Introduction
In the Books of Joshua and Judges one focuses on the intrinsic importance of settling the land which was the main aspect of Joshua’s reign. This shows us that God was always at the forefront of his people and would always have helped them as they faced innumerable difficulties to settle the land.
In this way I would agree that God remains the most important part of any settlement and of any direct intervention through mankind. Here one can reflect on the elements of God’s relationship with man and his salvation and that Joshua had a similar relationship with God which was focused on the inalienability of man’s relationship with another man.
Personal reflections
I felt that the Book of Judges was a very important step for God in his communication with others and the Jewish nation although parts of the reading did trouble me especially the parts where the Judges look forward to what may come for the Jewish nation. Here one gets a feeling that God is going to abandon the Jewish nation due to the fact that he is constantly unclear about the future of his chosen people.
Perhaps the reading which interested me most was Possessing and Settling the Land where life is not always easy and where the Israelites had to work extremely hard to get everything up to scratch. This creates parallels with life in general and also demonstrates how everything can be overcome by sheer grit and determination.
This could also be an application of future work as a pastor which could mean that God was attempting to send His message directly to his followers. Although parts of the reading from Joshua may be troubling, they are also very much in keeping with what is going on in life as a general notion and one can apply these teachings to everyday occurrences in life also.
In the Book of Ruth we observe how this girl has a saintly disposition and was consistently looking forward to establish a relationship with God. Perhaps she could be deemed to be a prophet and this was the part which was the most troubling and which created the most problems for me on the whole.
Again the plan of salvation is quite clear here and demonstrates that God is definitely on the side of those who want to move forward in life. Ruth is a typical example of all this although she is intrinsically faced with problems of her own. In the reading which focuses on Samuel we are also faced with the deeply personal problems which permeated the life of this prophet and which demonstrated that everything has to change for life to be deemed as unfortunate or inopportune.
The reading which continues with the Chronicles and Esther also shows how God’s relationship with man and His plan for salvation was changing all the time. Again the focus seemed to be on the salvation of human beings from the fires of Hell but one could not specifically put his/her finger on the message in question. Perhaps God wished to send his own Son to save those who are in the wrong and to debase those who expressed being all mighty and all powerful in this regard.
These problems and others form the basic tenet of opposition in these books in the Bible which are not always very clear in this respect. Thus it is intrinsically difficult to understand how life can move forward in this respect and how everything can be left to chance when faced with insurmountable difficulties. God’s plan of salvation may be clear in certain respects but in Samuel he certainly leaves an open ended question and focuses on certain aspects of life where you could say that the devil is in the detail.
Conclusion:
However the Books of Ruth, the Chronicles and Samuel also teach us quite a lot on the way life can move forward in this regard. One may apply the teachings in the Chronicles to work as a lay pastor where this is dealing with the meeting of persons who are in difficulty. Obviously one cannot always apply the teachings directly and there are still some grey areas to be had here. However God’s relationship with humankind is perhaps the most important aspect on which our teachings rest and when God is up there with us, there may be no difficulties. One has to combine the sturdiness of Joshua who perhaps is consistently the most admirable part of these readings to reach a conclusion based on sturdiness and true empathy with God.
Works Cited:
Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament. 4th edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1987.
Bandstra, Barry L. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Grand Rapids, New York. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1995.
Flanders, Henry J., Robert W. Crapps and D. A. Smith. People of the Covenant: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. 4th edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
SDA Bible Commentary,Volumes 1 and 2
