The Wondering Road

When it comes to women in the bible, they’re generally submissive to a society dominated by male patriarchy mindset. And it we only get a few women throughout the course of Christian scriptures that go against this flow. Athaliah mother of Ahaziah is one of those women. After her son Ahaziah was killed by Jehu just two chapters earlier in chapter nine, she did something well actually two things that caught me completely off kilter. First, “when she saw that her son Ahaziah was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family” (2 Kings 11:1 NIV). What kind of mother would proceed to slaughter the rest of her family after they find out one of their own children had been killed? She must’ve been off her meds or what they had back then to do something like she did. That’s one of the contradictions I see in her life. The other was when she siezed the throne of Judah. As I said, it didn’t strike me as odd until a week or so after I read 2 Kings. To rule a country during her day was extreamly odd and a contradiction in and of itself. Why in the world would men during her day support her as she usurped the throne? That’s the really odd part about her story, that she would have enough influence and garnered enough support to pull off a coup d’etat. But I guess in the end she got her just rewards when she was killed by Jehoiada the priest in 2 Kings 11:19. I guess that’s what u get for going against the norm of the day.

I didn’t catch on to this until about a week or so after I read second kings.

When it comes to biblical literature and an understanding of it, most people today who’ve spent any time in a church, know of King David. While reading ‘A Brief History of Ancient Israel’ by Victor Matthews, I came upon something interesting that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. It was as Matthews pointed out, when David transported the ark of God to the new conquered city of Jerusalem. The ark for years past was the symbol of God’s presence here on earth and as Matthews pointed out, was the focal point of the activities of the Divine Warrior in battle. This is obviously referring to God as the Divine Warrior and what he did for Israel when they went to war or the fight a battle. Yet David it seems liked to be front and center; not sitting in the wings. He wanted himself or at least his regime to take center stage when they went to battle. And just as Matthew points out, it looks as though David is trying to capture or contain the ark. Matthews goes on to say how he took all the vestiges of the pre-monarchic wilderness era/experience and hide them away from the eyes of the world. Matthews tells us that David’s monarchy had to emerge and mature as an identifiable political entity and for that to happen, his regime and the person of the king had to take precedence or they might revert to the ‘old ways’. I think that that’s just a cop out on his part. I think that some might look at king David as selfish for taking the ark and placing it in Jerusalem as a central place of worship. He wanted control and as he saw it, and at that time, that might’ve been one of the only ways he would get it. By taking the seat of God’s power here on earth during those times and taking it with him to his capital city. So we should ask ourselves, was King David an attention hog? Was he a glory hound?

I was raised in a different culture and certainly in a different time, but I still feel as the Old Testament practice of marriage was to a certain extent barbaric. I have this concept where marriage is entered into by two willing people whom love each other deeply. Not on where the women is a piece of property to be traded for the betterment of one’s family. Marriage was put it simply, a business transaction. One where people haggled over what the man could bring to the bride’s family and what the women could give to the man. This was usually in terms of the possibility of bearing him children. I can understand why this was done. It was done to ensure the continuation of the family line through the marriage of the daughter to a man and the production of children to carry on the family legacy. I know that women in the Old Testament had very few rights if any and that’s especially true when it came to marriage. She was told what to do and when to do it. If her father told her she was going to marry someone she had little recourse but to marry him. I wish their system could’ve been more like ours today where people married for love, not because someone told you you had to.

From reading the book of Judges, we see that the people of today, are not much different from the people who inhabited ancient Israel.  At least in terms of the cycle of sin we go through.  In judges, it begins with the people sinning/disobeying God, then God is displeased and rains down judgement upon them, then the people beg and cry out for mercy, the people repent; turn back to the Lord and all is well; or is it?   After a while, the people seem to forget about the promises they’ve made to return to the Lord and thus the slip back into the vicious cycle of sin.  It’s a circle a cycle that keeps on going.  It never ends never stops.  The reason it never stops, is because the people always end up doing what is right in their own eyes and not Gods.  That is why he is constantly pronouncing judgement on them.  As I sit here writing this posting, I thought to myself, what would be a modern equivalent to a judge.  I though perhaps our church pastors or deacons, or all our fellow Christian believers.  These people can and do act as our judges today.  They help us understand out sinful ways and help point us back to the right path.

Something that I really liked about Carrie is the simple statment she said about life.  She said, that life, is about smiles, and sniffles, and tears.  She couldn’t be more right about that.  I know that I’ve defintaly smiled alot in my life, but I’ve also had my share of sniffles and certainly tears.  But, there is something we need to remember that’s even more important than that.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 ESV).  Our father in heaven will always be there for us; looking out for us.  All we need to is lay everything we have completly at his feet.  We can’t hold anything back.  I keep going back to this verse over and over during my daily routine and throughout the week as I continue to struggle through life and the difficulties I face in it.  It’s a place where I can go to be comforted. 

Tied in with this, is the fact that we need to slow down and take time to notice things.  This can help us understand what God is trying to teach us and how he’s trying to speak and reveal things to us.  This comes in handy when reading the bible.  Most people myself included, tend to speed through the bible.  When we do this, we tend to miss important details.  We tend to miss/glance over what the story is all about; what God is trying to teach us will escape us.  This is why slowing down is so important for a Chritian.  Slowing down will help us notice things that are important to our lives.  The things which matter most.

As I sat reading Deuteronomy 28, I began to notice something interesting.  I noticed that in verses 15-68, the language used, spoke very heavily about Israel’s downfall and destruction for not following God’s commands.  For example, in verse 49, it says, “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand.”  This is reminiscent of the Assyrians and Babylonians coming and laying waste to Israel and Judah and then carrying them off to their lands.  It also says, “Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.  Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart” (64-65 NIV).  This could be speaking the the constant warfare that Israel might encounter; not having any rest; constantly being beseiged by those neighboring countries around them.  In all of this, what makes me wonder is if Moses knew of Israel’s downfall/destruction.  He speaks in quite detail of somethngs that will befall Israel.  But did he know what would happen, or did he just make an educated guess as to what would happen?  So, was Israel’s downfall and destruction predicted by Moses before the Israelites even entered the promise land?

In the book of numbers, chapter 16 to be precise, there are three Israelite men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram who along with 250 others who were following their lead, rebelled against Moses and Aaron.  These men were complaining to Moses and Aaron that the whole community was holy so Moses and Aaron should’ve be set apart from the rest.  At least this was their thinking.  Thinking that they’re lording it over them; like dangling a work on a hook over the water to try and entice the fish.  To make a long store short, the Lord’s anger burned against these men who rebelled against Moses and Aaron; the Lord opened up the mouth of the earth and it comsumed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.  Along with their followers, their families and all their possessions. 

The moral of this story as I see it is that the Lord gifts certain people to be our leaders.  To guide us and direct towards God.  He places these people on the earth to help us as we struggle along on the path to righteousness.  The sad part is that more often than not, we think that we know better than God.  We think that we know what’s right for us and believee that God doesn’t know what’s best for us.  When we rebel against the leaders of God’s people AKA his church, as  Korah, Dathan, and Abiram did with Moses and Aaron, we’re also rebelling against God himself.  This will always prove to be more harardous than helpful.  So, we just need to trust the Lord and believe he has put the right people in charage to lead us to him.

As a Christian today, all I need to do seek God’s forgivness is to humbly prostrate myself before him and ask him to shower me with grace and mercy.  The ancient Israelites however, had a much different and all be it complex way of seeking the same thing.  They had a complex set of rules and regulations that they had to follow when bringing a sacrifice to the priests in order that they might make atonement for some sin they had commited.  For example, in Leviticus 6 and 7, it gives a very detailed description of how they were to prepare their offerings/sacrifices to the Lord.  What I’m questioning, is whether the Israelites were focused more on the ‘doing’ of presenting the sacrifice or offering rather than the ‘being’ of being open to the prescence Lord their God working in their lives.  While I know the later is important, the former does seem to get alot more attention devoted to it.  It speaks more about how they are to prepare what they’re presenting, but not as much to how the people are to worship when their sacritices/offerings are presented to the Lord.  I know they are both equally important, but we can’t sacrifice the ‘doing’ of ministry at the expense of the ‘being’ present with God.  We must find a healthy yet yeilding balance between the two.

I might have the oppurtunity to serve God as the youth pastor in a small local church here in Waco, TX even if only for a couple months and even only as an interim youth pastor.  But, I’m affraid.  I’m afraid of the unknown.  I’m afraid I won’t be able to do all that is asked of me.  I’m afraid I won’t be able to devote the time needed.  I’m afraid I will disappoint and let down the church, its students, the families and dare I say God himself.  Friends have been telling me, that I just need to trust God and that the experience of serving in such a position will help me to understand what I’m learning in school.  In the chorus to their song “The words I would say”, the Christan music group Sidewalk Prophets say “Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope.  You’re gonna do great things, I already know.  God’s got his hand on your so don’t live life in fear…but don’t forget why you’re hear.  Take your time and pray.”  I just find that these words are so appropriate to my situation.  I need to be strong in the Lord and not give up hope of serving him.  God has his hand on me, and all I need to is let him let me to where he feels I can serve him best.  I just don’t see why after waiting over two and half years, I would be affraid of it now.

Everyone at some point in their lives, struggles to get through each day.  As I sat in church this morning, we continued a series called ‘Crossroads.’  He briefly mentioned something called his ‘daily 5′ or something like that.  It’s the 5 things that are the most imporant for him to complete on a daily basis.  Things like spending time alone with God, ministering to others, spending time with his family and getting what he as well as I like to call ‘Me time.’  As I sat there, I thought that my life would be so much more simpler if I came up with a list of what’s most important for me to accomplish each day.  I can relate with the pastor in saying that spending time with God is most imortant thing for us as Christians.  But, the question is how to accomplish that.  Being that I’m constantly spending time reading the bible, studying theology and so on.  I don’t want it to feel like a burden which it sometimes does.  I want it to be refreshing and uplifing.  God knows I need it.  I don’t want feel like spending time with God is a burden.  I want it to be a joyful experiences to me.  If it be in quiet reflection, through journaling, spending time in his word, or even at a bible study with friends.  Spending time with the Lord each day should be an addition to our lives, not a detractor.  

When he got to the main part of the sermon, he talked about ’finding our five.’  Those five things which he talked about were your relationships, your values, your calling, your growth and your faith.  I honed in on the areas of relationships and faith.  We siad that we must seek relationships that honor God because people are one of the things which are most important to us.  It is througth the strenght of our relationships that we’ll be able to stand up to the devil and his forces of evil for they are against us.  It’s the first part of Ecclesiastes 4:9 that says “Two are better than one.”  How true is that?  Two people can stand stronger than just one.    Another area he touched on that I honed in on was the area of faith.  “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)  As Christians, it’s impossible for us to completly avoid the secular world.  We interact with it on a daily basis.  But, as the previous verse said, it will do us no good to engage the world if we loss our souls.  We must always strive to honor God and our Christians walks even if we’re ridiculed for it.  We must stand up to adversity and with God’s help, we’ll over come it. 

God must be at the center of our lives for it is said that “We can do all things through Christ who strenghtens us.”  For without God and his son Jesus Christ, life has nothing for us.