Samuel, Saul, David and Jonathan

Well, this note comes right in the middle of 1 Samuel. Lots of war and drama, quite a contrast with the happy ending story of Ruth. Samuel is born to Hannah, a woman barren for the majority of her fertile years and who was tormented by her sister wife because of it. Hannah was granted a son (Samuel) because she prayed to the Lord that he not forget her, His servant, and that she be given a son that she would dedicate him to God for all of his life; that a razor should never touch the hair on his head. Samuel (among other children) are born to Hannah, and Samuel is devoted to God.

Samuel enjoys favour in the eyes of the Lord and serves Him under the tutelage of Eli in the temple of the Lord that held the Arc of the Covenant. In Samuel 3, Samuel hears the Lord’s call. It is in the evening and he and Eli are lying down to sleep at the end of the day. Samuel hears a voice calling his name 3 times and 3 times he goes in to Eli to answer. Each time Eli explains that he did not call Samuel, and the third time Eli realizes that it is the Lord’s voice calling to Samuel. Eli instructs Samuel to respond to the next call, “Speak Lord for I am listening”, an invitation to us all to truly hear the Lord’s call in our own lives.

Israel fights the Philistines in Samuel 4 and experiences incredible loss. In the lost battle against the Philistines, Israel has lost 34 000 soldiers, the Ark of the Covenant, Hophni, Phinehas and Eli die and, after bearing her son Ichabod, Eli’s daughter-in-law. Eli was 98 at the time of his death and was the judge of Israel for 40 years. I can imagine that the nation would be thrown into desperation with the loss of the Ark of the Covenant and their Judge and his family.

The Philistines keep the Ark in the city of Ashdod; idols of their gods tumbled and broke at the feet of the Ark, and horrible plagues of panic, tumours and rats take over the city killing many of the people that lived there. The Philistines moved the Ark from one city to another until 5 cities were consumed with plagues; the five lords of the Philistines sent the Ark back to Israel with a test and guilt offerings of golden tumours and golden mice. The test was that two never-before-yolked
milk cows should pull the cart that carried the Ark and the offerings without guidance and if the cart is pulled directly to Israel’s lands this would be confirmation that the plagues were sent by the God of Israel. Two things come up for me here: the first is that the Philistines were also familiar with guilt offerings, and the second is that this story is recorded in the holy scriptures of Israel which means there must have been some friendly exchange between nations or peoples of these nations in order to get the story straight. As a freshman, I found all of the descriptions of guilt offerings, burnt offerings, sin offerings, etc. in Leviticus very extensive and they were new to me. The novelty in my eyes translated to my assumption that the Lord’s commandments to Israel about these offerings, their purposes and their methods were a completely new kind of thing. Does the familiarity of the Philistines with guilt offerings show that guilt offerings and the like were also practiced by other Hebrew and Semitic religions? Or does it mean that the Israelites had some influence on the peoples it warred with? Either way this changes the importance of God “setting apart” the Israelites from the rest of the human species. God painstakingly dictated dress, manner, ritual, custom, patterns of speaking, eating, being and acting so that His people would be known as chosen. The books of Numbers and Leviticus are dedicated to conveying the utmost importance of distinction between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, chosen and not chosen. So, if the worshippers of Dagon (the god of the Philistines) knew guilt offerings perhaps God was playing a variation on a theme; a gentle way of adapting familiar practices to bring His people closer to Him. A loving acceptance of His children’s propensity toward habit and comfort in the familiar. On the other hand, does the Philistine’s familiarity indicate that there is a blurring of the lines between clean and unclean? Is this an indication that through the generations of warring, Israel’s rituals and some of their meaning have infiltrated the practice of others? How does God feel about that? Would God be angry that the unclean were in a position to be confused with the clean? Would God be overjoyed that the gentiles were beginning to turn their faces, ever so slightly,  toward Him?

The story of the golden tumours making their way by milk cow cart to Israel struck me as funny. I am not an oncologist and so don’t know what a tumour looks like, but can imagine that it would be a little bump-like thing with an appearance somewhat like a poached egg. So, giggling, I wondered what the Philistine’s version of a tumour would look like and what on Earth did the Israelites make of them when they arrived? Did the Israelites shake their heads and think that the crazy Philistines had finally lost it? Maybe, but the fact remains that the guilt offerings of the Philistines were not thrown aside. The story continues on and focuses on the offering of the cows as burnt offerings and the falling of 70 men who laid their eyes on the Ark. This says to me that perhaps the lords of the Philistines who followed the cart at a distance did cross into the borders of Israel with their holy cargo and explained themselves and the gold poached eggies. How is it that another war didn’t immediately break out caused by a rabid mob of Israelites slaughtering the five men responsible for such heartache and defilement of their holiest of holies? Instead a stone was set up and the Philistines were “subdued”, the cities that the Philistines took were returned to Israel and Samuel became Judge. This sounds to me like Israel may have lost some of it’s blood thirst and the forgiveness that God has shown them is bleeding into their own way of being.

Israel cries out to Samuel to set a king over them. God takes this as rejection of His kingship over His people. Samuel warns them that a king will exploit them and bring them misery but they don’t listen. Saul is chosen as king from the most humble tribe of the Benjaminites to rule over the people. Saul was a good king in Israel’s eyes as he defeated the Ammonites and re-instated the kingdom of Israel at Gilgal. After the victory Samuel explained the grave sin of the Israelites to them; they abandond the Lord their God as king and asked for a human king to be set above them. He explained God’s faithfulness throughout the fickle history of Israel and reminds them that they MUST follow the Lord. Samuel calls on God and the Lord sends down a storm to destroy the wheat harvest of the people. Israel then saw that it had committed terrible sin in asking for a human king to replace God in their rule.

Saul’s reign over the people was full war with the Philistines. Saul is ready to go to war and makes an unauthorized offering to the Lord in Samuel’s absence. But his son Jonathan has faith in the Lord and goes up against the Philistines with only a few men. The Lord delivers the Philistines into Jonathan’s hand and there is a great victory. Saul then swears an oath that if anyone eats before the day is through and he has vanquished his enemies that they will be damned. Starving (and not in full knowledge of Saul’s oath) Jonathan tastes honey that is falling from the trees in the forest. He is revived and speaks out against Saul’s vow saying that it is not right to starve fighting men and that this oath has tarnished the war victory in the minds and hearts of the people. Israel saves Jonathan from judgement and death because of his faith and work in the Lord in the battle against the Philistines.

Saul went out to war against the Amalekites at God’s bidding. They were to devote every person and animal to destruction. Saul was victorious in battle and killed everyone except for King Agag of the Amalekites and killed all but the best sheep and oxen. All of the spoils of war were being brought back by Israel to be sacrificed to the Lord; but the Lord was angry with Saul for his disobedience. God called on Samuel to visit Saul with His Word. God had left Saul because of his disobedience and sent the message that although Saul may have meant well in saving the best of the spoils to sacrifice to the Lord, what God most wants is obedience of His commandments. Samuel told Saul that God had chosen another, a neighbour who was better than he; Saul was beside himself and Samuel grieved.

Samuel was then called to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, because God had chosen him. Saul, at this time, was being tormented by a harmful spirit of the Lord, and even after God had left him, he was still king and in a position to send for David to serve him. Saul needed someone to play the lute for him to make him well whenever the harmful spirit took him over, David was recommended to him and Saul did not know he was the chosen replacement. So God sends the newly anointed David to serve the shamed King. Is this another lesson in humility? David is often seen as the underdog and a figure that illustrates the importance of humility and loving God passionately; he was the 8th son of a shepherd who was chosen for his pure heart. This aspect of David as servant to Saul is a surprising one. Perhaps it was just logistics; getting David close enough to Saul and to battle to prove himself with the defeat of Goliath. Is there a deeper meaning? Saul was "disowned" for disobedience and for not honouring God’s word.  It seems like the minute after David is anointed by Samuel with the oil of his horn, David is called to serve a disgraced king by playing the lute. Most people would scoff at the orders, he is newly anointed by God after all. But David goes, and he serves. He follows God’s will, he does not complain or doubt his path; is this another lesson in contrast? David’s obedience and openness to serve God through service to one of His disgraced children may be the ultimate illustration of what God saw in David’s heart the day of his anointing.

Saul goes out to battle again with the Philistines and Goliath steps out to challenge Israel on the battlefield in a one-on-one combat for the win. Saul is afraid of Goliath because of his size and power. Israel cowers. David who is coming and going from tending his sheep to the battlefield is sent by his father to make sure his brothers are still alive in Saul’s army. David hears Goliath’s challenge and is outraged that an uncircumcised Philistine is challenging the living God and His army and His nation. David is brought before Saul and is determined that he will go out and win against Goliath, that the Lord God who protected him against lions and bears will allow him to defeat the giant. Saul doubts but he lets him go. David defeats goliath with humble weaponry and no armour although he was offered the king’s suit and sword. Saul begins to hate David because of his success, the love of Jonathan (Saul’s son), his talent for battle and the love of Israel for him. Saul begins to plot against him hoping his daughter Michal would become a snare for him, because Saul is beginning to realize that God is with David. This story is the comparison of a pure and open heart with a saddened and darkened heart. Does David know what pain Saul carries in his heart? Does David sense at all the twisting of Saul’s spirit with jealousy and fear? David is the underdog in the story that we all cheer for, but Saul is not so easy to pin. He was greedy, harsh in his judgements and rash in his decisions. Saul was disobedient and arrogant which led to his abandonment and shame. I can relate to succumbing to the urges of greed and taking short cuts. I can relate to the feeling of emptiness as shadow takes over where the sun once shone; I find it so hard to condemn Saul even after all of his shortcomings. He can be cast as the villain here but we should remember his humble beginnings as well and his human need for the love of God which is forever to go unsatisfied.

Saul plots to kill David and David flees for his life with the help and love of Jonathan. David and Jonathan are bound by a covenant with God that they will stand by one another and be bound to one another. Thank God for the love of friends.

May we blur the lines of "otherness" in our own communities through the sharing of our daily bread, May we seek to understand the experience of these "others" and to have this understanding season a gentle response, May we go out into the world with the love of God filling the hearts on our sleeves to liberate our communities and families from the fear of bears, lions and giants and May the Lord always lead us into the embrace of friends in times of need. Amen.

I love Ruth

My goodness! Two books in one week! I’m through Judges and Ruth. What a wonderful week. I especially enjoyed Samson, his story was profound and humourous; juicy scripture indeed. I write this email on my last night in Ecuador, it seems fitting that the last book I read was Ruth. I always find comfort in Ruth, I must admit that lonely airports are often remedied by my scouting out a chapel (or even a bookstore if need be) to read her story.

Judges 6 begins the story of Gideon and the delivering of Israel from oppression through his hands. There is a bit of David in this story and the idea of the last being first. God calls Gideon from the weakest clan of Manasseh, the tribe that is divided by the inheritance of lands on the East and West sides of the Jordan. Gideon is called as he is hiding wheat in a wine press from the Midianites, an act of fear and survival from a person trapped by a greedy nation. Here is a person vulnerable, even among his own people, who is empowered by God to deliver the nation of Israel from oppression. It is no wonder he asks the Lord for two signs of the fleece! As I write this I am in the midst of my PhD thesis research work in Ecuador; work in a new field for me, in a second language, in a culture very different from my own and often alone. I question myself so often about whether I am qualified to do what I am doing, I ask God every day to show me the way and I believe that He does. I take comfort in the fact that Gideon too needed confirmation more than once to be sure that he is on the right path and not following a wry instinct.

Judges 7 & 8 God again takes precautions against the ego of Israel. Gideon begins with an army of thousands and it is whittled down to 300 men so that Israel will have no doubt as to whether the credit of Israel’s victory should lie with God. Again God is setting the stage for miraculous deeds to kindle faith in Israel’s hearts. Gideon’s armies are victorious and Israel has 40 years of peace. Gideon dies, and with his death the people of Israel again turn to worship the gods of Baal.

Abimelek (Gideon’s son with his concubine) usurps the position of King through underhanded dealings and murder. Jotham (Gideon’s youngest) tells a fable of trees crowning their own kings: The trees first chose the olive, but the olive declined because usefulness of its oil was more important than the prestige of monarchy. The fig tree was chosen next, but it declined because the usefulness of its good, sweet fruit was more important than the prestige of monarchy. The vine was chosen next, it also declined because the usefulness of wine was more important than the prestige of monarchy. Finally the thornbush was chosen, it accepted and promised a vengeful reign in which only the people who tried to take refuge in its dangerous shade would be safe, the others would be consumed by fire. For me, this fable talks about God’s will for our lives. If we know God and seek His will for us, we will be loath to reject our chosen role for prestige, fame and fortune. If we are in true service to Him, we should not want to abandon work, lives or vocation that bring joy, security and unity to us and our families for power and popularity. The thornbush in this story is Abimelek who gained power and popularity in service to his own ego, not in service to God or because it was God’s will for his life. The people who take refuge in his shade will be forced to sit on his thorns, get caught in his brambles and live very carefully for fear of the harm and physical wounds the thorns will cause to themselves and their families. The people who don’t take refuge in his shade will be consumed by fire, a lose-lose situation under the reign of a murderous, power-hungry false king. When we allow our egos, our human cravings for power and popularity to take the place of God’s will in our lives we cause harm to ourselves and to our brethren. It may not be as blatant as murdering 70 extended family members and usurping a throne, but the subtle harms that we cause ourselves and our loved ones through ignoring the call of God and working to live in His love can run deep.

Jotham prays/prophesies that if Abimelek, whom the people know to be a murderer and false king, is accepted as their ruler they will be consumed with fire. Abimelek rules for years and finally enters into a bloody war with Gaal. In the end, after slaughtering many, Abimelek is killed by a woman crushing his head with a stone as he tries to burn down a tower that she and her people are taking refuge in.  What strikes me as funny here is that after all Abimelek has done, all of the atrocities and mortal sins he has committed, he is most concerned in his final moments about people saying he was killed by a woman, so he orders a page to run him through with his sword. This is odd on first glance, but it is so telling when it is examined at a deeper level. Pride blatantly drives his final request, and when the thread of pride is followed back to the origins of Abimelek’s campaign it serves as an explanation for his actions. Abimelek was the son of a concubine of Gideon. Illegitimacy was an issue in the days of the Old Testament and as such, Abimelek would not be eligible to inherit nor count himself formally among the family of Gideon. He is the only illegitimate son of Gideon mentioned, this doesn’t necessarily mean he was the only one, but imagine what kind of weight it would put on a child’s heart to grow up as the only son of Gideon’s 71 children to not enjoy legitimacy. I imagine ostracism, bullying and the feeling of growing up devalued and unimportant. Wounded pride from a young age can lead to the pursuit of power, influence and “glory”. Abimelek, when compared with Jephthah comes up wanting. Jephthah was also an illegitimate son; his father was Gilead and his mother a prostitute. He was ostracized and eventually rose to deliver the nation and judge it successfully.

Samson enters the picture, the Nazirite from birth. It was really fascinating for me to understand how Samson’s hair was the source of his power. There are nazirite laws in Leviticus that state that a person who has taken a nazirite vow shall not cut his hair until the vow is completed. In order to enter back into society the nazirite must shave his hair and purify himself for seven days. When Delilah cut his hair, she essentially ended his God-willed nazirite vow. I do understand that there is incredible significance in the story of Samson, not the least of which is that his strength is a direct result of him being faithful to a God’s will for his life. However, I have to admit that I laughed out loud more than a few times during his story. The first of which was that he took honey out of a week-old lion carcass and fed it to his parents without telling them where he got it. The second is that, although Samson loved Delilah, what eventually won her the knowledge about Samson’s hair was her ability to annoy him beyond his limits with her incessant questioning. I have the English Standard Version scriptures and the line that is used in this translation is that she “vexed his soul to death”. Oh the power of a nagging wife.

Judges 19 begins the story of the Levite and his concubine, it is like the horrible sequel to Sodom and Gomorrah with extra human depravity to sell more tickets at the box office. Instead of the victims in this story being saved by God’s angels, the concubine is killed by the mob and then the Levite cuts her into 12 pieces, sending one piece to each tribe to show them the depravity of the Benjaminites in Gibeah. One asks why God didn’t intervene this time? God has said that because of the idolatry, the breaking of the commandments and the repeated turning away from Him, that He would no longer deliver Israel from their enemies. Here, we see that the level of sin and depravity has reached the same heinous levels as when God righteously razed the city entirely. This is a case of “you have made your bed, now you can sleep in it”. Israel reacts with anger toward the depravity and the ensuing wars killed more than 90 000 Israelites and Benjaminites. After the carnage, the rift was mended in the nation of Israel. The final line of the book of Judges is “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” This implies that Israel needs a King and that the King should be God’s representative on Earth whose sole purpose is to govern and guide the people in the path of the Lord.

Ruth is one of my favourite books in the bible; it always conjures images of hammocks on sunny days, green grass and the excitement of connecting with scripture on an ordinary afternoon with an extraordinary person. The story of Ruth is incredible in so many ways. It tells of women’s courage in bleak situations, of a loving God that accepts and protects people who seek His love and protection and of the transformational power of love between human beings as a reflection of God’s transformational love. Boaz welcomes Ruth into his field, heart and home even though she is a Moabite. Remembering the tragedy that ensued with inter-cultural marriage in the history of Israel, this is over-the-top miraculous. The difference between Ruth and Boaz and the Midianite-Israelite couple of Phinehas’ day is that Ruth abandoned herself to Israel and to the people and God of her mother-in-law. There was no straying here of God’s chosen, no danger of it because Ruth was seeking God out of love. The redemption of Ruth and her marriage to Boaz resulted in the forefathers of Kind David; the love of a Moabite woman for her mother-in-law and the willingness to seek God because of this love lead to the conception of Israel’s celebrated King.

May we always find celebration and fulfillment in our usefulness to God, may we intentionally seek to include the “illegitimate” and marginalized in spiritual community and prevent their emotional and spiritual isolation, and may our love for each other carry us ever closer to our Lord. Amen.

Altars, the death of Joshua and women

The majority of the book of Joshua is concerned with conquest, war and triumph over the peoples who live in the Promised Land. The Lord specifically ordered the tribes of Israel to devote all the lands and people they encounter to destruction. There was to be no person left alive of the old inhabitants of the land to safeguard the fickle Israel against idolatry and the recurrence of the plague the Midianite woman and her Israelite partner caused in the wilderness of Moab. The Israelites didn’t heed their warnings and left some people alive to do hard labour and the others they “couldn’t” drive out or kill and so lived among the tribes of Israel. There is some ominous foreshadowing here I fear.

In Joshua 22, the tribes of Gad, Reuben and ½ the tribe of Manasseh return to their inherited lands on the eastern side of the Jordan. As they travel in triumphant from battle back to their lands in Moab they decided to build a giant altar to the Lord near where the tribes crossed into Canaan. There is a HUGE hullaballoo that results from this… the Lord was specific in that He does not allow Israel to build altars just any where and in any which way. The western tribes of Israel send Phinehas and 10 elders East of the Jordan to demand that they tear down the altar and to ask why the eastern tribes have sinned and abandoned God so soon after their triumph in Canaan. As it turns out, the eastern tribes were insecure with their standing in their brother’s eyes. The altar was built as a witness to their faithfulness to the Lord as a reminder to their western brothers in generations to come that the Jordan is not a barrier separating “the chosen from the unholy” and “clean from unclean” as God so often distinguishes. Gad, Reuben and the ½ tribe of Manasseh explain this to their brethren, the other 9 ½ tribes accept that the altar should stay and peacefully cross back into Canaan. This story is interesting in view of Israel’s fickle history with following God’s law, resulting plagues and the element of mistrust that has grown because of it. It seems that God is constantly trying to implement preventative measures and incentives against idolatry and the straying of Israel; but it seems that this is the first mistrust that is openly explored between tribes. The story states the events rather matter-of-factly, but I can imagine that receiving Phinehas (the man who ran through the Midianite-Israelite couple in his fury) and the elders of the other tribes would be a very tense situation. The meeting of presidents, emissaries and generals precedes modern-day war; this is what I imagine to be taking place. A minority people (the 2 ½ tribes east of the Jordan) fear that they will be marginalized and cut off from the source of all life through human prejudice, mistrust, misunderstanding and the “otherness” that pervades our nature, and they try to strike out against that with a symbol of unity under God. On one hand, this is a strategic move to prevent the fickle nature of Israel from endangering their future generations. On the other hand, this is an incredible and blatant act of faith. The Israelites put their faith completely in God, constructing a physical representation of their belief in Him and relying on this outward acknowledgement of their faith to save them. The giant altar is a gesture of both a great faith in the Lord and a deep mistrust of human nature. This resonates deeply in my own heart; giving my life and my will over to the care of God each day is a testament to my faith in Him to guide me in my thoughts, words and actions, but it is also an acknowledgement of my own flawed human nature.

And so Joshua dies, Israel loses another leader and is left in the hands of a series of Judges. Israel does not drive out all of the peoples and break their altars in their midst and an angel of the Lord comes to bring them the message that through their disobedience the Angel of the Lord will no longer drive these peoples out before Israel and that the gods of these peoples will become snares to Israel. After a generation dies, Israel falls into idolatry worshipping the gods of Baal. The fickle nation then goes through cycles of oppression and redemption, the Lord faithfully sending a deliverer to respond to their cries of oppression. A tag-team of these deliverers includes Deborah and Jael, both women; further evidence that God is a feminist! Deborah, a prophet, tells Barak that the King Sisera will be delivered into the hands of a woman. After a battle with Barak, Sisera flees into the hill country and Jael offers him shelter, milk and then drives a tent peg into his temple while he is sleeping. God’s prophecy delivered from the mouth of a woman, fulfilled by the hands of a woman. It seems to me that God’s relationship with the women of Israel is changing, that women are playing a larger part in the destiny of the chosen people. I can’t help but wonder though, whether either of them were menstruating at the time….  Would something like ovulation and menstruation dictate that Deborah and Jael be substituted for two other women?

May we all work to build “altars of witness” of our faithfulness to God in our own communities, may we keep and share the knowledge that although we at times turn away from God He will deliver us and forgive us when we seek Him anew, and may we always understand that God journeys before us in our daily battles. Amen.

Goodbye Moses, Hello Joshua

This week I finished Deuteronomy and sadly said goodbye to Moses and his storytelling, but Joseph is quite the guy as well. I am loving how scripture is giving texture to my life and there is increasing depth to the words and stories in the bible based on my carrying them into my daily living. Scripture has come alive for me in a way I never thought possible.

I have a special place in my heart for the law concerning marriage in Deuteronomy 24:5. God provides a year for a newly married couple to be at home and happy together before he can be called away for military or social service. Oh how wonderful that would be! My lovely new bride and I have spent the past nearly three months apart and will likely have to spend more months apart before our first anniversary. It would be amazing to have had the first year of our marriage together!

I am, however, completely baffled by the next law. D 24:6 “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge”; my best guess here is that an agrarian people in a geographic area given to sandstone and limestone is dependent on durable millstones to grind their grain into flour so that they may eat it. The life in question here pertains to the central necessity of a millstone for a family’s daily bread. So, in my baffled state I turned to the collective wisdom of Google, and it says that “taking in pledge” is analogous to “holding as collateral” as in for a loan. A moneylender can’t take a family’s ability to make bread as collateral for a loan. More laws regarding loans follow; that a moneylender may not enter a man’s house to get his collateral, nor shall he take the cloak from a poor man’s back. There is a line here “lest he cry against you to the Lord and you be guilty of sin”. This separates man’s justice from God’s justice and may serve to realign priorities in the day-to-day world. A person in contemporary Canada can put his house up for collateral for a loan, it is the most common way to own a house (via mortgage)! Having grown up in the prairies, if a person lost their home they would perish come winter. Yet the principle of the millstones is lost here as is the law against taking away a poor man’s only possession and shelter (his cloak). Imagine for a moment if the bankers and mortgage companies declared their losses in the US and let people keep their houses. I don’t know very much about economics or how the bail-out actually worked but I wonder what that would do for the nation by way of building faith, community and a sense of responsibility to love thy neighbour. Taking the collateral is expected and accepted as right and just by the laws of society today, what is right and just in the eyes of the Lord often takes a back seat to business sense and the bottom line. Giving the collateral of a poor man’s cloak back to him before sunset that he might have shelter to sleep in shifts the concern and priorities from the bottom line and “looking out for number one” to caring whether Israel is the sort of nation that would allow a poor man to lose his cloak to a moneylender and sleep exposed to the elements. These laws again speak to the kind of person that God wants His chosen people to be.

Deuteronomy 30 is a beautiful reminder that we hold the power in our minds and bodies to devote ourselves to God and the service of His will at every turn. Moses reminds the people that they don’t have to wait for another messenger from heaven to bring them the Word, nor for a messenger from far away lands; God has come to the people of Israel in pillars of cloud and fire to guide them and give them the Word. D 30:14 “But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it.” God has come with guidance and encouragement, all that Israel needs to do is to acknowledge that the Lord has put His word in their mouths and in their hearts. The stipulation here that the word is in their mouths and their hearts emphasizes that all of these laws and rules that God has set out are not an exercise in tyranny. These laws are the word of God, and they rest not only in the deeds and actions of the people but in their hearts and mouths. It is a living law, a living word that depends on the people of Israel to perpetuate it, and the people, in turn, depend on the life-giving guidance for their survival. The word in their mouths implies teaching the law to children, debating it with peers and reflecting on it within the cherished relationships of families, communities, tribes and the nation. The word in their hearts implies a relationship with the word itself; one that I imagine to be full of struggle, gratitude and the deep-running current of security that comes with knowing and accepting the love of God. The laws are complicated and require devotion to their cause, they require a change of heart and different ways of being. They require the people to abandon themselves to this new conception of who they ought to be, but rather gently, the Lord does not ask that they commit themselves to this new life without the benefit of carrying the burden of change with their brethren in love. With the Pentecost we take this one step further, every one of us has the word in our mouths and in our hearts but we also have the indwelling Christ. This flame burns bright within us when it is fanned by the conversation between pilgrims whether in doubt, petition, repentance, confession or gratitude.

Deuteronomy 32 and 33 are the song that Moses wrote to keep the law alive and well amongst the young of the nation, in order that they be protected from the grumbling of their parents. Before he dies at the age of 120, Moses leaves a song and a final blessing on the people of Israel. They mourn him 30 days and follow Joshua of Nun into a time of conquest, bloodshed and victory. God is careful in how He proceeds with Israel and Joshua, I think He takes great pains to ensure that Israel knows that they follow a holy leader into Canaan. Israel had a difficult time staying faithful to the laws and the word as Moses dictated to Israel and he had a face-to-face relationship with God as no one ever had. Joshua was once-removed from this kind of intimacy with God, so there was fodder for doubt and rebellion amongst a grumbling people. So Joshua was consecrated before they crossed into Canaan, the Lord parted the waters of the overflowing banks of the Jordan so Israel could pass through under their new leader, the nation was circumcised anew keeping the covenant established with Abraham, Passover was shared, and the commander of the Lord’s army appeared before Joshua on the path stopping him in his tracks and ordering him to remove his sandals for he walks on holy ground. These are all major events in the life of a people crossing a river into spiritual maturity. They are hearkenings back to their roots and to the undying faithfulness of their God demonstrated by past covenants and the realization of the conquest of the Promised Land. The Jordan and the Red Sea, the commander of the Lord’s army and the burning bush; reminders that although there is a new human face to the leadership of Israel, the true leadership of God has not changed or faltered.

There is such a sense of excitement and unapologetic jubilation as the people cross into these new lands and take up the yoke of service to the Lord in earnest. I felt overjoyed for these underdogs who second-guessed themselves and their divinely protected fate at every turn, they have arrived! They have celebrated Passover in their new home; what an incredible homecoming to share the sacred meal in celebration of God’s faithfulness at the beginning of their journey in Egypt, in place of destination of that journey. The manna ceases to fall after Passover, and how eloquent that is! They have arrived in their Promised Land of milk and honey and are able to live off the land no longer dependent on the food of exile. It feels like a coming of age. All of this comes crashing down as Joshua tears his clothes and falls on his face in desperate repentance for the sins of Israel on the sacred soil of Canaan. Israel disobeys and keeps plunder for itself; a beautiful cloak and some silver buried in the dirt floor of a warrior's tent is enough to remind us, Israel and Joshua that the Promised Land does not promise that following the Lord will be easy. It is promised only in that it was destined to be the place in which they could live peacefully and devote their lives to following God; the rest is up to them. This may be the oldest version of the dilemma of the “Sunday Christian”; a believer who goes into a place believing that just being there at a certain time on a certain day will redeem them and grant them the inner peace and closeness to God that we all crave. Of course a safe, comfortable space devoted to worship and service of God makes it far easier to tend to our relationship with our Lord, but the location alone will not suffice even if it is miraculous and beautiful. God reminds us with this story that we must be vigilant in the beautiful, peaceful places too, to work with and for God so that we will carry Him with us in our hearts and mouths, hands and feet, bodies and communities when we move about in the world. Arriving in the Promised Land, Israel is reminded that it is not a free ride to salvation, they must work and follow the word.

May we know the goodness of God through the blessings in our lives, May we work to carry the living word in our hearts and mouths and bear witness to His goodness in our families and communities, May we keep our blunders as calls back to the service of God rather than personal failures, and May we use this lenten season of feasts, ashes, tradition and sacrifice to remind us of the Lord's faithfulness to His children today as ever before.