Mechanical Clock by jimking@deviantart.com
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Images for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 19A
1 Kings 19: 9-18 Elijah at Mount Horeb
Psalm 85: 8-13 Righteousness and peace will kiss each other
Romans 10: 5-15 The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart
Matthew 14: 22-33 Jesus walks on the sea of Galilee
A few of Elijah
Greek Orthodox Icon, The Prophet Elijah
Elijah in the Wilderness, Raphael or Raphael’s school
Russian Orthodox Icon, Elijah in the Desert
And for the Reading from Matthew of Jesus and Peter on the sea of Galilee
Gustav Dore, Jesus Appears to the Disciples
Amedee Varin (1818-1883) Le Christ marchant sur la mer
Ivan Aivazovsky, Walking on Water (1890s)
Francois Boucher, Saint Peter Attempting to Walk on the Water (1766)
Also James B. Janknegt’s picture Walking on Water
Little Faith Ones
Extract of Herbert Boeckl’s fresco “Saint Peter’s rescue from the Lake Galilee” inside the cathedral of Maria Saal, Carinthia, Austria
Jeremiah 41 The Murder of Gedaliah and a Shattered Hope
Edvard Munch, The Scream (Der Schrei der Natur) 1893
In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, 2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, because the king of Babylon had appointed him governor in the land. 3 Ishmael also killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.
4 On the day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone knew of it, 5 eighty men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the LORD. 6 And Ishmael son of Nethaniah came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.” 7 When they reached the middle of the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them, and threw them into a cistern. 8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the fields.” So he refrained, and did not kill them along with their companions.
9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck down was the large cistern that King Asa had made for defense against King Baasha of Israel; Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled that cistern with those whom he had killed. 10 Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who were left at Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
11 But when Johanan son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him heard of all the crimes that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had done, 12 they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They came upon him at the great pool that is in Gibeon. 13 And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him, they were glad. 14 So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites. 16 Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces with him took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael son of Nethaniah had carried away captive from Mizpah after he had slain Gedaliah son of Ahikam– soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs, whom Johanan brought back from Gibeon. 17 And they set out, and stopped at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt 18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
In Chapter 40 there was a hope for the remnant in Judah in the appointment of Gedaliah and the return of refugees from the surrounding regions that were joining with those left by Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian captain of the guard, as beginning to pick up the pieces of their destroyed homeland. Yet for a small group that returned, the war is not over and the appointment of Gedeliah as governor to act on behalf of Babylon is further insult to their loss. At the end of Chapter 40 we overheard Johanan son of Kareah inform Gedaliah of the plot by both the king of Ammon and Ishmael so of Nethaniah and at the beginning of chapter 41 we are introduced to Ishmael. Ishmael is of the royal family and an officer of the king, perhaps one of the very officers who continued to lobby for resistance against the Chaldeans as the city languished with no food under the siege, yet unlike the rest of the Davidic line he somehow avoided being taken into captivity and now he returns and is welcomed by Gedaliah. Perhaps Ishmael wants to reign himself, perhaps it is merely the association with Babylon, perhaps he is merely bloodthirsty and loves the destruction of war, whatever his reasons he kills Gedaliah. His act is monstrous, he and his ten men while enjoying the hospitality of Gedaliah kill him. Gedaliah’s other allies are not present and perhaps Gedaliah is intentionally trying to make peace with Ishmael.
Ishmael murders the king, the other Judeans with Gedaliah as well as the Chaldean soldiers who are there, then he manages to keep things quiet for a day. The following day eighty pilgrims come to mourn the fallen temple and they, under deceit, are led to their death. It is significant that these pilgrims are coming from Israel and perhaps in this one scene we see not only the desired coming to Jerusalem by these representatives from Israel but also the failure of the royal family to be open to reunification except in terms of conquest. Seventy of the eighty pilgrims are slaughtered and their bodies discarded into a large cistern, ten escape only by promising their stores of grain, oil and honey. Ishmael and his men are portrayed as bloodthirsty killers and they hold the people of the area in terror by their violence. Once Johanan and his forces arrive the people quickly turn to him and Ishmael flees to Ammon.
The remnant, now under Johanan is terrified that Babylon will respond to the death of their appointed governor. Even though they are innocent of the murder they fear the armies of the Chaldeans will not be very discerning when they return a third time to put down an insurrection so they retreat. Their intended destination is Egypt, a place in the opposite direction from Babylon and a place that may offer them the protection they seek. In rational terms it is a sensible plan because they have no way to oppose Babylon, yet it ends up not being the will of God as well will see in the coming chapter.
There are different opinions on whether Gedeliah only remains in power three months (city is destroyed in the fourth month and he is assassinated in the seventh month) or whether, since no year marker is given, he reigns longer. There is a final deportation to Babylon in 582 BCE, which may have been in reaction to these events (five years later). But it is impossible to tell, especially since it took time to mobilize forces in the ancient world. Gedaliah had been long forgotten in Jewish and Christian memories and he returned to the Jewish collective consciousness following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in November 1995. (Lau, 2013, p. 199) The fast of Gedaliah (held on September 28 in 2014) has been promoted by some groups as a day for dialogue, yet for many Gedaliah is a mixed figure. There will always be those who are unhappy with compromises and any type of movement for reconciliation within the political constraints of the day, yet the message of Jeremiah over and over again to the people of Judah was precisely the uncomfortable message of surrender to Babylon and settling in within their empire. At a time where Jeremiah’s message seemed proved correct there were still those who were committed to preventing this type of accommodation while they had any power, and thus the narrative of Jeremiah continues its dark path further away from the promised land.
Seeing our Better Selves
When my image is captured and frozen in time it is so easy to see what I don’t like
Even more than my mirror image where I can turn and perhaps see things differently
In the moving image I can find the better light and the parts of me that I like
But there, frozen in time in a now dead moment it is so easy to pick at the flaws
To critique myself in a much harsher light than any other would ever see
And in my life it is helpful to find those who remind me how to see my better self
Who in that same image see not the flaws frozen to be picked apart and fretted upon
But in that moment sees not a moment dead in time but instead a reminder of the living me
And learning to see myself through another’s eyes and risking cataloging the moments
As living reminders to celebrate the person I am today viewed in a new light
Noticed
The Givers
There are those people who are born with an innate sense of compassion
Whose oversized hearts sometimes lead again and again to painful paths
Where they enter into another’s life and struggles and bear their burdens
But in those moments where their heart is broken and their spirits sag
Rarely do those whom they walked for days with journey a mile in their shoes
Perhaps they wonder if it might be easier if their soft hearts were turned to stone
And their ears could become deaf and their eyes blind to the need that surrounds them
Yet, sometimes the hardest lesson for a giver to learn is the most important
Somewhere in their journey of learning to care for others and to pour out their souls
They come to believe that everyone else is more important than their life
They become deeply wounded healers trying to pour out of exhausted vessels
In believing in the value of others they forgot to value themselves
To have the compassion for their own blemishes that they have for others
And to learn to trust their own heart and mind to seek out those who give to them
Who see in them, not the person who is the soul mender
One whose life is consumed by the endless hunger of the wounded
But the companion, friend, and the ones who see in them the beauty
They struggle sometimes to see in their life
Neil White, 2014
Jeremiah 40: The Remnant
Jeremiah 40: 1-11 Jeremiah and the Remnant Settle in the Land
Seal of Gedaliah
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he took him bound in fetters along with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. 2 The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God threatened this place with this disaster; 3 and now the LORD has brought it about, and has done as he said, because all of you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice. Therefore this thing has come upon you. 4 Now look, I have just released you today from the fetters on your hands. If you wish to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will take good care of you; but if you do not wish to come with me to Babylon, you need not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go. 5 If you remain, then return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or go wherever you think it right to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present, and let him go. 6 Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.
7 When all the leaders of the forces in the open country and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon, 8 they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah– Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their troops. 9 Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan swore to them and their troops, saying, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall go well with you.10 As for me, I am staying at Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and store them in your vessels, and live in the towns that you have taken over.” 11 Likewise, when all the Judeans who were in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan as governor over them, 12 then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they had been scattered and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah; and they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance.
As happens so often in both the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament, it is the outsider who perceives what the insiders do not. As Patrick Miller insightfully sees, “The one acknowledgement of the truthfulness of Jeremiah’s prophecy I the whole book comes from the lips of the enemy.” (Elizabeth Actemeir, et. al., 1994, pp. 857, Vol. VI). Like in the book of Jonah when the sailors and the people of Ninevah acknowledge Jonah’s preaching, or in the gospels when either the demons know the identity of the son of man, or it is a Syro-Phonecian/Canaanite woman (Mark/Matthew) who shows great faith, or a Roman centurion who at the end of the gospels (perhaps sarcastically in Mark, but Matthew and Luke remove the possibility of reading it sarcastically) “Truly this man was God’s Son” (Matthew 27: 54, parallels in Mark and Luke). But in a ministry where Jeremiah’s message has been continually challenged and unheard, we hear from an unexpected source-a foreigner, a servant of another empire and different gods, an acknowledgment of the truth of the message of Jeremiah. As Jeremiah has testified all throughout his time, now it unfolds that these foreigners can be instruments of the LORD.
Jeremiah is presented a choice, will he go into exile and into a comfortable life after a long struggle in the nation of Judah or will he return to the remnant of the land. By his own words in Jeremiah 24 (talking about the good and the bad figs), although admittedly referring to the previous exile of the elites from Jerusalem and Judah, he indicated it would be those taken into exile that the future would pass through. Yet Jeremiah chooses to remain with the people of the land where, as Kathleen O’Conner puts it he will find himself with the “baddest of the bad figs” who will carry him with them into Egypt. (O’Conner, 2011, p. 130). Yet, Jeremiah’s choice to remain is consistent with his character to not give up on the people and the land. Other prophets will emerge among the people in the exile that will give them hope as they reconstruct their identity as exiles in a foreign land. Whatever Jeremiah’s motives for remaining we will never know, although perhaps there is some insight in the governor assigned to oversee the remnant in the land.
Gedaliah is given a very positive reading in this text. He comes from an established family. As Patrick Miller highlights:
His grandfather (Shapan) and father (Ahikam) had both been involved in the discovery and handling of the scroll of Torah found in the Temple during Josiah’s reign. Moreover, his father had protected Jeremiah from execution by the people after his trial in chap. 26. (Elizabeth Actemeir, et. al., 1994, pp. 857, Vol. VI)
Perhaps Jeremiah feels some loyalty to this family which had protected him and had attempted to be faithful to the LORD. In this short introduction we see Gedaliah urging the people to settle down, to raise their crops and to serve the Chaldeans, words remarkably like those of Jeremiah in other places. With the return of some of the scattered military in the open country and the refugees in the surrounding lands it looks like a miniature return to the land and a possible new beginning. Yet, this is not the ending of this unfortunate and traumatic story.
Jeremiah 40: 13-16: Whispers of Assassination
13 Now Johanan son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 14 and said to him, “Are you at all aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them. 15 Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Mizpah, “Please let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one else will know. Why should he take your life, so that all the Judeans who are gathered around you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah would perish?” 16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do such a thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”
Carl von Clauswitz famously said, “War is a continuation of politics by other means.” Yet within both the modern world and the ancient world there have always been other means to influence the policy within one’s region and to either call attention to oneself or away from one’s desired area of influence. History is often learned from the perspective of which empire is reigning at any one time, but often there is much more going on under the surface. Here we see the king of Ammon meddling in Judean and Babylonian inter-relations and this is not the first time. The king of Ammon in Jeremiah 27 is one of the kings also explicitly linked to the Judean resistance to Babylonian domination, and so the Ammonites may not have been happy with Gedaliah’s policy of cooperation with Babylon. Johanan becomes aware of the plot and comes to warn the king and offers to quell this plot before it has an opportunity to come to fruition. Unfortunately Gedaliah is either to naïve or refuses to believe the accusations about Ishmael plotting his assassination and this will have disastrous consequences for Gedaliah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the remnant in Judah. A foreign power is meddling in the affairs of a weakened Judean homeland, stirring the pot of international intrigue pivots the story once again towards the ending of Jeremiah’s narrative.
Athur Kacker, By the Waters of Babylon (1888)
Images for the Sixth and Seventh Sunday after Pentecost-Lectionary 16 and 17A
Was out last week, but here are some images from the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost (Matthew 13: 13:24-30, 36-43)
James Tissot, The Enemy Who Sows (Between 1886 and 1894)
Felician Rops, Satan Sowing Seeds (1872)
Abraham Bloemaert, The Parable of the Wheat and Tares (1624)
Illustration from Martin Luther’s time comparing the devil sowing seeds in the field to the sale of indulgences
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-53)
This is a series of parables which Jan Luyken has an illustration for each one
Jan Luyken, Parable of the Mustard Seek in the Bowyer Bible
Jan Luyken etching Parable of the Leaven
For the Treasure Hidden in the Field there are several images
Jan Luyken, etching, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
possibly Rembrandt; possibly Gerard Dou, Parable of the Hidden Treasure (possibly 1630)
John Everett Millais, The Hidden Treasure, 1864
Jan Luyken, etching, Parable of the Pearl of Great Price
Domenico Fetti, La Perle de grand prix
Jan Luyken, etching, the Parable of the Dragnet
The Kingdom of Fools
The Pearl of Great Price, engraving by John Everett Millais (1864)
Sign of the Rose 