Preamble
It could be frustrating.
Sitting on God’s earth and wondering if there is “anybody out there?” when you know the population to be around seven billion. But I am talking about the writer’s feelings when just two souls think it worth commenting on / responding to the posting the other day (Thirtieth Page).
Social media have made it simple to discard messages. See the name Judah and send it to “junk”. Or hit “delete”. As easy as that. Easier still is to ignore and pass over. Many of my non-readers do that and save themselves a great deal of nuisance!
The first response I received came from my Guindy class mate, a fellow mechanical engineer – in fact the class topper – now resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma in the U.S. Kasturi Rangan remarked that “since the spies accomplished nothing , henceforth they can be known as ***** spies.” From experience, I know that underneath that superficially sassy comment lies a wealth of wisdom and knowledge – to say nothing about a (dare I say mischievous?) attempt to stoke the fire. So it needs to be taken seriously, though KAS (as we now call him) himself was quick to acknowledge that he didn’t say anything profound.
The second comment came from my cousin Amirtha who has for sometime been honing this business of writing reviews/comments into a veritable art form. In typical fashion she says “😂🤣😂 that is, indeed, a hilarious yarn you have merrily spun with Alpha and Beta and by sticking some “bond” between them😁 The moral of the story comes somewhat as a surprise and is made to sit smugly as the cherry or the icing on the cake to which some old bit of tinsel/ jigina is also added 😁😛”
Ammu has this amazing talent for conferring on writers motives and ideas which never even crossed their mind. In this respect she is a little like art critics who build the most amazing and utterly fanciful constructs even on a blob of paint dropped accidentally on the canvas! You need skill to do that and Ammu has plenty.
There was once a go-getting engineering supervisor I knew during my days in the corporate world, about whom it was frequently rumoured that he wrote out the minutes even before the meeting! Like some review writers who merrily go to press without bothering to watch the show!!
Ammu is a lot better. Actually she belongs to the rare breed of reviewers who provide a better read than the article or story in question.
The long and short of this meandering preamble is that I am provoked / inspired into writing a sequel to “a Harlot in the Faith Hall of Fame!”
The Story
Come on…where is the need for espionage? Was it not “God who led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea” (Exodus 13:18). Was it not He who brought the children of Israel in the first place from the furnace of Egypt “with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm?” (Psalm 136:12). Further “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth” (2 Chronicles 19:6). Don’t they?
So, why spy?
Joshua might have been the son of None (punning on Nun) but he was by no means guilty of nescience. He knew it all. The guy who depended on God for every step of the way, knew very well that “his kingdom ruleth over all” (Psalm 103:19). Whatever be the defences of Jericho, to the Lord God leading Israel they are “ like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away”(Job 21:18).
However, he also knew that God is not a robot controller, making the device dance to His tunes at the press of a button – à la Perseverance on the surface of Mars. The way He operates is by involving His people. He wants His people to know that He is going before them to prepare the way; that they need not fear as they step into the promised land across Jordan. Didn’t He tell Joshua to “Be strong and courageous”.(Joshua 1:9). He wants the same confidence transmitted down to everybody.
The mission of the spies therefore was not so much the conventional operation of gathering intelligence and strategizing attack but to keep their eyes and ears open; to feel the pulse of the enemy and the mood of the people. Going by my earlier posting, it would seem that in this effort, they eminently succeeded; for they brought word back to Joshua that “ Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.” (Joshua 2:24).
The people are now emboldened to cross Jordan.
Good time to pose the question if we too are ready to cross the river – frequently allegorized as the station of death – when our time comes. We would be, if we knew who was in charge; who was leading the way, indeed who was the God of both life and death and what lay in store on the other side.
Didn’t Jesus say in John 14:1-2 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms……. I am going there to prepare a place for you”. So, well can we sing with Sabine Baring-Gould
(listen to audio recording [.mp3])
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
Refrain:
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
The story goes on and it involves several steps that the people need to undertake such as sanctification, circumcision, keeping of the pass over etc. All of this can be found in Joshua chapters 3-6, but we must quickly wrap this up.
(credit: ellenwhite.info)It is worthwhile noting that “About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho” (Joshua 4:13).
The point here is victory may be assured, but we must still engage in battle. We must still go “marching as to war”. It is good to recall another story we have seen before (ref. Thirteenth Page) wherein we saw that “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army……” (2 Chr. 20:21) . That story goes on ““As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (2 Chr. 20:22). Yes, it was the choir in the vanguard; but they arrayed themselves and marched as to war.
(credit:edexlive.com)For all his sagacity, பெருந்தலைவர் காமராஜர் (Kamarajar, once upon a time a great leader in Tamil Nadu) once made a serious mistake. In the context of upcoming elections he glibly boasted: படுத்துக்கொண்டே ஜெயிப்போம் ( we will win from the comfort of our beds). He lost, but that is another story.
God expects us to fight our battles, not loll about luxuriously in our beds, or idly walk about on the terrace (2 Samuel 11:2) when we should have been in the theatre of war.
(credit: freebibleimages.org)
Shock and Awe may now be regarded as a typical American tactic employed to unsettle Saddam Hussain of Iraq, but Joshua pioneered it a long long time ago.
“And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him” (Joshua 6:2-5). And that is how Jericho was defeated.
For the redux, you can enjoy the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho rendered in song by one of our own South Indian choirs:
Post Script: Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day (Joshua 6:25).
__________________________________
5