Dressed for Service and Lamps Lit!
Reflections: In today’s readings we again see 3 different time periods, and 3 different aspects God’s relationship to His people. Again chronologically, we start with Joshua and the Israelites, as they start over again after their failed attempt to overthrow Ai, because of the corruption in the camp through Achan. Today the Lord assures Joshua that they will have complete victory, and also tells them that they may take the possessions from the ambush to themselves. The men and Joshua completely wipe out the town of Ai, and Joshua himself kills the king. The rocks under which the king was buried were a sign to this day of the conquest.
Then, we see the psalmist Ethan, completing Psalm 89, a psalm of lament. Because of Israel’s sin, the people were not experiencing the favor or the presence of the Lord. The psalmist wonders how long they will be in this state. He calls upon the Lord to remember His covenant love for the people and restore them to their former position. He reasons with the Lord that their enemies are mocking them and this reflects poorly on the Lord’s anointed one, King David. Despite all of this uncertainty, he concludes with the words, “Praise be to the Lord forever. Amen and amen.”
There will be times in our lives where we will wonder, where is God in all of this, and why is He taking so long? Has God forgotten us? In times like this the psalms remind us to call out to God to remember His great love for us and to continue to praise Him despite our circumstances.
The gospel lesson, in Luke, runs along a similar theme. Jesus begins to instruct his disciples and by application us to be faithful and ready for His return. He uses the metaphor of being dressed and ready for service and having your lamps lit and burning. The parable is similar to the story of the parable of the wedding banquet told in Matthew 22, with some different details. There are two main ideas though. One, it will be good for the servants to be ready when the master returns. Two, to whom much is given, much is required.
In Luke’s parable, the one who is given much has a higher level of accountability, and harsher punishment than the one who is given less for not being ready. Clearly he was telling his disciples that as he spent the majority of his three years with them, they would be his main vessels in spreading the gospel. He had called and chosen them and given them the keys to the kingdom, and for their part they needed to be faithful for they never knew when they the Lord would return.
Many like to speculate on Jesus’ second coming today. There are many theories out there and many try to connect prophesies in Daniel, Isaiah and the Revelation with events happening today. While it is wise for us to watch and see what is going on in the world and how God is intervening, the most important thing we can do to prepare for Jesus’ return is to have our lamps lit and burning and be dressed for service.
What does this mean? As we have been given the gift of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit through our belief and baptism, we can be ready by serving and shining where God has called us. We each have different gifts and callings but the universal theme is for all of us to be ready for Jesus’ return at any time. As we serve Him, and seek first His kingdom each day we are ready for our Master to return!
Psalm 89:46-52
46 How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how fleeting is my life.
For what futility you have created all humanity!
48 Who can live and not see death,
or who can escape the power of the grave?
49 Lord, where is your former great love,
which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
50 Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked,
how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
51 the taunts with which your enemies, Lord, have mocked,
with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.
52 Praise be to the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Joshua 8:1-29
Ai Destroyed
8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.” 3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people. 10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 11 The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12 Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley. 14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. 16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. 19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. 20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. 21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. 22 Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. 24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. 25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. 27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai[b] and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. 29 He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.
Luke 12:35-48
Watchfulness
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. Isaiah 61:11
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2
Dear Lord, you are an active part of the earth in all its righteousness and praise. You watch over us and even send laborers into the harvest. In your name we pray. Amen.
Then, we see the psalmist Ethan, completing Psalm 89, a psalm of lament. Because of Israel’s sin, the people were not experiencing the favor or the presence of the Lord. The psalmist wonders how long they will be in this state. He calls upon the Lord to remember His covenant love for the people and restore them to their former position. He reasons with the Lord that their enemies are mocking them and this reflects poorly on the Lord’s anointed one, King David. Despite all of this uncertainty, he concludes with the words, “Praise be to the Lord forever. Amen and amen.”
There will be times in our lives where we will wonder, where is God in all of this, and why is He taking so long? Has God forgotten us? In times like this the psalms remind us to call out to God to remember His great love for us and to continue to praise Him despite our circumstances.
The gospel lesson, in Luke, runs along a similar theme. Jesus begins to instruct his disciples and by application us to be faithful and ready for His return. He uses the metaphor of being dressed and ready for service and having your lamps lit and burning. The parable is similar to the story of the parable of the wedding banquet told in Matthew 22, with some different details. There are two main ideas though. One, it will be good for the servants to be ready when the master returns. Two, to whom much is given, much is required.
In Luke’s parable, the one who is given much has a higher level of accountability, and harsher punishment than the one who is given less for not being ready. Clearly he was telling his disciples that as he spent the majority of his three years with them, they would be his main vessels in spreading the gospel. He had called and chosen them and given them the keys to the kingdom, and for their part they needed to be faithful for they never knew when they the Lord would return.
Many like to speculate on Jesus’ second coming today. There are many theories out there and many try to connect prophesies in Daniel, Isaiah and the Revelation with events happening today. While it is wise for us to watch and see what is going on in the world and how God is intervening, the most important thing we can do to prepare for Jesus’ return is to have our lamps lit and burning and be dressed for service.
What does this mean? As we have been given the gift of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit through our belief and baptism, we can be ready by serving and shining where God has called us. We each have different gifts and callings but the universal theme is for all of us to be ready for Jesus’ return at any time. As we serve Him, and seek first His kingdom each day we are ready for our Master to return!
Psalm 89:46-52
46 How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how fleeting is my life.
For what futility you have created all humanity!
48 Who can live and not see death,
or who can escape the power of the grave?
49 Lord, where is your former great love,
which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
50 Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked,
how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
51 the taunts with which your enemies, Lord, have mocked,
with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.
52 Praise be to the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Joshua 8:1-29
Ai Destroyed
8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.” 3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people. 10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 11 The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12 Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley. 14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. 16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. 19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. 20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. 21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. 22 Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. 24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. 25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. 27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai[b] and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. 29 He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.
Luke 12:35-48
Watchfulness
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. Isaiah 61:11
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2
Dear Lord, you are an active part of the earth in all its righteousness and praise. You watch over us and even send laborers into the harvest. In your name we pray. Amen.
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