Barb Wire- no Problem

We were in Kentucky for Christmas 2017.

A young man whom we had known from before was at the church service on Christmas. It was the first that anyone had seen him since his enlistment on October 19 in the Army and his deployment for basic training at Fort Leonard Woods in MO. He shared quite a lot about his experience there. It was intriguing to hear of the hardships that these guys are put through to turn them into educated, competent warriors. He is a bit older than his peers, being 22 and having been out of school and in a job for several years. His wisdom and maturity level allowed him to do really well during his training, receiving numerous citations for his leadership and competence. He was especially thrilled with the ending to a rather sad story of one of his co-trainees. This man had a brother who had died during the training. The military was extremely caring for this guy, providing him with transportation and time-off to attend the funeral. And David’s squad came together and raised over $2000 to give to this man as a gift. This act of comradery and kindness earned special recognition from the commander himself. His platoon of 60 trainees emerged as one of the best that this commander had ever trained.

However, there was one particular time during his training that this soldier felt like the spiritual winds were blowing against him. For several days he had just been unable to excel. He remembered that it was one month after he had left for training. He asked the leaders of the church if something had happened at the church during that time that might have caused the heaviness. During those heavy days he was undergoing weapons testing. He had a terrific headache and then needed to go the bathroom intensely. He just could not get his weapons training score high enough. He was only able to hit 22 of the 40 targets rather than the minimum 23. If he could not pass this, he was going to have to go through the whole training cycle again! It turns out that this short hiatus in excelling happened on November 19. Unbeknownst to him at the time, this was the exact date that his friend at the church had died of an accidental gunshot wound. The church members were reeling from the tragedy and many had expressed their wish that this man could have been there to lend his support. He was only learning about this from the conversation that night. It was almost eerie to see how his spirit must have been connected with that tragic deed across the intervening miles. God’s Spirit truly works in marvelous ways. Apparently, it is not restricted by the barb wire and perimeter fences surrounding a military camp!

Unappreciated Originations: Where Did the Week Come From?

Here is a little analogy that I have been using for many years. I just happened to share this again with a lady who was waiting along with me at the drug store for our prescriptions to be filled. Seeing the light of surprised understanding flash into her eyes, I was again convinced that it is indeed an analogy that can jolt our sensibilities and awaken a new understanding of our daily lives. 

Consider with me for a moment, about where our concepts of time come from -- the day, for instance. From whence did it arise? To give you a slight clue, imagine that as I ask this question I am standing in front of you, slowly rotating my index finger  around in a circle. The obvious answer, along with the clue from the twirling index finger will quickly produce the answer; it comes from the rotation of the earth on its axis. 

Well then, where does our idea of the year come from? Again the obvious answer, supported by the slowly rotating finger, will bring forth the answer; from the rotation of the earth around the sun!

Great! Now getting slightly harder; where does the month come from?  Ahh! That comes from the rotation of the moon around the earth. (Ok. Not precisely, but close enough that it is called the Lunar month)

So now, with my finger still spinning in space, comes the last and hardest question. Where does the week come from?

Don't be embarrassed to stand there scratching your chin! Everyone else I ask this question of in America does exactly that. My rotating finger has gotten them searching their scientific knowledge to figure out what else happens in the astrological world on a seven day periodicity. Inevitably, the answer will come, "I really don't know!"

Which is part of my point here. I said "America" above, because if I do this exact same questioning with the spinning finger in China, the answer is always a very quick and ready, "It comes from the Bible! From the first chapter of Genesis!" And I can state this authoritatively because I have done this many times over in both countries. Even with Chinese "atheists". 

How is it that the Chinese are aware of something that we, here in America, so steeped in the Bible, seem to miss? How could we possibly miss that one of the most precious creations coming out of the Genesis 1 was the week? Nothing else in the universe operates on a 7 day cycle. If God wanted to build into the heart of man the idea of a way of ordering life such that we would work for 6 days and then rest on the seventh, He had to do it with a good story. A great story! The story of creation. The whole world orders its life according to the week. And those societies that have tried to use other periods for a "week" have gone back to it. 

So how is it that the West, can so universally miss this central theme of the first chapter of Genesis? After all, the idea of the Sabbath was one of the most pervasive themes throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament. Violation of it was one of the "high crimes" that Jesus was accused of by the Jewish authorities. He was never accused of promoting the heresy that the birds and the fish did not appear on the planet until the fifth, 24 hour day, 4000 years before he was standing there in the temple. His ministry was not to validate some "scientific" understanding of how God created the world, but to share his insights, as co-creator, about why God did it.  The West has so often hijacked that story to be some highly detailed scientific account of how God made the world, rather than why God made the world, that we miss this point.

Put yourself back into those primitive "hunter-gatherer" days when all tribes on earth knew that their very existence was predicated upon spending every day seeking food to survive. And now, suddenly, you become aware that the neighboring tribe sits and does nothing on every seventh day! Well, not exactly nothing. They spend the day thinking about why they are here in the first place and in contemplating the One who created them! What an odd bunch of people. But it was exactly this penchant for obeying this God-given rhythm of life that became one of the most lasting,  civilizing gifts of the Jews to mankind. A gift, rooted in a divinely inspired story. The West, having spent hundreds of years overlaying this story with scientific inquiry, miss, what the Eastern mind can clearly see in an instant.