The long walks this pair enjoyed are pretty much a thing of the past. I try to get Scrappy out for a good jaunt once a week, but anymore, the quarter-mile and change to the office and back suits his body fine. His heart, however, thinks he can still wander the wide world, and his nose tries to talk him into it as well. But his "rear differential" is showing its age, and the walks that we used to knock off with no problem leave him badly weakened from chest on back a few hours later. So when it isn't abominably hot (read nine days out of eleven this summer, I try to give him as much of a mixed-area stroll as I can while staying close to home. The longer walks- which I have to say aren't just a bowl of cherries for me anymore- I have to do myself.
Saturday there wasn't a lot of life in the woods, either. An occasiona squirrel...
You want to see how bad the world is divided? One side of the woods bridge, nice clear water...
The other side, flat green scum. Geez!
I stopped for a break, leaning on this tree. I was soon joined by a butterfly that looked just like the bark, a weary damselfly, and a little green worm whose line landed him, BRIEFLY, on my leg.
And at the entrance of the Plex, wedding photos!
And finally, baby bunny- just a little bigger than the one I just about stepped on in front of our door last week...
Oh, and Scrappy's old buddy...
Then, on Sunday...
...the ducks were desperate for a little water- they're used to not touching bottom here.
And, on a day that was roasting a pair of "runners" (who stopped at every patch of shade) in front of me, the older bunnies playing hide and seek again...
It was okay... I got a lot of praying in, and some much needed exercise. But it sure isn't as much fun...
There are ways God teaches us- and there are ways God doesn't want to teach us. Today's is a story about two of them.
If you have followed my Wednesday Bible studies, you may have noticed that there is a LOT of not-so-good information that you can gather from the old Jewish folklore. I present most of it as a curiosity, a "what if", or to prove the motives of man as being less noble than those of God. I avoid that here, because it would be too easy to say, "Well, Chris said," and I don't want that going on. This week, I got a warning from the Spirit about two ways that happens, that we get taken the wrong way. I have had a project in the back of my mind the last while. I wanted to go back through the Jewish folklore and learn about the named descendants of Adam, from Seth through Noah. Before I got into that project, though, I was "back issuing" through some of Dennis Miller's sermons, and he brought out this concept.
God starts the story of His Plan- which we usually call the Bible- in a telescoping manner. He starts out in Genesis 1 with the story that in the beginning was a formless earth. Why was it formless? We don't know, because that isn't where the story focus is. God goes on to the 6 days of Creation- and though there is a lot He could fill in about how we could have sun, moon, and stars created AFTER the earth, He leaves that to focus on the next step- the creation of man. And after illuminating that just a bit, He leaves out any "Tales of Eden" and skips right to man's fall- and thus it is that more time elapses in the first 11 chapters of Genesis than have come yet even today. Point being, God isn't writing a novel for our fascination- He's writing the story of our redemption- and continually focuses the story tighter and tighter until it gets to YOU.
And thus it is that while the folklore may seem fascinating, it is in the end a distraction. But I wandered wide-eyed into the story of Seth anyway- a story so ridiculously stupid that I would have to set aside much of what I already knew to swallow most of it. And I thought about what Miller had shown in the first two messages on a tour through Genesis and said, "This goes no farther."
Sunday morning, I listen to the regular scheduled (for me) message which was the end of the story of Samuel. For those of you that don't know, Samuel's last appearance in the Biblical narrative is when the "witch" of En Dor brings his spirit back at Saul's request. In this sermon, he brought up two statistics that really leave a mark: In Italy, home of the Roman Catholic Church, fully one quarter of the adult population REGULARLY consult astrologers, mediums/psychics, or tarot readers. And, there are more psychics in Italy than Roman Catholic clergy.
This despite the Bible clearly forbidding this:
9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
And Saul, as well went against this, which he himself had decreed as king. Why did he do this?
First, he had made it clear to God that he was going to do things his way. That is why Samuel left him and saw him no more right up to his own death.
Secondly, he had cut himself off from all the ways he could have gotten word from God. He had driven out God's anointed successor, David. He had killed the priests. David himself had the Ephod, which contained the Urim and Thumin used to inquire of God; he had driven out or killed prophets, who were speaking out against him.
And third, when it came down to it, when he KNEW he needed God's word to carry on, he didn't bow to God asking forgiveness from all this- he went to a psychic to "raise" Samuel. Because SAMUEL had the relationship with God which HE would never seek.
Miller goes on to explain that for ONE time in history, God allowed this- not for Saul's benefit, but to show Saul that his sin was about to end in disaster. He gave several reasons how we know that God did indeed allow this.
First, it had been prophesied years earlier by Samuel's mother- that God was the one who could bring down into the grave, and RAISE BACK UP.
Second, the medium was SHOCKED when she brought up Samuel, because it was the ONE time in her career it actually worked, rather than being either a trick of hers or a demonic "visitation".
Third, you know it was truly a Prophet that spoke- because everything Samuel told Saul CAME TRUE exactly as spoken.
As we look at that story, I want you to see two things. One, God calls us to believe in Him, in what He put in His Word and leads us to by His Spirit- and to stay away from psychic hocus pocus. That stuff only distracts from the story He is trying to get you to read about YOURSELF.
Second, if you are truly seeking His Truth, He will lead you to it. When He knew I was going to attempt this week to read up on the folklore- and possibly get lost in a maze of BS- He made sure two things happened: First that I went back to listening to old sermons after not having done so in several weeks, and second, that both of those sermons contained the message about His focusing on the story He wants you to know. Not to mention He capped it off with this week's sermon on mediums and other ways to get lost. Easy for someone to say, "Chris, that kind of thing is just coincidence"- except when you are truly seeking Him, it happens ALL THE TIME. God willing, I'll have another, concurrent story to show that very thing next week.
Today is July 6th, 1972, and guess what was happening in Music?
David Bowie's performance of Starman may not have changed anything, but it's still an extraordinary piece of television. On Thursday 6 July 1972, halfway through an edition of Top of the Pops, David Bowie performed his new single, Starman. Dressed in a multicoloured lycra jumpsuit, he put his arm languidly round his guitarist Mick Ronson and looked seductively into his eyes.
That from Joe Moran's 2012 review of Dylan Jones' book When Ziggy Played Guitar. While certainly (and unfortunately) not a big deal today- and not that big a deal in his concert performances, it was a shattering moment on live TV- or would have been, if not for...
In 1972, less than 5% of British homes had more than one television. Most teenagers avidly watched Top of the Pops, as the only chart music show on TV, but so did their parents, most of whom had grown up before rock'n'roll – and something unfolding unexpectedly on the living room set could uncover a troublesome issue that would ordinarily remain unspoken.
Uh, yeah, let me just stick to the CDs...
And we kick off Time Machine this week by announcing, since I totally forgot it last week, you get the last TWO installments of my top thirty Fourth of July #1s! Here's the one you SHOULDA got last week...
20-
George Harrison, Give Me Love! the 1973 hit had 2 weeks on Cashbox and one on Billboard.
19-
Sheb Wooley, the Purple People Eater from 1958, 5 weeks on CB and 6 on BB! Why is HE holding his ears, WE had to listen to it...
17 (tie)-
Elvis with 1969's In The Ghetto, with just the one week on CB, and...
...the Beach Boys and I Get Around, 2 BB weeks and 1 CB, from 1964!
16-
Gary US Bonds with Quarter To Three from 1961, 3 on CB and 2 on BB! Still good for my money!
15-
The Jackson Five with The Love You Save, with 2 weeks each, from 1970!
14-
The Byrds with Mr Tambourine Man, 1 CB week in 1965!
13-
The Beatles with Paperback Writer, 2 Cashbox weeks in '66!
10 (three way tie)-
Connie Francis with Everybody's Somebody's Fool, 3 CB weeks and 2 BB in 1960...
...the Righteous Brothers with Unchained Melody, 7 Cashbox weeks ( their BB weeks didn't hit the Fourth) in 1955, and...
...Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki, 4 CB and 3 BB in 1963!
Yeesh, after all that, I simply don't have time for Carole King's guest shot (and had no idea what kinda bit to do anyway), so let me sweep through our 20 contestants from 59 stations the easy way! First, let me eliminate some non-contenders:
With one vote apiece we have: The Hollies' Long Cool Woman (#38 this week), Donny Osmond's Puppy Love (which got a vote from a UK channel as it was the #1 UK tune this week, but peaked here in April), Alice Cooper's School's Out (#25), Judy Collins, who had a record breaking missed the memo moment with Someday Soon, a pretty song that peaked at #55 three years ago (!), Looking Glass's Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) at # 33, Crosby and Nash with Immigration Man (fell off last week after peaking at #31), The Chi-Lites and Oh Girl (#18), Eddie Kendricks with the imaginatively-named Eddie's Love (#89), Argent's Hold Your Head Up (#74), and a rare Panel appearance for the Eagles and Take It Easy (#14).
Also with one vote each are a couple of special mentions. One is our Laurenco Marques song of the week, South African country Hall of Famer Alan Garrity with a sprightly little number called I Need Someone; and a tune by Climax (Precious and Few) that I had never heard before called Life And Breath- which IMHO was a far better tune that their big hit, but was mired at #50.
Before I get to the rest of the contestants, though, I have a pair of debuts for you on the M10 this week! Our first is a new hit from a great classic alt band from the 90's, soon to be playing here at Headwaters Park! From their new lp Mixed Reality, this is the Gin Blossoms at #9...
********************************
Okay, now for some not-so-contenders but better than one vote:
Gallery's Nice To Be With You (#3) and Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue (the only other UK charter at their #17 and our #1- yep, number one does NOT contend) had 4 votes each, and Jimmy Castor's Troglodytes (# 5) had 2.
Now since I have this all goofed up anyway, how about we do some more of the Fourth of July #1s before giving you the ones to vote on?
9-
The dapper Herb Alpert with This Guy's In Love With You from '68, with 4 weeks each...
8-
The lovely Gogi Grant with The Wayward Wind from '56, 4 CB weeks and 6 BB...
6 (tie)-
The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, with Strangers In The Night from 1966, 1 BB week...
...and Johnny Horton's Battle Of New Orleans from 1814, er, 1959, with 9 weeks CB and 6 BB...
4 (tie)-
From 1957, Pat Boone's Love Letters In The Sand, 6 CB and 5 BB... and...
Wings and Silly Love Songs from 1976, 4 BB weeks...
3-
Carole King, our POTM, with her winning song, It's Too Late, 4 CB weeks and 5 BB...
2-
Perez Prado with 1955's Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White, with 10 BB weeks..
...and howsabout I just save the winner for the end reveals?
************************************
And at long last, your voting choices for this week- pick from The Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose with Too Late To Turn Back Now (#8), Bill Withers and Lean On Me (#4), Sammy Davis Jr and The Candy Man (#7), Billy Preston's Outa-Space (#2), and Gilbert O'Sullivan with Alone Again Naturally (believe it or not, from clear down at #45 and climbing!)
*********************************************
Our second debut gives us three pairs of deuces on this week's M10- two songs from 2016 lps, two songs named for days of the week, and two songs debuting from acts who start with the letter G! From the 2016 lp Great Big Blue, the second M10 for- Geowulf! Debuting at #7...
*********************************
Good grief, where am I now? Oh, yes, 6 degrees. Well, remember that great seventies trivia question which 5 groups were actually the same one guy? Answer: First Class, the Brotherhood Of Man, White Plains, and the Pipkins, all of which charted at roughly the same time with their hits (in order) Beach Baby, United We Stand, My Baby Loves Loving, and Gimme Dat Ding. Oh, yes, I left off Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes- all sung by one Tony Burrows. This last one was #1 in the UK, giving his first #1 to expert songwriter Tony Macauley. It was after hearing the Carpenters do We've Only Just Begun that Tony wanted to put together a song for them. And he wrote a classic, which the Carpenters accepted- and then turned down 24 hours later, because of a drug reference in the midst of the lyric.
That lyric? "The sleeping pill I took was just a waste of time..."
Soon later it was taken by the 5th Dimension, who scored big with this week's 6D victim, Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep At All), which sat at #6 on CB this week without a Panel vote.
********************************
Stat pack: Our 101 this week was from the Stampeders with a non-hit I haven't heard yet (but will listen to shortly) called Wild Eyes. NOTE: Have now listened. Noot a real viable single, but a great b-side IMHO.
Our #72 in '72 was Harry Nilsson's novelty hit Coconut. I say, DOCTOR...
Donny Osmond scores a second mention as his Too Young was the big mover, from 59 to 36, 23 places. And, like I said, Puppy Love was the UK #1.
*******************************************
The rest of the M10:
Family Of The Year catches one more week- their 8th- with Let Her Go at #10.
Wet's You're Not Wrong slips up a pair to #8.
Black Joe Lewis pounds his way up 2 to #6 with Nature's Natural, the other 2016 song.
2 songs in their seventh week, going in opposite directions. The one at #5 is Shilpa Ray and Shoot This Dying Horse, down from 3. The one at #4- amazingly climbing after dropping two spots two weeks ago, is our other day song, Phantogram's Saturday, up one notch.
The top three I told Laurie was, to me, mild surprise, BIG surprise, and no surprise. #3 is the Derevs' Now You Know My Name, falling a spot to #3; the big surprise was the Jayhawks climbing 2 to #2 with Everybody Knows. And we start off the reveals with no surprise at all-
...a third week at the top for Caroline Rose and More Of The Same!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***************************************
And the winner of the Fourth of July #1s countdown is- and he shoulda seen it coming-
Ray Charles with I Can't Stop Loving You, with 6 CB and 5 BB weeks in 1962!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...Bill Withers and Lean On Me, with a comfortable 23.7% win!
Oh, and one last reveal before I head for 1973- another surprise for the anniversary show will be Laurie's Reverse Beauty Contest- her top ten music guys, in no particular order, at least at this point!
"Well, she better not expect ME to pick the winner..."
The night of the 4th, while the rest of the Yanks were out blowing up stuff, I decided I wanted to get away from the constant bitching and virtue signalling of social media and find something fun to do. Now, I noticed on my stat page, I had a couple of days recently with an enormous (3 to 4 hundred) pageviews, which of course tells me, "spam". Further, I noticed that I had a large amount of pageviews from France- and just like the last time I had a large amount of pageviews from "France", I had a large amount of keyword searches from Yandex.ru, AKA Russia's capital of referring spammers to blogs. So for anyone concerned, I'd just like to say in Google French, si mon blog vous spammait, blâmez les Russes.
Now, the only actual spam to my blog I got was from one Dono Jono, whom I believe from my e-mail notifications many of you have met. He's the one sending the many and various links to Viagra that you've gotten over this same period- I got one as well. So it behooved me to dig into Dono Jono, and here's what I found.
He has a Facebook page which he hasn't touched in some time. The entirety of his FB prescence is a profile picture which is a Japanese nurse in three shots of increasing undress, although she never goes full frontal.
Next, I clicked through to his Google + page, which gave me more info. He is a man of varied interests- or rather a boy; he lists a birthday of two days ago in 1999- a newly-minted 19-y-o. The page itself is a list of various blogs to which he has sent his "message of love", along with one lone picture of his beloved Viagra pill. But the fun part came with his ecclectic mix of members in his circle.
First up was a female offering to teach Islam and Allah, from Malaysia.
Second, the website of some movie theater in Hong Kong.
Third, we have Raysingpura Primary School, which is apparently what we would call a middle school about 180 miles NNE of Mumbai in India.
Then we have du lich bui Hong Kong, which basically translates out to "Backpacker", a Vietnamese travel site featuring trips to Hong Kong.
Then we go to Kontak Jodoh, "the largest online jodo contact"- basically a news site permeated with sidebar ads and infolinks- from Indonesia, which brings us up to five different nations on our little tour.
Sixth in the circle is, believe it or not, Google Developer Group Hong Kong division.
Seventh is one Arlene Zelina, an "Australian singer-songwriter" who has a lot of her original stuff on her YouTube channels. And a thing for Celine Dion, apparently.
And finally, we have Victor Cheung, a tech blogger and photog based in Hong Kong and educated at Washington and Lee here in the US of A.
What could they all have in common? Let's use our imagination.
DJ starts with the Indian schoolkids. Attracted by the subliminals in Arlene's music and the sexy nurse on his FB site, he introduces them to our Islamic teacher. She gives them the fundementals of radical terrorism, and then passes them off to du lich bui. The Viets outfit them and ship them off to HK, where they are trained further in the "theaters" of Hong Kong Movie 6. Fully indoctrinated now, they get their secret assignments in Jakarta from Kontak Jodoh's pop-up ads, are given fake credentials online by GDG HK, and are shipped to Lexington VA, where Cheung sets them up in the homes of other W&L alums and faculty, until they are ready to strike...
Last week, we ran into the oddity of one verse that, even correctly translated, gave us several translations. This week, we hit one that is almost unanimous in one translation. After missing on Song Of Solomon, we go to Isaiah 3:16:
Isa 3:16 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet...
Now, I have two places to go today with this- and neither of them having to deal with the "scab on the crown of their heads" that God promises in the next verse. While this particular verse is pretty self explanatory (with only the concept that this was the state of Judah after Azariah- or, as Isaiah references him, Uzziah- dies and the kingdom begins to drift into the sins of Israel needed to add to it), there is one spot which actually is considered a mistranslation. And that will lead into my first discussion and a BIG bunny trail.
The part about "glancing wantonly" seems to fit right in. But where the word used in most translations gives the sense of winking, as in winking to deceive or lead on- hence wantonly- others translate it as the custom of the day for rich women to paint their eyes, as in using what we call mascara. So, does that mean that wearing mascara is wrong? Well, like anything in life, that is a "yes-and-no" answer, depending on the reason and use- and theirs might be a little more no than yes.
Remember, this is a highly superstitious world, and the connections to idolatry are many. I would like, just for fun, to flesh one of those connections out, as it connects to a discussion Laurie and I had not long ago.
We start this journey in Genesis 6:
Gen 6:1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, Gen 6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Gen 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Gen 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 6:6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Gen 6:7 So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Gen 6:10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Gen 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. Gen 6:12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
The Nephilim have been a subject of controversy ever since. Are they fallen angels interbreeding with human women? Are they the descendants of Cain corrupting the descendants of Seth? Why were their children the men of renown? And what does this have to do with make-up?
So one of the Apocrypha associated with the Scriptures is the fragmentary Book of Enoch. The early part of this book develops the Nephilim as fallen angels, otherwise known as the Watchers. They indeed, it says, intermixed with human women- and some other things, perhaps- creating as descendants giants "over 3,000 ells tall". (An ell is a bit of a controversial word as well; some people claim that makes the giants 450 feet tall, others, over two miles. Either way, we were NOT referencing merely "tall men").
There were 19 or 20 named Watchers in Enoch, and many of them had a certain skill that they taught the children of men. Araqiel or Arakiba taught earth signs; Shamshiel /Samsapeel taught sun signs; Sariel taught the course of the moon. Baraqiel taught astrology, aided by Kokabiel, who taught the constellations. Weather signs were taught by Ezeqeel; Armaros, the resolving of enchantments. But the main guy- or guys, it is hard to tell for sure which- is Semiazaz, or Semjaza, or perhaps Azazel, who may be a separate angel. He/they seemed to have two different areas of expertise. One was more magical- enchantments, the "cutting of roots" (which I surmise is yet another form of divination), and the use of plants in spells. The other involved metalworking, the making of weapons of war- and jewelry and make-up. Considering so much of the rest of what was taught went into the occult, one assumes, then, that the original use of make-up and jewelry had an occult basis.
Just to tie up the story, let me go on just a bit. The Book of Enoch tells how the "children" of the Watchers, the Nephilim, which they delighted in, were not only the heroes of old, but they that were thinking only evil continually. They were not only active in the corruption of mankind, but were embarking on a genocide against it. The four great angels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel- went to God, reported the story- along with the the question, "We know You know everything, and know these things- what do You want us to do about it?" And God gave them assignments. Uriel was the one who went to Noah and told him what to do; Gabriel was to stir up a civil war amongst the Nephilim, while Raphael and Michael bound the rest, so that they could watch their beloved "descendants" destroy each other before man was judged in the Flood, and THEY were judged by being chained to the seven burning stars in the void- that same void that the demon-collective Legion begged Jesus not to send them to.
Weird, wild stuff.
Now let us return to more actually Biblical lines. I noted something curious just before the judgment on the Daughters of Zion, in v 11-12:
Isa 3:11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
Isa 3:12 My people--infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.
Now, did the Prophet actually mean infants and women? Actually, no. Azariah got cursed with some form of leprosy after trying to take on priestly duties against the Law, and his son Jotham was a co-regent for the next 11 years before becoming king in his own right. He was 25 at the time, so far from a child. BUT, it wasn't a child by age Isaiah was referencing...
Ecc 10:16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!
Ecc 10:17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
Neither Isaiah nor Solomon were talking about little kids; they were talking about fools, who had more partying than ruling on their minds- not the wielding of power, but wallowing in its benefits.
And women? Well, here the word is best translated "effeminate"- and let us be clear what we are talking about here. At no place in the Bible does God approve of, and in many places such as this, does He condemn homosexuality. And leadership that is allowing homosexual "rights" (by which they mean homosexual domination) is thus condemned by God RIGHT HERE as being misleading, "swallowing up your paths" to lead you into accepting evil.
Now Chris, aren't you mis-representing that verse? Well, back up just two spots...
Isa 3:9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
I didn't say it; God did. What I am saying, what is our judgment when we listen to this very kind of guide today, in the name of "tolerance"? Look at how Keli and Dietzsch explain it...
Thus the way of the path of the people, i.e., the highway or road by whose ramifying paths the people were to reach the appointed goal, had been swallowed up by them, i.e., taken away from the sight and feet of the people, so that they could not find it and walk therein (cf., Isa_25:7-8, where the verb is used in another connection). What is swallowed up is invisible, has disappeared, without a grace being left behind.
And that not only describes today's world, it increasingly describes today's church.
God is a tremendous juggler from our perspective- He can "keep a lot of balls in the air at once". Of course, that is a simplistic way of looking at it; though our perceptions can only focus on one "ball" at a time, the truth is, He always holds ALL things together. Sometimes that can make us think He is working at cross-purposes. He's trying to move in two different and incompatable directions at the same time. But in the expanded view, He's still working the one purpose- getting as many of us as will listen into Heaven.
Two things brought this home to me recently. The first involves the Tower of Babel; the other, something in the total opposite direction. Let me start by bringing the Babel story into today's age.
Genesis 11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Now, if I were doing the Wednesday message, I would add in thoughts about Nimrod, and how that direction that all man was going was a path WITHOUT God- or even AGAINST Him. But this morning we will focus just on the thought here. They had come up with a technological innovation that allowed them to join together and accomplish things they would not have otherwise- and it would be able to unite them and lift them to heights unknown before. And God forsaw where this would take them- apparently somewhere He didn't want them to go. So He "confused" their ability to communicate. He didn't take away the bricks- He simply removed the bricks ability to UNITE them, by changing something else in the dynamic.
My point? Replace "bricks" with "internet".
Lately you see a lot more people lamenting that social media has turned us into a society who A) does not listen to what the "other guy" says, and B) responds to that which he doesn't listen to with his own preconceived notions, and C) usually phrases it in a lot of hate and anger and insulting. And the internet, a marvelous device, capable of uniting us with people all across the planet, in nearly every household, with which we could do marvelous, amazing things- well, we started using for games, and pronography, and fraud. And then, after a time, it suddenly started facilitating a culture war- dividing us hopelessly (for the most part) along lines of race, politics, and good and evil. Even the more enlightened of us only go so far as to blame politicians for stirring up the divide for their own gain.
But what if it was God doing it? What if the internet's massive potential for good, for lifting us up, has served to give us new ways, new reasons to IGNORE and resist God- and he "confused" our language with division, hate, and anger? Curiously, the word here used for confuse is bâlal, which means in its simplest form, "to overflow (especially with oil)." Have we been overflooded with words, until it is so mixed up (the secondary meaning comes from a word for "fodder", indicating a mixing of grain like you would in livestock feed) that the "one direction" we started in is impossible to find? In the Wednesday Message last week, we learned that God purposefully does the same thing over and over, so this is NO stretch.
Now here's where the juggling starts. I came to this conclusion one day; that evening, I saw this headline on FoxNews:
And I said to myself, "In this world? They are kidding themselves."
But you read the comments that Fox got from worship leader Josh Baldwin and singer Lindy Conant:
“It does feel like we’re on edge, like something’s about to break and there’s about to be another big awakening,” Baldwin said. “I feel like the younger generation – millennials – sometimes can get a bad rap, but the thing I love about it is that they are all-in on whatever they’re going for…and the ones that are going after the Lord they’re so passionate about it that I feel like that’s what changes our nation – their passion and their hunger.” Conant said: “It’s like Jesus needs to be re-introduced to a whole generation, like He’s not mad at you. He’s not up there waiting to strike you with a lightning bolt. He is a God of love. For God so loved the world that He sent His son, and now Jesus wants to send us with that same love to reach a generation…that’s where I go we’re all missionaries…Jesus said as the Father sent me so I am sending you…OK, well, that’s pretty gangster if that’s the truth.”
And after a moment of cynical grumbling, I said, "Hey waitaminit- why COULDN'T God do both at once? " I realized that if ALL I look at is the effects of Babel's fall, I am missing the powerful potential of God's reaching out to those who ARE listening, who HAVEN'T been confused. I stopped to remember that at the approximate same time as Nimrod's fall at Babel, Shem, Noah's son, was passing on his faith to Abram, who was about to birth a new thing upon the earth- a people peculiar to the Lord.
Sometimes it suits our purposes to just look at the "fallen" end of this fallen world. That way, we can sit back, await the Lord's return, and condemn the fallen instead of praying for them, reaching out to them. But God gave us TWO eyes for a reason- literally AND figuratively. Close one eye, then switch- you see the same thing, but with a subtle difference. That's what God wants us to understand. There is more than one way to look at this world.
Or, look at it this way- if there were no fallen, we'd have no one to reach with salvation. Having someone to save is a GOOD thing.
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
Posts
