Tag Archives: Promises

Joshua 24: I brought, I gave, I loved: 65/365

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The Old Testament is brilliant for clear reminders of God’s character. I remember noticing in Isaiah the repetition of ‘I’ statements as a reminded that it is God who brings, who gives, who loves and we have it again here. Throughout Joshua’s recount of Israel’s history one thing is truly evident: it all occurred because of God.

Following on from this history lesson Joshua gives the people of Israel a choice:

If it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshipped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.

The word I find most interesting in this entire passage is the word “today”. When Joshua states “choose for yourselves today” he is suggesting that there is an inevitability in worshipping a god. The question is not to worship or not to worship. No, the question is which god will you worship. I find this interesting reading from a society that is dripping in indecision. By virtue of the prevalence of gnosticism, those who believe there is a God but are unsure which one, we see that we often don’t like to have to nail our colours to the mast. Yet here there is a sense of immediacy and urgency.

The other thing that I have noticed is Joshua’s call to renew his people’s covenant with God comes after a reminder of God’s ample and unfailing provision. The method employed for this reminder is a historical recount. I wonder if, in our modern church context, we have become devoid of such a historical culture. I remember, when I first heard that Church History was a subject at Moore, puzzling over the purpose of such a subject. Surely the Bible is all we need to focus on, not the development of the church. I’m beginning to see this differently.

Church history is an ongoing reminder of God’s agency in the world. It operates as a focus pull to draw our attention away from worldly worries and onto issues of spiritual significance. I love the certainty that the tribes of Israel have in God’s provision when they reply to Joshua saying:

We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods! For the Lord our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery… He protected us all along the way

Their response is jubilant from a strong cultural memory. They recall God’s provision and protection clearly, even if it happened to their fathers instead of them.

How often do I reflect on God’s agency in my life when trying to garner the courage to trust him again? How regularly do I reassure myself of his past provision? I’ve been tempted to tattoo these lessons on me as a permanent reminder, I’m being convicted of these values again.

I fear in our modern world we can get wrapped up in the value of doctrine and arguments to the detriment of story and memory. God is more than an abstract concept, he’s the head of our family. He has shown on innumerable occasions his direct agency in our lives, we need to remember these things. Just like Joshua’s final words we need to recall:

You see this stone – it will be a witness against us for it has heard all the words the Lord said to us, and it will be a witness against you, so that you will not deny your God

True that!

Joshua 21: Land Allocation Week Concludes: 63/365

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Huzzah!

The allocation of land has come to an end. I know it is a bit irreverential of me but I was struggling to plow through the details of every pasture and the name of every city.

The following helped me to respect this list (even if I struggled to enjoy reading it):

  • There is a huge amount of text dedicated to this list. It therefore must be really important to the Jewish people. To put it in context almost 1/3 of Joshua is dedicated to the allocation of land to Israel.
  • The repetition and detail helps to support just how comprehensive God has been in his provision. The metaphor I’m now using is to think of these chapters like a little child who has just been to Disneyland. You know how they get so excited that they can’t help but to list everything that has happened, “And then we bough a Churro, mine was chocolate. I ate a third of it before I dropped it on the ground. A wild dog came by and starting to eat my Churro. I tried to pick it up but the dog growled at me. It had brown and white spots and a floppy left ear. It didn’t seem to enjoy my Churro much as it threw up pretty much straight afterwards”. I’m seeing the listing in Joshua a bit like this – total excitement, total listing, total detail.
  • Receiving the land is more than Israel getting presents from God. This is the moment where they receive what has been long promised to them for generations. They have waited and hoped for this moment for eons. Think about how excited betrothed get on their wedding day when they’ve had a long engagement, these guys have waited generations.

Indeed, chapter 21 concludes with a very clear thesis as to why this moment is so important:

So the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side according to all He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies were able to stand against them, for the Lord handed over all their enemies to them. None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.

If, like me, you are still tempted to ask the question, “That’s all well and good but I don’t see why I should care that people got presents several millennia ago” then your answer is loud and clear here. This stuff is important because it demonstrates, comprehensively, God’s faithfulness to his promises and his people. You may be waiting generations but that never means God has forgotten what he has sworn.

This is particularly relevant for us in the end of times as we too are holding onto hope of a promise made by God. We’re holding onto the promise for our rest in his land: heaven. It is therefore reassuring to see that when God fulfills his promises, he fulfills his promises. None of his promises will fail.

We have the chapters upon chapters of detail and repetition to assure us of that!

Joshua 11-12: Harkonnen Unit Defeated: 58/365

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My first true love was not a girl. That’d be too cliched and rather surprising for a geek who went to a selective school like me. No, the first girl I liked was in my mid-teens (late-bloomer). My first true love; however, I encountered at the tender age of 11.

One night, my parents came home quite chuffed with themselves. They had attended my primary school’s blind auction and come home with some great items that they had won. One of which was a shiny, silver IBM 386. Now like all good relationships, the computer took a while to warm up to. She came with a couple of games installed including Commander Keen, Duke Nukem and Tetris; but it wasn’t until I saved up my Christmas money and purchased Dune II that I feel head-over-heels in love.

Dune II on my 386 was the closest thing to soma that my kiddy form could ever hope to encounter. I still remember with glee the opening chords that the inbuilt speaker would strain to create during the – advanced for the time – opening sequence. I would shudder with fear when there were worm sightings. Indeed, if I wasn’t playing that game, I was thinking about it. All day my friends and I would discuss strategy in the school yard. My heart was broken when Glen finished the game with Ordos before I (how could she love another?!).

There were several things that made the game great. It was based on a classic piece of science fiction. It was the first to give players the opportunity to play one of three relatively distinct races. The music was inspired. Further, as opposed to just playing staged battles, you could see the landscape evolve as you conquered more and more territory. By the conclusion of the game you were no longer just competing, you were securing Arrakis for your tribe. Few things have inspired similar satisfaction as seeing the entire map of Arrakis emblazoned in Harkonnen red for the first time!

In a similar manner, I can image the upmost excitement that Jewish listeners would have felt when the battles in Joshua 11 & 12 were recounted to them. The list of defeated kings (which I’ll admit – I skimmed through) would have been truly awe-inspiring for them – much like how I can recall each territory overtook after each level in Dune II! These names wouldn’t have been abstract nouns to them, they would’ve represented flesh and blood monarchies.

I really like the fact that the author employs several strategies to try and stress the immensity of Israel’s battles to obtain her promised land. We have the listing of the 31 kings whose armies were defeated. As a list, it doesn’t seem too impressive. Yet you can see it differently when you remember that each one of those Kings was defeated in a battle with Israel where courage needed to stand firm and God’s power was witnessed. Each and every gory detail is given to ensure that none of this moment will be forgotten.

The line that caught my imagination most, however, was a moment of poetry: a simile.

They went out with all their armies – a multitude as numerous as the sand on the seashore – along with a vast number of horses and chariots

As numerous as the sand on the seashore. Sometimes language fails to capture the enormity of events. To call this army vast, or big, would evidently be an understatement. In circumstances such as this, only a simile will suffice. As numerous as sand on the seashore. This simile conjures imagery of a wash of faces, each so small in comparison to the whole that they soon become insignificant – then unidentifiable. This is an army so large that no individual stands out. This unit has a military reach as far as the horizon and an unknown depth… plus many horses and chariots!

You can really get the picture of the enormity of the task ahead of Israel. ‘Reclaim the promise land’, sounds rather prosaic when you just consider the semantics. You tend to forget about the pragmatics in a sentence like that. It sounds like you’ll just want in and glean the territory. Evidently not so. For one, there’ll be armed men who are willing to defend their homes to the death.

The coolest things is, however, that irrespective of the largest manmade army in the region, God still prevails. Further, he sounds like he can beat a force of this size in his sleep!

The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for at this time tomorrow I will cause all of them to be killed before Israel.

Easy as you like it! God made the oceans, he can quash the sandy beach.

There are a couple of other things that strike out at me in this passage. The first being, what freedom this land must’ve represented to a people who have been walking in the desert for decades and, before then, been slaves for eons prior. I love the conclusion of Joshua 11 with the return of Israel’s attention from war to good governance:

So Joshua took the entire land, in keeping with what the Lord had told Moses. Joshua then gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. After this, the land had rest from war.

This all sounds just a bit similar to what we expect in the end of days, a place to call our own and be united as a peoples plus rest.

Further, I am also struck by the continual reminders of God’s role in fulfilling his promises. Consider the previous bible verse where it states “in keeping with what the Lord had told Moses”. There’s a subtle little reminder there. This wasn’t just a wanton gift or the product of good fortune, this was the redemption of a promise from the Lord. From a god who, just quietly, ensures he keeps all of his promises.

In many respects these two chapters seem like a microcosm for the entire gospel message. Namely, via God’s strength you can beat anything the world throws at you. He will give you strength, a home, and rest. I just look forward to the time when, towards the end of my life, I too can list the various ‘kings’ that – with God’s aid – I have overthrown. I hope that I can say that God has defeated for me:

  • The King of Pride
  • The King of Lust
  • The King of Financial Worry

You can see the trend. I tell you what, on that day I too would be listing each and every ‘king’ as a reminder of God’s faithfulness. I daresay I may even be more satisfied and excited than the time I won Dune II!

Acts 6: Not Entirely Unexpected: 39/365

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Perhaps this chapter operates as a good reminder. It seems like things are going gang-busters for the early church. Men and women are being converted in their bucketloads and the church is growing at an impressive rate.However, the life of a Christian is never purely smooth sailing.

Indeed, we delude ourselves if we mistake the “peace” that God offers as the equivalent of a worldly gravy-train. Rather, the New, and Old, Testaments provide continual reminders of the struggles we will endure if we follow the narrow path.

Stephen is one such example here. People try to argue with him but:

were unable to stand up against the wisdom and Spirit by whom he was speaking

So what are your options if your the “other people” in this situation. You can concede and acknowledge the logic of the other person. This is not a good option if you don’t wish to be wrong. So they did what they could do in order to win the argument, they took it up with others…

Then they persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!”

In short, they lied.

I think this is a good and timely reminder that the Christian life has many promises: it is a fulfilling and purposeful life, it is a life that’ll be rewarded in full in the last days, it is a relational life.

There is, however, no promise of it being an easy life.

So, whilst I get excited at the prospect of jail-breaking angels or “face(s) like an angel” I am not expecting it. To do so sounds precariously close to testing God and there have been too many examples of the folly of doing that. Perhaps a clause is warranted here, I see testing God as very different to questioning him or openly talking with him. Please don’t think that I’m purporting the virtues of unchallenged, or ‘blind’, faith here.

Regardless, back on point, when difficulties come I don’t think we should see it as the non-existence of God nor as an indication of divine punishment. Rather, we should remember precisely what we have and have not been promised and, in this context, hard times should not be entirely unexpected.

Isaiah 54-55: Wedding Vows: 38/365

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I think once people get that the Christian faith is relational then a lot of queries start to fall into place. I understand that this is a difficult thing to get one’s head around. As is my want to do, I think part of this difficult is cultural. Namely, I have found that whilst we regularly purport to value relationships it is difficult to quantify and – consequently – it can be easy to undervalue.

One such example of this came up in a discussion I was having with my best mate from High School, Aidan. We were talking about how it is weird that we accept relationships as the most important thing in our lives – I’m sure you’ve all heard the cliche of when you are at your death bed you wish to be surrounded by people and not trophies – yet paradoxically, outside of the aforementioned memento mori, we seldom consider the impact of major life decisions on our relationships.

Take the following as a case in point: You get offered a promotion at work. Now the quantifiable elements are easy to consider. It is easy to work out how much more you are getting paid and if that makes financial sense. It is relatively easy to work out what extra hours in the office are expected of you, if there are weekends or on-call requirements etc. Stress is a little more difficult to work out, we generally guesstimate that and reassess once were up to our neck in it. Most difficult of all though, and most seldom fully considered, is the impact that this new role will have on your family and other relationships. We may consider the extra traveling time, but not so much the impact on our psyche when we return to our loved ones.

Consequently, and unfortunately, the easily quantifiable tends to trump the important and valuable in our decision making process. We self-rationalise that “I don’t know how much more stress I’ll have, but at least I’ll be able to afford to go skiing or overseas for a holiday this yeah!” This makes it easier to take the job based on money and sort out the relational impact on the fly.

Perhaps this is why we find the Christian faith tricky to follow, it revels in these unquantifiable qualities like relationships. Perhaps this is why my students get frustrated when I am reticent to give a list of ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ dos in the Christian Faith, as bar a few notable exceptions a lot of it is Christian liberty. If, however, you are still not convinced of the Christian faith being primarily relational; then I think you’d benefit from considering the following verses:

Indeed, your husband is your Maker – His name is Yahweh of Hosts… For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit… “My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord.

I adore the simile of a married couple here. To consider the church, and by extension me, married to God conjures a vast array of consequences and assurances in my mind. I am a flawed human and I’ll protect and nurture my marriage to Jo with all of my strength and will – I wonder how God enviously protects his marriage? The connotations of trust, openness and love are profound.

Given this context, I like to see Isaiah 55 in a manner akin to wedding vows. These are promises made, in public, so that both parties may feel assured in their proclamation and expectations of each other. And what promises they are! We have a promise of access when Isaiah writes:

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to Him while he is near… Let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him.

We have the promise of guidance and provision:

For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

And we also have the promise of direct communication:

so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty.

Now considering the power of God’s word, which has been explored elsewhere, this is a pretty huge promise. Yet it is not the last promise in this chapter, there is also a promise of joy and peace:

You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands

Now a promise like this would be egotistical if made by an ordinary human. I can promise to try and make my wife happy, but being limited in power I cannot outright promise happiness. God, however, can; and does!

It is all about the relationship here. All about enjoying the personage and company of each other. The actions, the behaviours: these are derived out of the context of our close relationship to God. Most definitely not the other way around.

Go to: Isaiah 56