Your Troops Will Be Willing

In honor of Remembrance Day, here is a quote from Psalm 110 - verse 3

Your troops will be willing

on your day of battle.

Arrayed in holy splendor,

your young men will come to you

like dew from the morning’s womb.

As my brother said in an early morning e-mail today - "enjoy a wonderful day of Freedom - and remember that it wasn't free".

I'll resume my reflections (see yesterday's post) on Job's insights on life and death in the next post.

Poppy Photo - Flanders Fields Music

Dew in the Diaspora

It was misty when my wife and I went for our early morning run, but before we had even left our yard we were arrested by an extraordinary beauty. During the night spiders had woven nets from every bush and railing they could find – and captured the dew in necklaces that sparkled like diamonds in the early morning sun.

For half an hour photography trumped exercise, but when I got running I got thinking about what the prophet Micah wrote about the dew in Micah Ch. 5.

Micah lived in a harsh dog-eat-dog world where wealthy land-owners were devouring their poor neighbors. He saw beyond the injustices and the grim exile that it would bring about. He foresaw a ruler who will come forth from the same obscure village where king David was born (Micah 5:2). He will shepherd Israel like a flock, protecting them from both aggressors and from their own aggressiveness. They will be a ‘remnant’, ‘a purged and select company’ (v.7 MSG) who ‘will live among the nations like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass.’ (Micah 5:7)

Drenched By the Dew of Heaven

The dew fell generously on the gardens of Nebuchadnezzar. His palace and gardens were one of the wonders of the world and he took pride in his architectural achievements. But he was about to learn an important life-lesson from the silent power of the dew.

As he tells his story in Daniel Chapter 4, he was at home in his palace contended and prosperous, when he had a dream that made him afraid, terrified him, in fact. He dreamed of a magnificent tree cut down by a decree from heaven; the tree had a human mind, but it lost its sanity and became like an animal. exposed to the weather for seven years.

A palace advisor named Daniel interpreted the dream as a warning to the king and urged him to practice mercy and justice.

Elijah's Dew-Free Zone

It had been a grim three years in Israel’s northern region. Ahab was one of the bad kings. In fact, it was said that he ‘did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him’ 2 Kings 16:32-33.

One of his vices was his foreign wife Jezebel who had a special fondness for the sexually explicit Baal cult. ‘Human orgies lead to fertile fields’, she told them, and far and wide, Ahab’s people gave it a try. Her influence was pervasive; Asherah poles, Baal idols and hundreds of Baal priests filled the land.

So God sent the prophet Elijah with a message to Ahab. "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word" 1 Kings 17:1.

This was not good news. In northern Israel rain is usually plentiful and agriculture flourishes. No rain or dew was a death sentence for thousands of people. It was a serious ultimatum - abandon Baal worship or face the consequences.

Sweet Harmony

Psalm 133 is a lyric gem about harmony in families, societies and nations. It's short but full of wonder, realism and hope.

How wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along!
It's like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron's beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.

Harmony is a wonderful thing. When the whole family is getting along and enjoying each other, it’s a great feeling. It’s heaven on earth.

At the consecration of a Jewish high priest, the nation gathered together as one. The ceremonial oil of consecration was poured over the priest’s head in the name of all the tribes; it spilled down his face and drenched his robes. You could smell the fragrance, you could hear the cheering in unison, you could sense the joyful spirit of togetherness – one nation, one faith, one prayer of brotherhood. Oil flows with exuberance - all for one and one for all.

Serenity

"You have made us for yourself

and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Augustine, 398 CE



Photo "The Shepard" by  Floriana Barbu

The shepherd-poet David describes this God-given rest from anxiety and fear through the metaphor of a sheep quietly grazing under the watchful care of the shepherd.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul.

Psalm 23:2-3

Pastures and streams provide the essentials - food and drink - for sheep. After grazing in the meadow sheep lie down to ruminate – their appetite contented and their security protected by the vigilant shepherd. It’s a picture of shalom.

If the early morning grass is dew-laden, the sheep have no need for streams, but the sun in Palestine can burn off the dew quickly and then sheep need additional water.

The shepherd leads his flock to still waters where it is easy for them to drink. Satisfaction, tranquility, peace.

Resurrection

I got my feet soaked this morning walking barefoot in the grass - not from rain or puddles, but from dew - cool ... refreshing ... delicious dew!

My posts this week explored two of over thirty references to dew in the Bible. Here's one more to finish the week.

Isaiah saw the morning dew as a fore-shadowing, a sign from the earth that can’t keep its secret, a hint to anyone who is listening between the lines, a promise of resurrection.

Many Biblical scholars maintain that Israel had no theology of life beyond death until shortly before the time of Christ. But eight hundred earlier Isaiah had a vision:

Dew of Heaven

Moses stood on the verge of the Promised Land and prayed for God’s blessing on the twelve tribes. For Joseph's tribes Moses prayed,

"May the LORD bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below; … with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush.
Deuteronomy 33:13-16

A prayer for ‘precious dew’ would mean a lot to people who have lived in the dry desert for 40 years. Add ‘the deep waters that lie below’, the unseen wealth of aquifers, and you have the conditions for bountiful agricultural prosperity.

Moses believed that God is not stingy, that God would prosper Joseph’s tribes lavishly. Abundance, not scarcity is God’s signature, though with an invisible anonymous hand.

Gideon's Dry Fleece

"Your doubts will evaporate like dew when the waiting is over."

Luci Shaw, Water My Soul.

Call him a reluctant warrior. For seven years, God was silent as the marauding Midianites raided their farms at harvest time.  So when Yahweh’s messenger called Gideon a ‘mighty man of valor’ and told him that God was with him, the man was a tad skeptical. Waiting can do that to you.

It seemed to Gideon that God was more absent than active, more a god of legends than a God of the real world where thieves plundered crops with impunity. When the angel told Gideon to ‘gird up his strength’ and deliver Israel, he asked for a sign and received  dramatic evidence of God's power. But it was not enough.