Today’s Scripture Reading (December
2, 2015): Joshua 11
There is
seldom any difficulty with starting a war. The latter half of the Twentieth
Century and the first part of the Twenty-First Century seem to have proven that
what is hard is finishing a war. It is easy to get into the fight, to see the
moral imperative and raise the army and then enter into the battle. But finishing
the war seems to be harder. For instance, the Korean War never did end, its
status continues to be simply a cease fire with both sides often threatening to
start the fight up again. The Vietnam War was an embarrassment for the United
States. The most powerful nation on the planet could not win the war because
of, at least partially, a growing disconnection by the political powers from
the things that needed to be done in order to win the war. Iraq was easy to get
into, and the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 seemed to provide the West with all the
moral authority it needed to enter into the war, but the reality is that the
continuing strife in the Middle East that is currently causing great pain to
the entire world is partially a result of a power vacuum that started in by an
improper conclusion of the way in 1990. The situation in Afghanistan is simply
confusing. The war was supposed to end on December 28, 2014. But instead it
seems like it continues with more attacks and struggles between the Afghan
Government and the Taliban, with most of the rest of the world caught somewhere
in the middle. It was easy to get into the fight, but a lot harder to leave it.
There are
several statements that the Bible makes that I struggle with, and this
statement in the middle of Joshua is one of them – because it just doesn’t seem
on the surface to be true. This is one of the statements that if you all you
want is the “straight words out of the Bible” then you are going to be
disappointed. Because the truth is that Joshua did not take the entire land and
nor was the land at rest. It might have been the dream, but it wasn’t the
reality.
The meaning
behind this verse is most likely that the major powers had been taken care of
and the giants in the land had been dispatched, but conflict still existed. And
the individual tribes were left with the responsibility of finishing the task. But
they didn’t. It seems that most tribes simply wanted material wealth and peace
at any price more than they wanted to finish the task at hand. And they found
that they could make money by having those that remained in the land pay
tribute to them. But because they did not finish the job of taking the land,
there would be an enemy that lived within their territory and would cause no
end of problems in Canaan. The war was easily engaged, but it was not easy to
finish, and so it never was. Rather than relying on God for the conclusion of
the task, Israel relied on their own wisdom and never finished the task.
Many
Christian leaders have seen an illustration here of our own lives. God has
taken care of Satan with the death of Jesus on the cross, but the smaller
battles with our sin are left for us to take to deal with - with the help of
God. And that is up to us. We can take care of the sin and guard our heart from
the wrong that is all around us, or we can make a treaty with it and allow it
to live inside of us. Of course if we allow it to continue to possess us, that
also means that we will allow it to cause more and more pain within our lives.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua
12
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