Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 September 2004 10:21:18
I'm reading Jeremiah at the moment (yes, I know, cheery, but my bible reading notes insist). This morning, I got to the bit where he gets his scribe to write down everything he says on a scroll and the scribe takes it to the temple and reads it out because Jeremiah has been banned from the temple. The king, who rejoices in the name johiakim or something very like it (I'm putting it on the 'names that could really muck up our potential children' list immediately), burns it, and tries to kill them both. Of course, he doesn't manage it, but I should imagine it was a bit of a brown loincloth experience.
No prizes for guessing who I feel sorry for in this story - it's Baruch the scribe, every time. OK, so he gets a namecheck in the book - but he's the one who actually has to walk into the temple, legs shaking like a jelly I should think, and read this fire and brimstone stuff to the entire priesthood. He's not getting it directly from God - Jeremiah is, and he's already been barred from the temple for starting a pub brawl or something. Poor old Baruch faithfully writes it down, reads it out and then gets in just as much trouble as Jeremiah.
That takes guts - and more than I've got. The little inspirational bit at the beginning of the bible notes asked me to imagine what would happen if a prophet walked into the room right then (hopefully he wouldn't have demanded a cup of tea because there wasn't any left in the pot), which was a pretty awesome thought. But it is Baruch who inspired me this morning. Maybe because I'm a scribe myself - although a lot more easily scared.
Sorry, that was all a bit serious, wasn't it? In other news, my pastor actually said thank you to me this morning. This is not a common occurence - I'm thinking of renaming the church newsletter "A thankless task of staggering genius" - and I nearly cried. Just as well it was an email.
Oh and thanks for your sign-off suggestions. I like "best" and shall use it. Sadly, I'm not a fisherman, although a request for "tight lines" here might suggest we were short on space and that people should avoid long sentences.