Since moving to Northwest Indiana many years ago, I've had the opportunity to experience first hand many people and faiths that I had only read about before. I've had a chance to sit and discuss Islam with a Muslim and read some of the Qu'ran. I've sat in synagogue worship and discussed Judaism with Rabbis over dinner. I've met many Hindus, Buddists, Athiests, Agnostics and others. I've experienced the faith of Unitarians, the culture of Orthodox Christians and the steep traditions of Roman Catholics from around the world.
God has blessed me with this experience, to allow me to see from a different perspective, to choose for myself what to believe. I don't think God brought me to this place to make me question my faith, but to cement it, to make it stronger. To meet the idea of foreign gods and still trust in God.
I think I understand now how easy it must have been for Israel to stray away from God. As they went into other lands and experienced other cultures that were more advanced, that had their own land, that were wealthy, at peace, powerful. The people of Israel would easily question whether these others had it right. And so many followed these foreign gods. (Although I still don't understand how anyone could bow down to a golden calf that people watched be cast from earrings and bracelets saying"this is the god who rescued us from Egypt! That still makes no sense to me.)
I guess it is really true that humans throughout history have made God in their own image. Imagining what God should be like, could be like and developing practices and doctrines to follow. It's what happens even within the Jewish faith and in Christianity. (how our many differences have arisen through the centuries.)
The thing that is interesting and I guess makes sense in some wacky way is that many people didn't give up one god to serve another but kept all of them. Israel may have cleansed their peoples of the foreign temples, but many of the people kept their statues and idols as keepsakes, as back-ups, like hedging their bets for their own sakes, hoping that at least one of the gods would bless their lives.
It's like keeping the pictures and phone numbers of your old girlfriends, just in case your marriage doesn't work out.
That's crazy! (and a guarantee that it won't work out.)
I like today's reading from Joshua. He puts it plain and simple. He doesn't argue about the evil of foreign gods. He doesn't make a case for their false nature. He simply says that you need to choose. Joshua wants desparately for his people to embrace the God who had been revealed to them, YHWH, but knew that God demanded strict obedience and exclusivity. "If you decide that it's a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you'd rather serve - and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from teh country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whos land you're now living. As for me and my family, we'll worship God." (Joshua 24:15, The Message)
I've met many of these other faiths, been exposed to other gods and discovered that I need to be true to my faith, my God. I've discovered that there is no other god for me because there is no other god except for those made up by humans throughout history and the world. I must be true to God, faithful, exclusive. It's what God expects.
It's what my wife expects.
Peace ><>
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