No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. (Joshua 1:5-6) I love the first chapter in the book of Joshua. It reminds me of pirates! The reason why it reminds me of pirates is because pirate ships were historically made up of former sailors and slaves who had been considered to be nothing by the rich monarchs. They were only cogs in the wheel of commerce to be used while able and cast aside when spent. Then they changed the way global economics operated. (Watch a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie for evidence). Peter Rollins, a philosopher, writes that pirates were called the “Villains of all Nations,” and despised by all powers. He continues by saying, “pirates were the trash of the world who were able to welcome all into their communities.” At this point in history, the Israelites were the trash of the middle east. They were runaway slaves, a group of nomads with no land to call home. The Israelites had no land of their own. In fact, before the Israelites received their promise land they needed to accept the law of God, “to love your neighbor as yourself”– that is to accept the outcast of society into their own. In return God promised never to leave no matter how difficult things would get. God promised that the Israelites would die in the middle of His promise to them, and they did. Going back to the pirate motif, the pirate symbol: the skull and crossbones communicated how they were dead to society, and yet alive. The pirate message cuts across all people and still echoes to us today. This disparate group was made up of those who had been inside society but not of it. Likewise, our symbol, the cross, is a shame, and reminds us that we are dead to this world and alive in Christ’s resurrection from that cross. So too, God empowers us to live courageously strong to inherit what God gives to us in His beckoning call to Him. He did this with Joshua and He does this for us. Do you now see why the Israelites remind me of pirates? Do you now see why we all need to be pirates in the 21st century? If the Israelites can live in this coming from slavery; and pirates can live boldly even when they were considered nothing, then why can’t we? What is stopping us from being a “pirate” (dead to society and alive in Christ) today?
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