Tag: diplomacy

The Bible in a Year – 2 April

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

2 April. 1 Samuel chapters 25-27

The first story in these readings negates the common English maxim that “flattery will get you nowhere”.  Abigail is a competent and intelligent woman who, like many others, suffers from being married to a boorish and alcoholic man whose actions cause immense problems for the family.  Things come to a head when he refuses a reasonable request for hospitality from David’s workers. The two men appear to have grazed flocks in overlapping areas (in the days before boundary fences, presumably) and their workers got on well with each other. Nabal’s refusal not only results in complaints from his own workers, but from David himself who (being the warrior he is) sets out with an armed posse to attack Nabal and his farm.  It is only Abigail’s swift diplomatic action in sending out donkeyloads of food and other gifts, and prostrating herself before David as “unfit to wash the feet of his servants” (maybe where John the Baptist got inspiration for his phrase of being “unfit to untie Jesus’ sandals”), that  saved the day and de-escalated the conflict.  This graceful and generous response seems to have so enraged Nabal that he gave himself a heart attack (or possibly stroke) from which he died, and Abigail became one of David’s wives.   It may be costly to be a peacemaker, but they are among the ones Jesus called ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’.

 

You may recall that in yesterday’s reading David proves to his enemy Saul that he was not out to kill him, by merely cutting off part of Saul’s robe when he had the opportunity to take his life.  In chapter 26 a similar situation arises – Saul is once again persecuting David, who with his men get past the guard (if there was one!) in Saul’s camp and into his tent while he sleeps, but merely takes his sword and water-jar to prove he had been there.  Saul again promises peace to David, but as he so quickly broke his promise last time, David will not believe him, and leaves the country altogether to become a mercenary soldier for another king.  Jesus told us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” and this is a good example – don’t rise to the bait of other people’s aggression (dove) but don’t be fooled by promises that they cannot keep (serpent).

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 19 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

19 March. Judges chapters 3 – 5

Chapters 3 and 4 recount the acts of the first four ‘judges’: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar and Deborah.  Three men and a woman, and it is only the woman whose name has passed into Biblical history. Othniel and Shamgar are mentioned only in passing, and Ehud is remembered for slaying the King of Moab after diplomatically making peace with him. In any age, that would be counted a dirty deed of deception – this weekend the media have noted the insult that Donald Trump gave by merely refusing to shake hands with Angela Merkel – but how much more in the eastern culture of hospitality?

 

Deborah is also (in)famous for arranging the murder of an enemy by the hand of another woman, Jael, and chapter 5 is a lengthy poem or song attributed to her. No doubt it reads more poetically in the original language than in English, but remember again this is nearly 3000 years ago, whereas English written literature dates back no more than half that time. Among all the apparent glorification of war there is a human touch in the image of the warrior Sisera’s mother at her window, worried why he has not returned, and people around here reassuring her (although maybe they already know he is dead).

People sometimes think that before Margaret Thatcher, it was commonly believed that women cannot be powerful leaders of nations. But I don’t think that is true – besides Deborah (and a few other examples in the Bible) consider Cleopatra of Egypt, Boudicca/Boadicea of the Iceni (ancient Britons) and Joan of Arc, to name but three.

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 17 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

17 March. Joshua chapters 22-24

Chapter 24 completes the allocation of land to the tribes, the distinction being that this is the “two and a half” tribes east of the Jordan, who because they were not actually in the Promised Land seem to have been regarded as not quite part of the family.  Their action in setting up an altar by way of marking their common heritage with the other tribes was quickly misinterpreted by the others as idolatry, and they immediately wanted to go to war against them.  Fortunately, Phineas (a priest rather than a tribal leader, since the offence was a religious one) who was sent to lead a delegation intended to issue an ultimatum, listened to and believed their account of the matter, and war was averted.  Too often in human history such brinkmanship goes the wrong way and disaster follows.  Whether within the family or in international relations, Churchill’s wise words deserve repeating: “it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war”.

 

The last two chapters of the book are Joshua’s exhortations to the people before his death, similar to (but much shorter than) the record of Moses’ final speeches to his people in Deuteronomy. He speaks twice: first to the leaders, with an emphasis on passing on the Mosaic teachings and avoiding diluting the faith by intermarriage; and then to the rest of the people with an emphasis on not worshipping or even owning any idols.  As elsewhere in the Bible, a stone was erected as a witness to their act of re-commitment.