2 Kings 1-5

The focus shifts away from the kings to the prophets as 2 Kings opens. Elisha is the faithful follower and heir apparent to Elijah. He travels with him wherever he goes--"I will not leave you," he promises. And he keeps that promise until Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, riding in a flaming chariot drawn by flaming horses. Elisha takes up Elijah's mantle--literally and figuratively. 

Although I believe that Elisha is ultimately a less significant prophet than Elijah, Elisha's actions nonetheless echo and prefigure those of Moses and Jesus, respectively, in many ways. He divides the river so that he may cross it on dry land; he provides water for the people when they are thirsty; he appears to turn a body of water to blood; he multiplies oil (instead of wine) into many jars and a small number of loaves (instead of loaves and fish) into enough for a hundred men to eat; he brings someone back from the dead (as both Elijah and Jesus did); he cures a leper. 

This last is an especially moving story. Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram was highly respected and esteemed. But he had leprosy. A little girl is the one who suggests that Naaman go to Elisha. When Naaman presents himself, Elisha does not see him in person, but instead sends a message to Naaman instructing him to bathe seven times in the waters of the Jordan. Naaman is angry that Elisha did not deign to meet him in person, and leaves, intending to ignore the instruction. But Naaman's servants prevail on him to follow Elisha's direction, and Elisha is cured. Indeed, "his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." When Naaman returned to Elisha to accept a thanksgiving offering, Elisha would not accept it. Elisha, instead, tells him (as Jesus often did) to "go in peace."

The cure of Naaman speaks to me about God's work in our lives, about the power of the sacraments--mysteries that we believe, whose power we witness, but that we don't "see" in the traditional sense. Baptism and Reconciliation wash us clean, as Naaman was washed clean. As adults we can somehow "feel" the renewing power of Reconciliation, yet we cannot point to the how or the where of it.

Joshua 22-24

The men from the two-and-a-half tribes of Israel who had settled east of the Jordan are released with Joshua's blessing to return to their homes, having kept their promise to Moses. A misunderstanding later arises on the part of the tribes that remain in Canaan regarding an altar the eastern tribes build on their side of the Jordan. This misunderstanding nearly leads to bloodshed, but dialogue and trust between the tribes lead to a peaceful and productive resolution. The altar built in the east was meant as a remembrance of the true altar that houses the Ark--not a competing sanctuary. Trust and dialogue within our Church, and among various Christian denominations, are critical in helping us all ultimately find our way to Jesus.  

As Joshua nears the end of his life, he recounts to the Israelites all the blessings and wonders God has done for them from the time of Abraham to the present, and says:

Now acknowledge with your whole heart and soul that not one of all the promises the Lord, your God, made to you has remained unfulfilled. Every promise has been fulfilled for you, with not one single exception.

Indeed, our God is a faithful God. 

Joshua reminds the people to "fear the Lord and serve him completely and sincerely."  Describing for the Israelites the choice they face--to serve either the Lord or the false gods of the past--Joshua puts his own choice simply and beautifully:

As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Soon after, Joshua dies. But not before reminding the people, yet again, that they must serve the Lord by following His law, His statutes, and His decrees.

Joshua 1-4

According to the introduction in my New Catholic translation, the Book of Joshua is "a prophecy of the spiritual conquest of the world through the Church under the leadership of Jesus, the Messiah." This reinforces my own tendency so far to understand the Old Testament through the prism of Jesus and the New Testament. Early in this book, the Lord repeats multiple times these words of encouragement: Be firm and steadfast. The Catholic Church is at a crucial juncture. The Throne of St. Peter is empty. And this has not happened in the usual way. Rather, BXVI has left the office by resignation, not death. During Lent. And while we trust in the Holy Spirit, there are many of us who are nonetheless unsettled by it all. We need to be reminded to be firm and steadfast. And why should we be? The Lord explains to Joshua why:

I command you: be firm and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.

I am unsettled in certain aspects of my own life. I am afraid and dismayed. These words come to me at a propitious time. I need to be firm and steadfast, because God is with me wherever I go. 

This section of Joshua has the story of the "harlot" Rahab, who protects the spies sent by Joshua. To repay her, those spies promise that she and her family will come to no harm when the Israelites cross the Jordan to make war on its inhabitants. At their direction, she hangs a scarlet cord in her window, so the invaders will know which family to spare. The red cord echoes the blood painted over the doors of the Israelites in Egypt to signal to the angel of death to pass over their house during the final, awful plague brought on by Pharaoh's intransigence. Led by Joshua, the Israelites follow the ark to the Jordan, where the river is parted for them--echoing the crossing of the Red Sea out of slavery. 

The Israelites pass through the water in safety to escape slavery, and again to reach the promised land. I am reminded of how we are saved from the slavery of sin and death through the waters of baptism. 

Deuteronomy 27-30

Moses gathers the people together to give his final words before they cross the Jordan into the land that God has promised them, the land of milk and honey. Moses powerfully lays before them the stark choice they have going forward: they may heed the voice of the Lord and observe His commandments, or they may turn away from Him and ignore His laws. The consequences of that choice are immense. God promises that obedience will result in many blessings for the Israelites and their descendants--victories, prosperity, and fruitfulness. Indeed, among the blessings promised are the words that will later be spoken of the Mother of Jesus: "Blessed be the fruit of your womb." But woe to Israel if they do not heed the commandments, statutes, and decrees, for the ramifications are dire: sickness, invasion, defeat, plagues, famine, and exile. The Lord will "scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other." The famine will be so great that fathers will eat heir children and mothers will consume newborn babies. This parade of horribles is truly frightening. I had a difficult time reading it all the way through. Yet God still leaves the door open for salvation. If at some point this suffering nation ponders these things in their hearts, and returns to the Lord and heeds His voice, He will have pity on them, gather them back together, and once again make them prosperous and numerous, as He once promised their fathers. He will again open their hearts so that they "may love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, and so may live." 

Here, God is terrifying. He is demanding and jealous. Yet in the end, He is merciful and patient. He waits (although not always patiently, Moses suggests) for us to turn back and come home to Him. This section ends with these powerful words from God regarding the choice He has put before the Israelites:

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

I love the image of "holding fast to him." Sometimes, I am afraid. I must learn to cling to him then especially.

Numbers 29-32

The Lord continues to instruct the Israelites, through Moses, as to the appropriate sacrifices and offerings to be made in connection with various holy days.  These holy days, as noted in an earlier post, all have a community dimension to them, as the Lord calls for a sacred assembly on those days as well. There is a discussion of the relationship between husbands and wives and fathers and daughters in the context of vows and oaths, one which seems to reinforce a culture that places women subservient to men. This is followed by a narrative of the slaughter of the Midianites by the Israelites, and a detailed (albeit, odd in my view) discussion of how the booty of war is to be divided among the Israelites. The Lord we meet in this section is vengeful and merciless. Scary. As the Israelites near the time to enter Canaan, two tribes ask that they be permitted outside the boundaries of the promised land. Moses at first rejects this suggestion. But the Reubenites and Gadites promise to help the other tribes cross the Jordan and defeat the residents of Canaan, securing it for the Israelites, before returning to the other side of the Jordan. They pledge: "We will do as you command, my Lord" and again "We will do what the Lord has commanded us, your servants." Thus, agreement is reached with Moses and the Lord. 

One way to look at this is that the Reubenites and Gadites are "negotiating" with God--something we are not typically encouraged to do. Another way to see it, however, is that our dialogue with God, our prayers, should be an open, candid dialogue. Moses, for example, has repeatedly asked the Lord to reconsider His instructions, and sometimes God has acceded to Moses' request. In the end, the Gadites and Reubenites have the right approach: they agree that they will do what the Lord commands--but I think the lesson for me is that God wants me to have a mature, open dialogue with Him. A conversation. So that I can share my heart with Him, and He with me.