April 21

OT – Joshua 22:21-23:16
I guess I was taken in just as the rest of the Israelites in terms of what that altar meant! I did believe that they were getting ready to worship Baal or Astarte or whoever the current ‘god de jour’ was. This is cynical of me, but I have to say, I just don’t quite believe their story…. Maybe I just hear too many stories in my ‘real life’ and find it hard to buy into this Bible one.
Joshua, just like Caleb, according to the Midrash I am reading on this section never ‘failed’ or grew elderly. At the time of Moses’ death, he was 80 years old and continued to lead the charge for eradicating the current inhabitants of The Promised Land for 10 years. Then they had a ‘long time’ (Hebrew for several decades according to my old friend Rashi) when Joshua gives this speech. This shows God’s grace to Joshua. It probably hastened God’s plan to conquer the Promised Land too. Joshua seems to have been an extraordinary leader.


NT—Luke 20:27-47
Look at verse 46: “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues. The devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”


The imagery here is intense. This quote immediately follows some of those same teachers trying once again to trip Jesus up. When I read about the flowing robes and the bustling marketplaces, I can almost see the crowded shops in the Suq and smell all the aromatic spices, and see the camels and pack mules that cart belongings about. Sprinkle in a few Roman soldiers in Spartacus getups. What about you?
But that really doesn’t bring it to the 21st century which is where I am. And Jesus is talking to this ‘teacher of the law’ just like he was talking to that Sadduce. And my flowing robes and important seat in the synagogue? Probably would have to be my ‘church clothes’ and the ‘McAdam pew’.
I don’t think I have ever devoured a widow’s home but then again, have I ever saved one?
Walking the Jesus path is tough. It was tough then, too. But we are called to do what we can where we can. And that means not putting on airs and asking for ‘special’ just because we are Jesus walkers.