The Story Chapter 19

I'm very excited about this week's chapter. Not only does it play a major part in God's big plan for mankind and show his ability to direct human history, it also has some very deep and very practical lessons for our spiritual lives.

Overview: The Israelites have been in Babylon for about 70 years now. Cyrus the Great defeats the Babylonian king Belshazzar and now runs Babylon. Cyrus releases the Jews and tells them they can go home and build the temple again. Roughly 50,000 Hebrews go home. They start strong and begin rebuilding the temple while they lived in temporary shelters. The people who had moved into the area after the Israelites were taken obviously don't like that the Israelites have come home and start making things very difficult for them. Raids, bandits, insults, etc.  The Israelites become discouraged and stop working on the temple and start to focus on building nice homes and other parts of town.  God gets their attention by sending some prophets who remind them of God's promises and they get back on track building the temple. This time when there is opposition they keep trucking through it and eventually the temple is finished. 

You know, if the temple was built in Des Moines by the Callahan family.

 I want to focus on a few themes in this part of the narrative. The first is this idea of returning home. For the last 70 years they have been in Babylon thinking about how great things were when they were home. Then the day comes when they actually get to go home. How many of you have ever been to some type of reunion or gone back to something after a long time and it's not nearly as great as you remember? I remember thinking my grandparents' yard was the biggest place in the world, but when I visited as an adult it seemed so small. I was sad at how small it was because it ruined all these feelings and memories I had attached to it. A few months ago Merry and I went to visit our college and went to our favorite restaurant. It was really good, but it wasn’t as good as we remembered it. Sometimes things aren’t as good as you expect them to be.

That’s exactly what happened to the Israelites, but on a much larger scale. They had all these memories of Judah, farms, fields, crops, Jerusalem noisy and busy with city life, favorite places to go, etc, but when they got there it was all decimated. Returning to Jerusalem must have been an exciting idea that was crushed when they actually saw the state Jerusalem was in. Like ordering something online then getting a piece of junk. Or like the menu picture always looks better than the real thing. 

Not only that, but the temple they begin to build is a fraction of the size of the old temple and not anywhere near as extravagant. Some of the older people who remembered wept and said, "This temple is a shame. It's nothing compared to the old one. This one isn't like the old one."

This happens to us a lot, and even in our spiritual lives. How many of you have had some really phenomenal experience in God's presence that kind of becomes the standard against which you measure every spiritual experience for a while? You read some scripture and all of a sudden you are very aware of his presence and he is speaking through the scriptures very clearly directly to you. Or you are praying and something similar happens. Or you are in a worshipful frame of mind and you feel such an intimate connection with God. Events like camps and retreats are notorious for really powerful experiences. The problem with this is that like the Jews returning to Jerusalem, this time is not supposed to look like the last time. It is dangerous to our growth when we put "God's presence" in this box and think "because it looked like this last time, and because that was great, that's what it should look like every time." Then we begin to force the replication of what happened last time.  Adjust your expectations. Let God decide what blessing looks like. Maybe the last time you had a really phenomenal time in God's presence it was at a service where music was playing and the preacher said all the right words that pierced your heart and everything was intended to be very spiritual. But maybe God wants you to have an equally life changing and powerful time in his presence alone, with no music and no preacher. Maybe what God wants you to experience right now has nothing at all to do with a goose bumpy teary-eyed moment. Maybe what God wants to do in you right now is more about gaining discipline, or having more compassion on the down trodden, or recognizing his presence in non-mystical and seemingly mundane settings like sharing a dinner with friends.

The point is this, do not think that because your faith doesn't feel like it did that last time you had a big emotional high there is something wrong or that it’s somehow less quality. Adjust your expectations. Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to the things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Isaiah 43:18-19.

The second theme I want to hit is the idea of prioritizing parts of life. The text tells us that because the locals did not like that the Jews had come back they set out to discourage the Jews and keep them from rebuilding the temple. It worked. They thought, "Man, this isn't as easy as we hoped. Look at all this resistance I'm facing. Maybe this isn't the best time to be working on the temple. Ooooo, maybe this is God’s way of telling me to focus on something else."  The people shifted focus from working on the house of God and began taking care of themselves. They began to make sure they had nice houses and nice things. 

Work on the temple was slowed for 6 years and completely stopped for 10 years.

Who here can say they have never incorrectly arranged the priorities of life? The Israelites' purpose and mission was to build God's house and make the name of Yahweh great in all the earth. That was to be their number 1 priority. The question now is, what is our number one priority? It’s the exact same thing as the Israelites! The only difference is "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells within you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Our number one priority should be to build the temple, but we are the temple. I don't mean that we should all become body builders. What I mean is that the kingdom of God is not a political or geographical kingdom with a building for a temple. The Kingdom of God exists in our hearts and in our relationship with Him. For us building the temple means developing this relationship, developing greater intimacy with Jesus and making His name great by demonstrating his reign in our lives.

Here is a sad indicator that the church has largely stopped working on the temple.

Someone calculated how the typical lifespan of 70 years breaks down into categories. This is on average:

Sleep....................23 years-32.9%

Work.....................16 years-22.8%

TV.........................8 years-11.4%

Eating...................6 years-8.6%

Travel...................6 years-8.6%

Leisure.................4.5 years-6.5%

Illness...................4 years-5.7%

Dressing...............2 years-2.8%

Religious activity...0.5 years-0.7%

The sad thing is this; when you mess up priorities you end up missing out on everything and the very things you put in front of God lose their value. Read the bottom two paragraphs of page 266 in the story. They placed houses and crops and day to day life in front of God and they harvested little, never had enough to drink and so on.

Give careful thought to your ways. When you remove God from the rightful spot of number 1, relationships are emptier and more selfish, success is dull and prideful, and pleasure is brief and shallow.

But when you keep God, and building his temple, as the number one priority in life then you get God, and you get to enjoy the rest of life as well (Go read Matthew 6:33, DO IT!).

The Story Chapter 18

A few weeks ago we talked about Israel's destruction by Assyria. Judah lasted another few generations, but ultimately did not learn their lesson and God allowed them to be taken into captivity by Babylon. Babylon's strategy was different than Assyria's and was even smarter. They indoctrinated the best and smartest people from these conquered nations and made them loyal to Babylon. 

As we read this week’s chapter we see this on the very first page.  What is actually happening here is clash of worldviews; a cultural war.  This is important to see because in so many ways we are engaged in the same war. The secular worldview and the Christian worldview are in many ways at odds with each other. Clearly, the surface details are different, but the goals and tactics are eerily similar.

It says on page 249 that Babylonian officials took the Jewish captives and taught them the language and literature of Babylon and that they were given Babylonian food to eat. They basically give the best of the best a free ride to Babylon University and in the course of time hope to win their hearts over as well. 

Hi, I'm cool.

The strategy here may not jump out at you, but realize what they are actually doing is waging this war of worldviews on three different battlefronts.

1.  Mental front. They knew if they could get them to stop thinking and talking like Israelites then they would more likely be loyal to Babylon.  So they re-taught them to speak. Renamed things and changed the way they thought and spoke about things. There is an identical strategy in the culture war we face. There has been a mass effort to change language and thinking towards most of life, especially things that are unacceptable in the Christian worldview. Sins are not sins, they are character flaws, conditions, identify quarks or something else that lessons the negative feel of the particular thing.  Or, in some cases where there is no way to rename a thing to make it sound better, culture just says there is nothing wrong with that thing at all. Disobedience to God's word becomes a matter of free choice and saying anything negative towards that "thing" is hateful, closed minded, intolerant, old fashioned, archaic, stifling, etc.

2.  Cultural front. They replaced Israel's history and Israel's story with Babylon's history and stories. This is part of reshaping identify and worldview. A culture's story is one of the most unifying things and results in loyalty. So Babylon said, "Here, instead of reading those old fables and fairy tales why don't you read what really happened in history. Noah? No, it was Gilgamesh. Yahweh created the world? No. Apsu and Mummu-Tiamet merged and begot all that is." and so on.  The same strategy is in play today where secular culture seeks to replace the biblical history and the story of God's people with its own history. It is common to pick up on a condescending tone as this happens; “You believe in those Bible stories? Awww, that’s cute…but dumb. Let me tell you what really is the case.”

3.  Lastly this was a moral battle. Giving them food from the king's table doesn't sound horrible. In fact it seems nice. Giving captives food from the king's table sounds very generous. That's a way of saying they were given distinctly Babylonian foods. As Jews they had the Law of Moses that forbid eating certain things. The issue there wasn't that certain foods are somehow evil or wrong. That was just one of the ways God told Israel to set themselves apart. Having these dietary requirements was simply one of the things that set Israel apart as God's covenant people. Nonetheless, at this time that was what God wanted from them. Now the Babylonians set these foods in front of them and say, "come on, these foods are better. If you eat then you will be better and stronger and accepted." The choice in front of them was do I keep basing my view of what's right and wrong on God's word, or on what everyone around me is doing? Do I really need to explain how that mentality is till active today?

That is the way Babylon replaced other worldviews with their own, and it is the way the world tries to replace the biblical worldview with its own. The typical Christian approach to this worldview war is to build a safe bubble of Christianity to live in. Some people want to remove themselves from the big bad scary world so that there is no risk of my worldview being challenged or being tainted by the world. However, this is not the story of how some Hebrews built a bubble around themselves. This is the story of how some Hebrews learned to live in culture in a way that was faithful to God and drew people to him.

4 Hebrews: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are taken to Babylon because they were exceptional people.

I think Jesus followers should be experts in various fields. Why is it such a rarity and such a huge story when someone who rises to the top of a particular group happens to be a devoted Christian (*cough* Tebow *cough*)? Jon Jones is a great example. He is literally the best of the best in a very unexpected field, cage fighting, and he is a genuine follower of Jesus. That’s wonderful, but why is it so rare and shocking? Shouldn’t followers of Jesus be among the best of the best in every field? After all, we are representing Jesus to the world and we often make Jesus look lazy.

One of the edge of your seat/white knuckle/don’t get up to go to the bathroom until this scene is over parts of this when Nebuchadnezzar starts thinking he’s better than Bieber and has a giant statue of himself made. After ordering everyone to worship the statue he finds out Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are not singing along. One of the most amazing parts of this story in my opinion is the response the 3 Hebrews gave to King Neby when he says, “sing to my statue or die in my furnace.” They say “O King Nebuchadnezzar, we not need to give an answer for ourselves. We know that our God can rescue us from the fire. But even if he doesn’t, you should know we won’t serve your gods or worship your statue.” AMAZING! Here’s my version of that response: “Silly King. Our God can do anything, even the seemingly impossible. He can keep us alive in your fire. But even if he chooses not to, he is still God you are still not.”

How does that great statement of faith affect our lives? How do we apply this? This is made real in our world as we stay faithful in the face of pain, suffering, doubt and confusing situations. Do we have the kind of faith that does not remove God from his throne when things hurt? The 3 Hebrews did not know for sure God was going to rescue them. For all they knew God could’ve chosen not to rescue them, and yet they retained faith that God is good and powerful and worthy of worship. How often does our faith depend on whether or not the genie in the sky has been coming through lately or not? When things are great God is awesome. When things are rough God has forgotten. I want their kind of faith. I want my prayer to be, “God, I know you are able to heal me/rescue me/provide for me/fix this situation, but even if you choose not to you are still a wonderful God worthy of worship.” May we all have this kind of faith that acknowledges that God is caring enough to be aware of every situation we face, that he is powerful enough to change any situation, and that he is also sovereign enough to decide which prayers he answers.

The Story Week 13

This chapter covers the rise and fall of the last king of united Israel; Solomon. Let’s start by just going over what we know about Solomon. He wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. He was wise. He was David’s son. That covers what most people know about Solomon. Here’s some more of his story.

David got old and passed off the kingdom to Solomon. Before he died David gave Solomon a huge challenge. (Read the Story page 176, top paragraph). David’s charge to his son is basically this: Continue to serve God with passion and integrity and you’ll go down in history as a great king. If you don’t honor God, your reign is going to suck. Solomon starts really strong. He builds the first permanent temple for Yahweh. He worships God with a sincere heart. He’s humble and pure in heart. At one point God was so impressed with how Solomon loved righteousness and how he served the Lord that God said he would grant Solomon anything he wished. Solomon asked for wisdom to properly lead Israel. God gave him wisdom and everything else he could have asked for but didn’t.

            Solomon rules over Israel and his wisdom becomes world-renowned. People came from all over the world to hear him speak his wisdom. David extended Israel’s borders with the sword. Solomon maintained it with diplomacy and smooth talking. He ruled Israel so well that the country became very rich. The text says silver became worthless because everyone had so much. One of the results of Israel’s great wealth and growth was that Solomon obtained many, many...many wives. 700 wives and 300 concubines. That’s a lot of esposas. Solomon’s rule starts amazingly well, but ends very amazingly not well. He starts to let all these wives distract him from serving God alone and he starts dabbling in the religions of these wives from other countries. Because he ends up worshipping other gods, the one true God sends Israel down a road of several hundred years of war and turmoil.

            I want to focus on 2 things in this part of the story. The first thing that jumps out to me in this story is Solomon’s decision to ask for wisdom. Imagine the God of the universe shows up and says, “I like the cut of your jib. I’ll give you one thing, but it can be absolutely anything you want.” What would you ask for? Solomon asks for wisdom to rule Israel well. Imagine using that one request to ask for the know-how to do your job better. Because his request is so pure, humble and selfless, God says I’ll give you that plus everything else. The beauty of this part of the story is that Solomon put the first things first.

            Establishing a proper list of priorities is essential in the Jesus life. In this life the number one priority must be knowing and serving God, and when we do that the other things fall into their proper place on the list. Jesus said this exact thing in Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

            Everybody is seeking something. Everybody wants something: A fulfilling career, financial security, social approval, acceptance, family peace, success, fame, achievement, companionship, marriage, and on and on. The biblical message is that when you put these things in their proper place, behind Jesus, then these things will be taken care of in 1 of 2 ways. Either God will give them to you, or you will realize they aren’t as important as you thought.  

            So, what does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? If we aren’t careful “seek the kingdom of God” can become one of those annoyingly vague churchy statements that doesn’t really mean anything at all. First, what is the kingdom of God? It is not a fairy tale description of a magical place in a land far away. A king’s kingdom is the area or realm in which the king rules and has authority. When we allow Jesus to have the rightful place of rule in our lives, when we submit to God’s rule, when we turn over control of our lives to Jesus; that is the kingdom of God. Seeking God’s kingdom is not some weird super mystical thing where we meditate until we get some secret revelation or walk around singing hymns and Jesus juking everyone. It’s letting Jesus be the true Lord of our lives. When someone says something harsh and you choose to be forgiving instead of coming back harsh; that’s the Kingdom of God. When you feel the temptation to look at things on the computer that you shouldn’t, but choose not to; that’s the Kingdom of God. When you want to buy that new              but don’t because you’ve committed helping missionaries; that’s the Kingdom of God. You get the point.

            That’s the good. Here’s the bad. The second thing I want to focus on is how Solomon’s reign ended. Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. He allowed his focus to shift from pleasing God to trying to please all of these wives. His loyalty became divided. This takes up a small part of scripture, but this probably didn’t happen quickly. It’s not like Solomon went to bed on Thursday completely devoted to Yahweh and woke up on Friday worshipping pagan gods. Solomon gradually went off course, first allowing his wives to retain their pagan practices, then becoming curious about their practices, and then dabbling a little in them himself, and then before he knows it he’s worshipping false gods.

            There is a vitally important truth here concerning how we serve God. A little error, unchecked, becomes a big problem over time. Going off course just a little bit doesn’t seem so detrimental at first, but eventually it will lead you far off course.

In the Marine Corps land-nav skill are essential, at least if your infantry. I was point man for my platoon because my land-nav skills were decent. The thing about land-nav is that you have to recheck your azimuth every so often to make sure you are still heading towards the objective. If you pick any point on the equator and travel all the way around the world, coming back to same line of longitude, but your direction is only 1 degree different than the equator you will stop about 500 miles away from your starting point.

In 1979 a sightseeing jet carrying tourists from New Zealand set out to fly over a certain part of Antarctica that would give the passengers a great view of ice sheets and frozen tundra. The night before they took off flight technicians loaded an upgraded navigation software that changed the flight direction by about one degree. Nobody told the pilots. Because the blinding white terrain all blended together they relied completely on instruments for the course. Unfortunately, the pilot’s figures did not match the new software in the instruments and they were actually 28 miles away from where they thought they were. The plain collided with Mount Erebus and all 157 people on the plain died.

We all get off course here and there. But when we continue in a direction that’s a little off course without making corrections we end up very far off course and that can be very dangerous. The fatal point in Solomon’s story is when he decided, “I’m going to serve God whole heartedly in every area…except with my wives.” God had said in Moses’ law not to intermarry with women from other nations. This was not an issue of racial discrimination. The law also prescribed how to graft a non-Jew into Israel, at which point that person could marry any Jew (ie Rahab). The issue was blending religions. Solomon’s fatal flaw was when he ignored God’s direction in this area and said, “I’ll serve God, except…” Think about your life and your faith as it is right now. Are there things in your life that you are allowing because you think they aren’t a big enough deal to warrant fixing? If you honestly search your heart would you say, “I’m willing to serve God in everything, except                                      ?”

The Story Week 11

Sorry, I got sidetracked and didn't post there for a few weeks. Let's get back on track. I want to tackle this chapter by dividing it up by characters. I want to focus our attention on the 3 main characters in this chapter because all of us are, in some ways, similar to these characters. Let’s work backwards from bad to better.  

Saul
Saul started out as an alright guy. However, somewhere along the way he became full of himself, greedy, cruel and disregarded the things God. God had picked him as the first monarch of the chosen nation, and that went to his head. God’s blessing can actually turn into a burden and problem if we don’t handle it correctly. A talent can become a stumbling block. A relationship can cause stress and sin instead of comfort and godliness, etc.

Saul’s issues before David comes on the scene are obviously centered around his own poor decision making. The worst decision being that he thought he could approach God on his own terms by offering a sacrifice Samuel was to make. When he does that the Bible says “the Spirit of the Lord left Saul.” From then on it pops up throughout the story that Saul is tormented by a spirit from the Lord. “The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul.” What does this mean? How can this be the case when the Bible teaches that God is completely just and does not do anything that could be considered wrong? Gen 18:25, Deut 32:4.

We need to understand several things about ancient Hebrew thinking, literature and definitions. First, ancient Hebrew writers commonly employed a literary tool called a “metonymy of subject” in which someone who passively allows something to happen is said to actually have done it. So it is possible that saying this evil spirit was from the Lord could actually mean the Lord didn’t stop something that was trying to happen. Next we need to understand the words. Evil (ra or ra-ah) can mean evil in the spiritual sense. However, this word also often meant anything negative in any way. It is elsewhere translated as angry, unhappy, bad, sad, and tormenting. Spirit (ruach) is also a very broad term that can mean spirit, soul, breadth, wind, mind, attitude, or disposition. So, to say an evil spirit came from the Lord can mean anything from God sent a demon to torment Saul, to God stepped back and allowed Saul’s disposition to become aggravated. Which one makes more sense in light of God’s character?

Do you want to know my theory on what’s going on here?
-Saul rashly made his soldiers take ridiculous oaths.
-He was ready to kill his son because he ate honey. Had the crowd not intervened he would have.
-He was paranoid that David was trying to kill him, or at least trying to take his kingdom.
-He was prone to outbursts of anger and violence (chucking spears at David).
-Saul was bothered that girls sang songs that David killed more people (self important).
 -Saul was often troubled and music calmed him greatly.
-Saul committed suicide on the battlefield.

Symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia from the Mayo Clinic
• Auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices
• Delusions, such as believing a co-worker wants to poison you
• Anxiety
• Anger
• Emotional distance
• Violence
• Argumentativeness
• Self-important or condescending manner
• Suicidal thoughts and behavior
A 2006 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry concluded that music was nearly always soothing during a schizophrenic episode and patients engaged in music therapy had a measurable decrease in symptoms. David played music for Saul and it soothed him. I think Saul was schizophrenic and God kept it at bay because he had chosen Saul as king. I think after Saul disobeyed God so many times and God removed his anointing from Saul it allowed the mental illness to run its course.

 Now, just because you aren’t schizophrenic that doesn’t mean there is nothing to learn from Saul. AND, I’m not saying that if you struggle with a sin God will strike you with schizophrenia. There are some things we see in Saul that could pop up in us without being diagnosed with a mental illness. Jealousy is probably the biggest.  

Jonathan
Saul’s son and assumed heir to the throne sees this kid David kill Goliath and is so full of respect and admiration that they become best friends. The thing about Jonathan that I want to focus on is his humble recognition of David’s greatness and his loyalty to the future king. Think about that, Jonathan is actually the next in line to be king when he meets David. However, one of the first things he does is give David his royal robe. That was not just sign of friendship. That was a recognition of authority. The royal robe was to be worn only by royalty.

The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most famous stories, not just in the Bible but also in all of antiquity, of devoted brotherly friendship. How can we develop this level of friendship with the people around us? Well, we aren’t going to be at that level with every person we know. We just aren’t. There are people you naturally closer to than others. But we can develop every friendship we have to be a little better than it is now. The key to their friendship is that Jonathan valued David above himself and vice versa. They were both had a claim to the throne (one by blood and the other by prophecy) but there is not a hint of bitterness, resentment, jealousy, competition or striving for power between them. The only dynamic that is clearly present is an ongoing concern for the other person’s well being. If you want to have this kind of friendship you have to be this kind of friend. You have to put competitiveness and jealousy aside and genuinely want good fortune for the other person.

 Also, and kind of related to that last idea, you have to see greatness in others. If all of my relationships function to make me feel good and confirm to me how great I am, I’ll never have the kind of friendships David and Jonathan had. Lastly, you have to stay committed to friendships when it gets difficult. Think of how much easier it would have been for Jonathan to bail out of this friendship.

 David
Of course, the main character in this part of the story is David. The great thing about David’s story is that it shows the great disparity between how people assess things and how God assesses things. Nobody around David saw anything great in David. His brothers belittle him and yell at him for leaving the sheep long enough to check on his brothers, but God said he cared for the sheep selflessly and faithfully. Goliath calls him a twig, but God calls him the Branch of Jesse, from whom a root would grow that would be the Messiah. Even his own father didn’t bother calling for him when Samuel said, “one of your sons will be king”, but God said “that’s the next king.”
What did God see in David that impressed him so much?
 1. He was faithful when nobody was looking. When he is convincing Saul to let him fight Goliath he recounts how he fought off ferocious beasts to save his sheep. When David was about 16 he was wandering the wilderness for days at a time, figuring out where water and vegetation were and fighting off bears and lions with a stick! Acting with courage and integrity when nobody is around to pat you on the back is the foundation of greatness.
2. He was a faithful friend to Jonathan. I’ve already talked about Jonathan’s side of this, but the friendship was mutual.
3. He respected authority. In the Marine Corps you can always tell which Marines will be the worst Sergeants because they are the Lance Corporals and Corporals who are constantly trash talking and pushing limits with Sergeants. Those who made the best NCO’s were the most respectful when they had no rank. In order to be a respected authority you must respect authority.
4. He was a man after God’s heart. What does that mean? It means what David wanted most in life was whatever God wanted. He didn’t try to bend God to his will but tried to bend himself to God’s will. So in David, God saw a loyal, humble and courageous person who wanted to please God at all costs and respected his leader even though his leader really sucked. (Obviously, this is way before the whole Bathsheba debacle, but at this point David’s integrity and loyal heart are what got God’s attention).

 So, which of these people do you associate with most? It’s probably some sort of mix. The reality is all of us have some very messed up stuff that we need to learn how to keep in check. Like Saul, we must learn to let God lead our lives or we can lose what God has given us. Like David we all have the potential to do amazing things way beyond what we think we are capable of. Like Jonathan we can all be that kind of friend who is loyal, sees the best in others, and is instrumental in getting others to the place God wants them.

The Story Week 8

After Joshua the Israelites hop on this really stupid and really familiar roller coaster of serving God, rebelling, praying and repenting, then seeing God’s deliverance. You would think after going through this cycle a few times they would learn. Several times in this chapter we read, “Again Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” and then something to the effect of “Israel cried out to God and he raised up…”

There are 3 really cool stories in this chapter about the Judges of Israel: Deborah, Gideon and Samson. I want to talk about them in reverse order. All of these people did great things for God. One of them accomplished great things, but in the wrong way and while constantly giving into sin. Another does great things in the right way, but with a lot doubt at the beginning. And another seems to have just done great things.

Samson
Think back to your High School yearbook from your Sr year. Can you remember who was voted most likely to succeed? Samson would have gotten that spot hands down. Samson was set up for success better than just about anyone in the Bible. Each week we’ve talked about God choosing unlikely candidates who come from very messy situations to accomplish his plan. Samson is the exact opposite.
-His birth was announced by the Angel of the Lord.
-He was set apart from birth for God’s purpose.
-His God-given mission in life was to deliver an entire nation from oppression.
-He was raised in a good home with praying parents who loved him.
-He was empowered by the Holy Spirit with super human strength.

The problem is Samson is a world of contradictions in one person. In spite of all these things he had going for him Samson was demanding (he told his parents “I saw a hot chick, now get her for me!”). He had a false sense of entitlement, he was spoiled, compulsive, quick tempered, rash, selfish and arrogant. He was a man of faith with a weakness for women. He was a man of prayer with uncontrollable anger. He was a leader who cared more about his own fulfillment than setting an example. He was a man of God with no common sense.

One of Samson’s major flaws was that he was motivated by getting even. Look at page 115 of The Story. When he really starts fighting against the Philistines it isn’t to liberate his countrymen from their oppression, it’s selfish revenge. He says, “Since you acted like this, I swear I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” A few sentences later he says, “I merely did to them what they did to me.” Samson is the typical childish brat who says, “They started it! I’m just getting even.” Sadly, Samson doesn’t have the corner on this market. We live in a very strange time when being an unmerciful, vengeful, harsh person is celebrated and people wear it like a badge of honor. “Oh, you best had believe I’ll get even. People know not to mess with me. You treat me well and everything will be ok, but if you cross me once it’s on!” Sound familiar?

Another flaw that partially led to Samson’s demise was his incessant need to be in a romantic relationship all the time. I think part of it was due to his over active lustyfulness (it’s a word). I think another part of it was some weird, emotional deficiency in him that made him think he needed a hot chick around him to be complete. I’m no psychologist, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Samson felt incomplete on his own and looked for fulfillment in relationships. Because he felt so incomplete he ran from one unhealthy relationship to another very quickly (Hey, there’s a cute girl, get her for my wife…then Samson went to the house of prostitute…then he stayed in the most dysfunctional relationship in the Bible with Delilah). Surely, nobody here can relate to this, right?

One last flaw I’ll discuss is his arrogance. Samson began thinking he was awesome and he was strong and he could do not wrong and nobody could ever overpower him. He became very arrogant in something God had given him. One of the saddest statements is scripture is found on page 118 of The Story: [Samson] thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know the Lord had left him.
He was so sure of himself and so unaware of God’s presence that he had no idea God had left.

At the end of this story we read that Samson, having been tied up, blinded and put to manual labor, eventually did free Israel from the Philistines’ oppression by pushing over pillars holding up a temple to Dagon. Thousands of Philistines died and Samson’s purpose was realized. BUT!! Did it have to play out like this? Could Samson have fulfilled God’s plan in a way that was quicker, easier and nobler? God used Samson’s flaws; I would rather God use my strengths.

Gideon
Gideon does not have all same things going for him that Samson had. Gideon’s birth is not announced by angels, his conception is not miraculous, nothing is said about his parent being devout, his destiny is not announced while he is a youth, and he does not have super human strength. But even with less obvious potential he turns out to be a much more honorable and effective judge. The only flaw of Gideon’s that we are privy to is that his own insecurity was so deep that he doubted if God could even use him.

When we meet Gideon he is threshing wheat in a wine press. This may not jump out as strange to us, but it is. Wheat threshing normally took place in a big open space, if possible on a large flat rock. They needed space because they would beat the wheat stalks on the ground to loosen everything up, and then throw the wheat up in the air. The wind would blow away the straw and chaff but the heavier wheat kernels would fall back down. Imagine what that process looks like and the elbowroom you would need to do it. Now, this is what a wine press looks like:



But, this is the wine press of a very wealthy family, or possibly even a professional wine producer. This is more like the the wine press Gideon's family would have used:



Ha! Imagine Gideon wadded up in a little ball trying to thresh wheat in the ancient version of a tupperware bowl. Clearly, Gideon is hiding. He doesn’t want the Midianites to steal what little food he has. The story tells us that he is from Manasseh, the tribe with the smallest number of fighting men. Among Manasseh his family is the smallest, and he is the youngest his family. So Gideon is literally weakest of the weakest of the weak. So here’s weak, scared, little Gideon hiding in a stone bowl and the Angel of the Lord shows up. By the way, I love how casual this word picture seems. He plops down and says, “What’s up beast? God’s doing great things huh?”

Now, to save time we’ll go over the speedy version of the story. God tells Gideon he is going to lead Israel to victory over Midian. Gideon is so unsure of himself he asks God for sign after sign to confirm God’s going to do this. This is the infamous “laying out the fleece” story. It takes a while for Gideon to become convinced, but once he does; it’s on. Once he is convinced God is with him he watches as God reduces his army from 32,000 to 300. He attacks 120,000 Midianites with 300 men, they panick and kill most of each other off and then Gideon chases down the kings of Midian and smites them very smitedly.

Gideon turns out to be a beast. But think back to who he was when God first called him a beast. God called him “mighty warrior” when he was hiding and before Gideon fights anyone God changes his name to Jerubaal (contends with Baal). I want you to think about something: what name would you give yourself? How would you describe yourself in a word or small phrase? Maybe it would be something like loser, stupid, will never make a mark, ugly, different, weak, sinful, run of the mill, or something similar. But know this: whatever weaknesses you think define you are the exact opposite of how God defines you.

Deborah
Samson was a leader who had many flaws. Gideon was a leader who just needed a boost in confidence. Deborah seems to just be an all around great leader. I’m not saying she was perfect, but there also weren’t any character flaws so major that they mattered to the story. Instead we are told she was a prophetess and a judge. That means she was the spiritual and political leader of Israel. She must have been on her game. That Israel, a strongly patriarchal culture, followed the spiritual and political advice of a female means she had an amazing connection to God, was incredibly sharp, and very wise. In addition to all this she was incredibly brave, which was a trait men have historically been very possessive of. The text says she sat under a tree, named after her, and the entire nation brought her their problems to solve. This is the type of leader I want to be. Connected to God, wise, respected.

What does this story mean about the use of scripture to justify sexist ideas? We’ve all heard the claim that the Bible is an archaic sexist text. The inclusion of this story dismantles that idea. The other fierce warrior in this story is Jael. She stakes the bad guys face to the ground. Dang. So in every way, this story describes women as heroic, brave, capable and godly. Perdy awesome.

The Story, Chapter 7: Part 2

The major theme in this chapter has to be courage. “Be strong and courageous!” Did anyone notice how often this phrase pops up? It’s said at least 6 times in this one chapter. This is important because not having courage, not trusting, not having faith is why they’ve been wandering around in the desert for 40 years. Now that that’s behind them and they are getting ready to actually engage in God’s plan to obtain the Promise Land they need to be reminded constantly to stay strong, have courage, don’t be afraid, etc. So here they are, just about to cross the Jordan River and looking at the land that will soon be theirs. The problem is it’s already inhabited and the first city they’re going to have to fight to take the land is Jericho. Let’s look at Jericho from a few angles.

Jericho: The Problem
Have you ever been in a situation that scared the pudden’ out of you? Have you ever been in a situation in which you are absolutely positive there’s no chance you’ll come out unscathed? Have you ever gone through something (or maybe you are going through it right now) where the most common thought is “There’s no way I can do this”? This is the situation Israel is in. They are finally ready to go into the land God promised them and Jericho is right in the way. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. Some archaeologists put its origin at 9,000 B.C. The city itself isn’t very big (about 9 acres) and only had a few thousand people, but several things made the city very intimidating. Scripture says Jericho had men of valor. That means even though there weren’t very many, they knew how to fight. It’s possible that the people of Jericho were much bigger than the Israelites. Remember the spies who said there were giants in the land? Lastly, the most intimidating thing about Jericho was the wall. Technically, there were two walls. Jericho was built on a mound, or small hill. At the base of the hill was a wall about 6ft wide and 20ft high. Then 15ft further up the hill was another wall about 15ft wide and at least 30ft high. This is a problem. There’s a reason such a small town has existed for thousands of years. They know how to defend themselves, and everyone knows Jericho cannot be taken.

Jericho: The Plan
The normal means of taking a city like this would be to surround it and starve the people out then invade the city with siege ramps. The normal plan would take 6 months to a year. God’s plan was to take the city in about a week and involved no actual fighting. God’s plan was absolutely ridiculous: Walk around the city quietly once everyday for 6 days, then 7 times on the 7th day blowing horns, and then everyone yell and boom! Roasted. There’s really not much else to say about this. The clear point is…the plan is weird.

Jericho: The Purpose
Why do you think God threw out such a crazy plan for taking the city? Here’s something to think about: Israel had about 2million people with 600thousand in the army. Jericho had about 2 thousand people with maybe 500-600 eligible fighters. Maybe God designed such a ridiculous plan because even when things seem impossible we tend to rely on our own abilities and resources. “Oh no, I need to figure this out, I need to work harder, I need to overcome this, I need to…I need to…” I think God tells Israel to take the city this way to exaggerate the point that God is doing it. This plan requires total dependence on God, zero dependence on their own ability. With this plan the fact that they vastly outnumbered Jericho became pointless and there was no way they could claim credit for the victory. It is a misnomer to say Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, or even to say Israel fought the battle. They didn’t. They were just present when God did all the work.

Here’s another neat thought: the walls crumbling was not the most miraculous thing about this story. God spoke everything into existence, knocking down a wall is clearly nothing to him. The most amazing part of this story is that the Israelites were able to keep their mouths shut for six days. Think about how monumental that fact is. Since the day they left Egypt they have been complaining and doubting God. They cross the Red Sea, then Moses takes too long on the mountain so they complain and make an idol. They’re following a miraculous pillar of fire around in the desert and they complain that God led them out to let them die. God makes miraculous bread fall from sky every day and they complain that they don’t have meat. They get to the edge of the Promise Land and freak out because the people living there are taller than them, and so on and so on. They’ve been complaining and grumbling the entire time in the midst of miracles and divine providence. Now they are told to march around the hot desert every day for a week, and this is somehow supposed to win a huge battle…and they don’t say a word!

You would expect them to be murmuring things quietly to each other like:
-It’s too hot to do this.
-I’m too tired to march all the way around a city.
-Didn’t we just do this yesterday?
-How is this supposed to bring down a city?
-I think we should impeach Joshua.
-Isn’t this breaking the 10 commandments? What about the Sabbath?
But no, for the first time in over 40 years they simply shut up and obey. That trusting obedience was the key in Jericho falling. There was nothing special about the act of marching or playing trumpets or shouting. Hebrews 11:30 points out that it was “by faith the walls of Jericho fell”.

After this Israel goes on to take city after city until they had the land God promised. God continues to tell them over and over to be courageous and not to fear.

What does all this mean to us? When God asks you to do something it is often something bigger than you, and the way he wants you to do certain things is often not what most people would call logical. For example, I have known since high school God wants me to be in ministry. So joining the Marine Corps seemed like the least obvious ministry decision, especially enlisting in the infantry instead of commissioning as a chaplain. I doubted. I wondered if I was making some really wrong decisions and often thought I wasn’t hearing God’s voice correctly. Now that I’m on the backside of it I know that is exactly what God’s plan was.

You need to be reminded often to have courage and have faith. Towards the end of the chapter Joshua recounts everything that has happened in the last few years and issues an in-your-face challenge. He basically says, “Here’s everything God has done for us. Decide if you’re going to serve him whole-heartedly or not. If all this stuff doesn’t seem good enough, then go do whatever you like. But my family is going to serve God.” That is the exact same challenge before us today.

The Story Week 7

We should technically be in week 6 this week, but I want to combine week 6 and the first part of week 7 focusing on the story of Rahab. Before we talk specifically about Rahab we need to understand something about the Canaanites in general. Part of their religious practice involved temple prostitution. In order to please the gods of fertility and to ensure future harvests they had prostitutes permanently employed by the temples. These prostitutes were not disrespected but were actually very respected. They were seen as mediators between the gods and people. In some cases they were as venerated as the priests. This is the world of Rahab.

We are introduced to Rahab the prostitute in this chapter. Now, even if she is not sacred prostitute of a temple, she is not the social outcast we imagine in our context of the word. In her culture there was nothing wrong with what she did for a living. For us, and the ancient Jews for whom this story is recorded, Rahab is the quintessential sinner. Amazingly, we’re about to find out this pagan hooker had more faith than the Israelites. But first, lets get the fuller picture of whom Rahab is.

There are several sexual innuendos in this part of the story that lose their innuendoeyness (it’s a word) because of language and culture differences.
1. The spies go, without explanation, straight to the prostitute’s house. It could be they thought this would draw the least attention since dudes were constantly going in and out of the house anyway. It could be that they thought this might be the best place to get some good intel on the city…since dudes were constantly going in and out. It could be that Rahab rented a room and this was the only space available. OR, it could be that the spies wanted to mix business with pleasure. There’s no way to tell, but the fact that there’s strangely no explanation means the author probably wanted to leave that option open.
2. The spies “stayed there”. The word for stay here is shakab. It’s a lot like our word sleep. It doesn’t literally mean anything sexual, but was often a slang way to refer to sex. “We slept together” has nothing to do with sleep. Capeesh? Using this word in a story about a prostitute would stand out to the Jewish reader as possibly meaning more than “stayed there.”
3. Rahab’s name means broad. Nothing tricky here. It’s the same way we use the word; a super-casual and often objectifying way to refer to a woman.
4. When the king’s men show up they tell Rahab to give up the men who “came to you and stayed here.” A more literal reading of text is give up the men “who entered into you.” That’s pretty messed up.
All of this is to say Rahab is as Canaanite as you can get. The author purposefully includes all of these innuendos and sexual references to exaggerate the point that there is nothing good in Rahab. There is seemingly nothing redeemable about her. She is a pagan worshiping harlot who is so scandalous she may have even seduced some of Israel’s men. It is against this backdrop that we start to see Rahab as one of the heroes of the story. THE hero of the story.

What Rahab says about God and about Israel is remarkable. The theme through chapter 6 is that Israel has been wondering around the desert for 40 years because of a lack of faith, and the whole time they’re out there they keep saying “God has brought us out here to die!” But Rahab says “I know Yahweh has given you this land.” She says she knows she and her people should be terrified of Israel because Yahweh will do what he said he would do. She has more faith even than Joshua. If he completely trusted God why would he send out spies? She even recounts to the spies how God brought Israel through the Red Sea. And then, if that stuff weren’t enough, she says “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” This phrase is only used by three people in scripture: by Moses, by the wise king Solomon, and once by a prostitute.

Rahab does not seem to be the likely choice to round out the trifecta of faith heroes with Moses and Solomon, but she is! Because of her faith and trust in God’s power she get’s grafted into the family of God. She gets adopted into Israel, not by genetics, but by faith. She marries Salmon and becomes the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth. Rahab is the great, great grandmother of King David and is in the direct ancestral line of Jesus! She is listed in Hebrews 11 among other heroes of the faith. James uses her as an example of what is looks like to act on faith.

So, here are the Israelites, God’s chosen people with the law and the tabernacle and the priests, they have been brought through the Red Sea, have been eating magical bread and quail that falls from the sky every day and figure out where to travel based on which direction the giant pillar of fire moves; yet their constant complaint is, “God has forgotten us. He brought us here to die.” Then there’s the pagan prostitute who has no miracles or reasons to believe who says, “I know Yahweh will give you this land and we should be terrified of you.” God looks at that genuine faith and says, “I like that. You’re in.”

For the rest of scripture Rahab is continually referred to as “Rahab the prostitute” or “Rahab the harlot”. She is never able to get rid of this unfortunate moniker. I think this is because God wants to continually remind us of his grace to the sinner. God constantly reminds us of her past to emphasize what faith does in someone’s life.

Implications: 1 Rahab was saved by faith, not religious perfection. So are we. 2 Someone can be saved by faith and still be in the sinful situation they lived in before. Clearly, as growth happens some things need to change, but that doesn’t mean perfection happens over night or God kicks you out on your butt. 3 God saves the unlikelies. Not just saves, but lifts up, exalts and uses them for his Kingdom.