Ruth, Esther, and a GOOD DAY!

Thought about the book of Ruth


Written by a woman? Seems to be, except for the final genealogy report.

And what exactly happened to the two sons of Naomi? Were they hit by the bus? Was it because of the intermarriage?

(Side note: Does anyone else see OPRAH when they read Orpah?)

It would probably be a shame if I didn’t mention possibly the most possibly moving passage in the Bible...Ruth says, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more aw well, if even death parts me from you!” You just don’t see this type of dedication everyday! Ruth loves Naomi, mother of her deceased husband, and shows her love by following Naomi to Bethlehem

So, Ruth remarries Boaz and everyone is happy. That’s it. Everyone seems to like the Book of Ruth and I can see why. It’s simple, it’s happy, and it’s easy to read. It doesn’t shove any laws down your throat and God isn’t smiting anyone. Perfect.

Esther

It seems that we dove into this book at just the right time. With all of the feasting these people are doing (I think I noted 10 different meals!) it got me in the mood for Thanksgiving and then for the multiple feasts of leftover that take place in the following days. Delicious!

So let me get this straight, King Ahasuerus gets all liquored up on “royal wine” and then wants to show his woman off to all of his buddies, but she doesn’t feel like being objectified so he kicks her to the curb? Hmmm, and women wonder where men learned such behavior. Again, I guess we will blame the bible. However, I just told my boyfriend the same story and he said “I think we both just learned a valuable less here: Be a good woman and listen to your husband.” He’s not serious, he’s from Vermont.

So perhaps this little blog is turning more into an “oh my goodness are you kidding me?” blog because as I reread Esther I see that approaching the King uninvited, even if you are his wife, is punished by the death penalty? Whoa. Let’s talk about patriarchy.

Alright, after all of the crazy rules and woman ruling the book gets better. I followed my reading up with a little youtube searching and found a trailer to the Veggie Tales version “Esther...the girl who became a queen” and found it to be fairly accurate and more than mildly entertaining. I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what this book was about because it read like multiple stories I have read before, movies that I have watched, and situations I have seen people confronted with in reality. I guess, the book of Esther is simply about the courage to do what’s right. Is that too simple? Chapter 4 verse 14 says “For if you keep silent at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Esther really has no other choice than to help save her people, even if her attempt results in her own death. Ya, I like this story. It’s been made into many movies (other than Veggie Tales) that are based loosely on the book...I can see why. In fact, this may be the plot of about 80% of all of the movies I have seen.



In closing, I want to add a note about “having a good day”... I have dedicated a pretty lengthy blog about a having a bad day and it doesn’t seem right to only write a few sentences about a good day when I wrote a whole entry about a bad day, but then again some say that the stories of the Bible tell us to be more humble. At any rate...I had a good day! It’s been a helluva semester for me...I took too many classes and work too many hours. I’m trying to attain the elusive “straight A’s” but don’t really see that happening. I needed a break to catch up on schoolwork, sleep, and sanity. Finally, Thanksgiving break arrived. I headed down to Utah with the boyfriend and met up with his family. I cooked the entire Thanksgiving Day meal and everyone liked it. Our dogs played until they were exhausted and everyone was happy. There isn’t anything exciting to report, but it was a good day and for that I am thankful. It’s easy to point out the bad days and let the good days go by the wayside. So, here is my good day blog and I can check that one off of the list.

David and Bathsheba

My section of the script from our puppet show today.

Narrator: David was thirty years old when he began he reign and he reigned for forty years. David conquers lands and gives away the land of Saul to Jonathan’s son. David also moves the ark around, God smites an innocent man from touching the ark even though the man was saving it from crashing to the ground. It’s your typical God in an unjustly angry situation. And all of this leads up to the story we all really want to hear…that being David and Bathsheba.


David is roaming around on the roof (or just around the set) and suddenly spots Bathsheba

Bathsheba is bathing (use water bottle to imitate the bath water)

David: Oh my! Who is that beautiful young lady I see cleansing herself? I care not what the price…I must have her for myself! I must have her at once!

Narrator: And indeed David insisted that Bathsheba would visit him immediately. He called upon one of his servants to retrieve Bathsheba from the water and bring her to him.

Bathsheba: Hello my Lord. I am Bathsheba.

David: Hello there lovely lady. Come, please lay down with me.

Bathsheba: Oh my Lord! You are quite forward, yet so handsome! I will lay down with you in an instant. I am sure my husband will not mind!

Narrator: And so Bathsheba and David proceeded to lay with each…and then Bathsheba returned to her house.

Bathsheba and David lay next to/on top of each other. Bathsheba goes to her home. (exits the set)

Narrator: Soon enough Bathsheba learns she is pregnant and sends a message to David to inform him of the news.

David makes a “shocked face”

David: Oh shit! Hmmm, I have an idea!

Narrator: And so it was that David told Joab to set Bathsheba’s’ husband Uriah at the front of the battle where he was sure to be killed. And he was. Bathsheba learned of her husband’s death and mourned

Bathsheba cries and now is showing that she is pregnant

Narrator: Once Bathsheba is finished mourning David brings her to his home and they get married.

David: I do.

Bathsheba: I do!

Narrator: However, David and Bathsheba did not simply live happily ever after because God was angry! So God sends Nathan as a messenger to tell David that he sucks at life.



Nathan: David, let me tell you a story.

There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man.

The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds;

But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

Now a traveler came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveler who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come.

David: (obviously angered) As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!

Nathan: You are the man! David, the Lord said that he anointed you and made you king, he rescued you from the hands of Saul and gave you your master’s house, and wives, and the house of Israel and Judah, and if that wasn’t enough he would have added more! But, you are evil and did these evil things right in front of the Lord. I’m sorry, but he’s got it out for you!

Narrator: And so it was that David and Bathsheba’s first born son became ill. David prayed and fasted hoping the Lord would forgive him of his ways and be merciful in sparing their son. Apparently in this situation the Lord decides to keep his word and allows the child to die.

David’s servants asked him why he stopped mourning after the death of his child, but all David could say was…

David: “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me”

Narrator: David console Bathsheba, then immediately sleeps with her. She conceives and gives birth to another son. They call him Solomon. The name means “replacement.

"I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

Second Samuel Chapter 12 Verse 23
"I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

I first read this passage while completing the Books of Samuel for our group project. 
The second time I came across this passage was in a classmate's blog.
And the third time I came across this passage was just today, after reading another classmates blog.

I repeat this passage over and over in my head and my heart hurts and my eyes weep the tears that I did not know were so close to already spilling over onto my cheeks.  This blog is not about a close reading of the text.  It may not show how much I have learned in class or through reading the various texts we have been assigned.  In fact, I am not sure what this blog really is about...perhaps, the power of literature in the way that it perpetuates thought and emotion?  Perhaps it is about how a single text can bring so many different people together?  Of all this I am unsure...

Here is a true story:  On Veteran's Day my group met to discuss our project.  Six of assembled in the SUB and then split up to take a field trip to the Dollar Store in search of props for our presentation.  Natalie road along with me and we began the discussion of the usual "getting to know you" bullshit that often fills the time when you are forced to be alone with someone and figure that unimportant babble is better than awkward silence.  Natalie shared with me that she was taking two classes, supplementing her Science classes with English Literature, and trying to deal with an unfortunate hand that life had recently dealt her; that being her father recently passed away while she was summiting a peak with him in Colorado.  (see her blog)  Indeed, it was horrible and a moment when most of us just don't know how to respond.  I didn't know what to say, but when I opened my mouth to breath I found myself telling her "I can imagine how you feel and that I too lost my father unexpectantly while in college..."  I'm not sure I will ever forget the look on her face, of astonishment, somewhat scared, and almost lifeless.  It was a strange beginning to a new friendship. 

We spent the day looking for art supplies and chatting about our project, but mostly talking about our fathers, our experiences, our questions, all while spilling our emotions as if we had known each other for years.  Natalie said her father didn't believe in coincidence and she didn't think that she did either.  I don't know what I believe and I'm not sure I will ever solidify a particular belief.  I do know this:  perhaps a friendship was formed when one person needed a friendly ear because nobody else knew how to listen...and the other person just needed a friend because after being in Montana for a year and a half she still hadn't found any connections...but most amazing the same day that I got to know Natalie was the same day, 8 years earlier, that my own father suddenly passed away from a massive heart attack.  Coincidence?

The verse I mentioned at the beginning of this blog coincides with David morning for his first born son with Bathsheba.  His servants ask him why he fasted and wept for the child while it was alive and now that it is dead he rises and eats.  David says that he was hoping the Lord would be gracious to him and let his son live, but now he is dead (as the Lord said he would be) and there is nothing David can do.  "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."  If  you haven't noticed, there is an awfully large amount of murder and death in the Old Testament.  Of all the emotions and uncomfortable situations that the OT brings up, I have never been able to grab onto any real sense of sadness.  Call me crazy, but I have been looking for the kind of gut-wrenching-grab you by the heart-and knock you over kind of emotion.  Even a glimpse of the same emotion one gets while watching a really good movie...but so far it has been the real lives of my classmates that have brought this emotion upon me.

In Lisett's blog she tells our class about the very recent death of her boyfriend of three years, the man she felt she was to marry and spend the rest of her life with.  He was in a car accident and didn't survive.  Lisette blogs that she knows she needs to move on with her life and not remain stagnant.  She compares her situation to that of Jacob's after he loses Sarah.  Again, it reminds me of the passage I keep referring to in Second Samuel.  It hurts me.

Literature is powerful.  Life is compelling.  There are many great and beautiful passages in The Bible, but I believe the most gorgeous literature is the one that speaks to you and that doesn't just pull, but rips your heart out.  I weep because I know not what else to do.  Even while writing this blog my heart hangs heavy and my head rings loud.  To Natalie and her father, Lisette and her boyfriend, to my own father, and to everyone else who read's this and has suffered and knows not how to move on...perhaps we should take a lesson from David and cease our fasting and rise again because "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

The Slave

As suggested in class, I will be completing my term paper on the the correlation between The Bible and The Slave.  What strikes me most about both books is the level of suffering that occurs in each.  There are endless characters in The Bible that suffer for countless reasons.  Likewise, Jacob, in The Slave seemingly suffers throughout the entire book.  I am most interested to note the different levels/types of suffering that plagues Jacob and these different types compare to particular characters in The Bible.  For instance, in The Bible there is the suffering of Job, as well as the suffering of Hannah (Samuel 1).  Both characters suffer in different ways.  Job because he has lost everything and is covered in boils as the result of a bet between God and Satan.  And Hannah because she desires greatly for a child that she cannot conceive.  She suffers regarding the lack of something she never had versus Job who suffers for the lack of what he once had.  I think this can adequately be compared to Jacob and his suffering/hardships throughout the text.  Jacob suffers because he has lost his wife and child and then ultimately suffers before he even has Sarah and is simply longing for her. 

Naturally, a comparison is a bit more complex than what I stated above.  At this time I feel that I can trace the idea of suffering throughout both books as a comparison of The Bible and The Slave.

Gideon

Gideon...
I was just brushing up on "Good Book" when I remembered that Plotz had an affection for Gideon. We briefly mentioned it in class, so I figured I would go back and reread thi section in The Bible and then in the Plotz book since he named his third child Gideon.

Consequently, I also like Gideon, but for different reasons. One of my favorite bands is My Morning Jacket and a few years back they published a song, "Gideon"...it's always been one of my favorite songs, even before I knew the story behind the biblical Gideon. I thought I would share it with you below:

My Morning Jacket ~ Gideon Video by Mike - MySpace Video

This clip is live with the Boston Pops Orchestra (who doesn't love the Boston Pops?!) and though it may not be your cup of tea musically I hope you still enjoy the connection. The lyrics are as follows:

Gideon! What have you told us at all?
Make a sound, come down off the wall.
Religion- should appeal to the hearts of the young.
Who are you? What have you become?
You animal. Come on
What does this remind you of?
Truly. Truly we have become.
Hated and feared for something we don't want.
Listen. Listen. Most of us believe that this is wrong.
You animal. Come on. What does this remind you of?