Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Today’s lectionary reading is again from the end of Joshua and contains one of those sayings that well-meaning people like to hang up on the walls of their homes.  They may have it crocheted or artistically represented in some other manner.  And, it reads something like “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  I chuckle a little bit sometimes (inwardly) at the beautiful representations.  The setting for the saying is anything but beautiful.

Joshua is confronting the people and telling them to set aside their idols.  There is this back and forth:

Joshua: Set aside your idols.

The People: We will set aside our idols.

Joshua: No, you won’t.

The People: Yes, we will.

Joshua: No, you won’t.

The People: Yes, we will.

I am, of course, oversimplifying the conversation a lot, but in the midst of the disputation the people repeat the phrase “We will serve the Lord” three times.

I find it curious that people extract out “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” when there is also another very memorable statement here.  It reads something to the effect of: “He is a jealous God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.”  As familiar as the other statement from Joshua is, I would guess that a lot of people probably are not familiar with this one.  And, I do not think this one will ever make its way into crochet.  It is not nearly as pleasant.

But we all read the Bible selectively from time to time, whether we are deciding what to hang up on our walls or whether we are putting together a lectionary. The fact of the matter is that this second statement actually comes one verse after the lectionary reading for today.  Left out. I am starting to get the feeling that the folks who put together the lectionary do not think that liturgy is the best place to deal with texts like this.  But, it makes me wonder when it is a good time.  The lectionary is sometimes the only exposure that people in my congregation get to scripture.  The same probably goes for the Sunday reading in many less liturgical denominations.  One day someone is going to pick up this text and read it and say “I thought God always forgives people.”

Now that I have gotten over the shock of the fact that the lectionary skips over almost the entire Book of Joshua, I can make a few comments on the reading for today (Jos. 24.1-13).  Here we have Joshua functioning like a prophet.  We found out in Deut. 34.10 that Moses was a prophet.  A lot of what Joshua does mirrors what Moses did, e.g. miraculously leading the people through water (Jos. 3), having an encounter where he must remove his sandals (Jos. 5.15), etc.  So, we should not be surprised to see Joshua functioning like a prophet.

Check out Jos. 24.2:

2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord,…

“Thus says the Lord” is a traditional prophetic formula.  Here is an Accordance chart that displays where the usages of this phrase cluster:

That big spike is around the prophets.  And, Joshua delivers a prophetic type message here in Chapter 24.  Basically, he tells the people what the Lord has done for them (1-13), what they are doing wrong, and what they need to do about (14, 15ff).

Wow! The lectionary readings skip way ahead today.  Yesterday was Joshua 3 and now we are at Joshua 24.  I can somewhat understand this since I’m not a huge fan of conquest narratives myself.  But, this caused me to step back a bit to check on how much of the Book of Joshua is actually used in the lectionary.  I found this handy site (HERE) that tells how much of each book appears in lectionary readings.  My goodness!  We only get 6.4% of the Book of Joshua.  In fact, we miss a whole lot of the Old Testament.  Of course a lot of churches skip a lot of (the whole of) the Old Testament.  And, it is probably good that using a lectionary people get any Old Testament at all.  But, I will probably eventually have to change my approach on this blog.

How much Old Testament do you get/give in your church/denomination?  Please comment below:

Today’s lectionary reading moves from the end of Deuteronomy to the third chapter of Joshua.  The reading begins with verse 7 which, reads, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they will know that I will be with you as I was with Moses” (NRSV).  Of course, as always with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, there seems to be some sort of disconnect here.  This disconnect is easy to miss in the lectionary as it jumped over Joshua chapter 1.

Well, what happens in Joshua 1?  A number of things happen, one of which is the Israelites pledging support to Joshua.  Verses 16 – 18 have the Israelites speaking to Joshua and saying the following:

16 They answered Joshua: “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! 18 Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

So, what is the issue when we come to chapter 3?  Why is it necessary for the LORD to exalt Joshua, so that the people will know that he is with Joshua?  They have already pledged their support.  Or, was this support only feigned?

I am not a big fan of conquest narratives.  And, I do not believe that everything happened just as the Book of Joshua describes.  But, I do think there is a truth to be learned in all of this.  Group opinion is fickle.  One day people will pledge their support and the next they will be in need of a sign.  Never take the opinion of a group for granted.