After humanity found itself expelled from the Garden of Eden, after God freed the Israelites from ancient Egyptian oppression by performing cosmic warfare against Egyptian gods, magicians, and Pharaoh, God and Moses led the Israelites into the wilderness.
Over time, God sent the Israelites a Pillar of Fire and a Pillar of Smoke to guide all the people out of the wilderness to begin their fifth journey – “Entering the Promised Land.”
Entering the Land of Promise required tremendous faith in God and well-organized plans, because, lo and behold, the Promised Land already supported thousands of other peoples; and, these other people spoke different languages from the Israelites and engaged in different political and religious practices. Added to those problems, the Israelites believed that God gave the Promised Land to God’s people and that those different people residing in the Promised Land amounted to more than squatters. Needless to say, conflicts broke out.
Imagine a horde of people, who never spoke your language, came armed, rushing into Cortez, telling us all, “This land belongs to us now.”
Warfare ravaged cities and towns, like the walls of Jericho tumbling down, enmity erupted; and, for about five hundred years Israelites never conquered the Promised Land. Not until King David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and fought many battles could Israelites become one, unified nation in control of the Middle East. Unfortunately for the Israelites, David and Solomon’s reigns as kings lasted a relatively short period, like eighty to one hundred years. After their reigns ended, the Israelite tribes broke up, creating two nations – the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Conflict once again came to the people who never worked out their differences.
When Jesus came, he led God’s people into the Promised Land by means of a new method: instead of engaging in conflict and war, Jesus embraced all people, whether they followed different political or religious practices. He told the story about the Good Samaritan. He chatted with a Syrophoenician woman at a well. Jesus invited tax collectors and prostitutes to meals together, so that he could teach them God’s way of peace as the way to inherit the Land of Promise. And I say that Jesus’ method of conquering the Land of Promise by way of love and peace proves much better for all over the long run. I suggest we take Jesus’ wise lessons as guidelines for all of us in this 21st Century.
Tom Towns is pastor of First United Methodist Church in Cortez.