Cultural History

Readings for today: 2 Samuel 5:1-10, 1 Chronicles 11-12, Psalms 133

The key verse in today’s reading is 1 Chronicles 9:1, “So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.” Why are all these names important? Why are the generations laid down with such detail and specificity? Why record Israel according to their respective tribes? What’s at stake here? Identity. Connection. History. Israel took their history seriously. Even after they were carted off to exile in Babylon and were faced with the temptation to intermarry and lose their connection to their past, Israel remained faithful. They knew God had set apart the Levites to serve Him as priests. So the Levites remained set apart as priests even in exile. They knew God had given authority to the tribe of Judah to reign and to rule. So the tribe of Judah continued to serve as princes and leaders for God’s people. They knew David and Samuel had set apart certain families as gatekeepers, guardians of the Lord’s treasury, etc. So they made sure these families retained those roles. And when Israel finally did return from exile, you see the descendents of these great men and women re-connecting to their glorious past. 

Most of us have never experienced exile. Most of us have not had our cultural identities wiped out. We’ve not had our history erased. We’ve not had our connection to our ancestors severed. At the same time, many among us have had this terrible and tragic experience. I think of the Native American men and women I have known. Their people lived on this continent for hundreds of years before the arrival of the first European explorers. They lost their land. They were forcibly relocated. They were forced to forgo the key rituals and give up the key rhythms that connected them to their history and their tribal identity. Their stories are terrible and heartbreaking. I think of the African-American men and women I have known. Their ancestors brought over on slave ships across the Atlantic. Their connection to their land severed. Their connection to their history erased. Their connection to their past lost. They were given new names. They were forced to take on new identities. They suffered in slavery for hundreds of years including economic slavery after officially being emancipated during the Civil War. Their stories are terrible and heartbreaking. 

It’s vital for those of us who have not suffered at the scale of others to humble ourselves and listen to those who have endured such pain and loss. It is important for us to become advocates for them as they seek to recover their cultural identity. We must become allies with them in their fight to re-connect to their cultural past. We must pluck up the courage to face the difficult and complex issues that often arise as a result.

I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers. I know the way forward is difficult. But I have to believe as we work for the good of one another. As we celebrate the history and culture and diversity God has created among human beings on this planet. As we help each other re-connect to something deeper. A deeper identity. A deeper story. A deeper truth. I have to believe God will reveal Himself in that process in a powerful way because this “genealogical impulse” exists within all of us. In a very real sense, Israel’s story is our story for all of us can ultimately trace our lineage back to the same common source. Adam and Eve. The first man. The first woman. Made in the image of God by the hand of God for the glory of God. This is truly our heritage.

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Samuel 5:11-25, 6, 1 Chronicles 13-16

The Importance of Memory

Readings for today: Joshua 3-6

“Joshua called out the twelve men whom he selected from the People of Israel, one man from each tribe. Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.” (Joshua‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

When you think back on your life, where have you seen God at work? Where have you seen His finger touch down? Where have you witnessed Him working a miracle on your behalf? How do you remember such things? How do you mark such occasions? Israel built altars. They would take uncut stones and stack them together to remind themselves of God’s great faithfulness. As we get deeper into the Old Testament, it will soon feel like the landscape gets dotted with these altars. It’s like you can’t travel anywhere in Israel without stumbling over an altar they’ve made! Altars were significant, especially in an oral culture where many of the stories were not being written down as they happened but instead told from father to son, mother to daughter. Passing by an altar was an opportunity for the family to pause and remember and re-tell the tale of God’s great love and miraculous deliverance for His people. These altars formed something like a “scrapbook” or “Instagram” account for ancient Israel. A place they could go to be reminded of their most precious memories.  

Of course, preserving the institutional memory of Israel was not the only purpose for these altars. There was an “evangelistic” component as well. “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ “Yes, God, your God, dried up the Jordan’s waters for you until you had crossed, just as God, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always.” (Joshua‬ ‭4‬:‭21-‭24‬ ‭MSG‬‬) Remember, God’s great aim is to fill the earth with His glory. His great vision at the end of time is that of every tribe, tongue, and nation coming to bow in submission before His throne. Even here, Israel is being reminded of her calling to be a light to the nations. To reflect to the world the greatness and glory and majesty of God. Sometimes that will mean executing divine justice on the pagan tribes before them. Other times it will mean showing great mercy as will happen to Rahab and her family in Jericho. Through it all, God is making Himself known to the world in and through His people. 

The same holds true today. God is making Himself known to the world through His people. His plan hasn’t changed. His purposes haven’t changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Where His people struggle, God brings comfort. Where His people fail, God brings discipline and judgment. Where His people step out in faith, God meets them and performs miracles on their behalf. This is who our God is and always will be.

Readings for tomorrow: Joshua 7-10

His Story

Readings for today: Deuteronomy 1-3

When I was in college, I took a Women’s Studies class to fulfill a graduation requirement. It was a fascinating experience. Probably the thing I remember most is the first day when our professor walked into the room, walked up to the board, and said, “the first thing we have to do in this class is change our language. History is too often “his story” and we’re here to study “her story.” She went on to change words like “woman” to “womyn” and “human” to “humyn” in order to make the point that even the language of the human race has been dominated by men. While I thought she was being overly pedantic, I took her point and truly enjoyed the class. (I also found her to be extremely fair-minded especially when I offered some counter-points in the papers I wrote.)

As we read the first few chapters of Deuteronomy this morning, I thought about how history truly is His Story. It’s the story of God’s interactions with humanity. Relentlessly pursuing them with His love. Remaining faithful to them despite their unfaithfulness. Rescuing them from slavery and bondage. It’s why the great Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, once called the Bible the story of “God’s search for man” rather than man’s search for God, as it is in every other religion. As Moses recounts the journey Israel has undertaken to get to the plains of Moab, poised to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, he makes it clear that only God could have brought them thus far. He pulls no punches as he lists the many ways they failed along the way. He even acknowledges his own sin which will preclude him from crossing over. He wants to make sure this next generation remembers the mistakes of their ancestors so they won’t repeat them. But even more than that, he wants them to remember God’s faithfulness. He wants them to remember God’s saving work. He wants them to remember God’s miraculous deliverance at every point along the way.

There are many who don’t believe the Exodus happened. Many who believe Israel appeared essentially out of nowhere. They cite the lack of archaeological evidence in the Sinai peninsula, ignoring the fact that the desert has a way of burying such evidence very quickly. (For example, a military jeep from the Six Days War in 1967 was recently found beneath 51 feet of sand.) They cite the lack of evidence in the Egyptian archives of the massive slave revolt as if the Egyptian pharaohs would allow such a defeat to be recorded under their watch. They cite all kinds of problems in squaring what we know of history with the conquest narratives of Scripture which admittedly can be tricky but only if you fail to take into account the fact that such narratives are not written with objectivity in mind. They are written from a theological point of view with a desire to honor God’s faithfulness to His covenant people which doesn’t mean they are any less true though they are most certainly biased. No matter what you believe about the veracity of the details of the story, without a doubt something significant must have happened. The Exodus is the seminal event in Israel’s history. It shapes them profoundly to this day. God acted in history to save His people from slavery. That much must be true. The story has too much power to not be grounded in real world events.

The same is true for our Exodus as Christians. So many people try to spiritualize the death and resurrection of Jesus. Like Thomas Jefferson famously excising the miracles out of the Bible, they do all they can to eliminate the supernatural when it comes to the life of Jesus. But a fiction would not have held up especially in those early centuries when the church was undergoing significant persecution. A fiction would not hold up under the torture and martyrdom so many men and women endured. A fiction would not have prevailed over the might of a thoroughly pagan empire like Rome. All the enemies of Christ had to do was produce a body. But they could not and therein lies the difference between the resurrection of Jesus and all the other so-called resurrection myths that exist in other cultures. Jesus was a real man who died a real death who rose again to new life, left behind an empty tomb, and appeared in the flesh to hundreds of people before ascending into heaven. This is His Story. This is our story as believers. Thanks be to God.

Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 4-7