We continue our new worship series “Inspired” based on the book Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans. Those who wish may purchase the book, and it’s also available in the LJUMC library.
It is my hope that people of faith regularly read from our sacred texts. We have shared various approaches to regular reading as a part of this congregation, and some of the resources can be found here. For any of us who regularly read, I suggest that we sometimes find stories and passages that we find difficult to read or even troubling. For some, these bring profound questions of faith about God and God’s purposes. I believe that facing these difficult stories and passages and questions is essential to fully engaging our spiritual lives and our Creator God.
Joshua 6:15-27 (CEB)
15 On the seventh day, they got up at dawn. They circled the city in this way seven times. It was only on that day that they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time, the priests blew the trumpets. Then Joshua said to the people, “Shout, because the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and everything in it is to be utterly wiped out as something reserved for the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute is to stay alive, along with everyone with her in her house. This is because she hid the messengers we sent. 18 But you, keep away from the things set aside for God so that you don’t desire and take some of the things reserved. That would turn the camp of Israel into a thing doomed to be utterly wiped out and bring calamity on it. 19 All silver and gold, along with bronze and iron equipment, are holy to the Lord. They must go into the Lord’s treasury.” 20 Then the people shouted. They blew the trumpets. As soon as the people heard the trumpet blast, they shouted a loud war cry. Then the wall collapsed. The people went up against the city, attacking straight ahead. They captured the city.21 Without mercy, they wiped out everything in the city as something reserved for God—man and woman, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys.
22 Joshua spoke to the two men who had scouted out the land. “Go to the prostitute’s house. Bring out the woman from there, along with everyone related to her, exactly as you pledged to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went and brought Rahab out, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and everyone related to her. They brought her whole clan out and let them stay outside Israel’s camp. 24 They burned the city and everything in it. But they put the silver and gold, along with the bronze and iron equipment, into the treasury of the Lord’s house. 25 Joshua let Rahab the prostitute live, her family, and everyone related to her. So her family still lives among Israel today, because she hid the spies whom Joshua had sent to scout out Jericho.
26 At that time Joshua made this decree:
“Anyone who starts to rebuild this city of Jericho will be cursed before the Lord.
Laying its foundations will cost them their oldest child.
Setting up its gates will cost them their youngest child.”
27 The Lord was with Joshua. News about him spread throughout the land.
Consider these questions:
- Have you ever doubted your faith? Or doubted the Bible? How have friends, family, and religious leaders responded to those doubts?
- What sort of justifications and explanations have you encountered over the years regarding Israel’s conquest of Canaan? Other troubling stories? Have you found these explanations satisfying? Why or why not?
- What are some of your favorite (or least favorite) war stories—movies, books, plays, etc.? Do you see similarities between how we tell war stories in our culture and how the ancients told war stories in theirs?