Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 May 2011 14:54:56
Ok - so I know blog posts are meant to be clear and focused and dah-de-dah but todays won't be. My mind is in a mash I am just fitting in a quick blog - don't know how many days until I'll be able to get back here - may be tomorrow or it might be a week.
Anyway - this week is Eurovision. First semi-final was on Tuesday, second tonight and from these 15 acts go through to join "the big five" (yes Italy is back). Retro or incredibly camp seem to be the key choices this year and in our house we thought the retro was best (Serbia and Iceland did this well). Our favourite act was Finland. Paradise Oskar seems to have turned it into eco-vision with his wonderful little ditty Da Da Dam. Hoping he does really well on Saturday.
Spurious link from eco-concerns to the bible reading I've been doing. I am really enjoying the OT readings from Judges at the moment. Strange names like Dodo - (the spurious link). Particularly struck by Jephthah's story in Judges 11.
This was one I wasn't familiar with but which was amazing. The guy is a mighty warrior but the son of a prostitute and so his half brothers were worried about him inheriting what they felt was theirs. So, Jepthah legs it off to Tob (that made me smile too). Anyway when the half-brothers get in a spot of bother they decide they could do with Jepthah's fighting skills and so go crawling back to him. So Jepthah goes back to help them. Part way through this "the Spirit of the Lord" (Holy Spirit) comes on him and gives him some wisdom. In praying he makes a somewhat rash vow to give whatever comes first out of his door to the Lord if he gets victory. First thing out the front door is his daughter, a virgin, and his only child. Jepthah very poetically says, "WTF have I done? I have made this vow and I can't break it" (my paraphrase) - note here unlike Israel and the "nice" people who were breaking vows left right and centre this son of a whore is far more serious about his religion.
Anyway the daughter is the real heroine of this place - she says, "let me go off into the mountains a bit to cry and scream and get it out of my system and then I will come back and fulfil the vow" or words to that effect. After two months she came back to fulfil the vow and they started a festival amongst women where they got four days a year to go off and to remember her - daughter of Jephthah.
I found this reading quite inspiring. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from God can use you. Similarly, it can be some of the most unexpected people who end up being the most faithful.