Wednesday, June 10, 2015

All Figured Out

Good morning,

Most of the time we think we've got it "all figured out", don't we?  We have a general idea of the way things should go, and we do our best to see they go that way.  Of course, the Bible gives us THE blueprint for living a life of godliness.  It goes without saying that we should study and follow it.  If we do, as a general rule, things will go well for us.  That does not mean we'll not have challenges, sometimes even horrendous life circumstances.  And, I'm not "preaching a prosperity gospel" here. What I'm trying to say is that, if we follow God's way, He will bless us.  Still, even within the truths of scripture, God still surprises us.

Take the story of the fall of Jericho.  That is some strange business, there.  Let's look at the facts recorded in Joshua 6.  (All references are NIV today.)

1.  The Defense
Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
The Canaanites trusted fully in the power of their city walls to defend them against this motley crew of desert bedouins.  On the one hand, they had heard how these had supernaturally crossed the Jordan (Joshua 2:9-11), but on the other hand, it was nonsensical to think that they could take the city of Jericho.  So, the city inhabitants hid themselves inside their heavily fortified walls.  They did not even use weapons against the Israelites as they marched around the city, even though they could have.  They probably watched the Israelites doing their strange antics and thought, "What the heck?!" That's how confident they were in their defense.  Seems like a reasonable course of action....no?  No. In God's way of doing things, they were marked for His judgment.  They "didn't have a prayer".

2.  The Offense
The Israelites were told by God, through Joshua, to do a specific set of actions, over the course of 7 days.  These actions were counterintuitive at best and, at worst, simply bizarre!  The Canaanites must have thought the Israelites were nuts.  The Israelites may have thought their God was nuts!  The unusual strategy, described in Joshua 6:3-5 - - -

March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

Today, this would be called "psychological warfare", a strategy meant to freak the enemy out.  This was key to their defeat.  By the time the walls came down, the Canaanites were in such a state of fear and pandemonium, they were easy prey.  Another thing about the Israelites' battle plan - -  many believe that it was the unique combination of sound waves their "odd antics" produced, which God used to bring down those very substantial walls.

Regardless of what they thought about God's commands, the Israelites followed them to the letter. Had they not, they would have been defeated.

3.  The Heroine
The Bible is full of stories of uncommon heroes (and heroines).  Rahab is one such person.  Her story is recorded in Joshua 2.  John MacArthur, in his book, Twelve Extraordinary Women, describes her as "an immoral woman living in a pagan culture that was fanatically devoted to everything God hates."  Yet, God, in His way that stuns us mere humans, chose to use this woman as a key player in His plan to give Jericho into Israel's hands (6:2).  Her great faith in the one, true God, which resulted in her conversion, was only the first step in Rahab's calling.  After the Promised Land was conquered, she and her family were given a portion of the Promised Land.  And, even more amazing than that, she married one of the spies she sheltered, Salmon, who was "Israelite royalty" - - of the tribe of Judah.  Salmon and Rahab had a son, Boaz, who married another former-pagan woman, Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, the human forefather of Jesus Christ.
Got it figured out yet?  Me neither.

4.  The Judgment
In 6:21-26 we read that the Israelites carried out God's judgment on the people of Jericho.

21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.

This "extreme" judgment perhaps offends our sense of "rightness" most of all, looking at the situation from a "compassionate" human point of view.  The city of Jericho was part of an extensive Amorite kingdom, which had endured in its evil for hundreds of years.  Back in Deuteronomy 20:17, God had ordered the Israelites to wipe them off of the face of the earth, because of their total depravity. This pervasive, deep-rooted, unrepentant evil was the chief factor in God granting their land to Abraham in the first place (Deuteronomy 18:12; 1 Kings 21:26).  Frequently, when the people of God were commanded to conquer evil cultures, they were not allowed to "assimilate" the peoples into their own Jewish culture.  Often such "assimilation" was unsuccessful because, by association/intermarriage with the pagan peoples, instead corruption of the Jewish faith/culture resulted.
We see an example of this in King Solomon's "marriage" to hundreds of foreign wives and concubines.  His resulting sons were not faithful to YHWH, Jehovah God.
Had Israel not exterminated the pagan peoples in the Land, they could never have possessed it.

Allright, back to our theme:
Do you spring from a family of "stalwarts" where, if an action doesn't fit with the preconceived plan it's rejected?  Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and allow those "impossible" dreams to form. You don't have it all figured out.  Let God take you down a Jericho road and do through you a mighty Jericho work!

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” 
― C.S. LewisThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Oh Lord, so often we put you in a box of our own making.  Lion of the Tribe of Judah, you inspired C.S. Lewis to write the words above and also, "He's not a tame lion", referring to the character Aslan, who was an archetype of Jesus Christ Himself.  Please forgive me for trying to coerce you to my own way.  The older I get, the more I realize I don't have my future all figured out...and never will.  And, that's okay.  In Jesus' name, amen. 

Sources:

MacArthur, John. "Rahab: A Horrible Life Redeemed." Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible and What He Wants to Do with You. Nashville, TN: Nelson, 2005. N. pag. Print.

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/4790821-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

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