Rising Up Above the Waters (Exodus 14:21-31)

Picture of lock and Viking ship by Aida Besancon Spencer 6/26/2024

Three o’clock in the morning, I slid back the heavy curtain on the window to take a look at night on the river and the early dawning of the northern sun. Instead, to my shock, I found myself confronting a solid, concrete wall just about two feet from my face.[1]

It wasn’t there when I went to sleep. I wasn’t dreaming; I was awake, and I was astonished! If I’d opened the window, I could have reached out and touched it! But, as I gaped at it, it looked like this wall was gently but steadily dropping away. Then, I realized, the wall wasn’t moving. No, the 2,600-ton Viking river cruiser, on which we were traveling the Rhine River, was rising until it crested the top of that wall, and we emerged up into the night air.

Now, the reason I was there is that we were attempting to recapture and explore a treasured childhood memory Aída had wanted for years to share with me: journeying through the castles of Germany which she had visited in her youth with her Dutch father and family. The cruise was set for eight days, riding the Rhine from Amsterdam in the north down to Basel, below the Alps, from where we would fly home.

When we reached Germany’s castle-country, we did indeed see twenty castles from the top of our ship.

The gracious staff of this affordable, yet immaculately-kept cruiser equipped us all with an informative and entertaining narration, a glossy handheld pamphlet guide to the “Castles on the Middle Rhine,” large umbrellas to keep the sun off us, chaise lounge chairs on which we could stretch out our legs, all the bottled water we could guzzle on a bright sunny day, and a break from the previous days of excursions in which we toured cities, cathedrals, fortresses, and other interesting sites all along the river. And all that in 8 days!

But to arrive at this destination toward which we’d set out from the Netherlands through Germany into France, as we approached Switzerland, our ship had to navigate through ten separate locks, a new experience for me.

Every one of the staff was so pleasant and accessible, I decided to ask what these brief passages in and out of the cement locks I had witnessed in our window that morning were all about.

I was guided to the ship’s Hotel Manager, Stefan Strobl-Santos, an imposing young officer who looks like a European movie star and melds efficiency and friendliness like an art form.

My question was: what exactly are locks and why do we need to go through them? It’s not that these brief nautical passageways were annoying. Not at all. Eight of them I didn’t even notice we were in, if I hadn’t occasionally looked out a window, after that early morning discovery, but, having never been on a river cruise before, I wondered: why were these locks here at all?

He drew me a picture as he explained that it was as if our ship was climbing a stairway. The Rhine River we were on was actually rising between Germany and Switzerland and the locks were chambers we were entering so a sluice could pour in water beneath us and slowly, carefully, raise our level at each juncture. What we were avoiding were rough rapids over the equivalent of waterfalls in the river’s stream, and other obstacles such as sandbars that would have made our journey much more arduous and treacherous.[2] We were constantly being moved to a greater height.

The hefty Viking craft was being lifted by the power of the increasing volume of pouring, rising water to a new level, on which it could begin to move carefully at first and then more swiftly out of the lock to continue on the river to its destination.

Thinking this over, I was struck by the curious similarity between what we were experiencing and the marvelous delivery of the fleeing Israelites, escaping from Egypt in the Exodus, when they suddenly found themselves confronted by the impassible Red Sea.

The similarities? We both needed to go through a deep river to get to safety.

For us, who knows? If caught in a terrific storm, without the locks, could our ship have hit rapids, logs, sandbars, and the force of the waves constantly slugging into us with tremendous force sweep our ship sideways, backwards, careening into a sandbar or thrown up onto the shore? Probably not, since the ship was closed by strong walls and windows, but at least the ride would have been rough, not smooth as it always was.

The differences? Well, as we look at what confronted the Israelites, our situation, even theoretically in worst case scenario, was nothing compared to theirs.

*They had no ships, no boats, no rafts, no bridges, no means but their feet to get themselves, their children, their elderly, their infirm, across a body of water deep enough to drown them all.

*They were in a rush now with no time to sit down and rethink their plans. They were escaping from a land that had held them captive for several hundred years. And their former captors who had begrudgingly let them go had just been told by their leader, as recorded in Exodus14:5: “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!”

So, an army of war chariots were in pursuit of them.

And here they are, their route of escape suddenly blocked, stymied by a huge body of water and nowhere to run.

What they needed desperately was a lock like we had to hold back the water and avoid ending their escape by the catastrophe of drowning in a rough deluge.

Sherri Chasin Calvo in Encyclopedia.com tells us locks appeared fairly early, mainly being used in canals and, “The first known canals were dug in the Middle East thousands of years ago.” One example, she notes, is familiar to all Bible readers: the “50-mile (80-km) long stone canal built to supply the city of Nineveh with fresh water.” It was built, in fact, by “King Sennacherib, who ruled Assyria” and who was eventually going to besiege Judah in the time of King Hezekiah and capture 46 of its towns, demanding a huge tribute in the late 700s to the early 600s BC.” We can read that account in 2 Kings chapters 18-19.

Further, “several additional canals were built elsewhere in the Mesopotamian region, as well as in Egypt and Phoenicia. In about 510 BC the Persian king Darius I (550-486 BC) even attempted to connect the Nile with the Red Sea.” So that would have been helpful for Israel, trying to go through the Red Sea.

But, the problem here is that these dates are all about 500 years or so after the Exodus.

A similar problem surfaced with the flash locks, where water built up and behind “movable barriers” or “lock-gates” like those developed by the Chinese in the first century BC,” in canals near Nanyang,” wherein boats could float over problems when the barriers were removed if going downstream or hauled over the difficulty if going upstream.[3]

But that would be too little and way too late – by a millennium!

So human-made locks were not an option.

They had no bridges to cross, no ferry to carry them over, no locks to hold back the water.

But they had one great advantage. They had the power of God at work.

Exodus 14:21-22 tells us that, at God’s command, Moses stretches his hand over the sea and God drives back the water into a wall that opens a passage and God dries that passage up, so Israel can cross over safely.

In short, God creates a natural lock. No cement, no concrete, no sluices, but the inspiration is there for humans to imitate it – but only the power of God is at work to make it happen naturally.

But, how did God do this?

We have an explanation from no one less than Sir Colin Humphreys, Professor at The School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Professor of Experimental Physics, The Royal Institution; Cambridge; and Director of both Cambridge University’s Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre on Advanced Materials and its Aixtron Centre for Gallium Nitride, as well as Emeritus Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge.[4] He is well-known for his work developing the LED lightbulbs we use and has received many awards and honors, including being knighted for his accomplishments in science.

Alongside Colin Humphreys’ expertise as a physicist and materials scientist, he has also become an apologist in defending the miracles of the Bible.

In 2004, he released an interesting book, The Miracles of Exodus – A Scientist’s Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes Underlying the Biblical Stories. In it, among other contributions, is an impressive explanation of how God built overnight the natural “lock” that saved Israel and destroyed the pursuing army.

Here is a summary of some of the light this LED pioneer sheds on this event:

Noting Exodus 14:21, which recounts “all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind” (NRSV), he explains: “A wind blowing along the surface of a body of water exerts a stress on the water which forces it back.” Oceanographers call this a ‘wind set-down.’” Moses and the Israelites were able to cross. When they all arrived, God ceased the wind, and the sea rushed back with great swiftness and force onto the pursuing army. He estimates that the height of the wall of water was about “800 metres.” At 1 metre to about 3.3 feet, that is roughly over 24 feet (re Exod.14:22). Sir Colin also explains: “The mathematics shows that the water returns as a fast-moving vertical wave called a ‘bore’.” Since this happens only on a long stretch of water and the Bible specifies it was an east wind, Prof. Humphreys focuses on the Gulf of Aqaba as the most probable location of the crossing and calculates the speed of the returning “bore” wave to be about five metres per second, “sufficient to knock over a horse and its rider and hurl them into the sea.”[5] Maps of the area still show that the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and the Gulf of Aqaba are waters that are all connected.

The Archaeological Study Bible adds an extra point, “Humphreys also suggests that the name Red Sea could be accounted for by the red coral that grows in the Gulf of Aqaba.”[6]

Therefore, as our sleek and solid Viking craft was lifted by the power of the pouring water to a new level, on which it could begin to move carefully at first and then more swiftly out of each lock to continue up the Rhine River to our destination, just so, the fleeing Israelites were rescued by God with an east wind and led across the emptied deep to rise up and climb to a higher physical plane on the far shore, while at the same time being raised up through this experience to a higher spiritual plane.

Step by step, we see that, when difficulties confront us, they can be solved by obeying God’s command to follow God’s lead, seeking escape from the bad, and actively moving toward the good solution God provides to get us out of as much of the misery and trouble as we can.

As the Israelites slowly had their consciousness raised to the power of God on earth, we, the heirs of this great epic account we read in Exodus, should remember that, when catastrophe hits us, as it often does, we are gifted by God to rise up to a higher, farther shore. God leads us through the troubles mounted up around us, empowering us to transcend the obstacles facing us and enables us to continue on our own spiritual journey in the power of God’s grace.

So, what should we do when catastrophe strikes?

1)           Don’t despair at overwhelming problems.

2)           Ask and listen for God’s leading to a solution.

3)           Act on God’s solution:

a) Follow the Lord.

b) Seek the higher ground.

4)           Trust God to protect you, because you are in God’s eternal hands.

5)           Don’t let fear unnerve you or turn you back.

6)           Keep pressing on.

Bill

---

[1] This blog is an adaption of a sermon given August 18, 2024 at Pilgrim Church in Beverly, MA.

[2] For those who want a parallel explanation, the website of the Government of Canada’s Saint-Ours Canal National Historic Site explains, “A lock usually consists of a watertight basin known as a lock chamber, which is used to raise or lower the water level as required. Boats are raised or lowered by filling or emptying the lock chamber. Gates at each end of the lock chamber allow the boats to enter and leave. The gates are operated by various hydraulic, electric or manually operated systems, depending on the canal. Sluices in the gates or walls of the locks are operated to fill and empty the lock chambers by gravity. https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/saintours/culture/ecluses-locks , accessed June 30, 2024.

[3] Sherri Chasin Calvo, “The Development of Canal Locks,” Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/development-canal-locks

[4] The Royal Society, “Sir Colin Humphreys CBE FREng FRS, https://royalsociety.org/people/colin-humphreys-11662/, accessed 8/11/20. The Royal Society, which is “a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence,” applauds Sir Colin Humphrys for his “valuable work on the electron microscopy of semiconducting materials,” and “his world-leading research on gallium nitride (GaN),” which has resulted in a substantially improved understanding of this important material with a wide range of technological applications.” As a result, the USA, along with Europe has awarded him gold medals for his work, and he was knighted by Great Britain’s Queen in 2010 for his contributions to science.

[5] Acaemia.com: “Science and the Miracles of Exodus” by Colin Humphreys, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge- Cambridge, UK, https://www.academia.edu/75936355/Science_and_the_Miracles_of_Exodus. For other explanations of what may have happened in the parting of the waters at the exodus, see “Parting The Red Sea - Could It Have Happened? Wind Setdown Model Says Yes,” News Staff, Scientific Blogging: Science 2.0, posted September 2, 2010, accessed August 19, 2024|.

[6] “The Wind Set-Down Hypothesis,” Archeological Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 111.

Locked in Love?

 

Picture taken by Aída Besançon Spencer, of the Hohenzollernbrücke Bridge, Cologne, Germany, June 22. 2024 

Sweethearts, engraving their names on a lock, fastening it to a public fence, then tossing the key into a river as a sign of their enduring love sounds charmingly romantic—or  at least it did until an eight-foot Paris’ Pont des Arts Bridge railing collapsed under the weight of thousands of these love locks.

Confronted with literally tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of every kind of lock from petite heart-shaped and glistening-red designer to sturdy, gray security to corroding bicycle locks, spiraling up as high as the tallest love-struck German can reach and as crammed on to each other as can be finagled down the entire stretch of the vast security fence that separated the people’s walkway from the busy train track on the Hohenzollernbrűcke bridge that spans the Rhine River in beautiful Cologne, we stopped amazed, wondering. “How is this wire fence still standing up?”

Our concerns only echo what has been voiced all around the world, as similar locks in a plethora of languages have been fastened in droves on public structures in numerous countries.

How did all this begin? The source credited by many is Frederico Moccia’s romantic novel and the subsequent film “Ho Vaglia di Te” (I Want You, 2006). In that novel, a couple chooses a bicycle lock on a lamppost and the key goes into Rome’s Tiber River. The first locks that we saw on the Hohenzollernbrűcke bridge were reported in 2008.[1] But, appropriately for an Italian novel, the earliest locks were spotted on the Ponte Milvio bridge in Rome.[2]

Since then, lovelocks have raised concern in places as distant from the source as the USA’s Grand Canyon, where rangers report the discarded keys are endangering the wildlife that gobble them down, thinking they’re food.[3] While Brooklyn Bridge workers didn’t wait to repeat the Paris disaster but snapped off 11,000 lovelocks, bridge caretakers in Melbourne tackled 20,000 locks to save their bridge, neither of which was a small feat![4]

So, what is this by now 18-year fad really all about? Well, not exactly what Aída quipped when she noticed one lock was a combination lock and surmised that, just in case that love faltered and flickered out, the disgruntled party could simply spin the combination and take it off the fence and wait to use that lock again, if the present names were not too indelible. The rest of the key-less are intended to be permanent.

No, what motivates this expense, which is making the manufacturers and purveyors of locks and keys rich beyond their most exorbitant aspirations, is what everyone wants: a love that will last forever. In other words, what people really want is a love like the one that Jesus’s apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, a love that is patient [and can wait, persevering]; a love that is kind; not envious [competing with the beloved]; not conceited; not arrogant; not behaving improperly, not seeking only the things that matter to oneself; not irritable [or easily angered]; not counting up the wrongs it feels were done to it; not rejoicing with unrighteousness [or wrongdoing], but rejoicing with the truth; always enduring, always believing, always hoping, always persevering. Love never falls [or fails].”

Now, Jesus’s other apostle John tells us that that kind of love only comes from God, because “God is love.” How did God show this love? “The love of God has been revealed among us [by] his Son, the only begotten, God sent into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:8b, 9).

What this tells us is that the eternal love we are seeking is in the only other eternal that we know: the God who created and loves us. So, to find this eternal love we must find it in God.

And what about human love? Solomon, who tried out conjugal love with a vast assortment of women, finally concluded he should have taken Genesis 2:24: “For this reason a man leaves his father and his mother and they become one flesh” more seriously than he did, for he recommends, “Rejoice in the wife of your youth,…may you be intoxicated always by her love” (Prov 5:18b-19b NRSV). Jesus highlights this truth when he tells his opponents, “From the beginning, a male and a female, [God] made them and for this reason a human will leave the father and the mother and will be united (joined) to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, accordingly, no longer are they two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no human separate (Matt 19:4b-6).[5]

So, if we want a marriage that lasts, so we don’t have to fish in any rivers for our discarded keys, or for railings that fall under the burdens of life, we need to persist together in God’s kind of love, because that is truly the only kind of love that is eternal.

Bill and Aída

---

[1] Viking Daily, 6/22/2024, 2.

[2] John Garry, “Stop Leaving Lovelocks at Tourist Destinations. Here’s Why,” www.lonelyplanet,com/news/love-locks-banned-tourist-destinations,” posted 11/7/2023, accessed 6/24/2024.

[3] Dr. Ceri Houl Brook of the University of Hertfordshire, cited in Garry, “Stop Leaving Lovelocks at Tourist Destinations.”

[4] Ibid.

[5] Translation by Aída Besançon Spencer. See further explanation of “one flesh,” Aída Besançon Spencer, William David Spencer, Steven R. Tracy, and Celestia G. Tracy, Marriage at the Crossroads: Couples in Conversation About Discipleship, Gender Roles, Decision Making and Intimacy (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009), 25-32.

From Chaos to Christ

https://www.freeimages.com/photo/cloud-break-1409678

Guest blog by Joe Kerwin, an elder at Pilgrim Church in Beverly, MA, who was honorably discharged after six years in the Marine Corps. Currently, he works for the Massachusetts state library system. The author of many poems and a worldwide traveler, he wrote this poem in the Kalahari Desert in Africa while on a mission’s trip. Joe would like to dedicate this poem to Pastor Ron Rossi of Grace Ministries, Saugus, MA, who talked with Joe “every Thursday night for two years solid” right after Joe became a Christian.

You slimy little devil, you’re slippery as an eel,

elusive as a parasite, a master of appeal.

 

Amazing, how you twist every single evil thought,

and make it look attractive, even though it’s really not.

 

By eluding comprehension, you make lies appear so real,

With the lure of easy money, you said, “just another deal.”

 

You keep me so confused with false hope, another lie.

You had me so convinced I was benevolent and kind.

 

Your reign of terror came with awesome wicked power.

Your evil had me hate every waking hour.

 

Late night was the time that you really liked to play,

with torture you would tell me, “You won’t live to see the day…”

 

Satan, you’re so evil, binding every noble thought,

making all that pain seem to me, as though it’s really not.

 

That fear that often came on, all throughout the night.

Your cold hard hand upon me, till I lost the will to fight.

 

Hell, you took my life, and you scarred it deep with gashes,

then pushed my life aside, like a pile of old burnt ashes.

 

You’ve had your chilly hand on my heart and on my soul,

for many, many, years, I was just your little troll.

 

My life was such a mess, I never could be free,

because I felt this awful curse would always follow me.

 

Thank you, God, for the saint You sent to me that day,

who said, “I know a Person who can show a better way.”

 

So, I knelt right there upon the street, before Jesus that day,

and asked for Him to take all my sin and shame away.

 

“See ya later, Satan! Your jig is about up!

Your deceit is stripped away! I’m wise to all your stuff!”

 

As I rose straight to my feet, in shock and in surprise,

my confusion now was gone, the clouds had left my eyes.

 

I felt no longer pain and guilt, I left the road I’d trod.

I said, “Goodbye!” to all my fear. I said, “Hello!’ to God.

 

I skipped on down a brighter street, yelling that I’m free.

That’s when I saw Satan, glaring back at me.

 

With eyes so full of hate, he slithered last away,

and scowled, “There goes my prisoner! Now he is a saint!”

 

Joe gives God ALL the glory and honor for restoring him back to sound mind and body! 

We Fall for The Fall Guy

 

google image

We saw the movie The Fall Guy because the previews looked hilarious. However, even though the film had its funny moments, it was much more serious than we expected. The movie highlighted the biblical theme, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5). In the New Testament, the “meek” (praus, prautēs) signifies the humble or mild or gentle. They (not the haughty) will inherit Jesus’s kingdom because Jesus’s kingdom is attained by love, humility, gentleness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and perseverance in righteousness (Matt 5:3-12). In The Fall Guy, it is the lowly as well who win. The “lowly” are the stunt men and women who do all the extreme sports action behind the scenes with little appreciation and credit. In this movie they fight the powerful and prominent who presume they can destroy others without any repercussions. The stunt men advance by their stunts and their ability to receive and to endure suffering for their art.[1]

The ultimate “meek” person in real history is Jesus, through whom the Apostle Paul appeals to the rebellious Corinthians: “I myself Paul appeal to you through the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor 10:1). Jesus is humble (prautēs). Jesus also describes himself as “gentle and humble in heart” in Matthew 11:29. Mildness or gentleness is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:23). It is the way Christians should live (Eph 4:2), the way to restore someone “detected in a transgression” or to correct an opponent (Gal 6:1; 2 Tim 2:25). Wherever “meekness” occurs, “love” is never far away, as in 1 Corinthians 4:21 where “love in a spirit of gentleness” is contrasted with a “stick” of punishment.

Christ’s gentleness is not the outflow of a fearful spirit, but a loving spirit, God’s great compassionate love. Paul has already told his readers about “the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation” and that their ministry comes through “God’s mercy” (2 Cor 1:3; 4:1). He has reminded them of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, “that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). The gifts are “the proof” of love that reaches out to others because of “the surpassing grace” God had given them (2 Cor 8:24; 9:14).

Paul makes his appeal on the basis of God’s compassion, Christ’s gentleness—not on the basis of God’s justice, because God’s justice has already been met by Christ becoming “sin” for humanity (2 Cor 5:21). The Corinthians have plenty of the world’s critical spirit that chooses leaders who in turn criticize and subjugate. Paul appeals through the double columns of “meekness” and “gentleness” because he wants the Corinthians to learn about these aspects of God’s nature. They did not comprehend God’s compassion, gentleness, and mildness, so they found Paul’s leadership style deficient because his aim was to be compassionate, gentle, mild—in other words, loving.[2]

Both the Christian “meek” and the movie “meek” have to fight great evil that is out to tyrannize and destroy them. The Christians at Corinth had to resist the “superapostles” who took advantage of them, dominated them, and even slapped them while putting on airs. They disguised themselves, even as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13-20). Paul sought to win over the deceived “meek” ones, the Christians at Corinth, not with physical violence, but with love and arguments (2 Cor 10:3-6). Paul wanted to avoid punishing the Corinthians’ disobedience. He wanted to give them opportunity to change (2 Cor 10:6; 13:1-10). But he appeared to allow God to deal with the superapostles themselves (2 Cor 11:15; Rom 12:19).

The movie “meek” were not so attracted to the haughty evil persons, but they were deceived by them. For the action-crazed audiences, the “meek” were fighting was not for each other to be transformed, as the Apostle sought to win back and transform the Corinthian church, but the movie “lowly” directly fight with the “superpowers” mano a mano. Most of the time our hero, Colt, sought to escape from evil, even as Paul encouraged the Corinthians to escape from the mental hold of the superapostles. The stunt men could finally use their physical prowess for real action and not make-believe scenarios.

Th angel of light appears to be attractive, even as in the movie one’s attractive friends are not friends necessarily. The haughty evil ones in the movie sought also to deceive its world and make the “meek” look evil, while the haughty superapostles at Corinth sought to deceive the Christian church.

But, in both the movie and in the church at Corinth, the “meek” win over evil and “inherit the earth.” Second Corinthians does not tell us what the Corinthians in Achaia decided to do, whether to follow Paul or the superapostles, but we know from a later New Testament letter that the Christians in the province of Achaia acted in a supportive manner by donating to the poor at Jerusalem (Rom 15:26). And other early church leaders recorded that the Corinthian church returned to and maintained their sound doctrine.[3] The haughty in the movie end up destroying themselves, while the lowly are victorious.

What applications might we draw from this movie, The Fall Guy? While this movie is not a perfect parallel, all truth is God’s truth, and this movie illustrates a central truth of God—the meek will inherit the earth. Our reward in heaven from the triune God is great for persevering in faith (Matt 5:5-12). We will “inherit the earth,” “be filled,” “receive mercy,” “see God,” be called “children of God,” attain “the kingdom of heaven,” and receive a great “reward” (Matt 5:3-12). The “lowly” in the movie were also victors. But in our daily lives, while strategy to combat evil is crucial, our first goal should be to transform others with gentle and proactive love.

Aída

p.s. Here is a question for those of you who decide to see The Fall Guy: what is the Bible verse that is quoted in this movie and how does it apply in the perspective of the movie?

The main character is Colt Seaves who paraphrases Proverbs 16:18, by saying near the early part of the movie, there is a saying, "Pride comes before the fall." TNIV= ""Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall," this is what destroys two other main characters, while Colt fits Proverbs 16:19 "Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud."

---

[1] Redeeming the Screens: Living Stories of Media “Ministers” Bringing the Message of Jesus Christ to the Entertainment Industry, edited by Jeanne C. DeFazio and William David Spencer, includes the life story of award-winning stunt man Bob Yerkes, who concludes “I was mentored by the world’s greatest stuntman who specialized in high work. His name was Jesus Christ. He stood in for everyone up on the cross” (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016), 61.

[2] These comments on 2 Corinthians 10:1 come from Aída Besançon Spencer, 2 Corinthians: The People’s Bible Commentary: A Devotional Commentary for Study and Preaching (Abingdon, UK: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2010), 164-65. This book has been reprinted as Daily Bible Commentary by Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007

[3] Aída Besançon Spencer, Paul’s Literary Style: A Stylistic and Historical Comparison of II Corinthians 11:16-12:13, Romans 8:9-39, and Philippians 3:2-4:13 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998 [1984]), 82, citing Eusebius’ Church History IV. 22; 1 Clement I.2.

 

The Woman Who Built Three Cities and Blessed Her Family

Al Bireh Beit ‘Ur al-Foqa , probable remains of one of Sheerah’s cities, Welcome to Palestine,

https://www.welcometopalestine.com/destinations/ramallah-al-bireh/beit-ur-al-foqa/

For ancient Jews in exile, 1 Chronicles was eye-opening. They could search its lists and locate their ancestors and, thereby, discover their legitimate places in their original homeland. This made the prospect of returning from the land of captivity to their fabled land of origin more doable and less frightening. The book was an empowering gift that must have taken its author an enormous amount of arduous labor to organize and copy from ancient lists on scrolls. To the exiles, it was a miracle.

Today, however, judging by our students and parishioners’ responses, stumbling through these lists is one of the most stultifying ordeals for even the most devout of us daily devotional devotees. Prospecting through these genealogies is exhausting. The lists of incomprehensible names keep piling up around us. To many modern readers, we might feel as though we were poking through a pile of decaying ruins, dusty, archaic, and irrelevant to our lives. By 1 Chronicles 7:20, we trek into the genealogy of Ephraim, Joseph’s younger boy, the one who received the blessing which would normally have been given to his elder brother. Ephraim means “fruitfulness,” so he was set for a blessing. And, sure enough, in his family’s history we come upon an artifact worth picking up and dusting off. It’s a nugget of joy and inspiration, but, to our surprise, it’s embedded not in an account of great joy but one of sadness. Apparently, events had not been unfolding in the way a family with a blessing expected. We get our first inkling that things are not going well, when we read that Ephraim named his own son Shuthelah, which means “discord.”[1] And that name does not go away, for we see it repeated some six generations later, indicating things were still not going well, with yet another child named for dissension.

How tough were events going for Ephraim’s descendants? The lowest point hits with a familial catastrophe: the sudden death of the two sons of a later Ephraim, named for his great ancestor. These two young men, Ezer and Elead, are murdered in an incident at Gath, far down in the southeast corner of the promised land, near the Negeb wilderness. The killings were done, we are told in 1 Chronicles 7:21, by the residents of Gath because Ezer and Elead “came to seize [or to capture, conquer, take away[2]] their cattle [or possessions or property].”

This brief description isn’t much to go on, so it’s not completely clear if Ezer and Elead, and anyone who went with them, went down to retrieve their own cattle, or if the strong word choice specifies they had gone to Gath to heist some cattle and build up their own herd. Most translations, including the Jewish Publication Society of America’s The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, seem to opt for the latter: that these two young guys, bereft of the lesson my own long distant future generation would learn from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans that no happy trails were waiting for rustlers who set out for the wild territory of a place like Gath to see what they could pilfer, did just that and the whole venture went fatally awry.

What these young bucks apparently needed to have taken into account was that Gath was a Philistine city that had been populated by the giant Anakim (Josh 11:22).[3] Maybe Joshua had wiped out the giants in his day, but, as Goliath would later reveal, there were still enough large opponents around.[4] But caution is not always in the mind of the young. If they had thought this through, they might have opted for saving up their earnings and bartering to buy some livestock. But when we’re young and daring, most of us want what we want NOW. We’re in a hurry. In the case of Ezer and Elead, setting out on a life of crime can come to a quick ambush. As they, we don’t always think of the lasting impact on those who love us, for this catastrophe left permanent heartache behind.[5]

1 Chronicles 7:22 tells us their tragic demise was devastating for their Dad. He was so distraught that he mourned for a long time, so long that his brothers gathered to comfort him. And then, as other generations came, the family finally received a blessing. And, along with it, came a mood change from a stand-out heroine who gained renown for her exploits and lifted her family up to honor. This was the niece her uncles had not lived to meet: a young, ambitious woman named Sh^’ēērah. We are told in 1 Chronicles 7:24, “Sheerah built (the word banah also means “form, develop, erect, to cover with buildings, to repair, to rebuild”)[6] the house (or “tent or mansion”) of Horon, the lower and the upper, and Uzzen-sheerah.” Christine Anslow in The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary puts it well when she acknowledges “Sheerah” as one “who had a talent for city building.”[7] This observation agrees with what we read in the Bible text. We also realize Sheerah must have done a solid job, when we read C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch’s note, “Beth-horon the nether and the upper” are “the present Beit-Ur-Foka and Tachta.”[8] When we punch up these time-altered names, we discover, “Beit ‘Ur al-Foqa is the smaller of the two Beit ‘Ur villages, which crown adjacent hilltops. The village, 14 km east of Ramallah, is a charming, peaceful place whose tranquillity is interrupted by the main Israeli highway that runs through the valley.”[9]

These towns, however, were not always so peaceful, as we read in Joshua 10:10. Beth-horon, located on an ascent, was a Canaanite city under attack by Amorites for making peace with Joshua, who counterattacked and defeated the besieging soldiers when God rained deadly hailstones upon them (v. 11). Keil and Delitzsch observe further “Uzzen-sherah” is “a place not elsewhere referred to,[10] which she probably founded, and which was called after her.”  They add, “The building of the two Beth-horons is merely an enlarging and fortifying of these towns. Sherah was probably an heiress, who had received these places as her inheritance, and caused them to be enlarged by her family.”[11] Joan Comay takes this final speculation a bit further when she writes, “her descendants built the towns of Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah,”[12], leaving Sheerah out of the hands-on equation entirely. But the Masoretic text does not do this. It gives her direct credit. If we are uncertain if women in Old Testament times ever got down and gritty moving stone and building fortifications, we have only to look at Nehemiah 3:12 to discover that one of the area rulers of Jerusalem, Shallum with his daughters, repaired the section of the wall by their dwelling. Sheerah seems to me to have been this kind of get-involved architect.

A helpful discussion that is full of insight has been provided for us in the journal Pricilla Papers by Eric E. Richter, who serves as editor for Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana (South American Publishing House) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here is one example of the provocative observations that he makes: “The fact that she had a brother shows that the construction of these cities was not a necessity due to a lack of male leadership. Rather, this achievement seems to be mentioned to highlight her achievements in the face of her brother’s lack of initiative or success.” And here is another: “Controlling the cities of Beth-horon carried several substantial advantages. Being an important ancient route, it allowed Sheerah to protect the tribe of Ephraim from possible attacks from the east (as happened later, in Saul’s time, 1 Sam 13:17–18). In addition, because this was an important trade route, it guaranteed its ruler a constant source of income. It was also the easiest route to access the thriving seaports of Lebanon from the direction of Jerusalem and the prosperous Jordan Valley.¹² The fact that Sheerah controlled this vital road undoubtedly secured for her an important social position among the leaders of her tribe. This may explain why she is mentioned so prominently in Ephraim’s genealogy.[13]

In addition, what strikes me is that her accomplishments not only changed her family’s blight by bleaching it out with an effective and lasting honoring light, but, as we read the rest of this genealogy after her municipal renovations and founding are noted, we see a change in what her descendants achieved.

We notice no towns are named before Sheerah’s building projects are celebrated. Therefore, a possibility is that, up until Sheerah’s game-changing actions, her family may have been comprised of nomadic herders who lived in tents and tended their flocks. After Sheerah, however, we read a continuing list of generations but are now told that these descendants lived and stored their belongings in Beth-el, and surrounding towns, Naaran to the east and Gezer to the west, and their towns,  Shechem and the towns around it, Aiah with its towns, and they spread out along the borders of Ephraim’s brother Manasseh’s tribe, in Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and the towns around it, Megiddo and surrounding towns, and Dor and those settlements related to it (1 Chron 7:25-29). Sheerah’s descendants had become city-dwellers.

So, what can we learn from this amazing woman and her energetic activities that brought enough fame and blessing to her family to be noted in the Bible and affect the lifestyle or her descendants and the scope of what these descendants were inspired to achieve?

1)   Never let yourself be locked into the trap of thinking that adversity means you cannot rise above your circumstances. Sheerah was a woman in a patriarchal time from a family depressed by loss, but she obviously did not let violence or prejudice stop her from accomplishing worthwhile goals. If God has gifted us in accomplishing something, we should follow Sheerah’s example and not hesitate to use our gifts.

2)   Creating something positive is better than doing something negative. We know Sheerah’s name and what she achieved. We don’t know a single name of the men of Gath who killed her uncles, and all we know about her uncles, besides their names, is that they were killed. If they had built something instead of pursuing risky behavior whether to redeem their own property or heist someone else’s, they would have ultimately given their parents joy rather than have broken their hearts.

3)   If the list of what she did is chronological, Sheerah refurbished two cities before she tackled founding her own. Making something that benefits the welfare of others is always a good idea of the best route to travel. It’s the main road to success. And, as we set out on it, we should never avoid starting small and never rush precariously to get big. If what we’re doing pleases God and we put the time and effort into it, God may help it flourish. While we may not know what happened to Sheerah’s third building project, if two out of three of her building efforts actually are still existing today, thousands of years later, that’s pretty good!

4)   Parents can never tell which of their children God will raise up to do great things for God their family. Therefore, we should encourage them all – early and late bloomers alike.

5)   Coping with loss is very difficult – especially the loss of children. I come from a family that lost a child full of wonder and full of promise and full of the love of God. Sadly, a series of miscarriages and still-borns never allowed her to be replaced. With her loss, the sunshine was gone from our home. None of us could bring it back to the degree she provided it. The effects of the loss plagued my parents until they died. Grief is part of our lives in a fallen world. Ephraim’s brothers knew that sorrow is not necessarily a transitory experience. They gathered and comforted their brother.

     What I’ve learned now after fifty-one years of ordained ministry is that caring silence for sufferers is always the best approach. They need to talk and we need to listen to their pain. We need to be sensitive and caring with those who lose family members and not insist on a timetable for their grief. Sorrow is individual. It takes as long as it takes. We can fix a lot, but we can’t mend every broken heart. For some, the only balm of Gilead that will be applied is when sufferers are gathered up in the everlasting arms of our Lord God. So constant prayer interceding for all is imperative.

6)   Finally, as amazing as it may seem, we modern gentile Christians can even find kernels of interesting and edifying data in the Bible’s chronology lists! So, keep plowing through them, as our Messianic Jewish sisters and brothers do.

In summary, here is a takeaway from the Bible’s verse about Sheerah: Sheerah is an accomplished woman who builds and refurbishes cities and prosperity from God’s blessing follows her exploits. After the Scripture highlights the cities she reclaims or founds, the rest of the list of the line of Ephraim is filled with people and their towns and no more sad accounts are told. Honestly, when we think about it, this may be among the best results any of us can expect to achieve on earth…

Bill

---

[1]The meanings of the names are listed alphabetically in June Comay, Who’s Who in the Old Testament together with the Apocrypha (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 356.

[2] “Lakeh” in Karl Feyerabend, Langenscheidt Pocket Hebrew Dictionary to the Old Testament (New York: McGraw Hill, 1960), 160.

[3] W.F.  Stinespring, “Gath” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1962/1980), vol 2, 355.

[4] Another seven-and-a-half-foot giant warrior was killed by one of David’s “mighty men” in 1^st Chronicles 11:23, not to mention the report of the spies to Moses that Canaan was populated by descendants of the Anakim (Num. 13: 28) and they looked like grasshoppers against these giants (Num. 13:33).

[5] Some commentators believe with Matthew Henry, “It is uncertain who are the aggressors here,” but decide, as he does, “I rather think that the men of Gath came down upon the Ephraimites, because the Israelites in Egypt were shepherds, not soldiers abounding in cattle of their own, and therefore were not likely to venture their lives for their neighbors’ cattle.” Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, ed Leslie F. Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1960), 438. Keil and Delitzsch, however, dismiss this scenario as “Incomprehensible,” and note, as I do, and, as, I believe, the text is very clear, that generations have passed, the Israelites have entered the promised land, the original patriarch Ephraim is long dead, the father simply bears the same name, and these young men have come down “to plunder” (C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, trans. James Martin, Commentary on the Old Testament: Volume 3, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Peabody, MA: Hendrikson, 1989), 140. Please note: this page number is in the second set of numbers, as this printing is 3 volumes in 1.

[6]“Banah” in Feyerabend, Langenscheidt Pocket Hebrew Dictionary to the Old Testament, 48.

[7] Christine L. Anslow, “I Chronicles”, IVP Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2002), 217.

[8] Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 3, 141.

[9]See Welcome to Palestine.com, https://www.welcometopalestine.com/destinations/ramallah-al-bireh/beit-ur-al-foqa/.

[10] Open Bible website has a 40% possible location for Uzzen-sherrah with a satellite map, encircling a small settlement that is within 5 kilometers of the other locations Sheerah rebuilt, currently known as “Beit Ur al Tahta.” https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a57ea5f/uzzen-sheerah.

[11] Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 3, 141-42.

[12] June Comay, “Sheerah,” 350. We can see the source of this dissenting reading in the Septuagint, which gives the credit to her father in a somewhat puzzling verse that claims the father of “Saraa” was “among those that remained,” so it sounds as though there was a large slaughter of her family, and her father was the one who built Bethoron the upper and the lower and a descendant of Ozan (who that was is not clear, since that name is not listed in the genealogy) was Seēra (spelled differently) see “A Chronicles I” in The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha with an English Translation and with Various Readings and Critical Notes (London: Bagster and Sons, n.d.), 539. Bible Hub website has several helpful excerpts from standard commentaries falling on either side of the debate of whether Sheerah herself had a hand in the building or not. Here are two representative ones: “Matthew Poole's Commentary, “His daughter, i.e. his grandchild, or great-grandchild, for such are oft called sons or daughters in Scripture. Who built Beth-horon, i.e. rebuilt or repaired, which possibly she did in Joshua’s time. And this work may be ascribed to her, because these works were done either by her design or contrivance, or by her instigation and influence upon her husband and brethren who did it.” Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, “And his daughter was Sherah,…That is, the daughter of Beriah; not an immediate daughter, but a descendant of his, otherwise she could not have reached the times of Joshua, as she did by what follows: who built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper; which were cities on the border of the tribe of Ephraim; which the Israelites having taken from the Canaanites, and destroyed, she rebuilt, see Joshua 16:3.” https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_chronicles/7-24.htm. Helpful to remember when assessing which version to follow is the wise counsel provided by The Updated New American Standard Version website, in its discussion of the differences of these two sources, under its section “Weighing the Difference, Masoretic VS. Septuagint: The primary weight of external evidence generally goes to the original language manuscripts, and the Codex Leningrad B 19A and the Aleppo Codex are almost always preferred. In Old Testament Textual Criticism, the Masoretic text is our starting point and should only be abandoned as a last resort,” https://uasvbible.org/2023/05/26/the-masoretic-text-vs-the-greek-septuagint-a-comparative-study/.

[13] Eric C. Richter, “Sheerah, the Unknown City-Building Woman of 1 Chronicles 7:24,” Priscilla Papers, 37/3, Spring, 2023, 28-29. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/sheerah-the-unknown-city-building-woman-of-1-chronicles-724/.