March 28

1 Samuel 8:1-22, 9:1-27, 10:1-27, 11:1-15, 12:1-25

Israel finally gets its king.  They're warned that they'll end up exchanging their slavery in Egypt for slavery to a king.  "'This is what the king who will reign over you will do:  He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.  Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for chariots.  He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.  He will take a tenth or your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.  He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.  When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.'" [1 Sam. 8:11-18]

But a king is what they want.  They're more comfortable with a man leading them -- no matter his faults and the outcome than they are having the Lord of the universe lead them.  Why is this?  Why is it a people who have experienced the power of the Lord firsthand prefers being lead by a man?  Is it fear?  Is it wanting someone to have a overall responsibility for us?  Is it simply the desire to fit in and be like the rest of the world?  We are and do the same.  We deny God in order to fit in with the rest of the world.  We're afraid of a personal relationship with God and are more comfortable with someone having responsibility for us.  We are called to be a special people but we don't like feeling special or different.  We are the victim, more comfortable in our victim-hood, co-dependent to that which enslaves us and afraid and uncomfortable when we find ourselves free in Christ.

Chasing an ass, that's how God identifies the future ruler of Israel to Samuel.  Do you think there was a little humor in that sign?

March 27

1 Samuel 3:1-21, 4:1-22, 5:1-12, 6:1-13, 7:1-17

At the transition from Judges to Kings, Samuel lives at an interesting time.  The Bible records that "In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions." [1 Sam. 3:1]  Sounds like today.  It seems to me that the Lord is scarce in times and places that man relies on his own intelligence rather than on the Lord.  But I wonder in Third World countries where they only have God to rely on if God is working in more miraculous and direct ways than He does in countries were we don't think we need his help.  Even in the Old Testament, the times when man was blessed with visions came and went.  We don't need, nor should we want, to limit what God can do in our lives and in the world around us.

Then there is this interesting verse -- "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord:  The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." [1 Sam. 3:7]  He did not yet know the Lord?  How can this be?  He worked in the Tabernacle under Eli and didn't know God?  It says something about Eli and, perhaps, why his sons turned out the way they did.  It also says something about the heart versus knowledge.  The Lord comes and calls to someone who doesn't even know Him.  but he has a good heart.

The Ark of the Covenant has always fascinated me -- and it seems I'm not the only one since the very first Indiana Jones movie was focused on the Ark.  Imagine the faith and belief the Philistine's interaction with the Israelites and their God must have produced -- even though they were at war.  They even express their faith on learning that the Ark has entered the Israelite's camp -- "'A god has come into the camp,' they said.  'We're in trouble!  Nothing like this has happened before.  Woe to us!  Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?  They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert....'" [1 Sam.  7, 8]

The Philistines believed because they witnessed directly the wonders of the Lord.  They see their Dagon, fallen on its face in the presence of the Ark.  They're afflicted with tumors and move it from city to city because of their fear of its power.  Don't you wonder how many Philistines believed in the Hebrew's God because of this?  In this case, did the enemy of God's people show more fear and awe for the Lord than His own people did?

March 26

1 Samuel 1:1-28, 2:1-36

Samuel stands as an interesting contrast to Sampson.  Both of their mothers were blessed by God with the birth of these children.  Both children are born into the Nazarite vow.  Both will be Judges.  But one is a physically stronger warrior.  The other is a spiritually strong leader and discerning judge.  And only one is given to God by his mother in thanks.  

What would have happened if Sampson's mother had given her child to God?  

Or is this all just a matter of how two men make two different choices.  The two fare very differently.   Samuel follows God's desires.  Sampson follows his own.

And then the Bible records, "And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men."  [1 Sam. 1:26]

We will hear than said of someone else.  What an awesome thing to be describe as a child as Jesus was described.

March 25

Judges 19:1-30, 20:1-48, 21:1-24

A priest cares enough for his concubine (and, yes, I said those two words in the same sentence "priest" and "concubine") that he goes after her to bring her back home even after she's unfaithful to him.  Sounds like the story of Hosea.  And then, the men surrounding the house asking for the man to send his visitor out sounds a lot like Lot.

But then, the rest of the story is, well, quite original.

The Levite's concubine is raped and abused by the men of Gibeah and dies.  So the Levite cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends them to the twelve tribes of Israel.  Imagine opening up that package.  This wasn't your typical secret sister gift. 

The tribes put the pieces together (figuratively) and share the Levite's outrage.  So they kill a bunch of Bejaminites since the people Gibeah are of the tribe of Benjamin.  Curiously, the Lord doesn't let them win right off.  There's some suffering involved.  Perhaps there are so many skeletons in their collective closets that God is outraged at their outrage...and so there's plenty of punishment to go around.  Lord knows.  

Then, once they've finally slaughtered a good deal of Benjamin's tribe, Israel mourns and come up with crazy scheme to have the Benjamin men without a wife to abduct the girls in Shiloh while they're out dancing in the fields.  This, apparently in their minds, gets around the fact that Israel has taken a vow to never give their daughters in marriage to Benjamin.  Ok, so abduct them while we look the other way.  God, as far as I know, has only looked the other way once.

So the big question for me is -- is abduction of an innocent woman better than breaking a rash vow?  Isn't this law over love?  And why are those outraged over Benjamin's sexual morality asking them to abduct their daughters?  I'd be outraged...if I weren't such a sinner myself.  This is classic PCKB if you ask me.  (Pot calling the kettle black.)

March 24

Judges 17:1-13, 18:1-31

We've got a Levite making a deal to become a personal priest and watching over the household gods.  So is that going to make God happy?  I think not.  Not sure why the story of Micah is in here or why it gets more verse-time than Enoch or Methuselah or Jair's 30 sons on 30 donkeys.  Maybe just for us to see how far from God Israel has wandered.

March 23 -- Easter 2008 -- He Is Risen!

Judges 13:1-25, 14:1-20, 15:1-20, 16:1-31

God's into baby announcements.  And there's a pattern to how He delivers the Good News.  Pun intended.

So.  The original All-Brawn-No-Brain.  Is Sampson so stupid that he doesn't know these women are deceiving him?  Or does he know and just doesn't care cause he can get out of anything.  Both his first wife and then Delilah play pretty much the same trick on him.  Delilah does it four times.  But, then, don't any of us in an unhealthy relationship believe the same untruth over and over and over again?  We're so blind when it comes to love, it just makes you want to pull your hair out.  Slightly ironic Biblical allusion intended.

March 22

Ruth 1:1-22, 2:1-23, 3:1-18, 4:1-22

I don't think we're comfortable when God colors outside the lines, when he does the unexpected. But I serve a God that's bigger than my understanding, a surprising and unlimited Creator.  I think He's constantly telling me that things we are argue about miss the point.  We are all a million miles away from God arguing over who is two inches closer.  God is in the action of the Bible.  Not the rules.

Ok, so what has me hoping up on my soapbox?  The story of Ruth.  Interrupting the violent and adventurous tales of leaders and great judges and the battles between Israel and the Promised Land's many occupying nations, against this sweeping epic backdrop is the a chic-flick sort of story about three widows.  

Jair and his 30 sons on 30 donkeys in 30 cities only get a couple of verses.  Ruth gets a book.  And what makes this even more surprising to me is the fact that Ruth is a Moabite.  The Moabities are descendents of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his older daughter.  [Genesis 19:37]  And we've read earlier that the Moabites were excluded from the Lord's assembly to the tenth generation. [Deut. 23:3]  Noami's tragic circumstances -- being widowed and the death of both of her sons -- could have easily been interpreted as what happens when you marry outside of the chosen people.  Ruth is an outsider, not one of the chosen.  Yet, her devotion to her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's God earns her a place in God's word.

We argue over who is going to heaven.  The answer is:  God knows.  There is only one way -- through Christ.  But following that way takes all sorts of different courses in the Bible.  You can live and never die (even though God said man would die) like Enoch.  You can share His suffering on the cross and never follow the "plan of salvation" -- the thief.   God will save whom He will save.  All we can do is follow His Word.  And leave the exact plan of salvation to Him.  This is not to say we shouldn't seek to follow God's word.  This doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to be saved as the Bible and the Lord prescribe it.  It's just we shouldn't use the path of salvation as a measuring stick to determine who will be saved.  Let God be the judge.  Because He is.

They may go by a variety of names but God's people are God's people.  And God will do what He will do.  He will gloss over the stories of judges and nations and then pause to spend an inordinate amount of time telling the story of three widows -- and the focus of this story being a Moabite named Ruth.

This Moabite will be the great-grandmother of a great king, King David.  And from the house of David will arise the Christ.  

Is this how we would have written God's story? 

March 21

Judges 10:1-18, 11:1-40, 12:1-5

Several judges are just glossed over in this reading.  Many of their reins seem to be basically quantified by how many children they had and what kind of animal was their preferred mode of transportation.  Some of it almost sounds like it's an excerpt from a children's book -- Good Old Jair was so bad had 30 lads who rode on 30 donkeys (bought from ads?) in to 30 towns in Gilead.

Israel, yet again, gets in a bad way by worshipping a growing list of foreign gods.  This is the longest menu of gods served I've seen this far.  "They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines." [Judges 10:6]   Maybe I'm reading more into this than is there, but it appears God doesn't have the Philistines and Ammonites "crush them" just because of the foreign gods.  In a way, it seems like it was the last straw when they left Him out of the mix.  "And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served Him, He became angry with them." [Judges 10:6]

Again and again, I'm amazed at how long-suffering the Lord -- yes, the God of the Old Testament -- is and how ready He is to forgive His people.  Later Israel will realize their mistake and cry out to the Lord.  And the Lord rightly responds, "...You have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you.  Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen.  Let them save you when you are in trouble!" [Judges 10:13, 14]  But when they repent and get rid of their foreign gods, the Lord changes His mind because "...He could bear Israel's misery no longer." [Judges 10:16]  What compassion for a wayward people.

But then, following this story of the Lord's amazing compassion, a story is recorded that makes me pause and question.  The story of Jephthah and his daughter.  

At first, this story seems to model that of God and His people.  Jephthah is rejected by his own family and then remembered and called upon when they're in desperate need.  He is made the leader on condition that he gets them out of the trouble they're in.  Sound familiar?  And he does.  

But then, in what I take to be Jephthah's zeal to be victorious and honor God, he makes a vow that, if the Lord gives him victory, then he will sacrifice the first thing that comes out the door to meet him when he returns home after battle.  

His daughter welcomes him.  His one and only child.

Both the judge that reins before and after Jephthah have multiple children -- Jair has 30 sons (on 30 donkeys) and Ibzan has 30 sons and 30 daughters (though we don't know what they rode on).  So this story and this sacrifice just happens to fall to the leader with just one child.  None of this is chance.  I don't believe in chance.  

Several thought-provoking things in this little-preached story.  First of all, what a curious promise to offer up on Jephthah's part.  Second, if he was doing this to honor the Lord, why didn't God have something or someone less precious run out to greet him?  Why not the family cat?  The mother-in-law?  A bill collector who just happened to be in the neighborhood and was knocking on Jephthah's door.  But, no, it's his daughter.  Is this a test or a punishment of Jephthah?  What was in his heart when he made the oath?  Compare this story to the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Jephthah makes a rash, rather odd oath that results in the sacrifice of his one and only child.  God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Both father's are willing to do it.  In the case of the two children, Jephthah's daughter actually knows she is to be sacrificed and willingly yields.  Based on the question he asks his father, you wonder how much Isaac actually knows what is about to happen.  But the most significance difference between the two stories is that Jephthah actually kills his daughter.  The Lord stops Abraham and offers a means of escape.  So, tell me, who has the greater faith here?  The one who follows through?  Or the one the Lord provides a means of escape?  Why wasn't Jephthah and his daughter offered a means of escape?  Why didn't God say a word?  

Some apologists make the point that the sacrifice of his daughter was all Jephthah's doing.  It had nothing to do with God.  Jephthah made the rash vow and he honored it.  Did God require him to honor it?  Or was the death of his daughter just the work of an overzealous follower?  God is silent.  

I don't think God's silence absolves Him from "guilt."  Not sure that's the right word...but the only one that comes to mind.  If a tragedy happens in our presence -- someone is mugged or murdered -- in our presence and we have the power to stop it, aren't we assigned a degree of guilt?  Wouldn't we be guilty in the eyes of society if we just stood by and did nothing?  I know their are greater implications to all of this than I can even imagine.  But, ultimately, I hold the creator responsible for His creation, the parent for their child.  How do I reconcile it all?  I don't.  I live in the faith that in the grand scheme of things there is some greater purpose at work that I cannot fathom.  That what looks like ignorance is wisdom.  That, even though we think we have, we haven't actually read the end of these stories in the Bible.  The conclusion to these stories, the final word to all of the stories in the Bible, will be read in the next life.  I read these stories as if they're missing a conclusion...that I don't have complete understanding because something has been left out.  I read the Bible as a book that is absent a final chapter.  The 67th book of the Bible will be given to us in heaven [Skid, it's like the final episode of Lost that will hopefully bring a satisfactory conclusion to each episode before].  And so I can't wait to read the final word on the story of Jephthah and his daughter.

It seems fitting that this year we're reading about Jephthah's daughter on Good Friday as we approach Easter.  Some have suggested that Jephthah's daughter is more of a Christ story than is the story of Isaac.  Still it's a story we're afraid to touch in open discussions.  Except, check out this preacher who used the story for his father's day message.  

For a little bit of comic relief, or as much comic relief as the death of 42,000 can provide, look at the story that the NIV humorously titles -- "Shibboleth or Sibboleth."  [Judges 12:4-6]  The scene sounds like it's right out of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."  What emerges from this battle is a victory for Gilead...and really good diction.

March 20

Judges 8:4-35, 9:1-57

I am amazed.  We're almost one-fourth through the text and nearly 80 days into the year and each day, day by day, the Bible speaks to me, personally, with an incredible voice of confidence and assurance.  Do we take the miracle of the Bible for granted?  Especially those of us who've been raised in the church, those of us for whom the Bible has always just been there.  Just the other morning, I found several photographs out when John was small.  Mariana had been looking through old photographs to find something for some of the senior events that wanted old pictures.  Looking at that picture of him, it had amazing power and made me think about what a beautiful child he was, a miracle really, and how wonderful that time was in our lives together and it brought back so many emotions and memories.  It made me pause and think and evaluate our lives since then -- what I've done well...and what I've done wrong.  What power from a forgotten photography.  This Bible.  It's God's picture.  Forgotten and overlooked.  But when I stop to look at it I'm filled with a rush of emotions and memories.  It causes me to consider my relationship with Him all over again, from my birth in Christ until now.  I think this picture needs a more prominent place in our house and in my heart.

Anyway, so much lurks under the surface of today's reading about Gideon and his son Abimelech.  This is a rich morning in my reading and meditation (if you couldn't already tell from my previous paragraph).  But I'm going to mediate the headiness of

 it all with a few lego illustrations from The Brick Testament.

We can make anything bad if we want to.  We're extremely talented in those regards.  Gideon takes his spoils from battle and crafts a gold ephod (part of the priests adornment, a piece of jewelry).  Given Gideon's acknowledgement of God as Lord, I'm sure he meant it as a thing of praise and remembrance.  Perhaps it started out that way.  But soon it becomes something that is worshipped by the people and "a snare to Gideon and his family." [Judges 8:27]  How tragic.  Gideon, who was so careful not to usurp God's authority over Israel, crafts a piece of jewelry that becomes an idol in his house that usurps God's authority over Israel.  This is the centerpiece to Israel's story.  They and we are so easily distract from our God by the gods we make for ourselves.

Now let me stop for a moment and express my incredulity, my wide-eyed and opened-mouthed amazement, even a little bit of horror at this single verse:  "

He [Gideon] had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives."  [Judges 8:30]  Wow, seventy kids?!  Now sometimes in the Bible people attributed as the offspring or children of someone are actually the grandchildren or great-grandchildren, etc.  That's what makes tracing a timeline or measuring years against a genealogy so difficult.  But give the context of this verse and the explanation for this astounding bit of trivia, "for he had so many wives," I've got to believe he actually had 70 children.

Seventy children.  Think of it.  Live in it for a moment.  Try it on and see how it feels.  Did he know all of their names?  And if he did, could he match the name to the face?  And could he match the name and the face to a birthday?  How long, how many months did it take for him to get around to spend time and play with each of them?  His household was more like a McDonald's on a Saturday.  

Then there are the wives.  If we say each wife averaged 5 kids because a woman tended to have more children in those days, then we're talking 14 wives.  The only thing worse than keeping up with all the idiosyncrasies of 14 wives...is dealing with 14 mothers-in-law.  Hopefully he married a few sisters.

Wait a minute, wait a minute!  I've made a mistake here.  I misread something.  He had "seventy sons."  There were most likely more children.  So, let's redo the math.  Let's be conservative and say Gideon averaged one daughter for every three boys.  So that makes it around 27 girls for an estimated total of 97 children with names and birthdays to be remembered from an estimated 20 wives with birthdays and anniversaries and "our songs" to be remembered and with mothers telling you you're not spending enough time and home with the kids and their daughter, your wife. 

I'm surprised that Gideon didn't find someone else to wage a war with.  Even though war is hell, a house of 117 can't be a picnic.  I take back what I said.  "He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives," is not the most incredible verse in this reading.  It's the verse just prior, Judges 8:29 -- "Jerub-Baal son of Joash [Gideon] went back home to live."

The evil of Abimelech is also incredible.  And the fact that a people would follow someone so obviously and completely evil is equally amazing.  Abimelech kills, murders, all 70 of his brothers...except one.  Even in the most evil of times, the Lord always preserves a remnant.  His brothers are killed on a stone, like an altar, sacrificed to Abimelech's desire to be king.  But God will avenge this evil in a most God-like way.  Something will just fall out of the sky and kill him.  A woman drops a milestone on Abimelech's head.  Abimelech dies in shame, asking his armor-bearer to kill him so that he won't be remembered for the indignity of being killed by a woman.  

Sorry, Abimelech, but that's how it is recorded for all time.  You were felled by a woman with a stone to grind.

March 19

Judges 6:1-40, 7:1-25, 8:1-3

Finally, a judge worthy of more than a couple of verses.  Gideon not only gets several chapters in the book but also his name on the book in Super 8s everywhere.

This Gideon guy has a silver tongue (not to mention a golden ephod, not to be confused with the coveted golden ipod).  Gideon tries to persuade God not to call on him because -- "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." [Judges 6:15]  Had Gideon been reading his Gideon Bible, he would have known his argument is like throwing kerosene on a burning bush.  God seems to like it when the odds are against him.  God is going to show Gideon (and us) how much He can do with just a little.  Later Gideon uses his verbal talents to put off having to do anything for two days by asking for the dew sign.  [Judges 6:36-40]  Then, finally, he sweet talks the Emphraimites who are ticked off because they didn't get the memo on the Midian fight (and maybe equally upset that their tribal name rhymes with effeminate.)  

When God calls Gideon, there is sort of an odd jump back and forth between who is speaking -- Is it the Angel of the Lord or the Lord?  I think we've seen this before.  Maybe with Abraham.  Does the presence shift along with the voice?  Is it like the Matrix when one presence sort of takes over another being's body?  Or are they both there?  Or is it a text/Hebrew/translation thing I'm just not getting?

Another great 300 movie sequence.  But, unlike Sparta's 300, Gideon's 300 actually win the battle.  God and Gideon conquer the Midianites and Amalekites and assorted others who are as "thick as locusts.  Their camels could no more be counted than the sand of the seashore." [Judges 7:12]  Someone needs to make this movie.  You've got magic (well, miracles), plenty of slo-mo violence, a lengthy chase scene, comic stooge-esque Midianites running in circles and killing each other, the lowly pitted against the strong and the underdog wins.  Just don't tell anyone it's from the Bible and they'll flock to it.

March 18

Judges 4:1-10,12-17, 11, 18-24, 5:1-31

Ehud shoving his sword into Eglon up to the hilt and then letting the folds of fat cover it has nothing on these tent-peg-wielding women.  Guys, be warned.  If you don't get the job done, a woman is only going to wait so long before she gets it done herself.  Haven't we as men acquiesced in our spiritual responsibilities this way?  

And so Deborah has to go with Barak because he won't go to fight alone (or as alone as anyone can be with 10,000 men).  Because of the way he handles it, Deborah prophecies that God will hand King Sisera over to a woman.  A woman shaming a man by saying he's going to be outdone by...a woman.  Jael gets the job with a tent peg hammered through Sisera's head.  Martha Stewart would be proud with the resourcefulness of Jael -- talk about your alternative uses of household items.  So much for quiet and genteel God-fearing women.  Get the Lord into a lady and she kicks donkey. 

March 17

Judges 2:7; Joshua 24:31; Judges 2:10-23, 3:1-31

"After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers,  another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel."  [Judges 2:10]

Our knowledge, our attitudes, our beliefs, what we think is right and wrong or socially acceptable is so generational.  Just ask the beleaguered smoker huddled in a doorway.  I'm always amazed by our lack of institutional memory and our disregard of history.  I remember as a child, one of our criticisms of Catholicism was how Catholics used God's money to build huge cathedrals that they argued pointed others to God.  Today, our constructions might be slightly more utilitarian.  Slightly.  Just substitute flat screen televisions for stained glass windows and we now build the very same Cathedrals arguing that they point others to God.  Really?  Or do they point to our own desire for comfort and equipment and facility?  I've never bought (literally) the thought that buildings are a great conversion or service medium.  God sent his son.  Not an auditorium with a really great sound system.  If we have a lack in our congregations, it's not really for commercial appliances in our kitchens -- it's for believing and serving people.  People point people to God.  Not buildings.  

I also find it amusing in a Bible class or religious discussion when we condemn the thoughts or attitudes of the church and church leaders of our youth or what we thought as believers "back then."  Don't we know that the next generation will arise and, like us, they have the truth and criticize what we thought back then.  

Anyway, I think a sense of history and our place in it is a valuable thing.

This is the age of the judges.  Though the people have forgotten God, He will not forget or totally abandon them.  He still listens when they cry out and raises someone up.  He's always got someone out there.  Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar -- not your most-used flannel graph characters.  I'd definitely trade a psalm or two or maybe even the whole book of Song of Solomon (since it's so little used) for a bit more about these guys and gals. How did Othniel overcome King Chshan-Rishathaim in battle?  Was it by openly miraculous means?  Torches and jars?  Horns and people shouting?  Marching in silence?  Making the sun stand still in the sky?  Holding his hands up to God?  And what did the people say and think when they discovered that God was with them?  Did they kneel?  Did they weep?  Did they promise (again) that they would never forsake Him?  

We have a bit more here on Ehud.  Hey, we know he's a left hander.  Odd enough to mention even back then.  There's enough of a story about Ehud that I'm surprised he's not spoken about more.  Maybe it's our sensitivity to the size-challenged.  Or the bathroom humor in the story....  "They waited until the point of embarrassment...." [Judges 3:25]   Then Shamgar strikes down 600 Philistines with an oxgoad and that's pretty much the extent of what we know in scripture.  I mean, that's pretty much the plot of the 300 movie and it gets nearly 2 hrs on the screen.  We'd love a Shamgar fight scene.  

I would absolutely love to know more about these guys.  Details, please! But then...the Lord taps me on the shoulder and whispers in my ear that I know so little about the much God has revealed in scripture.  Sorry, Lord.  Let me get back to the script.

March 16

Judges 2:8, 9; Joshua 24:33, 32; Judges 1:1-10, 16-19; Joshua 15:13, 14; Judges 1:11-15, 22-26; Joshua 13:13, 16:10; Judges 1:29; Joshua 17:11-13; Judges 1:27, 18; Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:21, 30-36, 2:1-5

Joshua and Eleazar both die and are buried.  The people lose both of their great leaders at the same time.  Unlike before, when Aaron died first and was replaced by his son and then later Moses died.  The transition here isn't as smooth.  I wonder if this contributes to the fact Israel doesn't totally destroy the people in their midst and so they don't honor their covenant with the Lord.

Finally -- some 400 years later -- Joseph's bones are buried. [Josh. 24:32] I know I've mentioned this before here, but who's been responsible for keeping up with that sack of bones?  I mean someone's had charge of them for the last four hundred years, right?  Perhaps several someones.  Hey, do you think they remember who had them?

"I thought Uzziel had them?"

"No, no, zuriel had them last.  I'm sure of it."

"Nooo, I talked to him and he said his wife wouldn't let him keep them in the tent so he gave them to Shimei."

"Yeah, but Shimei is of the people who make spittoons of bronze and hut with dogs and he couldn't keep his best birddog away from Joseph.  I'd swear on a stack of stone tablets that he gave them to Mahli.  Or was that Mushi?  I can't ever keep those two straight."

This reading concludes with a litany of the people Israel failed to drive out of the land they had been promised.  And, though most of them remained in the land as slaves, the people will influence Israel and tempt them with their foreign gods.  It's amazing how much a dominant culture is influenced by the subordinate culture.  After all Israel had faced and God's mighty physical evidence that He is among them, still they are captivated by the foreign gods and their shrines and idols and customs.  Why is that?  Why in our own culture do minority cultures have such a powerful hold on the mind's of the youth?  Hip-hop and gangasta culture is an example of this.  Why?  Is it because we long to stand out from the crowd.  By our very nature, we seem always to rebel against the commonplace.  There's part of this that is good or can be used for good.  But there is a part of this that is bad.  It's good if we rebel from what's generally accepted as commonplace and the norm in society.  But, as Christians living among Christians -- too often the commonplace we rebel against, or status quo, is the community of God.  I'm preaching here...to myself.

March 15

Joshua 22:1-34, 23:1-16, 24:1-28; Judges 2:6

Joshua is preparing to step down and I'm sorry to see him go.  We have so little here about him.  He takes over once Israel hits the Promised Land, conquers it and then is done.  I'd like to know more about this man who wasn't influenced by his peers to report back in fear as a spy, this man who wandered with the rest of Israel for 40 years suffering for a sin that wasn't his, this man who served as Moses right hand and who had to follow in the footsteps of the man who brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  

I imagine there were a few grumblers in the bunch.

"Well, he's no Moses."

"Now, Moses, he talked directly, face-to-face, with the Almighty."

"I prefer the Rod Party over the Sword Party."

"Joshua was one of Moses' guys.  He's a leftover from that regime.  It's about time we have some new blood around here."

"All of this fighting -- war, war, war -- this thing is never going to end.  Look at the senseless lose of life.  We've won already.  Enough.  The people left in the land are already beaten and our slaves.  We're in control.  What possible harm could these slaves be?"

A religious dispute occurs [Josh. 22:10-34]  Those West Jordanaires think the East Jordanaires are promoting and practicing false religion, setting up their own altar.  Like most religious conflicts, this one is a matter of miscommunication.  Once they actually sit down together and have a conversation, they discover they're really in agreement.  We need to talk and understand before we judge and condemn.

Joshua's farewell is comprised of reminding Israel of all that God has done for them and, again, a caution that they must not let the native people turn them to foreign gods.  For a third time, the covenant is renewed.  Three times they were warned.  Like the cock crowing three times did these warnings ring in their ears when they come to the realization that they've fallen away?

Mark 14

Joshua 18:1-28, 19:1-51, 20:1-9, 21:1-45

They set up the Tent of Meeting at Shiloh to survey and divvy up the rest of the land.  Seven tribes meet at Shiloh -- the Place of Peace.  This is the calm in which they divide their inheritance and enter into prosperity.  But we know that Israel has not seen the end of fighting and suffering.  Nor have we.  War is too much a part of this world.  Nearly every year I travel with a scout troop to the Shiloh Battlefield on the Tennessee/Mississippi border.  This Shiloh, too, is on a battlefield.  Around it raged one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  How quiet a place it is now.  I wonder how quiet the Israel's Shiloh was, too, devoid of all its people who were utterly destroyed by the Israelites?  Empty homes and fields and towns.  I wonder who buried all of the bodies?  And was there an eerie calm that seems to attend a field where the blood of many men has been spilled?  Was the Promised Land a hallowed place consecrated by blood?  Our peace and our Promised Land have been purchased with blood.

The Bible keeps bringing up again and again that tribe of Levi has no inheritance.  Seems like it would be kind of annoying for the priests to keep being reminded of this over and over again.  "Ok, already.  We get it."  But do they?  Their success, their prosperity is only realized in the devotion of the people.  If the people remain faithful and perform the prescribed sacrifices, the Levites will have their due.  If they don't, Levi doesn't receive its portion.  Read into that what you will.

Then there's this Half Tribe of Manasseh.  How confusing is that?  Kind of odd, too.

"I'm from the Half Tribe of Manasseh."

"Which Half."

"The Half."

"Is that the East Manasseh or West Manasseh Half Tribe?"

"No, we're the Half Tribe of Manasseh."

I bet they had mail going to the wrong Half Tribe all the time.

March 13

Joshua 13:1-12, 14-33, 14:1-15a; Judges 1:20a; Joshua 15:1-12, 20-62, 16:1-9, 17:1-10, 14-18

Just like that -- the majority of the Promised Land is conquered.  Now it will be divided among the tribes.  They do the assigning of the land by lots or by chance.  Just roll the dice and put it in Gods hands.  No discussion.  No reason.  Do we have the faith to let "chance" dictate where we go, how we live and what we do?  We'd think it was frivolous to leave our inheritance to the role of a dice.  Especially when God has given us brains to reason and plan with.  We don't have faith that God works through games of chance.  We believe in our own minds.  Unless we're in trouble and need something outside the norm and reason.

Caleb -- the spy who, like Joshua, came back from the Promised Land with a good report -- he picks his own country and he picks the hill country.

...I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.  So on that day Moses swore to me, "The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of  your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly."  [Josh. 14:8a, 9]

I like Caleb's choice -- the hill country.  I've always found God in the beauty of the hills whenever I've walked them.  I see God powerfully alive in nature.  And Caleb went to the hills.  These are the very lands he'd traveled when he'd spied out the Promised Land.  How different were they now 40 years later or were the eyes that first looked upon them very different now?  What did he see?  Imagine walking the same land now after 40 years.  What did Caleb recognize and remember?  What special feature of the land or the now vanquished town?  What drew him to this place of all the places he walked?  Was his memory filled with a powerful act of faith -- the deciding moment of his life?  What would he think of each morning when he awoke and walked the land?  I had no idea when I first time I met my wife, that first glimpse, the first game of spoons we played in the lobby of her college dorm, that years later God would give her to me.  Now I look at her each morning and see our whole lives together that first day and our many, many, many days together.  It is good to come back to a thing, to return to something familiar and know it has been given to you by God's hand.

We also see in this reading that Zelophehad's daughters get their inheritance -- the inheritance they'd asked for and that had been agreed upon under Moses.  They weren't sons.  Giving the land to the daughters was not part of the tradition of the day.  But because they acted boldly and asked, they received.  How odd this would have seemed in a male-dominated culture.  But what a powerful testament to asking God boldly.

...the daughters of the tribe of Manasseh received an inheritance among the sons.  [Josh. 17:6a]

March 12

Joshua 9:1-27, 10:1-43, 11:1-23, 14:15b, 12:1-24

God's people are held to a higher standard.  Even though the Gibeonites present themselves falsely and deceive Joshua and the Israelites, Joshua feels obligated to uphold the peace treaty that was made with Gibeon.  He shows that he is honorable even if others surrounding him are not.  We are God's people.  We are called out and we should be different.  It may put us at a disadvantage if we act according to a higher principle but that shouldn't matter.  We shouldn't torture our prisoners of war to save lives.  We should act honorably and do the right thing in order to save our souls.  Of course, in the case of Israel, here, if they'd just consulted the Lord instead of making the decision by themselves, they would have made a better decision.

For the most part, this reading is just one long litany of the nation's that Joshua completely destroyed under God's direction.  We have a modern problem with this.  We can't help but see it through our own eyes and our time, it doesn't seem like the act of a loving God.  I can only rest confident in the knowledge that we see things so influenced by culture and this present age that we can't see the truth of the matter.   

This reading also suggest there are cultures who are so corrupt in their nature that they invited the wrath of God.  Thirty-one nations fall in the wake of God's people.  Such an incredible act is handled in a matter of a handful of versus.  It's just done.  Thirty-one nations and peoples gone from the face of the earth just like that.  Boom.  Gone.  What an incredible undertaking.  Surely the whole world knew of this people and their God and waited in fear.

March 11

Joshua 6:1-27, 7:1-26, 8:1-35

The first great victor and the first great defeat take place in the Promised Land.  

Jericho falls but then, because just one of the many thousands of Israelites does not honor God's command to keep away from the devoted things, Israel is routed by Ai.

But God uses this defeat to craft victory.  And isn't this just what He does for all of us?  Craft victory from defeat.  Israel fools Ai into thinking they're afraid and fleeing because of their previous loss and so draws Ai's fighting men outside the walls of the city where they are destroyed as is the city they've left unprotected.

Again, Joshua follows in Moses footsteps.  Joshua will copy the words of the law on stone and read the law to the people.

March 10

Joshua 1:1-9, 3:1, 2:1-24, 1:10-18, 3:2-17, 4:12, 13, 4:9-11, 4:15-18, 4:1-8, 4:19-24, 4:14, 5:1-15

Some interesting things here.  The Lord is using fear to subdue the people the Israelites will conquer.

I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.... [Josh. 2:9]  ...for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.  [Josh. 2:11]

Rahab, a prostitute [or an innkeeper...depending on how it's translated], sees the truth and acknowledges it.  Her good confession will save herself and her family and all in her household [even those who'd come to see a prostitute?]

It's amazing how fear in my life keeps me from living.  Fear of heights almost kept me from hiking with my family to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  I didn't think I could do it.  I'll never forget how God brought me into the Canyon and out.  I can't believe the things that fear would have kept me from experiencing with my family.  

As He did with Moses, God shows He is with Joshua by means of a miraculous crossing of a body of water on dry land.  This time it's the Jordan River.  And it works, the people transfer their reference from Moses to Joshua. 

That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life just as they had revered Moses [Josh. 4:14]

Joshua will erect a roadside monument as a memorial to their miraculous crossing.  Roadside markers are a powerful tradition.  I am intrigued by the growing popular phenomenon of the roadside cross.  Growing up I don't remember ever seeing them.  Either they weren't something a child would pay attention to or they just weren't there.  I think I would have remembered them if they'd been there.  I think it's a rather recent phenomena in this country.  I remember the first time I came across or noticed a roadside cross was in Mexico some years ago.  It was during a trip Mariana and I took to Cancun.  Instead of going to the touristy marketplace to shop, we got on a bus with the people who worked at the resort and went to the local market.  Along the way, we crossed intersections whose edges were decorated with crosses.  Some intersections were punctuated with more crosses than others.  Some dotted with an endless sea of white wooden crosses.  Then I learned that these crosses were not for decorative purposes.  They were roadside memorials for loved ones who had died in car accidents at these intersections.

A sea of roadside crosses makes for a good caution sign.

How deep is our grief that we want to mark the place where someone we loved tragically died.  Now I see these roadside crosses all the time, along the interstate in my hometown.  Everywhere.  And I wonder about the stories behind them?  What is the story of the life and the family's grief in the passing?

But Joshua's roadside monument was different.  It's a pile of stones...not a cross...but passing through water and onto the distant shore and into the Promised Land could be a symbol of the power of the cross.  So Joshua's monument is celebration of passing into the Promised Land.

And so, I hope, are many of the crosses I see along the roadside.

March 9

Numbers 27:12-14; Deuteronomy 32:48-52, 33:1-29, 34:1-12

The Lord shows Moses the Promised Land.  He will see what He will not enter into.  Was there comfort or pain in this glimpse?  Victory or defeat?  Or was it joy and foreshadowing of the Promised Land that Moses was preparing to enter?  Was there a deep sense of peace that he was really preparing to enter the ultimate promise rather than enter this dim earthly specter?  How much understanding did Moses have at this moment?  What exactly did God say to him?

I admire the way Moses approaches his death.  He, like Aaron, will die in the company of the Lord.  Will I be conscious of God's presence in my own death?  I hope so.

Moses' final words to the people are words of blessing.  Again, I pray this positive blessed passing -- where I reach out to others -- is the manner of my leaving this earth.  Even though he's not entering the Promised Land and he knows the prophecy of the people's unfaithfulness, he maintains a positive attitude and offers encouragement and blessing.  He blesses each tribe individually.  The longest blessing is for the clan of Joseph.

Only Moses' closest relation attends his burial -- God.  God buries him.  What a powerful portrait of intimacy and love.

And then this tribute by whoever has taken over the writing of the account:

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face....  [Deut. 34:10]

How close to God are our leaders?

March 8

Deuteronomy 31:1-8, 31:14, 15, 23, 32:15-47

In the midst of all the curses and prophecy of unfaithfulness, I'm sure Joshua is thinking -- "What have I gotten myself in to?!  Do I really want this job?!"  But Moses -- maybe sensing Joshua's second thoughts -- gives a wonderful encouragement that we can all take heart in:

The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.  [Deut. 31:8]

God Himself will commission Joshua.  A cloud pillar will stand at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting with Moses and Joshua inside.

Ok, God has tried to get through to the people with miracles and prophecy.  Now He'll try music.  Is he counting on the fact that we are more adept at learning lyrics than scripture?  Music moves us.  There's no more emotionally engaging power give to man than music.  Of course, often times we sing lyrics without ever understanding what they mean.

Moses' song is given a title in the subject headings of the NIV -- A Song of Unfaithfulness.  Apparently God is into County Music.  

With prosperity they (and we) will turn away.  We have a hard time handling God's blessings.

Jeshurun (the upright one) grew fat and kicked;

  Filled with food, he became heavy and sleek.

He abandoned the God who mad him

  And rejected the Rock his Savior.  [Deut. 32:15] 

March 7

Deuteronomy 26:16-19, 28:1-68, 29:2-29, 30:1-20, 29:1, 27:1-26

God's covenant with man is renewed. Again, the blessings of obedience are outlined along with the curses of disobedience. And, again, the possibility of repentance and restoration is highlighted. Is anyone paying attention?

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon yo an you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when yo and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I commanded you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you. [Deut. 30:1-3]

As they prepare to enter into the Promised Land, God predicts their dispersal among other nations. God gives warning after warning but with every word, He knows. God knows what they and what we will do. It is impossible to read these warnings and not believe God is behind even the tragedy that befalls us (and, of course, so are we because we chose to wander from Him).

The Lord will send on you curses.... [Deut. 28:20] The Lord will cause you to be defeated.... [Deut. 28:25] The Lord will afflict you.... [Deut. 28:35] The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers.... [Deut. 28:36] The Lord will bring a nation against you.... [Deut. 28:49]

Even if we see and witness God's miracles, it's not enough. God must also give us the understanding. We are so entirely dependent on God and His grace. We can't boast it is our own understanding. Reading the Bible doesn't give us understanding and knowledge. If anything, it indicates our heart and so God blesses with understanding and knowledge the condition of our hearts. That's my understanding.

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. with your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God. [Deut. 29:2-6]

Everything that happens, good and bad, is ultimately so that we may know Him. that is an extremely hard and difficult teaching. we see God in the good and Satan in the evil that befalls us. Yet, in truth, both good and bad is there for our learning and so that we might know Him. We want there only to be good and light and happiness. But we must have the bad to appreciate the good. And always, it seems, that hardship is the very best teacher. Take confidence in the fact everything that happens to us good and bad is so we might know Him. It's not enough to see His miracles. We only truly acknowledge Him when we are desperately in need of being saved.

So specific are the curses -- it's almost as if the people's story is already written. Did they suspect that the curses would befall them? Twice it's recorded here that they will eat their own children. The curses are so horrible. Could they have walked away from this covenant to avoid the curses? "Say...ah...Thanks but no thanks, God"? "I know it's a good deal being your people but there's a good shot we will be earning more curses than blessings...." Was there any apprehension as they entered again into covenant with the universe's supreme being?

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.... [Deut. 30:19]

Is it that we cannot help but follow God and enter into His covenant. Because we know in our hearts that He is life. And we cling and fight and struggle for life. We choose life.

March 6

Leviticus 22:31-33; Deuteronomy 12:32; Numbers 15:37-41; Deuteronomy 22:12, 31:9-13; Leviticus 26:3-46

Sometimes we think forgiveness is a New Testament concept and that the God of the Old Testament was so holy that He was impossible to please.  But the God of New and Old Testament are the same.  His nature is unchanging.  Even in the Old Testament, as we see in this reading, there was power and forgiveness in repentance.  The blessings of obedience and the punishments for disobedience are underscored here... and so are the effects of repentance.

"But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers -- their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies -- then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land." [Lev. 26:40-42]

March 5

Leviticus 19:9, 10, 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:19-22, 23:24, 25; Leviticus 25:35-38; Deuteronomy 5:16; Leviticus 19:3a; Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 21:18-21; Leviticus 19:32; Exodus 22:22-24, 22:21, 23:9; Leviticus 19:33, 34, 24:22, 19:14, 16-18; Exodus 23:4, 5; Deuteronomy 22:1-4, 5:21, 25:4, 22:6, 7, 20:1-20,23:9-14, 24:5, 21:10-14

The people are commanded to leave the edges of the field for the poor, which infers the poor must work to harvest the edges of the field for their food.

Respecting your parents and respecting the life of a mother bird carry the same promise and blessing -- long life.

Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. [Deut. 5:16]

If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don not take the mother with the young.  You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life. [Deut. 22:6, 7]

God the ecologically minded also tells them to spare the trees when they lay siege to a city as they go in to secure the Promised Land.  Do not cut them down.  Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?  [Deut. 20:19b]

March 4

Leviticus 11:46, 47, 11:1-3; Deuteronomy 14:3-5; Leviticus 11:4-8; Deuteronomy 14:6-8; Leviticus 11:9-12; Deuteronomy 14:9, 10; Leviticus 11:13-19; Deuteronomy 14:11-18; Leviticus 11:20-23; Deuteronomy 14:19, 20; Leviticus 11:41-45, 24-38, 20:25, 26, 11:39, 40; Deuteronomy 14:21a; Leviticus 17:15, 16; Exodus 22:31; Leviticus 17:10-14, 7:26, 27, 19:26a; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23-25; Leviticus 7:22-25; Exodus 23:19b, 34:26b; Deuteronomy 14:21b

Ok, so what's to eat in Israel?  Well, we know that Elmer Fudd isn't Jewish. [Lev.11:6]  

Jiminy Cricket should thank his lucky stars the whale didn't belch him up on Canaan's stormy banks.  [Lev. 11:21]  

And only aliens and Tennesseans could eat road pizza.  [Deut. 14:21]

March 3

Leviticus 13:1-59, 14:33-57; Deuteronomy 24:8, 9; Leviticus 15:1-12, 15:16-27, 15:32, 33; Numbers 5:1-4; Leviticus 15:31

Leprosy, boils, burns, "the itch," mold, male emissions and female discharges -- this borders on too much information about the early Israelites.  Do I really need to understand their plumbing to appreciate their soul?  So who's going to look close enough to see what color the hair is in a sore to determine whether what you have is catching?

If you ever thought that being a Levite was the way to go [so to speak], this reading should cure you of that.  

The early Israelites must have been an extremely clean bunch, given all of the washing here.  I wonder how uncommon that level of cleanliness was in the ancient world?

March 2

Deuteronomy 21:10-14, 24:5, 22:13-21, 24:1-4; Leviticus 18:1-5; Deuteronomy 5:18; Leviticus 18:20, 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22-24; Leviticus 19:20-22; Numbers 5:11-31; Leviticus 19:29; Deuteronomy 23:17, 18; Leviticus 18:6-8; Deuteronomy 22:30; Leviticus 20:11, 18:9, 18:11, 20:17, 18:10, 18:12-14, 20:19, 20, 18:15, 20:12, 18:16, 20:21, 18:17, 20:14, 18:18, 19, 20:18, 18:22, 20:13, 18:23; Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 20:15, 16, 18:24-30, 20:22-24; Deuteronomy 22:5

Ok, wake up.  God's talking about sex again.  He seems to talk about it a lot.  But then, so do we.  Except in Bible class.

So that's a pretty interesting ceremony for testing a woman's faithfulness and curing jealousy.  Drinking holy water mixed with dust from the tabernacle floor from a clay jar.  [Num. 5:11-31]  If she's been falsely accused, she's fine.  And, if not, her abdomen swells and her thighs waste away.  Apparently men didn't have to undergo the test because every middle-aged man has a swollen abdomen and wasted thighs.  

Seriously, what about the guys?  Even in our culture and our time, it seems like the greater responsibility for sexual purity has been placed in the hands of woman.  This is an area where they have leadership.  And it is a very difficult responsibility.  Perhaps the Lord credits them with clearer thinking?  I don't know.

The test may seem odd.  But it was important to rid a relationship of doubt and jealously.  They're such destructive emotions in a marriage.  It would be nice to have a drink today that would rid us of doubts and jealousy.  Maybe we do have one.  Drinking the cup of Christ together as man and wife.

March 1

Numbers 5:5-10; Exodus 22:9, 7, 8, 10-17, 12:33, 34, 22:6, 5, 21:28-32, 21:35, 36; Leviticus 24:18, 21a; Deuteronomy 22:8; Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14, 15; Leviticus 25:44-46; Deuteronomy 23:15, 16, 15:12-18; Exodus 21:1-11, 21:26, 27; Deuteronomy 23:19, 20; Exodus 22:25-27; Deuteronomy 24:12, 13, 6, 10, 11, 17, 15:1-11; Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:1-16; Leviticus 19:11, 35-37; Deuteronomy 25:13-16, 12:15-17, 25:5-10; Numbers 27:1-11, 36:1-13

A lot of laws here for daily living.  It's striking the detail and seeming minutia that the Lord Almighty gets into -- what to do about a goring bull, falling off a roof, escaped slaves, lending money and charging interest (basically it's a form of slavery that we're only to subject other nations to and not our own), maintaining fair measurements, marrying your sister-in-law, etc.  It really underscores for me how much the Lord wanted us to live in peace with one another.  He tried and tries His best to figure everything out for us so that we know exactly what to do in all cases.  But for all this effort, He couldn't give us a step by step way.  He had to send His son for us to follow in His way and in His steps.

I find the words of yesterday's reading in Proverbs about the poor echoed in today's reading.  We have an obligation as God's people to the poor.

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted and tightfisted toward your poor brother.  Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.  Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought:  "The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing.  He may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.  Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.  There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. [Deut. 15:7-11]

I'm intrigued by the prayer of the poor man -- "He may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty in sin."  Seems like he might have a direct line to God.  Certainly there are few worldly possessions to interfere with his relationship with God.  To have a poor man pray in your behalf, is there a special power in this?  I believe there is.  There is just in doing what needs to be done to inspire a poor man to pray the prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord.  I want to inspire that prayer.  

Today I've decided to go to McDonald's and get $50 worth of $5 gift certificates to hand out when approached on the streets in the coming days.   Silly, laughable, ill-informed, too little.  I know, I know.  But I have faith that God will make something of it.  

Ok, so if you refuse to honor the Levirate Law and preserve your family line by marrying your brother's wife if he dies childless, your family is to be known in Israel as "The Family of the Unsandaled."  So what is our family known as?  The Family of the Strangely Unlike Children?  The Family Clothed by Goodwill, REI, Tractor Supply and Youth Event T-Shirts?  The Family of Independent Thinkers Who Can't Agree on Where to Go for Vacation?  How about your family?