Tag Archives: Survival

A Satisfying Meal

November 28, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me.“
Hosea 13:6 (NIV)

Wendy and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with our daughter Madison and her husband, Garrett, in South Carolina last week. Madison is pregnant with grandchild #3, a girl, due in late January. It was so much fun to be able to hang out with them and enjoy a family feast together. It was so good.

Thanksgiving is perhaps my favorite holiday in its simplicity, and in the fact that it’s core meaning hasn’t been diluted and profaned by mass commercialization. It’s about having a meal with loved ones and being grateful. When I stop to meditate and truly contemplate all that I have to be thankful for, it’s like a spiritual chiropractic adjustment. It helps my spiritual alignment.

Many, many years ago I was reading through the book of Deuteronomy and stumbled upon a verse that immediately leapt off the page and embedded itself in my soul:

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”
Deuteronomy 8:10 (NIV)

Anyone who knows Wendy and me, or has followed this blog for any length of time, knows that enjoying a good meal with good people having good conversation is one of our greatest joys in life. At the end of such a meal, Deuteronomy 8:10 almost always rises up my soul, reminding me to en-joy the moment and praise the One who has so richly blessed me with such goodness. It reminds me of what David said in Psalm 16, my boundary stones have fallen in pleasant places.

As we near the end of Hosea’s prophetic messages, there is little mincing of words. God through Hosea indicts the people of Israel for straying so far from the One who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and allowed them to prosper. He references rule number one of the Top Ten He’d given them: No other gods. Not only had they worshiped other gods, but they’d committed human sacrifices to these idols. Add murder to the idolatry.

What I found fascinating in today’s chapter was God’s observation that amidst God’s goodness and blessing, the people of ancient Israel forgot God. Their affluence, prosperity, and blessing led to them forgetting their entire history and the God who graciously revealed Himself, rescued them from slavery, and blessed them abundantly.

As Wendy and I sit and read the news, I often think to myself that many of our cultural ills are rooted in our affluence. Life becomes very small if and when you’re simply and literally trying to survive each day. When I have far more than I need in every way, especially time, it’s easy for my soul and mind to wander into silly and foolish places. I believe that is the very thing God was reminding the people of ancient Israel, and me, in today’s chapter.

In the quiet this morning, I continue to ride the wave of gratitude that last week prompted when, once again, I ate and was so blessedly satisfied in a multitude of ways.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Truth or Security?

May 11, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him. All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him.
Jeremiah 27:6-7 (NIV)

Context is always crucial when it comes to interpreting the ancient prophets and getting a clear picture of what they meant back then, so I can then find the connections to the implications for me today.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the relationship between the emerging Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar and the nation of Judah was just under 20 years. It was 20 years of Babylon imposing their political will and demanding tribute from the people of Jerusalem and Judah. Today’s chapter begins by identifying the events and message “early in the reign of Zedekiah.” King Z was the last puppet placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. He reigned 11 years before his own rebellion against Nubuchadnezzar prompted the destruction of Jerusalem in 586.

There is a political convention taking place in Jerusalem, the most prominent of city-states in the region, and hosted by King Z. Ambassadors from all of the smaller nations in the area (also subject to Babylonian rule) are in attendance and “the Babylon question” is the hot topic of conversation. The Babylonians have already deposed two kings of Judah, taken the best and brightest back to captivity in Babylon, and those remaining in Jerusalem want both security and independence. They want to throw off the yoke of Babylonian servitude.

The city is bustling with political figures and politics is on everyone’s minds, even among the plethora of deities, idols, and shrines and their prophets, diviners, dream interpreters, mediums, and sorcerers. According to Jerry, all of these keep saying the one reassuring thing all of these national leaders want to hear:

“You won’t serve the king of Babylon.”

Even the prophets of God in Solomon’s Temple, which had been partially ransacked and plundered during Babylon’s original takeover of the city less than ten years before, are saying that things will get better, not worse:

“Very soon the articles from the Lord’s house will be brought back from Babylon.”

It’s into this atmosphere that God calls Jeremiah to do a little public performance art. Jerry fashions a yoke (like the metaphorical one all the politicians want to throw off), puts his own neck in the yoke, and addresses all of the ambassadors of the political summit with a message to take back to their kings. Only Jeremiah’s message stands in sharp contrast to what all the other prophets, diviners, dream interpreters, mediums, and sorcerers are saying.

God’s message through Jeremiah is fascinating. God has a plan. That plan includes “times” set for the nations. He states that his listeners have only two options: 1) Submit and surrender to Babylon if you want to live or 2) Continue to resist the Babylonians and die in the impending destruction (now about ten years away). God through Jeremiah further states that Babylon will continue as an empire through the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and grandson before “the time for his land comes” and Babylon falls to multiple enemies and God will bring back His people and restore them in Jerusalem.

Everything that Jeremiah states in his message in today’s chapter will be fulfilled in the following 80 years.

As I contemplated these things in the quiet this morning, there were three things that came to my mind.

First, throughout the Great Story, God continually reminds me that there is a plan for “the nations” and there are “times” appointed. Jesus made this very clear as well, noting that some of those “times” were unknown even to Him.

Second, the things that “everyone” is saying does not necessarily make it true. In fact, when it is politically incorrect and possibly dangerous to proclaim a contrasting opinion, then it’s likely that motivations other than truth lie behind the things “everyone” is being coerced into believing.

Third, Jeremiah was able to correctly speak the truth of the current situation because he was maintaining a connections and relationship with God and viewing current events through the lens of the larger Great Story that God is authoring in the moment, rather than letting his personal, momentary earthly security and safety dictate what he wanted to believe.

Emotions are powerful. It is our “emotional” brain that first functions in infancy to motivate survival through our base appetites and desires. Only as my brain fully develops with the addition of complex thought do I have the ability and opportunity to understand how my emotions may still be the dominant force leading my thoughts into believing what will appease those same emotional desires for safety, security, and survival.

I enter my day today with the words of Paul (who knew a few things about choosing God’s direction even at the expense of his own safety, security, and survival): “…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

Grab Your Bug-Out Bag!

March 22, 2018 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“Gather up your bundle from the ground,
O you who live under siege!
For thus says the Lord:
I am going to sling out the inhabitants of the land
at this time….”
Jeremiah 10:17-18 (NRSVCE)

Among the sub-culture of the “wild-at-heart” man’s man is a thing known as a bug-out bag. There was a lot of buzz about it among some of the guys in my circles a few years back. The bug-out bag is a single duffle or backpack (you have to be able to carry it) that contains what you need to survive should nuclear war, EMP grid blackout, Zombie apocalypse, or other kind of Mad Max or Hunger Games type dystopia become a sudden reality. The bug-out bag contains things you need to survive like water, food, and the means to create shelter. Oh, and a weapon to kill Zombies or hunt down your next meal is always a wise choice. For the record, I don’t have a bug-out bag so I guess Wendy and I are screwed should any of the aforementioned events transpire.

Life in Jeremiah’s day was infinitely more precarious that the one we live in today. As a human being you’d be fortunate to survive infancy, and if you did survive into your teens you could expect the average life-span to be around 30 years. Disease, famine, and local wars were a constant threat. At that time in history local city-states and tribal kingdoms were being swallowed up by rapidly growing regional empires who had begun to perfect their tactics of military aggression, siege warfare, and political assimilation. The Assyrian and Babylonian empires were chief among them.

Jeremiah’s broken-record prophesies were not really that crazy to the people of his day. The Assyrians and Babylonians had a reputation for ruthlessness that was well-known and well deserved. Assyria had already destroyed their cousins in the northern kingdom of Israel (Jerusalem was part of the southern kingdom of Judah). The prevailing tactic of regional Empires was to take over the city, plunder anything valuable, kill the leaders and take the best and brightest hostage (FYI: Daniel was one of these). So, when Jeremiah wrote in today’s chapter that the people of Jerusalem should grab their bug-out bags, they knew what he was talking about (and it wasn’t a Zombie apocalypse).

For those reading along with this chapter-a-day journey, it should also be noted that Jerusalem had been attacked just a generation before by the Assyrians. In that day the Jerusalem was miraculously spared as the enemy army was mysteriously wiped out overnight (2 Kings 19). This, of course, made Jeremiah’s prophetic task more difficult. The people of Jeremiah’s day believed that God would miraculously save them just as He had done before.

This morning I’m thinking about all the doomsday predictions I’ve heard across my lifetime. From Christian teachers and their mesmerizing interpretations of Revelation to economists warning of global monetary collapse to environmentalists warning of a coming ice age (that was the prediction I heard in elementary school) or global warming meltdown. With the proliferation of voices via the internet there is no lack of fear-inducing doomsday predictions to go around. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit-hole of fear.

When confronted with doomsday predictions I find myself trying to be discerning. I can’t do anything about the timing of events in Revelation so I might as well focus each day on loving others as Jesus calls me to do and not worry about that which I can’t control. I believe God calls us to care for the Earth, so Wendy and I try to be good stewards of natural resources, recycle, and make wise choices for the sake of the environment whenever we can. Yet, once again, there is only so much I can do on a personal level and what will be is out of my control. It seems a waste of mental and emotional energy to live in perpetual fear of that which I don’t know and can’t control.

I confess, however, that the notion of having a bug-out bag (with a compass and one of those giant Rambo-like survival knives) does stir my manly spirit. “Arrrggghh!”

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 40

February 25, 2011 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“My job is to stay here in Mizpah and be your advocate before the Chaldeans when they show up. Your job is to take care of the land: Make wine, harvest the summer fruits, press olive oil. Store it all in pottery jugs and settle into the towns that you have taken over.” Jeremiah 40:10 (MSG)