Sword in the Fire

Track 9 - Fulfillment (Luke 1:46-55; 67-79) For the final song on the Biblical soundtrack, two voices, come together as one, one a young girl unknown by man, raised by faith in holy seclusion, the other an old priest, without heirs, made mute by doubt before the holy.  Together they sing of fruitfulness at the coming of children destined to announce and bring deliverance to all mankind. For centuries their people had waited for deliverance, stories had been told of Moses and their ancestors escaping the clutches of an evil Pharaoh, of Joshua driving out idolators, of heroes rescuing the oppressed by the miraculous hand of God, of King David unifying their people and his son Solomon exalting a nation to world prominance, of exile and return, of persecution and victory, only to ask, "Will my generation see God's hand, surely we are poor again and now is the time for salvation?"; and salvation came as a baby. The previous 8 hymns have been revealing portions of the s...

Azariah and his friends have been thrust into a Babylonian furnace and the king, his servants, and the people look on waiting for the men to turn to ash.  Azariah lifts up his voice in song and offers himself to God as a sacrifice.  His prayer for deliverance was answered, and the fire has no effect.   The king in frustration at the slowness of their consumption commands his servants to stoke the fire hotter.  The youths inside the furnace survive, yet the servants outside are burnt by their own efforts. Suddenly the king sees a fourth man in the furnace and this man shakes of the "fiery flame of the furnace".  The Lord makes the fire as a "dew-laden breeze".  The young men together cry out with one voice in praise to God.   "The hymn begins with praise of God, the Creator and Lord of  all. God is sitting upon His throne in His heavenly temple, and from  there He is praised by all creation. The young men function as priests  of ...

Crack open your Bible to Daniel 3:25-45, and see if you can find it.  It might be missing.  This passage and the next track we will consider are part of the Septuagint version of Daniel, and it missing from any Old Testaments that rely solely on the Hebrew.   The story behind this song should be a familiar one, if you spent your childhood Sunday mornings in Bible school (o, those flannel graphs).  Daniel had three friends whom we remember as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but these were there Babylonian names.  Their Hebrew names were  Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah.  Because they refused to bow down before a false idol, the Babylonian king had them thrown into a furnace.   The furnace was super-heated but the boys were not consumed.  In fact, the king noticed a mysterious fourth man walking around with them in furnace.  The king called them forth from the fire and they walked out unscathed.   As they were bound and th...

Track 6 of the Biblical soundtrack is found in the minor prophet Jonah.  While a small book and a perfect story for Sunday School, the Church has found tremendous comfort and power in Jonah's story and prayer.   Jonah wanted to escape from God's presence and God gave him the desire of his heart--a glimpse of existence without God.  This was a dark night of the soul or perhaps a more Orthodox phrase: "a descent into hell".  Most spiritual writers express this reality as a necessary stage of spiritual growth.  For some it is imposed by God to purify.  This is the way of the cross and it can not be escaped.  Christ walked down this path for us and will meet us at the bottom.  On the cross, he cries out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  This experience of Christ is beyond our understanding, but we can know that no hell we may endure has not been felt by our Savior.   Familiar to all is David's shepherd psalm, which begins: "...

Isaiah stands above the prophets of the OT as an imposing figure.  The length of his prophesy and his tenure create a sense of greatness among the prophets.  The NT relies heavily on his prophetic utterances and the Orthodox OT readings favor his prophecies throughout Lent. Isaiah was born into the royal family (he was a cousin to the king of Judah).  It was during the reign of King Uzziah that his ministry began.  A vision of God launched his ministry and stamped his life with deep sense of God's majesty and his own unworthiness.  Out of this vision we see a glimmer of the throne of heaven and our own worship is shaped through this vision as we enter alongside the choir of angels and cry, "Holy,Holy,Holy!" Judea was under constant threat during Isaiah's life.  Assyria was on the rise and after their conquering the Northern Kingdom of Israel, this world power had its site set on Judea.  Through the miracle of God, Judea was spar...

Track 4 of the Biblical Odes is in the tiny book of Habakkuk. I've heard all kinds of pronunciations for this name. Some put the accent on the last, and it sounds like "have-a-Cook", the Greeks transformed it to Avakoum, and my South Ga version sounds like "tobacco" with an "H". I love these "minor" prophets. Maybe it's the impulse to support the underdog. Habakkuk only has 3 chapters but a big message and he's in a part of the Bible where our pages are still stuck together. Here's some background on Habakkuk. He was from the tribe of Simeon living 600 years before Christ during the reign of the evil Judean king Manasseh. In this short book, he foretells the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Habakkuk begins by complaining of his own personal trials, which are a legitimate concern because he was a righteous man living in the midst of pagan depravity. In the midst of his own personal p...

Long ago, barrenness was always seen as a curse. In ancient times progeny was a sign of blessing and a hope of establishing the parent’s memory beyond the grave. So to be childless was to be feared. Barrenness humbled to the lower rungs of society. Such a woman was Hannah. She was the wife of Elkanah and shared him with a second wife. Elkanah's second wife bore him children, but Hannah remained barren. Hannah was ridiculed by the other wife because of her childlessness. The family took an annual trip to the Israelite place of worship. During this trip, Hannah cried out to God in her sorrow, and begged for her humiliation to be removed. Her weeping was so deep that her lips moved before God but no sound was heard. This display caused the resident priest, Eli, to accuse her of drunkenness. She revealed her heart to Eli, and spoke of the prayer and vow she had made to the Lord. She had promised to give the child back to God, if He would give her a boy. Returning home...

Ode 2: The Song of Moses in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32:1-43) Of all the odes in our Biblical Soundtrack, this one only gets played during Great Lent, because it is primarily a song of r epentance. It is harsh and painful to read. Your mind starts swimming with images of judgment, death, and failure. Fear grips your heart at the abject failure of man and his continued rejection of God. Moses is preparing for death, and the people he has lead for 40 years are standing on the precipice of taking the land of promise. This land was their place of dreaming while slaves in Egypt and the ultimat e goal of their wilderness wanderings. Within a year of the Exodus, they had stood on the banks of the Jordan ready to take the promise and receive this inheritance, but they stumbled out of fear and faithlessness. Miracles abounded throughout the journey from Egypt , yet grumbling characterized most of their desert steps. Rather than embracing the promise of the God who rescued them fro...

Slavery is a distant memory for our culture and one we would like to forget. Yet it is no surprise that the American slaves embraced the images of the Exodus to provide hope and relief during their time of bondage. Sadly, slavery is still with us today but hidden among our neighborhoods and countries throughout the world. Today there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history. This is not metaphorical slavery but true captivity where people are treated as chattel and property and deprived of any outward freedoms. Louis Etongwe rescues people from slavery in Virginia and Maryland. This is not slavery from the old south but from modern America. His stories are harrowing, but touching as this modern day Moses delivers people from hidden enslavement. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/about/slavery/real-stories-from-north-america/ This modern story of slavery leads us directly into the first Biblical ode. Understanding the slaves of the American past and knowing ...

A Facebook friend and fellow Orthodox blogger is running an FB experiment. Each day he is posting a separate song that is part of his soundtrack for life. My guess is that much of this is tongue in cheek, but it is fascinating. This is something I could never do. For me, it would be like getting a tattoo; as soon as I made my decision public, I would be embarrassed by its level of uncool. Growing up in an age of tv, radio, & movies, most of us probably have songs that evoke deep memories. My soundtrack would be a strange mix of brit pop, movie soundtracks, 80's/90's CCM, early rap, and a college foray into grunge. I still hear "Eye of the Tiger" in my head whenever I motivate myself to start a running regimen every 3 years. Decades after hearing a song, I am amazed that I can still remember the words. Songs do have power. They have a way of entering the heart of man through the back door. The music, rhythm, and rhyme drop the rational defenses of the ...

Jonah is one of the most familiar Old Testament prophets. Although his book is not large in scale like Isaiah or Jeremiah, the story of Jonah is so engaging and even entertaining that it is told and retold. Most young children learn the story of Jonah early on in their religious education. Even within the life of the church, Jonah plays a significant role. His prayer in the belly of the great fish is Ode Six of the canonical odes that make up the matins canon. Also, the book as a whole is read on Holy Saturday. Unfortunately, the story of Jonah can become too familiar and therefore the Christian can lose sight of its meaning. The purpose of this essay is to explore the meaning of the book of Jonah. A brief summary of the book will be given, then the multiples themes that occur in the book will be discussed, and finally the overarching message will be examined. Jonah a prophet of the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Jeroboam II, was called by God to ...