FdD Notebook No. 30 – 3/25/26

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Bonjour chers lecteurs,

We are living a new adventure this week with the arrival yesterday of Titus’s Italian exchange partner, Tommaso. He came with his class to spend a week in Aix-en-Provence. Each Italian student is staying in the home of a French student, like Titus, and in a month it will be the French students’ turn to go spend a week in Italy. The other kids were enthusiastic in welcoming him (during the entire dinner, Benjamin kept repeating “Hi Tommaso”), and although it’s a bit of a squeeze in our little apartment, we are confident that it’s going to be a wonderful experience for all of us.

The other big event for the week is an “Ask the Christians anything” night taking place at the Faculté Jean Calvin this evening. It will be Yannick Imbert, professor of apologetics, and myself who will be answering the questions. We would appreciate your prayers that many students would come and that the Spirit would give us to be able clearly communicate the truth of Jesus Christ.

“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

There are at least two ways to understand the relationship between the condition (if you believe) and the result (you will see the glory) in this statement:

(1) If you believe, Jesus will perform a miracle because of your faith, and you will see this manifestation of the glory of God.

(2) If you believe, you will see the glory of God in the miracle Jesus is about to perform, whether you believe or not.

There are several other passages in the Gospels that seem to go well with the first option:

Matthew 9:28-29 – When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”

Matthew 9:2 – And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

Mark 6:5-6 – And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.

On the other hand, there are other texts where Jesus performs miracles for people in the absence of their faith:

Mark 4:39-40 – And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

John 5:6-8, 13 – When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” […] Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was.

And in fact, the second option is theologically satisfying in several respects. We know that Jesus is going to raise Lazarus even though no one expected it. And we have several examples of people who witnessed his miracles without perceiving the glory of God in them. Judas saw them all without ever understanding who Jesus was, and the Pharisees preferred to attribute them to Beelzebul rather than to God (Luke 11:15). Even the resurrection of Lazarus fails to touch those who have not received grace to see the glory of God in it:

John 11:45-46 – Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So is it the second option, then, that Jesus means in John 11:40? I’m not sure, and I wonder whether it might not be a combination of the two. Martha objects to the opening of the tomb because she’s thinking in a purely human way, and Jesus wants her to trust him and to expect to see manifestations of the glory of God. She needs to (1) not prevent him from performing the miracle by refusing to open the tomb, and (2) not limit or forget the power of God in the way she sees things. And from every angle, the problem remains the same — and it’s the same one we often have — a human habit of leaving God out of our calculations, assuming that he is not active in this world or that he will not act for us in our circumstances. It is in response to this kind of unbelief that Jesus says, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.”

~

Read Chapter 1

The great feast was repeated on the anniversary of the first one. Tovah directed the ceremony with three-month old Gibbor on her arm. He was big for his age and active, and his mother’s pride in the son she had born to Malakh was immeasurable.

The following week, Tovah’s happy peace was shattered by the passage of a traveller just come from Havilah. He brought the news that a maiden of that city, Tsereh by name, was pregnant by a God who had appeared to her in the form of a blue serpent as she was bathing in a forest stream. Jealous fury consumed Tovah’s entire soul, and the only thought that could bring her the least comfort was that of bringing about the death of Tsereh. In her dreams she killed her rival a hundred different ways, and by day all her thought was bent toward schemes to bring about war between Raamah and Havilah.

Two months later her chance came, and she hired an assassin to murder her father’s chief counselor while he was visiting Havilah. Of course she assured her father that the anger of Malakh burned against Havilah, and that he would surely give success to their army. And so, with satisfaction, Tovah watched the men of Raamah march off to war.

Within three days the report of total victory returned to Raamah. All the men of Havilah had been killed or scattered, the women and children captured, the city burned. However, in the days that followed, despite her many inquiries, Tovah could not find out that Tsereh had either died or been captured. Surely she must have perished, either in the destruction of the city or in wandering in the wilderness. Still, doubt gnawed at her even as there was nothing else to be done about the matter.

~

At fourteen years old, Gibbor was as big as any man in the city, and stronger than any two of them put together. Restlessness drove him often from the city for days at a time where he would hunt and explore, sometimes taking two or three other boys with him. Once he overheard the herdsmen speaking in hushed tones of an enormous tiger that would come into the herd and carry off any animal it chose, even during the day. The next morning Tovah woke to find the tiger’s pelt proudly tacked up to the front wall of the house.

The following year the rumor went out about a gang of vicious brigands way-laying travelers on the Sabteca road. Tovah hurried to find Gibbor to forbid him to leave the city, but he was already gone. For three days, she did not leave the temple, tasting nothing, praying day and night for her son’s safe return. On the fourth day at sunrise, Gibbor entered the city to shouts of astonishment and presented to his grandfather the six heads of the brigands. From then on in Raamah whenever anything needed to be done which wanted courage or strength or cunning, every eye looked to Gibbor.

~

Some years later, the time came for the old king to go the way of all flesh. Gibbor was on a journey at the time, and Nimhor, the eldest of the king’s surviving sons sat on his father’s seat in the king’s hall. A week later when Gibbor returned, he stormed into the hall and demanded the kingship for himself. Tovah too, standing at his side, urged her brother, “My son is the son of our great God Malakh. You have no right to deny him what he seeks.”

“No right, sister? Who is this fellow? He is no son of our father Javan. I am the son of Javan and heir to all that was his. Tell your bastard boy to leave my hall before something bad happens to him.”

Gibbor made an enraged sound in his throat and moved toward Nimhor. Hastily, two guards with spears stepped in front to shield their lord. Gibbor smiled mockingly, and then in a movement that the eye could not follow, he snatched one guard’s spear and slew the other with it. The first guard fled, and Tovah shrieked as Gibbor grabbed Nimhor by the shoulders and savagely head-butted his face. Letting the lifeless body crumple to the ground, he turned to his mother, his face radiating joy, “You warned him, mother, didn’t you.”

~

Gibbor was now king of Raamah, with ambition to be even greater. He set out to bring other cities under his dominion, starting with Pi-Hagihon. This was quickly accomplished, and as the spoils came into Raamah, the people began to think of the abundance of gold and silver and slaves that would soon be theirs thanks to their new king. Flush with confidence, the army soon departed in the direction of Sabteca.

That night, Tovah was trimming lamps in the temple under the watchful stone eyes of Malakh, when she began to hear some distant sound. Was it singing with instruments? The sound grew nearer and turned into a cry of alarm.

“Enemies! Enemies within the gate!”

Rushing to the door of the temple, she looked out into the square. Some few people ran here and there as the clangs and yells slowly worked their way up the hill. Tovah stood frozen in the doorway. What was the use of running? There was nowhere to flee.

Torchlight appeared, flickering in one of the streets, and then the raiders burst into the square. One of them seemed enormous, and for a fleeting moment she almost thought it was Gibbor. They spotted her and the temple, and rushed forward as she sank to her knees. Then they were all around her, and a woman stepped forward, looking down at Tovah with vengeful delight.

“So this is the priestess of Malakh.”

Tovah looked up at her questioningly.

“Your service is finished. Give me your ornaments.”

Tovah clutched at the gold snake pendant she had worn so long, but the woman struck her across the face, and she fell to the ground. The men took the pendant from her and the rings she was wearing, and Tovah looked up again to see the woman placing the pendant around her own neck.

“I am the priestess of Malakh now, and I shall serve him in this house.” Looking down at Tovah she added, “After all, I too have born him a son.”

“Tsereh,” breathed Tovah.

“Yes. We are the survivors of Havilah, and this is the son that I bore to Malakh, Ben-Hanahash. Many years have we longed to exact our revenge on Raamah, and now at last…” She sighed in triumph. Then, considering Tovah for a moment, she gave a command. “Take this one out and tie her to a tree. Let her God decide her fate.”

~

All that night and all the next day Tovah cried out to Malakh, weeping and imploring him to come. They had left her in the very clearing where she had first met the serpent God, and it seemed somehow inevitable that he should reappear exactly where she had seen him before. But no one came, and finally exhaustion overcame her, and she fell asleep.

Tovah woke to find a slave woman working hard to undo the knots that bound her to the tree. The woman looked up briefly and Tovah recognized with a shock the face of her sister.

“Shifhah?”

“Not so loud, yes it’s me.” As Shifhah struggled with the bonds she explained. “The Havilim have taken the city for themselves, and we are all their slaves. I heard what happened to you, and I slipped out here to help you. Told the gate guards I had been sent on an errand… oof, that’s got it.”

The rope ends came loose, and as the coils unwound, Tovah fell to the ground, her limbs completely numb.

“I’ve got some bread here for you. You can hide in the forest. It won’t be long now before your son comes back with my husband and all the men. They’ll send these accursed brigands to a bad end.”

Tovah managed to sit up and take the bread from her sister’s hand.

“I’ve got to get back. It’s probably already a beating for me.”

~

Tovah hid in the forest ten days. One other time Shifhah was able to bring her some more bread. There was a creek for water, and she found a few berries besides. Mostly she sat at the edge of the clearing, twisting and untwisting her hair to the rhythm of the anxious thoughts chasing themselves round and round and round again.

Evening shadows were lengthening on the tenth day when Shifhah reappeared, hurrying through the clearing, looking fearfully over her shoulder.

“Tovah,” she cried, grasping her sister’s shoulders and trying to catch her breath. “The men returned… this morning… oh Tovah…. they were ambushed… in the gate.”

“Gibbor!?”

The pain in Shifhah’s eyes was all too clear. “He is dead my sister, along with my husband and all the men. Their bodies are hanging on the city wall.”

Falling to her knees, Tovah tore her robe and wailed. Her soul was a fountain of agony bursting forth in wretched sobs as she rocked back and forth. Shifhah took her in her arms, holding her head against her chest. Only for a moment, then she spoke urgently into her ear.

“Tovah, you must flee. You must run away from here, Tovah, there is nothing left for you. Go far away and live and carry the memory of our family with you.”

Tovah looked in Shifhah’s eyes. “What did I do wrong? What did I do to displease him? Why is he letting this happen to us?”

“Who knows, Tovah? He is a God. They do not really care for us you know.”

“No but I must have done something. I must have dishonored him. Oh, if only I had known. I would have done anything to appease him. If only I had died and he had lived!” Fresh sobs burst forth and she buried her face in the ground.

“Tovah, it’s no use. Let me have this one comfort, to know that you are alive and safely away from here. I must go back now. Do not delay, my sister, once I am gone. You must flee tonight.”

~

Tovah could not flee that night. She had to see for herself. Silently in the dark, she crept up to the wall. There he hung, his hands suspended, his head limp on his chest. Such a fine, handsome son. Tovah gazed and drank her pain in deep draughts. For hours she stood, looking silently, unable to break her eyes from the horrible corpse, unwilling to leave the child of her womb.

Only when the eastern sky paled did she come to herself. Then panic seized her, and she fled into the woods, running as the antelope before the wolves.

~

When Tovah could run no further, she collapsed and slept where she was. Waking again, she continued her way, neither knowing nor caring where her feet took her. After three days she came out of the forest into a land of grassy rolling hills. For three more days she journeyed, sleeping when too tired to walk, rising and moving when too cold to lie still.

On the third day her drooping eyes failed to notice the gathering clouds before the first drops smote her face. Looking quickly up and clutching her torn robe to her chest she peered anxiously around for any kind of shelter. The empty hills offered her nothing, not so much as a gorse bush. And now the rain poured down in earnest, soaking and chilling her to the marrow of her bones. Grey walls of water closed in around her, and finally giving up the fight, Tovah curled up on the ground and waited for death.

~~~

Who wants to go for a ride?!

~

On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:2