Worst King Ever!

Usually, the story goes something like this….

Once there was a good king named Hezekiah who tried his best to follow and do what God wanted him to do. Hezekiah listened to God's prophets and he followed the law. He trusted God to save Jerusalem, his people and himself, and God listened to his prayers and did a great miracle in defense of the city.

One day the prophet Isaiah appeared and told Hezekiah that his days were now numbered and Hezekiah was going to die. Hezekiah did not take to this announcement very well and pleaded with God to grant him more life. God in his mercy did. In fact, God gave him fifteen more years. Later Hezekiah had a son. This son, named Manasseh, turned out to be the worst king Judah ever had. He worshipped idols, sacrificed his own son, and well…was a bad king. Manasseh was twelve when he became king. So, the worst king Judah had was born during the extra time God gave Hezekiah in answer to Hezekiah's prayers.

Obviously, the moral of the story is that God's plans are better than ours, and are beyond our understanding. Too often when we meddle with God's plans the perfect result God had planned is ruined because of the choices we make.

Ok. But that’s…..you….ummm…you missed the best part!!!!

Ok, we need to go back to the beginning. After the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Judah split in two, a ten tribe (Judah)and a two tribe (Israel) split. When you read through the history of the two kingdoms (found in 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles among other places) two things stand out. The first is that the kingdom in the north, the Kingdom of Israel, never had a good king. Not a single head who wore the crown in the north followed God and his commandments. The second is that the kings of the south,  direct descendants of King David, were not as good of a group as you might have thought.

One of the good ones was Hezekiah, Manasseh's father. Hezekiah did almost everything right. But right there at the end, is this funny little story about asking for his life to be extended and God granting his request. 

But this is not about Hezekiah, it's about Manasseh. How one of the best kings of Judah produces a son who gets called the worst king of Judah I don't know. What I do know is that 2 Kings 21 gives us a list of what Manasseh did wrong.

Where should we start…He abandoned the practices of his father and copied what the people Joshua drove out did. He rebuilt the high places, shrines to false gods and idols located on the high ridges of the hills and mountains. He built altars to Baal and put up an Asherah pole. In this, he followed what King Ahaz did in the north, and Ahaz might be the worst king the north ever had. Right in the temple, he built altars to the stars. He sacrificed his own son by casting him alive into a furnace built to honor another idol. He practiced what we would call black magic, consulting mediums and people who said they could communicate with the spirits.  He then took the Asherah pole he had carved and put it into the temple. 

At this point, God had enough. He sent prophets and warned the nation that Jerusalem and Judah were going to be punished so severely that everyone who heard about it would have tingling ears. In other words, they were going to serve as God's example of what happens when you do the wrong thing. The people did not listen, and the Bible records they did more evil than the nations God had destroyed to give them the promised land.

Like I have written before, this is where the story ends when we tell it in Sunday School. It’s a straight morality play, designed to let everyone know what happens when you try to change God's plan or when you persist in doing wrong. But God does not always like to end his stories the way we like to teach them. 

There is another part to this story that I am embarrassed to say I did not know until about ten years ago. 

In 2 Chron 33, we read that God did exactly what he said he was going to do. The Assyrians came and they captured Manasseh. Putting a hook in his nose, they chained him up and took him back to Babylon. The king was now a captive. Yet still, the story does not end.

Here, we read something incredible. "He sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly." What? No way! The idol worshipping, child sacrificing pagan king turned to God? Really? And still the story does not end.

"And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea." And…" he brought him back to Jerusalem and so his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God…he got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple…he restored the altar and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it and told Judah to serve the Lord."

Words fail at this point. Anything we want to say, anything words of explanation or expansion simply subtract from the story. Of course, we still have to try. 

No one is past redemption. No one. As someone who is keenly aware of his sins and his failings, as someone who most of the time errs on the side of focusing too much on how I see myself rather than how God sees me, this is a powerful story. Manasseh had to know, had to hear the words of his father every time he walked through the palace or entered the temple. He knew who his father had been and he knew what his father had done. He surely knew what he was doing was not what his father had taught him. But he did these things anyway and then paid the price. 

And then God reached down and did that thing God does. Praise God. We know the lesson here, this is not a story about sin. It's not a story about a sinner. It’s a story about grace and mercy and God.

**It is also a reminder that God's plans are not always as obvious as we think they are. Do you think God knew Manasseh was going to be a horrible person? Do you think God knew  Manasseh would one day turn to him? Do you think this was God's plan all along? To have yet another example of grace and mercy we can point to? I do.

Psalm 121

Let me give a little background to Psalm 121. It’s named one of the 15 Psalms/Songs of Ascent as noted in the introduction to the psalm itself and no one really knows what that means. In fact the interpretations are really all over the place. Some note that the 15 Psalms relate to the 15 steps that were on the porch in Solomon's Temple. As the priests would climb the steps they would sing, chant or recite the Songs of Ascent. There is a rabbinic tradition that David sang these songs to calm the rising waters as he was building the foundation for what would become Solomon's temple. Some think the Psalms were meant to be sung in different keys, starting low and ending higher. But the most traditional interpretation is these songs were song by pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem  for the holy days. So, I think we will stick with that. The other minor problem is that the writer of the Psalm is unknown and we don’t know the date it was written either. So basically we don’t know who wrote the song, when they wrote it or why they wrote but, we won’t let that bother us today.

Before we begin we need to understand three things.

Like most pre-modern cultures, the Jews were an oral culture. Not everyone could read or write, in fact, almost no one was completely literate. The priests, professional scribes, military leaders, some rich people, maybe a king or two, and the odd merchant who kept his own records—these were the literate people. Everyone else read or wrote as much as they needed.   The schools Jewish boys attended relied on learning by rote, kind of a "repeat after me" type of learning. Everything was memorized. Even the songs and stories were passed down from generation to generation, from the older to the younger by rote. In some cultures today, the story teller is a much respected person in his or her community.

The collection of prayers or songs we call the Psalms wasn’t completed until after the exile. The introductions place them at various times in Jewish history, and there are many authors. Most likely an editor compiled the 150 psalms from different collections and at some point these 150 became the “standard.” Before this, each psalm was passed down from generation to generation orally.

The last thing you need to know is that the land of Israel was not flat. The land starts at sea level on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and then climbs into the hills, where Jerusalem is located. From Jerusalem the land slopes down to the Jordan River valley. Basically, right in the middle of the land was this range of high ground. So you literally went up to Jerusalem, you climbed the hills. This is what the gospel writers meant when they wrote that Jesus went up to Jerusalem, even though he was travelling south.

Well, enough background, let me tell you a story.

The group had been walking for a few days now. The size of the group never really stayed the same, but there was a core of about 10 families who were slowly working their way together toward the higher hills that signified they were getting closer to Jerusalem. Other groups joined them at night to camp, safety in numbers you know, and then moved off in the morning. With the large numbers of children and elderly they were traveling with, they hadn’t expected to make very good time.

Everyone was walking, well there were a few donkeys that the old people took turns using, and the really little children could only walk for an hour or so in the morning before a parent or older sibling picked them up and carried them on their back. So you can understand why they moved slowly. The teenaged boys lagged behind, nothing moves slower than a pack of teens walking through a semi-arid landscape together. In front were the pre-teen boys, acting as scouts for the army they were pretending was behind them. Girls walked with their families. Benjamin was 10 years old and he was having the time of his life. This was the first time his family was making the trip. His older sister and his parents were behind him somewhere, and from his spot on the rock he was standing on, he thought he could see them. It was time for lunch, and he was trying to wave his family toward the shade he had found.

His mom had made lunch the night before, carefully rewrapping up the roasted meat and the toasted flat bread she had prepared before the trip started. Tonight they would eat the last of the roasted lamb, nothing but bread and dried vegetables for tomorrow. Benjamin really hoped they would make it to Jerusalem the day after that. As exciting as the trip had been, he was ready to stop walking. A quick stop in the shade, a hasty meal, and back on the road until dusk.

By the time the sun started going down, everyone was tired. A camp site was picked out in a grove of scraggily trees, and soon a dozen or more fires were burning. After dinner everyone settled down for the evening. Benjamin’s dad stood up and with Benjamin behind him walked over to a nearby fire where they sat down in a crowd that had gathered.

Two old men sat on a rock positioned a little higher than everyone gathered around them. Eli and Joshua had been appointed the story tellers and teachers for the trip, and the men and boys gathered each night to listen. From the first night of the trip Eli and Joshua had been reviewing the history of the nation, using landmarks they passed to retell the old stories. When they had passed by the city of Jericho the two old men had acted out the march around the wall, and told the story of Achan. They also sang the old songs, the ones that David wrote, the ones where David called upon God to hear his voice and rescue him.

Tonight Eli started.

“Jehovah is the name we use for God, because his name is sacred.”

He continued.

“It’s the name he gave to Moses-I AM. This was the day Moses saw the burning bush. Did you ever stop to think about the burning bush? Jehovah called himself the I AM, the always existing one from a bush that didn’t burn up.”

Joshua jumped in.

“Don’t you see? The flame that always existed, inexhaustible, never burning itself out. The flame that always was. The I AM. He can always provide, he never burns up. He always has enough for us, and he never runs out.”

Benjamin’s dad turned and grinned at him. "I AM" he mouthed toward his son.

Joshua continued.

“This is our God. The one who made heaven and earth. Look up at the stars, and at the sky tomorrow. Everything was made by God, and everyone who sees the stars, and walks under the sky tomorrow as well. This is the God who watches over us. This is the God who never runs out. Remember the prophet Elisha and the jar of oil that never ran out? God provided and it was never empty. The full sky at night can be a promise of this.”

Benjamin couldn’t help himself, he looked up and gasped at the uncountable twinkles of light in the sky above him. He turned back toward the old men and settled back to rest against his dad.

It was Eli’s turn.

“Tomorrow, Jehovah will not let you slip as you climb. In fact he watches over us tonight, he never sleeps.”

A voice from the crowd interrupted. “So Jehovah will make sure we get there safely?”

Eli slowly shook his head. “No, it means that as we seek to serve him, as we become true followers, as we climb toward being more like he wants us to be, if we do this in sincerity and with our whole hearts, he won’t cause us to slip. He won’t let us down. Things might not go well for us, my cousin fell off a mountain once, but I’ve served Jehovah my whole life, and he has never let me down.”

A mummer of agreement rustled through the crowd.

Joshua held up both his arms and the noise tailed off.

“Elijah was a prophet in the old days. In the days where people forgot about Jehovah. They worshiped idols and demons on these very hills, at the high points and the hill tops. This was where they thought their help came from. From a false god who lived on a mountain. In times of trouble they looked to the mountains instead of toward Jehovah. They built alters and shrines and worshipped idols made of rocks and wood.”

Eli shook his head from side to side while Joshua continued.

“One day Elijah battled with the idol worshipping priests of Baal on a mountain top. The Baal priests built an alter and called for their god all day to send fire. All day. They danced, sang, chanted and yelled. Can you imagine? They yelled at their god!”

Eli stood up and mimed shaking his hands at the heavens. Joshua mentioned him to sit down.

“My old friend likes this story, can you tell? Anyway, Elijah just couldn’t help himself, and he started mocking them. Maybe your god is sleeping. Maybe he went on a trip and didn’t tell you.”

Eli jumped to his feet again and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Maybe he’s going to the bathroom! Ha ha ha”

Joshua grinned.

“Finally it was Elijah’s turn and he carefully built a new alter, dug a ditch around it and soaked everything with water to the point of filling the ditch. And when he prayed—Jehovah let everyone know you are God—fire fell from heaven and burned up the sacrifice, the stones in the alter, the ground, and the water in the ditch.  Our God never sleeps. This is our God!”

Benjamin clapped with everyone else. He knew the story of course, but told under a starry sky by firelight it gave him goose bumps. God never sleeps!

Eli spoke next.

“ Jehovah watches over us! The sun and the moon can’t even harm us. God can keep us from all harm. Our lives are watched over by him. All those gods that aren’t even gods, the moon, stars and sun that the heathen worship, nothing they do can harm us if God is on our side.”

Getting excited Eli stood up and holding his arms out in worship he sang an old hymn that Benjamin had heard before.

“You have searched me, LORD,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

   you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

   you are familiar with all my ways. ..

 Where can I go from your Spirit?

   Where can I flee from your presence?”

Joshua got to his feet and stood next to Eli. Together the two men raised their hands to give a blessing. The group of men and boys stood and gathered as close as they could to the two old men.

“Listen to this new song,” Joshua said and the two men sang together. They repeated the song until all the men and boys knew the song by memory.

“Go back to your families and teach them the song, teach them what it means.”

Holding his father’s hand in the dark, Benjamin sang the song to himself as they walked back to where his mother and sister were sitting. Together Benjamin and his dad taught the song to the rest of the family. As he fell asleep that night Benjamin thought about everything Eli and Joshua had taught them. About Jehovah being the one who is, who never runs out, who never sleeps and who watches over them. He pictured Elijah praying for the fire, and the flash and the hiss of the steam. He imagined Jehovah holding his feet in place as he raced up a mountain. Finally he fell asleep listening to his father and mother singing the new song softly in the dark.

The next morning there was not a cloud in the sky. In the distance, through the clear morning air they could see the last mountain they would have to walk up. More and more travelers joined the party until the road was packed with travelers. His dad told Benjamin to stay close to the family today, he didn’t want to get lost in the crowd. His dad had gotten the family in line right behind Eli and Joshua and Benjamin heard Eli tell Joshua that this would be his last trip to Jerusalem. The two old men walked arm in arm up the mountain side, helping each other over the ruts and holes

Half way up the mountain the road came to a flat spot where suddenly you could see into the city. There was the palace, the houses, and the markets. And there, shining in the distance, gleaming, was the temple.

Benjamin bumped into the person in front of him and looking up from his view of Jerusalem we saw that everyone had stopped. The young men in the group had surrounded Eli and Joshua and were holding them up where everyone could see them.

“Quiet! Listen!” People were shouting for everyone to be quiet, and slowly the crowd quieted. "Sing! Sing the new song!"

Eli and Joshua started singing, and motioned for everyone to join in.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

   where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,

   the Maker of heaven and earth.

 3 He will not let your foot slip—

   he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

   will neither slumber nor sleep.

 5 The LORD watches over you—

   the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

   nor the moon by night.

 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—

   he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going

   both now and forevermore. 

Every.Single.Time

Russian icon of Aaron from the 17th century.

I'll hug him, he'll hug me back and we'll both shout "Every single time!" Then most likely, we'll cry. But let me back up a little bit.

I can't be the only person in this world who plans their interactions with the people they will meet when they get to heaven. Everyone jokes that they will ask Noah why he didn't smack those two mosquitoes, what it felt like when that fish dove into the deep with Jonah inside and ask the disciples what jokes made Jesus laugh the most. I want to know the answers to those questions too. But there are others.

Besides the legends of the faith (the ones mentioned in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews) there are a few others I want to talk to. Way up at the top of my list is Aaron. Yes, Aaron, Moses' brother, you know who I'm talking about.

That was some family. With Moses the leader, Aaron the Priest and Miriam the prophetess, family dinners in the middle of the desert must have been fun, not to mention all the growing up dynamics. You know, the ones hinted at in the  Prince Of Egypt movie, where Moses doesn't know who his brother and sister are, and Aaron is Jeff Goldblum.....But I digress.

I want to meet Aaron. We all think we know about Aaron and what he did. But really the only story we know is that he built the golden calf. We forget everything else, or we fail to tie all the pieces together. To get the truest picture of Aaron it is important that you start at the beginning.

In the beginning there was a family in Egypt. Now the Bible is a little unclear on the details. I think this is important. It lets us use our imagination to try and tie these great stories onto and into our experiences. We put a little bit of our background, our experiences and emotions into the stories, making them real, making them about us so we can learn from them. It’s a little how we "picture" characters and scenes from our favorite books. It’s a tool to aid in our comprehension, and we do it when we read the Bible too.

Aaron is listed first in all the accounts of the children, so many assume he is the oldest. If Miriam was the girl who followed Moses' basket then Moses would have been the baby of the family. We know from the Biblical account that Miriam, quick thinker that she was, convinced Pharaoh's daughter to let Moses' real mother be his wet nurse. But after that, when Moses was weaned and he moved into the palace, did they know each other or were they strangers to each other? Did they wave from a distance on those occasions when Pharaoh and his family paraded through public? Did he come "home" from time to time? No one knows. How did Aaron feel about that? No one knows. Up to this point in the story, Aaron has not even been mentioned.

We do know that the first time we really meet Aaron by name, God says it. "Look, there is Aaron your brother." You see, God has a problem--Moses doesn't want to do what God wants him to do. So as a solution, God picks Aaron to solve his Moses problem. That's amazing to me, Aaron is presented as God's answer to a problem. 

Then Moses and Aaron go off and have lots of adventures. Do you know who was there when Moses confronted Pharaoh? Aaron. Do you know who was there when Moses had to keep his hands in the air during the battle with the Amelekites? Aaron, holding one of the arms up. Do you know who gets invited to the top of Mount Sini and sits down in God's presence to share a meal? Aaron. During every significant event mentioned during the Exodus and the long walk afterwards, Aaron is there.

But then we come to the golden calf. This one is harder. Aaron caves in the face of the people, and then tries to blame them for his sin. I forget why we teach this story to little kids in Sunday School. I do know that it is not to teach what I realized later and now see in Aaron's story. But let's not jump ahead.

Do you know what happened after the golden calf? Aaron is anointed High Priest in a grand ceremony in front of all the people. There are fancy clothes, sacrifices--lots of sacrifices--and then Aaron and his sons are given the prime camping location right in front of the tabernacle. Of course two of his sons die after trying to worship God the wrong way, but Aaron soldiers on. He's the high priest after all, the one chosen by God (who did not choose Moses by the way, Aaron was chosen for this role) to seek forgiveness and atonement for the sins of the people.

And then he goes and does it again, this time plotting against Moses with his own sister. Did he think the two of them were going to lead the people into the promised land themselves? Was it a big kids versus the little kid thing? Every single time it seems Aaron has the opportunity to do the wrong thing he makes a bad choice. Every single time, although this isn't what we'll be referring to when we hug.

In between all these stories, the unwritten things make a argument from silence. Aaron did his job, the role God chose him for, the role God called him to, the role God decided Aaron was the man for. He served God. Day after day, week after week, Aaron stood before God and in essence said, "Don't punish us for our sins, we need forgiveness. Please forgive us. Please forgive us."

And every time Aaron did his job he was reminded of all his failures.  But this still isn't the "every time" I'm referring to.

To get to the "every time" I want to get to, we need to understand that the central character of Aaron's life is not Aaron. Its God. In Bible school I always heard that the hero of every Bible story is God. And I must admit that it seemed a little too….Bible school-ish to say that. But in Aaron's and I guess by extension the whole Bible, it is true. God is the main hero of Aaron's story because the center of Aaron's story is not Aaron's sin. The way we teach it in Sunday school its all about Aaron's sin, but we teach it wrong. Aaron's story isn't about sin, its about grace.

Here is the "every time" I'm talking about. Every time, every stinking time Aaron did something stupid, every time he made a bad decision, every time he sinned, every time Moses looked at him and clenched his teeth and shouted "AARON WHAT DID YOU DO?"--after every one of these things God looked at Aaron and said, "Aaron, I forgive you. Now do what I picked you to do."

Every time I sin, which is really what I m saying when I use the words "make a bad decision," God looks at me, forgives and say "Now go do what I picked you to do," Every single time.

This is the every time. Every time I come back, God forgives. Every time I confess, God forgives. Every time I call out to him, God forgives. Every time I sin, God forgives. This is what Aaron and I will be shouting to each other.

Every. Single. Time.

photo credit: photo

January 2017

20 YEARS THIS SPRING!

Dear Friends and Family,      We find ourselves mid-way through this third quarter of the school year, constantly amazed at how the time flies. Without the traditional seasons, we can't complain about the change of weather but instead compare this year's excessive rains in January to previous years. Fortunately, February has brought only moderate rains allowing for a relief for hot days, but not causing the flooding and havoc as the rains did in January.     This spring semester the SAM Academy administrator is on furlough so there are additional tasks and roles to be shared by the full time staff at the school. Along with these additional responsibilities and continuing as principal, Bill is teaching a new class, Economics. Despite the added work load, he is enjoying the challenge of looking up new lesson plans, sharing mind-numbingly useless information with his wife :), and engaging in discussion over the dinner table with our teenage sons.     Joy has had a slight change in her job as well since the beginning of January. At the end of last year, the maintenance staff found an impending problem with the engine on the airplane that Joy flies. They grounded the plane immediately and are currently working on importing a newly overhauled engine to install on the aircraft. This importation is a lengthy process, and while we are grateful for the Lord's providence in finding the problem before any serious consequences, it was unexpected and will take approximately three months to get a replacement engine from the United States. This means that Joy continues as flight coordinator and has been given other administrative tasks such as updating airstrip charts and manuals, but that she also really misses being "in the air" and serving the local missionaries in the indigenous communities.      We have always been committed to our local church and this past year we began hosting a small group from our church in our home. Our Peruvian small group meets weekly on Saturday evenings. As the group grows and the 5-6 families start to become more faithful, our small house won't fit everyone in our small living room. Our eat-in-kitchen is also our only area for sharing food, and there is not space where everyone can sit down. Therefore, we accepted SAM Academy's offer to have us move into a different home on the same center. This home has the same number of bedrooms, but has a open concept living area and kitchen with a large screened in porch built specifically for church ministries. This home has the potential to be a great place for many ministry opportunities but needs some serious maintenance. There are a number of house projects that need to be done before we can move in. (For a fun spoof of "Property Brothers" created by our son Cullen, check out this video.) We are very excited that TWO of our supporting churches have volunteered to come with work teams this July to help us move into this house. Please pray for the planning and preparation to receive these work teams.      This coming month, March 2017, we are celebrating 20 years as members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It hardly seems possible that we have been in full time Christian ministry this long. It has certainly been our joy, honor and personal adventure to serve Christ in South America these many years. We honestly can not imagine what our lives would look like if we had not taken this step of faith 20 years ago. For each of you who have been with us these past 20 years--THANKS. We are grateful for those people that the Lord used to send us to the field many years ago that are now in His presence. And we are very grateful for those who have joined us mid-way through our journey to take up the baton and help run the race with us.      May this spring time be days of renewal and rebirth in your lives.      In Christ,     Bill, Joy, William, Cullen and Camilla

Small Group: Beyond our weekly meetings, our small group tries to share a meal together at least every other month. This picture shows a Sunday lunch where we roasted a goat at another member's home. Highlight of Christmas was having Joy's Dad, Cullen Rast, with us for the holidays. As always, it's not the size of the gifts, but celebrating as a family. The kids once again declared "It was the best Christmas ever." The highlight of Camilla's school year was being Lucy in the SAM Academy play of "Charlie Brown's Christmas." Camilla (or should we say "Lucy" with her friend "Sally")--all smiles before the big performance!

Praise and Prayer Requests: 1. Praise that we sold our old truck! 2. Praise for safety each day. 3. Pray for the upcoming SAM Peru conference in March where we will be helping lead worship. 4. Pray for continued growth of our small group. Wycliffe Bible Translators PO BOX 628200 Orlando FL 32862 For Gifts and Financial Support click here: