20 July 2010
Psalm 45; Joshua 8:1-22; Rom. 14:1-12; Matt. 26:47-56

Remember that the people don’t have a military history. They were slaves in Egypt and then they were in the wilderness for forty years, military strategy isn’t their forte. That Joshua sets an ambush behind the city and pulls off this ruse against Ai is simply explained that the battle, including the plan for battle, belongs to the Lord. The added benefit to the strategy is that they are doing exactly what they did the first time, fleeing, but the flight has a purpose, to make the men of Ai overconfident and let down their defenses. Now, the surrounding peoples will not know for certain whether the original flight was tactic or fear.

The hour has come. Jesus knew what Judas was doing. He had gone out from the meal with the instructions to do quickly what he was going to do and now he shows up in the night to do what no one dared do in the daytime. The leaders knew that the people would never have sat still for the arrest of Jesus as He taught among them and healed those who needed it. Under cover of night, however, they could move against Him. At least one of those with Him was prepared to do battle for Him but when He told them to put away their weapons they fled. With weapons drawn they felt safe and believed that the battle could be theirs and yet without them all their courage evaporated. What a moment this must have been for Jesus to see in the flesh what the eyes of His Spirit had already seen, the disciples completely abandoning Him in this hour. These men knew what forgiveness looked like after the resurrection. They knew that none of them deserved forgiveness or a place in the kingdom.

There are secondary things about which Christians may disagree like eating certain foods and whether or not we observe certain “days” as important. If we know that the other is convicted about these things and keeps them in accord with conscience and unto the Lord, who are we to judge? In our tradition we keep days such as Christmas, Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, the Transfiguration and others to various “saints.” We do these things to build a rhythm into our lives that is based on remembering all the work Jesus did for us and the good examples of those who have gone before. We know that these “saints” were flawed and sinful men and women but we know that they were dedicated to their Lord and serving Him in their lives and we do well to recall their lives as inspiration to us to aspire to lives lived for Him as they have done. We do this in keeping with the idea of Hebrews 11. I believe it is important for us to follow the good examples of those who have gone before but in order to do that we must also know those examples.

Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm.