There are some interesting similarities between this story
of the destruction of the city of Ai with Israel at the Red Sea. After the problem of devoted things is dealt
with the Lord now sends Joshua up against Ai.
The strategy is to send a large group of soldiers around behind the city
while Joshua and a force camp in plain sight of the city, like the Lord sent
Israel doubling back in front of Pharaoh to entice him to come out against the
nation at the Red Sea. They were to make
a show of running, to the wilderness, for safety from the attack coming out of the
city and to look as though they were in fear and defeat as had actually
happened shortly before. Once they got
to a certain place, the Lord commanded Joshua to raise the javelin in his hand
towards the city as a sign to the ambush forces to come against Ai. Remember what the Lord told Moses to do with
his staff at the Red Sea? Now, however,
as opposed to the Red Sea, the people cooperate with God's plan, they get to
share in the work with Him. The city is
overrun and the men of Ai see this behind them but, like Israel at the Red Sea
there is nowhere to run because the Israelite army is both behind and before them
and their god is unable to deliver them.
Judas offers an impersonal greeting, calling Jesus only
rabbi while Jesus responds with the word that must have caused Judas great
shame, "Friend." Judas describes
the relationship via title while Jesus couches it in terms of personal
friendship. Can you imagine how that one
little word pierced Judas' heart? After the
striking off of the ear of the servant of the high priest Jesus response
hearkens back to the temptation in the wilderness to throw himself off the
pinnacle of the temple, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father,
and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" It is not necessary for the Father to do so
for Jesus to believe but He knows that is not the plan. Jesus' question regarding why have they come
out here against Him in the night rather than when he was teaching in daylight
reframes even Judas' original greeting to say He is not treated like a rabbi
but rather as a robber. He is in
complete control in the situation even though it looks as though these others
are. How sad that all the disciples fled
and left Him alone. Where was Judas do
you think?
A 17th century saying of Rupertus Meldenius, a
German Lutheran theologian, encapsulates Paul's point here to the Romans, "In
Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity." Sometimes that is easier said than done. The first "controversy" Paul
addresses here is vegetarianism as opposed to omnivorism. That seems an easy one to deal with and
certainly we would think it easy to agree this is a non-essential but some
would actually disagree in our day that it was non-essential but rather a serious
ethical issue regarding our relationships with the animals. I know of others who get their dander up over
days esteemed by one over another, people who have gone back to what they call
the "Jewish roots" of the faith and reject Sunday worship in favor of
Old Testament sabbatical practices and who argue that those who do not see eye
to eye with them are pagans, quite literally.
The hardest thing in the Christian world is to determine the categories
of essential and non-essential and while we argue the world burns. We have fallen for the same strategy Joshua
used against Ai and we have abandoned Jesus as the disciples have but only
because we have allowed ourselves to follow rabbit trails. Here
is a good article to help us sort these issues out and work towards the living
into that aphorism.
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