To Be a Warrior

This morning I woke up AFTER dawn (not guaranteed these days) to a breakfast of hot tea and banana bran muffins...altogether, a delightful start to the day. I have recently been reading from Judges in the Old Testament; I really like Old Testament stories. Being a rather avid novel reader, I often wish the Bible came with appendices... "The Expanded Version of Othniel," for example.

Consider: The Israelites have been set free from generations of brutal slavery under the Egyptians. Despite the miracles they witnessed as God intervened on their behalf against the Egyptians (10 plagues), the Israelites almost immediately (and then repeatedly thereafter) failed to trust and worship the Lord, angering Him and resulting in 40 years of wandering in the desert. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites come to the land God has set out for them, and they send 12 spies to survey the situation. 10 report a hopeless situation in which the Israelites have no chance of prevailing against the current inhabitants, and 2 view the situation with an eye towards God's mighty power and are more optimistic. These two are Caleb and Joshua. Joshua becomes the number two man after Moses (and later, leads the people into the promised land). Of Caleb, God declares in Numbers 14, "But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it." (The full account is in Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua).

In Joshua 14, Caleb is allotted the land of the Anakites, who are fierce warriors with fortified cities. At age 85, he proclaims himself still strong and war-ready, and he proceeds to drive out most of the Anakim from the land with God's strength. Last, he comes to the city of Kiriath-sepher, at which points he declares that whoever goes out and captures the city shall have Caleb's daughter as a wife.

"And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And [Caleb] gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife." (Joshua 15 and Judges 1) It's such a small verse for such a cool story, made even better by the fact that the name Othniel apparently means "Lion of God" in Hebrew. One presumes that when someone offers his daughter like this, he is pretty sure there are men out there who want her enough to risk taking on a fortified city in battle. I suspect Caleb knew exactly who was going to go after the city. Anyway, scattered verses indicate this family experienced intrigue (spying), war, romance...

So, this was my morning. I was reminded of how the faithful in the Old Testament are so focused on God's power that they are able to overcome (or even, at times, completely avoid?) the disappointment or fear that naturally accompanies the VERY significant challenges life presents to them - like warriors in fortified cities, lions' dens, and death threats. Their stories become some of the most incredible adventures one could imagine, very unlike this image of "boring spirituality" that seems to abound today. One can't help but be inspired.