Joshua is decimating the Amorites, and will continue in his path of domination with the kings and kingdoms of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. To take the Amorites, God makes the sun stand still until Joshua’s work is done.
Ok. So I absolutely believe God could make the sun stand still. And I’m not sure I take this as literal. I know that Joshua is in the line of the chosen people, but God is the God of the Amorites too, right? I read these stories about battles, and victors and God being with one side or another, and I think about how this same logic has played out through history. The crusades and modern day violence in the name of religious extremism.
Some argue that it is through Jesus’ revelation and teachings about peace, and loving all, that God’s nature changed. That God rooted for one team, and not the other, but then Jesus came, and through his humanity, convinced God to change his bias. Hmm. While that’s possible, and I’ll definitely never know for sure, it doesn’t ring true to me.
Rather than God’s nature changing, I think that our human understanding of God has changed. The people who wrote the stories of Joshua, and Hagar, and Jacob were writing about God as they understood God. That’s all they could do; that’s all I can do. God stops the sun so Joshua can kill the Amorites. God lets Hagar be turned out and her lineage is not the chosen one. God tells Jacob to sacrifice his son, and lets Jacob time him up and put him on the pyre. I don’t doubt these things happened, or something similar that was elaborated to make a point. But I’m less convinced that these things were really God’s will.
Rather than God changing that drastically, I think it’s us who’ve changed. And it took Jesus to help us understand God in our human, limited frameworks. And it took Jesus to help God understand our limited human frameworks in God’s immensity.
Because if God is a God of favorites, of smiting, of punitive actions for one group of people, and not another, than I have to live my life creating boundaries and borders and guidelines that define Good people, and everyone who isn’t in the boundary, or across the border or doesn’t follow the guideline is Bad. But what of those Bad people’s prayers and petitions to God? Do their boundaries make me the Bad one?
I can’t believe that if I’m called to love my neighbors – all my neighbors – that God has favorites among them. And I guess I don’t believe God ever did. But like most history, Scripture was written by the victors, so we hear that God was on their side.
This morning, I’m thinking about how I continually wrestle with notions about God written from human perspectives. I know that Scripture is divinely inspired, but I’m not sure that’s the same as literally true. Of course, if it is, I’m in trouble.
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