Pick Flowers Not Fights

Joshua seems to be all about Israel winning the fight. They are constantly in battle with another group, winning land and conquering others. For whatever reason, I don't like this Israel as much as I liked the lost in the wilderness Israel. They're still dependent on God, but they seem almost greedy. I know God promised them the land and gave them clear instructions on how to win it and how to fight for it, but they seem not very nice. I don't have time now to elaborate- it's time to go discuss Ecclesiastes with 18 year old girls!

Faith and Compromise

This past week at work I had an interesting conversation with one of the guys. He was telling me how he wondered how anyone stayed a Christian at seminary. After all, all the history of the Bible and the Christian faith is totally torn apart in seminary, isn't it? My response was that it didn't seem to matter- if God can do anything, why can't he use a bunch of different people to put together the Bible? The chapter in the Matthews book made me think of this conversation. He seems to disprove much of what many church goers believe. The exodus may not have happened and even if it all did,  the histories we have of it are changed and formed by the culture of those documenting it. But I don't really see the problem with it. Our own thoughts are formed by the culture we live in. All of our stories are impacted by our analysis. Look at news sources- people only listen to those that they know follow their own political leanings. We emphasis according to what we believe. So what if the biblical writers did the same thing- emphasized the parts that are most relevant to their culture at the time? Does that change what we can learn from the Bible? Can't we still see what God is like  and how He wants to interact with us even with cultural emphasis or even embellishment?

Remembering You

Deuteronomy is Moses' goodbye to his people. He's giving them helpful reminders and rehashing the story of their past. The people preparing to go into the Promised land didn't actually live through the Exodus and the many years of wandering, they were born in the midst of it and grew up never knowing the oppression of Egypt. Moses gives them the run-down. It's a reminder to not screw it up. God has finally allowed them the gift that the country has been waiting for for such a long time. But will this new generation remember the importance of why the land means so much and everything their ancestors went through to get to it? Moses is doing his best to make sure that they do remember and can not deny it.

Currently, I'm (very slowly) reading "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan in moments of rest (hence the very slowly...). One of the most striking parts of it is one of the grandmothers saying she hopes her granddaughter will remember her, but comes to the realization that "later, she will forget her promise. She will forget she had a grandmother." It's not just Israel, Judaism, Christianity that worries about remembering the past. It's humans. We all want to make our mark on the world we live in- to somehow get famous and be known, to have children to carry on our name, to have friends to take pictures with. Yet we forget the past that came before us. How many of us can tell the full story of our great-grandparents' lives? Or even our grandparents? I know for me, I know the story of Israel better than my own. I guess Moses got it right- remind them, and often.

40 Day Dream

I find God and Moses' conversation in Numbers 14 to be intriguing. God is all ready to forsake the entirety of Israel, but Moses reminds him that the Egyptians will hear of it and that would not honor Him. After all, they told the Egyptians about how the Lord of Israel is slow to anger and forgiving, but killing off an entire race is just the opposite of that. It seems like a last ditch argument at first- "Hey, maybe God will buy this one and I can convince the people to be good!" Yet, God accepts it. He still punishes the people, as they deserve, but doesn't kill everyone. Moses managed to save them once again. On Thursday, Dr. Reid brought up the idea that Moses couldn't have been allowed into the promised land because the people may have run into the deification of him. After all, Israel does seem to really like its physical gods and leaders.Since he had saved their bums so many times in the past, it seems likely that Israel as a whole would find it hard to resist worshipping the physical man who got them to the Promised land.