Fruitfulness, Lameness and Other Musings

There is a story in Joshua chapter nine that has bothered me since I was a young child. My mom read the bible aloud to us during breakfast. I was not more than 11 or 12 years old when I remember her reading this chapter on a bright morning while I ate my bowl of oatmeal. Joshua is a shining character at a high point in the history of the nation of Israel. God brought his long patience towards the wicked nations in the promised land to an end through Joshua’s faithfulness as a leader. The battle of Jericho is only the most famous of many spectacular battles the Lord won for his people. In the midst of all his success, Joshua has a weak moment and gets taken in by some guys with passable skills in chicanery. The men of Gibeon, seeing that death is hot on their heels, decided to skip the fight to inevitable death and hornswoggled Joshua and the elders of Israel into a treaty. All because the leaders in Israel didn’t stop long enough to check with God on the wisdom of a covenant with strangers. For the rest of the conquest of Canaan, God’s people carry this handicap. As a kid, I balked at the feeling of Joshua’s tainted victory. I figured I would have seen it coming. I would have done my research. The frustration clung to me for years.

This morning, over another breakfast, Kevin and I read Joshua chapter nine again. We meditated together on the coming year with our plans for work and productivity. We talked about conquest and weakness. I heard the story about the Gibeon tomfoolery with new eyes…praise God for his enlightening Spirit. Revelation in my case is often slow. I sometimes think that perhaps that is why God started me young, with parents who started reading his word to me before I could even comprehend.

The victory in the book of Joshua is not tainted at all. Because it is not Joshua’s victory. Silly me, child me, thought the story was about the nation of Israel. The story is about God’s victory. Maybe you were already there. But we all need to be reminded. Nothing Joshua did or did not do could thwart the victory of God. No Gibeonite chicanery, no Israelite dimwittedness was ever even a pebble in the Almighty’s shoe. O we of much near-sightedness.

All planned, all ordered, all orchestrated perfectly are the plans of God. For those of you who have arrived, it is good to join in the praise. Just maybe check your eyesight before you assent glibly.

This year is very possibly shaping up to be a dreadful one. It could also turn out to be a Jericho moment in the end. In either case I suggest both sharpened swords and good walking shoes. You never know how God is going to accomplish his purpose. But how confident are you that he is going to do it? We think we know. But we like to pretend to know what we don’t know and struggle to accept what we should know.

Christians need to learn how to win again. Joshua didn’t miss a beat when he stumbled. When he discovered his failure, he stepped right back into the path and followed through. Gibeon couldn’t be wiped out, but they remained slaves since they were slated for destruction. Slaves he had to spend sleepless nights defending and Israel had to spend years supporting. A thorn in the side, a rock in the sandal. If the idea of withheld resolution makes you uncomfortable prepare for disappointment. God isn’t interested in giving you complete satisfaction. He reserves that for himself. He says it all glorifies him. How ready are we to accept that truly spectacular outcome…the victory of God in spite of us?

Jesus leans into this principle in Luke 13:1-5:

“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The subtext is that God has reasons. You may be told and you may not be told. But he claims the glory.

If you know me, you may be aware that Kevin and I are barren. It is not lost on us that we are closing in on a decade of marriage and our family has not grown in the way we hoped and prayed for from the beginning. While our family has not been fruitless, we have carried this burden of childlessness daily. Continually in hope, sometimes in doubt, always with grief, often in obscurity. God is faithful to produce fruit in us in spite of our weakness. We have learned through lameness to receive this weight of lacking as a sign of his hand upon us for some reasons that we rejoice in and other reasons we do not expect to apprehend this side of glory.

The reasons I can see? Our view of children is elevated. Our commitment to family is broadened. Our devotion to diligent work has expanded. Our ability to show compassion is enlarged. All good, all holy, all not fruit of our flesh. And therein lies the surest, bald-faced, jarring truth. God demands and gets all the credit, even in the semantics. It could not be clearer that he chastens the ones he loves so that all things are evidently owing to his handiwork. Once you see this it can’t be unseen. Beyond that, we carry the burden of the unknown purpose. We get to witness victory through the veil of mortality.

There is another story about God’s people to build that narrative. Genesis 32:26 records how … “Jacob was left alone.” He was facing the rage of his brother Esau. No strength, no wealth, no love for his family could back him up. He had all of those good things. He was at his highest point. But he sent that wealth and abundance across the river and stayed to talk to God because he knew that he had no power to keep any of it. The victories in his life were bestowed by God. And God could take it all away. The story goes on:

“And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.”

The living God touched him, broke him, and blessed him. He walked to victory with a limp and a new name under the rising sun.

I have dear friends who look around with me and observe the lameness of our world and just can’t believe that God could be winning right before our very eyes. Sure, God can win. We agree he will win. But is he winning now? If you are Joshua, Jacob, the disciples of Christ, or me, your experience will tell you nothing. You will have to disbelieve your lying eyes and accept the weakness, the fog, and the burden of being a servant. The part about our frailty, well, that's just a side story, a tiny facet of the gem…which is the glory of God in Christ in us. We must receive the sight of faith, acknowledge and praise the Lord for winning while we are striving and limping, and step boldly into the light of the risen Son.

There is no superstition in the last verse about not eating a particular piece of meat. It is a simple cultural acknowledgment that what God touches belongs to him. As a wife with a home to manage, I’m trying to build a culture of holiness. When God touches something in our life, I work to build an aesthetic, cultural expression around it. Not from compulsion but out of reverence and joy for the hand of God. Both the good and the hard things that God brings to us are continual opportunities to offer more back to him in praise. The extra time I have as a childless wife does not belong to me. I’m limping along in the light of the Son of God and slowly growing in service and fruitfulness for others. I don’t owe that fruit to anyone but God, but to him, I owe everything. So here's to a truly happy, victorious new year!

“...according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” —Philippians 1:20