Catching Idle Butterflies

Discoveries and taking sides

One thing I've enjoyed about this Disciple class is all the discoveries. It's not just learning about God and the people who lived so many thousands of years ago that have the same flaws and weaknesses as we do, but just how patient and loving God was to His people, even after all the times they continued to rebel against them.

At least in my experience, most Christian churches place most of their focus on the New Testament and less on the Old unless it has a direct correllation to the New. Before Disciple, I had no incling of the richness of the stories, the people, and how it ties into the importance of Jesus Himself and what He did.

When I was looking up some of Jesus' parables last week, I found myself sucked in, thrilled by those red-lettered words popping off the page. My reaction surprised me, because these parables were not new to me. I had read them countless times before. So what made me react in such a way? I think it's because I have a better understanding of the God in the Old Testament, His boundless love for His creation, and the necessity for Jesus to come to the earth and sacrifice Himself so we might not be separated from God for forever.

I've also made a few other discoveries along the way. I've been told Jesus makes a few appearances in the Old Testament, but finding those appearances on my own is pretty exciting. I found one instance in Joshua 5:13-15: "When Joshua was near the town of Jerich, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, 'Are you friend or foe?'

"'Neither one,' he replied. 'I am the commander of the Lord's army.'

"At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. 'I am at your command,' Joshua said. 'What do you want your servant to do?'

"The commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did as he was told.

At first, I thought the commander was an angel, but in every other instance when an angel appeared, he always told the person not to worship or be afraid. This did not happen here.

But what I found even more intriguing was when he told Joshua he was neither friend nor foe. What did he mean? I haven't quite figured that out. I have a few ideas, such as this commander was not party to Joshua's conflict, and therefore took no sides.

If I have that right, it works that way in the conflicts of today, whether it be person to person, or nation to nation.

I'm getting into the realm of preaching, now, but for anyone to say "God is on our side, not on yours," is the height of arrogance. It could be God would rather we are not always in conflict with one another, and for all of us to be on His side.

Edit: Here it is after 11pm, and I can't sleep as I thought about what might be inferred from my last paragraph. It might seem I'm some peacenik holding a sign saying, "Peace not War", when that's hardly the case. War, unfortunately, is sometimes necessary. I shudder to think what sort of world we would have if we never fought the Revolutionary War, WWI, WWII, Korea, just to name a few, and now Afghanistan and Iraq.

I don't know who said "The surest way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing," but I believe it wholeheartedly.

I guess what I was trying to do was to look at things from a spiritual perspective instead of a worldly one. But as I'm a mere human and not having any knowledge into the mind of God, I could be completely wrong about all of this.