Today’s Scripture Reading (December
9, 2015): Joshua 18
After World
War I, steps were taken to make changes to the way that the world did business.
One of those changes was the development of the League of Nations. Of course,
the League failed and failed on a grand stage that resulted in World War II.
And while the League had several weakness, maybe the biggest weakness was its
inability to attract the United States into its fold, despite the fact that it
was President Woodrow Wilson who was one of the League’s architects. For the
United States people, it seemed impossible to imagine a global village of which
they were an integral part, but rather they insisted that they were insulated
by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from any activity that might be taking place
in Europe and Asia. And had the Japanese not bombed Pearl Harbor during the
Second World War, that way of thinking may have persisted long after the
conclusion of World War II, a war that jut might have been won by Germany.
But the
Japanese did bomb Pearl Harbor, and they woke North America up to the fact that
the world had grown much smaller. Happenings in faraway places like Europe, the
Middle East and Africa now had a significant effect on what was going on at
home. And somehow North America had to understand where they fit into World
events – something that to be honest we are still trying to do. We have made
mistakes, and will likely make more. But the world has changed. The United
States, the British Empire and other European nations must figure out when they
need to be hands on, and when they should leave things alone. This is the New
World lesson that we have yet to learn. Events like the shootings in San
Bernardino last week consistently teach us that the world is even smaller – and
the conflicts happening a world away have very real consequences in our own
backyard. We must figure out the change that has taken place in our world if we
are going to be able to find our place in it.
For Israel,
the world had changed. The nation had existed as a nomadic group of tribes that
had lived together, competed for limited resources and yet met the conflicts of
the world with a combined army made up from the twelve tribes. That was no
longer the world in which they lived. But for almost all of the inhabitants of
Israel in Canaan, it was that nomadic lifestyle that was the only life they had
ever known. Now they were being instructed to do something very different. They
were given specific pieces of land. They were instructed to form their own
armies in order to secure the land, to end their nomadic life and begin to
build homes and gather in towns and cities. It was a new world, and Israel had
to figure out how to live in it.
For some, it
was simply overwhelming. What they wanted was to go back and live like they had
always lived. To return to their nomadic lifestyle and a dependence on each
other for survival. The desert had been tough, but they had lived through it –
and in many ways excelled. And the shift to living in a new world was simply
scary. But the problem was that they couldn’t go back. So Joshua reminds them
of their responsibilities in this new world – and their need to figure it out.
We sometimes
need the same reminder. We would to go back to the world that we used to live
in, but the truth is that it simply doesn’t exist anymore, except maybe in
nostalgic books and movies. We live in a New World which has become a global
village. There is nothing that happens on this planet from which we are
automatically immune. And this is the place where we need to figure out how to
live.
Welcome to
our World.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua
19
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