Readings:
Joshua 6
Psalm 92
Luke 12:1-34

Joshua 6

Joshua is given very specific instructions on how to take this large walled city, and it involves something that on its face makes no sense at all. They’re supposed to blow seven trumpets for seven days, whilst marching around the city once on the first six days and seven times on the seventh day. This is supposed to flatten walls?

It’s not so much the act of marching seven times with trumpets that destroys the walls, or else medieval armies would’ve saved a lot of time and money by just repeating Joshua’s tactics and not building large and cumbersome siege towers and catapults. It’s the complete trust in God and the following of his instructions that handed them the victory.

Seven also means oath in Hebrew, and to take an oath was often referred to as “sevening yourself.” Gods had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and now with Joshua that is signing with these sevens. In telling him to do this, he’s essentially saying that the promises to give the sons of Israel this land are now being achieved. That’s what this symbolism is pointing to.

On the other side of the wall it would’ve been terrifying to see this army that’s already had several victories nearby, and is now marching around your walls, begging to blow trumpets and being led by their priests. They’d heard the stories of what transpired in Egypt and they could probably see them crossing the Jordan with the river bone dry from their city, and now here they are at the gates. But after a couple days they were most likely at ease, and maybe even thinking they were more bark than bite. No matter what they thought, they definitely weren’t expecting their walls to come crumbling down.

Luke 12:1-34

Jesus is again warning about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and calling it “leaven” because a tiny pinch of a leavening agent can make an entire batch of dough rise. It gets into everything and infects the whole batch. The same way that no matter how righteous a hypocrite might be in 9 out of 10 things, their hypocrisy ruins everything.

Jesus is asked to be the arbiter of an inheritance dispute between two brothers, and seeing how the money is causing division in the family, he tells them a parable of a wealthy fool. Being wealthy is not wrong, and it’s not inherently foolish, but the subject of the parable was a fool because he put all his faith and trust in his wealth. You can’t take wealth with you when you die, and your balanced checkbook isn’t an admission slip at the pearly gates. The man was a fool because he made all kinds of plans, and then laid back to indulge in life, but God was never a part of his plans, and so he was a fool.

Jesus tells them not to worry about anything, and this seems easier said than done, but we can remind ourselves that things will always work out for the good if we trust in God. It may turn out like the apostles, and end with martyrdom, but death is not the end. No matter what happens to our lives on earth, we’re promised life with him in heaven.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Joshua 7-8
Psalm 93
Luke 12:35-59