The Israelites

I'm not sure if I thought of something cool or if this is something that everyone besides me has heard before, but if you have heard this comparison before, I apologize.

I think it's cool how often God uses relationships in the Bible as a model for how he wants to relate to us. Marriage is a relationship that God uses as a metaphor, and so is his relationship with the Israelites.

I think there is a similarity between our salvation and the Israelites' acquisition of the promised land. In fact I think it's very similar.

The first step into the promised land was taking the city of Jericho. It was the threshold between the desert and promised land, a watershed moment in history. And God did all of the work. God brought down the walls of the city with one fell swoop after the Israelites marched around the city seven times. It was a miracle. The Israelites were given something they did not deserve through no effort of their own besides faith.*

After that miraculous victory they spend the rest of the book of Joshua and Judges trying to take the rest of the promised land by waging a long war with all kinds of people whose names end in "ite." God says that they need to mercilessly root out all of these people and eradicate them, claiming the land of Canaan for Israelites and the Israelites alone. It is a lot of hard work that requires generations of effort for the people of God. Lets just say that this campaign, which relied much on the efforts of man, had mixed results.

In the case of the modern day Christian,the promised land is the Christian life.** Getting in is the easy part. Well, actually it's the hardest part because it requires a miracle. But it's the easiest part for us because God does all the heavy lifting. It took the death of Jesus and the reworking of our entire understanding of God's covenant to get us there, but God was able to save us from our sins and usher us into a righteous standing with him. It is the watershed moment in our lives where overnight we have gone from sin and damnation to righteousness and Heaven. And it was all God's doing. Much like tearing down the walls of Jericho to usher in a new era of Israelite history.

What happens next is a little less miraculous, and a lot more difficult (for us). We have to actually begin living as Christians. It becomes time to root out and mercilessly destroy sin an our lives and claim it for God and for God alone. Using our own efforts, it is up to us to do the rest of the work and eliminate kill off the rest of the Canaanites (and whatever else-ites). This is a long and arduous process that God doesn't just do for us overnight. And if you are anything like me and the Israelites, I would assume that you are dealing with "mixed results" on this front.

And that's the story of judges. Theres some good stuff and some bad stuff, but basically things don't go well for the Israelites when they try to do things on their own. God should be their king and they should stick with him. Because when they forget to stay close to him and continue to conquer in his name, things get ugly. Just like in our lives.

"Well wait just a darn minute" you will say. "I agree with the first part of what you are talking about here, but you have gone to far with this "do it yourself" stuff you are describing. We do need to put some effort into killing off the sin in our lives. But you act like it's all up to us and God doesn't help us! We definitely need to rely on God to change us or we will never EVER succeed in "taking the promised land!""

That's a good point. You got me there. And that's exactly why we turn back to the Israelites. If you look at Joshua 7 you see this guy named Achan disobeying God and bringing a lot of ruin down on the Israelites. Basically, God does not support them in a battle and they lose big time. Joshua has to punish Achan and get their act cleaned up before God gives them another victory. You would think they would learn pretty well from this early example but...well, that's why the Old Testament stays interesting.

Even though it's "our job" now to win the victories, we really can't do it without God. If we are going to be like Achan and think that we have a better plan (and to be honest, if I were Achan I would be tempted to do the same thing) I don't think we should be surprised if we are not strong enough the win the victories we think we should win or take the promised land the way we thought we would. Ultimately, it's still God doing the heavy lifting. The only difference is that it's us doing the heavy lifting now too. Just like the Israelites.

"Wait a minute" you might say "That last sentence didn't really make a lot of sense. I was really following everything and you were drawing some nice little parallels there. But now I feel like you just dropped us in a paradox. Are you going to resolve that? Do you even know HOW to resolve that? Are you 100% sure what you are even talking about?"

Good question. The answer is "nope." But if you enjoyed the thought process without a definite conclusion, you're welcome. And if you didn't...well at least it was free.


*Well, that, and killing everyone in the city after the walls came down.
** You might also say it's heaven, but stick with me on this one.

Oh yeah. I learned the word "watershed" a while back and it's a fun one for purposes like this. It's a geographic term referring to how water flows. If there is a high point in the land all the water on one side of that point will flow in one direction, and all the water on the other side will flow the other way. So in the United States, the Rocky mountains act like a watershed. It's the point that says rain water is either going to flow towards california or towards the plains. It's used in a historical sense to say "before this moment, everything was one way, now that this has happened, everything is different forever."