Today's Scripture Reading (February 22, 2022): Joshua 18
As a kid, I always liked special
days. I anticipated them. But I also found out fairly quickly that, no matter
what the day celebrated, the anticipation of the day was often better than the
celebration itself. And as a result, I was usually almost sorry when the day
finally showed up; I missed the anticipation of
the upcoming holiday. I think there might be several
reasons for this, but one of the
reasons might be that the day is sometimes not as
special as we dream it to be. We can dream of the perfect day, but when it
finally arrives, it often comes with all of the
imperfections of every other day. The celebration also
comes with its own personality, one that we could never have anticipated and
sometimes that we probably didn't want to predict.
Jacob had told his kids about
the special things that would happen when the day of the Messiah came. His
prophecy read like this:
The scepter will not depart from
Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between
his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations
shall be his (Genesis 49:10).
Jacob's prophecy was that Judah
would lead Israel until that day when the one arrived to whom belonged the
leadership of the nation. And the phrase that we have translated "he to
whom it belongs" is a single Hebrew word; Shiloh. When Shiloh (he to whom
it belongs) comes, on that day, there will be a celebration as the leadership
of Israel is transferred to him. On that day, everything would be made right,
and we would understand this world in a way that we had never understood
before.
As Israel takes Canaan and begins to
set up the permanent areas where the tribes will live, they also choose where
the tabernacle will finally find its rest. And they call that place "Shiloh."
For generations, Shiloh would be the place where Israel would come to worship. Or, at least, it was the
place where Israel was supposed to go to worship. The problem was
that "Shiloh" was a poor imitation of the
one about whom Jacob told his sons. The tabernacle was set up at Shiloh,
but every worshipper still waited for the one "to whom it belongs." A
place called "Shiloh" could never be a substitute for the Messiah.
Eventually, the tabernacle would be moved
to Gibeon, and then Solomon would build the temple in Jerusalem to replace the tabernacle. But every
step of the way, Israel anticipated
the day of the Messiah, the day when Shiloh would come.
Shiloh
finally did come, but not in a way that the people had anticipated. So, they
rejected him. Even though the Messiah came with a better plan, he didn't measure up to the people's generations-long dream
of Shiloh.
Shiloh
continues to come,
and we continue to need to decide whether we will accept him or wish for the
imperfect dream we have developed in our minds. And God leaves the decision up
to us. But as for
me, I want to leave my inadequate expectation behind so that I
can embrace his perfect dream.
Oh,
and come,
Shiloh, come.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 19
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