Even the Boring Parts, Week 7 Day 3, Joshua 7-10

Even the Boring Parts, Week 7 Day 3, Joshua 7-10

God is in the details.

So there’s this Old Testament thing, when God gives a direction you’re supposed to follow that direction.  Some of the men of Israel took “devoted things”, or plunder that God had commanded them to destroy.  In Joshua 7:11 God tells Joshua, “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.  They have taken some the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.”  Basically God told Israel to not keep any plunder, to destroy everything.  But they didn’t follow God’s direction.  They kept some of the goodies. 

So, they now have a choice, consecrate themselves, get rid of their plunder or face the consequences.  They all do this, everyone except Achan who hides a robe, some silver and some gold.  And for this continued disobedience Achan is put to death.  He receives a harsh punishment for his continued disobedience.   

In their next battle they attack the city of Ai.  They destroy Ai and all its people.  This time God allows them to keep the livestock and the plunder.  Why was plunder okay this time and not before?  I honestly don’t know.  The only answer I have is in the first case God prohibited it.  In the second case He allowed it.  Not a great answer from a human standpoint I’ll admit.  But that’s all I’ve got.

And then Joshua reads “ALL the WORDS of the Law, the blessings and the curses- just as it is written in the Book of the Law.  There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.”

Read all the words, all of them.  He didn’t pick or choose.  He didn’t just give the highlights.  He didn’t just read his favorite passages.  Read all the words, all of them.

Read all the words, all of them.  That’s why I shared the story of Achan and his punishment.  That’s why I shared the story of the city of Ai.  And that’s why I shared where plunder was prohibited in one case and allowed in the next.  Because we need to read all of the Bible, all the Words.  Not read just the parts we like.  Not read just the parts that we understand.  Not read just the parts we agree with.  We need to read the parts that we don’t like.  We need to read the parts that we don’t understand.  We even need to read the boring parts. 

We don’t get to pick and choose our God.  God can allow plunder in one case and not another.  God can be angry and He can be loving.  God can punish and God can forgive.  God can be harsh and God can be compassionate.  Sometimes I can understand God, at least a little.  And sometimes I am totally confused and bewilder. 

We live in an age where we can pick and choose what we believe.  An a-la-cart world of selective morals, religious beliefs and philosophy where we pick the things we want to believe and discard or ignore the rest.  But if we are to begin to understand God, then we need to grapple and come to grips with all of His Word.  I’m not saying that we can’t have our favorite Bible verses or theological foundations that ground us.  But we can’t pretend that the other stuff doesn’t exist.  God is more complex than the pieces I may pick and choose for Him to be.

Some of what we don’t like about His Word provides us with context.  God can’t be forgiving without there being law and judgment.  God can’t give us a Savior unless we are first lost.  And even love doesn’t completely make sense without at least the possibility of anger.  And I’ll never be able to completely reconcile the ideas of a God who is completely sovereign and us being asked to choose to follow Him.  Sovereignty and free will make strange theological bedfellows.

God is in the details, even the details that I don’t like, even in the details I don’t understand.

God, there are things that I love about You.  But there is also much that I don’t understand.  In the Old Testament You can seem so harsh.  Then in the very next passage I see where Your forgiveness and love shine through.  Achan faced a harsh and horrible punishment.  But when I focus on that it’s easy forget that You forgave all the others who took the plunder.  They were forgiven when they admitted their sin and consecrated themselves.  Some of Your Word is hard.  Some of Your Word is bloody.  And most of it is filled with Your compassion, with Your forgiveness, with Your love.  All of it teaches me about You God.  And it’s good for me to read it all and learn as much as I can about You.  Amen

Leonard