I Think We Misunderstood

I Think We Misunderstood

(“Therefore, Hebron still belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as an inheritance today because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, completely.” Joshua 14:14)

There is no distance between hope and possession
though it may seem ages before it is accomplished.
There is no disconnect between faith and profession
though the definitions change as time rolls on.
I’ll read for an hour and a half if the day will allow me.
I’ll write for a day and a half if the weather will allow me.
I’ll stand atop a mountain and perceive the valley below me,
I’ll wander among the grape vines whose fruit is so full of sunshine.
I’ll assess the why we shouldn’t let the occupants of the valley
stay as long as they want. Maybe we forgot they had the land
before us. If it’s the Promised Land

Why should we have to kill anyone to enter it?
Oh, I’ll follow you Yahweh, but I won’t swing my sword.
If you can give them miraculously to us to slash and burn,
I think you could give them to us without death being such
a high priority.

The law you gave us forbade killing (Oh, I know the old trope
that it doesn’t apply to warfare death.) It forbade killing and yet,
the only way you have given us to take it is by taking every life
within the perimeter of what you call the holy land.

How can it be holy when we must slaughter people
made in your image? How can it be holy when we are not
instructed in the ways that produce shalom? How can it be
holy
when we alone are to possess the perimeters? Why don’t
we learn to offload our weapons and bring food and meat,
a true sacrificial meal, and invite them from the distance of
the sunup to the sundown to dine with us here in the land
we both desire. Let us offer our God thanksgiving without
killing anyone who lived here anciently before we did.

Teach us, we have the time. Instruct us, we will listen this time,
and Christ will repeat how it is not our bravery in taking lives
that represents the kingdom,
but the giving away of ourselves that opens the gates for
all who desire to come in or go out.

I think we got it wrong when we thought you wanted us to slaughter
or be slaughtered. I think we misunderstood when we though they
would lead us astray, as if you weren’t strong enough to guide us,
as if you weren’t kind enough to find us when we started to miss the path.

We will follow completely, speak it again and let us hear. We will
let the voice of Jesus give us the instructions this time and wait for
the proper time.