Consider this

         Like most people, I do not like to wait for things.   I like being able to go to the ATM and get money even if the bank is not open.   I like being able to throw leftovers in the microwave and eat five minutes later.   A stoplight (or a train) that lasts longer than a minute or two seems too long.   I do not think that I am a “Type A crazy person”, but I certainly like things to be quick and convenient.              Maybe that is why the following passages are a little disconcerting.   “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot their God… so he sold them into the hands of [their enemies] to whom they were subject for eight years” (Judges 3:7-8).   Now, if that were the only time the Bible said something like that, then maybe I could just skip over it.   However, four verses later we read, “Once again the Israelites did evil ...

       The Bible starts with a picture of the “Garden of Eden” (Genesis 1) as a place of perfection where God’s glory was seen and where God himself walked among his people (Genesis 2:8).  It was “paradise” in every sense of the word.              After sin entered the world (Genesis 3), another picture starts to emerge.  The focus shifts from “God and his glory” to the people and their desires.  Eventually, they get together and say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4).  Notice the words “us”, “ourselves”, “we” and “ourselves” (again) in that sentence.  God has been moved out of the spotlight.             Those two pictures, the “Garden of Eden” on one hand and the “Tower of Babel” on the other, represent the two paths that we...

            By now you probably know all about this, but something terrible has happened!   Tim Horton’s has changed their cup sizes!!                Why is this “terrible”?   Well, the other day I ordered a “medium black coffee” as I always do and what I got was a huge, sloshing tub of coffee.   A “medium” is now what used to be called “large” and what used to be “medium” is now a “small”.    Those of you who know me know that I do not need a large “tub” of coffee; I am wound up enough as it is.             “So why not just order a small coffee?” you ask.   Well, here is the thing, I can’t!   I can’t order a “small” for one good reason:   I think it makes me look like a sissy!               Now, some ...

             In Old Testament times, justice and law worked on the principle of “An eye for an eye” (See Exodus 21 for some examples).   It was a little like the “Wild West” where scores were settled personally between families (think, “I am looking for the man who shot my paw”).              What happened, though, if you killed someone accidentally?   What if you were cutting a tree down and it fell on your helper?   Well, the law made provision for that too.   The Israelites set apart six towns and called them “The Cities of Refuge” (see Joshua 20).   If a person killed another without forethought or malice, he could run to one of these cities, plead his case and find safety.   If the man’s family came demanding retribution, the people of the city would protect the man until his case was heard in court.   The “Cities of Refuge” were me...

            After teaching three or four lessons per week for almost 22 years, there are not many things in the Bible that I have not seen.  Imagine my surprise, then, when last week I came across a story that I had never heard before (and I am guessing you have not either).              Joshua and the people of God have just crossed into the Promised Land and have successfully conquered the first two towns; Jericho and Ai.  Momentum is on their side.  If I was Joshua, I would continue to attack.  Instead, Joshua marches his people to the centre of the land, to a place called Shechem.             Shechem sits in a valley between two mountains that are about a mile apart.  When Joshua arrives, he takes half of the people and puts them on one mountain (Mount Gerizim) and he takes the oth...

            When 61-year-old potato farmer, Cliff Young, arrived at the starting line wearing overalls and work boots, people wondered if he was lost.   After all, he was standing among a group of elite, young athletes who were about to run the 875 kilometers (544 miles) from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia.   Young was not lost, though.   In fact, he was about to do something incredible.             Almost as soon as the gun sounded, Young was behind.   He ran with a very slow, loping pace that made observers think that he could not last for more than an hour.   Mile after mile, though, he just kept running.   Near the end of the first day, when the other competitors stopped for the night, Young kept running. The next day, he found himself with the leaders again and, by the end of day two, after running most of the night again, he was in t...

“Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in’” (Joshua 6:1-5). On paper, that does not sound too bad, but I think the reality of it must have been different.   I can see the Israelites walking around the wall the first day saying, “Hmm, we must be scouting the place today.   That is good!   Maybe we will find a weak spot where can attack.”   I can also see the residents of Jeri...