I was struck recently by commands God has given His people that were, well, just plain wrong. No, not wrong in actuality, but wrong to anyone just watching. It would have been easy -- perhaps even reasonable -- to say, "That is not the right command to give at that time."
In Joshua 1-4, the children of Israel had conquered the eastern side of the Jordan. They were in relative peace over there with a natural barrier of the river to protect them. Okay, so it wasn't perfect. Still, it afforded some defense. So God ordered them to cross the river in preparation to attack the western area. They had that marvelous thing where God stopped the river for them and they crossed on dry land. In Joshua 5, it was even reported to everyone around so that their enemies were all terrified. Now, assuming a smart general, given that your enemy is terrified and you have all your armies there fresh and ready to go, what do you command? Well, you command an attack, right? Not God. As soon as they had crossed the river, God made this command.
At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time" (Josh 5:2)."Ummm, okay, God, just a minute of Your time, please? Look, we've seen this trick pulled before. In fact, our ancestors did it. They talked an entire town into incapacitating their men by circumcision and then killed them all while they were in pain. So, are You sure You want us to incapacitate our entire army right now, right here where we are most vulnerable?"
God wasn't finished. You can almost hear this exchange. "Oh, I wasn't really thinking. Thanks for asking. I forgot to mention. While you're at it, don't forget to keep the Passover." (Josh 5:10).
"Whoa, wait a minute, Lord. You mean, first we incapacitate ourselves and then we sit down for a sacred meal? Are you sure this is your plan?"
You see, sometimes God makes commands that don't make much sense to us. In fact, it didn't get much better after that. At the end of Joshua 5, Joshua ran into the captain of the hosts of the Lord who passed on God's instructions for taking out the heavily armed, walled city of Jericho. What was this fine military plan? You'll love this one. March around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh, have your priests blow their horns and the people shout and you'll win (Josh 6:2-5)! "Wait ... wait ... that's Your battle plan? Really? Is that the best You can do?"
Of course, we know the outcome. They didn't get attacked while they healed. They finished their Passover. They carried out the plan to the letter. And they didn't have to attack a walled city; the walls "fell down flat" (Josh 6:20). Absolute victory!
Sometimes God's commands don't make sense. Be a cheerful giver ... even when your resources are short. Love your enemy. ("Really? Him??!") Turn the other cheek. Rejoice in suffering. Oh, there is a long list of very strange, rather unlikely commands. We can certainly do what we can to understand them, but we do not get the option of refusing. At least, not if we are followers of Christ. Even the unlikely commands need to be obeyed. Perhaps especially the unlikely commands.
4 comments:
Stan,
It's almost like the things of God seem foolish to man and like God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. Yes, i'm sure I heard something like that before.
You need to be careful making stuff up like that, Jeremy. :)
Speaking of commands God sometimes gives that don't make sense to us, you just wrote about a pretty darn big one -- circumcision. So many people are so used to that being done to baby boys that I guess maybe they have become desensitzed to it. But c'mon; that's just weird.
You take what sure appears to be a healthy and perfect little baby boy and then cut a part of his little body off!? If it is supposedly done because of health issues, were male bodies just not created quite right, so now some think we humans should correct or improve on that? It seems a pretty barbaric act.
If some kind of mark was needed to set some men apart, why there, on a rather "private part", a place it seems not near as many people would be seeing as something like a small tattoo on the top of a man's arm or hand?
If it was a religious tradition to cut the little fingers off of every newborn baby girls' left hand, would we routinely be doing that, too? Why not? People would become accustomed to seeing 9-fingered females after a while. And baby girls would adapt because they would never have known anything different. Anyway... pretty weird. Or so it seems to some of us anyway.
Yeah, you're right. God realized, after He'd already designed males, "Oh, darn! I didn't mean to do that. Well, I'll just have them cut it off." Really? Do you think someone who actually believes in the biblical God would answer that way?
Biblically, circumcision is a big image. There is the issue of the "blood covenant", a practice that says, "This is our agreement and may this and more be done to me if I don't", symbolized in the cutting. There is the separation between Israel and the rest of mankind. There is the whole imagery of the circumcised heart, being given a new heart in place of the dead one. There is the pain of sin and the cutting away that is required. And none of that is the reason for the practice in hospitals today. They do it for health reasons. (And they're not so sure anymore.)
I suppose you really like your version of God. "You know, that part about 'God loves' is good. I'll keep that part. The part where He makes demands is bad. I'll throw that part out. I will, in essence by my own God. Yeah, that will work." That is the biblical definition of sin, the perfect illustration of Man's problem. It's not "bad things"; it's Cosmic Treason.
Post a Comment