Hodge Podge, Week 8 Day 2, Joshua 3-4

Hodge Podge, Week 8 Day 2, Joshua 3-4

Don’t know that today’s blog will have a point (and that would be different how?) or just be a collection of observations.  Here goes.

First, Israel is once again doing “evil in the eyes of the Lord.”  And the Lord hands of Cushan-Rishathaim, then Jabin the king of Cannan.  Israel is on a cycle of follow God when you need Him, don’t when you think you don’t need Him.  I say “think they don’t need Him” because they always need Him but when things are going well Israel forgets that.  Sort of foul weather followers as it were.  They see God as kind of  umbrella they pull out when it’s a rainy day but forget about when the sun is shining. 

Sometimes we Christians have the same problem.  We pray when we need help.  Study His Word when we feel lost.  Ask for His guidance only when things aren’t going well.  Turns out that isn’t any better way to live as a Christian than it is to live as a Jew.

Next, and I’m struggling with finding a non-offensive way to say this, God is very much into true diversity.  Deborah, the next judge is a woman.  She was leading Israel and holding court setting Israel’s disputes.  Not bad for a time when patriarchy was norm.  And remember, He used Rahab, a non-Jewish woman just a little back.  And later in today’s reading the woman Jael kills there enemy Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple and into the ground.  Not sure where Israel and even many Christians got off track in terms of women leaders, but clearly God is more concerned with if you follow Him than He is with your gender.  Not saying He doesn’t care about gender.  But I am saying that there is something that is more important than anything else.

So while God is diverse in who He uses, He is singular in the requirement that His followers follow Him and Him alone.  And He’s pretty big on obedience.  Two non-negotiables when it comes to following God.   So important are these two rules that someone should write some Commandments that cover those rules.  “And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.’”  (Exodus 20:1-3)

Finally, God is going to do what He wants to do, even if you don’t agree to play along.  Deborah tells Barak to take a thousand men and fight Sisera’s forces.  Barak balks and refuses to go unless Deborah goes with him, a kind of leader luck charm.  Because of his reluctance Deborah tells Barak that he won’t get credit for the victory.  Instead that distinction will go to a woman.  And so it does, the aforementioned Jael who kills Sisera with a tent peg.  Again, here’s that whole obedience thing.  Yeah, obedience is important to God.  Hum, maybe it should be important to us too.

So, three things.  First, follow God even when things are going well.  Second, God is more concerned that we follow Him an Him lone than He is about what we are and who we are.  He cares about those things because He cares about us.  But what matters most is following Him.  Finally, if we don’t follow Him He will still accomplish His purpose, be we will miss out.

And all this keeps coming back to following Him and being obedient.  So maybe this blog has a point after all.

God, help me to follow You in the bad times and the good.  Today let me more obedient to You than yesterday.  As You have been faithful, I give my heart and mind to You and the leading of Your Spirit to remain faithful to You.  Amen

Leonard