Today’s Scripture Reading (October
12, 2012): Joshua 8
She marched
around one of the drug houses of the city. It was a broken down hotel in the
downtown section of the city in which I live. Although it might have been
broken down, the hotel was making vast amounts of illegal money and damaging
countless lives. And so she gathered a few friends and marched. There were no
picket signs; there was absolutely no indication of why they marched. They just
marched. Every day they took a walk around the building. Although no one
understood why they marched, their reality was that they were claiming that
piece of land for God. After about six months of daily marching, one day they
showed up to find closed signs posted all over the hotel. Two weeks later the
hotel was destroyed and today a center dedicated to finding employment for the
poor stands in its place. Some believe it was just coincidence, but she
believes that it was the marching that brought down the hotel.
We often do
not understand symbolic actions. We live in a scientific age of cause and
effect – and symbolic actions have very little place in our culture. A man that
waves his fingers at someone emphatically is just being demonstrative, but in
some cultures that motion is the symbolic act that results in a curse being placed
on the one being waved at. To most of us that is nothing more than a worthless superstitious
belief. And yet ... the hotel closed.
Joshua had
marched on Ai – and lost. Sometimes we struggle with the reason why. Is it not
more possible that it was a simple case of overconfidence after the easy way
that Jericho fell? Did it have to be because of sin? When Joshua returned to
the city he had better odds for the battle ahead and a military strategy.
But as Joshua
approached the city, God instructed him to hold out his spear. Scholars have
wondered about the action. Some have asserted that it was a signal for the army
to stop their retreat and turn and face the pursuing army. Others have wondered
if it was a signal to spring the trap. Or maybe it was a symbolic act
indicating that the city was already in possession of God. Or maybe it was a
bit of all three. After all, God does seem to like symbolic acts.
After the
hotel closed, she marched around another drug house, but God was way ahead of
her. In only two weeks it closed too. And so she took her marching team to
another place that simply needed the presence of God. She became a modern day
Joshua, marching around Jericho and pointing her spear at the city of Ai – and watching
God move. Sometimes all we really need to do is commit ourselves to the symbol –
and believe that God is going to move.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua
9
Personal Note: Happy Birthday, Mom.
No comments:
Post a Comment