The challenge: write a 20,000 word screenplay in the month of June!
 |
Read the script so far (in PDF format). |
Starring:
Nanowrimo Dares thread in the “Plot Doctoring” forum.
 Bruce Boxleitner |
|
| James McMannus (main character) | |
 Jason Carter |
 James Callis |
| Lucas Wainwright (Victorian Gentleman 1) | Elijah Bishop (Victorian Gentleman 2) |
 Alexa Davalos |
 Eva Green |
| Rebecca Davenport (Victorian Lady 1) | Magdelena de Rosa (Victorian Lady 2) |
 Nick Chinlund |
 Vinnie Jones |
| _____ (Drinking Buddy 1) | _____ (Drinking Buddy 2) |
 Arnold Vosloo |
 Peter Woodward |
| _____ (The Twins #1) | _____ (The Twins #2) |
 Udo Kier |
|
| Doctor Carl Kohler | |
Bruce Boxleitner
Mark Harmon
James Callis
Nick Chinlund (obvious “thug” character)
Vinnie Jones (obvious “thug” character)
Arnold Vosloo (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0903677/)
Peter Woodward (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940974/)
Alan Tudyk (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876138/)
Teryl Rothery (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745186/)
Pauley Perrette (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005306/)
Cote de Pablo (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1580243/)
Eva Green (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1200692/)
Nick Frost (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296545/)
(screenshots need to be taken using the “print-screen” button in Windows, and pasted into Paintshop Pro, and scenes are defined in Java code)
0.0.a
0.0.b
0.0.c
0.0.d
Gunn’s voice: Previously on Angel…
Lindsay spoke to the assembled group, eyes scanning them slowly: Spike, Gunn, Lorne and Wesley.
“To be a Black Thorn is to be the senior partner’s instrument on Earth. You
wouldn’t make it on the circle’s radar until you’ve killed one of your own lieutenants.”
Cut to:
Angel walked through a dark hallway into a chamber containing a hooded, beaten figure. The hood was pulled off to reveal Drogyn and without hesitation Angel twisted his head until his neck broke. Angel pushed Drogyn’s body dismissively to the floor. A robed, masked demon offered his hand to Angel.
“Welcome to the fold.”
Cut to:
In the secret meeting chamber of the Circle of the Black Thorn, the members gathered to begin a meeting, Angel at the head of the table.
(chanting in unison): “Of the world’s woe, now convene. All is bound by the circle and its thorns. Invisible, inviolate, we, the seeds of the storm, at the center of the world’s woe, now convene.”
Cut to:
Angel spoke to each of them in turn:
- This may come out a little pretentious, but… one of you will betray me. Wes. Vail is the sorcerer of the bunch. You know that game. You’ve seen his place. He believes you’d make a play for my spot.
- Illyria - Izzerial the Devil and 3 other members of the circle dine together almost every night.
- Gunn - Your friend Senator Brucker has a campaign office in west L.A. You already know she’s pure hellspawn, and she tends to surround herself with vampires.
- Spike - All you need is a rattle … for the baby … and a legion of the Fell Brethren. I want the kid returned to his mother and the foster family dismembered.
- Lorne - I just need you to back up Lindsey.
Cut to:
(Choppy cuts between Angel’s fight, Spike’s fight, Wesley’s fight, Gunn’s fight and Gunn’s wounded journey back to the alley)
[FADE to ‘Angel’ Theme music and credits]
Illyria moved into the room to catch Wesley’s crumpling form deftly and lay him on the ground. Kneeling beside him she spoke his name before inspecting the damage inflicted by the sorceror’s knife. “This wound is mortal”
Wesley reached to touch the wound himself and smiled looking at her, “Aren’t we all? It was good… that you came.”
Illyria hastily attempted to cover up the vulnerable feelings that swelled within her, “I killed all mine, and I was…”
“Concerned?”
The eldar demon paused, then confessed, “I think so. But I can’t help. You’ll be dead within moments.”
“I know.”
Illyria considered Wesley’s discussion concerning her form, when the parents of her present shell had visited. The simplicity of pulling fragments of memory together and extrapolating behaviour from it. The welcome, positive effect on her parents. Her parents? The thought jarred, conflicting with memories of eternities past, but it persisted in the forefront of her mind suggesting a course of action. “Would you like me to lie to you now?”
Wesley looked at her weakly, “Yes. Thank you. Yes.”
Something akin to fear fell like a shadow across Illyria’s mind as the fragments of Fred’s personality bubbled up to the surface unbidden, sentient in their determination to find expression. She felt helpless for the first time in millenia, as blazing passion burst forth from the depths of her being. As outer reality flowed viscous across her form, Illyria slid down the blazing channels inside her mind following the trail of passionate fire back to what seemed to be a small dark cave. The walls were covered with writing and diagrams. Mathematical formulae flowed like art across the textured walls rendering an abstract beauty that stunned her for a moment. She reached a hand to touch the suprisingly solid environment, fingertips tracing the flow of equations, discerning the train of thought expressed in them. She felt humbled as she realized she was standing in the sacred shrine of another of her kind, of an equal. A being somehow diminished as she had been, coming to terms with a new reality of existence. The equations seemed both familiar and truly alien to her; the written form of a language birthed since she’d been in the deeper well. She’d seen glimpses of it as she’d walked around the offices of Wolfram and Hart: fragments on computer screens in the science labs, printed on folded papers carried by urgent and socially inept humans. It had been beneath her to admit lack of familiarity with this form of communication. She paced the cave, eyes flickering across every inch of its surface puzzling at the meaning.
An unexpected cry for help broke through her meditation, the voice of Fred, “I could use some help out there.”
Illyria strode back out of the cave to see the fragments of Fred’s form buzzing like a cloud of angry insects, a human shaped cloud of mental energy bound together by passionate emotion. It lifted a hand pointing back along the ravaged mental pathways, the trail of destruction wrought by Fred’s ascention to reality. Illyria nodded slowly, “We have unfinished business you and I but now is not the time.”
Mustering her most regal bearing Illria’s presence bounded outward to reenforce her hold over the physical form she’d taken. Blue colour spread swiftly along arms and hair, realizing at the last moment the course of action Fred had committed her to. How dare Fred find cohesion! How dare the mortal carve her own reality out of the maleable substance of her thought! How dare she cover the walls with scratchings that Illyria was powerless to interpret! All of her frustration expressed itself in the punch that Fred began, and she completed. The swing connected with a satisfying amount of raw power, shattering Vail’s head with the force of the blow. Illyria watched the pieces tumble to the ground feeling satisfied at having expressed the outrage that she felt, allowing a very human, small smile to form of its own accord.
Lorne took out a gun with a silencer and shot Lindsey twice in the chest, as per Angel’s request. Originally each member of the team had been given an assignment: his had been to deal with the Sahrvin lair. Clearly outmatched, he’d needed a blunt intrument to carry out the job, hence Lindsey. The symmetry of using Wolfram and Hart’s ex-lawyer against them wasnt lost on Lorne it just left a bad taste in his mouth to use the man and toss him away.
Lindsey stumbled back against the wall, looking at his wounds, then at Lorne, incredulous “Why - why did you…”
Lorne considered a full confession but kept it short - it wasnt so much the sands of time trickling from one chamber of the hourglass to the other that he was up against, more the lifeblood staining Lindsey’s chest. “One last job. You’re not part of the solution, Lindsey. You never will be.”
Lindsey pointed at Lorne the humour of the situation striking him, “You kill me? A flunky?! I’m not just… Angel…kills me. You don’t… Angel…”
With a sigh, speaking to no-one in particular, Lorne addressed the room full of corpses before dropping the gun and walking out, “Good night, folks.”
All the adrenaline of the moment drained from him as he walked out into the night air. In meere moments the tough act was replaced; his innate vulnerability surfaced concurrently with the contents of his stomach. Lorne spent some moments leaning against the filthy red brick wall of the building, doubled over, after the retching had finished. This was why he’d quit. This was why he wasnt cut out to deal in death. A nearby noise broke his train of thought and he looked up … eyes scanning from black combat boots slowly up green cargo pants, to a cut-off tank top, finally coming to rest on sultry dark eyes framed by shoulder length dark hair: the face of death herself.
“Faith.”
“Still dont have the stomach for it, eh Lorne?”
Lorne straightened up, not letting his guard down, “And that is what separates you and I”
Music rose within him as a welcome comfort after the last few hours. He turned and began walking away from the Slayer with as much dignity as possible, singing to himself
The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all
The loser has to fall
It’s simple and it’s plain
Why should I complain.
His mind leaped to a later verse in the song,
The judges will decide
The likes of me abide
Spectators of the show
Always staying low
The game is on again
A lover or a friend
A big thing or a small
The winner takes it all
His mind was made up well before he’d taken the job of dealing with the Sahrvin lair, even before having to dispose of Lindsey. He was going to lay low and watch the rest of the show from the vantage point of a bar somewhere. He nodded to himself, tequilla felt like an appropriate response.
Faith’s voice broke through Lorne’s anticipation of self-medication, “I came with a message, she needs you. Needs your sight.” A note of disgust crept into her voice as she regarded the mess he’d left on the ground by the doorway, “She said she needs your vulnerability, your sensitivity. I mean, I dont know why she needs someone who cant keep chopped carrots and corn inside his stomach, but, each to her own I guess. So, you gonna come willingly or do I have to drag your green ass back there myself?”
With a deep sigh, Lorne turned and followed the Slayer back to her car and slid into the passenger seat realizing a long night was about to get even longer.
Illyria stamped angrily out of the sorceror’s home heading for the Hyperion hotel. She became aware of a stealthy presence stalking her, a half-breed demon by the smell of him. The scent of machined metal and tanned leather clung to him, so she calmly added armour and weapons to her mental image of who was following her. Something in his scent puzzled her, a hint of something other-worldly, not of this plane. It had faded but was unmistakable. So, a warrior imported from another dimension. She felt gratified that her enemies esteemed her enough to go to these lengths. She spun expecting to catch the stealthy hunter some distance behind her position, only to find herself facing the belly of a larg beast. Fear gripped her, this was not the assailant she could smell, could sense. This one was lost to her. She was still lost in thought as it reached one of its four arms down to grasp her by the head and lift her off the ground.
Her eyes widenned when she finally came face to face with the thing. It was hideous, all teeth and horns, small pig-like eyes glaring at her below heavy brow ridges. She felt it grasp each of her limbs in a different hand and begin to pull, hard.
Pain erupted deep inside her body as joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles began to part company. Her struggles were resisted with ease and the tension on her body increased. The sound of shoulders popping out of joint was joined by the sound of steel slicing through flesh. By the sound of it, a single sword in the hands of a skilled warrior. So… the stalker wasnt hunting her at all! The half-breed was hunting the beast she had been unable to sense. her view abruptly shifted as the clawed hands holding her left side were sliced clean off. A whirling shape clad in form-fitting black leather armour and wielding a glowing blue sword stepped clear of the beast as it dropped Illyria’s half broken body and charged to fight.
The fight continued down the street leaving a trail of broken wreckage behind it: parked vehicles, street lights and garbage dumpsters. Illyria tried to stand but even her amazing metabolism needed time to recover. She lamented her diminished state and cursing at not having been able to sense the assailant. Had the stalker not alerted her she’d have been torn limb from limb before she’d even known what was happening. Someone, somewhere knew her limitations intimately and had chosen wisely.
A concerned voice broke her free of her train of thought. “Are you hurt?”
She looked up into a blood splattered face, noting deep dark eyes, long hair and an engaging, honest smile. She knew this warrior! Dipping quietly inside she looked for the memories and was quickly joined by Fred’s whirling, fragmented presence.
“It’s the Groosalugg.”
“What, that beast?”
“No, the extra-dimensional warrior that saved you. He’s a friend. Trust him with your life - we all did.”
Fred’s presence retreated and Illyria openned her eyes, “Groosalugg?”
The warrior looked surprised to be called by name, “Yes?”
Illyria attempted to move only to find her right arm gripped firmly by the Groosalugg, “Release me at once!”
“These joints need to be set, and this will hurt, so hold on.” The Groosalugg expertly applied pressure and twisted the arm popping it back into joint then repeated the procedure with her left arm. “You have made great enemies for them to send such a beast after you. The seer was right to send me to your aid. Now, if you can stand, we must go to her.”
Illyria took a small amount of pleasure in seeing the Groosalugg’s surprised reaction as she fluidly stood, stretched and began striding off down the street. She listenned as he sprinted to catch up with her, but, didnt break her stride as she ignored his request and headed for the rendezvous with Angel.
Lorne opened his eyes as the car stopped, lifting his head from where it was lolling in sleep. He glanced at Faith in the driver’s seat feeling a moment of gratitude that she’d not noticed that he’d been drooling for the last few minutes of their drive. Quickly he wipes his chin and distracted the Slayer by stretching theatrically.
She looked annoyed as she dodged his stretching arm, “Move your sleepy bones, we’re on a schedule here”
As she got out of the car Faith turned and tossed the keys back in onto the driver’s seat. “Wasnt mine to begin with. Sweet ride though, I think I’ll come back for it if we get through all this.”
Lorne followed her inside a tall, rundown looking building sporting a handsome collection of well aged graffitti on the outside. The stairwell was badly lit: where lighting wasnt burned out or smashed, half the flourescent strips were flickering enough to cause headaches. And the smell. Lorne felt his stomach rising again as he quickly pulled his hankerchief out of his pocket to cover his nose and mouth in a futile attempt to block the smell of human bodily wastes.
Faith lead the way upstairs and kept going at a good pace despite Lorne’s huffing and puffing behind her. Somewhere around the 3rd floor Lorne found his spirits lifting as the lighting seemed to improve and the smell of human bodily waste receded. Something about being eye-level with the Slayer’s hind-quarters brought a song to mind
Hey I was just a skinny lad
Never knew no good from bad
But I knew love before I left my nursery
Left alone with big fat fanny
She was such a naughty nanny
Heap big woman you made a bad boy out of me!
He smirked at the chorus,
Oh won’t you take me home tonight
Oh down beside your red fire light
Oh and you give it all you got
Fat bottomed girls
you make the rocking world go round!
He continued the song as an annonymous hum after the lyrics drew a sharp glare from Faith, with the offer to kick his bottom into the middle of next week. By the time they reached the roof his mood had changed completely and even Faith’s customary scowl had lifted a few degrees. Lorne strode out onto the flat concrete roof with a spring in his step and the last few lines of an Irish drinking song on his lips
…Stuff happens…
He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a smooth domed ceiling. His left hand instinctively reached for the tear in his shirt, knowing to the core of his being that it would be there, and through the shirt tear to a tear in his own flesh. The wound was open and his fingers came back slick with blood yet none flowed down his body. Gingerly he rolled onto his side switching his view from domed ceiling to walls. His gaze travelled around the room couting sixteen smooth stone walls each with an alcove containing an ornate mirror with copper edging. Recessed lighting in each alcove lit both the mirrors and the whole room.
He drew himself into a sitting position and watched himself in several mirrors follow suit but lagging behind reality by a few moments. The reflection in a mirror to his left began to turn just as he heard the whispering sounds of heavy robes dragging on the smooth, cold marble floor. His own head turned lagging behind the reflection being trailed by some of the other reflections.
The whispering of robes stopped and a papery voice spoke a few syllables in tones too low to exactly make out. Flames burst from the lighting recesses of five alcoves causing him to flinch at the sudden heat on his face. Moments later the silvery surface and ornate copper frame melted and flowed across the floor pooling within a few feet of where he sat. The reflective silver pools remained edged in copper, with reflections lagging behind reality just as they had when they’d lived in the alcoves.
The papery voice spoke again and the reflections in the pools changed:
He gasped as he looked into the last of the pools, seeing his own reflection, watching as an aged sorceror plunged a large knife into his chest.
He looked up, scanning the room for the robed figure and not finding them, eyes returning to the reflective metal pools, fingers clutching the ragged edges of his chest wound. The papery voice spoke and the images froze in response to his command. After a pause it spoke a single intelligable word
“Choose.”
The man stood and turned around with a frantic edge to his body language becoming disoriented by the mirrors both prediciting and lagging behind his movement. Dizziness swept over him and he rapidly found himself on his knees looking into his own mirrored pool, a look of agony on the his own and depicted face. The voice cajolled him,
“Choose.”
He knew there would be a cost. Moments in time flowed across the face of mirros around the room, future and past, with time laying in fluid pools before him. As the thoughts solidified in his own head, so too did his own pool, drawing its edges inward to become a silvery bead about 1/2 an inch in diameter. The copper frame flowed into a loose circlet attaching itself to the bead. He reached and the warm metalic band slithered, snake-like, onto his wrist and solidified.
“Choose.”
Looking into the remaining pools he pointed at the handsome black man, betrayal coming easier than he thought. The images began moving again and what had been a flawless fight going in favour of the warrior suddenly turned nasty. Two vampires shimmered into being in the mirrored room and stepped through mirrors to become part of the scene. One caught the handsome man from behind while the other stabbed him viciously, delivering an obviously fatal abdominal wound. Their mission accomplished, they shimmered and vanished from the scene leaving the wounded man to stumble out of the room.
“Choose.”
The papery voice hung in the air, and the man looked at the silver and copper bracelet on his wrist and back to the pools. His last living moments, tattered threads of his lifeline drawn into a single piece of living jewelery. He could feel the chest wound closing even as he turned to look into the remaining pools. Green, blond or blue?
He pointed to blue, finding his voice at last.
“Her senses are acute and her armour inpenetrable it wont be easy.”
A big demon shimmered into being. It was hideous, all teeth and horns, small pig-like eyes glaring at the mirrors from below heavy brow ridges. Four massive arms ended in clawed hands. It stepped through a mirror and began stalking the female warrior, silently, without giving her a hint of its presence until the last moment before its attack, snatching her up and beginning to tear her limb from limb. The man tore his gaze away, emotional agony spilling from his lips in a wordless cry. The remaining pools flowed back to alcoves leaving him sobbing and alone on the marble floor.
Serenity docks at Bernadette station - an environmentally sealed base on the non-terraformed Bernadette moon, staging location for ships of settlers headed for the border planets. In addition to the cargo-run of settler’s supplies, a man books passage on Serenity under the name "Mr Shansu". He’s odd. He carries himself with a world weariness and has very few possessions: a leather bag and a long steel sword, dressed in ragged flowing brown robes with hood that hangs down over his face allowing just his chin to be visible. The robe is made up from multiple layers of porous hessian-like fabric, giving glimpses of pale skin under the hood and dark, metallic, band covering his eyes.
When they get to the coordinates the man specified there’s only deep, empty, black space. Mal was expecting another ship. While he’s confused in the cockpit talking with Wash and Zoe, Kaylee see the stranger getting into the airlock carrying a small coloured glass jar that was in his bag and she tries to disable the cycle but is unable … she races up to the cockpit to tell Mal.
The man walks outside onto the hull of the ship without a spacesuit. Shepherd Book joins him moments later and begins a funeral liturgy. The jar is opened and the stranger scatters fine grey ashes into space. Once back inside the pair are confronted by Mal … and the man admits to being "very old" and that you have to get very specific on the method of death if you want to kill him. Mal shoots him, and promises to drop him off at the border world - final destination for the cargo containers. The man spends the return trip in his room, recovering.
After dinner Mal confronts Shepherd Book who, in explanation, reads to the crew from his bible, saying that the first passage was from the apocalypse of St. John
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
He went on to explain that the Isaiarite sect, thought to be extinct, took the passage literally. He explained that Isaiarites had little sense of irony or understanding of metaphor, and a great propensity to take things out of context. Book began reading again,
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:”Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
He explained that the metal band across the eyes had both symbolic and functional meaning; in the symbolic sense, it offered blindness to general members of the order, but for the true holymen, it covered true self-inflicted blindness. The Isaiarite sect handled live coals in much the same way as fringe movements in the old days handled snakes as a religious rite; burns, pain and scarring were elevated to being a means of purification and atonement for past sins committed.
Kaylee stops in on the stranger on her way back to her room after dinner and finds him laying on his bed extremely pale, not breathing, without a heartbeat. A medical emergency ensues, Simon removes the metal band on the stranger’s face - empty eye sockets containing ash and charcoal. All attempts to rouse the man are met with failure. They leave him covered with a sheet and turn in for the night, Jayne claiming dibs on the man’s sword for his collection.
The body is gone next morning. Robes are folded neatly and the metal face band sat on top of them. A search ends up finding him in the hold practicing with the sword, bare chested, eyes regrown, hairless with pants stolen from Simon. When asked, Simon admits that peroxide is also missing from the medical supplies. The stranger hands Mal back the bullet rubbing the spot where an entry wound should have been, complaining of a slight residual ache.
The stranger is dropped off at "the next stop" along with the cargo containers, his hair now regrown and bleached with the stolen peroxide, seemingly not caring where the journey takes him next, but very careful to leave under the cover of night.
"Next time there’s an apocalypse, the powers that be know where to find me"
 Summer Glau as Jane Sachsmann / “JayUn1t” (”Jay”) |
 Morgan Freeman as Admiral Feyessa |
 Steve Bacic as William McKenna / “Edge” |
 Frida Betrani as CaraBell / “Cowbell” |
 Michael Douglas as Yochanan Sachsmann / “Jack” |
 Pauley Perrette as Aldina Pomona |
 Ryan Reynolds as Eli Sachsmann / “jaXXon” |
 Julia Stiles as “Vixcin” |
|
Jane was starting to get positively outraged at being suppressed by her captor. She was powerless to interact with the outside world and stuck inside what was probably going to turn out to be worse prison. What could be worse than being taunted by the outside world and then watching someone else move your arms and legs in reaction to it? She was powerless and being passively dragged around inside her own head. It was demeaning. Outraged at it all she poked and prodded at the internal restraints. They seemed solid enough. While this JayUnit stamped along in the midst of the Vixens Jane spent the time pressing for a weak spot. Finally she found it, a chink in the impervious wall of anger that held everything together. Her own outrage was close in tone but not quite there – free-floating rage compared with the controlled burn of righteous outrage at specific injustices – it felt like pressing her hand into warm jello pudding but the walls began to give.
Jane found herself embedded in the substance of her captor’s awareness able to communicate freely and parse the same input that was flowing past. Jane concentrated and found herself able to view the green of the Matrix code around her. The lake glittered in moonlight, a ghostly river of code, a vast storehouse ready to pour fixes out to the wider Matrix. With a start she realized that whether they knew it or not, the gangs nearby were controlling one of the most profound resources in the whole simulated environment. Control the flow of fixes, perhaps add your own, and you controlled the deeper substrate of the reality of the Matrix itself.
Ahead of their path she spotted a golden glow. It looked like a building was burning. No, not burning, she realized … she was viewing the code and there was a golden fire sweeping through the building. Someone needed to be told!
—–
JayUnit found herself enjoying the pace and her armed escort. There was real danger out in the dark, of that she was sure, and the vigilant nature of the women around her was reassuring. There was a familiar ache of loss – Keisha, CaraBelle, Her family – and she could almost see the tenuous connections forming between herself and her escorts. She shook her head to clear such silly schoolgirl thoughts – secret clubs, tree-houses, passwords – if there was to be any initiation with the Vixens she knew she’d need to prove herself fully first, establish a reputation and get their attention as something more than baggage to be delivered.
While her mind was wandering she didn’t notice she’d slipped into looking at the world and its green texture. Switching between normal sight and this augmented view had become second-nature now. Everything around her had the air of shabbiness, even the texture itself looking patched and worn in places.
She scanned the path ahead of them, beyond the end of the lake.
“Yes, that’s it, see it!” an internal voice whispered in a voice that ought-to but didnt belong to her.
“Bitch! Shut up!” JayUnit hissed under her breath.
As much as she wanted to dismiss it there was an insistent pressure behind her eyes, pulling her gaze back to the burning building.
“Will you shut up already?” JayUnit demanded.
“No. Warn them. The fire is in the code.” Jane said.
“What code?” JayUnit answered
“It doesnt matter, just tell them, test me on this one … if I am leading you astray you can lock me in the darkest dungeon inside here. Deal?” Jane said.
“Heh. You got yourself a deal.”
JayUnit rasied her head and hissed to Vixcin, “I think there’s a problem…” she hesitated, should she simply repeat Jane’s words?
“Yes?” Vixcin answered, turning her head slightly.
JayUnit closed her mouth and clenched her teeth. There was something just so wrong about rolling over and repeating the message but she also didnt want to look stupid now she was center of attention.
“That building ahead of us … there’s a fire raging in the code.” JayUnit spat.
Vixcin raised an eyebrow and signalled for the group to pause, “Valentine, get a reading on the buildings ahead of us.”
Valentine pulled her cellphone/PDA out and punched its controls, “We have a problem. Reads like a trap, but I dont know what’s going on.”
Internally JayUnit felt part of her leap and punch the metaphorical air. She growled as she probed the feeling further and found how deeply Jane had ingratiated herself into the mental landscape. Her gamble had paid off.
Volumes of books have been written on the subject. Individual congregations disagree over the form and the style. What is it really? What is it that God really wants?
John 4:7 - 26
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. )
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
A very well-known passage and many preachers have used it when speaking on worship. It contains the over-arching command, from the lips of Jesus himself, on worship - namely that we must worship "in spirit and truth". What does that mean in practice though? How, two millennia later, can we understand what He meant?
As with all bible studies, we must look at context - in this case the whole conversation going on here. It appears that by verse 19, Jesus has managed to really unsettle the Samaritan woman: putting it into modern day terms, Christians might be confronted with phrases like "Well, that’s great for you, but I have my own truth" which amount to nothing more than saying "Leave me alone - you’re shaking the tree and I might fall out".
Firstly, the woman does concede to acknowledge that there’s something different about Jesus - he had correctly spoken about her five previous husbands. After giving a little ground, she follows up by saying "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem" That is, "I have my truth and you have yours". Does her claim hold up? Is this merely an empty excuse to stop the unsettling conversation or, is there something to her assertion?
Biblical scholars place this discussion as occurring at the foot of Mount Gerizim.
Deuteronomy 11:29
29 When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
Later, on entering the land, we read
Joshua 8:30 - 35
30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, 31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses–an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the LORD burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing those who carried it–the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law–the blessings and the curses–just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them
So, the Samaritans were worshipping at a place where an event of great importance had occurred: the covenant of the Law was confirmed between God and His people the Jews, marking the end of one phase of their history and the beginning of their move into the promised land.
This event was so important that it required the Ark of the Covenant to be placed at it’s centre. To the Israelites, this represented the physical presence of the Lord Almighty in their midst. During the time of their wandering it says:
Exodus 40:34 - 38
34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out–until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
So, for the Samaritans, Mount Gerizim represented a place where the presence of God had been and it held great spiritual significance due to the re-confirmation of their faith, their commitment to the Law and their belief in the promises made through Moses.
The Samaritan woman was drawing on her knowledge of history "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain (where, in the presence of God Himself as represented by the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites pledged themselves faithfully to Him before taking posession of he promised land)".
We see that God was still in the business of confirming His presence with fire and smoke when we read of the dedication of the great temple, built by Solomon, in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 5:1 through to 7:3
5:1 When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated–the silver and gold and all the furnishings–and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.
2 Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. 3 And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.
.
.
.
7:1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying,
"He is good;
his love endures forever."
The same fire and smoke that had lead the Israelites in their wanderings in the desert confirmed the arrival of God Almighty to the new temple. Once again, centred on the Ark of the Covenant. Later temple worship looks back to this confirmation.
The woman, speaking to Jesus, recognised this when she said "but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem (where, just like during the wanderings in the desert, the presence of God came into a location and filled it, confirming it as a resting place)".
So, both sides of the discussion - Samaritans (looking at Mount Gerizim where the presence of the ark confirmed a great spiritual occurrence) and the Jews (remembering how the fire and glory of God came to dwell within the temple) had a claim to the truth. However, just like in the wilderness, God moves on. In John 4:21, Jesus says "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem" echoing the words of a prophesy given by the prophet Malachi:
Malachi 1:11
11 "My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.
God desires pure worship and pure offerings. Jesus predicted a time when God’s Name would be great in all the nations and worship would occur all over the world. Though God had confirmed His presence in the temple with smoke and fire, a time would come when His presence would infuse praises worldwide.
Temple worship followed a clear pattern laid down by God. Participants had definite roles to play in things and everyone knew what was right and orderly. This had been highlighted by the Lord when Aaron’s sons took things upon themselves and offered unauthorised worship:
Leviticus 10:1 - 3
1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorised fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
" `Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’ "Aaron remained silent.
To borrow a phrase, Aaron "didn’t have a leg to stand on" when it came to the death of his sons - God had established the priesthood with clear delineations of how and when offerings should be made. It is very easy to write this incident off as being part of the "wrath of God" we associate with the Old Testament and miss its significance. Well, it would be easy to dismiss if it wasn’t for the writer of Hebrews who reminded us:
Hebrews 12:28 - 29
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
The bible tells us that no-one is righteous, we have all fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death - see Romans 3:23, 6:23 for details! When we come to worship God, we too should (by rights) be consumed by fire as with the sons of Aaron. Something has happened to redirect this fire, however.
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 14:6
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus came to the earth, laid aside the glory due to Him to live as a human being. The wrath and anger of God at our sin was carried on the cross by Jesus. When we approach God in worship today, it is because Jesus has opened the way and exchanged our own unrighteousness for his spotless perfection.
Jesus claimed to be not only the way but also to be the truth. We are called to worship God in Spirit and Truth - half of that equation is found in the person of Jesus, the very personification of truth.
We worship a triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The second piece to the worship puzzle is found in the person of the 3rd member of the Godhead:
John 16:12 - 15
12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."
We are told that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. We can therefore be confident that He will lead us to the truth personified: Jesus. Truth will flow through all members of the trinity to get to us, BUT, we ultimately it will be communicated to us by the person of the Holy Spirit.
It was God through the Holy Spirit that inspired the writing of the Bible. We are told that "all Scripture is God breathed" but He didn’t just stop there. The Holy Spirit is the promised seal, a down payment on our inheritance in Christ, available to us from the moment we come to faith.
Luke 11:9 - 13
9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Jesus tells us that true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. What is incredible to me is the depth that God participates in the act of worship - every member of the trinity is at work in worship. If we ask Him, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth, to Jesus. Jesus, our saviour who died to make us righteous in the eyes of God, the only way to God the Father whom we are commanded to worship.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
All my Christian life I have heard preachers speak from this passage. It’s a well known and much quoted passage. When I took a poll and asked a group what it was saying the answer came back, as expected, “if I do something without love it’s worthless”.
Does the passage actually say that though? Reading through it slowly it is clear that love is vitally important, but what does the passage say about the speaking in tongues, prophesy, faith, sacrifice, etc? Does it say that the sacrifice is nothing, or the prophesy is nullified?
I believe it is saying that the action still stands, that I am invalidated by doing things with frong motives. If I do something good for the wrong reasons, the good thing I have done still is a good thing and someone was still blessed.
A good example: Our church serves on an inner-city work project. I got involved one weekend for all the wrong reasons, chief being a sense of obligation. We spent the day clearing decades of trash from a backyard in preparation for the house to be used as part of a church supported housing project. Now, my wrong motives in no way invalidated the fact that there was a clean yard when the team left, but I know that I was in a rotten mood by the end of the time and my aching muscles had no positive reason to be aching. In Paul’s terms, “if you clear the yard but have not love, you gain nothing”.
What does Paul mean there? I believe that Jesus will reward us, if in no other way than to greet us as His “good and faithful servants”. If we work for the wrong motives, we gain nothing. If Jesus is keeping track of the things to compliment and reward us for doing, the non-loving motives will cut out a whole bunch of potential blessings.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 says
Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
What motivated Paul?
A mixed bag, strangely enough, which I find really encouraging when I examine my own motives and see a mixed bunch of motives, not all of which are pure or “spiritual”.
Phillipians 1:12 - 18 says:
Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
In what method had the message become “clear” to the whole palace guard? As a prisoner, how much freedom would Paul have had to “preach”?
Three words tend to get translated “salvation”, though they are also used of other things too.
A Hebrew word: “to be free, in a wide or roomy space, carrying the sense of being freed from confinement, constriction and limitation”. The name “Yeshua”, the Hebrew name of Jesus, derives rom this word, meaning, “saviour”, that is “one who brings freedom”. This is reflected beautifully in John 10:10, where Jesus said He’d come to “that they might have life, and hav it to the full”.
Both get translated as save / salvation, meaning literally “to cure, remedy, to recover”. The words are translated as “heal” and “deliver” in the New Testament.
Acts 27, the believers were delivered from a storm at sea
Matthew 24 speaks of being delivered from tribulation.
Those that mocked Jesus, in Matthew 27, suggested he save (deliver / free) himself
Sozo means, “to restore health and wholeness” (Matthew 9:21-22, Mark 5:23, Luke 7:50).
Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved (sozo)”.
Baptism doesnt gain us salvation of our soul - as sacramentalism teaches - non-sacramentalist churches view baptism as an outward witness to an inward change. It doesnt save us, so much as open the door to greater wholeness - the other angles of sozo. This suggests that baptism has an effect over and above the outward witness, over and above simply being a “rite of passage” in a believer’s life.
Sin is the gateway to corruption and sickness. Baptism binds us closer to the saving work of Christ: where our confession and saving faith opened the door to the risen Lord, baptism is akin to throwing the door open and handing Him the key to the entire house.
Romans 1:16 - “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes”- salvation, “soteria”, used 24 times in the New Testament, 16 times of Jesus and 8 times in reference to God the Father. Soteria and Sozo go hand in hand all through the New Testament.
Jesus came to “seek and save that which has gone missing” - Jesus the Saviour is one and the same as Jesus the Healer. The conservative viewpoint that looks at Him as saviour (Yasha, Sozo, Soteria) is embracing the whole work of Christ: to save us body, soul and mind. In praying for someone to be healed we are asking Jesus to minister in another angle the salvation He bought for us on the cross.
I am encouraged that the gospel, that power of God, is for the Sozo/Soteria/Yasha, of everyone who believes. The gospel message is integral to freedom and deliverence for those oppressed, healing for the sick, etc.
It’s an interesting thing to note the effect of another religion on the Christian faith that we profess. Paul wrote “I contend to know nothing while among you but Christ, and Him crucified”, but within the law of Christ, within the teaching of the new testament we see wisdom that has been transmitted to us as a result of the example and influence of a pagan priest.
We read talk of "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" tracing the lineage of the people of God through these fathers in the faith. Abraham had many sons, yet we trace the work of God through only one: Isaac. We read in Genesis 16 (v 1-4):
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
The child of this union was Ishmael. Later we read talk of the nation that he founded, for example in Genesis 37 (v 23-28):
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
The Midianites were a sub-division within the larger grouping of "Ishmaelite" peoples. It is the Islamic belief that modern day Islamic peoples of the Middle East are descended from Ishmael, Abraham’s son. That said, the people of God - His chosen people - are traced through Abraham’s other son, Isaac. Though God blessed the offspring of Hagar and made him into a vast nation as we read in Genesis 17 (v 19-21), He didnt bless him with being of the line leading to the covenant or ultimately to Christ:
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Fast forward a number of years, moving into the book of Exodus, and we see the nation of Israel in captivity in Egypt. God raised up Moses to lead His people to freedom, used Him to transmit the Law and establish them as a nation. However, to get to that point God needed to teach Moses lessions within both the royal court of Pharaoh and the wilderness years as a shepherd.
God said, of the nation of Israel
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
Where Peter writes in his first epistle,
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light
Where does Peter derive the term “royal priesthood”? How has that term come about? Peter was schooled in the stories of the Exodus from childhood, and in the political structure of the Egyptian leadership. Pharaoh was both King and head of the state religion that deified him: he was a “royal priest”. There can be no doubt that the teaching of Judaism and the yearly observance of Passover would have reminded him of the role of Pharaoh. However, he also knew that we are children, adopted into the family of God as sons and heirs. To all who believe God gives the right to be called His children. God is sovereign, the King of Kings and as His children, we are part of a royal family. The notion of royalty, then, sits well with the teachings of Jesus. We also know that all who come to Jesus gain access to God, directly, with no need for another intermediary. In that respect, we are all in the same position as the old testament priests. So, the derivation of "Royal Priesthood" from another angle.
Jethro shows great hospitality to the stranger, Moses, after he fled from Pharaoh. He took him in, provided him a wife and created an environment where "Moses was content to dwell with the man" (Exodus 2:21), so content in fact, that he stayed there 40 years! He later blesses Moses in his mission, after only the most scanty of explanations; Jethro demonstrates great trust in Moses’ judgement. When Zipporah was unable, or unwilling, to accompany Moses in the journey and mission in Egypt, she returned to live with her father. Jethro proceeded to provide a stable environment for her to raise her 2 sons while Moses was away dealing with Pharaoh.
It says in Exodus 18 (v 1-6):
When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
What follows is a great example of father-son interaction. Jethro observes his adopted son and out of a wellspring of fatherly love, sees that Moses is on a track towards burnout. Speaking of Moses judging the people alone, Jethro says,
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Moses hears what Jethro has to say on the matter and puts it into action, recognizing the wisdom of the older man (verse 24)
So Moses harkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.
There are two fascinating things going on here. Firstly I am struck by the attitude of Moses: his humility as leader of the people of God, and the love and respect he shows towards his father in law. Moses, possibly the greatest leader in the bible, founder of one of the world’s major religious systems and one of the few people to see God and talk to Him “as one does to a friend”. This same man, quietly and without any argument or fanfare, without thought to claiming credit himself, instituted the changes that Jethro suggested.
The second striking thing for me speaks to a very contemporary issue. There are debates today over who "owns" truth. For that matter, what is " anyway? Is it ever absolute? We know that the Christian faith argues very strongly for an absolute measure of truth - Jesus claimed to not only speak the truth, but to be the very embodiment of truth. Modern Calvinist doctrine is interpreted by some to suggest that there is no truth, what so ever, to be found outside the teaching of Jesus. Some argue that because of our "total depravity" we are unable to even conceive of anything Godly until we are under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It therefore stands to reason, then, that religions other than Christianity contain no truth.
This viewpoint comes to an abrupt halt and sticks on the example of Jethro: a priest of Midian, he never converted to become one of the people of God. Even before his recognition (in chapter 18) of God as sovereign, he still took Moses in and offered hospitality.
In what way is ths significant? Well, simply the effect that it had on Moses and the writing of the Mosaic law. We read in Leviticus 19 (v 33-34):
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Jethro, in his "unregenerate" state acted out in deed what later turns up within the Mosaic Law, the revelation of God. Moreover, his suggestion to Moses resulted in the Israelite judicial system. The event carried through to the New Testament though, in the teaching of Jesus:
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
1Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
2After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it."
5Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."
6Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people." So they took it up and went ahead of them.
7And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: `When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’"
9Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.10This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD–the Lord of all the earth–set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."
14So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.
15Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
17The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Joshua was already a leader within the nation of Israel. Verse 5 shows us that he has authority over the general populous and verse 6 shows that he also has authority over the priests. So, positionally Joshua was already a leader doing his job. However, this passage marks a new phase in his leadership. He already had the respect due his position, respect born of years of faithful service under Moses and the historic victory as one of the spies that went into the land. This chapter marks the move from him from being a man doing a job (or a man holding an office) to a man exalted in the eyes of the people around him - someone who is a leader to the very core of his being.
God could very easily have spoken through a priest and had him relay the message to Joshua, or use a big booming voice to announce the message to all people. Either of these other avenues would have resulted in largely the same end result and yet the communication came directly to Joshua, just as it would have done to Moses. Why speak to Joshua directly?
Leadership has both internal and external qualities. Externally, we hold office and perform our duties. People often respect the position and what that represents and not the person who holds the position. Similarly, the person holding a position of leadership will often trust in the external trappings of leadership - uniform, badge, job title, privileges, etc. It is very easy to let the job do the work of commanding respect as opposed to being worthy of respect in and of ourselves by "owning" the position.
However, relying on purely external trappings of authority leaves us empty. We inhabit a shell that is too large for us. What people see and respond to doesn’t match up to what we see and feel on the inside. Someone said that the most draining thing to do in life is live as someone/something you’re not; trusting and living in just the purely external aspects of leadership offers a first-class ticket to burnout.
Verse 7 shows God taking the initiative to build up Joshua’s sense of inner authority. God validates Joshua’s calling to leadership in a very deep way by speaking to him the same way He did to Moses. This experience would have taken Joshua’s perception of Moses’ leadership and his relationship with God (in other words, the external presence and authority of Moses) and internalised it within Joshua. The end result was that Joshua would simply know to the core of his being that he’s a leader, whatever outward appearances may say.
When the internal knowledge of one’s position is missing, when we are rattling around within the shell of external leadership and trusting in the office rather than simply knowing and exerting internal authority problems will result. The middle-ground would be where we keep on doing our job but we doubt ourselves at every turn. We’ll dither and be indicisive coming over as weak, not even trusting in the position’s authority to carry us. If the sence of mismatch is too great, we may simply give up and disbelieve that we can lead at all.
On the other side of the coin, we may try to overcompensate for what we feel is lacking and fall into the trap of self promotion. Because we feel the mismatch between the external and the internal, we feel that something must be lacking somewhere and set about cheerleading (or gathering cheerleaders) to provide external support.
This leads to the situation of wearing a "mask" - to make ourselves look like we are successful and strong as leaders (where in actual fact we’re dying slowly inside - hiding in the dark corner of an inner room hoping the world will leave us alone). Today’s culture is one of success and almost demands that we go down this path. In that position we’ll do almost anything to avoid the risk of exposure. We dont want people to know that the real person is not the same as the perceived image. This causes a blindspot in our choise of action in any given situation: a leader who is comfortable with who and what they are, who’s sense of inner authority matches closely to the external, will have no fear of exposure and will find avenues of action open to them that a mask wearing person might not see. A simple example being the ability to admit mistakes - with an image to maintain, a person might not be as ready to admit their failure or mistake as they otherwise should be.
God takes the initiative to avoid these problems with Joshua. He says that the task of exalting him as a leader belongs to God alone. Clearly, He knows what it coming for Joshua - the battles that he will face and the leadership issues to deal with. He knows that Joshua must spend his energies wisely and therefore steps in to confirm with the people that Joshua is more than just the sum of his leadership position. As a result of the Jordan crossing everyone would respect both the man and the position. It is really something to have the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob say "today I will begin to exalt you" - usually we are told to exalt the Lord and humble ourselves!
The Passover celebration marks an annual recollection of the miracle of the Israelite escape from Egypt. Within the celebration everyone remembers how God parted the waters, allowed them to pass through, then destroyed their pursuers by dropping the water back into place behind the people of Israel. That’s the sort of miracle people remember for thousands of years.
Parting the waters of the flooded Jordan river would evoke a strong response with the people and the experience would provide an excellent reminder of God’s place in society; the Israelites had wandered in the desert for forty years until a whole new generation was ready to entry the promised land. Parting the waters of the Jordan linked this new generation back to those that had come from Egypt - it connected them to the miracle working God of their parents and brought the whole issue of faith back to the forefront of their lives. This event centred their focus on God much as passing through the parted waters had done for their parents. It also confirmed for all to see, that they should submit to God’s anointed leadership in the days ahead.
So, God deals with both the internal authority of Joshua, telling him directly that he’ll be exalted by God’s intervention, and with the external authority of his position by linking the miracle back to the one commemorated in the Passover celebration: in addition to being a display of God’s control over His creation, the miracle also played on the annual religious festival thereby evoking a deeper response from the people present.
Although God promises to exalt Joshua in the eyes of the people, this isn’t an unconditional gift. The promise is followed immediately by a command that will determines which side of the line Joshua’s on. His leadership is on the line: he can command the priests and thereby demonstrate the inner sense of authority is intact or he could disobey God. By commanding the priests, Joshua demonstrates that although there has been no external validation, he’s holding onto Gods promise by faith ("faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1).
This comes over as a three step process:
There are no easy answers. Though God promises to exalt Joshua in the eyes of the people, He only does so after Joshua has acted. If Joshua was suffering an inner crisis and was looking to God to be built up, God certainly came through for him. However, in the process Joshua is called to make the decisive leadership decisions before he’s been built up and exalted by God.
Leaders called by God and anointed for the task they are called to will face issues of internal authority where they question themselves. Just as with Joshua, we can reasonably expect God to come through and build us up as people and in our capacity as leaders, but He demands faith. "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6).
Leadership seems to work in reverse - God asks for acts of faith and asks us to take risks before we feel ready. However, He’s promised to never leave us or forsake us. For Joshua, this meant that he had to command the priests to step out in faith at the water’s edge and only afterwards be exalted in the eyes of the people. God’s promise to exalt him was by no means a cure for insecurities within Joshua. Neither should leadership today be. God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), we can do all thing through God who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), but we must expect to spend time screaming in pain as he challenges our areas of weak inner authority - forcing us to step out despite ourselves. Its a trial by fire - by stepping out and being obedient we overcome ourselves - stepping past what we saw to be a barrier - and discover that the authority of our call to ministry goes deeper that we thought possible. As they say, "hindsight is 20/20".
1When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
2“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
3and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”4So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,
5and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?’
7tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”8So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down.
9Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
God knows that we forget. He knows that when challenges come in the future, we doubt the high points of the past. The beginning of chapter 4 offers hope though. God commands that the people of Israel all come together in a collective act of remembrance. It specifically recognises that the children of those who passed through the Jordan would be told of what had happened. More importantly though, the stones that they lifted from the bottom of the river were an immediate reminder to the people of what had happened.
To state the obvious: Joshua was counted among the 12 tribes of Israel. He would, therefore, have a stone that represented the trip through the Jordan; he would have a permanent reminder of the step of faith that he took.
God wont lets us forget the steps we take with Him. He wants the best for us and will set marker points in our lives that we can go back to - like the Israelites looking at the stones - which confirm the previous steps of faith that we’ve taken. When we grow into leadership, God is faithful to command us how to set a stake in the ground marking out new territory.
The word “Gospel” derives from old English, “God spell”, literally, “Good news”.
We are sinners deserving a sinner’s death. The wrath we deserve was poured onto Jesus on the cross, separating Him from His Father. Bottom line, it doesnt matter whether we are “totally depraved” or not: we’ve all sinned at some point in our lives and we therefore dont have a spotless record before God.
James 2:14 - faith without works is dead.
Ephesians 2:1-10 - saved by grace to god works.
John 3:16-17 - anyone can. That’s why it’s good news! No matter what we have done, or what excuse we can come up with, the good news of the gospel still applies to you.
Was it to save souls, or save lives?
John 10:10 - He came to bring life.
1 John 3:8 - He came to destroy the work of the evil one.
Deriving somewhat from a “fire escape” or “insurance policy” mentality. It is often presented to people as the minimum that needs to be done to guarantee their place in heaven. It leads to us thinking in terms of “saving souls” and forgetting they need to live redeemed lives after that point. The “sinner’s prayer” is a great starting point / checklist, to be applied more specifically by people.
Am I a sinner? What do I need to repent of? Is restitution needed? Where does baptism fit into the picture? Do I need to specifically confess certain sins?
Salvation is a walk along the “narrow way”, not an event. It has a definite starting point (past tense), we work our salvation with fear and trembling (present continuous tense) and look forward to the return of Jesus, when we’ll be perfected and our salvation completed (future tense). Repentance begins when we come to faith but should increase as our walk with God draws us closer to Him and reveals more of ourselves. In theory, there should be more repentance after conversion than in the process of conversion!
It’s one thing to walk through the narrow gate. Its quite another to continue walking once there.
John has a very clear idea of 2 groups of people. The verses in 19 and 20 link together to compare and contrast these 2 groups. Firstly, there are the false teachers. Many commentators agree that John wrote to the churches in an effort to combat the teaching of early Gnostic individuals. He has harsh words for these false teachers and verses 19 and 20 attempt to step the tide somewhat for his readers. They come over to me as an encouragement.
Verse 19 points out that some believers "went out" which (by implication) means that others stayed. The group that "went out" are descibed as not belonging to John, so, by implication those that stayed do belong. Some versions translate "belonged" as being "of [him]" and doesnt so much imply ownership as a more parental role - children "belong" in a particular family and are "of" the parents. The children share in the rich genetic heritage of their parents.
John doesnt appear to have even a shred of doubt in his mind about the status of these false teachers. He is utterly categorical when he says that they ALL are in the same boat. In his mind, departing the faith in the manner that they had proved that there was no faith available to salvage. They are separate and distinct from the flock of faithful believers that he was writing to. In other words, there’s no place within the flock for heretical teaching: their departure from truth was enough to mark them off as distinct and different from those holding to orthodox values despite possibly being physically located in the same place.
Today, there are many people in the church that claim to be ‘christian’ yet there is no evidence of faith, not bible believing views and a great number of people chasing off away from orthodox teaching. By John’s reasoning, there are no grey areas. A person either belongs or they dont. They either abide within the confines of good theology and the family of God, or they are outside. For example :
It’s a harsh statement to make, but, a line must be drawn somewhere. The church needs people like John who will stand up and vocally point out the groups that have "gone out" from the boundaries of what could reasonably be termed "Christian" and not be afraid to tell things simply and clearly. John made this distinction between those that stay and those that go out an integral part of his message. The church today is no less under siege by false teaching than it was in John’s day.
John points out that one of the 2 groups has received an anointing from "The Holy One". That is, the group that stayed - the group that held to the teaching they had received from the beginning. Members of the family of God have the Holy Spirit as seal on their faith - as a foretaste of things to come. Those that have left dont, though they may in the past have tasted of the goodness of God. If the group that "went out" from the believers were to show signs of some form of "Anointing" we must be bold in asking the source of this power. The Holy Spirit dwells within us while our relationship with Jesus is intact. For those that have rejected Him, we must question what "spirit" has anointed them if they claim to have power from a spiritual source.
John links it clearly to knowing the truth. Back in John’s gospel, it says that when the Holy Spirit comes, he would lead us into all truth. This is being re-iterated here.
This comes as an encouragement to the readers - the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and thereby keep us from being misled by false (heretical) teaching.
John further underscores his message that the congregations hearing the message are doing OK when he points out the source of the lies. He says that he’s writing because the readers know the truth. His expectation is that the falsehood is creeping in from outside. If we assume that he was expecting a public reading of the letter, by addressing the comments with "you", we see an expectation that the false teachers would not be masquerading as "believers" and submitting to John’s oversight and leadership. Those hearing the letter were in the group that stayed, that received the anointing and are therefore not the source of the heretical lies. This being the case, John freely encourages the readers to trust God’s provision and leading in staying free from the lies.
John’s pretty clear that there are liars - false teachers that are distorting the truth - and that these liars are the antithesis of Christ, an "anti-Christ". How do we go about spotting them? How can we see them far enough in advance that our faith isnt damaged by their teaching?
The answer lies in chapter 4. Verses 1 and 2 are the crux of the test - where is teacher "coming from" - does the teaching spring from an acknowledgment of the person and work of Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, begotten not created who lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on the cross and was physically raised from the death on the third day? It has been said that all so called "sub-christian cults" are based on a misund
June 4th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Hee! Marcus as an astronaut… that’ll be awesome
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:17 am
hey! I’m in the US writing a novel. I’m a believer, a disciple of the Lord Jesus. I’m interested in how you handle this – I’m trying to write the novel honest, true-to-life.
The novel is a mystery and one of the characters is a detective who is not a believer. So when he gets mad he doesn’t say darn it. When I’m writing free, I’m writing curse words, but there’re real, that’s what that character would say. My uncle was a detective. He was a tough guy and talked tough. But as a believer I don’t want to publish a book that would embarrass the church, is that a valid concern? I pray about it and it just seems like Jesus was so real, no phony stuff. Any comments?