This morning upon awaking I was thinking about my day ahead–what I should focus on–and then thinking about a comment made to me last night, and the frustrated thoughts I had before I turned in early to bed out of sheer exhaustion.
There’s a NT scripture that says along the lines that “no soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs.” And while I’m not a literal soldiers, I am certainly embroiled in an increasing number of battles–many of which I discern have spiritual undergirdings.
Basically, I thought about this business-related task I hope to complete today, and wondered to myself, “How many of my so-called ‘social media’ friends would think there was any inherent value in my completion of such a thing?”
I was just laying there musing a bit on that, imagining “What if I made it a litmus test of sorts?”
What if I put the task completed out there and ask people to simply vote “yes” or “no”–Do you believe this task had any value? And then, continued “mean thoughts” came along the lines of “Maybe then I could just sort through my friends list and chop it down even more!”
I’m sorry if that sounds rude–first and foremost I’m a sinner with bad thoughts just like anyone else reading this.
To be fair, sometimes our “bad thoughts” come from places of feeling deeply misunderstood, de-valued, or other things. Sometimes, I find myself in situations (as in another situation this past week) where I feel that people who really should know me by now, don’t seem to have any real clue what makes me tick.
And quite honestly, that ticks me off.
During my second divorce, after being on social media for over ten years with “public settings” on everything, I felt the need to change my FB settings to “friends only” for most posts. As my situation continued to unfold after the divorce in a variety of personal ways, I periodically chopped my “friends” list down based on certain criteria. In 2022 I believe I still had between 800-900ish “friends” and I did something very radical, and now I have 419 friends. Actually, before posting this link, I notice I have 418 friends. Someone isn’t “with me” I suppose…so…good riddance?
Wow that sounds so mean.
I am very selective whom I add as “friend” these days for a variety of reasons. Recently I wondered if this privacy action actually impacted, to some degree, my business. Because historically I’ve always shared my creative pursuits and thoughts online, and apart from my business websites and client communication newsletters, there was always a significant amount of people I’ve known over the years (whether close friends/family, or simple acquaintances) that would message me asking to purchase or commission something.
Awhile back I contemplated whether I should just start adding friends again all willy nilly, and though I did loosen up and hit “add friend” to a few that popped up, generally I’m uncomfortable with the action for a number of reasons. Even though it might be some “means to an end” with reaching more people who might value my art, and wish to purchase something. So, no, I’m not about that, on my personal FB page. Although, it would be great to get more followers on my business pages even though those are not converting to sales these days. Sadly.
As I continued to pair all these thoughts together, somehow I felt the Lord brought to mind an OT story I rarely think too much about. In fact, I really only remembered one detail–and that was that God selected soldiers for a battle based on observance of how they drank water from a river.
As I fantasized (from my emotional thoughts and feelings) about whether I should whack down my social media “friends” based on this weird litmus test surrounding an imagined “public opinion poll” about whether the 10-20 hours I’ve put into this endeavor had any intrinsic value, or whether I would have done better/thought better of/considered more valuable if I had given 10-20 hours of my time to “civilian pursuits” (that’s a metaphor here) such as working at Dollar General to get a guaranteed $80-$160 by the time it’s all said and done.
Few people seem to really hear me (or maybe they simply don’t believe me) when I say that for me to work 10 hours at something else that does zero to very little in re-building/salvaging my 35+ business nor sustaining the costs of my home and property really amounts to 40 hours of additional weights they are pouring upon me.
Like many “advice-giving” suggestions it requires nothing of the advice-giver, really, but in my world to show up for 10 hours somewhere, right away add another 10 hours of lost time to “anxiety.” Then add another 10 hours of impact to re-arranging my “real work” to accommodate/show up to perform those 10 hours at minimum wage. Then, add in another 10 hours of impact because my “real work” I need to do here is undone, and therefore bears no fruit in the future. And then, consider the 10 hours I actual perform “said work” and what it takes from me in terms of lost energy and focus.
Just imagine the time as well after I come back from “said work” to recover from interactions with the public, potential co-workers and other “draining” things. An INFP like me does best with most tasks “solo” and arranging my own schedule based on my own rhythms.
So there, “10” hours netting $80 (there’s gas, travel time, appropriate clothing and more…meals out or maybe cooking differently rather than nibbling at home…weight gain from additional stress and co-pays for doctor visits and “therapy” to cope with those 10 hours, lol…”if” I don’t go over the edge with lack of sleep from the anxiety…oh…maybe add in costs of DRUGS to make me sleep on demand so I can “show up” at the Dollar General!)…pretty soon…well…
Got it?
Anyway…enough of that! I find the story God led me to this morning which I assume is because He sees me and knows my terrible thoughts–that’s a joke–and wanted to strengthen and encourage me (and maybe others who might relate in some similar but different sense) the thing most worthy of our curiosity today. And this initial writing time before I move on to completing my “project.”
Maybe…I’ll actually get around to that “Part II.”
Readers might be like…”whoah…how in the world did you connect THAT to THIS?”
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So on Audible this morning, I started listening aloud to the book of Judges from Chapter 1. I knew through Google the story was in Chapter 7, but I felt I needed context. It wouldn’t take that long to pick up from the beginning.
Now, it’s true that listening aloud requires less specific focus than perhaps reading. These days, I do listen aloud quite often to scripture, because if I had to make myself read, it likely wouldn’t be done as often. Sadly.
I’d rather get something through “auditory quantity” these days. And I think a case may be made for this because in ancient times, scripture was communicated auditorily as many common people did not have written scrolls in their possession…the Gutenberg printing press as I recall was a huge game-changer in terms of getting written scripture into the hands of lay people.
As I listened aloud with my morning coffee, my ears perked up at a part in Chapter 6. In terms of metaphor, I personally identified with what it was saying.
Below, simply as a reinforcing exercise and for anyone interested, I pasted in the two chapters from the version I have in Audible (NRSV). I am going to bold red parts that interest me, and then pull them out and repeat them with the WordPress “pullquote” feature.
I really don’t have much time for commentary, but, I might attempt just a bit of my thoughts…
Judges 6-7New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Midianite Oppression
6 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, nor any sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted, so they wasted the land as they came in. 6 Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
“The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, … For whenever the Israelites put in seed, …and destroy the produce of the land, … leave no sustenance in Israel, nor any sheep or ox or donkey. … as thick as locusts; … so they wasted the land as they came in. … was greatly impoverished because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.“
The reason I believe my ears perked up to this is because it sets a literal picture (which we might now relate to personally as “metaphor” since our battles are unseen in the spiritual realm against an enemy that wants to rob, kill, destroy and thwart God’s will and individuals) of Israel being in an impoverished state not because they are not sowing seed, but because an enemy (the Midianites, who do not worship Yahweh) are “wasting” the land and depleting the rightful sustenance the Israelites should be reaping.
Let’s see what God does next…
The Call of Gideon
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13 Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” 15 He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” 17 Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18 Do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22 Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear; you shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is peace.” To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
There’s quite a lot in that above passage. I am already breaking my format here and will just do some commentary of my observations:
Gideon considers himself least in his family and his clan “weak.” He’s doing what is before him, a task involving processing wheat in a winepress so as to hide it from these “devouring” people/enemies called the “Midianites.” The angel of the Lord appears to him and there is an interaction.
Gideon wonders the same things we sometimes hear in the book of Psalms and elsewhere. He raises the question of “Where is God when we need Him most?” basically. He points out that Yahweh has acted and delivered his ancestors in the past, but currently, he wonders where He is?
After the interactions with ‘the angel of the Lord,’ Gideon seems persuaded he has in fact, had an encounter with the One True God. And so, he builds an altar and states, “The Lord is peace.”
I like that the name is “Ophrah” since that seems a version of “Orpha” which was my grandmother’s name, which is also connected to the story found in the book of Ruth, which holds other deep meaning for me, personally.
25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father and cut down the sacred pole[b] that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order;[c] then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the sacred pole[d] that you cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, but because he was too afraid of his family and the townspeople to do it by day, he did it by night.
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
28 When the townspeople rose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the sacred pole[e] beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this?” After searching and inquiring, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” 30 Then the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pole[f] beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down.” 32 Therefore on that day Gideon[g] was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he pulled down his altar.
The above passage interests me on a number of levels.
Essentially, Gideon felt he had a mission and purpose. Alongside attempting to hide wheat from the Midianites, he was emboldened to destroy the altar of ‘Baal’ that was the root cause of the Midianite oppression.
There’s just a lot there I’m pondering in terms of someone who is called to do something so bold as Gideon did. He certainly was not understood, nor did this gesture make him a lot of “friends.”
We’re about to see this situation go a step further and the odd litmus test God issues to Gideon to determine who is both “with God” and with Gideon in whatever purposes beyond what is immediate conveyed. Again, he’s grinding wheat in a winepress…that is his “work” apparently…which I believe a case might be made to ask, “what is the particular ‘work’ God is calling you to in your life/situation?”
I’m really thinking a lot of people didn’t quite “get” what Gideon was all about.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the spirit of the Lord took possession of Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they, too, were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
36 Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
Gideon Surprises and Routs the Midianites
7 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod, and the camp of Midian was north of them, below[h] the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ 3 Now, therefore, proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.’ ” Thus Gideon sifted them out;[i] twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The troops are still too many; take them down to the water, and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you, and when I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 5 So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths,[j] you shall put to the other side.” 6 The number of those who lapped was three hundred, but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. 7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred who lapped I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.” 8 So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
Umm…wow…as I read this closely and think about my thought process upon waking and why I’m even now reading/expressing about Judges 6-7 there’s a kind of awe that God brought this story to my mind.
The only loose connection this morning was my pondering an “odd” litmus test for whether I might fantasize “chop down my friends list” because sometimes, I don’t feel all these “friends” are actually “for me” or “get me” or understand what my life purposes are about.
I know that clearly it is an entirely different situation, but, I ponder all this. Really all I recalled was that they were sorted out (the troops who were “with Gideon” to accomplish God’s will) by whether they lapped up water at the river “like a dog.”
Seriously, I couldn’t recall whether God told (whomever…I didn’t even recall the name Gideon) whether the men who drank like a “dog” were keepers or not…
Honestly, if you’ve read this far and think I’m “nuts” or otherwise offensive, I wonder if I might find my “friends” list suddenly down from 419 people! No, I don’t have the “nerve” to chop it down simply base on some fantasy “poll” asking people if they think the time spent on something I intend to finish, hopefully, today is “worthy” in some way.
But who knows…what if I eventually sense God telling me, “do it.” Would I be able to do that?
Hmmm….
Now, why in the world would the “keepers” for God’s purposes to be accomplished be the men who lapped up water “like dogs” might do? I’m not a bible scholar and perhaps someone knows the exact answer, but I’m just going to use my imagination here.
I’m an artist, and that’s what artists do.
War is ultimately an inhuman act. I suppose it takes a lot of fierce, animal-like qualities to do what God intended to do to the Baal-worshipping Midianites whose infidelity to the One True God (read the first part of the book of Romans on what can be “known of God” from creation itself) was being adopted/synchronized into the lives of God’s people the Israelites…to their great harm.
I suppose God purposed that Gideon was to “win his battle” with “less ‘friends'” so to speak rather than more. I think of the sarcastic saying, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
Not that this applies to my social media friends list, generally.
But, the point to me seems to be that Gideon is fighting a pretty significant battle, and he is acting based on his understanding of God’s will and purposes, in and through him. God seems to be wanting him to sort out the “men from the boys” so-to-speak and though he might be left with less warriors, the ones he’d have by his side–though they lap water up like “dogs”–were the ones who would get the “job done.”
I think of Moses needing Aaron to come alongside him and hold his arms up, to assist Moses in doing “God’s will” and seeing that all Israel crossed onto dry land.
OK, not many here including myself have been commissioned with such a task, but I do know that one of my God-given callings right now is similar to that of Gideon. God’s Holy Spirit seems to be deepening me in discernment of current day “Baal” worship and even infiltration of the “occult” practices into His Church. God intends me to pray and act (and involve other like-minded, “water lapping ‘dogs'”) to join me in this “mission” of sorts until, especially, some wayfaring “children of God” so-to-speak, are seen returning on the horizon.
I really have a lot on my plate beyond earning enough through my God-given talents to pay my bills.
Who’s with me on this?
One other thought I have on this passage. I wonder if the “many” soldiers whom God considered “unfit” for such a task are somehow like those people in our world whose go-to solutions and expectations are pretty much to follow societal norms and expectations? They are the kind of people to advise artists and poets to “go get a ‘real’ job” and then do whatever it is you think you are doing in your “spare time” as some hobby.
Which actually I believe I might segway into baiting my readers here with one of my initial “fantasy” thoughts this morning which in part, relates to a task I want to complete today!
And as Monty Python might say, “And now for something completely different.”
The “video bait” will be placed at the end of this blog piece!
Stay tuned for Part II…
9 That same night the Lord said to him, “Get up; attack the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah, 11 and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to attack the camp.” Then he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts, and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade, and he said, “I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.”
15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped, and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand.” 16 After he divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, 17 he said to them, “Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”
19 So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow, and they cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place all around the camp, and all the men in camp ran; they cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army, and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah,[k] as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after the Midianites.
24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. 25 They captured the two captains of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, as they pursued the Midianites. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.
“Just don’t let your poems be ordinary,” he says…
I think for a moment that the first students in this scene will do something fairly ordinary in life, and walk paths that are expected by society. The will work full-time jobs they hate, that benefit the corporate world and give them a secure paycheck. They will follow the script, in this job that serves no greater aim with an anticipated goal of retiring and then living the good life. Or, they will be people who for whatever reason have certain struggles and are forced to lay aside their true life purposes and calling and do “anything” just for even “a little” money. If they don’t comply, others may pass judgement on their efforts or “laziness” and turn their backs feeling justified in not standing with them–as those “dog lapping” people stood with Gideon.
Far stretch you might say?
How in the world can you connect Dead Poet Society to the bible?
Well, just go read the Psalms, the Book of Ecclesiastes or Song of Songs.
I never want to be of such a nature that I fail to recognize what it even means to be human…because if I do this for any reason, I have simply lost the plot of it all.
Who’s with me?
Actually, YouTube won’t allow me to imbed the following link with a preview. So you’ll have to click it for the full scene. I know some prefer clicking links with a visual preview, so after the following link I will put “part” of that full scene. I’m thinking there is something with the royalties/YouTube content which doesn’t allow the full sharing here with preview! That should tell you how much of an amazing scene it is.
(And as I ponder this blog expression and re-watch this incredible scene, I think of the possible “barbaric YAWPS” that “dog-lapping” water drinking soldiers might be capable of…
You know, there’s a lot of seemingly disparate ideas here I seem to be connecting together. As I put on Chapter 1 of the book of Judges again, I think to myself: Gideon needs “dog-lapping” soldiers willing to cut of the thumbs and big toes of their adversaries, right? I’m also thinking that’s why most artists and poets might not make the best soldiers in a literal army.
But maybe, they could do some real damage in the “spiritual realm” against evil adversaries set upon the destruction of humans and all that is “good right and holy” in this world.
Hmmm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrvMrf-Pjhw
“I close my eyes and this image floats beside me
—Todd Anderson’s poem (from Dead Poet Society)
The sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brains
His hands reach out and choke me
And all the time he’s mumbling
Truth, like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.
You push it, stretch it, it will never be enough
Kick it beat it, it will never cover any of us.
From the moment we enter crying, to the moment we leave dying,
it will just cover your face
as you wail and cry and scream.”
“Though the poem’s meaning is not disclosed, the poem can be left up to the audience’s interpretation. One interpretation of the poem is that the poem is a reference to balance rationalism and romanticism. The head is romanticism, and the feet always being left cold are rationalism. No matter which one you attempt to keep balanced by stretching it, one is always exposed…” –Commentary
Thank You For Reading
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