"Sharing Your Story BC/AD" III

Joshua 5:13-7:26

The famed African-American spiritual "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" has made this story familiar to many people. But as we read the story as it is in scripture there is much more to it than we might have seen before.

BACKGROUND

Joshua, the son of Nun, is the God-selected successor to Moses. Moses, because he did not speak to the rock in Numbers 20 (but rather struck it because that is what had worked earlier. You do remember the seven last words of the Church, don't you - "We've never done it that way before!"), was denied entrance to the promised land. Joshua, who had shown himself faithful in scouting out the land of Canaan has now led them across the Jordan River (it parted in Joshua 3 just like the Red Sea parted for Moses in Exodus). The area is full of small city-states with malitias and walls around them. Going into the promised land meant going in where people saw the land as belonging to them, so it would have to be conquered. Sideline lesson here is that there is often lag time and hard work between what God promises and the fulfillment of it. To follow God's call usually means doing that work in between, a mixture of waiting and seeing God at work, a mixture of victories and defeats. This is where God develops and grows us for his purposes. Astronomers tell us that in the universe there is more energy in the black holes than there are in the stars. Don't underrate those "in-between" times.

5:13-15 A Visit with the Commander

The commander of the army of the LORD is impressive. He has been sent by God and he does not take sides (contrary to the football prayers we sometimes here before the games!), but rather carries out what God says. The picture here of the army of the LORD is important. The victory will be done in partnership with God, the human army representing a greater one. In II Kings 6:8ff, Elisha is part of the same experience as the army of the LORD is described as "chariots of fire." Joshua then has another experience that Moses did, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." In your story, where are the places where God has brought you through when you could never have made it on your own?

6:1-27 Marching Around the City

Jericho has bunkered in because the Israelites were coming. It must have seemed to them like a threatening and chaotic mob. Notice the number seven in this account, seven days, seven priests with seven trumpets and seven times around on the seventh day - God's number of completion used throughout the Bible. This would mean a lot to a people organized around the Sabbath. For this is a story not just about a battle strategy but an identity story as the people of God.

On the seventh day they make a great shout and go into the city and burn it to the ground just as they were instructed to do. The geological site of Jericho has several layers separated by ash. Evidently it was burned to the ground several times in its early history. As I noted in an earlier blog, this was a common battle strategy in those city states during those centuries.

Joshua 7:1-26 A Failure to Follow Directions

The children of Israel were chosen by God to be his holy people. We think of holy as a moral term, but it's true definition is "separate, different from the rest." The reason God did not want them taking the goods from Jericho is that they were goods that had connections to the worship of idols and other gods. This is also the basis of the food laws. The Hebrew food laws were healthier, but the main thing was their eating habits were to reflect that they were different from those around them. The severe punishment of Achan's family is a statement to all that there would be no compromise with their lifestyles and worship.

That leads us to an important question as we seek to follow God's call. What differentiates you from the people around you in the neighborhood, at work, in your family? Does your faith in Christ make a material, real difference or is it private or hidden? The danger for the children of Israel is that they would fall into syncretism (developing a religion that was a combination of this and that) rather than true faith in the LORD. How might that be true today and have we done far worse things than Achan?
See you tomorrow in holy worship to the LORD.