MARCH 23, 2020

“A great man is always willing to be little.” 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

JOSHUA 9-10

40So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills,f and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. 41Joshua conquered the area from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and the whole region of Goshen as far as Gibeon.

42And because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel, Joshua captured all these kings and their land in one campaign. 43Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.

LUKE 3

9The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

JOURNAL

Joshua completely destroys the inhabitants of multiple cities. Killing all men, women and children. His tactics are ruthless! John's words command the people to give freely, do a job fairly, and be good to other people. How can these actions, both of which are in obedience to God be in the same book? How can they be commands of the same God? People have made comments at times that the God of the Old Testament was different. Well that statement is absolutely false. God is unchangeable...that's the nature of being God. So how are they reconciled? I struggle with it...it's always been a struggle for me...and that's ok! I still trust God, I still believe he is the God of Love and I still believe that his ways are good.

Day 8: Reading this juxtaposition of God's ways could not come at a more pertinent time. I realize more and more how our culture tends to disassociate reality.  Life is brutal, hard, people die, children die,  people are murdered, falsely accused, punished, brutalized and it happens thousands of times every single day. That is our world. Yet this facebook culture which I live and contribute...has a way of buffering us from that reality. The other day I started looking up death rates for different illnesses etc. I was awestruck that 9 million people die every year from hunger....hunger!! Even crazier...15 million children in the united states suffer from malnutrition. What? 15 million!!! Yet when it comes to things which we as a culture have resigned ourselves to accept, it no longer affects us. I know it doesn't for me and I don't believe I am an outlier here. Because as soon as I stop writing I will forget about starving children. Sad but true.

I say this because we are in an unprecedented time in history where we are responding as a world together to an illness that we don't yet fully understand. That is a good thing! People will get sick, people will die, that is unavoidable, we can't change that...it's the world God created. Yet what can change is our perspective, our focus and where our joy is derived.  Things will happen that we don't understand, just as there are things that God did and allowed in the Bible that I don't understand.  But I still trust God because he has walked in our shoes, he knows our hurts, our fears, our worries and he promises that he will never leave or forsake us.  So in trusting God...I should do as he commands which is

29Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’g 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’h No other commandment is greater than these.”

And....

34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

6Who, being in very nature^a God,did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature^b of a servant,being made in human likeness.8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  

Philippians 2:6-8