Thursday Thought: Joshua

Joshua is a difficult book to read.

Yes, it contains wonderful verses for us to memorize. Verses like Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” and Joshua 24:15, “…but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”

Yes, it contains wonderful stories of trumpeters and soldiers marching around the heaviest fortified city of the time, Jericho, and the walls come tumbling down. (Anyone else humming “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho” right about now?)

But when we look at the meat of the story, it’s a story of violent conquest. It’s a story that’s on par with the violent television shows and movies we may or may not complain about because of the gratuitous violence.

Joshua is a difficult book to read.

But, we have it in Scripture, and we can learn from it. I don’t think we are called to brush aside the violence with a quick “God works in mysterious ways” kind of an excuse, but we are called to wrestle with it and find truth in the tension.

This upcoming Sunday, we enter the story at the end. After Israel took the Promised Land, God lists out to them all that they had not done. Indeed, it was the Lord that had done it all and provided all. In response to that, Israel was called to abandon any gods they formerly worshiped, or the gods that were formerly worshiped in the new land. Instead, they were all called to have the same response as Joshua, quoted earlier: “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Take some time to think about how this relates to your story. What has God done in your life that you’ve mistaken as your own work? With what has God provided you that you thought you earned?

Now, thinking more critically, what gods do you serve outside of God? At the time of Joshua, these gods were small statues which one carried around and prayed to for various things. We’re probably not tempted by gods like these. But what about money or comfort? What about pride or greed? What about nationalism? Whom do we serve above God? What kind of gods were worshiped in our “promised lands”?

Think on this. Be vulnerable and critical with your answers. The more we are honest and vulnerable with God, the more we open ourselves up to his healing light. And as we do that, we will answer God’s call to serve in no other way than, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”