CSI - Ancient Israel Water Ritual

What should you do if a dead body is found in a field, and your basic detective work cannot discover a killer? Here is an ancient water ritual that ensured that cold cases didn’t just suffer the indignity of civil neglect.

You can read the extended ritual in Deuteronomy 21:1-9. Here is a brief summary:

Harvest Providence

This week-end is Canadian Thanksgiving. . .

And this word from Psalm 65 seems like the perfect 'water' text for the occasion

You care for the land

and water it;

you enrich it abundantly.

The streams of God

are filled with water to

provide the people with grain,

You drench its furrows

and level its ridges;

you soften it with showers

and bless its crops.

Psalm 65:9-10

Salty Pools

In my post last week I wrote about the positive influence of salt. It reminded me of a post last month about the proverb that you can’t draw fresh water from a salt-water well. That was about the inconsistency of praising God in one breath and cursing people with the next. Today I want to link the two with another story about remediating wells.

When wells become brackish or saline, they become useless. This is what happened after the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The day after Christmas 2004 when a tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra Island, large boats were hurled inland and thousands of people were washed out to sea – and some 30,000 shallow wells suddenly became saline.

With Palestine at the UN

The halls of the United Nations today are buzzing as the Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas asks the world to recognize his people as a nation. Some are excited by the prospect and others are incensed at the audacity of what they consider a publicity stunt.

I don’t know if this request is an effective diplomatic move, but my sympathies are certainly with a people who have been denied a homeland for far too long.

Both the Old and New Testaments echo an ancient wisdom that says
“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
Proverbs 25:21 and Romans 12:20

And make no mistake, the Palestinian people are thirsty.

Words of the Wise

Springs and fountains are wonderful gifts of nature that give access to the underground aquatic treasure of the earth. They can serve as apt metaphors of what  flows out of the human heart.

For example, Proverbs 10:11 says, ‘the words of the godly are a life-giving fountain, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence' . 

Our world is awash in words - tweets, blogs, books, whispers, broadcasts, advertizing, sermons, lectures. 

A Well-Watered Garden

It frustrated God like crazy.  Folks were praying and practicing their rituals religiously but under the surface they had no heart for what really mattered to God.  God lamented their superficiality -

Day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
They seem eager for God to come near them -
or as The Message says,
'they love having me on their side.'  Isaiah 58:2

But their hearts were as dry as dust.  Their Sabbath practice was actually mal-practice, observing their fasts but living by their fists; they appeared humble on the outside, but inwardly they were proud, self-serving and exploitive. (v. 3) And God had had enough of it.

Isaiah sketched out for them what a God-honoring faith might look like,

Desperate Drought

The drought in Jeremiah’s day was fierce. Rich and poor were equally frantic trying to fill empty water-jars. Cisterns were bone-dry; farmers were helpless and dismayed; the ground cracked under the heat of the sun and the next generation of wild-life hung in the balance.

Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn

because there is no grass.

Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and

 pant like jackals. Jeremiah 14:5 

Drought is a terrible thing and Jeremiah pleads with God - “do something – for God’s sake Jeremiah 14:7.”

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.

Showdown

The drought grew more intolerable by the day. Streams ran dry; crops failed. The king was frantic for grazing land for his herds while peasants ached with hunger. Disaster stalked the land. Something had to break.

In the third year of the drought, 1 Kings 18, Elijah went to confront King Ahab. When they met, Ahab cursed Elijah - 'you trouble-maker' he sneered. ‘On the contrary’, Elijah countered, "you and your family are Israel's trouble-makers by abandoning the Lord's commands and following the Baals" (I Kings 18:17-18). Elijah called for a spiritual show-down on Mount Carmel, a sort of religious duel between Yahweh and Baal.

A Cup of Cold Water

Today we celebrate – Post #100

Since this Wonder of Water blog launched last July, I’ve been drinking draughts from God’s deep well and trying to make each post a spillway of fresh cold water for you.

So please lift a tall glass with me and repeat these words of Jesus - "If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, . . . you’ll surely be rewarded.” Matthew 10:42 NLT

That’s one cool promise!

Earthquake and Tsunami

Apocalyptic!  That is how one news anchor described the scene in Japan in the wake of an 8.9 strength earthquake and its tsunami aftermath!

The focus of this blog is the wonder of the natural world of water and what it shows us about God's grace.

The stunning video footage of the tsunami shows us convincing evidence of the devastating power of water to splinter buildings, roll boats and cars, trains and aircraft like wine-corks and wipe out whole towns.

Where we might ask is the grace of God?

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!

Guilt is a terrible thing.  But if there is something worse than guilt, its name would be Denial.  Denial is the paralyzing refusal to come to terms with the monster that is destroying you.

Helen Rynne as Lady Macbeth

A grim scene in Macbeth illustrates the destructive power of repressed and unacknowledged guilt:  Lady Macbeth sleep-walking the halls of her castle with a candle, trying in vain to scour the damning blood-guilt from her hands.

Yet here's a spot . . .

Out, damned spot! out, I say! . . .

Who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him? . . .

What, will these hands ne'er be clean? . . .

Here's the smell of the blood still:
All the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten this little hand.

Oh, oh, oh!

Her façade is cracking; denial is hard to sustain. 

Noah Part 2 - Preserving Life

In the story of the great flood Noah built a massive boat – a barge with three floors. It was a microcosm of creation, designed to preserve life through the year of devastation ahead. In this project we see Noah fulfilling the vocation of all humanity – partnership with God and zealous care for God’s creation.

Noah coated the ark with pitch inside and out to keep his fellow-passengers dry. The water had to be kept at bay at all costs.  Water is a paradox - every animal needs to drink, but that very water, unchecked, threatens its survival. The ark became a place of refuge as everything else went down.

Rooted by the River-bank

I’ve always been impressed by the rugged roots of cedars growing along shale ravines.  Those roots worry their way down through fissures in the rock searching out the waters below. 

I love walking along woodland streams where gurgling waters keep plants alive and healthy despite the constant shade of the over-hanging tree cover.

Flowing streams provide continuous moisture and nutrients for the plants and animals that live along their banks. 

Thirsty in the Badlands

It was an ill-conceived military venture - Israel's kings marching out to exact revenge on their eastern neighbors, the Moabites, who had recently welched on their annual tribute obligations. This was economic thuggery, royal arrogance backed by military muscle and completely beyond the purposes of God. But this story in 2 Kings 3 showcases a God of grace who does far better for people than anyone deserves.

A seven-day roundabout march through the badlands south of the Dead Sea, left the kings and their armies stranded at the frontier of Moab, without water. In desperation they consulted the prophet Elisha for an oracle from God.

Tears of Joy

For Valentine’s Day, here is a story of great love and deep gratitude and the most exquisite water we know.

She was a woman who got invited to men’s homes for only one reason. But she heard about another man who was different – a giver not a taker. He himself had a reputation for socializing with people like her and maybe she had met him somewhere – maybe overheard him telling another harlot that God heals the broken-hearted, washes away tears of shame and forgives debts long overdue.

How could she know for sure? And how could she honor him – this man who looked past her disgrace and saw worth in her beyond what she could see? How could she express the gratitude and affection welling up inside her?

Leadership

... a beautiful sunrise
on a cloudless morning, with grass glistening from recent rains. . ." 

That’s how King David describes the legacy of leaders who uses their God-given power to serve their people.

In recent days, millions of Egyptian, Tunisian and Lebanese people have clamored for new leadership. Unjust leaders breed anger and frustration and stifle hope.

In Over Your Head and Going Under

Sometimes life gets crazy – everything happens at once and you feel yourself going under. A child gets sick, a friend turns hostile, your wallet is empty, dead-lines converge, you're losing your capacity to hold it all together.

You’re being sucked under, over-whelmed.

Some of Israel’s songs express this kind of nightmare experience.
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
The floods engulf me.
Don’t let me sink;
Do not let the deep waters swallow me up.
Psalm 69

Pure as the Driven Snow

Snow – it’s the proverbial measure of clean, bright purity -- as in Snow White and Ivory Snow laundry soap.

I like Mae West’s quip “I used to be pure as snow but I drifted.”

We’ve all drifted, Mae.  Anyone who says otherwise is giving themselves a snow job.  Politicians do it with words; most of us cover up with denial.

King David knew that you can’t cover up forever.  His resume includes a shameful shabby episode – when he seduced his friend’s wife and then arranged the murder of the cuckolded man.  He pretended innocence as long as he could, but eventually broke through his denial.  

Testing and Resting

Deserts are relentless – and humans are not well-adapted to desert demands.

As the Israeli tribes travelled deeper into the wilderness of Sinai toward their promised home, their principal need was water. Once, when the need was especially acute, God told Moses to smack a nearby rock. To everyone’s astonishment, water gushed out. God knows the map-line of every underground

aquifer and how to provide for his people. That happened more than once as God proved his faithfulness to his people.  Israel immortalized God's power in poetry and song:

He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
Psalm 78:15-16

But song alone can’t change character and Israel never seemed to pass the trust-test, complaining constantly, testing God’s patience, quarreling with God. Moses even named a couple of memorable landmarks Massah (i.e. Testing) and Meribah (i.e. Quarreling) to mark these low-points in their spiritual odyssey.