For the Fourth Sunday in Lent we
may hear an Old Testament reading from the Book of Joshua. The text tells of the
providence of God to those who had entered the land of Israel.
And
the Lord said to Joshua, “This day
I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that
place is called Gilgal to this day.
While the people of Israel were encamped in
Gilgal they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in
the plains of Jericho. And on the morrow after the passover, on that very day,
they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And
the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and
the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of
Canaan that year. (Joshua 5:9-12)
Divine
Domain?
The people of Israel had left Egypt, but those
who had crossed through the Nile waters did not always faithfully follow God who had rescued them. Thus it was that God led them for forty years in the
wilderness of Sinai. After the time God determined passed, and Moses who had been
their leader had died, Joshua inherited the task of guiding the people across
the Jordan, into the land of Canaan. There the people who had been cradled by
the providence of God… in that they regularly had been fed manna from heaven…
began to harvest the bounty of the land.
Here we notice several items. First, nowhere
does the scripture explain who planted the crops that they harvested. We must
remember that up to this point the Hebrews (hapiru) were primarily nomadic
shepherds. They and their flocks simply wandered and ate what the land naturally
provided. Therefore, we must ask whether the children of Israel suddenly became
successful farmers when they invaded Canaan, or did they simply harvest the
plantings surrounding the cities of Ai and Jericho… which were the first to
fall to the Hebrew’s military conquests. Was this an early policy of “imminent
domain” simply taken since God had given them the land… in spite of the fact
that the Canaanites were already there? It does seem so.
Basically, what this reading demonstrates
is that God, our Creator, does not respect sinful human’s claims to property or
position. All in creation belongs to God, therefore God may stand over against
all nations, forms of government, rulers, populations or religious powers. The
divine will is all that counts. It seems that God only allows those who do not yet
know or acknowledge his name to exist for his own purposes… and they thus survive
in a place or time. But their status may change at a moment’s notice in favor
of the divine purposes intended for the witness of his chosen people.
As Christians who have been established in any
time or place, therefore, we who inherit the calling of the children of Israel
must take note. We must ask, “Is it possible for us to become like the “settled”
people of Cana?” I fear that the answer is in the affirmative. We must today note
that God favors those whom God shall favor, and he will favor those that call
upon him. Thus we of the Christian church who grow sedentary in our inheritance
and planting, risk losing the grounded giftedness upon which we stand.
The
War of Yahweh
It is important to note here that the
population of the Christian church has, and yet is… dwindling in the USA and
elsewhere. The answer to this failure then seems for us to make sure we give
God the glory. First, let us repent of our sloth and wanderings. It is by the
power of God alone that we have come this far and are established.
Second, we are to praise God for his grace in
granting forgiveness to us through Christ our Lord. Confessing and receiving
forgiveness for Jesus’ sake is the empowerment we need for the task at hand…
the growth of the kingdom.
And finally, let us together begin to plant
the seeds of the kingdom. Let us join together and pray in the Holy Spirit for
bounty, harvested as we war against those who would attempt to wrestle the
kingdom from our Lord. This is the life and purpose of the church as we go
forward through an unbelieving world.
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