Remember flannelgraphs?
They were designed to summarize and simplify a story to make it easily
consumable by children. If my memory serves
me correctly, this method of storytelling embodied my earliest exposure to
almost all of the major characters of the Bible. From Adam and Eve to Paul and Silas, I saw
their heroic tales through the colorful medium of paper dolls on flannel.
This was not a bad introduction to the concept of YHVH
working in and through the lives of humans.
However, just like our modern perception of celebrities, we have a
tendency to think of Bible characters as being in a separate, more exalted
category from us in our daily mundane existence. They are bigger than life! They had special skills or unique
qualifications or a specific anointing for the work YHVH called them to
accomplish. They are better than me. That is what we tend to think.
But if you take a careful, text-based look at these
characters, you will find the stark humanity in all of them. We know there has only been one truly perfect
human, the man Yeshua haMashiach Go’aleinu (Jesus the Messiah, our Redeemer). Yet we still tend to assign superhuman traits
to our favorite heroes of the Bible. We
do it for other historical figures, too.
We have to try really hard to see the ordinariness of people like George
Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein, Mahatma
Gandhi, and hundreds of other historical humans.
We celebrate these special people because of the
accomplishments for which they have become known. They DID something that makes them worthy of
our attention and our adulation. We
value people who DO something; who take action; who achieve some level of greatness,
regardless of the specific definition of greatness that applies to them. History applauds them. We take notice, and we wonder what we can do
to deserve a place with them in the annals of human history.
Going back to our Bible heroes. They are recorded in scripture because of
something they DID; some action(s) they took.
They are, in some ways, the original action heroes. Noach, Avraham, Yosef, Miriam (Moshe’s
sister), Moshe, Y’hoshua, Sh’muel, David, Gidon, Miriam (Yeshua’s mother), Sha’ul,
and many, many more.
All of these people DID something wondrous and
amazing. Some of them did several things
that were extraordinary. That is why we
revere them. For what they did. We want to be like them.
We don’t have space in this blog entry to examine closely
every Bible character and their story.
But let’s take more than a cursory glance at some of them; more than a
flannelgraph fly-by.
For example, let’s look at Noach. Amazing.
He built a huge boat, gathered hundreds of animals, took care of them,
and saved all of them from disappearing from the earth; not to mention making a
way for humans to continue living on the earth.
No doubt about it. Noach DID some
things worthy of note. Why? Because YHVH told him to. And not just in a casual conversation over coffee,
or in a general suggestion. Nothing like
YHVH saying, “Say, Noach, I’ve got an idea.
Why don’t you save humankind and all of the animals from
extinction? Make a plan. Do it however you like. It’ll be great.” No.
YHVH told Noach exactly what
to do and how to do it. Noach’s
relationship with YHVH gave him the ability to hear YHVH’s voice and to do what
YHVH told him to do.
What about Yosef? He
saved most of the known world from starving to death during a prolonged famine. Quite an accomplishment. How did he do that? YHVH gave him certain important skills and
charisma, even good looks, apparently.
But once again, Yosef’s relationship with YHVH is how he was able to
hear YHVH’s voice and step into the assignment he received. He could have chosen to be angry and bitter –
a victim mentality – and he probably would have remained in prison; and we
would probably never have heard of him.
Instead, Yosef listened to YHVH’s instructions, and Egypt (and many
others, including his own family) was saved.
Y’hoshua, son of Nun, was responsible for bringing the
children of Israel into the Promised Land.
Undeniably, an accomplishment of biblical proportions (sorry, couldn’t resist). There are many miraculous stories involving Y’hoshua. Let’s just look at the walls of Yericho
(great flannelgraph story!). Y’hoshua
led the people of Israel to a great victory.
What a terrific, unusual strategy to encircle the city seven times, blow
shofar, and shout! Good thinking, Y’hoshua! You DID it!
But, look at Y’hoshua chapter 6.
YHVH gave Y’hoshua the strategy, specifically. This does not take anything away from Y’hoshua’s
great accomplishment. In fact, it makes
it even greater! He and the people still
had to DO the physical work of walking, blowing, and shouting. Success came because they were following YHVH’s
instructions.
OK, let’s look at just one from the B’rit Hadashah (New
Testament). Sha’ul (Paul) accomplished
stunning deeds. The tales of his life
involve mystery, adventure, and miracles.
We know about him today because he DID some amazing things. Similar to Yosef, YHVH gave Sha’ul some
notable gifts, particularly in the realm of communication. But the stories we read reveal a recurring
theme. Sha’ul sought the purposes of
YHVH without fail. In prison (Acts 16),
he was singing praises to YHVH when an earthquake happened, which opened the
doors of the prison and all of the prisoners’ chains fell off. Did Sha’ul orchestrate, plan, devise, script,
structure, or otherwise directly cause the earthquake? No.
That was YHVH.
“A person may plan his path, but YHVH directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
What is my point?
The heroes of the Bible are heroes because their relationship with YHVH
gave them the ability to hear YHVH’s voice, and their trust in YHVH led them to
take action according to the instructions YHVH gave them. Even Yeshua said, “Yes, indeed!, I tell you
that the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father
doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too.” (Yochanan (John) 5:19) This is Yeshua! He is telling us even HE only does what the
Father tells him to do.
Press in to YHVH.
Spend time with him. Study his
Word. Practice two-way prayer; i.e., don’t
spend you whole time in prayer talking; listen, too. When you are being pressed to take action, be
sure you are hearing from YHVH as to whether what you are being pressed to do
is in accordance with HIS instructions to you.
No one may ever call you a hero; and you may not ever have your own
action figure; but some day you will hear him say, “Well done, my good and
faithful servant.”
Better than any “participation trophy” EVER!
Shalom!
שלום
No comments:
Post a Comment