of one man's sin. If one tribe rebelled against God, God would count them all guilty. Rebelling against God meant rebelling against their fellow citizens.

Paul said the same thing about the church. In the passages from 1 Corinthians about spiritual gifts and the body of Christ, the church, he says, If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. (1 Corinthians 12:22)

If my sin only brought consequences on myself, that would be bad enough. Unfortunately, the effects ripple across those around me. My physical family, my work place, my church, the church world wide.

With all the arrogance of the young, I used to tell my mother, "You only have two choices: either you obey God, or you serve the devil." She asked (taking my spiritual arrogance seriously), "Why can't I do what I want to do? Don't I get a choice?"

The truth is more complex than the way I presented it to my mother. The closer we grow to God, I believe, the closer our desires align with His. God made us the way we are and it usually figures into His will for us.

But the heart of my statement is true. If we don't obey God, we are rebelling against Him. Not only Him, but also His people.

Conversely, God's people are also key in helping us to recognize God's calling on our lives. Those around us may recognize a spiritual gift, a service God has called us to, before we do.

Teamwork, again--I am only one cell in a multi-celled body, but cancer can begin with me and destroy the whole.

We're not perfect, and we all will do things that hurt the body of Christ as a whole. That's when "every other part is involved in the healing."

Basically, Christianity is a team sport. We win or lose together, so we are wise if we take care of our own.

P.S. Does Mom's story fit in here? Felt I should add it, not sure why?

WANT MORE? GOT IT Part 2

I confess I find the descriptions of the division of the land b-o-r-i-n-g. My mind doesn't process visual images like maps and directions very well. So I read the descriptions the same way I had read about the sacrifices, comparing details instead of skimming over the verses. When everything is the same, the differences jump out at me.

Just yesterday we listened to Ephraim's pity party. "They have iron chariots!" They failed in their God-given mission to drive out the inhabits of the land.

Today Dan tells a different story. Oh, Joshua does tell us that the Danites failed to get rid of the Amorites on the plain. But they didn't give up. They suited up and went to war, attacking and taking the town of Leshem. I'm not entirely clear from the context if Leshem was on the plain or in the mountains, but they grabbed ahold of God's promise and found themselves a place to live.

This reminds me a little bit of the story of the prodigal son. One son worked by his father's side, and the other squandered his inheritance.

It also sounds like a lot of writers that I know. A conference director put it this way: no wonder God gives the same idea to more than one person. One person alone might fail in their God-given mission.

The Danites weren't perfect. They struggled with defeating the people of the plains. But they persevered and won a victory. When they defeated Leshem, God and His angels celebrated with them.

What's your assignment from God today?

WANT MORE? GO TO WORK

I often ponder how God passed the spiritual blessings of His promise to Abraham through Judah's line and blessed Joseph's descendants with large numbers and prosperity. I am saddened that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh play such a minor role in the spiritual history of Israel.  I'd like to think that Joseph's family would become spiritual giants, in his shadow. But they didn't.

Today I catch a first glimpse into that change. The leaders of Ephraim and Manasseh came to Joshua with a complaint: There are too many of us for the land you allotted to us. Give us more.

Joseph didn't mind complying with that request. He gave the hill country.

The tribes were dissatisfied with the additional allotment. They threw a pity party and revealed their real complaint: we can't get rid of the people of the plains you assigned to us. The Canaanites who live down in the plain . . . have iron chariots. Whimper, whimper. They wanted the land handed to them on a silver platter.

Joseph would have made a plan and developed work plans. His sons wanted it handed to them.

In a few more centuries, after King Solomon, the kingdom divided into north and south. The southern kingdom consisted primarily of Judah, where we get the word "Jew." The northern tribe was called "Israel," but at times was also referred to as Ephraim. And anyone familiar with the history knows that Israel was the quicker to sin, to wander from God, and to bring down judgment on exile on themselves.

A sad, sad story for their forefather.

Yesterday, we looked at how reason and faith work together.  I mentioned that sometimes God does ask us to do things that don't make sense. That's how the Ephraimites felt. "They're too strong for us. They have chariots, of iron. They have an atomic bomb and we don't." You get the idea. Reason said they couldn't conquer them.

Sometimes God calls us to do the difficult or even the impossible. Only, without a neon-sign-in-the-sky, I always wonder if it's God who is calling me to a task, or my own overinflated desires. It helps to have a faithful friend who can serve as a sounding board.  Someone like Joshua who can say "You will clear the land and make it your own . . . The powerful Canaanites, even with their iron chariots, won't stand a chance against you."

It's okay to ask God to make things clearer. It's okay to ask for confirmation. And I have decided that most movements from God begin with an element of doubt. I act in faith, believing God has called me to the task, but not entirely sure. Sometimes I stumble and fall. I may race and not win the prize (as in a publishing contract.)

And sometimes, like Ephraim and Manasseh, I whimper and say, "It's too hard. Don't ask me to do that."

Today is a day of acting in faith. I don't feel all that well. My mind is struggling to pull thoughts into some semblence of order. But I write, trusting God with the outcome. God has called me to this battle, and it's my job to show up.

Whatever you sense God asking of you. Pray about it. Seek wisdom from friends. Ask God for open and closed doors. Move in the direction you believe He has called you. Don't let fear of iron chariots stop you.

If you ask God for something--don't be surprised if He tells you to go out there and earn it.

In words of worldly wisdom, if you aim at nothing, you're sure to hit it.

TWO SIDES OF THE COIN (Joshua 14)

The best description of God's sovereignty I've heard says there is a signpost in heaven. The side facing heavenward reads "Chosen before the foundation of the world." The side facing us reads "Whosoever will may come."

The Christian faith has a lot of paradoxes like that. For instance, I live with an uneasy truce, by faith believing though not understanding how God is One and yet God is in Three Persons.

You may be thinking, Oh, no, she's getting all theological on us again. But not really. I only mention it because I discovered another one of those  two-sided explanation.

In Bible College, I was taught to look for words or phrases that are repeated for emphasis. One of the phrases I have noticed many times says something like, "The Levites will receive no inheritance among the people of Israel, for the Lord God is their inheritance." Talk about theological and spiritual!

Today I ran across a more prosaic explanation. One so practical, so downright human, that I wonder how I haven't noticed it before: Because the sons of Joseph had become two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, they gave no allotment to the Levites." (Joshua 14:3-4, MSG)

Oh. You can't divide twelve parcels of land among thirteen tribes. As simple as that.

I'm a little surprised that Joshua didn't say, "They gave no allotment to the Levites, as the Lord commanded, because the Lord God is their inheritance."  Maybe he thought we already knew that. Moses and Joshua repeated it often enough.

Instead, the leader Joshua offers a human reason. Maybe there were some Israelites who felt Joseph's double portion was unfair, and Joshua wanted to smooth over feelings. Maybe he had a light-bulb moment one day. So that's why God isn't giving the Levites a land inheritance. 

If we need proof that faith and reason don't contradict each other, we find an example here. When we have a decision to make, we seek God's will. Following God's will includes using the reason and mind that He has given to us.

Of course there are times God calls us to attempt the unreasonable (crossing a river at flood stage, on foot?).  But many others, He works within the natural order to bring His will about.

Turn your coin of decision over and consider both sides.

GENOCIDE? (Joshua 10-12)

If a country today did what Israel did when they conquered the promised land, the entire world would fight against and cry "genocide."

They fought 31 city-kings, and killed every man, woman and child.

I get it. Kind of. The Israelites had a hard time staying faithful to God in the best of times; they quickly slid into idolatry. The more Canaanites were left alive, the more opportunity for temptation and sin would increase. Another version of if your hand causes you to sin, chop it off. 

But where is the God who delayed punishment of Nineveh when they repented? 

Start with the fact that God never changes. He has always been full of compassion and mercy.

Centuries before, God had told Abraham that "the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (Genesis 15:16, NIV)  The wording makes me think of the flood, when men did evil, only evil, day after day, all day long, and God destroyed to destroy them all. 

I have to believe sin saturated the culture of the Amorites. It not only extended vertically, in their worship of idols, but also horizontally, in their treatment of each other. Perhaps they celebrated sin, and made heroes of whores and murderers. 

Four centuries earlier, they had heard and seen Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abimelech, at least, king of the Philistines, seemed to show respect for Abraham's God. 

In other words--they had had opportunity to see and know the truth, but instead rejected it. They threw themselves into sin with a whole heart. They earned every ounce of punishment that they received. 

Again I ask, though, were they that much more sinful than ancient Rome? or contemporary America? If someone were to write The Rise and Fall of the Amorites, what would it say?

I see a glimmer of "fair play" in the verse that says "they all stubbornly fought the Israelites." If they had come out from their cities under a flag of truce and offered to surrender, would God's orders have changed?

The problem is, that the verse also says it was God's idea that they would continue fighting, so they would be cursed and annihilated without mercy.

I suspect that wording, though, is a lot like Pharaoh's heart. In some cases, it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Other times, it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  The locals  were all too eager to go to war against the invading Israelites.

And yet, still, how is what Israel did any different from what Hitler did in conquering Europe? What America did in subjugating Native Americans? What happened in Rwanda?

I  don't know. I don't have any quick, easy understanding. I do offer a few thoughts:

• God doesn't change.
• God takes sin seriously. 
• God is in charge. We are not equals on the playing field. His rules govern us.
• Often, when God in his grace extends the period for repentance, we see it as weakness and continue sinning more and more.
• God wants to perform radical surgery to remove sin not only from us but from tempting us.
• We don't have to have all the answers.

I will close with these words from Joel 2:13: 

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

OUTSIDE/INSIDE (Deuteronomy 9; Luke 1)

I didn't plan on discussing today's New Testament reading. I'm focusing on the Old Testament in the devotionals, and the two stories couldn't seem more different.

The Gibeonites deceived the Israelites into making a treaty.

The angel told Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah.

But I didn't have to meditate long before their connection became apparent.

• The Israelites made a snap decision based on their first impressions, what they saw on the outside of the Gibeonites.
• God saw that Mary was beautiful on the inside, and chose her to be the mother of His Son.

God always sees what is on the inside. He is the only One who sees everything on the inside, which is why, when we want to know the real truth, we should pray.

The story about the Gibeonites contains some of the saddest words in the Bible: "But they didn't ask God about it." (Joshua 9:14)

I couldn't help but think about my recent disastrous relationship. I looked at Rob (not his name) and accepted the evidence. He was thoughtful and generous. He would get assistance for me when I needed it, carry messages to the kitchen for me, buy items for me at the store. He was intelligent, a former city planner. He was a musician, one with a music scholarship to college. He was spiritual, with a clear understanding of salvation. 

So when he proclaimed his love to me, I responded in kind. 

Unlike Israel and the Gibeonites, I did ask God about it. Stop this before it goes too far. If this isn't Your will. . .God answered that prayer. I learned that Rob was married though separated, and dropped the relationship. 

I don't share this for you to say "oh, poor Darlene." (or even, oh, naive Darlene. :)  ) I share it to point out the importance of confirming the truth behind our first impressions before we make decisions. 

"The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence."  That part of the verse makes me think of scientists, who only trust evidence they can duplicate a lab. Many don't believe in God and close themselves off from the truth behind the evidence of the five senses.

Look, examine . . . and pray for eyes to see beyond the surface.

WAITING TIME (Joshua 4-5)

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. (Joshua 4:19, MSG)

When I'm writing a book, I write the time at the beginning of each scene. For instance, the current scene for my work in progress takes place on Thursday, May 23rd. Otherwise I lose track of my timetable.  

Today I noticed the passage of time. The Israelites crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Now I know, of course, that the Jewish calendar is nothing like the gregorian calendar which I'm familiar with. But for the sake of considering the timetable, I'll call it 1/10.

     1/10  The Israelites cross the Jordan River.
           The men were circumstanced and took a few days to heal.
     1/14  The Israelites celebrated the Passover - a week-long festival.
     1/22 The earliest that the Israelites began marching around Jericho. They marched every day for a week.
     1/29  The earliest that the Israelites marched around Jericho seven times and the wall fell.

As soon as Israel crossed the Jordan, God began a form of psychological warfare on the Amorites. They were terrified.  Joshua 5 says "the courage drained out of them just thinking about the people of Israel."

The people had crossed the river. 600,000 soldiers--did  an army that large ever go to battle? (You military history buffs will know.) 

Inside the walls of Jericho, the citizens watched. And waited. And waited some more. After three weeks or so, the men assembled and marched on the city. The citizens stiffened. At last the action would begin. Perhaps they even felt relieved that at last they would face the enemy.

But the Israelites did nothing but march and play trumpets. One day . . . two days . . . six. 

Doomsday fell on the seventh day.

Why the delay? Was it for the Amorites--to terrify them? Perhaps, to give them the opportunity to surrender, to announce their belief in Israel's God, such as Rahab did?

Was it for the Israelites--to teach them obedience? 

During the delay, first the Israelites took the step that set them apart as God's people, the rite of circumcision, marking them as children of the covenant.

They also worshipped. They remembered what God had done for them in the past. A God who had delivered from the thumb of the world's greatest power would have no trouble swatting a petty Amorite king. 

So often we are caught "in between."  In between the start of a new chapter. We have crossed our Jordan! We expect to jump into battle (and win) right away.  We keep asking--and God keeps saying "soon."

In case you don't know this already--God's idea of "soon" doesn't agree with ours. 

But never doubt God is at work during that in between time. Let Him prepare you--and others--for what lies ahead.  

TAKE COURAGE (Deuteronomy 34 - Joshua 2)

Joshua's knees were shaking.

That's the feeling I get as I read the first chapter of Joshua. He clearly had a hero worship for Moses (in describing him after his death, he said Moses' eyes were still clear and he walked. He pointed out that no other prophet knew God face to face like Moses.

Joshua was no slouch. He had been there from the time they left Egypt. He and Caleb came back from spying the land excited, ready to march to war. He went with Moses at least partway up the mountain.

And when God named Moses's successor, He called Joshua.

Still, Joshua quaked. Twice God admonished him, "Strength! Courage!" The people of Israel demanded the same thing, when they agreed to follow him.

How hard it must have been to lead, following in a giant's shoes. Harry Truman must have felt when taking over from FDR.  He originated the phrase, "the buck stops here," but Joshua would have agreed.

Called to lead, doubting his ability, Joshua needed something from God. And God delivered.

In chapter two, the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. Anyone remember the Red Sea?

Courage Personified

But before that, God gave Joshua a promise.

• I won't give up on you. 
• I won't leave you.
• You are going to lead this people to inherit the land.

God trusted Joshua to finish the job.

God remained with Joshua. He didn't abandon him to do it alone.

The job of leading God's people belonged to Joshua--whether he wanted it or not. 

I love those three promises. At the moment, I'm struggling a bit with insecurity about my writing, longing for some concrete confirmation that God still has grand things ahead for me. (I'm hopeless. I've written twenty-five books. Why do I remain so frightened? Ask my fellow authors. I know I'm not alone.)

Strength of heart not of body

God won't give up on me. If He gives me something to do, He'll make it possible for me to do it. (Not saying it will be easy.).  He won't get up and leave midway through the process.  He'll be with me unto death and beyond. And whether I want to write or not--for now it's God's job for me. I can't escape Him or my calling. So, strength! Courage! The tangible confirmation will come, eventually. But for--God says to gather my strength and courage and get to work.

Whatever call God has made on your life--He makes those same three promises to you. 

So--strength! courage! Get going.