Fear of the Lord

My reading from Jeremiah 26 today struck me.

To be more precise, it was the little snippet about Uriah in verses 21-23 that at first glance, seemed out of place. (My first thought was, “Where in the world did this random guy come from??”) But details matter to God, and Uriah is there to teach us something.

Jeremiah and Uriah were both called by God to prophesy to Israel. Both were persecuted for the sake of God’s name (v. 11 & 22). But that’s where the similarities end. The contrast is striking:

There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.

That’s Uriah’s response (v. 20-21). Here’s Jeremiah’s (v. 10-15):

When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. 14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

And what happened to Uriah?

22 Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, Elnathan the son of Achbor and others with him, 23 and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

Jeremiah, on the other hand…

24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.

It’s really very interesting the way that the narrative of Jeremiah’s ordeal is suddenly interrupted by the entrance of Uriah – “And there was also a man… Uriah son of Shemaiah…” (v. 20). At the end of the day, their responses serve as a lesson to us.

`

Uriah feared the word of man more than he feared the word of God. He “heard” King Jehoiakim’s threats of death, and instead of trusting the God who had called him, Uriah trusted in himself. He loved his life more than he loved God (John 12:25). When I read about him at first, I thought, isn’t it telling that we don’t have a ‘Book of Uriah’?  Uriah may have started out well, but he did not finish the race well, nor did he keep the faith until the end. He has no legacy to speak of (apart from what we know of his sad end in this chapter). He disbelieved and doubted God. And of all the places to run to, he ran away to Egypt, the former place of Israel’s oppression and bondage. (The Israelites, too, when wandering in the desert, often yearned to return to Egypt when the going got tough.) What may appear to be a place of safety is really a place of bondage (which I talked about in a previous post).

Jeremiah, on the other hand, is the picture of a man of faith. He stood boldly before his oppressors and repeated what God had told him to say. Unlike Uriah, he remembered God’s faithful words of promises to him. From the beginning, God had already promised that He would be with him (Jeremiah 1:8). He encouraged Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:17-19). When Jeremiah fell into despondency, he turned to God (15:15-18). And God always, always reassured Jeremiah with His words of truth (15:20-21).

 

`

One feared God; the other man. God’s word will stand firm and true even in the face of adversity. Just as He had proclaimed, His words are the fire that burnt the lies and accusations of Jeremiah’s persecutors. His word broke the hard rock of Jeremiah’s difficult circumstances (Jeremiah 23:29).

`

Help me to be like Jeremiah, O Lord.

In the quiet.

Day breaks through the fabric of darkness
Searching for answers in the fog
I cry out to God
Break through my darkness that I may see light.

Boyband nostalgia

I was – and admittedly, still am – a huge fan of Backstreet Boys and Westlife. There, I’ve said it. And if there were any concerts in the near future, I will confess too, that I will not hesitate to buy tickets. Oh gosh. I feel like such a silly fangirl now.

The past few days, I’ve been listening to a lot of old BSB hits from the 90s era. Ah, the memories. As I was singing along to those sappy, cheesy lyrics, a somber thought came to me: that these songs now evoke different feelings. As naive young girls growing up in that pop-saturated era, where MTV was filled with endless videos of such songs, these songs had once seemed to tell of some fairytale romance that any impressionable teenager will obsess over.

Now as we move into adulthood, I think we’ve seen that real life isn’t the fairytale dreams that you probably once harboured in your hearts. So ten years later, I still listen to these songs, but no longer with a lovestruck, dreamy outlook or carefree innocence of childhood. We all have to grow up someday.

But hey, ten years later, both of my favourite boybands are still together (albeit each is less a member now)! And I still enjoy revisiting musical memory lane, listening to these songs from the 90s and early 2000s, every now and then. But the sands of time has carved imprints and etched scars upon the guilelessness of the young heart, and the songs no longer evoke emotional fantasies, but merely amusing memories of a naivety long past.

Midweek interlude

Today’s piano lesson left me feeling somewhat inadequate and a little in despair over my current stage. That’s not to say that it was a bad lesson – as has been the pattern, I’ve been learning heaps each time, but right now, the point that is being driven home, and nailed in hard, is the fact that I have so many bad habits to break, and to wean myself off years and years of bad practicing. Sigh.

Lessons like these make you feel as if you’ve never really started or accomplished anything in the first place. I almost think that I should start from Level 1 again or something.

`

After VCA, I finally got around to going to the City Library to pick up my card and verify my identification after registering online almost three weeks ago; I should have probably done this waaay earlier (probably a few years ago!) but I never really found the need to use the City Library, especially not with Baillieu providing for the needs of every Arts student.

After picking up my card, I decided to explore the City Library since I’ve never actually visited it properly. It’s not really an academic library; there’s lots of fiction and DVDs and magazines – the atmosphere is more like an everyman than an academia. Roaming through the shelves on the first floor brought back a sense of nostalgia of simply browsing through rows of books to borrow for purely enjoyment’s sake. I’ve almost forgotten that feeling, especially after three and a half years of academic research and borrowing books “because I have to”. I foresee more visits in the future. Have I mentioned how much I love bookstores and libraries? I rather spend my day in Kinokuniya or Borders than shop along Orchard or at KLCC the whole afternoon.

The first half of the semester is [almost] over! if not for the fact that one of my tutorials is rescheduled to tomorrow instead because of the strike. I seriously don’t understand the effectiveness of strikes or protests – it was something that my Politics tutorial discussed about two weeks back, and we generally agreed that there are more effective ways of getting your point across than merely marching down the streets and disrupting civil life and accomplishing nothing at the end of the day except to get yourself in the news that may or may not impact audiences the way you want it to. Political Communication has been a really enjoyable and stimulating subject so far, but anyway that’s another story.

My plans for the semester break look like this: research, read, write, research, read, write.

The life of the university student.

Happy birthday, Mr. Dahl

Yesterday was Roald Dahl Day – his birthday, as well as a day now set aside to commemorate this wonderful author and his beloved books.

I can’t remember which came first, but these two memories stand out as my first encounters with the author. One was a friend giving me a copy of The BFG back in primary school; another was being introduced to The Twits during one of those holiday programs at the British Council that my mom sent my brother and I to.

Dahl’s books always had a special place in my heart; for me, he’s not just a children’s author, but an author that caters to all ages. I still reread his books whenever I go back home (where all my copies of his books are at the moment). His stories are not ones of candy-floss, fantasy and fluff, but often there is an dark element beneath the facade, and I think that’s what really draws me towards him. The BFG contains horrendous child-hating giants (not exactly typical fare of children’s books); the Twits – well, they are the most revolting couple. But I think kids being kids, Dahl probably understood what makes children tick – what might disgust an adult usually appears delightful to them.

The Witches stands out in particular off the top of my head now for having an unconventional ending; I say unconventional because [spoiler] Luke does not go back to being a real human being at the end of the story (unlike the movie adaptation, but that’s another story). I always love that bit at the end where he converses with his grandmother about the lifespans of mice, and musing over how much longer his grandmother might live – it’s such a bittersweet ending that contrasts deeply with Disney-like happy endings. Each time I arrive at the ending, I find myself sighing, feeling somewhere between satisfied and devastated for Luke, and a yearning to want more of Luke and grandmother and how they live out the rest of their limited time on earth.

Then there’s his short stories too that are catered for an older audience, and most have that quirky dark humour as well. I won’t go into details lest I bore you all.

`

On a (final) note, I don’t know how other Dahl fans feel, but seeing the trailer and general look of the ‘coming-to-the-theaters-soon-near-you’ Fantastic Mr. Fox was a bit of a disappointment. Okay, very disappointing. Let’s not even talk about the A-list Hollywood cast they procured for the voices. Personally I really don’t like the concept they came up with for Fantastic Mr. Fox on the big screen. Don’t get me wrong – stop-motion animation is one of my favourite medium, but what I had in mind when I first heard of the adaptation format was something along the designs of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep-sort of style (which are done excellently imo). But the trailer revealed a … I don’t know how to describe it. Garish. (Even the word leaves a nasty aftertaste.)

Adaptations, unless done well, should leave their sources alone to the reader’s own imagination. But then again, “well-done” is subjective.

`

Anyway! Enough of my bookworm rants.

Mid-sem break next week… Yay. I want to go watch (500) Days of Summer!

And I finally caught Up in the cinema! Watched the 3D version – I don’t think there’s any noticeable differences from the normal one, actually. 3D animations have been rather underwhelming thus far. And for some inexplicable reason, when I watched Up, they didn’t show the short that usually comes with it! I am so disappointed. I think it’s because we chose to watch it in 3D, but that’s just ridiculous. Anyway, I enjoyed it immensely… I think I’m just too sensitive, but the touching scenes between Carl and Ellie really brought tears to my eyes (the time montage, no dialogue is superb). Having said that, what is actually a very simple plot and concept was accomplished outstandingly, but I think I still very much prefer Pixar’s older works. Put it this way: I will probably watch Monsters, Inc. or Ratatouille countless times, but I probably won’t want to watch Up again (at least not in the cinema). Incidentally, Cars remain the lowest on my Pixar films list; Toy Story and its sequel was rewatched countless times in my younger days (thanks to my youngest brother who somehow never tire of it), and up till today I can still remember lines from the films (yes, that’s how ’sad’ we became – my siblings and I would end up reciting lines along with the film – and outside of film).

`

It’s already mid-September. Week 8 of the semester. Too fast. I should be back in Brunei mid-December, and I can’t wait already… been feeling a little homesick the past few weeks too, don’t know why… maybe it’s just because the year’s drawing to a close. In addition, a recent incident made me realize how much my family means to me, and I want to just be home. Saturday and bad telecommunications system was not a pleasant experience… (Karen, you know I received all your SMS-es today!)

`

Anyway. I’ll update again when I feel another verbal diarrhoea coming on. (I realize I tend to update in huge blocks of text.)