Across their products, Google has over 60 privacy policies – which means that those of us using the Google products need to know what information’s going where depending on which product we’re using. Gmail might have one policy, while Picasa has another, and my Android phone has a third – add in Google docs, Adsense, Blogspot and anything else you use, and suddenly things start getting very confusing.

Therefore, Google’s streamlining their privacy policy into a single document that covers all of their products and services. This policy defines how they’ll use the information collected across each website that they own. Examples suggested by Google include:

• Reminding you of a meeting based on your location.
• Figuring out what you mean when you search a term like ‘Apple’; ‘Jaguar’ or ‘Pink.’
• Tailoring ads that you see to topics that you’re interested in.

Now the thing is that Google’s been doing this for years. The collection of information on the internet is nothing new, and it was happening well before Google became the be all and end all of searches. What Google’s doing, though, is streamlining things so that the information collected can be used as effectively as possible.

I, personally, like the analogy on Google’s site explaining it all. I go to my local café several times a week for my morning coffee, and now, the staff there greet me by name, ask if I’m having the chai or the latte today, and get to making it. I don’t have to order, I get a nice personalised service, and I’m in and out quickly.

No, Google isn’t a barista, and isn’t having a conversation with me while I look up the Wikipedia article of my current fascination, however, what they are doing is providing me with information that is relevant to me.

Fact: Nothing is free. Google provides me (and you) with a free service, but they have to make money. No money means no servers, no power, and no Google, does it not? Therefore, they have to sell advertising. It’s just going to happen. Why shouldn’t that advertising, then, be something that’s tailored to me? Personally, I’d rather see an ad for the latest cricket equipment than something for the latest in beauty therapy. Why is this a bad thing?

Fact: I use my phone to keep track of appointments, to check Facebook, to look up directions to where I’m going. I’d love for my diary to sync with my email to sync with my directions! Think of this: Someone emails me asking for a meeting next Thursday at Big Joe’s Sandwich Bar over lunch. I reply and say yes, and then save it to my Google calendar all on my desktop. At 11AM on Thursday, my phone beeps to remind me that I’m meant to be having lunch with Bill, and includes the Google Maps directions from where I am to Big Joes, including an estimate that it will take half hour to walk there. Great, I can leave a couple of minutes before noon and get there on time! Why is this a bad thing?

Fact: I choose to utilise these services. I like Gmail for its ease of use, storage and functionality; I use Google+ as a social networking tool (not as much as Facebook, but I’m on there occasionally); I use Google to look up information; I use Youtube to look up videos. I think it’s great that any relevant information shifts across these sites smoothly. In particular, the ‘Search Plus Your World’ feature in Google Search. After all, let’s look at it this way – if I’m looking for a new hairdresser, who am I going to turn to? There’s a good chance I’m going to ask my friends who their recommendations are. Same for a mechanic – I’ll ask my mates who they recommend. Now when I search online, Google is going to include in the results pages that my friends recommended or liked. Why is this a bad thing?

Seriously, people, get over it. If you’re online, your information’s going to be collected. Live by the adage that you can’t take back what you put onto the internet. This isn’t a Google thing, it’s an internet thing, so get used to it, or stop using it. Second, if you want Google to be free for you, then someone needs to pay them so that they can do that. Again, if you don’t like it, don’t use it.

And that’s the kicker. You can choose not to use Google’s services. They can’t do any of this unless you actually have an account and are signed into it.

And from me? Thanks, Google, for a smoother service that’s providing me with a better experience.

Here’s the beginning of Gideon’s story, and it opens in a pretty familiar fashion.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. ~ Judges 6:1

They were oppressed, troubled, abused – and after a few years of this, once again, they cried out to God. Sounds almost identical to how the story of Deborah got started.

So this time it’s a young guy called Gideon, he’s just going about his daily duties when an angel shows up.

When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” ~ Judges 6:12

And Gideon’s first response is, ‘but’.

Gideon reminds me a bit of Moses, actually. When Moses was first called by God to go back to Egypt he had every argument under the sun ready – not bad, really, for a guy who claimed he wouldn’t be able to speak to Pharaoh. Now Gideon’s being called, and his immediate reaction is basically, “Wait, you’ve got the wrong guy.”

The interaction here is interesting, actually. Gideon shakes his head, saying that if God’s with them, then why are they suffering? He brought them out of Egypt, but he’s abandoned them.

The angel’s response is what I like.

The LORD turned to him and said, “Go out in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” ~ Judges 6:14

When it comes to Gideon asking the why question, when it comes to him saying they’ve been abandoned, the angel doesn’t say anything. Just get on with it – you’re being sent, aren’t you? Let’s go.

Gideon’s not convinced – he asks for a sign, and gets one. After that he cuts down the Baal altar and uses the Asherah pole for firewood, but then when he’s called to go after the Midianites, he’s wanting two more signs before he’ll go.

Now here’s the big thing I noted in this chapter – it’s not actually about the signs, it’s about the few verses in the middle. Gideon sneaks in at night, not wanting to get caught, and destroys the altar to Baal and the Asherah pole alongside it, and sends up a sacrifice to God.

We go off track, and we fall into these troughs in our lives. I know I do, a lot, so I’m glad God’s as patient with me as he was with the Israelites – coming to the rescue and looking after them despite their constant fluctuations between loving him and thinking he must hate them. This little part, though, between Gideon’s signs speaks something very important.

It starts at home. Gideon’s first task was to destroy the Baal altar and the Asherah pole. Why? Because they needed to make sure that they had cleaned up things internally before they could go out and deal with the Midianites.

How often, when things are going wrong in our lives, do we blame the outside influences? How often do we say that it’s all someone else’s fault?

Maybe it is, but the fact is that the place where we can make the most peace, the place where we can do the most restoration is right in our own hearts.

Please note: I’m not necessarily saying that if things aren’t going well for you in your life right now, then it’s because of something you’ve done wrong. However what I am saying is look closer to home. Instead of blaming someone else for things not going right, what can you change in yourself to make the situation better?

But social commentary is not the aim here.

So last chapter I didn’t actually get to the story, so here it is. With the Israelites being oppressed and beaten down by Sisera, the prophetess Deborah was leading Israel and she sends this bloke, Barak, son of Abinoam to send Sisera and his armies packing. Barak’s not convinced, and he tells Deborah that he’s not going unless she comes too.

And so begins a feminist’s favourite bible story!

Deborah says sure, she’ll go with him, but because he’s asking her to come with, he won’t get to be the hero. The villain of the piece, Sisera, will instead be handed over to a woman – and that woman’s name is Jael. Sisera’s on the run from the Israelites and decides to pull in for a pit stop at Jael’s tent. With refreshments provided, he decides to have a nap, and while he’s napping, Jael takes a tent peg and hammer and pins his head to the ground.

Charming, no?

Anyway, in chapter 5, Deborah sings about it. There’s actually not a real lot to say here, because a lot of the song is retelling the story that we just went through, but in lyrical format. What I will say, though, is that song is powerful.

I love the first couple of verses, especially.

“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer themselves -
praise the LORD!” ~ Judges 5:2

My relationship with God is one where he is constantly reminding me of the heritage he adopted me into, not to boost my own ego (believe me, it doesn’t really help there), but to remind me of just how powerful He is. He’s a king, not just any king but the king over Heaven, Earth and everything created, and the thing is that he brought me into his family as his son and heir to that kingdom.

Just like he did for you.

We are all princes and princesses, and what we can take from this chapter is a mission to lead.

God hasn’t called us as his children, as his heirs and as his soldiers to hide behind others. He hasn’t called us to hide behind the walls of the kingdom where it’s safe and protected. He calls us to lead. Read that verse again:

“When the princes in Israel take the lead,
when the people willingly offer themselves -
praise the LORD!”

 When we take the lead, he is to be praised. He is to be glorified. When we lead, God’s light is shone into the darkness.

God’s calling you to be a leader – that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re meant to run a church or build a ministry, but it does mean that you are called to be the example to those people around you. God hasn’t called you to himself to hide in the shadows. He hasn’t called you to sit quietly and acquiesce when others around you are going down the wrong path. He’s called you to lead. To stand up and show them that there’s a better way, God’s way.

In which situation in your life can you lead and be an example for your King and Father?

Reading Judges chapter 4, I didn’t even get into the bulk of the story before God started speaking to me. I just want to draw in on the first three verses.

After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried out to the LORD for help. ~ Judges 4:1-3

I remember noting something several times going through the Pentateuch books – God’s patience. It frustrated me during that period just how many times I’d read that the Israelites would again start grumbling, and again start saying that they wanted to go back to Egypt, and again God would have to do something to show that he still loved them and that they were still on the right track. Now, even after they’ve reached the promised land, the cycle’s not much different. Here we have Israel again doing evil in the eyes of God.

So what happens? They are sold into the hands of Jabin, and under the oppression of Sisera for twenty years until they cry out to God for help.

Now in typical sermon fashion, there’s three things I want to draw out of this passage.

1. The Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.

You know what amazes me? How often I end up kicking myself, because once again I’ve screwed up. Sometimes it’s a daily event, other times I’m either too blind or too proud to recognize that I’ve done something wrong in the between times. The thing is, though, it happens to us over and over and over again. We can’t be perfect, and we should know that.

It’s a lesson I still can’t get to sink into my heart, that I can’t earn God’s love.

I was listening to one of my best friends share something just recently, where they talked about trying to earn their own biological father’s love, and how God spoke to them and said they didn’t need to try and earn his love, that he already gave it to them unconditionally.

And he does it to you too. God’s not sitting up in heaven keeping a tally of whether we deserve his love or not, because nothing we can do is ever going to earn that love from him – we’re always going to make mistakes, we’re always going to do things wrong. All we can do is then accept God’s love, his grace and forgiveness, and put into practice the lessons that he’s teaching us when we do go wrong.

Which brings me to my second point:

2. God sold them into the hands of Jabin and they were oppressed for 20 years.

You know what I’ve learned throughout my life? That sometimes when I make a mistake, or take a wrong turn, or do something wrong – I have to backpedal.

Here’s what, for some people, might be a reality check. God’s grace is immediate – when we’re on the wrong path and we turn back to him, he’s right there with open arms, telling us to come to him.

However that doesn’t mean that we’re immediately back on the right path. Usually it takes time to remedy the mistakes we’ve made, or it takes time to get back onto the right path, because we have to backtrack (or sometimes just bush-bash) our way from where we’ve found ourselves, back to where we actually should be.

3. They cried out to God.

This, in a way, kind of relates back to the last point as well.

It took them twenty years to cry out to God.

How often, when things are going wrong for us, do we try and just deal with it? I know that I’m really good at this. In my past, I relied over and over on my own strength to battle through some of the hardest times of my life, and for years, I believed that through my own abilities, I was able to survive. I didn’t flourish, but I survived. The thing is, that if I’d cried out to God – and even today, if I’d cry out to God in the first instance, he’s going to come running straight away. Like I said, he’s standing there, arms open, waiting for me to come to him.

We don’t have to wait twenty years to call on God! We don’t have to wait until we’ve exhausted all the other options that we think are around us. Call on him today, not in a week’s time!

As I go in to 2012, this is the first challenge that God’s been putting on my life. To let go of my reliance on myself and trust in him. To not call on him after I’ve exhausted all my other options, but to go to him first and let him take care of things.

This is a really difficult challenge, and on a personal note, I’d appreciate all of your prayers as 2012 goes ahead. I’ve been straight with God, and I’ll be straight with you – I’m terrified to let go of that self-reliance.

As you step into 2012, how are you with self-reliance? Are you ready to let go of dealing with things yourself? Or will you be taking the page from the Israelites, and waiting twenty years before crying out?

Chapter three, though, begins with a few verses that I find really interesting.

These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience). ~ Judges 3:1-2

So why’s that interesting?

I don’t think anyone would deny that we endure trials and tests throughout our lives. It’s just part of going through it, but the thing that stuck out to me here was verse two – that there was a purpose behind the test.

I’d imagine that almost all of us have uttered the words, “Why me?” At some stage in our lives when dealing with a struggle that just didn’t seem to be fair. I can absolutely assure you that I’ve wondered that more times than I care to count.

I can’t help feeling, though, that one thing we can take from these two verses alone, is that there’s always something to learn. The Israelites had other nations and other kings to deal with for a reason, so that they’d learn and remember the requirements for warfare.

The thing is that they always had God on their side, but they still needed to be able to go into battle. God doesn’t baby us, he doesn’t sit there and wrap us in cotton wool so that we can never scratch ourselves. He doesn’t do everything for us. He won’t make us face something we can’t handle without his strength, definitely, but he will let us take a wander into a challenge that might look a bit daunting to us from the outside, because he knows that we can do it.

Why? Because how else do we grow? How else do we live? How else do we have a genuine relationship with him?

God is our father; our dad. He’s there to have a relationship with us. He wants to watch us grow up, he wants to watch us learn, experience, grow and develop.

Have you ever thought of God that way? We use the statements of God being a father all the time, but have you ever really stopped and thought about him as your dad?

Picture yourself as a child riding a bike without training wheels for the first time. You might fall and scratch yourself – God’s there as your dad, picking you up, kissing the wounded knee or elbow better, and then encouraging you to try again. Then when you actually succeed, he’s the one standing there, smiling proudly at you. He’s got his arms open as you get off the bike and run to him, proudly declaring, “I did it, Dad! I did it!”

But before then, you might fall off that bike a dozen times. And each time, he’s there, picking you up, helping you out, and encouraging you to try again.

The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their Gods. ~ Judges 3:5-6

The Israelites fell off the bike – and more than once. In the rest of Chapter 3, we get told the stories of Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar – three judges who God chose to rescue the Israelites after they fell into sin. God didn’t abandon them, he didn’t turn his back when they fell and scraped their knee, he gave them someone to help them get back on the bike, and encouraged them, “It’s okay. Try again.”

First, the Angel of the LORD turns up at a place called Bokim, and tells the Israelites that they weren’t supposed to make covenants with the people who already lived in Canaan; and now, because they have, things aren’t going to be as good as they could have been.

Then Joshua dies – again – just running through the tale in case we forgot it in the past month since I finished Joshua.

Then finally another generation grows up, and forgets God – and it gives a broad introduction about the Judges who had God on their side, and led the people of Israel through times of difficulty.

This is, though, just the reason why there was all the talk about cleaning things out.

“Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.” ~ Judges 2:3

And it’s exactly what happened.

Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD  to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. ~ Judges 2:11-13

I think, sometimes, we tend to take God for granted. It’s so easy to think that we don’t need to worry too much, that we just need to do the minimal effort to keep him happy, that as long as we go to church on Sunday, maybe a bible study through the week, we’re all good – the rest of our lives aren’t really that much of a big deal, right? I can imagine this being a justification as the Israelites went through their lives, as those who had witnessed the events in the wilderness and conquering the promised land died out, others took over and for them, things were different.

It’s so easy to be committed to God when you first come to him. It’s a passionate, enthusiastic, exciting time. However, as time goes on, that passion wanes, the excitement wears off and the enthusiasm fades. That ‘honeymoon phase’ wears off…

And it’s like anything – once the ‘newness’ factor starts to wear off, then other things become shiny whilst that thing, no matter how much we loved it to begin with, starts to become something we take for granted.

And it’s a lot easier to walk away from the things that don’t excite us, and that we take for granted, than it is to walk away from something new, shiny and exciting.

When there’s other things around – Baals and Ashteroths, if you will –  then it’s harder to maintain that close connection with God. We can’t afford to take God for granted – and I say that from real life experience of my own – we need to ensure that he’s always number one, because if he’s not, then he can tumble down that priority list pretty quickly, and soon he stops being even a blip on our radar… Is that really a risk worth taking?

As I read this chapter, it felt like a revision of the latter half of  Joshua, actually. We have Judah going out and conquering the land that was given to them, and as they go out, then the records continue for the rest of the nation of Israel until they’re all able to settle in their lands.

And that’s what they do: settle.

Back when I read through Joshua 15-21 I noticed how Judah, Ephraim and Manasseh all managed to get into the lands that they were promised and allotted, but they didn’t actually dislodge all of the Canaanites in those lands. In this chapter, this fact is reiterated, but it goes on to talk about the other tribes as well.

Nor did Asher drive ou tthose living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob. ~ Judges 1:31
Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. ~ Judges 1:33

And so it goes on.

At church this weekend, we had an amazing time where God moved powerfully through both services, it was an amazing time spent with family and father. One of the focal points, though, was breakthrough. Taking a step further into the things that God has for us.

As I read this, though, I can’t help but wonder – and probably reiterate some things that I’ve considered and written here before – about how deeply into God’s destiny we actually walk. Throughout this year, with the references to the Promised Land, God’s continually used that term in my heart as a metaphor for the destiny that he has for my life, and for others’ lives too. The thing is, though, that to really be able to walk in the freedom and destiny that he’s given us, then we need to destroy the corruption in our lives and in our hearts. We need  to be free from the distractions that can come upon us.

I’ve heard people use the term ‘In the world, but not of the world’ in the past – and one of my favourite clothing brands, NOTW is founded on that entire message. However, I’ve noticed that some people seem to take that message to the extreme. They consider themselves living in the world as being a holding bay, somewhere that we just live out our lives until we die and can get to heaven.

I feel, as I’m writing this, that there’s more to it than that; and that this nation of Israel – and what was supposed to be for them – is the great example. I can imagine that Israel was meant to settle in their land, and then be the shining light of God’s love, of his faithfulness, of his truth and so much more to the entire world. They would, though, have to interact with the world. It’s not like they were put there to then be neutral and insular – they were put there to be the light on a hill that Jesus spoke about.

But therefore, at the same time, they weren’t meant to be in bed (so to speak) with everyone else.  They needed a safe zone, a place where they could be protected and watched over by God.

Imagine this: A million candles, all lit and spread out over a field. The light would be intense, bright and radiant. Then imagine, though, that there are a bunch of people wandering through that field and blowing them out. If you’ve had experience with candles, it’s generally easier to blow them out than it can be to relight them.

This is why we all need our safe place, not so that we can hide there and wait for God to take us to heaven – but so we can have somewhere that we’re refreshed, where if we’re running short on fuel, we can be refilled, where we can have our light rekindled without it being blown out – so that when we DO go out into the world, we can shine God’s light, and reflect his love to everyone else.

There’s a nice little summary through here, actually, of the journey from Abraham to the present.

And speaking of Abraham… Ever have those moments where you suddenly realize you were completely wrong? For some reason, my head’s had in it that the land of Ur was from somewhere west of Egypt, towards Libya or something. I’m wondering whether my head associated Carthage and Chaldeans somehow. Either way, Geography was never my strong point but to go several hundred miles in the wrong direction’s a fairly big mistake.

Think about this, though. Back in Genesis 11; Terah, after the death of his son Haran, took off for the land of Canaan from Ur. His other two sons, Abram and Nahor went with him.

Abram then became the recipient of God’s promise – but it’s only now that we’re really seeing that promise fulfilled. Huge numbers of people have come and gone, I don’t know how many generations it’s actually been, but here we finally have Joshua saying goodbye before his death, and bringing the people together to remind them that God’s fulfilled his promise.

Here’s something to think about: time doesn’t matter to God, He’s outside of it.

I’ve heard that people have gone through and ‘counted’ the promises of God listed in the bible. I’m not sure of the number, but no doubt it’s a lot.

I also heard an interesting perspective on the promises of God from my church congregation’s pastor last weekend: He made the comment that some people seem to walk around declaring the promises of God as though they’re some kind of magical incantation that will solve problems.

God made a promise to Abraham, but it took hundreds of years to see it fulfilled.

Not only that, but I’m sure that it wasn’t how Abraham imagined.

Imagine a picture: Abraham’s died, he’s sitting up in heaven having a morning coffee with God and the new Pharaoh’s just taken over. Abraham sees a problem straight away, because he can see this guy doesn’t care that Joseph saved all of  Egypt, or that the Israelites are the guests of Egypt thanks to Joseph. He arches a brow, but doesn’t say anything. Then comes the Pharaoh starting to think about  what he can do to quell the threat of these foreigners rising up, and eventually they are enslaved. Abraham looks over at God, “Umm… This wasn’t exactly what you said was going to happen.”

God simply replies: “No, this isn’t what you expected to happen.”

Sometimes we look at our lives and wonder how we got here. Sometimes we look at our lives and think that things are just not going the right way. Sometimes we’ll then look at God and ask him what on earth is going on, because surely this isn’t how it’s meant to be.

What we think is meant to be, and what actually is are so frequently two very different things. God will come through in the end, if we only follow and listen to him.

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” ~ Joshua 24:15(b)

Before he dies, though, Joshua calls together the leaders of Israel.

A little while back, I was reading the chapters about the division of the land and how each tribe was given its inheritance, and at that point I noticed the incompleteness of the entire thing. This chapter comes back to it, but does shed a slightly different perspective, I think, on the entire situation. The chapter opens saying that a long time has passed and they’ve had rest from the enemies surrounding them; then when Joshua calls the leaders together, he tells them to go out and finish the job.

“The LORD your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.” ~ Joshua 23:5

And why?

The nations around them were very different; they worshiped other gods, practiced different lifestyles, all sorts of things; and Joshua warned what would happen if Israel spent too much time associating with them.

Then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you. ~ Joshua 23:13

I’ve talked before about the time I spent away from God, but I just want to use some of that experience as an example here and share a very brief version of my testimony. I grew up in a Christian home, and went to church regularly, attended a Christian school – basically I had all sorts of input growing up that spoke of God. As I grew older, things started happening, though. I moved out of home, I no longer went to a Christian school, slowly the positive influences began to fade from my life – and was replaced with new lifestyle choices, new experiences, new people. It was gradual in a way, but of course, I found myself falling further and further away from God, until I moved to Melbourne. On first moving there I did attend a church once or twice, but I began working for a ‘New Age’ type magazine – in which I found a whole heap of people who loved having conversations on topics like spirituality, metaphysics, philosophy, theology, etcetera. It wasn’t long before I was no longer going to church at all and lost my connection to who God was, instead creating my own image of what I wanted ‘God’ to be.

The point that I’m making, is that this chapter – especially verse 13 – gives us a very strong lesson. Who we associate with, who we let into our lives, who we allow to influence us – these are all things that are going to affect our relationship with God, and those effects can be positive or negative.

Now is that to say don’t ever associate with people who aren’t in the Kingdom? I find that hard to believe, but I’m also not about to say a definitive no, because to be honest with you, I’m not sure. There’s potentially a really big debate from verses 6 to 8 in this chapter; however I would suggest that verse 8 is the key.

But you are to hold fast to the LORD yoru God, as you have until now. ~ Joshua 23:8

Most importantly, we are to hold fast to God. If we do this, then we can do amazing things because he is on our side.

One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. ~ Joshua 23:10

Joshua pulls the tribes of Reuben and Gad, as well as the half of Manasseh who decided they wanted to stay on the Eastern side of the Jordan, and tells them that they can go home.

Before he lets them go, though, he takes some time to bless them and remind them of their responsibilities.

This isn’t what I wanted to go into, but just as I was writing the above sentence, I felt the need to ask: How often do we actually bless people? I believe there’s power in blessing others – and that this is something we should embrace more often. It can be as simple as just saying ‘Bless you’ when you speak to someone, or it could be more detailed. Either way, though, it’s encouraging and exhorting, and these are things we should remember as the family of God – to lift each other up with blessings and encouragement.

Anyway, though – so Joshua blesses them and they head off home; but on the way…

When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Rebenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. ~ Joshua 22:10

Sounds like a good thing, right?

Wrong.

And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. ~ Joshua 22:11-12

So I’m sitting here reading this and wondering what’s going on. As we read on, the Israelites confront their departing brothers and accuse them of building a false altar – that they should only be performing sacrifices on the Altar of the Lord that is resting with the Tabernacle.

Of course the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh freak out a little.

“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the LORD, do not spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the LORD and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the LORD himself call us to account.” ~ Joshua 22:22-23

What’s actually going on, is that these guys are leaving the Promised Land to go home, and on the way they suddenly started thinking, “Hang on, one of these days these people are going to forget us, and claim that we’re not actually a part of their history and nation, so let’s build a memorial right here so that they’ll remember that we’re a part of the family too.”

So they do, they build this – once they’ve explained it to their brothers, everyone’s okay and we can all go back to the way things were.

Commitments are important things. These days the word commitment doesn’t really mean much – we flitter around from relationship to relationship, from job to job, from congregation to congregation, even from city to city or country to country. I genuinely don’t think that the idea of commitment has the same meaning in this day and age as it did once. I look at this memorial that the Israelites were building, and see it as a covenant or commitment between the two parties, honouring their shared memories and their shared blood and making it a physical sign of the relationship between them.

And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us that the LORD is God. ~ Joshua 22:34

He is just that. The LORD is God. What do we have that is a witness and a reminder of this fact in our daily lives?