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Grown Up Bible Stories
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New! The Fisherman and the Carpenter
People often describe Peter as a big, rough-hewn working man. They see him as outspoken, impulsive, and ignorant, a man who needed help. Actually, what history records of the man whose first name was Simon suggests a bit more gracious interpretation. Outspoken he was. We really don't know if he was tall, short, fat, thin, dignified, or rough. We do know that he was a religious man who had never fudged on his kosher diet. We know that he was the kind of family man whose mother-in-law found welcome in his home. He was also a professional and a businessman. He was a professional fisherman. He also seems to have been a partner in his fishing venture. As such, it isn't really stretching things to call this technical expert a businessman as well.
We don't know much about the seven men who plied the creepy trade of exorcism. We know they were brothers. Their dad's name was Sceva. They traveled the ancient world, driving—or at least attempting to drive--evil spirits from the possessed. As Jews, their own religious background avoided the mysterious spirits that hung out around pagan temples. In addition to their own safe worship, they had learned traditional methods that seemed to help drive off unwanted spirits. Thus equipped, they became a resource of last resort for those whose lives had turned terrible.
He couldn’t just shake his head and mutter something about the will of God. He had too much at stake. He had one child, a twelve-year-old girl. She was his only one, and she was ill, deathly ill. Religious man or not, it is neither natural nor right to walk away from a dying child and assume that her death is the will of God. So today, this man went to seek a religious figure from outside the local organization.
A Man for an Impossible Situation
He was a legend in his own time. The first son of the nation’s first king, he stood to inherit the crown. He even showed promise of filling that crown better than his father did. A national hero, a man with great popular support, he had a lot going for him. Only, as the saying goes, "It’s hard to soar with the eagles when you work with a bunch of turkeys." In this case, it wasn’t a bunch of turkeys—it was his royal father.
She was desperate. Her three-month old baby lived under a death warrant, and hiding him grew more difficult by the day. She was part of an oppressed ethnic group living in the territory of one of the world’s superpowers. The government had decreed that all baby boys of her race must die. It was an effort at population control, an effort born of mistrust and prejudice. Today, we’d call the whole mess ethnic cleansing. When the midwives who delivered her people’s babies managed to outsmart the ruler’s command to kill all male children at birth, the command had become general. All of this king’s subjects were ordered to drown any infant boys found among the unwanted people. A command that broad was impossible to escape. Her baby had to go in the river. She had hidden him as long as was humanly possible. The end result was inevitable. It was time to face reality and let the sweet little thing go.
All They Did Was Show Up for Work
Whatever happened at the top, the people living out the hard realities of the situation were commoners. Peter was working class. His guards were soldiers. Both he and they were pawns in the hands of the big boys. None of their lives mattered to the man making the decisions.
The histories of many
nations include periods of anger. Whether the result of oppression,
international events, or charismatic but angry leaders, whole societies
sometimes become enraged. Sometimes such anger rights wrongs. Other times, it
only maims, bereaves, and oppresses. An angry public, like an angry person,
often proves dangerous.
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Essays
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New! On Growing Up Without Television
It's kind of ironic, but I watch a lot of television at work. The people I work for subscribe to cable and keep a TV in the office. When there's down time or when my duties keep me inside, I see something I have spent most of my life without.
New! My Cat's Food is Eating His Food
My cat's food is eating his food! OK, now that you're thoroughly confused, here's what's happening.
In October I broke down and took my cat to the veterinarian. The law required a rabies shot. The professionals at the vet clinic expanded that one shot to include a couple other shots, treatment for fleas and ear mites I didn’t know he had, and a schedule for neutering. Adopting a stray cat gets expensive. After talking with the vet, so does feeding him.
“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” The man who spoke those words had incredible gall. He had just admitted he deserved to be hanging by nails from a wooden rack in public. He had just admitted he was dying because he was evil.
What is eternal life worth? Is it worth everything? Think about death. Think about Hell. Such thoughts bring to mind the day a school bully was chasing me. He grabbed my jacket. I slipped out of my jacket and kept running. I was willing to pay about any price if only I could make it safely home. When making it safely home means making it to Heaven, there is no price I wouldn’t be willing to pay. That price leads to a problem.
I felt honored the day a little boy waved at me. He was sitting by his back door on a nice spring morning. I was across the alley running a forklift for the lumber company for which I had recently started working. Presumably, he would have waved at any adult whose attention he could claim, but then, I was a little boy once too. A man driving a forklift is exciting to a preschooler. Driving a forklift comes across as less exciting to the man driving it.
“Dave, I want to show you something.” My flight instructor took control of the two-seat Cessna. Moments later the airplane pitched over. The sky disappeared from the windshield as we plunged earthward, spinning wildly. I felt like I was going to die as I braced against gravity. We were in what pilots call a spin. While the fear factor was real, I had asked for this very experience.
Are you willing to fail for the Lord? Fail for the Lord? Now wait a minute!
I gave my cat a dose of flea medicine today.
An observer would suspect
I tortured him.
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