Under an oak tree at Shechem might sound familiar because this wasn’t the first time a significant spiritual event took place there. It was this exact place that elicited a personal commitment to God from both Abraham and later Jacob. It was a place of making a life-long commitment of obedience to God’s Word.
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The last 12 words of verse 15 is one of the best known and oft-quoted Scriptures. As with many well-known passages, seeing it within the context of the whole of Scripture around it makes one realize that its true meaning may be quite different from what has essentially become a “slogan” over time by its being repeated alone as an isolated saying. In the recent past a now-famous organization used this phrase over and over again to affirm family values, to reinforce fervent affirmation of the family unit. While I wouldn’t argue the legitimacy of such values in and of themselves, I might take issue as to whether that is the correct context of this Scripture.
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For the record, I definitely and clearly understand that the calling given to Israel to destroy several nations then living in Canaan was specific to Israel at that time, specific to just those particular groups as a judgment of God, and that it does not carry over to the church today as some sort of “crusader mandate” to wage a literal war against non-believers. But what IS supposed to carry over is a total lack of tolerance for false religions.
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There are a lot of reasons to build or erect a memorial to God or man. They can be as grand as an entire building or statue or as simple as dedicating an individual hymnal or donating money in someone’s name. All are intended as some kind of reminder—brief or perpetual—of someone and their special place in our memory. However, although they may exist, I can’t think of a single memorial whose intended purpose is to remind us of our obligation to maintain current relationships. We’re quick to make connections with the past or promises for the future, but slow to fortify the things of the here and now that are actually the basis for the past and future.
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Can “love” be measured? This is not a rhetorical question, but a challenge to the worldly definition of what it means to love versus the biblical definition. Biblical love is not an intangible, unquantifiable product whose width and height and depth cannot be grasped; biblical love is measured by the very visible and quantifiable attributes of obedience and faithfulness.
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God fulfilled all of His promises, even though He had to wait a generation to do it. The first generation that was miraculously brought out of Egypt, given the Law, and brought to take possession of Canaan did not see those promises fulfilled. The next generation—after a delay of 40 years—did. The difference was not due to something deficient on God’s part but on the people’s; the second generation trusted God where His promises were concerned, the first generation did not.
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It seems to be a universal human trait to see history as something “living” and “moving” only as it has done so during the short span of our lifetime. And equally strong seems the same trait regarding the future—we tend to focus only on our own future with little acknowledgment for future generations. Perhaps it’s a monument to pride and self-centeredness that we acknowledge previous and future generations so little that we lose sight of the fact that our own generation is but a part of an overall stream that began too far back for us to fully comprehend its path to our point, nor can we fully envision the path and effect of its future course.
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