Touché!

The Kingdoms of Israel and Aram were at war. The King of Aram was getting really frustrated, though, because somehow Israel seemed to know their battle plans ahead of time and managed to avoid the places the Arameans tried to attack! They went to the locations where they knew the Israelites would be, and over and over, there was nobody there to attack! So much for the element of surprise.

So the Aramean King decided they must have a traitor. He called his army together and said, “All right, who is warning the Israelites what we’re going to do?”

“Nobody,” they replied, “but their prophet Elisha seems to know an awful lot about our plans! He’s been warning their King.” So their new target became Elisha. They had to get him out of the way so they could go back to defeating their enemy! They found him in the city of Dothan, and they surrounded the city. When Elisha’s servant got up, he discovered a bunch of scary enemy soldiers all around the city walls, and they were after Elisha! The servant went to his master, terrified. “Don’t worry,” Elisha said, “There are a lot more people with us than with them!”

Now the servant was confused. “But it’s just you and me. What are you talking about?”

So Elisha prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes!”

His servant couldn’t believe what he saw! The Aramean army may have been surrounding the city of Dothan, but surrounding them, all over the hills, was a powerful army with horses and fiery chariots!

So Elisha prayed again, “Lord, please blind the Aramean army!” So God did that. Then Elisha went up to the enemy and said, “This isn’t the right road or city, but I’d be happy to help you. Follow me!” So Elisha started leading a confused and blind army away from Dothan, making plenty of noise so they would be sure to hear him, since they couldn’t see him.

When they got to where they were going, Elisha prayed, “OK, Lord, please open their eyes now.” The Aramean army was shocked to find themselves in Samaria, right under the nose of the King of Israel!

When the Israelite King saw that Elisha had led the enemy right to them, he was excited. He asked Elisha, “Should I kill them?”

But the prophet had another surprise up his sleeve. Both the Israelites and the Arameans were shocked to hear Elisha’s next words: “Nope! Don’t kill them! I have a better idea…let’s prepare a feast for them and be kind to them instead!”

It was the last thing anyone had expected. The enemy got a big feast, and they went back home with one less enemy. If they were gonna be nice to them, there wasn’t much point in Aram attacking Israel, so the attacks stopped.

Naaman

He was an important commander in the army of the Kingdom of Aram. He had risen through the ranks, and led the Aramean army to victory after victory. His country loved him because he helped to make them more powerful than ever. But one day, he met an enemy that no army could defeat. It made it hard for him to lead his army as this enemy kept him away from the soldiers he commanded. He had never encountered anything like this before. This wasn’t even a person he was fighting this time. The commander’s name was Naaman, and he was in a battle for his life against the feared enemy called leprosy. It causes the skin to look scaly and awful. It can lead to deformed fingers and toes. Lepers can’t feel pain, so that can lead to some more serious injuries. It’s even a bit contagious. Now there are treatments for the disease, but back then, the only thing people could do was move away from others so they wouldn’t spread it. What was this important commander to do? He wasn’t used to being helpless against a fearsome enemy.

Some time earlier, bands of Aramean raiders had gone into the neighboring Kingdom of Israel and taken captives. One of these captives was a young girl who became the slave of Naaman’s wife. This slave girl cared for her master and mistress, and one day she suggested to her mistress, “Back home, I heard of a man who might be able to help. There’s a prophet in Samaria who can cure him.”

So Naaman went to the King of Aram and told him what his wife’s slave girl had said. The King sent Naaman with a letter to the King of Israel that said, “I’m sending you my servant Naaman so you can cure him of his leprosy.”

When the King of Israel got the note, he said, “Are you kidding? Who does your king think I am, God? I can’t cure leprosy!”

When Elisha found out the King had thrown a fit, he went to him and said, “Whoa, what happened? Have the guy come to my house, and he’ll know there’s a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman set out to Elisha’s house. When he was almost there, he met a messenger who said, “Elisha says you’re supposed to go to the Jordan River and wash yourself seven times.”

“WHAT?!” Naaman cried. “That’s disgusting! Why does it have to be the Jordan River? Surely the rivers back home would have been better! Here I came all this way to have a prophet call on his God, wave his staff, say the magic words and heal me! Now what? The Jordan River?! Ewww!”

But his servants pointed out, “Wouldn’t you do it if the prophet told you to do some heroic deed to be healed? How hard can it be to have seven baths in the Jordan?”

“Oh, all right,” he said. He washed himself in the river once. Twice. Three times. What was happening? Four times. Five times. It was getting better! Six times. Seven times. Naaman’s skin was smooth and normal again! The leprosy had been defeated!

He couldn’t believe it. This seemed too good to be true! He and his servants hurried back to Elisha with the news. He had brought a bunch of treasure and clothes to pay for his treatment, but Elisha wouldn’t take any of it. From then on, Naaman vowed to serve the one true God who had healed him of his leprosy.

Unending Oil and Shunammite Resurrection

Elisha’s world had turned upside-down. He was working in the field one day when some guy named Elijah came along and told him to come be a prophet. After a few years of training, Elisha watched his teacher taken from him in one of the most dramatic ways imaginable. The fiery horses and chariot disappeared into the sky, the waters of the Jordan River parted, and Elisha started a new life as a prophet. As he had requested, God granted him a lot of prophetic power, and with God’s help, he did some amazing things.

One day, another prophet’s time came to go. We don’t know this prophet’s name, but he had a wife and two sons, and they were left very poor when he died. The woman had bills to pay, and no way to pay them! At that time, that only left one option. The people she owed the bills to would be coming any day to take her sons away to be slaves! She loved her sons, and she didn’t want to lose them! So she found Elisha and told him about their problem.

“What do you have in your house?” Elisha said.

“We hardly have anything!” she replied. “Just a small jar of olive oil!”

So Elisha told her what she needed to do. It sounded really weird, but she knew Elisha knew what he was talking about. Following his advice, she went around to all her neighbors and asked for as many empty jars as they could spare. Pretty soon, there were lots and lots of empty jars in their house. Then the woman and her sons shut their door and went to work. They took their tiny jar of oil and started pouring it into an empty jar. When that was full, they started filling another one. That filled up, and they poured oil into a third jar! It just kept coming and coming out of the tiny jar until all the jars in the house were full!

“Bring me another jar!” she said to one of her sons.

“That’s it!” he replied. “They’re all full!” Then the oil stopped flowing.

So she went to Elisha and reported the amazing news. “Great!” he said. “Now go sell the oil. You’ll earn enough from that to pay your debts and to support your family!”

Not all the people Elisha helped were poor. He often visited a rich couple in the town of Shunem. In fact, he came so often that they decided to build a guest room on their roof so that he would have a place to stay when he visited. Elisha and his servant Gehazi really appreciated their hospitality, and Elisha wondered what they could do to help this Shunammite woman and her husband. They even offered to speak to the King on her behalf, but she didn’t think that was necessary. Elisha and Gehazi were brainstorming what they could do to help them when Gehazi pointed out that the woman didn’t have any children, and her husband was old. So Elisha told the woman, “This time next year, you’ll be holding a son.”

“No, don’t get my hopes up!” the woman said. But just as promised, she got pregnant and had a son.

A few years passed. The boy grew, and his parents loved him. One day, he found his dad working in the fields and complained, “My head hurts!” His dad asked a servant to carry the boy home, and the boy’s mom held him. He was very sick, and pretty soon he died. The woman couldn’t believe it. God had done a miracle by giving her this child, and now the boy was dead! She carried his body up to Elisha’s room and hurried to find Elisha. She found him at Mount Carmel, and he saw her and recognized her from a distance. He sent Gehazi ahead to find out what was the matter, and she said, “Everything’s fine.” But as she got closer, he told Gehazi, “She’s very sad, but God hasn’t told me why.”

So the woman said, “Did I ask you for a son? Didn’t I tell you not to get my hopes up?” When he found out the boy was dead, Elisha was alarmed. He told Gehazi, “Take my staff and run. Don’t stop for anything or anyone, and when you get to their home, lay my staff on the boy’s body.” The woman refused to go with Gehazi, though, unless Elisha went with her. So while Gehazi ran on ahead, Elisha and the Shunammite woman hurried back to the house. Before they got there, Gehazi came running back from the house and said, “I did what you said, but the boy is still dead!”

The first thing Elisha tried hadn’t worked. So when he got to the house, he went upstairs and found the boy laying on the bed. Elisha knelt down and prayed. Then he did something really strange. He laid facedown on top of the boy, eyes to eyes, mouth to mouth, hands to hands. Maybe it was something like CPR? The boy’s skin was cold, as it usually is for dead people, but pretty soon, it got warm. Elisha stood up and walked back and forth, then tried again. The boy sneezed and opened his eyes!

So Elisha had Gehazi get the Shunammite woman, and when she came in the room, she was overjoyed to find her son alive! God had just brought a boy back from the dead!

Chariot of Fire

Queen Jezebel was furious! The prophet Elijah had called a contest on Mt. Carmel, and not only had her side lost, but her god Baal was humiliated, and she had lost a bunch of Baal’s priests! She only saw one possible solution: Elijah must die! In fact, Jezebel was so angry that she promised that if he wasn’t dead by the next day, she didn’t care how badly her gods punished her!

As soon as Elijah got word, he was outta there! He ran to the desert and collapsed, exhausted and scared, under a bush. He was so upset that he prayed that God would let him die! Then he fell asleep. An angel woke him up and gave him something to eat and drink. When he was done eating, he fell asleep again. Later, the angel came back and said, “Get up and eat. You have a long journey ahead of you.” So he got up and ate. Then he walked 40 days and nights until he got to Mt. Horeb. Once there, Elijah hid in a cave. After listening to Elijah pour out his complaints, God told him to stand at the mouth of the cave and promised to pass by. When Elijah got to the mouth of the cave, there was a fierce wind, then an earthquake, and then a fire. But God wasn’t in any of those. Then Elijah heard a quiet voice ask, “What are you doing here?” So Elijah poured out his complaints again.

In response, God gave Elijah some instructions. “Go to Damascus and anoint Hazael King of Syria. Then anoint Jehu King of Israel. Then find a guy named Elisha and train him to replace you as prophet. Between the three of them, many enemies will be defeated.”

So Elijah obeyed God’s instructions. After anointing Hazael and Jehu, Elijah found Elisha working in a field. Elijah threw his coat around Elisha. That meant he was inviting him to a new life of service to God. Elisha sacrificed his cows, said good bye to his parents, and left.

Elijah trained Elisha, and time passed. Israel’s evil King Ahab died in battle, and his son Ahaziah took his place. He was also evil and pretty soon Ahaziah died and his brother Joram took his place.

Some time had passed by now, and Elijah knew his time had come to go. He told Elisha to stay in Gilgal while he went on to Bethel. But Elisha insisted on going along. Other prophets also tried to convince Elisha to stay, but he insisted on going. So Elisha went with Elijah to Bethel, then to Jericho. Prophets at every stop tried to convince Elisha to stay, but he insisted on going with Elijah. The two of them got to the Jordan River, and Elijah took off his coat and hit the water with it. The water parted just like it had for Joshua many years earlier! Once the two prophets got across the river on dry ground, Elijah said, “What would you like, before I go?”

Elisha replied, “I’d like double the prophetic power that you have!” He didn’t feel worthy to succeed Elijah, and he knew he would need a lot of help from God.

“Wow, that’s a tall order!” Elijah said. “But if you see God taking me away, you’ll get it.”

While they were walking and talking, a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses swooped out of the sky and took Elijah up in a whirlwind! Elisha cried out, “My father! You’re worth all the horses and horsemen of Israel!” Elisha tore his clothes in grief, and then picked up Elijah’s coat, which Elijah had dropped. He watched his mentor disappear into the sky in a fiery whirlwind of horses, then walked slowly back to the Jordan River. When he got there, he hit the water with Elijah’s coat, and it parted again!

When he got back across, the prophets from Jericho were there waiting. They could tell Elisha had gained a lot of prophetic power, to be able to part the waters of the Jordan with God’s help! That was no small river. They offered to go search for Elijah, but he told them not to bother. When they insisted, he said, “Fine, go ahead!” But of course they couldn’t find him. Elijah had just become one of only two people in the Old Testament to be taken to heaven without dying.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

New Year's Eve has always been an exciting time, remembering the past year (and in more recent years, wondering what in the world happened to the previous year, since I could swear I just celebrated New Year a couple months ago), and looking forward to the upcoming year. In the Philippines, New Year's Eve often meant going up to Faith Academy, our school, situated on a hill overlooking Manila. From there we could count down the seconds and watch the fireworks until the city lights were blotted out by the smoke from firecrackers, fires, and anything that made noise or fire. Some Filipinos believe that the loud noises chase the evil spirits away, so it is a very loud night. Our dog once tore up the screen door because he was so terrified. The fireworks and firecrackers I can handle, but I do not miss the burning tires. Worst smell ever. I expect whoever came up with the word mabaho (Tagalog for "putrid") had burning tires in mind.

Anyway, more recently, I have not had the pleasure of celebrating the New Year in the Philippines. In the US, it is quite a bit quieter, but still exciting. Sometimes I will attend parties, or stay home and watch the fireworks on TV, or any number of things. I was in Memphis on New Year's Eve 2009, returning the following day (and year) to Seattle. It was then that I learned about the Southern tradition of black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day, which I have tried to do since then. I found them at the store earlier today and plan to prepare them for our family celebration next year...er, tomorrow.

In 1947, Frank Loesser (known for his musicals Guys & Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others) wrote a song asking what you'll be doing on New Year's Eve. He observes that it may be too early to ask, but I'll ask it anyway. What are you doing that day? Who will you be hugging as midnight approaches and you ring in the new year? I'm sure you've received tons of invitations, and I'm probably crazy to hope that you'll choose me (Pikachu...oh wait, where was I? Australia.) Just in case you would like to hang out on New Year's Eve, here's the jackpot question: What are you doing New Year's Eve?

Clearly, the singer wants to invite the singee (the spellcheck doesn't like that word...couldn't imagine why) to celebrate the occasion with him or her (depending on who's singing). I find it interesting that Loesser calls it the jackpot question. But then, he also wrote Luck, Be a Lady, so I guess the gambling reference makes sense. It also makes sense because the whole song, it's been building up to this. The singer is asking early because he expects that the guest will have lots of invitations. This must be a popular person! Did he get to her soon enough? What are the odds that she already has plans? If so, can she change them? It's likely he's tried previous years and has been too late, so he's trying earlier this time. Maybe, just maybe, if he invites her early enough, he'll hit the jackpot! "Luck, if you've ever been a lady to begin with, luck, be a lady tonight!"

(So, maybe it would have been more appropriate for me to blog this in September?) :-)

What's that you ask? What am I doing New Year's Eve? I'm at home blogging about a classic Frank Loesser song: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"

"That's My Boy!"

An angel appeared to Zechariah and told him that his wife, who was too old to have a child, would get pregnant, and they should name him John. When Zechariah had trouble believing that, he couldn’t talk until a little after John was born, and it came time to give the baby a name! Meanwhile, a few months after Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he appeared to Mary and told her she would have a child and she should name him Jesus. First John was born, then Jesus a few months later. Angels joyfully announced Jesus’ birth to a group of shepherds.

Thirty years had passed since then, and John had grown up and moved into the wilderness. After returning from Egypt, Jesus and his parents had gone to Nazareth, where he grew up. Aside from that journey and an incident after Jesus’ bar mitzvah (a ceremony that Jewish boys go through when they turn 12), we don’t know a lot about his childhood. By the time Jesus was 30, John had been preaching and baptizing for a while. Just as the prophets had foretold, John was preparing the way for his cousin the Messiah. He wore clothes made of camel hair and a leather belt, and he ate locusts and honey. That doesn’t sound very appetizing, but I hope John liked it!

John seems to have been pretty well known. People came from miles around to hear him preach and be baptized. People admitted their sins and asked forgiveness from God, and then John baptized them.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were two groups of religious experts of the time. They didn’t always agree with each other, and they were both wrong about a lot. When John saw some of them coming to the area where he was baptizing, he called to them, “You snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? Ask forgiveness for your sins and turn away from them! Don’t tell yourselves, ‘Abraham is our ancestor,’ because God can turn the stones into Abraham’s descendants! I’m baptizing people with water to symbolize what happens when people turn from their sins and choose to follow God. But pretty soon, someone will come who is stronger than I am. I’m not even worthy to carry or untie his sandals.” (At that time, slaves sometimes took care of their masters’ sandals.) “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!”

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Galilee. He went to the Jordan River where John was baptizing. When Jesus arrived, John said, “Wait a minute, Jesus. You should be the one baptizing me! Why do you want me to baptize you?”

Jesus replied, “Let’s do this now. It’s the right thing to do to fulfill all righteousness.” So John baptized his relative. No sooner had Jesus come up out of the water, than the Holy Spirit came out of heaven in the form of a dove and landed on Jesus. A loud voice from heaven boomed, “This is my Son! I love him, and I’m so proud of him!”

The next day, John was talking to his friends, and he saw Jesus headed his way. He said, “Look! It’s the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sins! That’s him, the one I told you about who’s greater than me!”

The day after that, John was talking to two of his disciples when he saw Jesus again. He said, “Hey look! It’s the Lamb of God!” John’s disciples started to follow Jesus, and they hung out with him for a while. One of those disciples was named Andrew. He was so impressed that he ran home and told his brother Simon about what had happened. The brothers came to Jesus, and Jesus said to Simon, “You’re Simon son of John. I’ll call you Cephas” (which is Aramaic for Peter, or Rock).

Jesus then called Philip, who found his friend Nathanael and introduced him to Jesus. So Jesus’ ministry began, and He continued recruiting more disciples.

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella

Le nouveau-né (The Newborn)

Georges de la Tour

Oil on canvas

1645-1648

Hey, everyone! Jeanette! Isabella! Come on and visit this new baby in Bethlehem! Spread the news! Since it's dark out, you'll need to bring torches, and remember that Jesus is sleeping. So you need to be quiet so He can sleep. Don't wake Him, but just look at those rosy cheeks! Isn't He the cutest baby you ever did see? Everyone, come look! But shush! He's sleeping!

That's the gist of the 16th century Provençal carol (from Provence, France) Un flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle. According to Hymns and Carols of Christmas, the song may have been written to evoke the building of a crèche, or glorified nativity scene. (French tradition goes beyond a scene of the stable to include the whole town surrounding the stable.) It is possible that French painter Georges de la Tour was inspired by the song to paint, likely his Le nouveau-né (above). If that is the painting in question, it likely depicts Jeanette and Isabella holding and quietly blessing the baby Jesus. The torch appears to be just out of the picture, as it is clearly dark, but there's light nearby.

It could also evoke the mixture of the Hanukkah and Christmas traditions of processionals with candles and torches, which were common in Provence and Southern Europe.

Who were Jeanette and Isabella? According to the blog Window Toward the World, they were milkmaids who went to the stable to milk cows, but instead found a baby in the manger. When they made this unexpected discovery, they hurried to the town and invited everyone to come see, but were adamant that everyone keep quiet so the baby could sleep. (That blog cites Wikipedia for this, but the Wikipedia article seems to have deleted that story since the blog was published.) In any case, both in that blog and the Wikipedia article, it tells that Provençal children still dress as milkmaids and shepherds and go to Midnight Mass at Christmas while singing this song and carrying torches.

The tune may be from a 14th-century dance for French nobility. The lyrics were first published either in Cantiques de Premiere Avenement de Jesus-Christ ("Songs of the First Coming of Jesus Christ") in 1553 or Noëls français ("French Christmases") in 1901, depending on who you ask. I think the 1553 date is much more likely, as, according to Making Music Fun and Wikipedia, it was translated into English in the 18th century. It's highly unlikely a song that was written in the 20th Century was subsequently translated in the 18th, and a painter was inspired by it to paint in the 17th. Unless it has some connection to PDQ Bach (1807-1742). I have seen no indication of such a connection anywhere. Or maybe The Doctor was involved? That could get a bit "wibbly wobbly timey wimey"... Hmm...


In English:


...and in French:

Unexpected Guests

The news was getting out. Sometime earlier, God had used angels to announce Jesus’ birth to shepherds. Now He chose another interesting and unusual way of announcing it to someone unexpected. This time no angels appeared. But a group of guys in the east, professional stargazers, were looking into the sky when they saw an unusual star. Where were they from? We don’t know, but it could have been Arabia or Persia. They studied the stars, and they believed that the stars showed signs and announced events. They had also studied many ancient scrolls, and they had read that a King of the Jews would come someday. Somehow they realized that this star had something to do with that King, and they wanted to know more. They were known as magi. We get the words magus, magi and magic from the same word. There was a lot of mystery about them, and some people believed they could do magic. They were also known as wise men because they often gave advice and interpreted dreams and other things for kings. How many of them went on the trip? We don’t know. But we do know that they chose three interesting and expensive gifts to take with them on the journey they were about to take.

Gold was a gift for a King. Frankincense was a gift for the Son of God. Some people burn it when they worship. Myrrh was a gift for the Messiah. It’s a spice that people used when they were burying people. Prophecies told that the King of the Jews would be the Son of God and the promised Messiah, and that one day He would give his life to save us. The gifts that the magi chose showed that they had read the prophecies, and they knew who they were about to meet. They were pretty excited about this, because it isn’t every day you meet someone like that! So as soon as they saw the star, they gathered their gifts, packed up, and left.

It was a long journey. If you’re looking for a King, where do you look first? You go to the capital of the country and find the King’s palace! So they found themselves in Jerusalem at the palace of King Herod. They started to ask around, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose, and we’ve been following it so we can worship Him.”

When Herod got word that these guys were asking around about a new King of the Jews, he was pretty upset. What new King of the Jews? Herod was King of the Jews! Did this mean someone was about to take his place? He liked his job and his life, and he didn’t want to see it end because some kid was gonna come and take his throne!

So Herod called the experts: the priests. They had also studied the prophecies, and so they told him that the prophet Micah had said that the Messiah would be born in the tiny village of Bethlehem.

Then Herod came up with a crafty plan. He talked to the magi and found out exactly when the star had appeared. He told them about the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “Go there,” he told them, “and when you’re done, come back here and let me know where he is… because I wanna worship him too!”

So the magi left Jerusalem and followed the star to Bethlehem. It kept going ahead of them until it stopped over a house. They couldn’t contain their excitement! They knocked on the door, and when they went in, they saw him. The boy was probably somewhere around 2 at this point. Mary and Joseph couldn’t believe their eyes as a bunch of richly-dressed foreigners came into the house and knelt down to visit their son! They laid their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh at his feet.

That night, one of the magi had a dream that included a warning: Herod wasn’t planning to worship the new King of the Jews. So the next morning, instead of returning to Jerusalem, they left, and went home another way.

Joseph also had a dream. An angel appeared to him and said, “Quick! Get up! Take Mary and Jesus and get out of here! Herod is about to come looking for Jesus to kill him! Go to Egypt and stay there until I tell you it’s safe to come back.” Later someone remembered that the prophet Hosea had once foretold, “Out of Egypt I will call My Son.”

Sure enough, Herod’s men came looking for Jesus, but He wasn’t there. Sometime later, the angel appeared to Joseph again and told him, “It’s OK to go back now. Herod has died.” So the young family returned to their hometown of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Said the night wind to the little lamb, "Do you see what I see?"

Wait a minute. The night wind can see? It has eyes? This is interesting. Further, I find it interesting that the inanimate night wind can not only see, but can communicate with a lamb. Maybe the lamb has some kind of connection with the wind, or perhaps that's the lamb's interpretation of the whistling of the wind. Maybe it blew in a certain direction, and the lamb looked in that direction, thus noticing what the wind was trying to point out.

"Way up in the sky, little lamb. Do you see what I see? A star, a star, dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite! With a tail as big as a kite!"

So now the night wind is pointing out a star. Probably by blowing the lamb's wool and causing it to look up. That makes sense. As stars are also inanimate, I assume "dancing" refers to how they twinkle. (If I understand it right, as big balls of gas, stars tend to burn with fires which move around, causing it to seem somewhat alive, and from our distance, they often seem to appear and disappear, or at least vibrate somewhat.) Some have interpreted the star in question to be an angel which guided the wise men to the young infant Jesus. I don't know if it was a literal star or an angel, but the next line is interesting. "With a tail as big as a kite" raises two issues in my mind:

1. If the star has a tail at all, it must be either unusually large or unusually close to the earth. Perhaps this is inspired by the paintings of the star with a spotlight shining on the stable?

2. How is a First Century BC lamb supposed to know what a kite is? Were kites even invented yet? Well, apparently so! According to Wikipedia, kites were invented in the 5th Century BC in China! I had no idea they had been around that long. I don't know if the phenomenon had reached Israel by the First Century BC, but that's interesting. I suppose it's possible. I suppose it could also refer to the bird known as a kite. They also have tails.

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, "Do you hear what I hear? Ringing in the sky, shepherd boy, do you hear what I hear? A song, a song high above the tree with a voice as big as the sea! With a voice as big as the sea!"

Now the lamb is passing on the message to the shepherd. I'm sure the lamb is trying his best to get the message across, but I imagine the shepherd just hears, "Baa! Baaa!!" Although shepherds and sheep could get pretty attached, I suppose. Dogs and cats can get pretty good about communicating with their humans. Why should it be different with lambs? If the lamb was bleating loud enough, I imagine the shepherd would have said, "Shush! I'm listening to this choir of angels!" Or maybe he didn't need to. According to Luke, it sounds like the army of angels was hard to miss and likely very loud. I wonder if the shepherd would even be able to hear the lamb bleating over the angels' voices "as big as the sea"? Now that's a big voice!

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, "Do you know what I know? In your palace wall, mighty king, do you know what I know? A child, a child shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold. Let us bring him silver and gold."

Now we're getting to messengers who can actually talk to humans in such a way that said humans can easily understand them (assuming they speak the same language). This must be after the shepherds visited Jesus in Bethlehem. Now they are spreading the word. But who is the king? It can't be Herod, because as we will see in the next verse, this king seems to have been happy about it. Herod was anything but. Was it the wise men, who are often misinterpreted to be kings? (See my commentary on We Three Kings.) The shepherds would have had to travel an awful long way to reach the wise men, unless said wise men were nearby at this point. In which case they probably would have known about the child. If it's the wise men, they also didn't bring silver (that we know of). They just brought gold. (Well, they also brought frankincense and myrrh, but that wasn't included in the shepherd's request.)

Also, was it cold? It's very unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25, so it probably wasn't winter. From what I've heard, it may have been springtime, right around Passover (thus the need for shepherds and sheep in the vicinity). I'm not sure how the temperature is in Israel at that time of the year. Also, as metals, silver and gold wouldn't help anyone to stay warm. If it's already cold, metals would probably have the opposite effect. They could probably buy lots and lots of blankets with the silver and gold, but it seems like blankets would be a more practical gift if they are trying to solve the problem of the child shivering in the cold. Otherwise, Mary and Joseph would need to take time to find the nearest blanket vendor to buy what they need. I suppose they would be able to get a blanket in a color they like that way...sort of like the First Century BC version of a gift certificate. Furthermore, I would think a poor shepherd might not think to suggest giving precious metals.

Said the king to the people everywhere, "Listen to what I say! Pray for peace, people everywhere! Listen to what I say: The child, the child sleeping in the night, He will bring us goodness and light. He will bring us goodness and light."

Now the unidentified king is spreading the word. Surely Herod wouldn't have been promoting the child that he was afraid would supplant him. This king clearly knows that Christ brings hope, "goodness and light." Several centuries earlier, King David had written that we should "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6).

Wait a minute. What if the mighty King is David? He was a shepherd boy when he was young. Maybe he looked at the stars while he was tending his sheep, holding a little lamb, and dreamed about his descendant who would one day be born in his own hometown of Bethlehem, to beginnings even humbler than his. Maybe when he grew up and became King, he remembered his childhood as a shepherd boy and had more compassion on the shivering children of the world. Perhaps he looked forward to his descendant Jesus bringing us goodness and light, as he took care of his own children.

***

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" was written in October 1962, with lyrics by French songwriter Noël Regney and music by his wife Gloria Shayne (which was a switch, as it was usually the other way around. They released the song after Thanksgiving of that year. It was at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the USSR was threatening to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to fire on the US. My mom tells me that it was a terrifying time, and she recalls people crying, as for all they knew, this could be the end of life as they knew it. So the song was not only a memory of the birth of Christ, but a plea to pray for peace, people everywhere! They pointed out with this song that God could bring peace, goodness and light, and our only hope was to pray for peace. Thankfully, President Kennedy and Russian Premier Khrushchev were able to work it out diplomatically, and it didn't come to a nuclear attack. People's prayers for peace worked.

According to Regney's obituary (he died in 2002), he stated in an interview in 1985, "I am amazed that people can think they know the song, and not know it is a prayer for peace. But we are so bombarded by sound and our attention spans are so short that we now only listen to catchy beginnings." In World War 2, he was drafted into the Nazi army, but deserted. He eventually made it to Manhattan, where he arranged, composed and conducted, as well as writing radio jingles.

After Regney and Shayne wrote this song, they had trouble singing it. It evoked such emotion, especially the plea for peace, that they just couldn't get through it. As Shayne once said, "It broke us up."

I think the plea for peace is just as relevant today as it was at the time of World War 2 and the Cold War.

Many singers have recorded the song over the years, but Regney's favorite rendition was that of Robert Goulet because "when Mr. Goulet came to the words 'Pray for peace, people everywhere,' he almost shouted the words."

Thus, I leave you with two versions of Robert Goulet singing the song. The first video is better quality, and the second one has him "almost shout[ing] the words" that Regney referred to (but I find the random pictures somewhat distracting, so you may want to close your eyes while listening to the second video).

A Savior in a Feed Box

The rocks crunched under their feet. A young couple was on the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The man was leading the donkey carrying his pregnant wife, and it was slow going at times. The heat got to them, and they were sweaty. Riding a donkey isn’t comfortable in the best of times, and it’s especially tough when you’re pregnant. But it was better than having to walk all that way! Joseph the carpenter lived in Nazareth, but Emperor Caesar had ordered a census, and everyone had to go to the place their ancestors were from so they could be counted. Joseph and his wife Mary were descendants of King David, and David had once been a shepherd in Bethlehem. So here they were making a trip they had hoped they wouldn’t have to make right now, while Mary was in the hardest part of her pregnancy.

It was probably spring time, right near the Passover celebration. So maybe it was appropriate for Joseph and Mary to celebrate the Passover in the town of their ancestors. But when they finally got there, they discovered a new problem. Not only had the journey been difficult, but they couldn’t find anywhere to stay! A lot of others had come for the census too. Here they were in a town that was pretty far from home, with Mary going into labor any time now. Where could they go? They had to make do with the best they could find. A really nice person who lived there didn’t have room in his guest room, but it was very important in that culture to give visitors the best they could give. In this case, the best they could give was in a room with their animals. There was a box in the floor where they kept hay to feed the animals, and that was the softest place they could find. So that was where the baby was born. As with any birth, the pain Mary had just gone through was nothing compared to her pain as the baby was coming out. But pretty soon, they heard a cry. It was a beautiful sound. Mary and Joseph felt a new kind of love they had never felt before, as their child came into the world. After they cleaned him off, they wrapped him in cloths and laid him in the best place they could find: the feed box.

Meanwhile, sheep grazed in a nearby field. The shepherds in the area may have been there so they could sell some of them for sacrifices to be used in the Passover. It was getting dark, and the shepherds were standing around taking care of their sheep. Suddenly, it was bright as day! Confused and shocked, the shepherds looked up into the sky and saw the last thing they had expected to see. Someone was up there, and the light seemed to be coming from him! The shepherds’ first thought was, “RUN!” But they had to take care of their sheep, so they couldn’t just bolt.

I wonder if Gabriel got used to having to tell people not to be scared. He had had to tell Zechariah and Mary that, and now he had to tell the same thing to the shepherds. “Whoa, it’s OK! Don’t worry!” Gabriel said in a loud voice. “I have some awesome news for everyone in the world! You know how you’ve waited for centuries for the Savior the prophets told about? Guess what! He was just born in King David’s hometown! You’ll know him when you see a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feed box.”

Just when they thought the sky couldn’t get any brighter, a huge army of angels appeared around Gabriel, and they sang something more beautiful than anything the shepherds had ever heard before: “God is more magnificent than anyone else in heaven or earth! He gives peace to everyone on earth that He chooses!”

The shepherds were speechless. They had never seen anything like this before. When they finally recovered enough from their shock to be able to talk, they all agreed that they needed to hurry to Bethlehem to find out what the angels had told them about. They found Mary and Joseph and their newborn baby in a feed box, just as they had been told. Mary and Joseph were surprised to see a group of shepherds, probably bringing their sheep along, come in the room to see their baby. When the shepherds told what they had just seen, the couple was amazed! The shepherds left, and they told everyone they met about the wonderful news. Meanwhile, Mary thought about what they had told her and about everything that had just happened. All that pain had been worth it. Here was a baby who by all accounts wasn’t even possible. Now she found out angels had appeared to shepherds to announce that her baby had arrived. It gave her a lot to think about.

Eight days passed, and the time came to give the baby a name. But Gabriel had already told Mary the name: “The Lord Saves.” Yeshua. Jesus.

יהושע‎

Ἰησοῦς

Mary had a lot to think about right now. But she would have even more to think about a couple years later when they would have more unexpected guests. More about that next week.