THE PLAN
Every Monday I will post the reading for the week ahead. It will be about 10 chapters a week. You might want to read a chapter or two a day, and catch up at weekends. If there is a verse that especially spoke to you, a question that you have, or a thought that struck you, please share it with your fellow travellers by making a comment.
8 comments:
I guess the dividing up of land in chapters 13ff might seem a little dull. But two things get my heart pounding. First, just as the land is a shadow of the new creation, dividing it up as an inheritance foreshadows the inheritance that will one day be allocated to us ( see 1 Peter 1:3-5). Secondly, the Levites ( see 13:33) are a reminder that the best thing about the land is not the land but the Lord. What keeps us going is not just the prospect of a world made new, but the prospect of being with Him. That’s what will make it wonderful.
Thanks Mike! Fuel for prayer
I struggle to understand the brutality of Joshua and the Israelites in this book. How does this fit with God’s love and gentleness? Are we just to see it as a microcosm of Jesus pushing back and destroying evil?
Agree it's not the easiest reading Laura! I found the video helpful when it talked about this being one of the very few occasions when God's judgement is carried out through human means - the sins of the people had reached their full measure (Gen 15:16) with their child sacrifice etc. I found 11v19-20 helpful - the people of the land could have made peace with Israel. But much like Pharaoh's, their hearts were hardened so they fought instead.
Thanks Mike, those two things helped me stay the course!
Right with you Laura. For me it’s another example of where the love of God takes on a surprising form and defies my attempts to water it down and put it in a box called ‘nice’! I think your suggestion is a good one - it does become a picture of how Jesus destroys evil so that the people can be safe and the land can be at rest - but in its day it still looks uncomfortably like bloodlust and ethnic cleansing. If I wish it were less brutal… I may be underplaying the magnitude of the offence, and I can’t escape the conclusion that only he has the right to say what sort of judgment was appropriate for them, and that my 21st century sensibilities probably aren’t going to get this right!
I found this uncomfortable reading too, a bit like destroying everyone except Noah in those in the arc in the flood. My instinct is to think they didn’t deserve this but actually that’s because I forget that the punishment for sin is death, and sin is falling short of the glory of God, so we all deserve this. It’s a helpful reminder to me that this is what I deserve and marvel again at the grace and mercy shown to me through Jesus. As it happens I was watching a ‘What’s in the Bible’ DVD with the kids yesterday and we are up to this exact bit. Explaining all this killing to children isn’t easy but it does it really well, underlining how high God’s standard is and how far below it we ALL are. Recommend these dvds for children and adults!
Thank you all for such helpful comments. Anna, I really identify with what you say. All this judgement and death reminds us of what we all deserve and God's Amazing Grace in taking the Punishment on Himself at the CROSS.
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