No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. – Joshua 11:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 7, 2019): Joshua 11

Bangambiki Habyarimana in his work “Pearls of Eternity” argues “Don't be afraid to bite on a giant, learn from the mosquito.” Of course, there is the other side of the equation. Being a mosquito and coming close to me, which many seem to like to do during mosquito season, is a dangerous proposition. Many mosquitos find their death by coming a little too close to me, especially when they approach in a way that allows me to hear them.

It is not that there is no danger in coming close to the giant. But as far as the mosquito is concerned, biting the giant is a matter of survival. The mosquito may die if they come close to me, but they will die if they don’t at least try to take their bite out of the giant in their midst. We all face giants in our lives, but sometimes we fail to recognize that giants, with all of the dangers that they present, must be faced and cannot be avoided.

Israel’s reality was they knew that they had to take Canaan, and their great fear was that there were giants in the land. But the other reality is that, notwithstanding some of the comments that we find in the Book of Joshua, Israel seemed to do the minimum that they needed to do when they took the Promised Land. This passage indicates that Israel did not clear out and take Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, a decision that would come back to haunt them later in their history. But there were also other cities that Israel did not attempt to defeat in Joshua’s taking of the land. One of the most prominent undefeated cities within the vicinity of Israel was the city of Jebus, the home of the Jebusites, and probably better known as Jerusalem. Jebus or Jerusalem would not be taken for another four hundred years, only falling to Israel during the reign of David.

David and Israel would also have to deal with another holdover from the failure of Israel during the days of Joshua. His name was Goliath, and he was a descendant of Anakite giants that Joshua failed to deal with living in Gath. Instead of Joshua, it was the young David who had to play the role of the mosquito attacking the giant, because not dealing with the giant’s in our lives does not mean that the giants will go away, it just delays the confrontation to another time and place. Confronting the giant is always dangerous, but it also necessary. Don’t leave the confrontation until tomorrow. We can confront our metaphorical giants knowing, just as was true with Joshua and David, that God has promised to be with us, and that he will stand with us in the midst of the fight.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 12

At sunset Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the poles and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave they placed large rocks, which are there to this day. – Joshua 10:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 6, 2019): Joshua 10

The movie Braveheart (spoiler alert if you have not watched the 1995 movie) ends with the death of William Wallace. The 2018 Netflix movie “The Outlaw King” basically continues the Scottish tale by telling the story of what happens next. The historical William Wallace was executed on August 23, 1305. But that does not end the tale of William Wallace. Wallace was hung, but not killed. He was cut down early so that he would still be alive when his bowels were removed from his body. His intestines were then burned in front of him. Wallace was then beheaded, and his head was dipped in tar to preserve it so that it could be displayed on top of London Bridge. His body was cut into four sections and immediately sent out to the four corners of the land. This kind of action was not unheard of in ancient time and was often done as a warning to any others who might be inclined to take up a revolution against the crown.

We don’t know how long the various parts of William Wallace’s dead body were displayed, but we can assume that they were not removed quickly. Wallace’s tar dipped head was on top of London Bridge for a relatively long period. We know this because on September 8, 1306, just over a year after the execution of William Wallace, Wallace’s colleague and friend Simon Fraser was executed and his head was dipped in tar and placed beside that of William Wallace at the top of London Bridge.

Executing an enemy and then displaying the body was not an unknown action in the ancient world. It was a way of sending a message to your enemies. And that message, as was true in the case of William Wallace and Simon Fraser, was “don’t rebel and fight against us, because we will not react with mercy.” The intent was to drive so much fear into the enemy so that they acquiesced to the demands of the dominant party. And often the heads and bodies were left on display while the flesh decayed off of the bones.

While Joshua executes the five kings and displays their bodies on poles, by the norms of the day, he refuses to leave the bodies on the poles past sundown. (Compare this to the head of William Wallace displayed on London Bridge for more than a year, and likely much longer.) Experts look at this and make the argument, as they should, that Joshua was trying to keep the letter of the law. And it is Deuteronomy contains this prohibition:

If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).

But that brings us into a different argument. Some have argued that the Book of Deuteronomy is actually of late origin, written or compiled later in the monarchy, possibly during the reign of King Josiah (640 to 609 B.C.E.). But the instruction not to leave the executed body of an enemy on display passed sundown is only found in Deuteronomy, and Joshua seems to have knowledge of the instruction. All of which supports the belief that Deuteronomy is of early origin, and that the book is made up of the final sermons of Moses, something of which Joshua would have been well aware.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 11

But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. – Joshua 9:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 5, 2019): Joshua 9

A recent article itemized thirty words that we need to stop using in 2019. The list included “canceled” (as in, you disagree with me, so you are canceled) to “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) and its antonym “WOAT” (Worst of All Time). The list of words that need to be left behind this year also included a couple of politically motivated phrases: “Fake News” and “Witch Hunt.”

In a world that now gets more of its news from Social Media than it does through print news or legitimate news-gathering organizations, “Fake News” would seem to be a legitimate problem and not one that we are likely to leave behind any time soon. But “Fake News” is also an interesting problem for us. The reality is that no news is objective. Every news story that you will read or hear today comes to you from someone’s distinct point of view. There is always an agenda behind the words, and a major task of the consumer is to recognize that agenda. And the reality is that any story that shares our agenda is likely to be recognized, by us, as a story that is real. And any news story that originates from a point of view that is not ours is more likely to be labeled, at least by us, as “Fake News.”

The problem is that the point of view of a news story may impact the conclusion that we gather from the story, but it does not make the story “Fake News.” There is nothing inherently fake about the story. Even a story that contains a mistake is not fake. It is the honest effort of a flawed reporter. And if the reporter is human, and I believe that they all are, then the reporter is also flawed and will occasionally make mistakes. Having said that, “Fake News” does exist on our social media sites. These are stories that pedal outright lies, not mistakes. During the 2016 federal election in the United States, they were stories like the ones that accused Hillary Clinton of being involved in the sex trade, and these stories continue to influence the people who read them, people who should know better. But in a cruel twist, the news organizations that we label as “Fake News” are often not “Fake News;” they are legitimate news sites with whom we disagree concerning their conclusions.

The inhabitants of Gibeon are afraid, and so the decide to resort to a ruse. They attempt to make a treaty with Israel, pretending to be citizens of a far-off city rather than what they really were, neighbors from a nearby community. The story of the treaty with Gibeon is “Fake News.” Nothing that Gibeon tells Israel is true. This is not a true story with which there is a disagreement over conclusion or in which mistakes are made. The story Gibeon tells Israel is totally fabricated. It is “Fake News.”

But what is amazing about the story is the end of it. Even though the treaty is based on a lie, Israel decides to stand by their decision to make the treaty with the city. The attitude seems to be “we should have known better and checked the story deeper, so this is on us. Therefore, we will honor the word that we gave to the Gibeonites.”

It is an attitude that we need to emulate in our contemporary society. “Fake News” the word might go away, but I am afraid that the phenomenon is here to stay. And in the end, we are responsible for the lies that we are willing to believe. As Christians, we need to be willing to test what we hear so that we are not led astray. Because our reality is that Gibeonites are living on the other side of every hill hoping to mislead us, and if we are misled, it isn’t their fault. It is ours. We should have known better.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 10

The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. – Joshua 8:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 4, 2019): Joshua 8

Confidence is essential to life, but it is also a double-edged sword. Confidence must be exercised in balance. Too little and you will never attempt to do anything in this life. Without confidence, you will walk cautiously and slowly in a race that is meant to be run. But there is also a danger in being overconfident. Overconfidence makes us miss the warning signs of failure. The overconfident run the race with abandon, but they are often running on the wrong track.

Ai had already defeated Israel once. There was no reason to believe that a second time would have a different conclusion. So when the army of Israel appears outside of the city, the city defenders decided to react with shock and awe. They were so sure of both the strategy of Israel and their own capacity to repel the invaders that they threw everything at the incoming army. They opened up the city gates, and the defenders of the city raced out with abandon.

For Israel, it was the perfect strategy. When the defenders of the city came barreling out after the invading force, and Israel’s army was forced to retreat, or maybe better phrased as a “turn and run,” the response was what was expected for both sides. The defenders of Ai expected Israel to run away and followed the fleeing army with something close to glee, while Israel expected that the overconfident defenders would follow the retreating army, attempting to chase them down and teach the invaders one more lesson.

Of course, all of that changed when the city defenders turned back to look, from a distance, at their unguarded city. It must have been quite a shock to see the city in flames. Then the defenders of Ai turned back to see the smiling faces of the invading force that was no longer retreating. The defenders of Ai had fallen into a trap that they might have seen if they had not been so overconfident. The defenders of Ai had run the race with abandon, but their overconfidence caused them to be on the wrong the track. The real battle had taken place back at the city walls, a place which they had left undefended.

Overconfidence has that effect on us. It causes us to overlook some of the significant battles of our lives and allows us to wear ourselves out fighting battles that should never have been fought. In Ai, the results of the battle would have been quite different if the defenders of the city had stayed home and performed their primary duty to the inhabitants of Ai, which was defending the city. Instead, they chased an army leaving the city unguarded, and in the end, they found themselves with no city to defend, and no home to which they could return.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 9

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel. – Joshua 7:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 3, 2019): Joshua 7

Philosopher William James argued that “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.” Maybe that is one of the biggest lessons that I learned from playing sports. There is nothing more terrifying, and I know this first hand, than making a mistake and realizing that unless you can turn a situation around, it is not just you that you are letting down; it is the group of people who are walking with you that are going to suffer because of the actions you have taken. And sports are just games. Life is, well, life.

And yet we often take a more individualistic path to life. Fundamentally, we believe that life is about me. I do what is best for me so that I can get ahead of you. We often, at least privately, celebrate the struggles of others because it gives us an advantage in the struggle. In life, it often seems that there is no such thing as a team. It is just me. Governments lobby against having to fund things like social assistance and medical care, programs that care of the least of these, the weakest links who live among us, often complaining about the drain that these programs place on our fiscal structures. And often the question that we ask is, how does this affect me?

When Jakelin Caal Maquin, a seven-year-old girl, died after being taken into custody with 162 other migrants at a remote southern border crossing in the United States in December 2018, for a lot of people the impact was minimal because it had nothing to do with me. For many Americans, it did not seem to matter that there was a level of cover-up involved in the incident, or that the death took place on American soil. What mattered was that they weren’t involved.

We seem to miss the radical statement at the beginning of the story of Achan’s sin. There is no doubt about who is “guilty in action” in this story. The man’s name is Achan. His neighbors could all stand up point straight at Achan and say “we did not do it, he did it. This story is just not about us; it is about him. The story is all about Achan and his sin.” But what is amazing is that God does not seem to see it that way. Achan sins, and the anger of God burns against all of Israel. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and in this case, Israel was only as strong as Achan. And Israel was going to have to pay the penalty for the sin of one man named Achan. In fact, Israel was being declared to be guilty because of the sins of this same man.

Whether we want to agree with him or not, William James is right, at the very least in the eyes of God. “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.” Life is not the story of me; it is the story of us. And even nations are increasingly dependent on each other. None of us are great in isolation. We are great when we stand together. And to insist that life is about me would seem to be to stand against the understanding of God. We really do need each other, and none of us are any stronger, or any richer, than the weakest who walk among of us. Welcome to the story of us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 8

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. – Joshua 6:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 2, 2019): Joshua 6

In “A Game of Thrones” George R. R. Martin asks the question that we have struggled with from the very beginning of time. “Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what's on the other side?” I admit that it is true. There is nothing that draws me more than being told that I can’t go somewhere. I am not a follower of Islam, and yet I would love to be able to stroll along the streets of Mecca and experience the beauty and the religious fervor of the Arab City. I am not Catholic, but what would it be like to spend a day (or a month) in the Vatican archives exploring the treasures of the past. And exactly what is it that is hiding at the Groom Lake facility in Nevada, an area better known to conspiracy theorists as Area 51. If you build a wall, then I want to know what it is that lies behind it, even if the answer is nothing.

In recent years, the story of the Battle of Jericho has fallen on hard times. Part of the problem is that we don’t seem to be able to confirm that the walls of Jericho ever fell. Archaeologists don’t see the disturbances that we would expect from such a calamity. Of course, we are also talking about an event that happened over 3000 years ago.

And yet, the biblical account is clear. And the reality is that we have questioned other historical events of the Bible before, only to have later the events confirmed from a delayed discovery which leaves us with a second question. If the walls fell, how and why?

Earlier when examining the Jericho event, I have argued that sometimes all God needs is some very ordinary things, like parades and gravity. The idea is that as Israel marched around the walls, the people gathered on top of the wall get a good view of the spectacle. As the parade continued, seven times around the wall on this day instead of just once, the people increased and the wall just could not bear the weight, and the wall, at least in sections, fell.

I still believe that that is a distinct possibility. Admittedly, no one knows for sure. But let me add a little more to the story. It seems evident that the inhabitants of Canaan and the surrounding area were curious about this group of people who marched on the other side of the wall. Part of the curiosity was the wall that separated them, and we always want to know what exists on the other side. But another part of the curiosity was that they had heard stories about the descendants of Israel. Part of what is key to all that happens during the Exodus from Egypt and the taking of the Promised Land is that the Israelites were known. And the question that we should be asking is how is that possible? How is it that a group of people, which until only four decades before this event, existed only a slave population in Egypt, was this well known to the world around them?

The answer is partially why I believe that there was a consistent trickle of an Exodus from Egypt that had existed for generations before the mass Exodus of Moses. Some of the readers of this blog have misunderstood me in the past. I do not doubt that the Exodus of Moses took place. My argument is that there were already Israelites living in exile in Canaan long before the Moses and the people of Israel entered into the land. They had told the stories of Israel around campfires. They had spread the name of the God of Israel among the people there. And because of the stories, the people were genuinely curious – and afraid.

And when the trumpet blew, it was enough to stoke the fear that probably already existed on the overcrowded walls, and the walls fell. The curiosity of the people yielded to fear, and Israel took the city. It wasn’t necessary for all of the walls to totally fall. All that was needed was weak spots which would produce openings for this strange people, known only from stories told around the campfires at night, to enter.

And enter the city they did, as Israel took the city.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 7

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. – Joshua 5:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 1, 2019): Joshua 5

Happy New Year! It is the grand day of starting over. At midnight last night, we crossed over one of the great boundaries of life. We turned the page from the one that was filled and marked with both the good things, hopefully written in big bold letters, and the scratch marks of life that seem to carry us in the opposite direction from where we want to go, to the page that we greet this morning that is blank and full of possibility.

I know, nothing has really changed between last night and this morning. The truth is that our habits, both good and bad, continue to plague us as we move from year to year. But we also have a need for spaces where we can place down markers and be able to say that, maybe, here we can have a clean start. Here is the place where we can change and do something different. I am actually a big believer in New Year’s Resolutions. I know that these changes that we promise ourselves seldom actually take hold. But a New Year’s Resolution is an admission that we make to ourselves, and we may not make this admission to anyone else, that there are things in our lives that we need to change. There are characteristics of our lives that we want to improve. And today we make one more attempt to do exactly that.

Joshua and the rest of Israel were now on the other side of the Jordan River. It is unlikely that they had been here as a group or a nation since the day that Israel (Jacob) pulled up the stakes of his tents and traveled with his wives, children, grandchildren, and, likely, great-grandchildren and moved south to join his lost son, now found, Joseph in Egypt. And that moment had been almost five centuries in the past. But, now, they stood on the hallowed ground of their ancestors. Now they moved into a distinctly different future, one filled with hope and promise.

Oh, there is no doubt that they carried their old habits, both good and bad, with them. There is little doubt that they would trip in the future over the things of the past. But at this moment, there was at least the possibility of doing things differently. A generation had died in the wilderness. A new generation had risen up and was ready to move into the future. But there was also a problem. Since the days of Abraham, the descendants of the patriarch, which would have included the Israelites, Ishmaelites (the ancestors of Muhammad and his brothers in the desert), and the Edomites were circumcised as a mark of the favor of God. But the new generation had not been circumcised. In the wilderness, there just wasn’t the opportunity to fulfill the commitment of Abraham. So, here, the nation pauses. And as they considered the blank page that now lies in front of them, they begin by fixing the failure of the past.

And that might be the thing that we forget. To march into the wonder of the New Year before us, we need to be willing to repent of the failures of the past. Only then can we become the people that God has intended us to be. So, Happy New Year! And my prayer is that we might be strong enough to greet the blank page before us and change what needs to be changed so that we can truly be called the people and children of God. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 6