The Old Testament: The Books of Zephaniah and Haggai – As Original as a Summer Blockbuster

Posted on August 15, 2013 by virgowriter

The Old Testament: The Books of Zephaniah and Haggai – As Original as a Summer Blockbuster

I’m a big movie buff. I should say film buff because film connotes better quality than a “movie.” There is snobbery in this difference, but if you have studied film, you appreciate a difference in the level of craft, most particularly in terms of story and character development. Given this, I dial my expectations down in the summer months, and whenever the summer movie trailers start rolling, I’m reminded why: all these films tend to have massive amounts of explosions, high levels of testosterone, and very little concern for story, or at least an original story. Oh look, another Roland Emmerich film where the White House gets blown up!

At some point, you just want to see something new, fresh.

As the Old Testament winds down, I felt this same feeling as I read both the Book of Zephaniah and the Book of Haggai. These two short books don’t cover all that much, especially new material.

Zephaniah prophesizes on the judgment coming Judah’s way and about the bad priests who are going to be cut down. Israel’s enemies also need to watch out: he provides a long list of those who are screwed (2). Given how much I have heard about the extent to which the Old Testament was edited over time—some books kept, some cut, etc.—I wonder why they held on to these. No disrespect, but the one fresh idea seems to be that the meek and humble shall inherit Jerusalem (3). I wish this idea would have been explored more, as it values good qualities.

In his book, Haggai, speaking after the Israelites have returned from exile to rebuild Jerusalem, commands God’s Temple to be rebuilt (1). Now the new Temple sounds plush (and apparently it never actually gets rebuilt, which is interesting), but what does it add? It’s nice that he foretells of the future glory of this Temple (2), and perhaps this is the point, that this glory will not be realized.

I can appreciate coming at a story from several different angles—and perhaps that is the reason the Bible contains so many different takes on the same foretelling of Jerusalem’s destruction, the rebuilding of Jerusalem after exile—but alternate points of view tend to add fresh insight. If the new take doesn’t offer a different way of looking at events (think of the different versions of events used in the classic Japanese film Rashomon), they don’t seem necessary. But maybe if you only encounter one of the Bible books, perhaps it serves its purpose?

After all, there are people this summer who will watch both Olympus Has Fallen (released in the spring but still acts like a summer flick) and White House Down. These movies both explore what would happen when there’s a terrorist attack on the White House. Perhaps these movies are vastly different for some people, but I’m not one of them. Maybe they’re both entertaining, but do we need them both?

 

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The Old Testament: The Book of Habakkuk – Pay Attention to Injustice, See How Law Is Paralyzed

Posted on August 12, 2013 by virgowriter

I was accident-prone as a kid. While touring the water around Balboa Island, I had my thumb shattered in the boat’s bathroom door (long story).  Anyway, once the boat’s captain was convinced to turn the boat around, my parents got me to the emergency room.  There, a specialist—apparently wounded thumbs are a big deal—went to work on injury. With my dad beside me, this doctor thought it would be a good idea for me to watch him while he worked the needle in and out of the three places on my thumb that required attention.  I don’t know exactly what had to be done but I know I required a lot of stitches.

When prodded to pay attention to the procedure…Um, no thanks.

I’m squeamish on my best days.  I hate the sight of blood in general and the sight of my own blood even more.  Furthermore, I don’t like to see the person causing my body pain (even well-intentioned doctors) smiling and reassuring me. Wanting it to be over as fast as possible, I would even prefer to be unconscious while the doctor works.

For whatever reasons, I did look.  Watching this guy work made the pain tolerable.  In seeing what he was doing where, I understood—through a four-year-old’s capability—the sensations better.  This dulled the pain (and fear) I experienced.

Sometimes it’s best to look into, not away from the problem you’re having, for this is how you can understand something in order to deal with it best.

This same concept is probably what God had in mind when, in the Book of Habakkuk, he wants everyone to see the injustice all around them. If you see, you recognize, and then are able to do something about it.

But why this happens is a mystery to some. Addressing God directly, Habakkuk wants to know why he (and perhaps others) is made to look at injustice.  In addition, he isn’t sure if God can see how the law is paralyzed to anything about this situation (1:3-4).

Habakkuk’s point may not be why does he have to see—his issue may be why is it there in the first place?  However, the way his complaints are phrased, it’s hard to miss what might be the reason Habakkuk overlooks: You need to be able to recognize a problem in order to handle it.

God says to be patient, he’s getting to it. So of course things will get fixed. But there is a lesson to be learned in the meantime, right?

If you’ve ever had stitches or some uncomfortable procedure for which you have the misfortune of being conscious, you know that time seems to crawl.  You might think the doctor is close to being done but in reality has only finished the first stitch.

But if you close your eyes or look away, you’re in the dark, and your mind has to fill in what’s happening. If you can stomach paying attention, you’ll know what’s going on, and this might not make you feel good but at least you’ll have some understanding. Perhaps the issue with Habakkuk is that he should have turned his attention to his community and got them to pay attention, to stop looking away, and then maybe things would have changed.

The one benefit of the time it takes to get stitches done right is that you tend to remember the procedure well. Or at least well enough to think before you’re in position where you might need them again. But of course, if you’ve never been hurt, you don’t know this lesson.

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The Old Testament: The Book of Nahum: Respect the Land

Posted on August 10, 2013 by virgowriter

Documentaries can be dull for several reasons.  You usually have to care about the particular subject explored (like how our food industry has been tainted (in Food, Inc.) or why there has not been more wide spread innovation in the electric car industry (Who Killed the Electric Car?). Part of the problem is that given the nature of the genre, these films tend to avoid things that makes stories interesting, things like characters and plots. The ones that do incorporate elements of story can find a large audience—March of the Penguins, anyone?

Generally, documentaries are designed to inform first and entertain second.

A good documentary offers a point of view on a socially relevant topic. Thinking about what informs the filmmaker’s point of view is important, for that dictates the info that gets interpreted and integrated into the film’s message. The best documentaries appear open-minded and explore content with integrity, vetting their sources and avoiding grandstanding (where possible).

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices is one of the good ones. (Watch the entire film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jazb24Q2s94).

As demonstrated by his ideas in the Book of Nahum, prophet Nahum would have loved it.

The film takes a hard look at Walmart’s business practices and their negative effects on the communities in which they operate (and to the country at large). One of the startling facts uncovered is the way Walmart leverages its power to secure tax breaks (for ten years, for example) in a town, arguing that their job creation is in the community’s best interest. Who doesn’t want jobs, right?

So the store gets built.

When the ten year tax gift expires and the community can finally collect on the business taxes, Walmart pulls up stakes and, in its wake, leaves an abandoned store and parking lot, often relocating to the next town over, where they can enjoy a new ten-year tax break.  This abhorrent, though legal, practice has created a lot of abandoned buildings.  As the film discusses, there were over 27 million square feet of abandoned Walmart store space around the U.S.

Nothing like using the land, draining it, and then moving on.

Turns out this practice of abusing the land (and communities) for profit is nothing new. In the Book of Nahum, the prophet Nahum chastises the great city of Nineveh and its merchants, who have stripped the land for all its uses and then fled (3:16).

During this era, the city of Nineveh thought it was untouchable; a society above reproach, one that believed it could conduct itself any way it saw fit. This explains their attitude to how the land was used, apparently. But Nahum has a warning: Thebes, the former capital of Upper Egypt that also believed itself bad-ass, was brought down. So to, then, can Nineveh fall.

The key here is how you respect what you have and show some humility.

Thus the real lesson in this book is one that is fairly relevant for us today: we too live in a land of prosperity and we, as a nation, pay little mind to the impact our actions have, allowing unfettered use of resources by a select amount of corporations (like WalMart). I wouldn’t wait for God to intervene, though.  No, we should take the time to learn from past mistakes and course correct so that we move forward in a way that respects the world in which we live and the people with which we share it.

 

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