In This World Of Troubles...

I recall 1976. This was the year I flew my parent's nest, set up my home as a bachelor, started to buy my own vinyl pop singles and albums - and began my travels outside Europe for the first time in my life. Of all the singles, one song stood out - John Miles' hit Music, which made it to #3 in the UK pop charts. Such an impact it had on my being, that just a few weeks after it was released, and as I flew out for a three-week backpacking stint to the Holy Land, the song kept ringing in my mind. What was it that set this hit from all other hits at the time? Was it that it was recorded with a proper live orchestra rather than a band as with all other chart toppers? To me at least, orchestras are found in opera houses, and tend to entertain the upper classes with highbrow pieces such as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, or Ravel's Bolero, (my favourite classical of all time), or pieces from Mozart. But John Miles had created a happy union of a highbrow orchestra with drumbeat-type rhythm and a vocal to result in such a classic. You can listen to it yourself on You Tube (after reading this blog!) by typing Music - John Miles on that website.

The combination of the pop song Music with Israel was brought to mind only last night, when answering an opening post of a social website forum thread, who asked, Who has been to Israel? Share your stories. By sharing my lifetime experience totalling 23 weeks altogether, I was able to relate about the backpackers hostel in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, along with  a time as a volunteer in Ishfya on the summit of Mt. Carmel, downtown Haifa, and trips to Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Acre, Tiberias and the ruins of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem, Hebron, the desert resort of En Gedi on the west bank of the Dead Sea, the remains of Herod's fortress on the summit of Masada, and the rich coral under the turquoise waters of the Red Sea at Eilat. But what I have found most striking was an example of archaeology still fully functional - Hezekiah's Tunnel, opened in 701 B.C. and still carrying water from the Spring of Gihon to the Pool of Siloam, within the ancient city walls during the king's reign. Of all surviving relics, this is specifically mentioned in the Bible, with the Holy Spirit inspiring it twice, to dispel any skeptics's doubts on its authenticity (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32:30.)

Hezekiah's Tunnel, June 1976, then aged 23

As I waded through the tunnel with just one other person, each holding a candlelight, the beat of the music went round my mind. But it was the lyrics which also struck a cord, perhaps helping me to set upon the course of Christian growth and sanctification. The lyrics contains the line:
In this world of troubles, my music pulls me through.

In this world of troubles. And that is what is like constantly living under the shadow of a delayed major heart operation - hence the writing of this blog - after receiving another phone call of a cancellation, twice in a row, with another appointment for admission set for the following week. Even at present I now feel that this will fall through as well, hence prolonging the frustrating wait to have the procedure over and done with, and a slow recovery to get life back to normal again. Maybe I could take this whole episode firmly on the chin, if it had not been for my wife's infirmity. Instead, because of her mobility limitations, it remains down to me to ensure that her medicines: three main drugs, two sets of painkillers and a daily nutritional supplement in a form of a small bottle of prescribed milkshake, are all well stocked up for the period of myself as a hospital in-patient. So it seems, if the operation went as originally scheduled, her medical care would not have posed such a problem, having already stocked up to cover the period of the original appointment. Instead I may have to cross swords with a skeptical G.P. to get him to sign for further prescriptions for stocking up. All unnecessary stress, with concerns for my beloved's welfare weighing well over my own concerns.

In this world of troubles, my music pulls me through. No doubt, listening to my favourite tune has a relaxing tonic, the ability to soothe my spirit.  If the tune has a regular drumbeat, it has the ability to excite the emotions on some positive topic or circumstance, thus helping me to overcome various issues. But as I fully agree with John Miles' solution to this troubled world - music, like all earthly panaceas, are temporary fixes. What I need is something a lot more permanent.

And that was why I flew to Israel in 1976 (and three more times after that) - having discovered the Bible and delved into the Old Testament from more than three years earlier towards the end of 1972, when I was first converted. As visiting Jerusalem and exploring the sites in the Holy Land brought the Bible to life as well as authenticate its inspiration, so mixing reading of Scripture with faith helps me to face these problems without sinking too low.

Coral Beach, Eilat - taken October 2000.

The incident of the Lord allowing Peter to walk on water provides a classic case point (Matthew 14:25-33). When the disciples saw Jesus approaching the boat whilst in the middle of the lake, they were at first terrified, thinking that they are seeing a ghost. When the Lord reassured them that it was he, Peter alone had both the faith and courage to ask Jesus if he too can walk on the water to meet him. That's where the glory of Jesus comes in. He could have said, Don't be a fool, Peter! I alone have that divine right. Instead, he bade him to walk. And while he had his eyes fixed on Jesus, the miracle was performed - he walked on the surface as if dry land. But most likely, one of the disciples remaining in the boat called out a warning of an approaching wave, and being typical of Peter, he impulsively took his eyes off the Lord and took caution of the approaching wave. And immediately he began to sink.

I suppose this happens to me and I guess all other believers - taking our eyes off the Lord and worrying about our own situations, whatever they may be. And we sink, often into despair, as I often do. But this is also a good reflection on why I had received another cancellation. The hospital staff was very apologetic, and did not merely palm me off as an inconvenience. Instead, she explained that there has been an unusual spate of heart transplants taking place at the cardiac hospital. Admitting that there is usually a spike of admissions during the post-Christmas blues, with the prospect of a Winter with cold, unpleasant weather and nothing to look forward to, nevertheless, this year has seen a higher than expected rate of donor deaths, hence the prolonged delay. By the looks of it, I was unfortunate enough to be caught in a vortex of sheer bad luck.

But as I think about this spate of deaths, I could not help thinking about the loss of the loved ones among their families, and the joy of other families receiving hope for their loved ones when a donated matching heart becomes available. No doubt they take priority over the likes of myself, an elective patient. However, the high spate of deaths, and particularly at this time of the year, may have been due to a high level of disappointment, stress, or anxiety, so according to one Medical Doctor.* Also, according to statistics, divorce rates are at its peak throughout January, and I believe, although I can't substantiate this, suicides seems to be up as well. It all boils down to a sinking feeling of hopelessness throughout the cold, dark and wet season, without an object of faith which can bring hope, if not the solution itself. As Peter looked on the approaching wave and began to sink, likewise we too can take our eyes off Jesus and start sinking in thought and emotion, and furthermore, incur various physical illnesses as well, which include heart attacks.

My natural tendency is to see the glass as half empty rather than half full, to believe that evil triumphs over good, to look on the dark side of life. But I am also in good company. For example, Jacob saw mud rather than the stars. When he thought that he had lost his favourite son Joseph to a wild beast, his mournful dirge was that he will go to the grave with his son, (Genesis 37:35) everything is against me (42:36) you will bring my grey head down to the grave in sorrow, (42:38) and as for me, I am bereaved, I am bereaved (43:14). Such was Jacob's prolonged attitude over the loss of his son, which occurred some twenty years earlier. Moses too saw the glass as half empty as well. In Numbers 11:11-15 we read of Moses' complaint to God:

Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people upon me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries her infant, to the land you promised an oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, "Give us meat to eat!" I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too great for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now - if I have found favour in your eyes - and do not let me face my own ruin.

And all that despite that Moses saw all the great signs and wonders performed in front of his eyes, including the daily provision of manna from heaven. The Hebrews' lack of faith in God and their thankless attitude had wearied his spirit to the point of sheer hopelessness, as with the case of Jeremiah the prophet. His grief over the destruction of Jerusalem under the siege of the Babylonians was intense enough to write the book of Lamentations. Only faith in God can overcome these negative emotions, such as the case of the prophet Habakkuk, who was with Jeremiah as they saw the land devastated. However he wrote that even if the fig tree bears no fruit, nor be any grapes on the vines, the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, there be no sheep in the pen nor cattle in the stalls - yet through faith continues to praise and thank God for his goodness (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Habakkuk's faith had triumphed over his own pessimism, an area where Jacob and Moses had failed to overcome theirs.

At the Citadel, Jerusalem, taken October 2000.

I guess faith is the key. Despite the repeated cancellations, I must believe that God has everything in his hands, including my future. I should rest in God's assurance that everything works for the good of those who loves him, and absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, whether it be physical or spiritual (Romans 8:28, 38-39) and my wife's medicine supply will be fully met while I'm in hospital.

Faith is believing that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and is the source of rest for those who fully trusts God through it. After all, its authenticity is verified through my visit for 23 weeks in Israel, where most of the Bible was written.

Especially if I waded through a 2,700 year old hole in the wall!

*Dr. S. I. McMillen MD, None of these Diseases, Lakeland Books.

Sanctimonious Git! Really?

In the last blog, I called attention to one Old Testament character, Joseph son of Jacob. He was the one who saved the lives of all of Egypt as well as his Hebrew family, who were the fathers of the future nation of Israel, from a severe famine. After betrayal by his ten older brothers and sold to a passing camel-train of Ishmaelites, he spent a few years in prison before being promoted to the role of Prime Minister to Pharaoh, Egypt's king. But he also was a man of strong emotions, weeping and shedding tears to the intensity that his crying was heard throughout the palace he lived in, and even stirred the curiosity of the Pharaoh himself.

His endeavors earned him the respect from the priest of the Egyptian deity On, who gave him his daughter Asenath to wife, making Joseph the son-in-law to the priest, one of the most important figures of ancient Egyptian aristocracy. So here a pattern begins to emerge:

1. Joseph taught to look out for his brothers.

2. Rejected by his brothers and expelled from their company.

3. Marries a foreign wife.

4. Final acceptance of his rule by his family.

Another such example can be said of Jacob himself, Joseph's father:

1. He grew up as a Mummy's boy, loved by his mother Rebekah, and learned to cook and do the housework, in contrast to his twin brother, who his father Isaac loved for his skill in hunting and more masculine, outdoorsy lifestyle.

2. Jacob flees from his brother Esau after stealing both his birthright and his father's blessing.

3. Jacob marries two women in another country, Leah and Rachel.

4. He return to inherit his father's fortune.

Moses was born during the time the new king of Egypt knew nothing of Joseph the Hebrew, some four hundred years earlier. After he was discovered in a basket hidden from sight by the king's daughter, the boy grew up with the knowledge from his parents that his destiny was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The lad was adopted by the king's household, and grew up as a prince, learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians. But one day, as he looked out for his own Hebrew people, working as slaves for the Egyptians, he saw one of his own being beaten by an Egyptian guard. Looking this way and that, he went and killed the oppressor. The next day he saw two Hebrews fighting. When he tried to reconcile the two, the one in the wrong turned to Moses and asked,
"Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Will you kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?"

So Moses fled Egypt and ended up in Midian, where he too married a foreign wife, Zipporah. It was forty years in the desert before God called him out of the burning bush to return to Egypt to lead his people out. It is an interesting statement from Hebrews 11:27 which says that Moses fled from Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. Then why did he travel to Midian? Was it because he was rejected by his own people, which deeply hurt him? This is backed up by the sheer reluctance to lead his own people, so narrated in detail in Exodus chapters three and four. In verses 24-26 of the fourth chapter, there is another proof that Moses was reluctant to help his fellow countrymen. So begrudged was he against his rejection forty years earlier, that he couldn't be bothered to circumcise his son. This wasn't out of forgetfulness, but willful rebellion on his part, as God was ready to kill him, and to have him stand at the Judgement seat of Christ, not to be judged for his sins, but to determine his eternal rewards.

Then there was the case of David. As a youth he was destined to replace King Saul's dynasty as the head of the kingdom of Israel. Like Joseph, David also delivers his people from a dire situation by slaying the oppressive Philistine giant, Goliath. But this led to Saul's jealousy, and David having to flee into exile, where he remained for the next twenty years. It was during that time that David married Maacah, daughter of King Talmai of a neighbouring state of Geshur. It was after King Saul and his son Jonathan were slain by the Philistines that David returned to claim his throne.

So the definite pattern emerges from the life stories of these Old Testament saints:
1. Rejection by his own people.
2. Marrying a foreign wife.
3. Returning to lead and rule over his people, who afterwards accepts him.

And so these men of faith were all shadows of Jesus Christ himself.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:10-11.

Jesus Christ came not only into the world, but specifically to his own people Israel. Jesus came presenting himself as the King of Israel, and rightful heir of David's throne, according to Matthew 2:3-6 and Luke 1:29-33. But his people rejected him and had him crucified instead. After his death, they all thought that was it, he was done away with for good. But they didn't reckon on his resurrection three days later. It was after his ascension that his Church, the Bride of Christ, began to be built on the foundation stone of Jesus Christ himself, who is also her head. And history has shown that the Christian Church has always been almost entirely Gentile, that is to say, people not of Israeli or Jewish origin.

Jesus Christ, having been rejected by his own people Israel, is now "in exile" so to speak, from the throne of David in Jerusalem, while building a Gentile Bride for himself. Then one day he will return to Jerusalem to reign on David's throne. At his future coming, it is said that the whole of Israel will mourn for what they have done to him, like a father mourning over his own son, as they see the One whom they have pierced standing on the Mount of Olives.

What richness and power of Holy Scripture! Which brings to mind of the prophet Habakkuk. This fellow is classed as a "minor prophet" due to the shortness of his book, with only three chapters. It can be easily missed while flicking through the pages of the Old Testament. But it was through Christian music that I became acquainted with him. Back in the 1970's, I had a library of spiritual songs on cassette tape which I played at home. One of them was my favourite, and it was called Scripture in Song. I played it so often, that eventually the tape was chewed up by the player mechanism, and it became useless. But I will never forget one of the songs which featured on the tape:

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither fruit shall be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation, The LORD God is my strength-

The song ended there, before repeating itself several times, but in the Bible the verse goes on: -and he shall make my feet like hinds' feet, and he shall make me to walk upon mine high places.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 AV, from which the song was composed.

When I first read this back in the day, I thought: Get real, man! You live in a agricultural land with a hot dry climate, you have your own home without a mortgage or a bossy, rent-demanding landlord. You never have to worry about having to pay fuel bills on time, let alone telephone and other utility costs. Then you work the fields at your own leisure, without the constant noise and dirt of factory machinery, where I have to reach on time by travelling in the rain amid noisy, air-polluting traffic, or stuck on a platform waiting for a delayed train at one end of the line, and a scowling boss at the other. On top of this, you most likely had never experienced bullying or stress from work colleagues much imposed by a faster pace of life at present than in your day. So your fields are barren. An application of some fertilizer should do the trick. What a sanctimonious git you look to be, Habakkuk!

But by reading the whole book, then doing some research on his environment, political and current situation, then quite a different picture emerges. Habakkuk lived about the same time as the prophet Jeremiah, or maybe a little earlier. His beloved nation of Judah was about to be besieged by the Babylonians under a powerful but cruel king Nebuchadnezzar. Habakkuk knew of the coming destruction of his beloved city Jerusalem and its Temple, built by King Solomon centuries earlier, along with the barrenness of the land, as Habakkuk had already known, was owing to God seventy years of Sabbatical rest. This rest, when no crops were to be sown and harvested, were to have taken place for one year out of every seven years (see Leviticus 25) along with a Jubilee year every fifty years. As Israel was a kingdom under the reign of a monarch for the past five hundred years, without the sabbatical year ever being observed throughout that period, Habakkuk knew of the resulting seventy years of sabbatical rest the land owes to God, and the necessity of the removal of all its people to Babylon, so the land can have its rest. The prophet also knew of the kingdom coming to an end with the beginning of the diaspora, which will continue right up to the Second Coming of Christ, still future even from our standpoint in time.

I also believe that Habakkuk knew of the coming Messiah, and his future ministry to Israel, and how he would be cut off from the earth while still in the prime of his life. During his lifetime, a lot of what we call Biblical prophecy (from Isaiah to Malachi) weren't yet written, but more than likely had access to Isaiah's writings, and from these, along with the knowledge of history of the nation's founding fathers, he would have a good idea of what was to come. Yet he was very distressed on how the universal unbelief and wickedness of his own people were to bring about the fall of the kingdom. Yet despite of all this, he also knew of the goodness of God as well as his sovereignty.

Like with me, Habakkuk spent his life seeing the glass half-empty rather than half full, as with all the prophets in the Old Testament, tending to have a pessimistic view of the world, which is quite a contrast to the apostle Paul's optimistic view, along with Peter's. Yet despite his despair, his demonstration of having faith in God, rather than seeing him as conceited or even cynical, his testimony in such adverse conditions has made an excellent model on how I too can have the same faith in the Lord as he did.

Like this weekend, having learnt that one of our church elders has arrived safely in Mumbai, India to volunteer in a Christian youth festival, their equivalent of our Newday Bible week. On top of this, another great friend I have in the church will be flying off to Uganda within the next eight or nine days, and will spend the rest of Autumn out there. Another mate of mine has been to both the USA and Germany in a space of two or three months. Then in addition, some of my clients had, in the last couple of weeks, passed through the airport terminal, resulting in a loss of income. As one who was, and will always be, a travel fanatic, feeling trapped in the UK due to health reasons of both my wife and myself can be distressing. But if Habakkuk can believe, why not I? In the next few weeks I'll be attending hospital appointments in preparation for a major open heart operation to fit a new aortic valve. It is a great comfort to know that I have a wonderful God I can trust, and together with the knowledge of his sovereignty and omniscience, I can rest assured in him for the rest of my life, knowing that there will be better things to come, both in this life and in the next.

Thanks for your testimony, Habakkuk. It has even made it into the charts!