Thursday • 7/25/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Joshua 9:3-21; Romans 15:1-13; Matthew 26:69-75

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

The passage about the Gibeonites’ trickery is intriguing when read against the backdrop of today’s Romans reading about welcoming one another. Indeed, Paul says that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). 

…so that by steadfastness… There is a dogged determination—a will to survive—about the Gibeonites that is admirable. The Gibeonites’ fear of Yahweh drives them toward him rather than away from him. So, unlike the six kings who unite to attack Yahweh’s people (Joshua 9:1), the Gibeonites conspire to unite with the Israelites and to come under their God’s protection. Stories have circulated among the Gibeonites for a generation about the Israelites’ miraculous deliverance from Egypt and their irresistible march toward Canaan. The Gibeonites are prepared—here’s the steadfastness—when the time comes. They have a plan. They are ready to produce dry and moldy bread, and not-so-gently worn garments and sandals—all trappings to pull off the illusion that they have come from beyond the borders of the territory subject to Yahweh’s ban (Deuteronomy 20:10-18). 

…and by the encouragement of the scriptures… Joshua and the rest of Israel’s leaders fail to consult Yahweh the way they should. Their rashly mediated covenant with the Gibeonites puts them in a position in which they have to disobey God’s command to annihilate inhabitants of the land (Numbers 30:2 versus Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 20:16-18). Nonetheless, Yahweh withholds his wrath and ultimately gives his own blessing to the covenant by fighting for the Gibeonites (tomorrow’s reading). It’s encouraging to know that the Lord works for our good and the good of others even through our failures. 

There’s even encouragement in noting the wisdom of assigning the Gibeonites to serve “for the altar of the Lord in the place that he should choose” (Joshua 9:27). Rather than potentially becoming tempters to idolatry (one of the principal reasons for putting the resident nations under the ban—see Deuteronomy 20:18), the Gibeonites are conscripted to support the worship of Yahweh, “to continue to this day” (Joshua 9:27). 

…we might have hope. The Gibeonites’ shrewdness is an implicit faith, and it obliquely points us to Israel’s mission to bring God’s light to the nations. Their machinations and Israel’s covenant-that-never-should-have-been become an ironic, but redemptive, foretaste of the uniting of Jew and Gentile in the good news of Jesus Christ (servant of the circumcision and bringer of mercy to the Gentiles—Romans 15:8-9) that Paul celebrates. Paul produces a sequence of Scriptures that forecast what has now happened in Christ: Jews and Gentiles are united “with one voice” to offer praise to God through his anointed Messiah-King, Jesus. The God of hope will win through in the end. 

That’s why Paul can close this remarkable paragraph with these words of blessing: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). I pray that is abundantly true for you. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+