READING FOR JANUARY 8, 2025: JOSHUA 14, JOHN 4, PSALM 138 JOSHUA 14 Joshua, Eleazar the priest, and leaders from each of the tribes supervised the lottery which determined the land to be allotted to each tribe. Just as there was great concern about the fairness of the presidential election last November, great care was taken to ensure this land lottery system was above board. Still, we will find some tribes complaining about the results. Someone once said, “History might not repeat itself, but it certainly does rhyme.”
In verse six, Caleb and representatives of his tribe of Judah approached Joshua. He reminisced with Joshua about their spying mission 45 years ago, maybe like reunions at Normandy, France to celebrate D-Day. The difference is that only Caleb and Joshua survived from that entire generation; it didn’t qualify as the “Greatest Generation.” There were only two fully trusting servants of God. Let’s hope our folks at Yorktown Methodist Church do better. Caleb then reminds Joshua of Moses’s promise to him: “The land on which your foot has walked shall certainly be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully.”
What land did Caleb request? Hebron, previously named for the greatest man of the Anakim. Who were the Anakim? “The sons of Anak... we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:33). Caleb knew he needed to drive out the remaining inhabitants of this region. He didn’t pick this land because it was easy. Caleb, at 85, wanted to defeat the tough-- est enemy in the power of the Lord. Let’s do the same as we face forces of evil in our last years on earth. Paul had the perfect retirement plan: “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”(Phil. 3:13-14).
John 4 We read today another beloved Bible story, Jesus’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. In their conversation (and with the disciples upon their return), like that of Jesus with Nicodemus, we see Jesus begin with very earthly ideas (birth, water, food, etc.) and moving into deeply spiritual truths. Jesus seemed fond of talking like this. It would take the conversation partner some effort to move from hearing with earthly ears to hearing with the ears of their hearts. At times it only happened later as the person pondered afterword what Jesus had really been saying. Scriptures are often like that for us today; each time we read and as we meditate on them over time and with others, they reveal deeper and deeper truths.
The woman in this encounter experienced this. In the conversation that began with a request for a drink, she was first shocked that he seemed to indicate he was greater than their ancestor Jacob who dug the well (way back in Genesis!) around which the Samaritans centered their life and their identity. Then as we go along, we hear her begin to understand him as a prophet who just might be the long-awaited Messiah: “Could this be the Messiah?”(vs 29). By the end of his visit with them, this woman and her community proclaimed Jesus “the Savior of the World” (vs 42).
Often the Samaritan woman is assumed to be immoral, but we can’t know this for sure. What we do know is that she has been married five times and is now living with a man to whom she isn’t married, which isn’t God’s plan for sexual relations (Matt.19:4-5). And we know that she came to the well about noon, not in the cool of
READING FOR JANUARY 8, 2025 CONTINUED: JOHN 4, PSALM 138 the morning as most women did. We can assume this is because she is seen as shameful or as an outcast by the people of her town. But again, we don’t know her story. We know women could not initiate divorce in her day; so why so many marriages? Was she unfaithful to one man after another leaving them no choice but to divorce her? Was she widowed and then left destitute – or mistreated and put out by her first husband – and then, desperate and with no way to provide for herself, simply brought in by a string of opportunistic men who would use her until they too tired of her? We don’t know, and we are not told.
But, although He raises this issue, we see in Jesus is that her situation is not his concern. He makes no judgment on her moral standing. What he sees is a person of value and a person who will stop and listen and respond to him, just as she is. Remembering that Jesus came to make God known to us, let us remember who Jesus was, God is. Let us remember that God does not deal with any of us on the basis of our moral or social standing. He is looking for people who will stop and listen and receive him in the reality of their everyday lives, however messy that reality is. Receiving Him as Savior and Lord means that thereafter we will obey Him.
In this chapter John gives us the second sign he will provide to point to Jesus’ identity and power: the healing of the royal official’s son. And in this chapter, all of those who encountered Jesus and were faced with the decision of whether they would receive him and believe in his name, did believe (the Samaritan woman, her townspeople, and the royal official). We’ll see things begin to change as we move into tomorrow’s reading.
PSALM 138 David’s thanksgiving to God is wholehearted. Do we hold back to avoid looking strange? Even David’s wife foolishly thought he lacked restraint: “Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she was contemptuous of him in her heart” (2 Sam. 6:16). David then sings praises to God, even in the presence of those of other beliefs. We should be respectful of those who believe differently but never be afraid to say Jesus is the only truth. To do otherwise is not loving, given the eternal stakes involved. David, in fact, praises God precisely for these dual qualities of truth and love, which are clearly articulated in His word. (Let’s read it!) In addition to His word, David finds God faithful to him through his own lived experience.
David optimistically predicts world’s leaders will also praise God once they hear God’s word. Guess whose responsibility it is to share that word? Yes, it’s ours. David even foresees a chorus of leaders (maybe in all fields) singing God’s praises. That will be a sight. Yet, whenever that happens, God won’t give them preference over the poorest believer. In fact, those who approach God with any pride, will not fool God. Finally, David then looks ahead to Jesus, the One currently seated at the Father’s right hand, who will, by God’s grace through our faith, enable us to experience everlasting life.
