It's a special meeting of AA, they are celebrating the sobriety of all of their members for some twenty years. As a symbol of their victory they give each member a bottle of Black Velvet bourbon and tell them to keep it as a reminder of what they have accomplished.
Does there seem to be something wrong with that picture?
I have the same reaction of "You have got to be kidding!" when I read Joshua 24:27
And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God." (ESV)
Now memorials are not uncommon among the history of Israel. Jacob built a couple of them in Genesis 28:18ff and 31:45 as a "witness" to the agreement between himself and the Lord in one instance and himself and Laban in the other. Stones also play a role in the overall history of God's people; a stone was placed under Moses arms during battle; a stone provided water for the people in the wilderness; it was a small stone that fell the mighty Goliath. So stones are not uncommon. Yet, I contend, that it is an unusual expression to say that a "stone has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you..." (Joshua 24:27)
In the midst of a people that have struggled their entire existence to refrain from serving other gods and idols built with hands, we are now seeing a stone that hears and becomes a witness to the ongoing faithfulness of the people of Israel. I don't know about you but I have a pretty good idea of how that stone is going to be viewed.
I think this whole account goes to the mind-set of a people weighed down with a complicated devotion to Yahweh. Their culture is not an isolated culture, as much as they would like to think and the influence of "pagan" deities and the symbols of their "existence" often crushes the people of God. This kind of mixed message does nothing to clarify the matter.
We are often beleaguered by symbols that can draw our attention away from our devotion to God. I remember an experience where a Pastor was speaking on objects that become idols to us and he took his Bible and slammed it to the ground as a testimony that it is ONLY a book, not a symbol of worship. I thought the people were going to rise up and stone him on the spot. But he was right. Too often people make the book the object of their faith, not the God of the Book.
We are a visual people. It is hard for us to deal in the abstract. God is not concrete. He is not something you prove or conclude based on geometric principles. Science is infantile when it comes to demonstrating the existence of the eternal God. Nevertheless, we often find ourselves groping for symbols that we can associate with our belief that somehow make it more certain, more tangible. It can never be. I don't care how many porcelain angels you have placed around your home, it will not make angels any more real.
Let us never think we can place a bottle of bourbon in front of an alcoholic and expect him or her to never focus on it as an object of desire. It will call out to that person.
Stones do not hear and stones can not bear testimony. It is GOD who hears and our faithfulness to Him that bears testimony of our covenant relationship to Him. HE is our rock of ages not the rock!
6 comments:
"...stones can not bear testimony."
How does that observation square with the words of Jesus in Luke 19:40?
Jon
HI Jon,
Good to hear from you.
I was waiting for someone to bring that up. Jesus was speaking metaphorically. Just like his words to the woman at the well in John 4:14-15. No one expected - except the woman - that Jesus was referring to real water.
Could he make the stones cry out? I suppose he could. But I suspect God may be content having a talking ass in the Bible without having stones doing the same thing.
Norm,
I know you are aware that Joshua set up six other memorials that are recorded in the book of Joshua. Were all seven of those memorials a result of the influence of pagan deities, or were they a reminder of what God had done?
Jon
Jon, apparently my observation was not as clear as I would have liked it to be. My intent is not to say that "memorials" are not just that memorials. Even, in some respects a point to pause and worship God. Just as the woman at the well pointed out to Jesus, "our father's worshipped on this mountain. (Mt. Gerizm) They worshipped on it - not it.
My point was this. Joshua's words may have been a bit misguided. Stones do NOT hear, and they CANNOT bear testimony or witness to anything. They may serve as a memorial to something, just as stated, but when it comes to their animation in any form, there is a problem. A huge problem. The stones then become the focus and object of worship, not what they may represent.
Deuteronomy 27:2-7 may be a good reference to highlight this topic. The stones were not to be cut in anyway because they were just that, stones, not objects of worship.
Thanks for your thoughts and probing.
Norm,
Is it possible that Joshua was speaking metaphorically?
Jon
Sure, anything is possible.
Part of this whole discussion is Israel's walking the line between correct focus and not-so-correct focus. Often times that line gets fuzzy and this kind of language, metaphorical or not, pushes the limit.
Another dimension is the sitz em leben. A people called to be devoted to Yahweh and Him alone, finds they are immersed in another culture that creates their own gods - wood, clay, or stone. So this influence is both damaging and dangerous. And human nature being what it is, often times is influenced by its surroundings. As, I believe, evidenced here.
In the big picture, we see this kind of thing fleshed out in the NT where, for example, the scribes and Pharisees confuse adhering to food laws as being tantamount to spiritual purity. Something both Jesus and Paul refute and attempt to clarify.
Ain't life grand!
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