Stoning Service

Joshua 7 has an event that I am never pleased to see - a stoning. Clearly, I wish to honor God and I want to see this as a good thing, in the sense that God is glorified ... for Joshua's son had done something that was clearly grievous to God - which is the reason for the stoning. Certainly it wasn't an arbitrary stoning. Joshua loved his son; though Joshua's first response in finding out what Achor (his son) had done, was to root out the reality and deal with the consequences, soon after the stoning Joshua was dismayed. As would any parent in this situation.

How faithful does your walk have to be before you would choose God over your loved ones?

It is easy to choose God over a stranger - or loved ones you have kept at bay for one reason or another - but how close must your walk be that you are able to truly, not just pray for, but actively give up for stoning. Clearly, the question is phrased wrong because I myself find the question hard. A better worded question would be: Is your focus on God clear and focused enough that you think first of God's hurt before your own?

As a brother or sister, are you focused on God enough that, if you learn of them doing wrong, you help them root out the problem and let God's judgment fall where it may?

As a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, cousin, niece, nephew, or adopted child, are you focused enough on God that, having just learned about a wrong-doing, your first response is focused on resolution and righting that relative with God?

There are a list of hard questions most of us live out our lives answering one way or another, and this is clearly one of them. And I don't ask you to ANSWER this question right now, but to pray to God for guidance as to how you can live your life in line with His obvious preference - for in the natural, we are built to make exactly the wrong decision take exactly the wrong stance on this matter.

Today's call to action is simple - but will take some time to do it well:

WRITE A LOVE LETTER TO GOD

• Write how you appreciate what He's done for you, what He does for everyone you know.


• Write about His wondrous works, how His will for you has changed your life for the best.


• Write about Who his guidance has made you become.


• Write about how you are excitedly expecting to bear His fruits because you've been praying for them.


• Write about you can wait for His second coming.


• Write about all the books you've been reading about Him.


• Write about your favorite scripture and thank Him for touching your life through them.


• Write about those people He has brought into your life and how His anointing has brought them close to Him.


• Write about how amazed you are at the fellowship that is possible between discordant personalities.


• Write about Him, a poem, a sonnet, a short story, a haiku, a novel, a psalm.


• Write about requests you have and prayers you haven't asked for.


• Write about Him.

Whatever you write about, pray before you write, ask God or His perfect words, and then write what comes to heart.

Alone in the Ploughed Field

I find it interesting that this day’s Old Testament reading deals in a large part with women when men are concerned.

Firstly, God gives explicit instructions on what a man was to do with a captive woman he desired to marry… right down to shaving her head and cutting her nails. But notice the restrictions on their marriage that exist; if the man doesn’t delight in her, then he has no obligation to continue their marriage. The only stipulation is that he not sell her. Sad and interesting.

Secondly, a man with more than one wife and in the situation where he hates one wife, but not the other, is not allowed to pass his inheritance to the firstborn of the wife he loves. The inheritance passes to the firstborn. Period. It is nice God makes a provision for children of a hated wife… at least once in scripture, we find a hated wife producing a firstborn male. Again, God points to the unshakable fact that the firstborn (especially male) is a special creation; the beginning of his father’s strength and chosen of the Lord. I have to wonder if female firstborns are special to God… it seems everywhere God speaks highly and possessively of firstborns, He is referring to males.

Thirdly, women are not supposed to wear men’s clothing. I don’t believe this means women shouldn’t wear pants or shorts, I believe that this literally means that a woman should not wear men’s clothing (i.e., clothing specifically created for men). Traditionally, pants have been the woman’s clothing; providing full coverage in every-day tasks.

Fourthly, when a man takes a wife, knows her, and then hates her and says she had been with someone else before him, the father of the woman is supposed to provide the proofs of her virginity – this is a white cloth from her wedding day which has been blood-stained during the consummation of that marriage ceremony.

Here’s the kicker… if the father produces the proof, the man is chastised and will not be able to divorce his wife for the rest of his life. However, if the father cannot produce this proof, the men of the city will stone her until she dies. Why? She played the whore and brought shame to all of Israel. Makes one wonder what today would be like if this penalty were still in effect.

Fiftly, men are not punished with respect to crimes committed on women if the woman is not promised or married to another man. In the case of adultery, upon discovery, the man and the woman were to be stoned until dead. If an engaged virgin is caught with a man in the city, both were stoned until dead. If a man forced an engaged virgin in a field, only he would be stoned because it was assumed the woman would have called for help.

The thing that really bothers me somewhat is the fact that if a man rapes an unengaged virgin, he doesn’t die for this. Instead, he pays the father a huge chunk of money and then marries the woman and will never be able to divorce her for the rest of his life.

I suppose this way of dealing with men/women issues relates to how women are seen with respect to men. A married woman is her husband’s property. Betrothal (or engagement) fall into the same kind of category; the woman is promised to the man and really all that remains before she becomes his is the wedding and consummation. When a man messes with another man’s property (i.e., his neighbor’s wife or almost-wife), he must pay the penalty of death.

Unengaged women still belong under their father’s protectorate and are therefore not considered as belonging to a man, therefore the man isn’t killed for defaming “un-owned” property.