It can go wrong in a hurry

In my last post, I talked about carrying baggage in war. If ya didn't read it, you should, but to sum up: it's a bad idea. 
Now, there IS a way to take loot that's not gonna slow the troops down, and that way requires that the troops trust the leaders. Instead of each individual trooper grabbing whatever was valuable, if everybody agrees that the really valuable items (in the case of Jericho, that would be gold and silver  and bronze and iron ) will all be collected for the common good, then nobody gets distracted when it's clobberin' time, and everybody knows that the good stuff is cared for until it's distribution time. And that's the arrangement we find at Jericho. All it requires is trust.
And it didn't work, because there was this one guy who didn't trust the leadership. His name was Achan, which translates as "I'm gonna really mess things up for my buddies because I'm selfish and don't trust Joshua to take care of me" (variant reading...). And Achan took some stuff, and  I'll talk about the significance of what he took later.
So: it's after Jericho. With God's help, the walls came a tumblin' down, and Joshua's army (between 20 and forty thousand fighters, depending on how many troops are in an eleph ) stomp Jericho and burn it.  And Joshua sends some troops to check out Ai, and they come back and say: It's too small to take everybody. Just send a few thousand to take it.
And here, it becomes speculation on my part, but it's speculation based on experience. 
What's going through the minds of those three thousand who went to Ai? Don't know; but I do know what would be going through the minds of any groups of people I've ever had contact with under similar circumstances" "Why do WE always get stuck with the dirty work? "
Maybe the three thousand picked to go to Ai were the three thousand who had distinguished themselves in some way in Jericho. In that case: "Oh, so this is our reward for doing well? We get picked to fight again? All those other guys, they didn't do squat in Jericho, we were the ones who stomped it flat, and so now instead of making THEM do the work, they get to sit back and eat pickled herring while we sweat and bleed. "
Maybe the three thousand were the malcontents. Maybe Joshua said to sub-commanders, hey, each one of you give me about a hundred men to go form a new unit to go do some fighting. And each one of the sub commanders told their sub-sub commanders, and so forth, until it got down to squad level, and then who is the squad leader gonna pick? His best fighter? Nope. He's gonna pick the odds and sods, guys who fall over their feet, guys he's happy to get rid of. In which case: "That crummy sergeant has it in for me. He's always picking on me, and now he's trying to get me killed. Well, somebody's gonna get killed, but it ain't gonna be ME!"
Okay, there's no way of KNOWING what was going through the minds of the three thousand, because the Bible is silent on the issue, but we DO know what happened to them. And from knowing what happened we can make a GUESS, just a GUESS (!) about their morale:
Lousy. 
"There's nothing in it for me. Even if I bust my hump to whack this little town, there's nothing in it worth having, and what IS there is going into the common pot, so it doesn't make any difference what I do. And meanwhile, all those guys sitting back at the tents are eating pizza, and they are going to get the same cut as I am, so I'm gonna hang back, just a bit."
Look, it's just a guess, okay?
But whatever was going through their minds before the attack, it's pretty clear what went through their minds after the attack: RUN AWAY!!!!!
And this we know because the men of Ai killed 36 of them on the spot, and even though that was only a little more than one out of a hundred, the rest ran. And people who know a lot more about battles than I do say you always lose more troops in a rout than you do in an actual battle. Troops who have been routed throw down heavy things, like swords and spears and shields and helmets, and run. And they make easy targets for the pursuers, because they aren't even trying to defend themselves; they are just trying to get away. If you are running in panic, you don't look where you put your feet, so you trip on stuff, and fall down, and then get a spear in your guts. If you are running in panic, you don't look around to see what's happening back there because you are too terrified, so you don't zig-zag, so the spears and arrows and rocks hit you. If you are running in panic, and there is a cliff in front of you, you don't see it until you are doing the Wiley Coyote.
Okay, that's the history part, it's all in Joshua 7.
Now, am I supposed to tell you about the modernspiritual applications, or are you supposed to figure it out on your own?

Feasting on locusts and wild honey,

Pat

Carrying baggage in war

You know how much weight an infantryman packs? A lot. There are three basic conditions for load classifications: Fighting load, for when imminent combat is expected; the Approach March load, used when they have to get somewhere and take some food along; and the Emergency Approach March load, when they have to carry everything because re-supply may be a problem. Fighting load weight: 62 pounds. Approach March  load weight: 95 pounds. Emergency Approach March load weight: 128 pounds. (For more details, read my source, The Modern Warrior's Combat Load, http://thedonovan.com/archives/modernwarriorload/ModernWarriorsCombatLoadReport.pdf)

Now, back in the old days (like pre 1900 for modern armies), the troops frequently supported themselves off the land, both in terms of what they ate and in terms of their pay. Rudyard Kipling wrote about it in "Loot": 'That's the thing that makes the boys get up and shoot.' Now, by the time he wrote it, it wasn't policy of the British Army to do that, but evidently the tradition lived on.
And some of the old armies had these massive trains of hangers-on, who made their living off the army, providing various (ahem) services, and some of them just functioned as a way to turn the loot into cash or jewels or something else easy to carry. That's because loot was often pots and pans and chairs and tables and bed frames and laundry and geese and cows. Pretty difficult to lug around. But if the troops DIDN'T lug it around, then somebody else was going to steal it while they were out fighting. So, getting the loot was the first task, getting it turned into something portable was the second task. Why did pirates wear ear rings? It was a handy way of carrying their loot.
And in more than one engagement, an initial victory was turned into defeat because of loot. In the Civil War, Confederate general Jubal Early's men stomped Union commander Phil Sheridan's troops into the ground at Cedar Creek (October 1864), sending the Union troops running. HOWEVER!!!! they did not pursue, they stopped to loot the camp (they were, in fairness, on starvation rations) and Sheridan rallied the Union troops, counter-attacked, and handed Early a huge defeat. Had Early's men pursued, they could have just about had their way with the fleeing Union troops; people who know warfare a lot better than i do say you always suffer more casualties in an undisciplined retreat than you do in a battle.
Which brings me to Jericho and Ai. 
Jericho was a walled city. That doesn't mean so much to us, in the time of bombers and artillery, but if you've ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you'll remember the scene where the knights run up against the castle and hit the walls with their swords. That's kind of what it would be like to assault a walled city. Run up on it, and get nasty things dumped on your head, or worse. 
So, leave it alone. Right? Well, not so much. Ya see, if ya leave a stronghold behind you, your enemy can ALWAYS launch an attack from there. You either have to completely cut off the city, and starve it out, which takes a long long time, or you force the walls or find a secret way in (like David did through the water tunnels) or get somebody to betray the city from you, or if you are at Troy, you build a wooden horse. Or if you are in a Monty Python movie, a wooden rabbit. Or badger. But you CAN'T, you CAN'T leave a strong point in your rear. The enemy will use it to collect their troops, who get to sleep inside and eat home cooked meals and have the blacksmith sharpen their weapons, and then when they have gathered enough guys, they come in and smack you down and dance. 
Now, Joshua had the city, because God gave it to him - and the walls came a tumblin' down - and he took care of business. Almost perfectly. See, God had said: don't take any of their stuff. Kill it, burn it, leave it. Lots of other guys have taught lessons on not being tainted with the goods of the city, and I won't go into that. I'm just thinking about...the impact of looting on a mobile army. Sure, it makes sense to us (if we are in the second grade) that we shouldn't take the idols of the city of Jericho...but why not take the sheep and goats and cows and chickens (no pigs, please, we're Jews)? Well...how fast can your mobile army move? If you are carrying the Fighting Load (remember that?), you can move pretty fast. But what if you are carrying, or even herding, the sheep and the goats and the cows and the chickens? Well, bud, you are moving at the speed of a chicken. Ever tried to herd a flock of chickens? Remember all those movies where the car chase gets interrupted because the sheep are in the road? Take the livestock, and you just transformed from a mobile army into non-mobile herders. And that's a great way to become extinct.
BUT, I'll talk more about that next time, when I talk about what happened at Ai.

Feeding on locusts and wild honey,
Pat

I go to church with my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa and our two munchkins Kenneth (8) and Alicia (6) on Saturday at 5 PM. That's because our church has services once on Friday, twice on Saturday, and four times on Sunday, and you pick which service you want to belong to based on where your friends are, or when the youth meet, or when you want to go over the river and through the woods to visit somebody. Each service has a different name; the name of my service is Five Alive.

Last week, it wasn't easy getting to church on time on Saturday. I had a really good reason to be late, but my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa wouldn't cooperate, so that didn't make us late. So then Vanessa had a pitiful reason to be late (stopping to buy food for home group), and I cooperated, but she was pretty quick, so that didn't make us late.

So even though it wasn't easy, we weren't late. Or not by much.

But then Vanessa sat way in the back. Look, I said, there's Liz. Why don't we go sit with her? We can scoot down this row, and go up the side aisle, and sit right next to her. 

So she gave me a look, but she cooperated, and so we did that.

And then I was standing singing praises, and noticed Kenneth was sitting down, so I poked him with my stick. (I really like my stick. It helps me get around, makes people cut me ALL KINDS of slack that I don't really need, is a great kid poker, and since it's a 1" oak rod, I can whack somebody with it if I need to. Or want to.)

So, anyway, I poked Kenneth, who was sitting down, with my stick.

He looked at me. It's a natural reaction when you are eight and get poked in the ribs with an oak stick. 

I told him, Do what I do.

By which he understood that I meant, stand up when I'm standing up, and sit down when I'm sitting down.

And he stood up.

End of story.

Well, not so much.

See, when I told him "Do what I do," he understood my meaning of 'stand when I stand, sit when I sit.'

But what I understood was that I was re-stating my parenting responsibilities to him.

You want to know how many times as a child, teen, and young man I heard "Do what I say, not what I do?" No, of course you don't want to know that. Why would you want to know how many times I heard something really stupid and perfectly designed to strip away the moral authority of the person who was saying it to me?I don't even want to to know how many times I heard that. What's more, I DON'T know how many times I heard it, but I heard it enough to learn to hate the phrase.

So when I told Kenneth, "Do what I do," I was not merely providing him with an instruction; I was providing myself with a righteous standard. I was affirming that i wanted to live my life in such a way that Kenneth would WANT to emulate it, and that would help him to keep on the good side of a LOT of the "if only " statements: "If only I hadn't;" "If only I had."

And so I thought about that.

And then we sang the chorus, "I give myself away, I give myself away, so You can use me."

Lovely song.

It moved Katrina Campbell, one of our care pastors. And she took the microphone and said, sing it again, and if you need to really do that, then do it. And if you need to come down front to give yourself away, then do that, too.

She said it better than I just wrote.

And some people went down front.

And I didn't think about it too much; I just grabbed Kenneth, and said, help me get down front. And I leaned on his bony little eight year old shoulder with one hand, and my stick with the other, and Kenneth proudly helped old man Papa Pat down front, and then helped me stand up while I sang, I give myself away, so You can use me.

And I thought some more. And then I had something I wanted to share, but Andrew (the elder who administers our home group) got to the microphone before I did.

And what he said was that a lot of us may feel ground down by the sand, and smashed on the beach, but the truth was that there was all this lovely water that we were to float in, and that would move us along. He said, SURF'S UP!

He said it better than I just wrote.

And then I took the microphone, and pulled Kenneth in front of me so everybody could see him. And I told everybody that I thought children should be attentive and respectful during worship, and so I poked Kenneth with a stick. And then I told them about how I realized that in telling him to do what I do, etcetera, see above paragraph for complete exegesis.

And then I told them about my reaction when the Lord moved Katrina (I almost cried, but didn't) and came down front, and sang; and how I NEEDED Kenneth to provide me with the incentive and the strength to be the man that he would want to emulate.

And then I told them about how I realized that I was singing, I give myself away, so You can use me, and how when I realized what I was singing, I said to myself, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKIN' MIND? YOU ARE ASKING GOD TO USE YOU! YOU ASK GOD TO USE YOU, AND HE JUST MIGHT DO IT!!!!

And then I told them that I would really prefer just to take it easy and not do anything, but that I eally didn't have that as an option, because Kenneth needed to have an example of how he should live. So with him as an incentive and as a help, I was just going to have to get with the program. And I turned to Andrew, and said, SURF'S UP, BABY!

I didn't say it better than I just wrote.

So then I sat down.

And in the next couple of minutes, two things happened: 

1. A young woman, don't know her name, but she uses a cane, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me how she had seen me poke Kenneth with my stick, and how it ministered to her. She had been a single parent for a while, and she really wasn't sure if she was doing the right things to raise her son. And I shared with her how it wasn't until my mid 30's that I saw mature, godly, righteous men, lifting their hands and singing praises to God, and I realized how that was an example for ME.

2. Spencer, one of the other care pastors, said, We have a second time visitor! Welcome, Matthew! And I turned around, and it was Matthew, Vanessa's 29 year old son. So Matthew was there to see me talk about Kenneth and being an example. And he heard the youth pastor Stefan give the message from Psalm 2 about being defiant toward God, and how God's power manifested itself, and how people who live in accord with God's will are stable. And I prayed with Matthew afterward, he wanted some stability and some good influences in his life. So we prayed that. And then I got one of those thoughts, which I shall state in a moment.

AND then we went to home group, and Matthew went with us; the video was Andy Stanley teaching about when it's not time to pray, but to do; and how when someone is being irresponsible, we don't need to pray about it, we need to confront them about it. It was an uplifting message, not a condemning message

And then we went home.

And when we got there, I told Vanessa about the thought I had while talking and praying with Matthew, which is, why don't I take Matthew for breakfast every week or so? And she grabbed me and kissed me so hard my lips bled.

Not really. But I could tell she was thinking about it, because the idea spoke to her deep desire to be able to do something meaningful for Matthew. 

So she told Matthew about it when he called her on Monday, and he called me the next night, and Tuesday at 11:30 Matthew and I had lunch at the Waffle House after he got out of his morning class.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Even though you can worship God out in the woods, it's not very likely that Katrina and Andrew and Stefan and Andy Stanley and a lady with a cane and a worship team and a person to eat lunch with are going to be in the same woods at the same time. So, cooperate, and go to church.

Feasting on locusts and wild honey,

Pat