a fourth rumination from the Sequester

"In the beginning God..."

A story, i once read from an author who was quoting a roommate, is simply put:

A character
who wants something
and faces obstacles to get it.

Every narrative everywhere follows that essential guideline at its heart. In the first four words of the Bible, we are introduced to the main character. God is the one who wants something, a people for Himself. A people He has imagined and now that he has can no longer imagine living without. But by the third chapter we see that He will have to overcome some pretty big obstacles to get them. The whole Bible is this story. God is the Hero. God is the protagonist. God is the one knocking down the walls in His way. God is the pursuer. God is the triumphal King who gets his Bride in the end.

Is this how we read the Bible?

a third rumination

It has become very popular to angrily and self-righteously call for people to, "wake up!" Which never includes the person doing the calling, of course. They are the ones who see. They are the ones who know what is going on.

But are they? Do they?

"And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.

You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts

with thunder and earthquake and great sound,
storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.
And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
all those who fight against her and her stronghold,
and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating!
And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.
Or as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking!
And he wakes up and look, he is faint,
and his inner self is longing for water.
So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
Be astonished and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blinded!
They are drunk but not from wine;
they stagger but not from strong drink.
For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,
and he has shut your eyes, the prophets,
and he has covered your heads, the seers.

The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

Therefore the Lord said:

“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” Isaiah 29

a second rumination...

1st and 2nd Chronicles are held by scholars (do with that what you will) to have been written during the Babylonian exile. A people yanked from their homes and driven a thousand miles away and held as prisoners, refugees, resident aliens in a foreign empire who actively tried to breed, educate and legislate their culture out of them. You could say, Chronicles and many other books which were written down or recopied at that time were an answer to that pressure to conform. That pressure to assimilate. That pressure to synchronize with their neighbors and political overlords drove them to remember. It drove them to go back into their history to see two things:

God's marvelous, undeserved, graceful election of them as His own.

Their horrendous, rebellious, mistreatment of Him as His own.

In other words, how did we get here? As we look around 2020 and we see the undeniable growing pressure of a society that preaches tolerance while weaponizing intolerance, shaming and legislation against God's people and against the true God himself and His Word, we might do well to take Israel's nod and remember how we got here.

And when we do, there's a third thing we should see and remember...

God is still sovereign, still on the throne, and still working. A different King, a true King is coming...

Thoughts during this Sequester

"Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev 12

The anger of men is portrayed as a flood.  A torrent.  A raging river.  Even though YHWH, you control the waters.  You are the only one who has destroyed in your wrath by the flood.  But the serpent will open his mouth and spew forth a river to wash away the children of the woman.  And if you are not on our side, we will be swallowed alive.  We will go down in the torrent.

"A Song of Ascents. Of David.
“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say—
“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have gone over our soul;
Then the swollen waters
Would have gone over our soul.”

Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth." Ps 124

i think making the effort to memorize, memorialize in music,
the songs of the ascents and many of the psalms will help us greatly in the Last Age to come out of this.