No Atheist in the Foxhole

Synopsis     Joshua 8:31-9:5     4/24/2018

After the battle with Ai, Joshua offered sacrifices of burnt and communion offerings. He also inscribed a copy of the law on the stones of the altar he had erected.

Joshua then assembled the people in accordance with Moses’ command. Half were arranged facing Mount Gerazim and the other half facing Mount Ebal. The law of Moses was read aloud to all present.

The people of the land decided to form a great alliance against Israel and create an allied force to fight. The Gibeonites, however, chose to seek a covenant of peace with Israel.

Foreigners Responding to the One True God

What God was doing with Israel was not a secret. God’s commands and intentions, which He had revealed to Israel, were widely known.

What’s interesting is the variety of ways that people responded to the information. On the one hand, the broad coalition of Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites made the decision to resist the God of Israel by preparing to war against the Israelites. The Gibeonites, on the other hand, chose to do whatever they could to make peace with this great God and His chosen people.

No Atheist in the Foxhole

The expression goes, “There are no atheist in a foxhole.” When people face overwhelming adversity, they tend to look for a supreme power – God – to help them. There is an intuitive sense in human beings that God does exist. It’s only in the midst of a certain strange kind of dispassionate reflection, insulated from the pressures of real life, that anyone concludes “there is no God”. And this isn’t new – there have always been those who think in this way.

But as post-modern people, there is a tendency to see crying out to God in the midst of adversity as an irrational and pathetic “clinging” to religion.

Yet, just as in the time of Israel and the Gibeonites, when there is a broad awareness of God’s reported purposes, then people have to make a decision. Believe or don’t believe. Accept the Christian claim that the universe is created with purpose. Or, if not,  accept the counter-claim that there is no God and accordingly, there can be no purpose. It’s just a matter of opinion – until the pressure comes. Adversity is the prover.

We, each of us, will decide for ouselves. Either I will “fall on the rock” and be saved or experience the rock falling on me, and be destroyed forever. The more stark the circumstances, the more dramatic and creative the response.

But he looked at them and asked, “What then does this scripture passage mean: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ Everyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Luke 20:17