God Is A God Of Detail - Detail Matters

Today's One Year Chronological Bible reading is [Joshua 12.7-15.19].

Rather than springboard off one particular verse or passage today, I have chosen to write about the whole of today's reading.

Today's reading is full of details.

First, today's reading lists 31 kings who were defeated by Israel west of the Jordan River. From there, today's reading proceeds to give details about the areas not yet conquered. And finally, today's reading begins giving great detail about the areas allotted to each tribe of Israel.

God is a God of detail.

What is interesting about all this detail is that God went into great detail previously about the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28.1-68). God is a God of detail. Details matter.

The thirty-one kings defeated west of the Jordan River further defines God's detail regarding curses for disobedience. God did not just randomly displace these kings and their kingdoms - they were idolatrous and wicked nations.

“Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’ But recognize today that the LORD your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the LORD has promised. “After the LORD your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The LORD has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You must recognize that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people. [Deuteronomy 9.1-6]

I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community. This will happen to all who commit spiritual prostitution by worshiping Molech. [Leviticus 20.5]

“You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home will vomit you out. Do not live according to the customs of the people I am driving out before you. It is because they do these shameful things that I detest them. [Leviticus 20.22-23] 

In contrast, for Israel's obedience, God defines the boundaries of the land each tribe was to inherit in great real estate detail (including areas yet to be conquered). This is consistent with the great detail God gave regarding the blessings for obedience found in Deuteronomy 28. God is a God of detail. Details matter.

Why do details matter? Because without details to establish God's standards, man is left to abstraction. Without details, man is left to "imagining shapes in the clouds" (religious Pareidolia) regarding God and His will. And, that is precisely what man, willfully ignorant of God's Word, has done in religion. Without considering the details of all God's Word, religious people have isolated particular passages of the Bible and, in classic Pareidolia fashion, made religious doctrines of them without regard for the entirety of the Bible. This imaginative interpretation of God's Word is highly subject to human experience and emotion, which, in most cases, run contrary to the Truth of God's Word.

God is a God of detail. Details matter.

One of the most glaring examples of religious Pareidolia is man's abstract interpretation of curses today. In glaring contrast to the Bible's detailed descriptions of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, religious man gazes upon curses today as if they were clouds, imagining (and even teaching passionately) that they are random. Their human experience and emotion lead them to "see" (believe) what they want to see. What they fail to realize is that to make curses the random but universal result of sin is defiantly inconsistent with their likewise experience and emotion-driven belief that blessings are generally the result of hard work (and not random blessings because man is not inherently sinless). And, this is where abstract religious Pareidolia must be applied. There is no consistency - there is no solid truth. The winds of experience and emotion blow, and man's mind "sees" other shapes to justify his present circumstances. But, God is a God of detail ...because, details matter.

Religious Pareidolia is spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness is the condition induced by idolatry (see Psalm 115.4-8 and Psalm 135.15-18). Idolatry was the exact condemning condition of the kings defeated (cursed) by God through Israel west of the Jordan River - their demise was not random, but specified in detail over 40 years before it occurred. God is a God of detail. Details matter.

For those chomping at the bit to decry what is being presented here with their rhetorical "New Testament!" defense, let us go right to the New Testament and see what it says:

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” [Galatians 3.13]

If curses are random, then Jesus' death on the cross was random. Aaaaaand then, the religious Pareidolia practice must necessarily begin all over again utilizing human experience and emotion to interpret why alleged "Christians" still experience curses just like those who do not profess Christ.

In light of all Jesus taught, demonstrated, and even commanded of His followers, Galatians 3.13 is a damning indictment upon "Christian religion" today. And still, in persistent religious Pareidolia, "Christians" comfort themselves that they are "blessed" when they still suffer nearly every curse written in Deuteronomy 28 upon disobedience. They rely on their emotional experience of "salvation" to justify their imagination while there is no distinction whatsoever between the curses they experience and the curses the world experiences. Distinction involves details. God is a God of detail. Details matter!

Jesus' miracles were NOT just a sideshow. Jesus' demand that His followers do the same and greater works was not just literary fluff. These were identifying details from God that matter! These details identified not only Jesus as being (from) God, but also identify us as being (from) Jesus. There is nothing abstract about it. God is a God of detail. Detail matters. 

It is furthermore not abstract that the overwhelming sin problem addressed in the Bible was idolatry. And, just like religious people today must randomize curses to justify themselves, so they must also randomize idolatry to justify themselves. The two work hand-in-hand as they always have.

Jesus on the cross was not abstract. The demands of Jesus upon His followers are not abstract. But, as long as religion makes curses and idolatry both abstract, religion will continue to send millions of people to hell. Man's religious Pareidolia interpretation of the Bible is seen nowhere more damning than its abstract interpretation of Jesus' words repeated in the New Testament:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

God is a God of detail. Details matter. 

Father, I didn't set out to demonize religion today, but it has effectively caused Your people to "see shapes in the clouds of Your Word" that are simply wrong. Help us to see curses and idolatry for what they really are, not what we want them to be. Help us give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Jesus! Open our eyes please. So be it.