Two Days in a Row

My head is swimming. It was another invigorating evening at the Porch. We wrestled with Joshua, kind of like Jacob wrestled with the ?? in Genesis. We read through a good chunk of the bloody chapters, the ones where Joshua swings a mean sword and kings lose their heads, and it seems justified (at least in their eyes, for their situation.) It’s too late to give a fair summary of the evening’s discussion (how’s that for a cop out), but there was one verse that popped out at me for the first time (even though I’ve read the book numerous times.) It’s not a positive uplifting verse like 24:15 (as for me and my house. . . .), so I won’t recommend it for a life verse. But here goes--Joshua 10:14 says “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man.” (So much for prayer.)

But I guess that’s a fair representation of the importance in taking care when we read any text and a fair representation of why this evening’s discussion was especially challenging, stimulating, and, I hope, fruitful. (I do apologize for sometimes going overboard with the commas too.) Our concern was that we not read this book as the Pharisees (and the Crusaders) did, and thus receive the rebuke of Jesus.