Caleb

I have come to one of my favourite Bible characters – Caleb. Oh dear! In looking up Caleb's history, I found there are 11 entries in my Bible Dictionary. They look interesting, so I will have to check them all, won't I?

Caleb was of the tribe of Judah. Now Judah is listed in the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (by Mary Baker Eddy) as: "A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing" (p. 589:23). A good line to be in!

There were twelve men sent to check out the land of Canaan from the wilderness of Paran, on the east side of the Sinai Peninsula. Two of the twelve gave the enterprise the go-ahead – they could see that it was possible to take the land. Caleb “stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13: 30). However, the men who went with him thought they were not strong enough to do the job. So the journey to the Promised Land had to take the longer route.

Caleb and Joshua were the only ones of the group to enter the Promised Land – the others died in the wilderness.

But Joshua forgot that God's promise included Caleb, and he was ignored when the land was divided up. Really the whole of Caleb's story is encapsulated in Joshua Chapter 14. He put his case to Joshua and received what was due to him. Hebron was his inheritance.

Joyce Voysey

Geography and kingdoms

How about the list of “kings of the country which Joshua and the Children of Israel smote on this side Jordan...”! We then have a list of the kings: Josh. 13:9-24. That's 32 kings. 

The area we are reading about is very small – Israel to-day, we are told, measures 420 km x 115 km. But the area Joshua took over didn't include all that area. 

I think of the distance between the Gold Coast and Brisbane as being about 100 km. Take that north for 420 km you might get to Bundaberg. How many cities, towns, villages would that hold? And how about having 32 kings set up in that area?

The web site at https://images.app.goo.gl/FW9vuhGoWt68hoVk9 might give you a map. (Ed. You can spot Jericho just north of the Dead Sea and Ai a little to the north west of Jericho.)

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Interesting that they were all kings. I wonder about their queens. And how many people constituted each kingdom? With travel being mostly on foot, it's probable that people kept to their own little part of the world.

Cheerful employment

Warfare and conflict are usually distasteful topics; we'd rather have peace. Yet, as we read in Joyce's recent post, Joshua's story embraces a swag of conquests which involved both warfare and conflict. What lessons may be learned?

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, writes that 'the warfare with oneself is grand'. The whole sentence reads: 'Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you, — and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory' (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 118:24–28)

In this same volume, she writes evocatively of past skirmishes: 'With tender tread, thought sometimes walks in memory, through the dim corridors of years, on to old battle-grounds, there sadly to survey the fields of the slain and the enemy's losses' (ibid, p. xi: 24).

But the battle is not with other people; it is with sin and error, as exemplified in the following passage in the Christian Science textbook by Eddy: 'There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple with sin in themselves and in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their course ' (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 28:32–5).

What, then, was Joshua doing as he and his people fought so many battles? We will probably never know exactly, but we hope they were sorting themselves out, finding their place, learning how to get along with each other, putting down roots and growing shoots, and practising the ten commandments handed down to them by their courageous leader Moses. It wasn't and isn't always easy, but 'the Lord gave them rest...' (Joshua 21: 44)--a little respite on their continuing journey to know and obey God.

Julie Swannell

Was Joshua paying attention to God?

Joshua. I haven't got my peace about all that killing. One commentator suggests that the towns may have been infested with a terrible, incurable disease. And of course there were other gods to be gotten rid of. Though it is said there were still some left - somehow.

Well I have just come to the sentence, “And the land rested from war” (Josh. 11:23 And the...). 

The towns of Canaan have been burned down after the inhabitants were killed. “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions” (Josh. 11:23 to first .).

How puzzling. It made me think that Joshua took up the idea of taking over Canaan for a homeland for the Israelites, but didn't listen quietly as to how to do it. I have found that when I get an idea  from Mind for some action, there is a second part to the demonstration. I have to ask and listen for the modus operandi of how to do it, not go off “half-cocked,” so to speak.

This morning (Sunday 20^th October), I was reading the article Lessons in True Compassion in the October 2019 Christian Science Journal. Speaking of the Children of Israel and their Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, the writer (Gabriela Mejia) says she found it surprising and comforting that God never left their side. She says, “Time after time, despite all the doubts and complaints from the Israelites, God demonstrated His great patience and love by providing for them and protecting them from harm.”

Hey! Where is the Golden Rule here. The Israelites had been freed from slavery in Egypt where they really had a pretty good life, and they go and savagely kill and burn whole towns and villages.

No compassion there.

Joyce Voysey

A new generation

I am impressed by the parallels between Joshua, and his teacher and leader, Moses. It is obvious that Joshua, as leader of this new generation, had paid attention.

Both had the formidable task of crossing water-courses with a mass of people--men, women, and children. Joshua faced the Jordan River in flood. This river, which has the lowest elevation of any river in the world*, flows from snow-capped Mount Hermon (approx. 9,000 feet; 2,800 metres) in the north to the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberius), and continues south to the Dead Sea (the lowest part of the earth's surface). It sits between 32 and 35 degrees north of the equator. (As a comparison, Canberra is 35 degrees south). There is a great map at https://www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/israel-lat-long.html

It seems that the Israelites crossed the Jordan following the death of Moses in 1406 B.C., the same year in which Jericho was destroyed. Joshua had to prove his worth as their new leader and he quoted Moses as he spoke to the people.

Within the historical context that "the people of Israel had been landless for nearly five hundred years", The Message (Eugene Peterson) presents a bold young Joshua advising his people thus: "Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess" (Joshua 1: 10-11). The nomadic life of "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons [followed by] ...over 400 years...[in] slavery" was behind them.

Joshua proclaimed:

"Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you. God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan... but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them..." (ibid verses 12-15).

These people demonstrated obedience, attention to detail, trust, confidence in God, action, movement, and close listening.

They also had to stand firm in their resolve to move forward together and to drive out foreign matter such as fear, doubt, disobedience.

How fitting it was that Joshua, like Moses, had to remove his shoes. He was standing on holy ground (Joshua 5: 15), feeling the sanctity of God's direction and protection.

Julie Swannell


* Britannica entry on Jordan River

Rahab and smugglers

Chapter two of Joshua has a great story, with Rahab as its heroine.

Joshua had led the people to Shittim which is within spitting distance of Jericho. He sent two men to spy out the prospects of getting into Jericho. Rahab, a “harlot,” was a -- what to call her? (I am reminded of the people in Europe during the Second World War who hid folk fleeing from the Nazis and the Italians. What were they called? Guerrillas? Part of networks of men and women getting the ones in danger to freedom.) 

Rahab didn't have a network. She thought it all out herself. (Wrong! We never think anything out for ourselves, do we?) She had heard of the wonders which had attended the Israelites in the journey out of slavery in Egypt, and she respected their God which had brought them through the Red Sea, etc. After the Israelites conquered Jericho her father's family were the only ones saved. (She had requested that of Joshua's two men.)

My Bible Dictionary says of Rahab: "According to later Jewish legend, Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in history. She became a righteous convert, married Joshua, and was the ancestor of eight prophets (including Jeremiah) and of Huldah the prophetess (b. Meg. 151). In the New Testament, Rahab is cited as a heroine of faith (Heb. 11:31) and of righteous works (James 2:25), and is included in Jesus' ancestry by Matthew (1:5)".

I am currently reading a book called The Book of Smugglers of Timbuktu: The Quest for this storied city and the pace to save its treasures, by Charlie English. I wonder what the readers of this blog think about Timbuktu. Not much in the way of literature there perhaps. Old manuscripts and historic documents – no way, I would have thought. The book corrects that line of thinking.

First of all, Timbuktu, on the Niger River, is in Mali in West Africa (the rounded part), on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The official language is French.

It was fabled as being rich in gold. Mungo Park explored the area between 1795 and 1797, and though he didn't reach Timbuktu, at Kamala he found people reading Arabic texts. He was also shown The Book of Common Prayer.

Among the documents he saw was an Arabic version of the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah of Moses). And he found that the people were familiar with Old Testament stories like Adam and Eve; the death of Abel; Noah's flood; the lives of Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon. Some could relate the stories in the local language, Manding.

Interestingly, Julie's exchange student from French-speaking Quebec visited Mali some years ago. I didn't take much notice at the time. Now I would love to hear about it.

Here is some of what Wikipedia says about Timbuktu:

Timbuktu Manuscripts 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manuscript of Nasir al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Hajj al-Amin al-Tawathi al-Ghalawi's Kashf al-Ghummah fi Nafa al-Ummah. From the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, Timbuktu.

A manuscript page from Timbuktu showing a table of astronomical information

Timbuktu Manuscripts (or Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically important manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, Mali. The collections include manuscripts about art, medicine, philosophy, and science, as well as copies of the Quran. The number of manuscripts in the collections has been estimated as high as 700,000.[1]

The manuscripts were written in Arabic and local languages...[2] The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire...

Perhaps I have strayed from Joshua a little. But isn't that all interesting. Does it tempt the reader to go find English's book? 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Rahab certainly was brave to smuggle the 'spies' to safety.

PS. I find it interesting to conjecture from which direction the Israelites approached Jericho. And what did they carry with them of their African experience - physically, morally, educationally?

The book of the law

Book club for October 2019 – Joshua

First thing in Chapter 1, for me, was the phrase, the "book of the law” in verse 8. It seems this refers to the Torah or first five books of the Bible, including all of Moses' rules and regulations, though definition varies with scholarship. In my consecutive reading of the Bible I have been wading through the Exodus listing of all those seemingly interminable laws; interminable and somewhat pedantic to my thought. Though I seem to remember that Mrs. Eddy says that every thing in the Bible can have a spiritual truth embedded in it. Sorry, I don't have a quote to hand on that one.

It would seem that the people were not able to do what Joshua 1:8 demands of them, namely, not let the "book of the law depart out of [their] mouth[s]", and, "meditate therein day and night, that [they might] observe to do according to all that is written therein". They were assured that they would be "prosperous" and "success[ful]" if they obeyed this rule. But, in II Kings 22:8, we find that some time in the future, under the reign of Josiah, Hilkiah finds the book of the law. It had languished some place – forgotten and not lived by.

(One of my favourite Bible stories is connected to this reference to the “book of the law”: Nehemiah 8:1-12.)

I seem to have happened here on a matter that may require in-depth study to get straight. Suffice it to say perhaps, that the Israelites didn't always obey the book of the law, and it had to be re-discovered over and over.

In verse 6, Joshua tells the people that they must "be strong and of a good courage". He reiterates the idea three more times. Perhaps he thought it was important! It is still good teaching for us as students of Christian Science.

Joyce Voysey