LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?
THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Nothing is impossible with God. It seems highly improbable that a group of wanderers and nomads could overrun whole walled cities and alliances of kings all throughout the land of Canaan. But that's what happened! When Joshua captured five of the kings of the Canaanites alive all at once, and then summoned the men of Israel to put their feet on the necks of the kings (Joshua 10:24-25), essentially he was doing for them what God was doing for all Israel. What is impossible from a human standpoint is possible with God. As the people listened to and followed God, he gave them military strategies, altered the weather and the length of day to provide favorable conditions, and caused the wisdom of the Canaanites to fail them so that they did unwise things (like chasing after Israel so greedily that they left their cities open) which would benefit Israel. As we walk forward and obey God, there is nothing that he is unable to do.
Archaeological background to the conquest of Canaan. Unfortunately, as I write this, I am not around my books where I have a copy of a translation of the Amarna Tablets. However these correspond in a number of remarkably specific ways to the conquest of the land recorded in Joshua. These are written from the point of view of the kings of the Canaanites, each of whom is writing to Egypt for support as they are increasingly put on the defensive, and they become increasingly panicked as the land is quickly conquered by a group of nomadic armies known as the Habiru (or Apiru). One letter, written by Abdi-Heba -the acting ruler of Jerusalem, though he denies that he was in that position officially- writes to the Pharaoh who had some ownership over the land of Canaan:“May the king give thought to his land; the land of the king is lost. All of it has attacked me. … I am situated like a ship in the midst of the sea... [N]ow the Habiru have taken the very cities of the king. Not a single mayor remains to the king, my lord; all are lost" (EA 288).
Spoil from Ai. In the previous reading, the people were defeated at Ai, and Achan was harshly judged for taking some of the spoil of a previous conquest which God had forbidden. But here, in a sad irony, God allowed the people to take the spoil of war from their battle with Ai at the beginning of Joshua 8. There was nothing wrong with taking the spoils of war itself. The thing that was wrong was disobeying the Lord. Sometimes we look at what God has forbidden and we rationalize how it could be good, and that it should be fine to take. Not only is it a bad idea for us to trust the highly motivated judgment of a clearly biased person in that situation (ourselves!), but even if we were right, the fact that God has given us clear instructions should be enough. Even if there were nothing wrong with a certain choice or course of action, other than God's command against it, that would be reason enough to steer clear.
Things unmentioned. Each day's reading is incredibly rich. Even in this entry, I haven't touched on the Gibeonite deception, the book of Jasher, the sun standing still, or the covenant renewal ceremony from Mount Ebal--which also involves another interesting archaeological site. Be encouraged in your own reading to find things not mentioned in these posts.
RESPOND | WHAT IS OUR PART?
How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? In our actions, I think there are a few things that we could do with this reading. (1) The links are provided to take anyone who is interested "down the rabbit hole" to begin to see some of the interesting evidence for Scripture. (The Armstrong Institute, so far, appears to be a very good resource in that it acknowledges the range of scholarly discussion currently going on around each archaeological find--they're not jumping to any wild conclusions, or if they do, they seem so far to be able to acknowledge where they are stepping out on a limb and why there is disagreement on that point.) This could be a good resource to prepare for conversations with a non-Christian friend or neighbor who might be a little more intellectual and would be interested in something like this. (2) We can faithfully follow God, even when we don't know how that will turn out. God led Joshua and the Israelites into some pretty shaky situations, and he made it all work out. He still does this. Sometimes by trying to over-engineer our own plan, we can end up quenching the work of the Spirit. (3) We should trust God even when he tells us not to do something -or when our friends and family are doing something- that on our own we see no problem with. Look: I'm an ethnic Jew, and my favorite food is bacon. There is nothing wrong with the delicious, salty, surprisingly versatile harvest of the meat of the swine. But if God told me, as he taught all Old Testament Jews, not to eat of it, I would trust that there is a good reason. (It turns out there was, but I'll save that for now.) God is worthy of our trust, the fruit of which is obedience.
PRAY | HOW DOES THIS LEAD US TO CONNECT WITH GOD?
For the last few days, we've explored a few different formats for prayer. Here is one that a friend who is a camp speaker came up with.
C = Confess. Confess who you believe God to be, and who he has made you to be. Admit to the things in your life that are holding you back from him.
A = Ask. These are the usual prayers where we ask God for his help in various areas of our lives. We can pray for ourselves, those we know, our church, our city, and the country--as God has placed the burden for doing so on you today.
L = Love. Thank God for the many ways that he shows his grace.
L = Listen. Ask God to speak to you and to bring things to mind, and then just be silent for a little while. Everything that happens here will require more discernment later. But, you might find yourself (as I did, on my own prayer time yesterday afternoon) with sudden clarity on an issue. Or you might have some Bible verses come to mind which are timely reminders of something you've been thinking about. Or you may just gain a fresh appreciation for who God is. Whichever of these happens, just end off your prayer time by taking some time to listen.
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