Joshua 9 - The Gibeonites
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Joshua & The Gibeonites Audio
Common Sense isn’t all that Common
I love those movies and TV series that show con-men targeting dishonest or greedy people to steal their money. If you’re as old as me you may remember The Sting, or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, more recently remade into The Hustle, or perhaps the TV Series Hustle. Now I like them not because I approve of theft but because of the cleverness of their schemes. And today as the adventure continues we find just such a scheme at work in Joshua ch 9.
The Israelites have just come from the foot of Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim, modern day Nablus, where they were reminded of the blessings and the curses that God had promised to his people. They’re now moving south to continue their conquest of the land.
The whole population of Canaan has heard about them by now and the kings of the land below the hill country join together to prepare a defence. But not the leaders of Gibeon! They’ve seen what’s happened to Jericho and to Ai and they figure the same fate awaits them if they resist. So they take a different tack. They prepare a subterfuge.
They prepare dried out provisions, worn out clothes & sacks, dry and cracked wineskins and patched sandals and go to meet Joshua at his camp in Gilgal. They spin them a good story of how they’ve heard all about them even though they live a long way away.
- Half Truths & Deception
Joshua 1 - Lead and Repeat
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Lead & Repeat Audio
Leadership. It’s a timely topic when a parish is looking for a new leader, even if you are feeling the frustration of how long it’s taking to find one. But it isn’t just the lead minister who needs to show leadership, it’s the rest of the staff, it’s the Wardens and Parish Council; it’s the leaders of connect groups and other ministries in the parish. It might even be you in your suburban street as you seek to help others cope with life during a pandemic.
So today, as we begin this new series from the book of Joshua, I want to ask: how can we develop leadership in ourselves? How can we recognise it in others? How can we help those who lead us to be better leaders?
Here’s how I think this passage answers those questions: Choose leaders who’ve been called to leadership by God, choose leaders with courage, devotion and obedience to God and be people who in turn are obedient, courageous, loyal and encouraging of your leaders.
Let’s look at today’s passage to see how these sets of conditions come out in the history of Joshua.
Is 40 - Hope for the future
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Hope for the future Audio
One of the major themes that have run through the media this year has been the sense of isolation and pain caused by such a long period of lockdown and disconnection. What we’ve longed for is some sense of comfort and relief. So where do we look for comfort? Well some of us have probably looked to food, as testified to by the daily recipes in The Age, not to mention our expanding waistlines. But we probably also acknowledge that that’s not the most positive way to seek comfort. The people of Israel, suffering not lockdown but exile, felt a similar sense of isolation and disconnection; not from one another but from their land. And so God speaks to them, offering comfort through a promise of rescue. His words are addressed to Israel but are equally helpful for us, struggling in a fallen world, longing for release. His words are gentle. He says “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” Literally, “speak to her heart.” The way lovers woo each other, speaking sweet nothings to one another, wooing, persuading, inviting a response of love. But it’s a cry that holds real hope: “Cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double, for all her sins.”
Sometimes we have trouble hearing when God speaks to us, but here the prophet is told to speak with quiet words of love and a loud shout of proclamation. Whatever it takes they’re to hear this message: ‘Comfort, Comfort!’ and believe that it’s true.
Jonah the Jinx
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Jonah would have to be one of the best known names in the Bible, wouldn’t he? Just about everyone has heard the story of Jonah and the whale even if they don’t know the details. When a cricket commentator says how well a batsman’s doing and he gets out a couple of balls later, what do the other commentators say? “You’ve Jonahed him!”
But you know, there’s a bit more to this story than just a morality tale of someone who brings bad luck to those he travels with because he’s disobeyed God. Jonah is one of those Old Testament books that point forward so clearly to the gospel and its implications for us as Christians.
In fact, the main character in this story isn’t Jonah at all; nor is it the whale. The main character is God. Jonah is one of the supporting characters, along with the king of Nineveh and his people but the thrust of the story revolves around God and his purposes for the world.
Judges 13-16
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Samson - A Strong man’s Weakness Audio
I love movies. I especially love those thrillers where the hero overcomes all odds to defeat the villains and save the weak and helpless victims. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Bruce Willis overcoming incredible injuries to win out in Die Hard, or Arnold Schwarzenegger finally getting the better of the evil Terminator or one of the countless James Bonds overcoming whichever evil enemy of civilisation it is this year, I love to see justice done and the helpless helped.
But of course these are all fictional characters. They’re not real, are they? No more so than Superman or Batman. But then they’re also the stuff of myth and legend, the sort of stories that have been told from time immemorial, often stories based on real events, real people, in the time before history was written down.
Well, today we’re going to be thinking about one of the real heroes of history, a man who was Arnie and Bruce and Bond put together. Samson was a real person, born around the 12th century BC, but endowed with supernatural strength by God, who had chosen him to save his people from their oppressors, the Philistines. The sign that he’s chosen by God for this special task is that he’s to be a nazirite. That is, he’s to drink no wine or strong drink, eat nothing unclean and not cut his hair. And as a result of God’s special calling he grows up to be the strongest man in the universe. Unlike Gideon, who we looked at last week, he doesn’t need to be encouraged to stand up to his enemies. He doesn’t need to call out the tribes of Israel to fight the Philistines because he’s a one-man army. All he needs is the jawbone of a donkey and he can kill any army that stands against him.
