echoes of redemption | steven dilla

It is so easy to become disconnected from other people in the world. After reading Arlan’s post on the nations, I remembered an email someone sent that challenged my thinking and prayer patterns for one nation in particular.

Right behind the nation Israel, the second most mentioned nation in the Bible is the nation of Iraq. You may not recognize it at first, because in the Ancient Near East it was called a number of things (including Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia).

Some Biblical events involving Iraq:

• Likely the location of garden of Eden 
• The Tower of Babel was in Iraq
  
• Abraham was from Ur (southern Iraq)
• Jacob met Rachel in Iraq
  
• Jonah preached in Nineveh (jut of the Tigris)
• Daniel was in the lion’s den in Iraq
  
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were throne into the furnace in Iraq
• Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the “writing on the wall” in Iraq
  
• Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq
• Peter preached in Iraq

“God treats his most faithful servants like crap. They suffer all the time. Go down the line:  Joseph (unjustly accused and thrown into prison), Moses (banished by God for 40 years into the desert for some “character development”), Samuel gives his life for his people and they never really listen to him, David constantly running for his life from a King God appointed, Solomon like his father had kids who hated him and hated each other, Jeremiah quite possibly a sufferer of clinical depression, Hosea is told to marry a whore so that Israel has a picture of God’s love, Ezekiel’s wife dies in the middle of his ministry.” (author withheld)

So the glass is half empty?

Never mind that Joseph, because of God’s desire to interpret dreams through him, rose to a level of power and authority in the world that no Hebrew could dream of.

Let’s not talk about how the creator and guider of the waters lead Moses’ basket into the arms of a Pharaoh’s daughter, split the waters at the touch of his staff or brought the entire Jewish legal system into existence through his relationship.

Don’t look at how Samuel’s entire life was anointed by God - that such a simple boy, from such an unlikely past, would become one of God’s most powerful voices in a dark and unjust time.

And David - you mean the Hebrew hillbilly who became the namesake king in the lineage of our Savior? His son Solomon, the wisest man ever to live - given his wisdom as a gift from God, unparallel to any other gift in Scripture.

Then, Jeremiah came along, the one man in all of time that God entrusted with His vision - not only for generations to come, but for all of humanity.

And Hosea, the man to whom God gave such a vivid and powerful message of His will that generations today are still gasping at his clarity, integrity and resolve.

But all these things are but waste compared to the unmachless reward these men receive because of their faith. It wasn’t the earthly rewards, the accolades of man or the promotion of self that drove any of these men - therefore the earthy struggles, insults from men and demotion of self did not deter them from their faith in God.

If the glass is half empty, it is only for the brief time these men served their God on earth. Now the glass is full - even overflowing.

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How we view things impacts how people around us view things. How we talk about God changes the way people who listen to our voice interact with God. It is critical we do not get caught up in negativity, but focus our lives on the greatness of God and the name of Jesus as the only truly good thing in life and the promise for all of creation’s restoration.

What are your thoughts? What would you change or add?

In silence we find ourselves uncomfortable. There is too little going on. Every day, a host of distractions vie for our attention - threatening to take passion, energy and attention from our worship.

This has always been the case.

In the Old Testament the player’s weren’t TV, nice cars or adrenaline rushes - they were idols. Little statues that demanded time, required sacrifice and incited desire.

One of the key players in the Old Testament is the culture of the Philistines. The Philistines were as culturally rich as they were powerful, and controlled much of the Ancient Near East for large periods of history. One of the Philistine’s key gods, if not the key god, was an idol named Dagon. Half fish and half man, Dagon was said to rule over the other Philistine gods and be the source of their harvest each season.

His record in Scripture is intriguing, to say the least:

• Dagon is first mentioned in Judges 16 just after Samson is captured by the Philistines. They gouge Samson’s eyes out and drag him to one of their temples to worship Dagon - who they credit for Samson’s capture. In the end of the chapter Samson destroys their temple and kills the thousands who have come to celebrate Dagon’s victory over YHWH’s servant.

• 1 Samuel 5 may be my favorite Dagon story in the Bible. The Ark has been captured by the Philistines and they take it to the temple of Dagon. As with everything they give their god credit for, they set it at his feet and leave him. The Bible says the next day the Philistines returned and the massive idol of Dagon was laying prostrate before the Ark. The Philistines stood him up (don’t you hate it when you have to help your god stand up?) and left him a second time before the ark. The following day they returned to find Dagon, again prostrate, this time decapitated and with both hands severed from his body. Tie this in with what we know about the Philistines from 1 Chronicles 10 and we have quite a story unfolding…

• At the end of Saul’s life (1 Chronicles 10) the Philistines came upon his body. As was their tradition, to demonstrate the total destruction of their enemies, they decapitated him and hung in head in the temple of Dagon. Extra-Biblical accounts record that the Philistines were known for the decapitation and severing of both hands of their enemies to demonstrate their victory over them and to account for their success in battle.

YHWH totally destroyed Dagon. He declared victory over the idol and completely incapacitated him.

Have the things that take my attention from God been totally destroyed or do they still stand in my temple?

Where do I spend my time? What am I sacrificing for? What desire is the strongest in my life? These places are where I will find my God.

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This post was adapted from my previous blog (I liked it too much to leave it…)