Holy Bible – I Just Have to Say…

Today I am doing some reading in the book of Judges, in the Holy Bible. I love scripture and believe it is one way in which God tells us things we need to know, so don’t get me wrong when I say that it quite often confuses me. I read it anyway, for the parts that aren’t confusing.

There is the story of Samson mid way through this book. He was an Israelite during a time when the country was being persecuted by another tribe of people, the Philistines. God used him to provide some relief for Israel. Even though he did some very dumb things, overall, he paid the Philistines back for all their evil deeds.

One of his early accomplishments was burning down a good many of the Philistines fields of grain. He went to a lot of work to do this, and this is where my questions start overwhelming me.

“So he went out and caught three hundred foxes.” I stop reading and can’t go any further. Three hundred foxes? How do you “catch” a fox? Where do you find 300 of them? Are they just everywhere, like rabbits? Where do you keep them while you’re catching them? Does no one notice when you finally get 300 and have them in your barn, or wherever? No one complains, not even your parents?

“He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines.” Wow, I try to think how I would orchestrate a project like this. Would I take two foxes at a time to a field? How would I get them to stand still while I tied a torch between their tails? What would I tie them with? Should I muzzle them while I’m doing the prep, probably…

Or do I tie all their tails together with torches attached while I’m still at home, and then transport them all at once? In my fox wagon. Once I start, I’ll probably have to do it quickly or someone will try to stop me.

My only conclusion is that this project would take a good deal of prayer first, but I don’t think Samson did that. He apparently was a bit of a hot head.

The most telling statement about this story is found early in the narrative, and is in parenthesis. “(His parents did not know this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)” There you have it. Miraculous intervention. There’s no other explanation that I can think of.

The way I see it, there is a principle involved in today’s reading. For me, it is – when something is “of the Lord” you might not see it coming. God, who invented imagination in the first place, is still way better at it than any of us.

Scripture

I love scripture. I am in awe of it. It is the lens through which I view the world. It is a gift.

Growing up, I was blessed with regular stories from the Bible, read to me by my mom, from what I have to say now was a good, engaging perspective. I don’t remember the publisher, but the facts were there in each story without a lot of extra interpretation. As soon as I could read, I wanted to read it myself. We went through the book many times, both the Old Testament and the New. I had the story down pretty solidly, but never knew what it meant. Not completely.

Through the years since, the stories have become more important, have taken on new meaning. They are not stories, they are one story.

The Old Testament tells me there is someone behind all that I see – a Creator. It tells me that a plan is in place to help me become something that I am not yet. From the record of people and their dreams and ambitions, I learn that I’m not going to get where I’m meant to be by my own efforts. People have tried and even at their best, it has not worked out too well. Just watch the news…

In the middle, kind of between the two “testaments”, is Jesus. He ties the stories of the Old to the stories of the New. He is all about new things because he is God. God is about making all things new again. He has been since the beginning because that was the plan even as far back as Adam and Eve. Jesus makes that possible. Without him, there will be no “new” anything.

In the New Testament I see the possibilities of how the “newness” might look. The people writing those stories were thinking a whole different way. They were still people with problems, weaknesses, bad stuff happening to them and around them, but now they understood what their true value was. They were not defined by their varying circumstances. They felt free in some very important ways. They were full of hope right to the end of their days because they knew the end was just the beginning.

Scripture has the ability to surprise. It can respond to my question of the day in a totally new and unexpected way. Something I’ve read dozens of times can suddenly contain wisdom I didn’t see before. It’s true that there are many wise writings that have this quality. I think it’s because all wisdom comes from one true source. You can find bits and pieces of it sprinkled in lots of places, but never quite complete. When I go to read scripture, I have an eerie feeling of expectancy, like I am approaching something alive and never know what it might do.

Through God’s message in scripture, I value the life he is putting me in/through. I value the lives of people around me. No one is insignificant. Through scripture I feel compassion for people, for nature, for the struggle we are all in. Scripture tells me who the real enemy is – the one who is behind everything that is not right. It tells me the enemy has already lost what he fights for, and that is the root of violence and anger in him. He tries very hard to transfer that to us.

So for now, the story continues. We are part of the story. There is hope and it ends well. Read it.

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