Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. – Joshua 5:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 9, 2022): Joshua 5

German author, Heinz Rein, wrote his "Berlin Finale" in the days following World War II. The book is what Rein calls a "documentary novel." The people in the book might be fictitious, but the situations the book describes are all too real. The book was published in 1947 and became one of the first pieces of German literature written in the post-war period.

Berlin Finale describes a world that had imploded on itself. Following the lives of a group of characters that are just trying to survive, it describes Berlin in the chaos of the final days of the Third Reich. The Russian Army has arrived at the city's edges, and the streets are too dangerous to support any civilian movement. Instead, the people are forced to dodge bombs and climb through the labyrinth of rubble caused by the collapsed buildings. Even in this moment of defeat, the Gestapo are still going door to door, killing anyone who might be an enemy sympathizer and those who are too afraid to take up arms against the invaders. It was a time and a place where the people began to believe that fate that awaited them in the future was worse than death and that fate had arrived at the door. Many Berliners simply chose death instead of whatever it might be that the future could hold. Fear reigned, and all hope was lost.

Joshua reports that as the story of Israel's crossing of the Jordan spread through Canaan, the kings in the area trembled in fear at what they heard. Surely there was no way to fight a nation that had the power to stop up a river and cross into their territory on dry land. The hearts of these Kings melted "and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites." In the battles that were to come, fear was already waging its war through the people. And the people waited, hoping against hope that maybe someone else would defeat the Israelites before they reached their territory and their city.

If the Kings of Canaan were afraid, that fear was likely transferred to the people. Fear paralyzed the people, and the reality was that, for many, the battle was lost long before it even began.

At the crossroads of the ancient world, there would be other kingdoms who would cause great fear to the inhabitants of Canaan. The Assyrians would cause the land to tremble, as would the Babylonians after them. But for this snapshot in time, it would be the Israelites and their God who could stop the waters of the Jordan River from flowing, who would cause fear throughout the land.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 6