Rambling thoughts

She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."

"Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman."

Judges 4:8-9

It's a pretty straight forward passage, but I'm certain there was more to that conversation between Deborah and Barak then just that. I'm pretty sure Barak was more than a bit skeptical that Deborah had heard the voice of God. He doubted that what she said would work, that if he did follow what Deborah said, he and his men would be annihialated. He doesn't say that, but his response shows his lack of faith. Deborah can see it plainly, and agrees to his terms, but because of his weak faith, God will hand the glory of the victory to a woman. But reading it through the first time, I glossed over the facts and didn't catch any of the undertones.

I think sometimes we have a hard time relating to whats being said in the bible because it doesn't impact us, they're just words on a page, recounting something that happened long ago and far away. Many times, I read the Bible from a detached, clinical point of view, trying to get something out of it... looking for that golden nugget of the day to apply. I forget that these were real people going through a real, and intense situations... and it loses its impact and relevancy to me.

The words on the page tell you what happened, but they don't quite convey fully the emotions, thoughts and feelings that the people are going through. It's hard to describe, I think it like Mel Gibsons "The Passion of Christ". Sure, we know that Jesus suffered and died on the Cross for our sins. But its still a fairly abstract concept we know, but the full impact those words don't hit you until you see it, in the movie, of Jesus, hanging nailed up by his hands, bleeding to slowly to death, his face contorted in excruciating pain. And that the reason He is there is because of us, and our sins, because He loved us that much. Hard to picture that when just reading it as words on a page.

I guess what I'm saying is that we(me) need to not just read the words on the page, but also to what those words say; about God, about man, man's relationship to God, etc.(exactly what the speaker at the ttic/basic retreat was talking about!). If we(I) don't do this more, we won't be impacted by Gods word and it will just be words on page, not words that change our lives. Bleh, that's about the gist of what was on my mind, so i'll stop rambling now.