June, 2020 | Musings

Change

Ben had been preparing long and hard for this moment.

Before him lay the first course of what he expected to be many. This first course was itself a plentiful affair consisting of a plate strewn with tasty delights, all sorts of cheese and meats and salads, accompanied by bread and washed down with various juices or fizzy drinks (considered a luxury in these parts!).

Ben knew what Romanian weddings were like, so he had spent a few days beforehand intentionally eating less than he was accustomed to, not to mention refraining from eating breakfast that morning. So, now he was ready. In fact, he was probably too ready and found himself tucking more heartily into this first course than he would really have wanted.

Once people were finishing off these first delights, the waiters began collecting up the plates and after a short break, it was time for the second course. This time it was fried fish and what was locally known as Mamaliga, otherwise called Polenta in English, which to the uninitiated is boiled up cornmeal, making a soft, but firm, bread like food. Pretty good, depending on what you eat it with, fried fish being a good option.

Ben got stuck into this course as it was one of his favourites and did a good job of polishing it off. By this stage, he was starting to feel a bit full, but he wasn’t too worried. After all, he had trained well and one more course and a bit of cake was well within his stomach’s reaches.

Sure enough, after some tomfoolery on behalf of the wedding’s organisers, consisting of different games such as the blindfolded bride guessing her husband’s tie by feeling a selection of ties adorned around the necks of various wedding guests and the classic ask the bride and groom about the tasks of their marriage, and get each one to raise a knife or fork to indicate who they are expecting to fulfil said tasks (wipe the children clean or take out the rubbish, being examples of tasks that often produce telling differences of opinion), the third course appeared. Ben had been expecting a sturdy piece of meat, but it was actually sarmale, stuffed cabbage rolls that many a Balkan country likes to include among their national foods. Despite his surprise Ben got started on them as a way of celebrating the fact that the wedding games had passed and not just passed but passed without incident.

Once he had finished off his plate of sarmale, Ben was feeling decidedly full. He wasn’t the sort of person to leave anything to waste, so he made sure he ate up every morsel. It was certainly now the time for some exercise, so he was glad that some of the other wedding guests suggested going out for a walk. They wandered aimlessly around the surround area for a while before heading back to the wedding feast. Ben was starting to feel just about ready for some cake. Alas, he had underestimated the wedding organisers.

As Ben entered the wedding hall again, he started to feel uneasy. There was something going on and it didn’t seem like people getting ready to cut cake. He approached his place and as he did so, a sinking feeling came over him. There was a plate awaiting him on the table and it looked like it was full of something, but it didn’t look like cake. Getting closer, the contents of the dish before came into focus. It was a large slice of meat accompanied by some rather tasty looking potatoes. How could Ben have made such a mistake? The sarmale that he had gobbled down, thinking that was the last of the savoury dishes, was just a precursor to the icing on the cake, except that this was a very fleshy cake! Ben had miscalculated things wildly. Instead, of sitting down to enjoy the best part of the meal, he was now confronted with the challenge of imbibing a fourth course that was beyond what he had prepared for. Ben couldn’t let it go to waste though.

Summoning all his strength, he got started. He began filling all the nooks and crannies of his stomach with this unexpected fourth course. He did a surprisingly good job and thanks to gritty determination he managed to get it all down. Hurrah, it was over! Or so he thought.

After a musical interlude and then some more meaningful games (his table had written the Bride and groom a romantic poem using the words fence, torch, bee, rubber duck and chewing gum) the pièce de résistance arrived, although sadly for Ben it was actually only the pre-pièce de résistance; desert.

Plates were brought full of all sorts of cake. None of them looked like wedding cake though, which was what alerted Ben to be cautious. Indeed, in spite of his rather bulging belly, he was tempted to dabble with gluttony, but refrained. He nibbled at a few of the sweet delights on offer but didn’t consume too much. Once bitten, twice shy.

It proved wise as, after a closing address by the groom (thanks for coming and making the day so special – Ben had done his bit with some insightfully poetic lines comparing love to chewing gum’s ability to mend rubber ducks that have been pierced by aggressive bees), the actual, definitively final, cherry on the cake that had been the day’s tour de force through the cuisine of Moldova was revealed, the wedding cake!

It was an extravagant affair as one might expected after such a lavish and full meal. Four tiers and we are talking Camp Nou proportions here. The bride and groom cut the first slice, after which the waiters and waitresses had their work cut out, slicing up the rest and delivering it to the arguably not-so-eagerly awaiting wedding guests.

For Ben it was definitely a mixed blessing. He loved cake, but not after four rounds of the finest Moldovan cuisine that had already been complemented by a fine selection of sweet things. He sighed, nibbled a little and then surreptitiously wrapped the rest in a couple of serviettes and slipped it into his pocket, although slipped would be a bit understated as there was so much he had to give it a good stuff to get it all in.

The Bible also famously talks about a wedding. This is to be found in John chapter 2. Here we find Jesus in a town called Cana in Galilee, Jesus’ native area of Israel. He and His disciples, as well as His mother have been invited and are no doubting enjoying the occasion when a problem occurs; the wine runs out. This might not seem the end of the world to us, but, just as a lack of food at a Moldovan or Romanian wedding would be a disaster, it was a big problem in ancient Israel. Something that was important to them in their culture to be present at the wedding was now missing. This could potentially have had repercussions.

Aside from spoiling the party, for many years to come this would be remembered as the wedding where the wine ran out. This in turn could easily have caused tension in this new family. In any case, we can imagine how the bride and her family would now feel about her new husband and their new son-in-law as he hadn’t been able to take care of this important detail of the couple’s big day.

However, there is a light and hope in this situation. Whatever mistakes had been made; one wise thing that had been done was that the couple had included Jesus in their wedding plans. His presence there ultimately leads to a solution.

His initial response to the problem is unclear, but Mary, His mother, obviously has faith in Him to sort things out because she tells the servants (John 2:5):

‘Do whatever he tells you.’

And indeed they do, even though what He asks of them is not very practical or logical. They are asked to go and fill six stone jars with water (a bit of a task seeing as each held up to 120 litres and presumably they didn’t have water on tap) and then take it to the master of the banquet (even though they knew it was water). Their obedience shows a certain faith on their behalf in Jesus as well.

The upshoot of this obedient faith is that the water turns into wine and when the master of the banquet tastes it, he’s impressed. As a result, he calls the bridegroom to himself. The bridegroom was probably expecting a telling off. However, not only does he not receive the criticism that he deserves, not to mention the ruined wedding and its consequences, but he actually receives something good in exchange. Alongside the fact that they now have the wine they need to bring the wedding to a successful conclusion; the master of the banquet praises him (John 2:10):

‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

This is a beautiful picture of God’s grace. The fact that although each of us has done things wrong, that deserve shame and bad consequences, in His grace, when He intervenes in our lives, Jesus actually changes things around. This means that we no longer need to live ashamed of what we have done because Jesus has taken the shame upon Himself and we also don’t need to fear the consequences as Jesus has also suffered those on the cross. Instead we can look forward to a new, abundant life like a wedding celebration filled with the best wine (or the tastiest sarmale!)

As Ben was heading home from the wedding, he reflected on everything that had been there. It was fine, but with one less course of food it would have been excellent. He brought this issue up with one of the fellow wedding guests that was travelling in the bus home with him.

‘That was a nice wedding. There’s one thing I don’t understand though.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Well, why did we have the plate of sarmale? It seems like things would have been fine without it. The starter, fish and meat finished off with desert and wedding cake were all great and more than sufficient.’

‘Yes, well actually, that was the original menu, but you see, there were guests at this wedding who had come all the way from America and so they wouldn’t say afterwards, ‘we came all the way from America and you didn’t give us sarmale’, the couple decided at the last moment to include the extra course with sarmale.’

Ben reclined on his seat and turned his head to stare out the window. Somethings just weren’t for English people to understand.

Prayer – Communication with God

One time when walking on the street a man stopped me and offered me a free personality test. Usually, I’m not keen on such things, but he insisted.

He took me off the street into a nearby building and gave me some sheets of paper with very many questions on them about how I behave in different circumstances (such as giving in when people strongly insist that I do things!). After I’d finished, I handed the papers in and waited for the result.

The man called me into his office and began; ‘You’re not good at communicate and that’s bad because communication is life. But don’t worry, I have some books for sale on communicating and organise a seminar on communication.’

Handy that he had some books for sale and a seminar on exactly what I needed, but nevertheless I practised my skills in refusing insistent people and left!

Communication is life may well be an overstatement but nevertheless it is clear that it is an important aspect of our daily lives. This explains the popularity of mobile applications such as Whatsapp, which has over 5 billion downloads.

In the Bible, we also see that communication is an important topic. In Genesis 1 we see that God even creates by speaking. For example, in Gen. 1:3 –

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Following on from this in chapters 2 and 3, we see that He is not a distant God who creates things and then steps back. Rather we see Him communicating with the people He has created. Even after humans disobey Him and are exiled from the Garden of Eden, the communication continues.

In Genesis 4:26, it says that

‘….Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.’

So, people still seek contact with God and in chapter 6, God is stilling communicating with humans as we see Him speaking to Noah. Indeed, in one sense we could describe the Bible as the story of how God seeks to re-establish His lost relationship with human beings. Throughout the Old Testament, God is repairing the damaged relationship as He chooses a people, makes covenants with them and even comes to be present with them, first in a tent, then in the temple.

A key moment in this process of relationship restoration can be seen in Mark 15:38-39. Here, we read that immediately after Jesus’ death on the cross the curtain in the temple is torn from top to bottom. This is significant because this curtain separated the centre of the temple from everything and everyone else. This central temple area was known as the Holy of Holies and it was were God was present. The curtain represented the barrier between Him and human beings. Only once a year could the high priest enter there to offer a sacrifice for the atonement of the people’s sins.

However, after Jesus dies, this barrier between man and God is torn in two. Significantly, the tear is from top to bottom, showing that it was God who initiated the removed up of this separation between us and Him. Importantly, the next verse tells us the reaction of the centurion, a pagan not from God’s people, when he witnesses Jesus’ death. He says:

‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’.

This confirms to us that now anyone can come to recognise Jesus for who He really is and thus enter into a relationship with God. In other words, the result of Jesus’ death was to restore the possibility of anybody to communicate with God. Previous to it, God communicated just with certain people in certain ways, but now whoever wants has the opportunity to enter into dialogue with Him! In modern day language, we call this prayer!

Although most people are aware of this possibility, not everybody uses it in the same way.

Simeon Stylites was born in what is now Turkey around 390 A.D. Like any young man he made plans for his life, although in his case his plans were a little different to most youngsters. At the age of 13 he decided to dedicate himself to Christianity, which he understood to mean spending his time in self-denial and prayer. For example, he is said to have spent at least a year and a half shut up in a small hut, much of this time spent standing in prayer. Eventually, he moved onto a new method which was to sit atop a column that he found amongst some ruins of an old building. It is said that he spent 37 years sitting atop such columns, spending his time in prayer.

Alternatively, a lady from Romania made the observation once, ‘In the hospitals in Romania everybody prays!’ This could be taken not just as a negative comment about the standard of health care in Romania but also as a remark that reflects the human tendency to turn to prayer when we have a serious problem. It’s interesting that whenever something bad happens, celebrities often put messages on the internet which include the icon of two hands clasped together in prayer.

For Christians, the person who is our example of how to live is Jesus Christ. Thus, if want to know how to pray, we need to learn from him. In the gospel of Mark 1:35-39, we see an example of when Jesus prayed.

The first thing we learn from here is that Jesus prayed! Even though he was a part of the trinity, he still needed to pray, and if He needed to pray to maintain His relationship with God the Father and Holy Spirit, how much more must we, imperfect human beings, need to pray to keep a good relationship with God.

Indeed, we know from our own human experience that by communicating with people we develop relationships and that we suffer when we don’t communicate with those we love.

Henry Martyn was a missionary to India just over two hundred years ago. In order to go out on the mission field, he left his girlfriend behind, hoping that at a later stage, once he had assessed the scene, she could join him to be his wife. Shortly after arriving in India, he wrote her a letter to propose marriage. He had to wait fifteen months for a response, and it was negative!

One can only imagine the suffering of waiting those long months for an answer. It’s natural that we want to communicate with those who we love. Thus, as Christians who love God, it’s normal that we should desire to spend time with Him in prayer and if we don’t desire this, we should start thinking about why.

The second thing that we can take from this example of Jesus is that even though He was very busy, He still made time for prayer. We see in verse 34 of this first chapter of Mark that many people were coming to Jesus for healing. Indeed, towards the end of the chapter we see that so many people were looking for Him that He couldn’t enter towns anymore. And in the beginning of chapter two there are so many in the house listening to Jesus that the men can’t get their paralysed friend through and have to take him up on the roof and lower him through the ceiling!

In the midst of all this busyness nevertheless we read in verse 35 that Jesus got up early, when it was still dark, to go to pray. This shows that it was a priority for Him. A great Christian leader of the past is quoted as having said, ‘I am so busy that I need to pray for three hours before I start the day.’ We tend to think differently, something like ‘I am so busy that I only have time to pray for three minutes.’ However, we usually find time for the things that are important to us.

Recently, at a Ski camp with Moldovan students, I decided spontaneously on the second day to go skiing (having rested on the first day). This meant I was slightly delayed as I got my equipment together. I felt that this wouldn’t be a problem as Moldovan students are not renowned for their punctuality. However, as I came out of the chalet to go to the bus, I saw it already pulling away and leaving for the mountain. In other words, usually tardy students, were right on time when it was about getting the bus for skiing!

Hence, if prayer is something important to us, we will make time for it.

Thirdly, we see that through prayer Jesus clarified God’s will for Him. Jesus is Himself also God, but He nevertheless submitted to the Father’s will (Mark 14:36). When Simon and His companions find Jesus, they are probably expecting and hoping that He will return with them to get on with work in Capernaum, but Jesus has other ideas. He informs them that His plan is now to move on to ministry in other places. This plan seems to have formed after His time in prayer. Thus, prayer is one way in which we conform our wills to God’s and discover His plans for us.

More so, it also shows our dependence on Him as instead of getting on with what we think is best, we stop and seek His guidance. Indeed, in the busyness of life, just as Jesus took time out here before making His next step, it seems like a good principle that sometimes we need to withdraw to deserted places to be free to reflect and search for the way forward.

George Mueller is a great example of someone who depended on God in prayer. He was from Germany but became a minister in Great Britain. He opened one and later other homes for Orphans. It is said that he never directly asked for money but trusted in God’s provision. One evening he confessed to a visitor to the orphanage that although 2000 orphans were staying there, they had no food for the next day’s breakfast. He began to pray. The next day they found that the necessary food was there! How? Overnight a Christian in the city hadn’t been able to sleep and had felt that God was prompting him to get food and bring it to the orphanage, something that he did. Indeed, it is said that he provided enough to last for a whole month!

Assuming we understand the necessity of prayer, another question would be what should our prayers contain? There are different ideas about this, but a basic model would have four points.

The first would be adoration. To adore someone means to be focused on their qualities and to give them glory for them. How often do people for example give praise to a footballer for scoring a great goal that helps his team win the cup. Being there in the mountains of Romania it is hard to not to be in awe of the God who created it all.

Next there is confession. This is where we recognise our weaknesses as human beings and openly say in our own words what we have done wrong. A well-known Biblical example is Psalm 51, where David confesses his sin after having committed adultery.

Thirdly, comes thankfulness. This is similar to adoration, but it focuses on what God has done for us, rather than on who He is. In Ephesians 5:20 Paul tells us to give thanks for all things.

Finally, there is supplication or requesting things. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says to ask and we will receive, although this needs to be understood in the light of what has been said above about seeking God’s will in prayer thus what we ask for might not be according to God’s plans so we might not receive it!

Cain and Abel

One time I was at a camp in Romania by the mountains. We were staying at a holiday cabin in a tiny village. To get to where some of the people were staying, it was necessary to take a short walk. While walking one morning, I noticed that to my left in the field there was a pig lying with its feet in the air. Alongside were some people, one of whom had what looked like a blow torch in hand. A little later someone brought some pig’s skin over for us to try. I managed to convince an American lady to try it by saying that it was Romanian style pancake (which I guess that it sort of was!).

Oral version!

I guess this is as close as I have ever been to seeing an animal sacrificed. If, however I had lived in ancient times, I suppose animal sacrifices would have been a much more common occurrence. The Bible talks a lot about this. Interesting, even the first two people born, Cain and Abel, seem to have had a concept of bringing sacrifices to God.

Cain was a farmer and brought some of the things he had grown. Abel on the other hand was a shepherd and brought some of his flock. In Genesis 4:3-5 we are told about this. Here we see that there was a significant difference between the offerings that Cain and Abel brought to God.

Abel brought ‘fat portions’ from ‘firstborn’ animals. This suggests that he brought the best he had. In terms of Cain’s offering, it just says that he brought ‘some of the fruits of the soil.’ We then see that the Lord was pleased with Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. From this, we can deduce that Cain just offered what he didn’t need, maybe some left over produce or somethings that were deformed or going bad. In any case, he seems to have brought the sacrifice just for the sake of it, whereas Abel appears to have made a true sacrifice from the heart.

By its very nature, the concept of sacrifice means giving up something, however there is obviously a temptation as humans to sacrifice that which we don’t really need. Later on in the Bible, in Leviticus 22, there is passage which talks about unacceptable sacrifices. Here, it is made clear that God’s people aren’t allowed to bring any old sacrifice to God. The sacrifice was meant to be a male animal without defect, not just a way of getting rid of a sick, unwanted animal.

This concept is illustrated in 2 Samuel 24. Here David has sinned because he decided to take a census of the fighting men in Israel. He insists on this in spite of Joab’s protest. So, the census is carried out, but then David realises that he has sinned. Presumably, the sin was that by counting the fighting men, David was putting his trust in them, instead of God. The consequence of all this is that a plague comes on Israel. The prophet Gad then comes to David and tells him to go and make an altar to the Lord to resolve the problem.

David goes where he is told and wants to buy the piece of land so that he can make the sacrifices required. The owner of the threshing floor, Araunah, however offers to give it for free to David. As a result, in 2 Samuel 24:24 David makes a very telling statement. ‘I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ Again, we see the concept of true sacrifices being those that cost the offerer something.

I heard an illustration once about a rich man who put a large amount of money in a church collection. A deacon of the church offered it back to him, thinking that it was too much and maybe a mistake. The rich man said though that he was very wealthy and that actually for him it wasn’t such a lot of money. When the deacon told the church’s pastor though, the pastor told him to give the money back because at their church they only wanted sacrifices that cost.

In conclusion, Jesus says something similar to this at the beginning of Luke 21. Here we see him commend the widow, who although she only puts a small amount in the temple collection, relatively speaking she had put in a lot compared to the rich people who, although they probably gave expensive gifts, were actually only giving a small percentage of what they had. The widow gave everything and so that shows that she was truly trusting in God and giving out of love.

Cain is very angry about the fact that his sacrifice is not accepted. God gives him the opportunity to repent of this anger and do what is right. However, his response is to kill his brother and then to try and cover it up. Interestingly, the first human born, murders the second human born, and we see the words of God in Genesis chapter 2, that death would enter the world if humans ate of the fruit of the tee of knowledge of good and evil, begin to come true. So, we see that something that in Genesis 3 seemed small and insignificant, such as eating fruit, has led to very serious consequences.

A story is told of a man who while on holiday in South Africa decided to ignore the warning that there were sharks in the water and go for a swim anyway. As a result, one of the sharks bit him and he lost a leg and could have died. Likewise, the Bible very clearly warns against sin, however often we choose to ignore those warnings, thinking that there’s no harm in a little thing like going swimming, however we are risking getting bitten.

Genesis 4 gives a sign of hope though. At the end of the chapter we see that Eve gives birth to another son, Seth. He takes Abel’s place. This idea of substitution is also an important one throughout the Bible.

As mentioned, before the sacrifices that people were supposed to bring to God, are instructed in Leviticus to be male and without defect. This is because in the New Testament, Jesus, a man without sin came into the world. He came to sacrifice His life in our place. So, just as in one sense Abel’s death gave rise to Seth’s life, Jesus’ death gives us the chance of a new life.

So, what should our response to be to this offer? Some people still have the concept that we need to bring sacrifices to God today. There are probably still cultures out there where animal sacrifices are given. In the modern western world though, this type of sacrifice has been long forgotten. People still try though to bring other types of sacrifice, whether it be time, energy, money or other resources. However, Hebrews 7:27 very clearly states that Jesus sacrificed himself once and for all. His sacrifice was the supreme sacrifice which resolved the problem of sin and so we don’t need to add to this sacrifice other sacrifices.

The Bible does nevertheless talk about offering to God a sacrifice of thanks (Psalm 50:14) and offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). In other words, if we have received the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice into our lives, that is the new life that He offers, we should then live for Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us.

For a number of years, I have travelled regularly to Alunis, a small village twenty or so kilometres from where I live in Moldova. There was a period when we got up early on a Saturday morning to go and run a children’s club. This wasn’t always easy, partly because of the children’s misbehave, but also because of the conditions there. In winter, it was often warmer outside than inside the church, for example. Sometimes I thought to myself that it would be easier to not go there. And it would have been. However, God calls us sometimes to do things that are not easy or comfortable for us. This then is our sacrifice of thanks to Him.

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Shamgar, An Unsung Hero

My sporting achievements are few and far between. One of the few was when I was at primary school. Every lunchtime and after school, I went to football training. However, for not hard to surmise reasons, I was never selected for the school team until one fateful day. It was my final year at the school before moving on to secondary school and the last match of the season was approaching hence my last chance to be chosen for the team. And believe it or not, I got the nod (probably more out of pity than anything else; a little reward for my persistence in coming to so many football practices without actually ever being picked for the team).

The day of the match arrived, and the school bus sped its way to the fixture with, for the first and indeed last time, me in it. We made it to the school where the match was to take place and the two teams lined up on the field to begin the match. I of course was watching from the side as I was a substitute. The first half went well, and we raced into a lead. This continued into the second half where eventually it was three-nil to our team. So, finally the moment came when it was safe to introduce me into the fray. I could no longer do much harm as we were well ahead with just twenty minutes to go. However, more so than that after a few moments of headlessly running around and maybe the odd touch, the ball was crossed into the area and not only all the defenders but also the goalie missed it. It fell at my feet with just a couple of metres to the goal and no one in the way. Even I couldn’t miss, and I didn’t. Four nil a d I had scored the winning goal!

From then on, I can claim the best record of anyone who ever played for Rise Park Junior school; 100% scoring record that is a goal in every match I played and furthermore, a goal with every shot!

For obvious reasons, I have never received much attention in spite of this glorious footballing achievement. In the Bible, there are mentioned a number of people who did great things but are rarely talked about. Unsung Biblical heroes we might say. For what reason I don’t know. Maybe there are just so many Biblical heroes or maybe just some of them did slightly odd things.

I would say Shamgar definitely falls into this second category. I can’t imagine that Judges 3:31 is many people’s favourite verse, however it contains some deep truths, despite at first reading seeming a little strange to say the least.

We are told that Shamgar, the son of Anath, managed to defeat 600 Philistines using just an ox-goad. This raises a number of questions. To begin with though, I think it is good to look at the context.

The verse begins by telling us that Shamgar came after Ehud (incidentally, another unsung Biblical hero). In other words, he was just one in a long line of special people called, “Judges”, who God chose at a particular time in Israel’s history, to save them from difficult situations. The problems were caused by the fact that although the Jews were God’s chosen people, they had the tendency to allow themselves to be tempted into sin by the other people groups around them. As a consequence God allowed oppression to come on them at the hands of certain people’s. Just as suffering and difficulty today encourages many to seek God’s help, so the Jews, when they were in these difficult times of oppression began to call out to God for help. He’s response was to raise up these Judges to get the Jews out of the fix that they were in.

Shamgar is mentioned as having been the third of these Judges. He is described as the son of Anath. Anath is the name of a Canaanite Goddess of fertile. In what sense Shamgar was her son is debatable. Maybe it was title to show that he was somehow connected to her or maybe it was his mother’s name. Either way, it suggests that Shamgar might not have been Jewish, at least not 100%. Nevertheless, here he is being named as a hero who saved Israel. It just goes to show that God can use anybody he chooses to do His work, even unlikely candidates such as Shamgar who might not have even originally been a part of God’s people.

The way that Shamgar actually goes about his task appears extravagant even compared to today’s Hollywood offerings. We are told that he managed to kill 600 Philistines using just an ox-goad.

In this early part of Israel’s history, the Philistines are mentioned a number of times as being enemies of Israel, so this explains why Israel would have needed help to get free from there. However, why an ox-goad and how did Shamgar manage this extraordinary feat?

In terms of the question regarding the ox-goad, there is a clue in Judges chapter 5. Here in verse 6 it mentions the days of Shamgar and the days of Jael. Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite, who is one of the starring figures in Judges chapter 4, where she kills Sisera, the bad guy who is leading the Canaanite King’s army. This suggests that Shamgar and Deborah, the female hero who motivates the Israelites to go out to battle the Canaanites who are oppressing them, were contemporaries. In verse 8 of this chapter we find out that at this time not a shield or spear was seen amongst forty thousand in Israel, in other words weapons were rare. Thus, we can surmise that Shamgar didn’t have access to more conventional means of fighting the Philistines and so was forced to turn to a more creative method, using an ox-goad, which would have been a piece of metal normally used to prod animals into working.

Additionally, in 1 Samuel 13:19-22 there is a passage which sheds some more light onto the situation. Here we discover that early in Saul’s reign as King of Israel, there was a period when the Philistines were oppressing Israel and one of their tactics to keep the Israelites under control was to ensure that there weren’t any blacksmiths around to sharpen weapons. Shamgar himself was fighting against Philistines, so maybe in his day there was a similar strategy at play.

In any case, the bottom line is that it seems like Shamgar used an ox-goad to defeat the Philistines because that’s all he had. It might appear to us to be an unusual weapon and it’s most certainly hard to imagine how he managed to defeat 600 men with it, but the key point is that Shamgar used what he had to bring about a great victory for God’s people. In the same way, although we might feel like we don’t have much to use for God in Christian lives, the main thing is take that which we do have, no matter how insignificant it might seem, and trust that God can bring about a great victory through it.

A simple example would be Dwight Moody, who was not very well educated and indeed after becoming a Christian could barely read the Bible due to his lack of education. Nevertheless, he dedicated what he had to God’s work and ended up preaching the Gospel to many, and even the President of America came to hear him!

Knowing God

‘Hi, how are you?’

Ben stared at the girl before him. Unperturbed, she continued, ‘I’ve been quite busy recently.’

Ben mulled over the options in his mind. He had no idea who was communicating with him, but she obviously seemed to know him. It was uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing to ask her who she was, so he decided to play along and try and work it out.

‘I see. I’m fine, quite busy, too. Where are you headed?’, he asked, fishing for some details.

‘To see my Aunt, who lives on the other side of the city. And you?’, was the less than revealing replied.

‘Oh, I’ve got some things to do in the city centre.’

‘OK. It was nice last summer, wasn’t it?’

Now, things got tricky. What did she mean about last summer? She was a teenage girl, so it could only have been to do with church, or maybe they had bumped into each other somewhere? It was difficult being a foreigner in a place where there weren’t many foreigners. Everybody remembered meeting an Englishman in a place where you don’t regular meet Englishmen, but it was hard for him to remember every Moldovan he met, as he was meeting them every day, and many of those meetings were just brief!

As Ben was hesitating about his response, a bus pulled into the bus stop. The girl turned to check the number and then looked at Ben.

‘That’s mine. Nice seeing you. Bye!’

And with that she was off, whisked away from Ben’s presence by the number 25 bus, leaving him to speculate who this mystery girl might have been…..

In life, there are many people all around us, but most of them are unknown to us. In order to know someone, it is necessary to find out some information about them, whether it be directly by communicating with them, or indirectly from other sources.

The same could be said to be true of the spiritual realm. To know what’s there and indeed to know any beings that exist there, it would be necessary to have a source of information. Thus, many ancient peoples used nature as their source of information about the Gods. They saw that there was a bright object that rose every morning to give warmth and light to the earth, thus they concluded that this was a God who by day roamed over the Earth and by night entered the underworld. Alternatively, they saw that there were seasons of the year when it rained a lot, so they developed the idea that there was a god who needed to be pleased in order to give rain at the right time to water their crops.

These ideas however were human speculations based on observing the world around. As a result, these gods were often very human in their characteristics, which is shown by stories of their power struggles amongst themselves such as Zeus’ battles with the Titans and various woes connected to his wives and their offspring.

There would be a different way of looking at things though. What if there was a god who knows us and seeks to make contact with us? Many religions present to us different ways that humans have developed to understand and communicate with the gods. But what if there is a god who knows each one of us and wants to tell us what he’s like and what he requires of us? This is the very claim of the Bible.

The gods of various religions are usually distant from humans, occupying a different plain of existence. Indeed, there is even a way of viewing god as simply a force that set things in motion, but now is not directly involved in his creation.

However, how would it be if the god who set things in motion was also intimately involved with his creation? Again, this is what we see in the Bible.

In the beginning, things weren’t created randomly out of various interactions or whiles and whims of the gods, rather than was an intelligent mind behind it all, who intentionally created a certain order.

Firstly, light, then sky and the water below and thirdly, land with vegetation and sea. Then, in a sort of symmetry, on the fourth day, the great light of the day and the lesser light along with the stars to govern night, on the fifth day, he populated the sky with birds and the seas with fish. Finally, on the sixth day, he filled the land with living creatures, capping off his creation with human beings, who were the masterpiece created in his image to rule over this creation.

More so than this, we see that he didn’t just create things and then sit back to let them be. He interacts with his creation. He interacts with humans, giving them commands about what to do (and what not to do!) and after they break the rules, he seeks them out to find out why and gives out punishments, banishing them from the good, perfect creation and condemning them to live in a fallen, broken world. This is by no means the end of his dealings with them. Indeed, it is just the beginning.

Straight after this, we see humans, Cain and Abel seeking to repair their broken relationship with their creator by offering sacrifices to him. God interacts with them, accepting Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s and hen speaking with Cain. In other words, he is not a far-removed god, but rather a god who is very much concerned for and involved with his creation. From here on, we could say that the Bible is actually the story of how God restored His relationship with His creation that was damaged by human disobedience. There are a number of stages in how He does this.

Firstly, He interacts with certain individuals. Cain, as mentioned, who doesn’t obey God’s words. Alternatively, there is Noah, who does listen to God’s words and sets about building the ark. After this, there is Abraham who again listens to God by leaving his home and travelling to the land God shows him and, in spite of some difficulties, also trusts in God’s promises, even if they are not easy to believe (such as a son being born to him in old age).

God also interacts with a number of others, including Moses to whom He gives His law, which is a covenant meaning that people who obey it will be blessed and those who don’t, will be cursed. A very significant event in Moses’ time is the building of the tent of meeting. This is a specific place where Moses could go to meet God (Exodus 33:7-9). This tent of meeting was ornately reconstructed to become the tabernacle. Again, the location of God’s presence on Earth, a place symbolising the relationship between God and man as God resided in the Holy of Holies, the centre of the tabernacle. Humans were required to offer Him very specific sacrifices and just once a year could a certain person, the High Priest, enter into the Holy of Holies, God’s presence, to offer a sacrifice of atonement for the people’s sins.

Thus, humans were now able to interact again with God, but in a limited way. The interaction increased as God chosen different people, prophets, through whom to communicate His message to people. Beyond this, the portable tabernacle, became a fixed building, the temple situated in Jerusalem.

This is the Old Testament period and the overall idea here is that God was present with His people in a limited way. He was present in a set location; He communicated His message only through a few chosen people and there was a very complicated way in which people could approach via a process of bringing various sacrifices.

However, we see things changing in the New Testament. An important verse is John 1:14. Here it says:

‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’

The word has already been presented as God (John 1:1 contains the words ‘the Word was God’, pretty clear although some would debate the translation) and this verse tells us that this Word, i.e. that God became flesh and dwelt among us. This dwelling can be translated as ‘tabernacled’ among us, which is a clear reference to the fact that in the Old Testament God was present with His people in the tabernacle, but now He is present with them in Jesu Christ. Thus, God’s presence on Earth is no longer connected to a set place, i.e. the temple in Jerusalem, but rather it was now localised in Jesus while He was on Earth.

But Jesus is no longer with us on Earth so where is God’s presence now? An important event occurred as Jesus died on the cross. In Mark 15:38 we are told that:

‘The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.’

As mentioned above, this curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple and so signified the separation that exists between a Holy God and fallen human beings. The significance of Jesus’ death though, is that this barrier is now torn in two. The tear begins from the top, showing that it is God who initiated the breaking of this barrier. As a result, due to the work done on the cross, we humans can now have direct access to God. We no longer need to approach Him via the intermediary of sacrifices.

More so, Jesus promises in John 14:16 another helper from God, who was to come after He left. This in verse 17 is called ‘the spirit of truth’ that is the Holy spirit, the third member of the trinity. When we truly approach God via the sacrifice of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and so God’s presence on Earth is now not confined to a place, neither is it confined to a certain person, but rather it is inside everyone who trusts Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

This means that we can not just know somethings about Him by speculating from nature, but we can actually know Him personally. I can know a little bit about the Queen of Anglia but reading the news and observing her from a distance, but to truly know what she is like I need to communicate with her, so that I can I know her as a person. Likewise, many people know somethings about God, but there are those who know Him personally because they have entered into a direct relationship with Him via Jesus’ sacrifice, which broke down the barrier as described above.

This is not all though. At the end of the Bible in Revelation, we see the completion of this proves of the restoration of the relationship between mankind and our creator. Here, we are shown in chapter 21 God’s new creation. The key feature of this is the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, but this Jerusalem doesn’t have a temple because:

‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’ Revelation 21:3

God is no longer confined to the tabernacle or temple, or to a specific person or even inside His people, but rather He Himself is living on the Earth.

When people approach us to talk, we may or may not recognise them. Even with the wonders of modern technology, there are still many problems communicating with others (whoever has used zoom knows that!). Often, we don’t understand what others say, even if they are speaking our language.

Likewise, even though God has opened up the possibility of direct communication with Him, there are still many barriers to fully knowing Him. There is much to distract our attention in and around us. However, the hope of Revelation is that one day these barriers will be fully removed, and we will return to the perfect harmony with God that was lost from the garden of Eden.