What if?

I’m on my spring break now, and am going to be traveling/volunteering, so there’s not going to be a food post this week. But there has been another topic I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. There are many verses in the Bible that I think imply so much more then a cursory glance would suggest. Most of the verses fit right into the narrative and are easy to read over. But if you’ll stop to think about them, you’d probably be surprised at what you’ll end up with. So without further ado, here are three of my favorites.

When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, “I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.” And his comrade answered “This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.
Judges 7:13-14

Just take a moment visualize the dream. The camp of Midian is spread out on a plain, minding its own business, when a fearsome loaf of bread suddenly appears careening towards it! I’d like to think it was a giant loaf, but we can’t say for sure. But this horrifying barley cake shows no quarter and wrecks havoc on the encampment, striking the tent with enough force to knock it flat. It makes about as much sense as most of my dreams. The guy’s buddy though, doesn’t miss a beat. With total conviction he states that obviously the dream must be referring to Gideon. I mean, come on, barley cake….Gideon….duh.

Gideon hadn’t exactly shown and exemplary faith coming up to this event, and the purpose of the dream was to assure him that they would indeed prevail. Given that, I’d like to think that the barley loaf was an example of divine whimsy. If we consider humor to be a good, laudable thing, then by the very nature of God we are required to ascribe it to Him. Have you ever imagined God laughing? Maybe we think that the universe as a whole is so serious that it would seem inappropriate. But try it. Not a short guffaw or a nasal chortle, but a deep, rich, resonant laugh that seems to build up from deep within and crescendo into a joyous roar that echoes off the walls of the universe. It’s a pleasant image to me. And if you’re still not convinced, just take a look at a platypus. There is something funky going on there.

Then Elisha prayed: “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

2 Kings 6:17

We when look at the entirety of the Bible, we really don’t know that much about angels, and almost nothing about demons. Details about heaven are scarce or confusing, and details about hell virtually non-existent. I think that this is likely due to the fact that we can’t comprehend the spiritual realms in our current state. But this lack of information, perhaps coupled with a few hundred years of rationalism, has caused many Christians to at the most nominally believe that there are spiritual forces at work in their everyday lives. I honestly don’t know how much the actions of angels or demons may affect my life, but I am convinced it has to be more than most people grant. The magnitude of the Biblical conflict is far greater then all the wars of humans combined, but some would believe that Satan and his demons, if they even exist, are somehow not interested in interfering with Christians.

Our enemy is prowling, he is looking for someone to devour. If only we could see what was actually going on around us. If only we could see the spiritual struggle normally hidden from us. What would it look like? How would we act differently?

But the angel of the LORD said to him “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”

Judges 13:18

This was the verse that started this whole idea. The KJV translates the last two words ‘secret’, but almost every other translation uses ‘wonderful’. But what’s implied is not simply the name is wonderful, but rather that it is so wonderful it becomes incomprehensible, or secret. Now whether you believe the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate Christ, another theophany, or only a specific angel, doesn’t have any real bearing. The idea that something as simple as a name could be so magnificent, so marvelous, so glorious, so as to become unfathomable, should amaze us. For if the name is that splendid, then what of the Person to whom it belongs? Or the place where He dwells?

What if the most beautiful sunset since creation was only the smallest dot on an infinite canvas? What if the greatest symphony ever written was only the least note in an eternal opus? And what if the artist and the composer loved you? What then?