God at work in tricky situations

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Hello and welcome to today’s episode of “Difficult Bible passages to share with friends who don’t believe in God.” Most of it sounds nuts, the rest sounds violent and I’m struggling to find any of it which sounds like a life I want to live.

I’m wondering if the UK needs to pick up some tricks from Gibeon for future EU trade negotiations, though. These guys were geniuses! We come from a long way away – look at our old clothes and mouldy bread, we are definitely not your local competitors!

If Israel had consulted God, they would have seen right through this, but the point is that they did not. Despite that, I love how they were so certain of the responsibility they had after making a promise that they would not renege on their deal. God expects to be glorified through faithfulness in our relationships and obedience to his principles, maybe more than any other way, including miraculous signs.

And there were incredible miracles in the sun standing still and the hail killing more of Israel’s enemies than their swords. Hooray for… what was this for? There was a lot of death.

This is where I feel tempted to be like Jonah (we looked at him last Thursday) and judge God for myself. How could the God of love have led his people like this? I only have limited understanding and answers here. I trust scholars’ interpretation that this book is written with a certain amount of exaggeration to make a point. The Bible itself shows that not all of these “completely destroyed” people were killed, as they show up in later stories. But we are looking at an exceptional moment when God moved, and it is his world after all.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God wants the world to be better and calls us to trust and consult him as battles come up over who has authority. He values relationships and faithfulness above all, expecting us to keep our promises. God wants people to have the best quality life, and only he knows how he reckons with the dead – it’s not for us to judge. But it is for us to recognise God’s authority and ownership of creation, and trust him to redeem impossible looking situations.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

This passage is awesome in some ways, but also reminds me of how little I really have my head around God’s plans and purposes sometimes. I don’t want to resolve to try and work out something beyond understanding, but I do want to trust God more to answer prayers. I want to pray for more love, though I know his answer often comes through tricky situations.

Who am I going to share this with?

People I pray with when we consider what God wants from us, e.g. at “The SHAPE of you”.