Joseph’s dilemma Hello, my name is Joseph. Things are going well at present. Lots to look forward to and no real worries. I’d got quite a profitable little business going and what’s more I’d got this very pretty girl friend called Mary. And even better her father has agreed that we can get married. So we are officially engaged.Then to my horror she told me she was pregnant. What are her parents going to say? Will customers keep coming to the business? I think I had better cancel the engagement because she must have been with someone else when I was not looking. I had thought she was a nice girl, but how could she do this to me?That night I could not get to sleep for worry. I kept turning over and thinking. At last I must have gone to sleep because I had a very vivid dream. This person was talking to me in the dream. He seemed to know all the things I had been thinking. He told me not to be afraid. Mary had not been with someone else but that something he called the “Holy Spirit” had made it happen. That was why she was pregnant. Then he went on to say that it would be a son and we have got to call him Jesus or something because he would save his people from their sins. Well, her being pregnant seemed something like sin to me, but the dream was very real and must mean something.I was still a bit doubtful. Then Mary told me that she too had seen an angel like person who had told her that her pregnancy was “good news”. He had gone on about thrones and reigning and a permanent kingdom. He even said nothing was impossible with God. She was totally confused because she knew we had not done anything together to get her in that state, but the angel told her about her relative too so the message must have some truth. That old relative of mine, Zechariah, had had a vision of an angel who went and made him dumb for a while because he had not believed what he had been told. His old wife Elizabeth was going to have a baby at last. He said to us afterwards that it was so extraordinary that he thought he had been dreaming. So we went to see Elizabeth who seemed to know all about us without our saying anything. This was such a relief to Mary that she quoted Hannah’s song of praise and thanks when she found she was pregnant a thousand years before. Mary knew the old songs by heart although she did change some of the words.Then disaster. We had been living up North and the government told us we had to go and register for a census in Bethleham. Now that was three day’s journey away and we did not know where we could stay when we got there. Still we had to go. My fears were quite right. No rooms anywhere. The best I could find was a sort of barn where they kept animals, but at least it was warm and dry. Then even more problems because we had thought we would only be there for a day or so, but you know what these bureaucrats are like and they kept us waiting for days.Perhaps it was the effects of the journey or the accommodation or even bad food, but Mary started complaining about tummy ache. That really was the last thing we wanted because it might be the baby coming. It was. Panic. If I were a bit later I would have rung 999 or even 111 and got a midwife. But I did not know anyone here and there was no one to help. What midwife would allow a baby to be born in that messy place? Who knew anything about deliveries in a stable?Well the baby came. It was a boy, so that bit was right. It was still pretty dark so we were working by just a single candle. It wasn’t half messy. We found some bits of cloth to wrap him in, but even they were none too clean. I had just got him feeding when a group of rough looking blokes came in. They said they were shepherds and I thought, good, if anyone knows about deliveries in the open, they do. Perhaps lambs are similar to humans. Relief, as they found some better bits of cloth to wrap him in. They knew where to find some clean hay for a bed and things began to look up. What really shook me was when things had quietened down a bit and they started talking. They too had seen angels or something who had told them exactly where to find us and, wonder of wonders, this baby was the Christ who we had been taught about at school.Those shepherds were a real help. They went out and told lots of people about the angels and the baby. Soon we were offered a house to stay in until we had to take the baby up to the temple to obey the rules. So while waiting for the census and about a month after the birth we went the five miles up to the temple in the capital city. We could not afford the regulation lamb so made do with a couple of pigeons instead. Now imagine our surprise when an old bloke there grabbed the baby and started off praising God and even saying he “could now die peacefully as he had seen our baby who he said would save people”. Not to be outdone an old woman came over and said almost the same things. Now I was really confused. They had said wonderful things about our baby and that was nice, but we had no money to pay the rent and even buy food.Now came one of those extraordinary things. We must have been in that house for several years for the census and getting the baby organised and worrying about money. Then one day there was a clattering outside and when I looked out there were some important looking people asking for us. They said a new star, a comet actually according to Chinese history, had appeared and had led them to the house so they knew where we were. They had been going for nearly two years. Money? They gave us gold as well as some precious spices which we could sell on for enormous profit. Another thing surprised me as they addressed the baby first and Mary and me afterwards as if the baby were more important than us. Where they had come from I do not know but it was certainly somewhere foreign. Now I thought I could really settle down except that night I had another dream. This was not a good one as it was a warning to emigrate.Well, we had some money now and set off that very evening. We went South for several hundred miles until we came to a country where I thought I could find work and a house. We stayed there for quite some time. Then I had another one of those dreams and this one was much nicer. We could go back home. When we got there I heard that all the young children had been killed in the village where the baby had been born just after we left, so that was another dream that had worked out well for our baby but not for the village. We cried over that for a while. Was it no coincidence that the king man who ordered the killing himself died soon after?With the capital those travellers had given us we were not too badly off now and the business was going quite well. The baby grew and was healthy and seemed very bright. Mary had more children now and I knew these were mine. Both James and Jude had a great love for their elder brother Jesus. Rules are rules and so we went up to the temple every year for the festival. Lots of us went from the village and the practice was for all the men to go first and women and young children to come on behind. Well, when Jesus was twelve I thought he was coming back with the women but Mary had thought he was with me, as twelve was the age he could come with the men. It was not till we had walked all day that we realised he was not with us. Panic again and a rush back. There we found him sitting with the official teachers, not just listening to them but asking them questions. And not only asking questions but answering as well. Even the teachers were amazed at his understanding. We quietly took him home and of course told him off for not coming with us. He just smiled and suggested that he had bigger things to do in his life. He even spoke about his “father’s business”. I can see now that was not carpentry or building because I knew I was not his father. He grew and became very popular in the area. He studied a lot and people said he was very wise. I was proud of my wife’s son. Looking back, those dreams had all come true. God was working in every detail of our lives. That first message from the angel to the wife had proved quite right when he had said that nothing was impossible with God.
Practice and tradition; Eli “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit”. So ends the book of Judges. One of these judges was Eli, and we are given just four windows on Eli who was both a judge and the High Priest in that period before the three national kings, Saul, David and Solomon. These windows tell us more of things that Eli did not do rather than his actions. First his concern about emotion and behaviour in church. Second the blind-spot for his own actions. Third his preference of logic over faith. Fourth, popular culture over God’s rules. He thought the ark could be a good luck charm. Still, people with problems came up to the little temple/tent where Eli administered because he was popular. The name “Eli” means “God is great” and was a common prefix to people’s names. I have found thirty seven in the Bible already. Eli the judge. One day Eli saw a young lady called Hannah praying in the temple by herself with tears streaming down her face and obviously agitated. He thought she was drunk and told her off. “Get rid of your wine” he said forcefully. He was obviously scandalised that someone should treat a holy place with such disrespect. It was only after she explained that her husband’s other wife had lots of children and she had none. She felt a failure. She was very emotional in her prayer. “May God grant your request,” Eli said, and she promised that if she did have a son, she would give him to God. She kept her promise, had a son, called him Samuel, and when the boy had grown a bit, brought him to Eli in the temple where Eli then adopted him. He was good with young children. She went on to have three more sons and two daughters. Her prayer of praise is given in full in 1 Samuel chapter 2 where she says that the Lord will judge. His blind spot. Eli had two sons who did not follow their father’s example even though they acted as assistant priests, they were immoral and corrupt. But Eli did not do anything about their behaviour. They officiated in the services in the temple when offerings were made. But they helped themselves to the offerings. We read that they were “treating the Lord’s offerings with contempt”. Eli is judged. The third window is when the boy Samuel is a bit older and is sleeping in the temple when he hears a voice calling “Samuel”. He thinks it is Eli and runs through to him. Eli thinks the boy is dreaming and tells him to go back to bed. He knew God speaks from the book or the pulpit, not through thoughts. This happens again with the same result. “If you hear that voice for a third time” Eli tells the boy, say “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. Samuel hears that still small voice again and replies as Eli has told him but misses out the word “Lord”. The voice then gives little Samuel a message that God would judge Eli because he knew his sons were bad and he did nothing about it. Eli was ready to castigate others, but not his own sons. The outcome would be a disaster. Still Eli did nothing about them. Ordinary people hearing voices should not concern the conscience of a high priest. The final disaster came about 510 years later, the people transported and the city demolished. The results. The fourth window comes when the Philistines, a belligerent neighbouring nation, attacked Israel and won the first battle. The Israeli army decided to fetch the sacred Ark from Eli’s keeping and hoped that it would bring them fortune, like a good luck talisman. Eli approved a popular symbol over faith. This Ark was a gold plated box containing the tablets that Moses inscribed with the ten commandments and was so holy that it must not be handled. It had rings at the corners so poles could be threaded through for transport. Eli’s two sons carried the poles. The remnant of the Israel army was thrilled with the Ark and the Philistines were frightened. In the subsequent battle the Ark relic was captured and Eli’s two sons were killed. When this news reached Eli sitting waiting at the roadside, he fell off his chair, broke his neck and died. A fatal result. The Philistines took the ark and put it in their temple in front of the statue of their god Dagon. Next morning Dagon was flat of the floor. They stood it up, but it went down again and again. Next came a plague of rats in the Philistine country followed by a lethal epidemic. That caused such a panic that they sent the ark back to Israel. Here too there were problems until they treated the ark with due respect. They had misread or forgotten God’s instructions. Questions? We now ask ourselves why this man’s actions are recorded in such detail together with the subsequent effects caused by the temporary loss of the Ark. It did come back and eventually ended up in Solomon’s temple about 100 hundred years afterwards. Was Eli more upset by Hannah’s emotional praying than by keeping the traditions of silence in the temple? Was Hannah’s prayer too emotional? Was that contempt? Later Eli is told off by a visitor for giving honour to his sons more than to God. Eli was obviously a sympathetic and patient man dealing almost as a father to the boy Samuel, even though he did not listen seriously to Samuel’s warnings. The voice speaking to Samuel needs thinking about. It obviously was not like that voice the shepherds heard about the baby born in Bethlehem. That was loud. Luke claims that his gospel was “approved from above” (Gk anothem in chapter one). Old Testament writers record frequently “the voice of the Lord came unto me saying….” See all the prophet books, especially Jeremiah. The fourth- window shows us that Eli and the people regarded the Ark almost as a talisman or good luck charm. They seem to be confusing a symbol with the reality of worship. Is this possible now? Are there things, practices or church rituals which are more important than faith? “We have always done it this way, so it must be right.” The people, and Eli, appeared to have forgotten the content of the ten commandments that were inscribed on tablets and inside that Ark. Those commandments were the laws which precluded everyone doing as they saw fit. Jesus summarised the commandments with the words we repeat every Sunday, “Love God and love your neighbour”. Bob
That still small voiceChoicesWe are about two hundred years after Solomon. Ahab is king of the northern half with his domineering wife Jezebel, a keen Baal supporter The people had again forgotten God in favour of the visible Baal, who is their popular local god of rain and thunder. Elijah, who is the current prophet/preacher, decides to do something about it. He will arrange a test. James, Jesus’ brother, tells us that Elijah was a bloke just like us and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain for a bit so he could demonstrate God’s power. Who could control the weather and make it rain?. Now, Elijah’s prayer is answered, and it did not rain for three and a half years and the drought was causing famine. People were concerned. Elijah tells Ahab to gather all the people and the Baal officials together to see if the rain god could do anything to help. A huge crowd gathers on the sea coast together with the 450 Baal officials and Elijah addresses them. He asks the people to judge who is the real god and poses a test. The test is a simple one. They are to prepare a sacrifice on a pile of dry sticks on an altar and then see which deity can answer with fire. No one is allowed to light the fire and the Baal officials are given the first chance to prove that Baal is real.Enthusiasm. The preparations are made. The Baal officials start praying to their god in the morning and get quite agitated when nothing happens. By lunchtime their inspiration and enthusiasm is waning a bit, so Elijah goes in to help. He jokes and suggests that Baal may have overslept or is busy somewhere else. He makes fun of them. The one thing enthusiasts can’t stand is ridicule. So the Baal lot really go into overdrive and their dancing becomes even more frenzied. So much so that they cut themselves with knives until the blood flowed. That is true passion. But still nothing happens.His turn. About tea time Elijah calls a halt and says that it is his turn. First, to make sure there was no possibility of cheating, he gets some people to pour water over his bonfire and sacrifice. They did this three times. Some modern people have assumed this account is a fairy story as how could they get so much water during a drought. These critics seem never to have read the detail that the action was taking place near the sea. So it was sea water that soaked the wood. Then Elijah prays that God would answer him so these people will “know that you are God and that you are turning their hearts back again”. Immediately a lightening strike burned up the sacrifice, the wet wood, the stones they had built the altar with and evaporated the puddles of water around.First result. The watching people are so amazed they fall on their faces. Then they turn on those 450 Baal officials who had been misleading and cheating them for so long and kill them all. Elijah is still on a high and he tells king Ahab and the people to go and have a feast, eat and drink, because it is about to rain. And it will be heavy rain. After a high there is often a low. Elijah goes up the hill behind and prays sending his servant on as a look out. There is nothing to see. God’s time is not always our time. Seven times Elijah tells the servant to look again and on the seventh he reports a small cloud out over the sea.Second result. Elijah orders the relieved Ahab to get back in his chariot and drive to the city fast before the storm. Elijah himself is so excited he pulls up his cloak and runs beside the chariot all the way to Samaria. That’s when things begin to go wrong. Jezebel heard what had happened to the Baal officials that she swears revenge on Elijah and seems to ignore the fact that it was raining and food supplies for the people were now optimistic. She promises that Elijah will be as dead as all the Baal officials by breakfast time tomorrow.Outcome. Elijah ran for his life. He even left his servant near some houses and walked out alone into the desert, sat down depressed under a tree and prayed that he could die peacefully. Then he went to sleep. He was woken up to find some food and water ready for him. There was enough for a month and he walked on across the desert and hid in a cave. Here conscience and the question of what he was doing hiding, hit him and God gives him a lesson. He sees a storm, but God is not in it. He sees an earthquake, but God is not in it. Then a fire. The same. Finally that still small voice of conscience that asks “what are you doing here Elijah?”Conclusion. Elijah tries to justify himself. He tells God that he has been very active and loyal, but now he is the only one left who has not bowed down to a Baal. God replies that He has more work for Elijah to do and there are still seven thousand others who have not given in to the Baal temptations. There are several other incidents about Elijah recorded for us culminating in his appearance with Moses to the disciples and Jesus. What are we to learn from this one? Was it right to put God to the test? What place does humour have in Christianity? Do we pray “earnestly”? Would we have looked seven times for an answer to our prayer? Why does James quote Elijah as an ordinary bloke? Do we have ups and downs in our lives? Is that wrong? Were the people wicked to have killed all the Baal prophets? Did Elijah realise that God had lots more big works for him? Was he really a bloke just like us to get such an answer to prayer? Do we listen to that still small voice?Bob
Abigail, the brave lady?According to the Talmud, Abigail was one of the three most beautiful women in ancient times. The other two were both winners of national and internationally organised beauty competitions as recorded in the Bible. Esther of course was one. The other was Abishag who we may think about next year. Abigail was the wife of a very rich farmer when Saul was king over Israel in name but not in control. So much out of control that most Israeli farmers lost much of their stock and harvests to raiders. Saul seems to have spent more time chasing David than protecting the country borders and applying law and order. Some years before this incident, the young David had tricked Goliath into losing his head. This gave rise to a popular pop song “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands”. The song went viral and was very popular. This made Saul really jealous. and he set himself out to kill David especially as David had been secretly anointed by Samuel to be the next king. Hence, Saul’s jealousy and his desire to get rid of David permanently without recognising the good David was doing for the country. The population was divided. We read that David went into hiding in the desert and his brothers joined him together with any who were “in distress or in debt or discontented” and together they made up a band of outlaws about four hundred strong. They lived off the land and protected Israeli farmers from attacks by neighbouring tribes and kingdoms whenever they could. They were outlaws in effect.First confrontationNow there was an Israeli farmer called Nabal who was doing very well. Not only did he have a thousand goats but three thousand sheep. It was springtime so shearing had been done, and all the stock would have been brought in. It was the time for feasting and celebrations. David’s men had survived the winter on short rations, so he sent a message to Nabal suggesting that, in return for protecting Nabal’s staff and the flocks all winter, he might spare some food for him and his Merry Men. Protection money in other words. Nabal, whose name means “fool”, gave a very curt reply to the messengers, showing pride and ignorance. David is incensed so much that he musters his four hundred outlaws to go and teach Nabal a lesson. That lesson would be severe as David says he will not leave even “one male alive of Nabal’s family and staff by morning”. This is a crisis as Nabal and all his staff are too busy with their party celebrating the shearing being done, money in the bank and seem not to be aware of the very painful threat approaching.Second confrontationNabal’s pretty wife, Abigail, recognises the foolishness of her husband and goes into logical overdrive. Abigail was also a wise lady. She accepted the inevitable and then sets out to change it, even though she was in a privileged position. She gets the kitchen staff to produce two hundred loaves of bread (when had David’s men had proper bread recently?), five roast sheep, lots of wine and sent it all to the approaching David without saying anything to her husband. Abigail follows after tidying herself up and makes one of the longest speeches by a woman recorded in the Bible. Now, although she was the wife of the biggest farmer in the area and David is really trespassing on their land, she starts by calling him “My lord”. Then she admits that her husband was not only foolish but also wrong not to have shared the shearing feast with David’s men. Without David’s protection there would probably have been no flock to shear. Then she assumes she has won the discussion as she says, “the Lord has kept you, my master from bloodshed”. She pleads for forgiveness and forecasts that David will become the leader of the Israeli nations and it would not be right to have the “staggering burden of needless bloodshed just for vengeance on his conscience”. Finally, she asks David to remember her when the Lord has given her master success. What a romantic proposal. It worked too. David who thanks God for her prompt action. Without it, he says he would have carried out his severe lesson on Nabal and his staff. David accepts the gift of food she offered him and goes back to his camp.Result of fairnessMeanwhile Nabal is having a “banquet like that of a king”. The next morning, when she tells Nabal what she has done he seems to have had a heart attack and is incapable of speech before dying ten days later. Guilty conscience? As soon as David heard about this he sent messengers to Abigail asking her to be his wife. She immediately accepts and sets off on her donkey with her five maids to become (another) Mrs David.ResponsesThe first question is to ask why is this incident recorded in so much detail? The second question we must ask is why was David who has a strong armed force and widespread praise, honour and acclaim in the country, doing hiding in the wilds? Was Saul just jealous? David could easily have set up an estate or commune like Nabal’s and lived happily. He already had some wives. But he chose to support Saul and tradition with law and order. He is loyal. He could have killed Saul several times. Remember the toilet incident in 1 Samuel 24 or the spear and water jug in chapter 26? Instead David volunteers to police the country with his Merry Men as protection from foreign attacks.Third question, was David right in asking for protection money from Nabal in the form of food? Nabal would probably have lost much of his stock if David had not, in the words of Nabal’s staff “been a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them” and not a thing went missing.We are given the whole of Abigail’s initial speech in 1 Samuel 24 to the invading David and then his response in detail. She does not plead extenuating circumstances but starts straight off by calling David “my lord”. In other words, accepting him as boss. It must have taken her some courage to confront all those bloodthirsty brigands by herself, probably in the evening. Each sentence has a wealth of wisdom.What are the messages for us today? Should we use force to claim our rights or even to punish injustice? Is it just that a soft answer turns away wrath? Is there ever a case for vengeance? Was what happened to Nabal pure chance? Answers to all questions appreciated. God is the final and ultimate judge, not us. Read the whole story in 1 Samuel 26, preferably in the Message version.
