Tag Archives: Great Story

Chapter-a-Day

Not Without Struggle

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Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
Nehemiah 4:10 (NIV)

It’s October, which means post season baseball. Alas, our beloved Cubs made it to October this year but they didn’t have what they needed to get past the Division Series. C’est la vie.

Of course, the World Series will now and forever bring back memories of 2016, the year the Cubs broke their 108 year World Series drought and all of the legendary curses. For the most part, I remember that final out and the joy of that moment. A few weeks ago I watched the documentary of the World Series that year and spent some time remembering the Cubs’ journey through the entire post season.

It brought back a memory of lying in bed after the Cubs lost one of the play off games. I had descended into one of my brooding puddles of pessimism. Wendy, ever my life guard when I’m at risk for drowning in that puddle, quietly reminded me that great stories always have moments when things look darkest. It’s in overcoming the struggles that great stories are made. As I recounted all of the struggles of that post season and the World Series saga, I was reminded of just how many there were.

That came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter. Nehemiah’s project of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls is in full swing. Today’s chapter is all about the struggle from without and within. They are surrounded by enemies who don’t want Jerusalem rebuilt. Those enemies join forces and plot to attack and stop the project. They are insulted, jeered, and mocked. There is a constant threat of attack both night and day. At the same time, the people are getting worn out from the constant labor required. The excitement has worn off and the long slog is taking its toll on everyone. As I read the chapter I could feel the fear, the weariness, the discouragement.

If I were standing in Nehemiah’s sandals, I would be descending into. a brooding puddle of pessimism. But Nehemiah was the right man for the job. The first thing he always did was pray. He then forged a plan for continuing the work while defending the project both night and day. He created a system of alarm and a plan of action should the city be attacked. He continued to prayed constantly and he repeatedly encouraged everyone to trust God to both defend them and provide what was needed to see the project through.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post/podcast that every human endeavor of which I’ve been a part has encountered some kind of challenge, obstacle, and/or opposition. I sometimes wonder why I’m ever surprised by this. We are part of the Great Story, and Wendy’s observation holds true. There is no great story without conflict and struggle. It’s what makes the climactic final chapter so powerful.

I find myself thinking through the challenges and struggles I’m currently facing at work and in life. Nehemiah’s example feels a simple and apt reminder. Pray, plan, work the plan, and keep reminding myself of God’s eternal promises.

Time to get back to it. Have a great day, friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Uncomfortable History

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Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Colossians 4:1 (NIV)

Late last week Wendy and I read a fascinating article by Coleman Hughes in The Free Press entitled What American Students Aren’t Taught About Slavery. Hughes taught a class for Freshmen at the University of Austin on the legacy of slavery. What he discovered was that most of his students were completely unaware that slavery existed outside of the United States. Hughes writes:

“What I learned from teaching slavery to a group of college freshmen is that many (perhaps most) American kids graduate high school believing, falsely, that slavery happened only in America. Their minds are not blown by rehearsing the brutal facts of American slavery. Their minds are blown to learn that other brutal slaveries also existed all over the world.“

Being a life-long student of the Great Story has forced me to grapple with the uncomfortable realities of history. Slavery is one of them. One of the things I’ve observed along my journey is that many people are wholly dismissive of the Great Story because its contents contain bits that are uncomfortable and politically incorrect to modern sensibilities and ideologies. I consider this tragic and it makes me sad.

Slavery was a common part of every day life and society throughout the world in the first century. There was no emancipation because human civilization itself had yet to mature to a place that it could even envision a world without slavery. Expecting Paul and the early Jesus Movement to have taken up the emancipation of slavery as a cause is like me expecting my granddaughter, Sylvie (who turns 3 this week!) to be able to have an intellectual conversation with me about string theory.

In his letter to the believers in Colossae, Paul addresses six distinct people groups within the local gathering there: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and slave masters. For some reason, those who added chapter and verse numbers to the text put five of the six into chapter three, and started chapter four with the sixth and final group: slave masters. Yet another reminder that sometimes the chapters and verses get in the way of understanding the text. (BTW, a dear friend gifted me The Lectio Bible for my birthday this year. It provides the text without the chapter and verse numbers and it is a fascinating way to read it!)

What is fascinating as I meditated on the text is that Paul expects the faith of the believers in Colossae to inform their behavior within the context of their life realities. And, in fact, based on the teaching of Jesus and practicing the love of Jesus, the Jesus Movement was already moved the ball forward on societal understanding in ways that were revolutionary and radical for their times. When the believers gathered together to share a meal, worship, and learn together everyone was welcome at the table together: Male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave master and slave. This practice, radical for its time, was a seed that would germinate, take root, and eventually bear fruit in the emancipation movement.

In the quiet this morning, as I meditate on these things, I’m reminded that while the societal realities of history are forever changing, the principle of what Paul is addressing with the Colossian believers never changes. My faith in Jesus should make a difference in my behavior and relationships, especially with my immediate and most intimate of human relationships with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and colleagues. Paul tells slaves to serve well and with integrity, considering that they are ultimately serving “Lord Christ.” He then tells slave masters to treat slaves with fairness and justice because they also have a “master” in heaven, Christ, to whom they are ultimately accountable and answerable.

I also find myself regularly in circumstances and in relationships that I don’t control. In the midst of it, as a disciple of Jesus, I am expected to be accountable to control the things that I can: to be loving in my words and actions, to be servant-hearted and forgiving towards others, and to conduct myself with integrity.

This chapter-a-day journey moves to the next of Paul’s “Prison Letters” tomorrow:
Ephesians 1

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

The Way of Jesus Exemplified

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Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
Philemon 1:15-16 (NIV)

Along this chapter-a-day journey I have gained a love and appreciation for the chapters in this Great Story that no one talks about. When was the last time you hear any one reference Philemon? And yet, the story of Philemon is one of the most beautifully powerful human dramas in the Great Story.

Philemon was a member of the local gathering of of Jesus’ followers in the city of Colossae in Greece. He became a follower of Jesus when Paul visited, shared Jesus’ love and message there, and established the local gathering. Philemon was a man of means, with a household large enough to host the church in his home. His means and his large household included slaves.

Among the slaves in Philemon’s household was a man named Onesimus. Reading between the lines Paul’s very short, intimate letter, Onesimus stole money from Philemon and ran away. Eventually, Onesimus made his way to Rome. In Rome, the runaway slave runs into none other than his former master’s friend Paul who is now under house arrest awaiting trial before Caesar.

We don’t know the details, but the bottom line is that Paul shared Jesus’ love and message with Onesimus, and the runaway slave became a sincere believer. Now, Paul tells Onesimus that he must make things right with Philemon, not as slave and slave-master but as brothers in Christ. He sends the runaway slave back to his master with this letter in hand in order to reconcile the relationship and make things right.

Over the last several years, I have shared with my own local gathering a graphic and a concept that depicts the way of Jesus and how different it is from the way the world operates. The world operates through the force of top-down power and authority. From the childhood game of “king of the mountain” to the power structures of politics, business, commerce, and crime. Whoever has the wealth, influence, and power dictates how things are going to work in this world whether it’s through law, rules, regulations, coercion, domination, leverage, or threat.

Jesus, however, did the opposite. He left the power of heaven itself, came to earth to live as a human being. Through faith, obedience, and sacrificial love He changed the hearts of individuals. He then tasked those of us who are His followers to utilize that same faith, obedience, and sacrificial love to carry His message so that it might change the lives of individuals in our circles of influence. As more and more lives are changed and more and more individuals are operating out of faith, obedience, and sacrificial love, the world itself is impacted.

It’s not top-down power and domination but bottom-up love and generosity.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)

Here’s how I’ve depicted it graphically:

The thing that I love about the story of Philemon is that it perfectly illustrates this entire paradigm.

Level 1: Jesus changes Paul’s life from the inside out.

Level 2: Paul shares Jesus’ love and message with people in Colossae.

Level 1: Jesus changes Philemon’s life from the inside out.

Level 2: Philemon’s community is changed as members of his household and community become believers and meet in his home.

Level 2: Onesimus the runaway slave from Philemon’s household stumbles into Paul, his former master’s friend and member of his former master’s circle of influence, in Rome of all places.

Level 1: Onesimus becomes a believer and Jesus changes him from the inside out.

Level 2: Changed by the love of Jesus, Onesimus returns to Philemon to be reconciled and make things right, their relationship now transformed by the love of Jesus that has transformed each of them.

Level 3: The world is still being impacted by their lives and story. This very blog post and podcast are living proof.

What is beautiful about the letter is the fact that it is all about transformation. The transformation of Philemon and his household into a center of God’s love in their community. The transformation of Onesimus from thief and runaway slave to brother in Christ. The transformation of the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus in which the love and power of Jesus tears down the socio-economic power structure of the world’s paradigm of slavery and replaces it with the love, joy, and peace of spiritual family.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself moved spiritually and emotionally as I imagine the moment when Onesimus arrives to face his master. I imagine the mixture of emotions that each of them were feeling in that moment. I imagine the runaway slave handing Philemon Paul’s letter. The shock and surprise as Philemon reads it. The conflicting emotions in Philemon’s heart as anger gives way to forgiveness, resentment yields to kindness, and the world’s paradigms crumble to the transformational, life-changing power of Jesus’ love.

Jesus, I pray that your love continues to change me today from the inside out, so that your love through me might change those around me, that your love through us might positively impact the world for your Kingdom.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

“New Things Come”

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“New Things Come” (CaD Lev 9) – Wayfarer

On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
Leviticus 9:1 (NIV)

I have learned over almost 45 years as a disciple of Jesus that this spiritual journey as His follower is all about my transformation. It’s the gradual migration from my earthly and worldly mindset into having my mind fixed on the things of God. Treasures on earth lose their perceived value for me as spiritual treasures are considered increasingly more priceless in my mind. What I desire becomes less significant (in fact I desire things less) and what God desires of me becomes more of a priority. This is literally what Paul was writing about when he told the Corinthian believers: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

In today’s chapter, Aaron and his sons are facing an abrupt transformation. The chapter begins by describing the events as taking place on the eighth day. In yesterday’s chapter, God told Aaron and the boys to camp out at the entrance of His tent for seven days. Granted, this seems like a strange request to our logical sensibilities. Today’s events take place on the eighth day. God is using His base language of metaphor again. What does everyone know, from the very beginning of the Great Story in Genesis took place in seven days? Yep, creation. How long were the dudes camping with God? Yep, seven. It is now the eighth day. Something is new. A spiritual transformation has taken place. Something new has been created in Aaron and His sons. The dudes are now priests of the Most High God.

In today’s chapter, Aaron performs the priestly duties and sacrifices for the first time. This is new. Another thing that is abundantly clear is that Aaron performs the offerings exactly as prescribed by God through Moses. The text is painfully repetitive as it recounts Aaron’s exact actions detail for detail. In fact, it’s one of the strange things about Leviticus that drives modern readers bonkers. As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, two things came to mind.

First, I returned to the reality that these are events are taking place in the toddler stage of humanity thousands of years ago. Writing is a relatively new technology that few know and reading isn’t even a thing for the masses. Things were passed down orally and as an actor currently working on my lines for a role in a play I am reminded that repetition is the key to memorization. When toddlers watch Sesame Street they are introduced to a letter and a number and those are repeated over and over and over again in that episode. The repetition was likely helpful and necessary to the ancient Hebrews learning these detailed instructions.

Second, there is a spiritual lesson taking place even in Aaron’s exacting conformity to God’s instructions. Five hundred years or so later, the Hebrews will decide they want a king and they will choose a guy named Saul. Saul will subsequently decide that he can perform these offerings even though he’s not a son of Aaron as prescribed. Samuel tells him:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

One of the spiritual lessons God is attempting to teach His fledgling people through this sacrificial system is the importance of obedience. The obedience is more important than the sacrifices themselves. In fact, God makes this abundantly clear in Psalm 50:

“Listen, my people, and I will speak;
    I will testify against you, Israel:
    I am God, your God.
I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
    or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
I have no need of a bull from your stall
    or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
    and the insects in the fields are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?“

At the end of the chapter, as a result of Aaron’s obedience in presenting the offerings according to the instructions, the “glory of the LORD” shows up in the form of fire. So this spiritually transformed dude who is now a priest obeys God, does as instructed, and God responds. It’s the eighth day. It is a new beginning for Aaron and the boys. Old things have passed away. New things have come.

Which is exactly what God has spiritually done in me through being joined with Christ thousands of years later. In fact, spiritually speaking that transformation includes making me a priest of the Most High God, as well (see 1 Peter 2:9).

In the quiet this morning, I find myself marveling once again at how God’s message is consistent even as He communicates it differently at different points of the Great Story, even as I communicate about these same things differently to my toddler granddaughter than I do to her adult parents.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Shalom

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Shalom! (CaD Ezk 47) – Wayfarer

Then he led me back to the bank of the river.  When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.
Ezekiel 47:6b-8 (NIV)

When most people hear the Hebrew word “Shalom” it is understood as a greeting like “Hello” or “Bonjour.” And that’s because “Shalom” is used as both a greeting and a departing salutation, more like “Aloha.” But what many people don’t know is that Shalom which is literally translated into English as “peace” has a meaning that cannot be simply contained by one comparable English word.

Shalom is a word that embodies a larger sense of wholeness, well-being, good health, rest and tranquility. It is both a greeting but also a blessing to the person to whom you say it. Shalom is derived from the root word “Shalam” which is used repeatedly in Exodus 21 and 22 regarding instructions for “making things right” between people when there has been material loss or injury. God was instructing his people to “make it right” (Shalam) which becomes the foundation for the wholeness, well-being, peace, rest, and tranquility of Shalom.

This is important in understanding what is being described in this vision Ezekiel is having of the restoration of his defeated and destroyed nation in these final chapters. On a macro level, everything Zeke is describing is the “making things right” on multiple levels. His vision is of ultimate Shalom.

In today’s chapter, there are three amazing concepts being communicated.

First, Zeke sees a river that flows out of the temple he’s just described. The temple is the source of a river of life that flows out of the temple into the Dead Sea and turns the Dead Sea into a living, flourishing source of life and provision for all. This foreshadows two things. First, it foreshadows Jesus, who says Himself that He is Living Water springing up to transform any who are dead in their sins to eternal life (or, you might say, ultimate Shalom!). It also foreshadows the vision John is given of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In fact, I encourage you to read and compare the first part of today’s chapter with those last two chapters of the Great Story.

Second, in Zeke’s vision he’s given the general boundaries for the restored Promised Land that God had always promised to His people where they would find Shalom. Throughout the history of humanity, land means life. From the land we find security, shelter, provision, and prosperity.

Finally, and this is huge, God tells Zeke that “foreigners living among you” are to be considered “native-born Israelites.” In other words, there is no longer any distinction between Jews and the Gentile outsiders. God’s shalom is for everyone. Everyone becomes a child of Abraham. Everyone is given an inheritance of God. Everyone is an heir of the Divine. Everyone is given an allotment of God’s ultimate shalom.

In the quiet this morning, I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness and the desire He has expressed from the beginning for humanity to experience shalom. I’m reminded what Jesus told His followers just moments before His arrest and just hours before His execution. He told them that they can expect trouble and suffering in this world, but He also told them “Peace (Shalom) I leave with you; my peace (shalom) I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Yesterday morning, Wendy shared a song with me that I had never heard before (I’m really awful at keeping up with current culture!) by Jelly Roll called “I’m Not Okay“. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It gets to the heart of what Jesus was saying to His followers, to us, to me. Even when things are not okay, everything is going to be alright.

Shalom, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Distinctions

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Distinctions (CaD Ezk 41) – Wayfarer

Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits. Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 41:13-15 (NIV)

For the recently freed Hebrew slaves, everything about life had changed. All they knew about the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was what Moses had told them. But they’d witnessed what God could do in the ten plagues that had been inflicted on Pharaoh and Egypt. They’d seen God part the waters of the Red Sea so they could cross and then bring the same waters crashing down on the Egyptian army.

But they still know relatively little about God. But in Exodus 19, they are about to learn a whole lot more. Moses goes up on a mountain by himself. From below they watch as lightning strikes, then smoke starts billowing, and the whole mountain trembles. When Moses descends, he not only has the Ten Commandments, but he has the blueprints and instruction manual for a Temple, a priesthood, rituals, and sacrifices that prescribe an entirely new way of living with God and with one another in community.

One of the things that became quickly clear to the ancient Hebrews when God, through Moses, gave them instructions for a temple and its rituals is that God made distinctions. Again, this parallels the Creation poem in Genesis 1 and 2 where God made a distinction between “this” and “that” parts of creation. There are consistent structural designs from the tent tabernacle, to Solomon’s Temple, and to the Temple Ezekiel sees in his vision. With each, there were distinctions of space. There were spaces between the common and the sacred, the space that was everyday people, and the “most holy” space where God’s presence resided.

The Most Holy Place, sometimes called the “Holy of Holies” was a perfect square. The only person who could enter was the high priest.

Fast forward to Jesus, some 400 years after Ezekiel. In Luke 9, Jesus takes his three inner-circle disciples and goes up a mountain. Suddenly, Jesus is transformed into blinding, bright light. There is lightning and then there’s smoke everywhere and then Moses shows up in his glorified, heavenly body along with Elijah. Does this sound familiar?! Jesus would descend that mountain and consequently usher a completely new blueprint and new distinctions that build on the old.

Jesus subsequently told His disciples that the Temple would soon be reduced to rubble, and 40 years later it was. After His death and resurrection, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit. This is an important new distinction. God’s presence was in Jesus’ people. The human soul became the “Most Holy Place” where God’s Spirit dwells and the body is its Temple.

But wait, we’re not done. The night before Jesus’ was executed, He told His followers, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” When John is given a vision in Revelation this place is revealed as a new Jerusalem. Just like with Ezekiel, John had to watch as it was measured and wouldn’t you know it, this heavenly city is perfectly square just like the Most Holy Place. The distinctions from beginning to end have been transformed and flipped inside out. What began as a small (about 15 feet square) Sacred Space with the distinction that only God’s Presence is holy enough to be there, becomes at the end of the Great Story a “Most Holy Place” that is 1200 miles square where all of God’s people dwell together with God because, through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, they have been made holy, as well.

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded that the tremendously precise and ordered details that Ezekiel describes are a part of how God metaphorically reveals Himself to us. He is a God of detail and distinctions who transforms chaos into order, death into life, and the common into that which is holy. Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth that if anyone is joined with Christ, that person is a new creation, old things pass away and new things come. In other words, I am a microcosm of the very thing that God is doing throughout the entire Great Story, transforming that which wasn’t holy into that which is eternally holy.

I am in process, and as my local gathering of Jesus’ followers continues to remind everyone, this journey is about progress, not perfection.

And so, I progress into another day of the journey.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Chaos and Order

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Chaos and Order (CaD Ezk 40) – Wayfarer

The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”
Ezekiel 40:4 (NIV)

For the past quarter of a century, our family has had a place on Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. My parents bought the property around the time of retirement. The girls grew up there along with their cousins visiting Grandpa Dean and Grandma Jeanne. Wendy and I purchased the property from them and built a new house on it. It’s been a special place for us, our family, and friends.

In fact, our family long ago realized that our place at the lake was sacred space. It has been a place of rest away from the chaos of our everyday lives. It has been a place of healing and restoration. It’s where my sister retreated to recover from chemo in her battle with cancer. It has been a place full of life as children have grown up, families have vacationed, and relationships have been strengthened through countless conversations that would never have happened in the hectic worlds of our lives back home.

Over the next several chapters, the prophet Ezekiel describes a vision he was given of a sacred space, a temple. When this vision arrives, it has been fourteen years since the city of Jerusalem and the temple that Solomon built had been destroyed. Ezekiel and his fellow Hebrews are living in exile in Babylon. They are feeling lost and hopeless in the chaos of life in a foreign land where nothing is familiar. The rituals and routines by which they lived and measured life are gone. They are longing for hope and a future.

For casual readers, today’s chapter and the next several chapters are the kinds of passages that leave you scratching your head. Wait. What?! What can this ridiculously detailed description of an ancient temple possibly have any significance for my life in the twenty-first century? One of the things that I’ve come to learn about these kinds of passages is that I have to back up and look at the bigger picture of what God has done, is doing, and will do.

For the Hebrew people, this sacred space of a temple was not only a huge part of their story a people, but it was also a metaphor for the Great Story itself. Way back in Exodus when God is first introducing Himself to the Hebrews, He instructs them to create a mobile sacred space that could travel with them and be set up wherever they camped. The language that was used in the creation of this sacred space mirrored the creation poem in the first two chapters of Genesis. The creation poem begins with chaos and God creates order out of the chaos and then places humanity in this ordered place that is very good.

When God gave the Hebrews instructions for this sacred space they understood that it was like a new creation. An entire nation of people leaves the chaos and chains of slavery, they wander into the wilderness, and God is creating something new in them. What does God do in creation? He creates distinctions and order.

I have to believe that Ezekiel and his compatriots were recognizing that they had returned to chaos and slavery. They are longing for the hope that God will begin a new creation in them just as He had done in Genesis and in Exodus when He brought order and sacred space.

Everywhere I turn, people talk about lives being busy, crazy, frazzled, and hectic. There’s so much to do, so many distractions, and so much stress. Life happens and we feel worry and anxiety. How often do I feel the chaos of everyday life? And yet, Jesus said He came that we might know peace. What did Jesus do? He regularly went up a mountain by Himself where he would spend hours and sometimes spend the night praying. He sought out sacred space and spent time with God where He reordered His heart, mind, and soul.

Do you think that this ancient, recurring message about creating order out of chaos and having sacred space to order my life and world might have something to teach me about my chaotic twenty-first-century life today?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Dance

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The Dance (CaD Ezk 39) – Wayfarer

“‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog.”
Ezekiel 39:11 (NIV)

It is an impressive place. The Valley of Jezreel/Megiddo stretches from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan River on the east. I stood for a while and gazed at it. This is the fabled place of Armageddon, the site of the prophesied last great battle. It’s a real place and because of its natural topography, it’s been the site of over 30 major conflicts across 4,000 years of human history. Those conflicts include Napoleon as well as David.

Today’s chapter is the second of Ezekiel’s mysterious prophesies concerning a nation called Gog who rallies the nations in a massive invasion of Israel from the north. They are unsuccessful, and in hyperbolic metaphors, Ezekiel describes the aftermath of the great battle. There are so many of the weapons of the enemy left lying around that for seven years the people of Israel don’t need to gather wood for their fires. They simply use the weapons of Gog’s hordes that are lying around everywhere.

In even more raw and graphic metaphors, the dead enemies of God are described in sacrificial terms as if they were the bulls and rams sacrificed on the altar in the sacrificial system of Moses.

When God says that the burial place for Gog and its hordes will be “in the valley of those travel east of the Sea,” the Valley of Megiddo is a natural conclusion.

The chapter concludes with a vision of a restoration of Israel and God pouring out His Spirit on the people.

The challenge, of course, is that nothing like that described in these two chapters has a clear connection to an actual historical event while clear parallels exist to John’s prophetic visions in Revelation.

Along my life journey, I have learned that there is a spiritual dance that happens between the micro and macro, the common and the cosmic, between the everyday events of my life journey and the larger Great Story of which it is a part. God is present and at work in both. There are all sorts of macro-level connections throughout the Great Story that weave their way into a giant storyline. But God also knows the ever-decreasing number of hairs on my head and God is present and intimately involved in everything that happens in my life this day. It is not an “either-or” but a “both and.” This gives me much-needed context for my life journey. My everyday fears and anxieties need the context of the larger Great Story that God is telling in which I can take comfort. Likewise, the larger Great Story informs my daily thoughts, words, and actions. I am part of something bigger than myself and this reminds me that I’m to live this day thinking not about myself, but others and how I can contribute to all that God is doing in this Great Story.

NOTE: I’m on the road tomorrow. See you on Monday!

Chapter-a-Day

Evil’s Refusal

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Evil’s Refusal (CaD Ezk 29) – Wayfarer

I will leave [Pharaoh] in the desert,
    you and all the fish of your streams.
You will fall on the open field
    and not be gathered or picked up.
I will give you as food
    to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.
Exodus 29:5 (NIV)

For over a decade, my family would spend our two weeks of family vacation going to the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. We went to the same place, Camp Idlewood on Rainy Lake. There we would fish, ski, swim, and play. For a boy my age, it was an invitation to all sorts of adventures. I’ll never forget the year my father rented a 16’ john boat and a small outboard motor. I was able to explore the giant lake and its countless islands.

It’s funny how chores can become adventure when it’s something you don’t get to do every day. Every day families would return from a day of fishing and go to the “Cleaning House” which was a small shack designed to “clean” their catch. The fish were filleted and the heads, skins, and guts were dumped into five gallon buckets. Every day or so, those five gallon buckets had to be emptied. Fish guts are a natural meal for birds, especially seagulls. So, I would haul the buckets of fish guts to my little boat, and take them out to a small, uninhabited island not far from camp. There was a large are of rock along the shore and there I’d dump the guts as the seagulls began swarming in anticipation of their feast.

This memory came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter, which opens a seven-part set of prophesies against Pharaoh and Egypt. In this opening prophetic salvo, Zeke metaphorically calls Pharaoh a “monster” in the Nile River with all the fish of the Nile stuck to his monstrous scales. He then tells Pharaoh that he and the fish stuck to his scales will be left in the desert, just like me throwing fish guts on the rocks, to be food for carrion fowl and scavenging beasts.

The Pharaoh at this time was Hophra (in Hebrew) better known by his Greek name Apries. Hophra made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Jerusalem from the Babylonian’s siege. He attempted by diplomacy and force to raise a coalition of nations against the Babylonian Empire. When Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege to Jerusalem, Hophra brought his army up in an attempt to assist Judah, but quickly realized he was outmatched and shamefully fled back to Egypt with his tail between his legs. Eventually Hophra’s own people turned on him. The prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaiming his downfall were fulfilled.

I was also struck by the fact that God’s message of doom for Egypt through Zeke ends with “Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.” It struck me because I’m preparing a message for my local gathering of Jesus’ followers this Sunday regarding Moses and the ten “plagues” against Egypt in the story of Moses and the Exodus. Moses lived roughly 1,000 years before Ezekiel. When God tells Moses about the plagues He’s about to unleash on Egypt He tells Moses, “then the Egyptians will know that I am God.” (Ex 7:4-5). One thousand years and God is still trying to get through.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the nature of evil. At the core, the Great Story is a story of conflict between good and evil, God and Satan, the Kingdom of God and human empire. As I’ve observed before, the Great Story ends in Revelation with Satan gathering “the kings of the earth” in a final battle against God. The presumption here is that as long as there is evil there will always be those who refuse to know, or at least acknowledge, that God is God. Egypt is a recurring reminder of that in the Great Story. Evil always refuses to know and/or acknowledge Good. When I see evil in the events and the headlines of my daily news, I am reminded that this is the Story. This spiritual conflict will continue with all of the tragic aftermath in its wake.

The question for me is which side will I serve? The answer is not in what I say, but in how I live this day.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Trust the Story

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Trust the Story (CaD Ezk 17) – Wayfarer

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.’”
Ezekiel 17:22 (NIV)

As I write this, the 2024 Presidential election is 47 days away. Yesterday morning, Wendy and I found ourselves finding other news to read. We are so tired of reading about the election and the prognostications about what will or won’t happen if one candidate or the other wins. There’s also the daily clairvoyant journalistic pieces about our enemies and what they must be thinking and preparing for should one candidate or the other win. It reminds me of 2004 when The Guardian published a piece about official predictions that in less than 20 years major European cities will drown under rising seas and Britain will become a Siberian-like climate. Well, it’s now 2024.

Editors know fortune telling and doomsday predictions always make good click-bait.

The political intrigue is, of course, real. Nations and empires are always posturing and looking out for their own interests. This has always been true in human history. Ezekiel’s prophetic message in today’s chapter is predicated on it.

Jerusalem and the nation of Judah happened to lie right at the crossroads between empires. Egypt to the southwest, Babylon and Assyria to the northeast, and the infant Greek and Roman empires soon to be birthed to the northwest. Empires, of course, compete with one another in a global game of King of the Mountain to control the most territory and wealth. As Ezekiel is writing the two super powers are Babylon and Egypt. Babylon has the upper-hand and Jerusalem is a vassal state of the Babylonian empire with a treaty to be loyal subjects.

The king in Jerusalem is a man named Zedekiah. He’s playing political poker and has gone all-in with Egypt, breaking his treaty with Babylon. Interesting to note that some scholars claim that treaties like that between the king of Babylon and the King of Judah were vows made to their respective deities, such as, “May my Lord slay me if I break this treaty.”

What’s fascinating about Ezekiel and the other prophets of his day, is that God is spiritually at work behind the scenes of the history taking place. The book of Daniel makes it clear that God is at work in the person of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar. God is taking an intimate interest in the individuals and the empires.

In today’s chapter, Zeke’s message is an allegory addressing Zedekiah’s betrayal of his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar. God takes Zed’s betrayal personally and considers that Zed had broken a covenant with God himself, lending credence to the notion that when he swore an oath of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar it was an oath made to the Lord. Once again, Zeke is delivering bad news. Jerusalem and Zedekiah will pay the consequences for Zedekiah’s bad gamble.

For the second chapter in a row, however, Zeke’s message ends with a Messianic prophecy of hope. God declares that He Himself will plant a sprig on top of the mountains of Israel that will grow into a proverbial Tree of Life. It’s branches will bear fruit (sound familiar?) and “bird of every kind” will nest in it and find shelter in its branches.

As a disciple of Jesus, I once again find in Ezekiel’s prophetic message some comfort in our own crazy political climate. I do believe that all of human history is part of the ebb and flow of the Great Story that God has authored from Genesis to Revelation. I do believe as a disciple of Jesus that my citizenship is ultimately in God’s Kingdom, and that I have a responsibility on this earthly journey to respect the human authority under which I reside. I’m called to honorably live and participate as a citizen. If I really believe what I say I believe, then I can trust that no matter what happens 47 days from now it is part of the Story.

I trust the Story.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.