Airlines and Computers in the Bible?

Do you find yourself going through an evening where you're stuck at home and don't know what to do? You take a look at the TV guide, only to find that there is not much on which is worth watching on either BBC channels. Oh, there is a movie, an exciting drama on one of the commercial channels, but what's the point in watching a movie so frequently interrupted by commercial breaks, when you already have your own DVD recording of the movie? So shall it be watched again? Not really. You have watched it already only last week, and that was the third time after purchasing it.

I have to be honest here. I despise commercial channels! For me, anyway, I find nothing more frustrating than to be deeply involved with the plot of the film, and just when an exciting bit arrives, there is this sudden silence followed by an advert on Kitekat (we don't have a cat) or Chunkie dog food (we don't have a dog either) or this geyser driving a flash sports car as he passes a lone young female at an exotic location and tries to impress her. Not very relevant to me here either, for I don't have a driving license. The only appropriate advertisement is the one on Cadbury's Dairy Milk. After all, who doesn't like chocolate? But alas, there's no chocolate in the house and either the superstore had closed for the evening or I'm too tired or not bothered to go back out. Furthermore, I'm waiting for the movie's climax.

Thus, the wonder of the Internet! So useful it has been during this pandemic lockdown. Indeed, I'm beginning to wonder how the generation which had to endure the Bubonic Plague in the 13th Century managed to cope? Okay, there may be some bad things online, but it's also an unlimited storehouse of useful knowledge. Trivia which I had missed out at school is now easily accessible with just one or two clicks of the mouse.

And that also includes virtual reality. Yes indeed, I have moaned about our virtual church service over the weeks. But I have always agreed to the principle during these critical times: to be able to worship God and to listen to the preach from the speaker on screen. I certainly can see him as he stares back at me, only that he cannot actually see me, nor, for that matter, can he see anyone else gazing at him, but instead, he looks into a camera and at the same time keeping track on how many are tuned in. But it's the bit after the service is over when chatting rooms come on screen. Here, not only can I literally talk to the person on screen but we can actually see each other as well. It was as if talking through a windowpane.

About nothing worth watching on TV. Here we have two other channels we can rely on. One is the BBC Iplayer, where I can watch the hour-long travel documentaries presented by Simon Reeve which I normally miss on TV, along with other programmes. The other website is YouTube. And one set of videos has recently caught our attention and that is by Prowalk Tours. Unlike most travel presenters, who love to stare into the camera and narrate, this fellow simply walks along, holding his video camera aloft on a pole. This gives the impression that as he walks, it's as if the viewer himself is walking and filming. There is no vocal narration nor any background music. Instead, his footsteps can be heard crunching on the gravel, along with the voices of talking passersby.

One of his videos was about his ascent to the crater of Mt. Vesuvio, with the walk starting and finishing at the car park. It was very enlightening. The modernisation of such a tourist attraction has become well-advanced since my actual visit to the volcano in 1973. Where in my day the footpath leading to the rim was nothing more than a band of light dirt streaking along the barren, ash-laden slope, now there is a proper trail, fenced in on both sides with a trestle of logs and wide enough for up to six people to walk abreast. Where in 1973 I was practically the sole walker, in the video the path was very busy with mostly families walking in both directions.

But then, such a video looks to be almost too perfect. I guess it has to be for public viewing. Not like in my day when nearing the crater, the heavens opened, and the torrential downpour, consisting of marble-sized raindrops, had soaked me in seconds before I spotted a natural alcove in the lava cliff, where I had taken refuge before some kind driver offered me a lift back to Naples. Not to worry. I managed to successfully reach the crater on the next day after another hiking attempt from sea-level.

In reality, such mishaps such as a sudden rainstorm make the adventure so much more exciting! Too bad such don't show on YouTube videos. After all, there are no mountains of real success without valleys of failure in between.

But the near-perfection of video shooting can be appreciated more so if it was shot at a location where I had never set foot. Capri is one such location. Yet as a fledgeling backpacker of the early seventies, after arriving by train into Stazione Napoli Centrale, I couldn't help notice the posters featuring I Faraglioni on display around the terminus. These are natural stacks jutting out from the south coast of the island, and it's one of the main features symbolising the whole of Italy throughout the tourism industry. But back then, I wasn't aware that they were not part of the mainland. Instead, I thought that these stacks were of nearby Sorrento. 

I Faraglioni Stacks, Capri.

After finding a hotel at the Piazza near the station and asking whether there's a room available, I settled in, intending to check out the city itself. But more importantly, I Scavi di Pompeii was a must for my visit, along with a must-see of the crater of Vesuvio. Sorrento can wait until another day. 

And this is how Prowalk Tours had shone quite a light on Capri. As the cameraman walked along through the maze of narrow streets, I began to get acquainted with the island until I began to feel that I have actually visited. However, there are some setbacks. One is looking at those stacks from a height without walking down to the very foot of the stack which nearside is still part of the land. Nor was seen the second stack, out at sea, which had a natural arch through where cruise boats carrying tourists passed under.

I happen to be very fortunate to have travelled in a way I did. I guess I'm one of the fulfilment of Holy Scripture where it says that in the latter days, men shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase, Daniel 12:4 KJV. The advance of technical sciences along with skyrocketing travel seems to have come as no surprise for the Holy Spirit.

But I was equally intrigued by King David's cry of despair when he expresses his wish to grow wings like a bird so he could fly away to rest and take respite. He actually wrote,

Oh, that I had wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. (Psalm 55:6.)

If only David knew what the Holy Spirit had already known, some three thousand years before fulfilment! Indeed, we do "have wings like a dove and have flown away to find rest." The tourism industry is fixed on that very purpose - to find rest from the day-to-day stresses of modern living. Of course, David visualised having his own pair of wings resembling that of a bird (or even an angel) yet would have never imagined a metal tube with two huge metal wings and with a capacity to hold more than a hundred passengers. But the Holy Spirit had already known.

And there is another very astonishing prophecy found in the Revelation of St John, and that is of the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11. John records that during their ministry "the beast out of the Abyss" attacks and kills them. Whether this "beast" is the Antichrist himself or his agents, we cannot be sure. The crunch of the matter is that whilst the two bodies lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem, they are observed by the whole world all at once. This would include people living in Australia, North and South America, Africa, all of Europe and Asia, everybody will be able to see the two bodies simultaneously, verses 8-10.

Although many interpreters believe that the two witnesses will be Moses and Elijah, I tend to believe that one of them will be Enoch rather than Moses. In the Old Testament, Enoch and Elijah were the only two men in the whole of history to have been taken to heaven alive, without facing death. Moreover, if the one was Moses, he would have needed to die twice, the first time at Mt Nebo as recorded in Deuteronomy 34. As physical death is the gateway for every believer into the eternal presence of God, both Enoch and Elijah must face death sometime within human history.

For many centuries, commentators were baffled on how could the whole world observe these two lying at a specific location. Then in the 1970s, author Hal Lindsey was sure that this problem was solved by the development of Telstar Television. This was a big leap forward. But with his prediction that the 1980s was the countdown to Armageddon, the turn of the new millennium came and went with no divine intervention, as Lindsey had never thought of the idea of the internet in his time.

As far as we presently know, it does look as if the Internet will be the media used for the observance of these two witnesses by the entire global population. It will be an act of God's grace for, at their resurrection and ascension into Heaven, many in terror will turn in repentance to God, a demonstration of worldwide salvation which by then only modern technology can help bring about.

"If only I had wings like a dove, I'll fly away..."

However, this scenario is based only on what I can see and observe at the present. Nobody knows when the coming of Christ is due, and who knows, there could be even greater wizardry in service before he returns, gadgets that may not be around until after my own passing, and technology I cannot at present imagine. But neither was any of our own technology ever imagined by past generations, let alone by the Romans.

Nor by the ancient Israelites who were camped near Mount Sinai, and were ready to receive the Decalogue. While the Ten Commandments were given out, God knew everything about modern technology which will not arrive until some 3,500 years later.

Just as God has every day of our lives marked and a specific number of them to be lived by every individual, according to Psalm 139, then while we all thread through this pandemic, we can be assured that it was all written down long before the beginning of time, and thus, we can trust him.

And that includes the moment when I stood at the rim of Vesuvio's crater, trusting it would not suddenly erupt.

He Went All That Way Just To...

As this is written at the last weekend in July, here in the UK all the schools have closed for the Summer - and individuals, couples, and families take their car for the long drive to their resort, or take the train, as one friend of mine is doing today, or head for the airport. The annual break involving long distance travel in one form of another can be the source of either excitement or stress, often both. Bored kids making a fuss at the back seat of a car stuck in traffic, trains delayed or even cancelled, your reserved train seat taken by someone else and are left to decide whether to stir up a fracas or humbly find another vacant seat. Then the hassle of airport check-in, passport and security hold ups, flights delayed up to six hours, sharing the cabin with a nearby screaming infant whose parents are unable to pacify, or to find yourself sitting directly behind a passenger who punches the seat recline button from the moment of take-off. Not to mention in-flight meals which is practically inedible.

The in's and out's of the annual dose of the Three S's - Sun, Sea, and Sand. People who has worked hard all year to save enough to afford such a break, others who had exhausted their credit cards and so pushing out of their minds the reality of a huge bill awaiting their return home. There are even some who boarded the 'plane holding a special deal ticket, like I did in 1997 on a flight to Singapore, and are not only 38,000 feet above the ground but over the moon as well. And so, with a generation which takes long-haul travel for granted, away from the workplace, Summer life beats on.

Like the year I did a little backpacking in the Holy Land back in 1993, 1994 and again with Alex in 2000. Not only were these exciting in themselves, they were spiritually enhancing, visiting sites mentioned in the Bible. In all three trips I stayed at a small backpacker's hostel, a medieval building near the heart of Jerusalem Old City, from where it wasn't difficult to board an Israeli Egged Bus to any part of the country, including Haifa up north or Eilat near the border with Egypt. Other routes I have used includes Haifa to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, one route stopping at Nazareth while another taking the main road bypassing this ancient city. Also Haifa to Acre, a comparatively short ride of just a few miles, along with a considerably longer journey from Jerusalem to Masada, passing through En Gedi Nature Reserve and Resort on the west coast of the Dead Sea. Then the route I have used often, the Egged Bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. And finally, why not mention the Palestinian-run buses to Bethlehem and Hebron from the Arab bus station, situated well away from the Jewish bus station on the western side of the New City, which involved a 15-20 minute walk from Jaffa Gate of the Old City.

It was on one of these bus rides that have gotten me to think about Jesus Christ and how he got about throughout his ministry. Purely on the human, physical side, by comparing myself to Jesus Christ, I couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. If I was late to catch a bus, I would feel panicky. The same if I had found myself in the middle of nowhere if the passing bus failed to turn up. The sheer remoteness of the En Gedi Nature Reserve bus stop in the middle of nowhere amidst a desert environment was rather unsettling for me as well as my wife who was with me, then over eighteen weeks pregnant with our first daughter. 

And that she was pregnant whilst in the middle of the desert is food for thought here, even at the time such thoughts never crossed my mind. But supposing she had a sudden bleed at that bus stop? Yes, what then? Most likely panic would have compelled me to step onto the deserted road and flag down the first car that came along, to beg for a rush to the nearest hospital. Fortunately, nothing of any of that occurred. The bus arrived, a little late, but a rush of relief as the modern, air-conditioned bus began to speed us back to Jerusalem.

And all this takes me back to the days of Abraham and his wife Sarah, living in tents as nomads out in the desert. There were plenty of pregnancies successfully coming to term, leading to healthy births taking place in such an environment during that time. No hospitals, no monitors, no medicine or any medical or surgical procedures. No teams of doctors or nurses. Yet a record of successful births. Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael out of Hagar, then Isaac out of Sarah, Midian and four other sons out of Keturah. It seems apparent that being much closer to Creation in time than the present day, the human genome used to be far more robust back then. Therefore the chance of miscarriage and stillbirths were very few and far-between. The vast majority of births occurred without incident, but according to Genesis 35:17, well-trained midwives existed, giving a clue that Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah all gave births under trained supervision, when hospitals were non-existent.

The theory of the human genome enjoying a far superior and robust existence in the distant past may clear up a mystery of the aged Sarah being taken in the harem of Abimelech King of Gerar (Genesis 20). She might have been already pregnant with Isaac. Yet she was already in her nineties, and herself admitting "I'm well past child bearing, as with my master. So should I have pleasure?" (Genesis 18:11). I tend to imagine a woman in her nineties to be stooped, in need of a walking aid, her body skin very crinkly, and crowned with thin white hair. But apparently, in the days of Sarah, with stronger genome, she was still strikingly beautiful with an element of youthfulness, even at her old age, therefore attracting the king's attention, just as Pharaoh king of Egypt attempted to take her into his harem some years earlier.

But it was the mode of travel which intrigued me while sitting in an Israeli bus that day in 1993. I have wondered whether the robustness of the human genome at the time of Jesus Christ had made him and generally most men at the time far more hardier than our present generation, with the ability to travel over miles without any motorised or mechanical aid. True enough, donkeys were available for long journeys, and Mary, then pregnant with Jesus, most likely rode on one from Nazareth to the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth in Jerusalem, a distance of about seventy miles 113 km, as well as with Joseph to Bethlehem a few months later. Then there is a case of the two men from Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. The resurrected Lord met them along the way, and he agreed to enter their home and have supper with them. After revealing himself to them, they both were excited enough to return to Jerusalem to inform his disciples (Luke 24:13-33). And according to verse 15, they were both walking and not riding on donkeys. Therefore to walk fourteen miles 23 km, in the space of an afternoon was quite something, by comparison to our present mode of travel. Whether they returned to Emmaus straight after, making the entire walk some 21 miles, 34 km, all in an evening, we are not told.

Jesus travelled entirely on foot throughout his ministry, only using a donkey for his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The overall distance from Jerusalem to Caesaera Phillipi, where Peter confessed Jesus "to be the Christ, the Son of the living God" is 105 miles, 170 km, which is in the region of northern Galilee (Matthew 16:13-20).  Throughout his ministry, Jesus covered that distance and more, including his visit as an adolescent to Hebron to pay honour to his founding fathers buried at the Cave of Machpelah. To be honest, I would be very surprised if throughout his life, Jesus had never seen the very fortress built over the cave by Herod the Great a few years before the Nativity, and the very same structure still standing now, which I have seen with my own eyes.

The fortress at Hebron, familiar to both Jesus and me.

But of all his journeys, the most intriguing for me must have been the one he made from the Gennesaret region of Galilee, on the east coast of the lake, to Tyre in Sidon, a journey of about 38 miles, 62 km, and recorded in Matthew 15:21-28. He starts on a journey, again by foot, with his twelve disciples. The trip must have taken them at least two days, into a territory that wasn't even within the ancient area of Israel, but in the Phoenician stretch of coastline which is now Lebanon. There a Canaanite woman approached Jesus to heal her daughter of demonic possession. In this case Jesus walked by, ignoring her, and looking as if they whole journey was wasted, for there is no record of him having ministered to anyone else in Tyre. 

As Jesus turns to the woman, he declares that he is here to minister to the house of Israel, and not to the dogs. According to some scholars, the reference to "dogs" here is more akin to a household pet rather than a feral beast such as a wolf. The Canaanite mother apparently realises this, because she goes along with the analogy:

Yes, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which falls from the master's table.

-Which depicts a household pet. Jesus was impressed with her faith and proceeded to heal her daughter.

This may be a little story almost hidden within the midst of the Lord's ministry to the Jews. But it is a story which tells a lot. The moment he summoned his disciples to start on a journey north to Tyre, he already knew the purpose of his mission. He was fully aware of this Canaanite woman, most despised by the Jews, and her suffering daughter. We read of just these two, mother and daughter, with no record of a husband and father whose duty was to love and look after his family, as it would have most likely have been his duty to inform Jesus about his daughter's plight.

The unnamed mother was despised by the Jews as one being outside the Covenant with God and therefore rendered unclean by them. Even his disciples, their patience already running low, tried to persuade Jesus to ignore her. I guess it was Peter who made the loudest protest, as it was he who later found it difficult to come face to face with Cornelius, another non-Jewish convert. Peter simply saw this woman as an abomination, in keeping with Jewish culture and customs. But not for the Lord Jesus.

Despite the gruelling history of the Canaanites and their mistreatment of ancient Israel, Jesus still loved this woman, just as God loved Rahab the Canaanite prostitute who gave shelter to Joshua's spies during the siege of Jericho, and her faith was rewarded by becoming the ancestress of King David and of Jesus himself. Along with Cornelius, God will always have respect for anyone with faith in him, whether he be Jewish or not. And Peter had to learn the hard way. After her daughter was delivered from the demon who possessed her, Jesus began to make the 35+ miles back to Galilee to continue his ministry, to eventually walk the 85 miles, 138 km, from Capernaum, to be crucified in Jerusalem.

What a demonstration of God's love! To hike 38 miles just to save the daughter of one woman, who wasn't even Jewish, then to hike back to his normal region of his ministry, a round trip of almost eighty miles. But the healing of her daughter meant much more. It was to demonstrate to the city of Tyre itself that the Messiah has arrived, and by believing, many more will be redeemed. Although not recorded in Scripture, there is a slight possibility that this woman and her daughter had made their way south, where the fame of Jesus was a lot more prevalent, and there is an equal possibility that she and her daughter might have been two of the 120 in the upper room, recorded in Acts 1:15-16. This is only a speculation, of course.

But a Canaanite at a predominately Jewish assembly of believers? And Peter himself at that point still unconvinced that their Messiah has atoned for the non-Jews as well? But this is the result of being under the Shadow of the Cross. Their conviction of sin and redemption must have been so strong, that every ethnic, cultural, and gender barrier has been removed, at least temporary at the time. A leader of the Pharisees sitting next to a Canaanite woman with both of them deep within the Shadow of the Cross will be more conscious of their crucified and risen Messiah than his awareness of who is sitting beside him, especially of his own guilt in being involved in his crucifixion in the first place.

And that is what the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ has come to achieve: the removal of ethnic, cultural, and gender barriers, reconciling the Jew to the Gentile as well as mankind to God. It was an effort worth demonstrating, even if the Lord had to undertake an eighty mile 130 km, walk just to heal the daughter of a non-Jewish woman. There is something about the love of Christ for this person with which the car, or for that matter, even a donkey, would have never sufficed. 

I guess most of us who read Holy Scripture, and particularly the Gospels, may read through the reality of the Lord's ministry in a glib way, overlooking the comparatively difficult way Jesus had to get around when compared to today's methods of motorised transport. And not only Jesus, but the whole of the population, as it's recorded that a large crowd of people journeyed with him to many locations, covering many miles on foot. Perhaps with a more robust genome within the population, the feelings of tiredness and lethargy we would have experienced might have been less obvious.