Upon first read of the conquest stories in the Book of Joshua I was horrified at the killings, exterminations of whole cities and tortures before death. This was not the God of faithfulness that I had come to know. It seems that I had just become comfortable with a God of judgment rather than punishment but now THIS! Then I remembered that this is not an historical account, this is the Israelites looking back and retelling rememberances of how God acted in their lives. The second time I read it I first read the introduction that stated the purpose of the Book of Joshua - to demonstrate God's fidelity in giving to the Isralites the land he had promised them for an inheritance.
That's when I remembered the words of a song I learned at vacation bible school long ago.
"Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go!"
This time when I reread it, it seemed like a kind of superman story. Everything went Joshua's way. victory after victory. "Be strong and courageuos!" Johsua never questioned what God asked him to do. He was obedient and realized that all of this came from God. Okay this was the God who"was with us wherever we go". I began to think more about Martin's reflection about the Promised Land not being a geographical place, but an identity of who the Isaralites were in relationship to God. I thought of another song "If God is for us, who can be against us. If God is on our side, what can we be denied." According to Webster, fidelity implies strict and continuing faithfulness to an obligation, trust, or duty or covenant (my words). God is demonstrating fidelity and asking us to do the same.
In the book of Judges the purpose of the book is to show that the fortunes of Israel depended upon the obedience or disobedience of the people to God's laws. Whenever they rebelled against him, they were oppressed by pagan nations; when they repented, he raised up judges to deliver them. This is where the analogy of Yahweh as husband and the Israelites as wife really came alive for me. This relationship of Yahweh providing and protecting; and the Israelites obeying and honoring expressed by their faithfulness was strengthened. From the very beginning God calls us into relationship: with God, with others and with nature. And then God responds "Be strong and courageous! Do not be terified. Do not be discouraged for the Lord, your God, is with you whever you go!"
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Cindy,
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that you have done a great job of taking the discussions and relating them to the readings. I really like how you brought in Martin's reflection topic on the "Promised Land".
My question for you, knowing you are a teacher of our religion and faith is what do you do when you feel like God is not there? Being human, we are all going to question and we are all going to wonder at times… is God really there for us? More often than not those thoughts are based on our human desires and wants, rather than what we are called to do by God. But what do you do when you question? More importantly, what are some tactics or techniques you would teach your students when they question the presence of God?
That passage from the Joshua stories is one of my favorites. I used it during a youth retreat a number of years ago as we were transtitioning into a new group of leadership. It seemed appropriate Moses handing the baton to Joshua and all. The retreat went well and I didn't expect too much to come out of it. I was surprised. One of the girls on the retreat had been diagnosed as an infant with a disease that in most children didn't allow them to live past adolescence. She was now 17. However, her kidneys were failing and she was in desperate need of a transplant or she would continue to worsen and eventually die. She was well aware of the situation that lay before her and the seemingly insurmontable odds facing her. She also had a glimpse of what could be for her, the promised land--a donated kidney. I had known about her condition and had been working with her for 5 years at that point. I hadn't known however that she had just gotten the news about her kidneys. The next week she came into my office crying about how afraid she was and that she wanted to know what that verse was again. Over the next two years we prayed over that verse alot! She would slip it into notes in odd places in my office or car. When she was having a rough time or acting out accordingly I would toss it back. But the wait was very long! I am happy to say however that she finally had a successful transplant this spring and is doing well. She even sports a tattoo of the verse on her bicep right next to her scar from her dialysis port.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Joshua and the Israelites was a powerful one for her as she continually sought out signs of hope that God would respond in faith to her in deepest need. But, building on Erik's question, how do we as ministers deal with the questions when the person seeking to be faithful hears no answer. It was a long, very long wait for Keri, her family and the whole congregation. What happens when we think, pray, that we have been obedient and yet God doesn't seem to notice? What happens when we are so courageous it hurts and nothing changes? What happens when we try so hard to sense God's presence and we seem to only be met by silence?
I know you have a pretty good answer to this and that your family has lived it in an extraordinary way in response to your brother's death. How do you communicate awareness that you have had of God's presence to those in their deepest time of need?