Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe. – Joshua 4:2

Today's Scripture Reading (March 26, 2025): Joshua 4

During the early days of World War II, Britain was taking a beating. Her cities were being bombed night after night, and there didn't seem to be a solution. What were they supposed to do? Was it time to raise the white flag and surrender? Who was going to lead them?  

At that moment, Winston Churchill stepped up with his famous address to the nation: "We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender."

Underneath the words was one thought: remember who you are. Churchill believed that the United Kingdom stood for something. They wondered if their principles were worth it or if they should bow before Hitler. Winston Churchill's response was clear: this seeming defeat will not define us. We are defined by something else, and so we will fight. We shall never surrender.

It is a question that Canadians are dealing with in our contemporary world. As the United States threatens to redraw the nation's borders and wants to make the northern nation the 51st State, Canadians must face a question of identity. Who are we? Could we be Americans, or would something valuable be lost? After all, a lot of Canadians are displaced Americans. My ancestors moved north from the New York area, albeit before either Canada or the United States were independent nations. If you are wondering, Canadians are answering that question with a resounding response that while they are comfortable being friends with the United States, they have no desire to become part of their southern neighbor. 

It was a tricky question that Israel had to answer. Who are we? Are we desert nomads? We have lived that way for the last forty years. Is that the definition of who we are? Are we runaway slaves? We have spent generations living as Egyptian slaves. Is that who we are?

God commands Israel to choose twelve men from among you, a leader from each tribe, and send them back into the river to discover who they are. These men walked back on the dry ground that had not long ago formed the base of the Jordan River. They walked back, retracing the way they had traveled, looking back at the side of the Jordan that contained all of the lands that Israel had journeyed, extending back from the recent history of the nation to the land of Egypt. But as they walked to the center of the river, with walls of water still being held back by the priests who had first entered the river, the ones who had initially gotten their feet wet, it was becoming clear who they were. They existed as a people under God. It wasn't an imposition because God did absolutely incredible things. Israel was not a nation defined by the piece of land that they occupied but rather by the relationship they had with God.

It is a question we are still forced to answer. The world wants to define you in many ways. But who are you? Sometimes, we are defined by our children, our parents, or our spouse. Sometimes, we are defined by our position or by a unique ability. Often, we are defined by our sins, but all these answers are inadequate.

Who are we? We need to wrestle with that question. It is too easy to define ourselves in the way our society might define us. If it were possible, I wish we could imagine standing in the middle of the Jordan River, where we could pick up a rock with the priests standing beside us, holding back the raging waves. If we were standing in the Jordan, it would be hard to come to any conclusion other than that we are the children of God. We were created unique and worthy of the relationship. We are the ones Jesus died for. All of us valuable and loved? Any other answer we might come up with is inadequate. It was what Israel had to remember, and it is still the response we need to understand at the core of our beings.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 5