What I Write About

I write about the infinite number of intersections between every day life and the good news of the God who has come to get us.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Huge Tracts of Land v. Chunky Soup

So Joshua settles down once you get past chapter 11 and it starts talking about land distribution. Except that one tribe of Israel doesn't get any land. The tribe of Levi. These are the people who are supposed to work the temple.

Here's what Joshua 13 says:
33 But to the tribe of Levi, Moses had given no inheritance; the LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he promised them.
So here's the deal: if I'm a Levite and you're not and you're getting huge tracts of land and I'm stuck with nothing, I'm gonna' have a hard time feeling excited about that. It rather feels like I got the consolation prize on a cheap game show--I got a year's supply of Chunky Soup while someone else walked away with a trip to the Grand Caymans.

But when I'm in my right mind, I realize that this is backward.

In my right mind I know that compared to having God, everything else is trivial, barely worth thinking about. No "stuff" could compare to the gift of having the Lord himself. At least, when I'm thinking rightly, I know that's true.

In Hebrews 11, the author recounts all these Old Testament people who are heroes of the faith. In the end it basically says that none of them got what they thought they were going to get. They didn't get the stuff. They got God. That was enough for them, and so they are celebrated.

And so I have to ask myself: is that enough for me?

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