These are the kings of the land whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern side of the Arabah: - Joshua 12:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 3, 2015): Joshua 12

Have you ever read a list of ingredients on a package in the store? If you are health conscious you probably have, after all, you want to know what it is that you are putting in your body. For me, the reading of ingredient lists is only because of a list of food allergies with which I am afflicted. Reading of an ingredient list can mean life or death. It makes reading the list incredibly important. (Okay, to be honest, I hate reading lists. Which is why I tend to buy the same products over and over again. The theory is that if it didn’t make me sick the last time, it shouldn’t make me sick this time – as long as they didn’t change the ingredients listed in the list.)

Lists can be boring to read. They are an example of uninspired writing. I mean, who can get excited over a list. I guess that depends on the person – and the list. Consider this list – New England, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Green Bay, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, New York (again), Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh (again). It is just a list of cities, unless you are an avid National Football League fan. Then the list becomes something else – a list of the last ten Super Bowl winners. And with each victory comes a story. Or maybe this list – China, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands. Countries in the world would be the correct answer, but in 1941 the much more accurate answer would have been twelve of the twenty-six nations who originally signed a treaty saying that they would never make peace with Nazi-Germany. And with this list there is a story to be told about World War II – and what made it a World War.

So Joshua 12 consists of a list of cities and kings. And it would be easy to look over the list and wonder why it was included in the Holy Book. And to us, it is just list. But to the original readers of the list it was a story that needed to be told. It placed the story of Israel’s taking of the Promised Land into both a concrete time and a concrete space. With this list we are reminded that the story being told here was not a fairy tale told over camp fires to children. These are events that really happened – and the events happened in places and to people that really existed.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 13