A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
Joshua 10:1-2 As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, … and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors.
I’ve heard of a certain Adonai, King of Jerusalem, Who ransomed sinners from every corner of the earth by His self-sacrificing, atoning blood, Who spoke into existence all that is good, true, and beautiful with three words, “Let there be,” and destroyed all that is bad, false, and ugly with three words, “It is finished”; Who raised up the weak and mundane and overlooked things of the earth to confound the devilish elites; Who vowed to a pagan nomad Abram to make of him a city on a hill upon which all nations would gaze, and to make his offspring outnumber the stars in the heavens—not merely by force of number but by force of significance—a vow that He’s been fulfilling for thousands of years and counting; Who, like the mustard seed of His Matthew 13 parable, incarnated into so small and insignificant a form, shrouding the very face of God by such dissymmetry that none would look upon Him with desire, and with so few heralding His coming with Hosannas even during His most crucial triumphal moment at Golgotha; yet He ascended again with a name that sends hell’s forces reeling into the shadows, a name that brings healing to abused and lost and addicted and outcasted and rebellious prodigal sinners, a name that is above every name in heaven and on earth!
Oh, yes, I’ve heard much and seen much and learned much from this Adonai, King of Jerusalem, but this other king? This other Adoni-zedek? This imposter—this donkey on a Lion’s throne? I’ve heard nothing of him till now. Or, if I had, I’d forgotten it by the time Joshua chapter 10 was ended.
Friend, this brings us back to that place of choosing today. We can either follow the way of the true King of Jerusalem and play a central role in the heart of the story, or we can follow Adoni-zedek and just be footnotes forevermore. What say you?