Author: Erin Newton

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Joshua 23 Listen: (2:31) Read: Philippians 4 Listen: (3:20)

Scripture Focus: Joshua 23:1-2

1 After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, 2 summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: “I am very old.”

Reflection: The Legacy of Growing Old

By Erin Newton

According to developmental psychology, after six or seven decades of living, a person’s priority often turns to “leaving a legacy.” The human mind begins to reflect on life, what has happened and what they want to be remembered for. Joshua seems no different.

At the end of his life, Joshua looked out across the land now inhabited by God’s people. He stopped to give them his final words: “You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done… But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now” (Josh 23:3, 8).

The same sentiments we see echoed in Ecclesiastes: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, … before the silver cord is severed, … and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to the God who gave it” (Eccl 12:1, 6-7).

Much like the aging teacher in Ecclesiastes, it is Joshua who feels the grip of old age closing tighter. He is the strong man who stoops. The almond tree blossoms as his hair fades to silvery gray. He echoes the same messages as the wise man did centuries later: Everything is meaningless apart from the memory of God’s faithfulness.

The legacy Joshua hopes to impart is one that memorializes the uniqueness of God. The people are commissioned to remember his faithfulness. Joshua has seen it over and over, in all his long years. They are to remember that it was God who did the work—not them, not another deity.

So much of the Old Testament is a call to remember. One of the greatest gifts of aging is the lengthy history one has with God. Those who grow in years have had more opportunities to see divine providence in action. And each year that passes is another step closer to hearing the answer to one’s prayers.

But our world is obsessed with anti-aging. Even if we can prevent wrinkles or color our graying hair, aging is an honorable gift to be received. Aging is the continued mercy from God. Aging gives us more opportunity to remember him.

It should not burden us to see another gray hair or watch our skin fold into new creases by our eyes. Like Joshua, we should fix our minds on what message we will leave for our community. Like Joshua, may our legacy be a testimony about the faithfulness of God.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show us the light of your countaenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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The next generation needs us to model condemning our past sins, confessing them, and being free. Josiahs need Zephaniahs.

Josiahs Need Zephaniahs—Readers Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Joshua 11 Listen: (3:52) Read: Ephesians 3 Listen: (2:41)

Scripture Focus: Joshua 11:7-9

7 So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, 8 and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel. … 9 Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

Reflection: Hamstrung Power

By Erin Newton

When we read stories of warfare and violence in the Bible, especially in narratives that depict the events as God-ordained, we should not take the stories too lightly. In fact, I suggest we not read them while gloating or with a sense of prowess. They are troubling; they jolt our senses.

The narratives in Joshua describe the journey of God’s people into an occupied land by means of war. The text says that God commanded them to kill everyone. Scholars have long felt the uneasiness of such a brutal request. Some have downplayed the language as hyperbole.

Others say the conquered locations are military outposts rather than civilized towns. Others focus on the details and compare Israel’s God with the foreign gods.

In a pursuit to understand why the violent texts are preserved as God’s word, William Webb and Gordon Oeste looked at various texts and discovered not a God who delights in death but “a highly reluctant war God who is not exactly eager to participate with Israel in its wars” (Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric? Wrestling with Troubling War Texts).

In Joshua 11, God tells Joshua to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots. Webb and Oeste point out, “We might immediately cringe at the maiming of these animals.” I do. My love of nature includes my compassion on all created beings—from the beetles who burrow in my yard to the elusive tigers of Malaysia. Why would God call for harming his creatures?

Ancient Near Eastern cultures increased power and pride through the accumulation of chariots. With these new victories, Israel might try to increase its weaponry. Therefore, the horses are reduced to domestic labor.

Webb and Oeste see a God who “wanted his people to be owners of cattle in a land flowing with milk and honey, not a people whose land was full of war horses and chariots—the instruments of human oppression and domination.” It is God who hamstrings his people’s pride by asking them to debilitate the enemy’s horses and burn their chariots.

Webb and Oeste’s perspective offers another way of balancing the “leave-none-alive” Old Testament texts with the “turn-the-other-cheek” character of God.

We still wrestle with these violent texts and not all questions may ever be answered. But we see a God who disarms his people, stunts their might, and hinders their pride.

Because in our weakness, he is made strong.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse

The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures he has settled me. — The Short Breviary

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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What meaning will you find by reading the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace?

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Joshua 4 Listen: (3:31) Read: Colossians 1 Listen: (4:18)

Scripture Focus: Joshua 4:10, 18

10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua…

18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

Reflection: Holding Chaos at Bay

By Erin Newton

Standing in the middle of the muddy riverbed, the priests hold the ark of the covenant—the symbolic presence of God—keeping the waters at bay. They are doing none of the withholding. They hold poles; God withholds the raging waters.

I love how the text presents the image of the river crossing. I imagine the waters receding, making a path for God’s people. The priests stand motionless in front of this invisible dam. They are not shouting some magical phrase. Their arms are not outstretched as if to bend the waters to their will. They are not even doing the work of a beaver, piling and weaving limbs and branches to keep the waters back. They stand. They stand next to the presence of God.

When they settle in one place long enough, the priests will busy themselves with other things. They will cleanse and burn and offer and worship and intercede and sacrifice. They will live  in the presence of God. God will keep doing the work of barring chaos from drowning his people. But here, in this place, they just stand.

Doing something feels a lot more productive than standing. We’re told that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” So we, in turn, translate that to “keep busy.” Busyness is godliness, right? Not always.

In the riverbed, these image bearers of God are holding the presence of God. He silently commands the waters, “This far you may come and no farther” (Job 38.11). As priests, they are called to do this specific job. Stand.

And so are we. When God granted all his people to be a priesthood (1 Pet 2.9), he intended for us also to stand in the gap—between humanity and chaos—holding the presence of God. We present the law of love and truth and justice and righteousness to the forces that would bring death and destruction. We stand firm and watch God work.

In Claire Keegan’s novella, Small Things Like These, the main character is abruptly confronted with the suffering of others. His mind is torn between complacency and action. The story ends with a poignant question: “Was there any point in being alive without helping one another?”

In the case of Joshua 4, can we ask ourselves, Is there any point in being alive without standing in the gap, holding space for people to find safety without chaos consuming us all?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, for in his holy Name we put our trust.
Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, as we have put your trust in you. — Psalm 33.20-22

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

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