Enough Pain

This post is for the current series on the theme "Enough!"

If any aspect of obsession with the Bible one day drives me over the brink of sanity, it's sure to be my identification with biblical characters and their angst. Did any novel ever crafted draw a person more deeply into the point of view of another human more than the psalms? Does any modern devotional book bring the face and heart of God closer than the books of the prophets?

The more I read and study about the beloved people of Scripture, the more my heart is moved with empathy and love for these brothers and sisters of mine, with whom I will spend eternity.

In reading through the Bible again this year, I just started Jeremiah. Never before did reading Scripture impart more dread. Because I know what's coming. I can't bear to enumerate this man's afflictions. At least Job had a happy ending. The book of Jeremiah concludes with the book of Lamentations, as if he hadn't already recorded enough pain.

However high a threshold for pain one develops, a certain point pleads "enough pain"—that place where the soul begs a person to close eyes and ears and call in sick-of-heart.

Then said I:
"Ah, Adonai YHWH!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth."
But YHWH said to me:
"Do not say, 'I am a youth,'
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you," says YHWH.
~ Jeremiah 1:6-8

Though prophets are seen resisting His commission, YHWH always prevails. The occupation of speaking the Lord's mind comes with an irrevocable calling, a prohibition on personal agenda, and no upper limit on the potential to suffer humiliation, contempt, and pain.

Then Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country."
~ Luke 4:24 (NKJV)

Jesus lived the life and died the death of the Prophet extraordinaire. His consummate act was to open wide His hands and offer Himself to God and to us without restraint.

The very least I can do is plunge ahead and suffer again with Jeremiah. The very best I can do is daily offer myself as a living sacrifice for Jesus and declare, "Never too much for You!"

"Empty hands held high
Such small sacrifice
If not joined with my life
I sing in vain …
I want to sign Your name to the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You "
~ Lyrics from "Lifesong"
written by Mark Hall and recorded by Casting Crowns

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Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Prophecy Blueprint and Blueberry Pickin'

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Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy... he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
~ 1 Corinthians 14:1-3 (NKJV)

These verses follow the 1 Corinthians 13 chapter about love. Our family studied it during Bible lesson on Wednesday.

I've previously explained to the kids that prophecy is often thought of as foretelling the future. But it is more accurately when God's Spirit reveals something to one of His people, who knows when to pass it on to someone else. Prophecy is also understanding someone else through the revelation of God's Spirit, so that one is able to talk to God about them.

In other words, prophecy is talking to people on behalf of God and talking to God on behalf of people.

Here's how I explained prophecy's purpose of edification, exhortation, and comfort to the six- thru seventeen-year-old crowd:
♥ edification is to build up and encourage someone in a way that they feel stronger;
♥ exhortation is when you see that someone's strong enough to do something, and you give them a gentle push to help them get started in a way that helps them feel confident;
♥ comfort is when someone hurts, and you know what to say and what to not say so they don't hurt so much.

I am an indoor kinda' gal... There is one way to get me outside in the sun on a summer day and that's to promise me that we're going to pick blueberries.
~ Alise Wright

So begins a most delightful blog post—"Blueberry Pickin'." If you've not yet had the pleasure to stop by the blog Alise... Write, you've missed a gem.

Paul was used to record a word from God about love and prophecy. I made an effort to teach the prophecy blueprint to kids. And Alise illustrated the Scripture's spirit in a brief and beautiful way you really owe it to yourself to read. (You can get there from here.)

Lord Jesus, give us more love, and give us more desire to pass it along.

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Continuum of the Prophets

"Eye of God" by Riek Jonker

Art Katz says of the prophets that they live in the eternal future while at the same time being in a clear continuum with the biblical past, and speak on truth and reality throughout all ages and the ages to come.

That actually makes sense to me without having to think about it. I watch the Middle East and the Pacific unravel while simultaneously studying Isaiah and Ezekiel, as well as writing about Samuel. I am willingly carried away on the continuum of the prophets between biblical past and eternal future.

The Old Testament prophecies feel as real and current to me as if I'm reading the newspaper. The prophets' words ebb and flow between their present and my present. When Isaiah jumps from speaking about King Hezekiah (eighth century B.C.) to discussing the last days (twenty-first century A.D.?), I scarcely feel the leap. When "thus saith the Lord" shifts from judgment to mercy, it feels as smooth to me as a transition into fifth gear after entering the freeway.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: "Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. Because you have pushed ... butted all the weak ones ... and scattered them abroad, therefore I will save My flock ... And I, the LORD, will be their God ... "
~ Ezekiel 34:20-24 (NKJV)

I had a general idea on Friday what I would write for this Sunday post. Even so, I was caught off guard during our Bible lesson on Saturday when I read the above passage, and then found myself completely choked up when we landed on the chapter's final verse:

"You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God," says the Lord GOD.
~ Ezekiel 34:31 (NKJV)

I began the day with Isaiah, reading of Jerusalem's horrific destruction, which is followed within a couple of verses by these words:

"Comfort, yes, comfort My people!"
Says your God.
~ Isaiah 40:1 (NKJV)

There is no doubt in my mind that the prophets were overwhelmed by the messages they were given to bear. In their words I feel the grief carried by them and by God. I cannot imagine how they would have continued without the embrace of His words as He speaks tenderly.

When I write biblical fiction late at night, I dim the lights, step back into another time and place, and enter into the lives of people inextricably connected to me by the same Spirit. On a good many days, I don't wholly re-enter the present, but part of me remains with the prophets ...

My continual prayer is that such travels bring the Word of God fully to life when I share it with others, and that I inspire them (you) to make the journey more often—and perhaps take it more slowly.

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Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Forgotten Not, Part I

Note: The numerous links of this post are for the historical passages of Scripture referenced.

"Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself."
~ Golda Meir

Forgotten Not, Part I

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house." And the name of the second he called Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
~ Genesis 41:51-52 (NKJV)

"I have formed you, you are My servant;
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!"
~ Isaiah 44:21 (NKJV)

The northern ten tribes of Israel—which seceded from the southern kingdom of Judah after the time of Solomon—were sometimes called "Ephraim" by the Lord. The name's favoritism is first evident in about 1830 B.C., when Jacob (Israel) lay on his deathbed and prophesied of the future for his sons. He gave the firstborn son's double inheritance not to Reuben (who had violated one of his father's wives), but to Joseph, and specifically to Joseph's younger son Ephraim.

Because of gross idolatry, the northern kingdom ("Ephraim") fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. The southern kingdom ("Judah," from which the name "Jews" is derived) would fall to Babylon in 586 B.C. for the same reason, with her people made Babylonian captives before returning to the land of Israel seventy-plus years later. But Ephraim was not made Assyrian captives. Instead, her people were "scattered among the nations," and did not officially return to Israel ("aliyah") until the nation's modern rebirth in 1948.

2,700 years is an impossibly long time to be away from home. Any other people would be long forgotten by the land, their existence preserved only by the annals of history.

Jacob once placed Ephraim, which means "abundantly fruitful," before Manasseh, which means "causing to forget." God's people were later spoken of as fruitful rather than as forgotten. Their survival, despite attempted annihilation by numerous persecutors throughout the millennia, testifies to the Lord's faithfulness.

He has made Israel fruitful and forgotten not, her restoration fulfilled in these, the latter days.

When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
~ Deuteronomy 4:30-31 (NKJV)

Lord YHWH, thank You for Your love and mercy, new each morning, lasting throughout the ages. Please give us patience for the few hours we are upon the earth.

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