Deep Calls

This is Javier Bardem,      a young Javier Bardem.                                                  You may have seen him in movies like "Eat, Pray, Love", "No Country for Old Men" This is a picture of him when he was young. I include it because if I was going to cast parts for a movie about these stories, I would cast Javier as David, the lead role.   David is king                         ...well kind-of. In the truest sense, by authority given by God and by anointing, he is king. Unfortunately he still lives at home, is the family 'sheep-sitter', and has a side-job working for Saul who, by the by, is the sitting king   ...  who God has stripped of His authority and Holy Spirit, but has left sitti...

It would seem, you go to work for the king you will replace. NO! That doesn't sound right...in fact, that sounds, well, dangerous! But ~ that is exactly what David does. Oh, it isn't his idea...this is one of God's best, and -- in my "never to be humble" opinion -- funniest setups. There are, actually, a few things about this story that amuse me. So, the story. Unbeknownst to Saul, God has moved on from him, and sent Samuel to anoint David as the king of Israel. There is a saying we all use pretty flippantly: God moves in mysterious ways. This story is one that makes people ~ me for instance ~ quote that saying. So here are my questions: 1) Why does Saul get to keep the crown and throne? 2) Why did God anoint David, and then ... nothing? 3) Really???  An evil spirit FROM GOD??? I'm rambling...sorry. Here is the story: So, David is anointed as king, and the next day -- maybe even that same day when dinner was over the dishes were done (yeah, c...

   David is such a significant figure in scripture. He is so important that whole of his story is spread throughout the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and, of course, Psalms. Jesus calls himself, "The Son of David." Isn't it interesting that the very important King David's story begins, as it were, "Once upon a time there was this boy that no one thought much of. A boy so insignificant that he was left out and forgotten by his own family, forgotten even when the most important spiritual leader in of all Israel drops by for dinner."        So, David gets up one morning...early as usual, like "it is still dark" early. He goes out as he always does to tend the sheep. Grabbing his harp on the way out the door, he faces what, for all the world, looks like every other day: walk the hills, tend the sheep, kill a bear or perhaps a lion, (yeah...we'll talk about that later), sing and play the harp a bit, tend the sheep, walk the hills. Back at h...

OK...turning the page ~ Starting a new ... well, not actually new ... focus. You see, my daughter and I decided over Christmas that we would start to tandem-blog: both of us looking at the same theme/story/area of scripture and then each of us writing what ~ well ~ what ever. Then we would put links in our blogs to each other's blog. So...we decided to look at David for a while. His story is crazy long in scripture. To read it all you must look at lots of the books : 1 and 2 Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, of course Psalms . . . . As we talked we decided to "begin at the beginning" or really, just before the beginning: The book of Ruth. So we did. And now we are on to David. Beth has started already. To read her first 'David' blog click right here.  She began with a personal story. I am going to start by looking at David when he kills Goliath. I warn you, I will probably hop-scotch around a bit, rather than write a nice, neat chronological study of David ...

I am finished with Ruth . I realized all over again as I mused and meditated on this delightful little book that I love it! For a short book ~ 4 short chapters ~ it is crammed with characters that come to life, with poignant emotion, with STORY, and with truth. I love Naomi! She captivated my imagination. I have heard sermons about the book, not many ok, but some. The worst I ever heard was something along the line that God had punished this woman and her family because they abandoned Him and Israel by going to Moab and that is why the men in Naomi's family died. It tied the book to the theme scripture in Judges, Judg 21:25:             In those days Israel had no king ; everyone did as he saw fit. NIV I am so glad that I do not remember who preached that blather, that rot! You can tell, I hope, that I completely disagree! RIDICULOUS!! In fact, what I saw in Naomi was a woman of faith who was human and very REAL, who loved G...

     I love this last chapter of Ruth. I am sure Boaz did not sleep a wink after Ruth left. I can see Boaz strolling to the gate of the city early...perhaps as the sun just begins to rise, his eyes full of light as the first rays of the sun crest the horizon.  - - - - -       Boaz walked briskly through the darkness to the house. "Micah...Micah, get up ~ come quietly ~ I need to talk to you."      "Boaz? What is wrong ... what -- it isn't even light?"      "So, what is Elias's wife's name...Mirrim, Mari?? ...isn't his wife with child again? They have, what, two sons, three?"      "Uhh, yes, Mirrim, yes it is Mirrim. And yes, Yaffa tells me that Mirrim thinks this will be a girl, finally. Why? ... OH! Elias !" Micah chuckled. He pulled his cloak around his shoulders and came to stand beside Boaz. " Elias...sooo , isn't he the nearest kin to Naomi?"      Boaz sud...

Beth, my daughter is doing a wonderful blog.  You should go here  and read her thoughts on the Levirate laws.      "I don't understand ~ what do you mean 'kinsman-redeemer'? Was he related to Elimelech? Why has he not asked you to move on to his estate, if he is kin?" Ruth fretted at Naomi's words as she dished up the dinner she had made.       "No. He is not 'kin' like that. He is Elimelech's kinsman, but a distant relative...they come from the same clan. No. 'Kinsman-redeemer' ... it is role, um a tradition from the law. You see, Ruth, God owns all the land ~ all of it. He has given it to families based upon which tribe we are from. He did it when we first came to the promised land."      "I thought you said Elimelech had land and you were going to sell it . . ."      "Yes, but you see the land should stay in the family. Even if I sold it to some other family, some other clan, at the Jubilee it wo...

There are many things we don't know about Boaz: -- We don't know why this rich, successful, kind, generous man was single and, it seems, without any children -- We don't know what went on behind the scenes as the story transpired. -- We don't know if it crossed Boaz's mind to be kinsman-redeemer. We don't know, but here are the colors I am painting to fill in the spaces between the lines      Spring melted into early summer. The barley harvest was finished, beginning in Abib {our March to April} and finishing in Zif {our April to May} .   There had been a 60 fold increase and much rejoicing. The wheat harvest was drawing to a close and it too had been abundant, beginning in Sivan { our May to June}   and finishing in Tamuz {our June to July} . The days were warmer and warmer -- some hot. Boaz stood looking out at the fields one morning, breathing prayers of gratitude to God for the full barns. Micah walked up, read...

     As I have been writing about the Ruth story ... the characters in this wonderful little romance ... I find that as I look at each one of the different people, it is like shifting my view. When you scan a room, what you see depends on where you stand. If you come into my living room from the front door, for example, you will see primarily the back of a couch, a large mirror on a wall and the TV. But if you come in from the kitchen, you will see the red wall with the art work, the front of the couch, and off to the side, the front door. Same room ~ different views. That is what Ruth has been for me.      When I enter the story looking at Boaz I see the landscape of events from a very different viewpoint than when I look at Naomi. Here is a man who is rich. He, it seems, has a large estate with lots of fields. He is well established. But . . . he is old...or older...and he has no family ~ at least the story mentions no wife, no children. I...

      " Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." ( Ruth 1:16-17)      Have you ever been to a wedding where these words were part of the wedding vows? I have . . .  SEVERAL times. They are wonderful vows ~ so passionate, so all-encompassing. They speak of love that is relentless, committed, faithful. Just perfectly formed as vows for a wedding. These words come from the book of Ruth in the Bible. The thing is though, they are not, in that book, spoken at a wedding. While they are spoken by Ruth, she did not say them to Mahlon - her first husband who died in Moab - nor to Boaz - the second husband that she married in Israel. They were not marriage vows. They were words she spoke to her mother-in-law, Naomi.      W...

     My daughter, Elizabeth Larkin -- for those of you who don't know her -- is one of my favorite people. She (though she stubbornly argues with me every time I say this) is one of the most insightful people in the world. Even if she were not my daughter, she would still be one of my favorite people on the planet. Why do I bring her up, you ask? {Thanks for asking} Well....      Beth and I have decided for the next season to write our blogs "together" ~ that is, we are going to tackle the same topic and write blogs and put links to each other's blogs up in each of our blogs. (wow... that is an awkward sentence! Hope you get what I mean.)      Beth started first. She actually 'read my mind' ~ I had also planned to mention the first time we, Beth and I, read and studied the book of Ruth and the fun and funny mnemonics we used to remember the funny names in this book. Now I won't of course. You can go read about it in her blog. Here...