Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, October 13, 2018
by Rev. Stefanie Fauth, Clergy Stuff
Is it ok to destroy the wicked?
According to the stories, the people of Jericho were terrible.
They sacrificed children, and all sorts of other really dreadful things.
Summarily, they were destroyed. Men, women, children, animals - everything was obliterated by Joshua’s army by the order of a God who we hope would be more loving with us were we to make a wicked mistake.
These stories can be hard for me - but there are some nuggets of hope if we look hard enough.
First of all - even the most powerful military would have been powerless against Jericho’s walls - they were amazing. They would only fall if God was on the side of their enemies - and clearly, God was with Joshua in this example.
Secondly - and way more importantly - Rahab and her family were saved by the city’s attackers.
She was a lowly prostitute - but it didn’t stop people from seeking her help - and it didn’t stop her from doing the right thing.
Both the victory of Joshua’s army and Rahab being an important helper tell us somthing about God, and who God allies Godself with - the underdog!
Our God is not the God of the most powerful, amazing, rich, shiny or best behaved. Our God consistently works with those the world would call, “Not Good Enough!”
You don’t have to be good enough. God can still use you.
Narrative Lectionary Daily Reading:
Joshua 6:15-27
On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent. As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman out of it and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” So the young men who had been spies went in and brought Rahab out, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her—they brought all her kindred out—and set them outside the camp of Israel. They burned down the city, and everything in it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua then pronounced this oath, saying, “Cursed before the Lord be anyone who tries to build this city—this Jericho! At the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates!”So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.
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