One Man's Race

Have your eyes ever hurt standing in line of the supermarket or at least your head? The magazine rack is beaming with bright colors with familiar faces. Faces that we hold up as heroes for some almost in a Greek pantheon way. Not only do we lift up Hollywood, but we all too often lift up the names in the Bible as unreachable humans. Instead of seeing Abraham or Ruth as a man or woman just like you and me perhaps you, like me, see them as a Superman figure that God had a highly unique relationship. Then there are some stories that explode this view.

The time had come Sarah had passed and Abraham knew that he wanted to see his son, Isaac, married. He called in his servant gave him instructions to bring a wife from his ancestors back to Isaac. The servant made an oath that he would faithfully complete this task and
he set off to land of Ur.

The servant arrived in the village of Nahor. He strode arrogantly in with his procession of fine goods he had brought as gifts to the bride to be. Then upon inquiring of Abraham’s family began a beauty pageant to see who would be selected. Sorry nope. No King Xerxes here.

The servant stops at the village well and prays. Whoa! Wait I thought God only had a relationship with those he picked out. This is before the ten commandments and Israelite religion. Here is a servant praying,

“LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master” (Genesis 24:14).

This is one of my favorite prayers in the Bible. It is humble, simple, and the servant expects God to show up in a big way. He asks God for a very specific sign you can tell he is taking this oath to his master seriously.

Another reason I gravitate toward this prayer is its searching for discernment. The servant is concerned both with fulfilling his oath, and also carrying out God’s wishes “let her be the one you have chosen”. There is a hint of familiarity in the servant’s prayer that indicates to us reading it that this was not the first prayer uttered by this servant.

The last aspect of this prayer is its tone. The tone is so friendly. If it stopped after the opening line “O LORD, God of my master give me success today” it would sound official and impersonal. Instead. The second line sounds more like a face to face conversation “See, I am standing beside this spring…”. The servant goes on to explain his predicament and how God can help him through it.

This simple servant had somewhere along the way learned to pray to Abraham’s God who was now their God. Abraham makes it to Hebrews 11 the servant’s everyday faith doesn’t, but it is one I can really grab onto. So I tip my hat to us common everyday faithful saying God may never use us to start a nation, marry a  tyrant to save your people, or to call down fire from heaven, but he is still God with us.

As the last words of the servant’s prayer are dripping from his mouth God begins acting. There before him was the girl for Abraham’s son. The servant anticipated the arrival of God he prayed as if God always shows up. Entering into advent I am mindful of the anticipation of Christ’s coming both present tense and future tense. Do I have the faith of this servant who expects and prays in  anticipation of God who always shows up?

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He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake;
12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
(1Ki 19:11-12 NRS)

Unfortunately, too many good climbers are no longer around because of summit fever. Summit fever is typically defined as the dangerous state of mind in which a person fails to notice dangerous weather, route conditions, physical exertion or refuses to take them into consideration in a desperation to reach the top.

I further expand this definition to include the problem many extreme sports enthusiasts find themselves in. This problem is when ‘big’ is not longer ‘big enough’. Climbing a huge mountain is no longer a challenge so I will ski down the face of Everest. Normal ski runs are not doing it for me so I will take a run with a 255ft jump. This river in South America has never had a first descent I will drop in knowing there is no way out for the next few miles and if I make one mistake I will die. So summit fever is a danger to all extreme athletes. If  you throw all of this in a pot and get it to a boil you will notice really we are dealing with contentment.

One spring day King David wakes up from a nap. His band of brothers is far off doing his bidding for some reason this year he was not interested in battle. This behavior was completely out of character for a warrior from boyhood, a national military hero in adolescence, an outlaw robin hood in young adulthood, now king of a nation. As this restless man looks out over his kingdom his eyes see a woman bathing on her rooftop. Summit fever strikes! David asks of her identity and can’t keep his mind off of her. Despite the fact that he has multiple wives and that this woman Bathsheeba had a husband he is blinded by a summit fever of sorts.

After a night of  indiscretion David awakes. Whew, he thinks “I will skate by”. Then the ground shakes and above him on the slope is wall of snowing descending over 100mph. Pregnancy, a honorable husband, one of my best men he is pummeled. Clawing from the cold coffin he arises over the bank in the midst of white out. Murder, loss of a child, the incestuous rape of one of his daughters, fratricide, the rebellion of a son the cloud never seems to lift for King David. Finally, stumbling trying to make sense of which way is up he surveys his people to establish the might of his kingdom. The cold hard air closes in on his chest a night from which he will never arise.

It may sound like I coming down really hard on David and I am. The point I am trying to make is the that we all  hear the siren’s call to summit fever. Contentment is the hardest thing in life. Materialism is ingrained in us as children. The TV declares that we need the latest dolls that pees everywhere or the remote control car that can climb straight up walls. Then as a teenager it is all about having the right label and portraying the right image. As adults guys can get a beer or body wash or both that will get all of the beautiful women you could shake as stick at. Women can get underwear that will instantly make them supermodels, even angels. If you just work harder you can get more vacation, more money, more happiness. You can take a pill that will make you skinny and you won’t have to do any of that exhausting exercise. Technology! Oh Technology! You can’t get anything that uses electricity that doesn’t go out of date before you leave the store. I am pretty sure that if you even bought a toaster it would be useless before you got home.

If you listen to what is swirling around you, you will hear “Your life is horrible!! There is something better for you. Your body is ugly. You have no value unless you have _____. This relationship is temporary there is someone better.” On and on the refrain goes. Take it from those who have gone before us summit fever bites! King David can attest to that. So how about you and me we sit down and figure out how to translate the climbing mantra “Climb to live another day!” We must declare that bigger is not better and enough is enough!

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

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Okay maybe David didn’t utter those words. I can still remember sitting in my Old Testament class in undergraduate class and hearing Dr. Tatum explain that David operated like a pirate. This consqeuntly brought all sorts of imagery to my mind. In this present moment I am envisioning a swashbuckling Jack Sparrow type.

David had no ships nor water to carry out his raiding fancy. However, in 1 Samuel 25 – 30 David takes on the role as pirate.

First, is the extortion of Nabal. David keeps his sheperders “safe” in the desert. Yes David defends them, but aren’t his band of rebels the ones raiding the country side. Nabal sees no need for David’s security force and sends him away. At the risk of breaking hospitality customs Nabal spurns David’s men. Nabal’s destruction is narrowly averted by his generous wife Abigail.

David later moves on to the land of Philistines to escape the pursuit of King Saul. David had already tried to escape to Gath where King Achish lived, but his reputation as an Israelite commander preceded him. David played insane to escape.

This time David returned pirate plan in hand. David and his six hundred men went out raiding and pillaging enemies of Israel. Then they would return to King Achish pay him tribute with the spoils with the explanation that they had raided an Israelite town. Pirate scheme in place…Check.

Lastly, David proved that he is the ultimate pirate when his own village is raided and everything is taken. After crying their eyes out the band of rebels did what any good pirate crew did they organized for a mutiny. In this moment David leans on the LORD and is given a promise that a rescue attempt would be successful. The Amalekite raiders have a several days head start but David is such a tank that he catches up to them. 200 of his men couldn’t even keep up with the pace. After this crazy dash David and his men fight the raider for 24 hours. Then David and his band of rebels return with all their stuff and then some. Who is the best pirate in the land? David of course!

I never want to meet David or one of his men in a dark alley that is for sure.

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Judges records one of the darkest eras in Ancient Israel. The book finishes with gang rape, genocide, and kidnapping. This is definitely an example of what not to do. In fact because the author frequently reminds us that a generation grew up who did not know the LORD that the actions in Judges are the result of disobedience. If we don’t choose to follow God the ultimate result is complete corruption.

Photo by David Castillo Dominici

In the midst of all this chaos the role of women take on an important literary element. Randall Bailey’s article on Judges in The Africana Bible commentary suggests that women highlight the flawed men. Several unnamed women take on important roles like the woman at Thebez that kills Abimelech or Manoah’s wife who gets a visit from an angel. In addition to these women several are named and perhaps looking at their names origins could help the English reader understand their literary importance. At this point in my education I am no Hebrew scholar so these meaning simply what I could find in Biblical Hebrew dictionaries in Bible Works or Strong’s.

This idea first struck me when Bailey used Achsah (Caleb’s daugther) as an example. He mentioned that her named meant “toy” or “trinket”. I found this ironic in light of how Othiniel won her as a prize for conquering Hebron.

photo by Tom Curtis

In the Deborah narrative two women are named. Deborah appears first as a prophetess who calls Barak as a deliver for the Israelites. Deborah’s name mean bee and she acts almost like a queen bee in this story organizing the action from high above. The name Barak originates from lightning, which comes and goes. He enters the scene, but like lightning can’t stand without thunder he asks for Deborah to come with him. Enter the hero Jael, the mountain goat, who lures Sisera to her tent with milk and kills him. Instantly, I think of  the three billy goats cunning the troll out of eating them. A goat is a playful and non-threatening animal creating amazing irony for this story.

Lastly, I thought of Delilah. Surely, I thought there must be some good meaning in her name in this story with Samson. Her name’s origin is very unclear. Now that Delilah is household name modern dictionaries want to say it means delicate. However, there are many possible derivatives of her name that are similar to other Hebrew words. Perhaps her name was suppose to look like night, or poor, or to make humble. Hitchcock’s Bible Names dictionary even suggests that it could mean “head of hair”. Once again I have no Hebrew legs to stand on, but from a literary stand point I think it would make a great story if her name meant “Hairless Night” or “To Make Hairless” or just “Barber”.

As with most literature names are important especially for characters who take on an ironic role, such as women in Ancient Near Eastern culture. After studying the book of Judges I am realizing that when a woman is mentioned by name it is  important and the meaning of the name might just be apart of the story as well.

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