(September 2004 Edition)
At the Lord's Table
The Book of Tehilim
Shalom aleheinu, brothers and sisters: may peace be among us.
As I was translating a document from Hebrew dating back to the British mandate in Israel for a sister in the meeting, I realised the importance of this greeting among Israelis. It has the meaning of bringing peace with you to a place, to a house, to a meeting or a group. Also I was reminded of this in translating the closure of the letter: shalom aleja, peace be with you.
My question to you is: do you feel this peace fulfilled in you this morning? Are you calm, in unison with others, pure and unique? Or are you stressed out, finishing a terrible week with the pressures of work, ill health, the house, the children?
So if, instead of saying Hi! or Hello! I say shalom aleheinu to you this morning, will that mean something to you? Are you really bringing peace with you to the Lord’s table today?
Trying
to explain
For those who have grown up in the Christadelphian belief and never have
had to encounter the difficulty of explaining to your family the change
of direction in life and the decision you have had to make, it may become
an easy part of your way of life. It is more difficult when your family
is Jewish, lives in Israel, and appears to have a unique dislike to anything
Christian. However last week I was determined to explain to my dad and
sisters in more detail my belief once and for all.
It all went horribly wrong from the beginning. We said our shalom aleheinu but then my sister told me of this ‘present’ she had purchased for me.
A tiny
gift
On arrival at her home she pulled out the gift, which apparently most
people in Israel, since the intifada and the bombings started, carry with
them. The gift? No other than the book of tehilim, yes, the book of the
Psalms. Here it is: a true pocket size (about 2cm X 1.5cm, around an inch
tall).
I think I am in need of glasses to read it, but she proceeded to tell me how important and meaningful it is to be Jewish. Then I had to face sharp disagreement from my brother-in-law, who is in the police force and a member of the team responsible for evacuating four Jewish settlements. Only two weeks ago he was beaten up by an angry orthodox Jewish group and then attacked by a Palestinian stone thrower within five minutes of each other! So you can say I faced some hostility when I tried to explain why I had become a Christadelphian!
Probably there was not a lot of shalom aleheinu at that time. But in one way or another, whether we appreciate it or not, God’s presence is always among us, offering and providing peace for us all.
At the
center of the Bible
Actually there is so much more to the tiny book of tehilim than merely
carrying it around to lessen our fear of suicide bombers, nor is it a
source of inspired proof texts with which to smite an adversary. This
book of Psalms is at the very center of the Bible. This great collection
of songs and prayers expresses the heart and soul of humanity. In them
the whole range of human experience is expressed. There are no clichés
in this book. Instead, David and others pour out their true feelings and
a longing to be at peace with themselves and with their God. They reflect
a dynamic, powerful, and life-changing friendship with God. In the Psalms,
the writer’s confess their sins, express their doubts and fears,
ask God for help in times of trouble, and praise and worship Him.
As you read this tiny book, you hear people crying out to God from the depths of despair. You hear them singing to Him in their ‘highs’ of celebration. But whether despairing or rejoicing, you will always hear them sharing honest feelings with God; and because of that, many of us have come again and again to the book of Psalms for comfort during times of struggle and distress.And we have risen from the depths of despair to new highs of joy and praise as we discovered the power of God’s everlasting love and forgiveness, and His true peace.
Trying
to tell the message
Sometimes we have difficulty telling the message. Again I failed my family,
and my only way out was to photocopy from my Hebrew Bible Isaiah 53, and
secretly leave it in my sister’s handbag.
Anywhere we go, or to anyone we meet, we must try to say shalom aleheinu – peace among us, peace in our hearts.
Living today is hard, and we are all inclined to read the small writing, but what about the big writing of God, written on the inside tablets of the heart, the peace which Jesus offers. After all, he died for us. He was at peace with himself. The last message for his followers before he went to the cross was: I have told you everything so that in me you also may have peace. That is wonderful. He said that at the supper table. So are we at peace with him and with each other as we meet here? Yes, that is what he wanted more than anything.
The
new Jerusalem
When my family left me, they said to me, as good Jews always do, Next
year in Jerusalem. That is funny, because they are already there. But
the city that is on their minds is the old Jerusalem where there is no
peace. Today, we are at peace with ourselves, so that we can get ready
for the new Jerusalem, wherein dwells righteousness. Jesus knew that you
cannot ever build true peace with walls and guided missiles. The prophet
Isaiah tells us that the fruit of righteousness is peace. That is God’s
way.
I hope that when my sister reads Isaiah 53, she will be able to open her eyes and heart to the prophetic words: the suffering that brought us peace was upon him, and ask herself the question which I asked and found the answer: Is not this the true Messiah?
So let me open this tiny book of tehilim, and read:
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you find assurance. May there be peace within your walls. For the sake of all my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you’ . Shalom aleheinu.
Mauricio Solodujin, An Israeli Christadelphian
There is something of a mystery about a man mentioned in the book of Ezra. His name was Sheshbazzar, which means ‘May Shin protect his father.’ Shin was a Babylonian moon god. He also had a nickname, Shenazzar, which means exactly the same thing. The likelihood is that you, dear reader, know nothing about him at all. Yet he was clearly a man of great importance in God’s purpose.
The most fascinating thing about Sheshbazzar, at least to me, is that, through God’s mercy and providence, he was a child begotten of love in a prison cell. He was born in the prison too, as was his brother Shealtiel, who was a direct ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s how his story goes.
The
background
Sheshbazzar’s grandfather was one of the worst kings who ever misruled
God’s people. The detestable things that he did are chronicled
in Scripture, and the Lord was not willing to forgive, especially the
shedding of innocent blood. He chopped up God’s word with a
penknife and threw it page by page into a brazier, until the entire scroll
was burned in the fire.
The thirty-six year old Jehoiakim (also called Eliakim) was a victim of his own arrogance. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. He didn’t get very far. The prophet Jeremiah had already prophesied his ghastly end: he will have the burial of a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem. It was not nice, but God had made it very clear through Moses, no one who has treated me with contempt will be saved and inherit the Kingdom. Treating God’s word with contempt, so Jesus tells us, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Although still only a teenager, Sheshbazzar’s father Jeconiah (also called Coniah or Jehoiachin) found himself nestled in cedar buildings – the House which Solomon had built as the royal palace four hundred years earlier. He was a very frightened man. His anxiety would not be lessened when the prophet Jeremiah told him: I will hand you over to those who seek your life. I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
Jeconiah
taken captive
The hapless Jeconiah reigned for three months and ten days, no more. The
time is ominously precise. He was only 18, and his queen was the same
age. Despite his youth, he had already begun to multiply wives and had
children. These were obviously mere babies, but they were flung out
of the palace by the Babylonian soldiers, and we do not hear of them again.
His junior wife or wives also disappear from the record.
The king and his mother, stripped and hurled around like common captives, endured the nine-week hike to Babylon. The beautiful eighteen-year old queen was subjected to special humiliation. All who honoured her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away. Jeconiah was put in prison. That’s where he stayed for the next 37 years.
Very mercifully, God spared the young queen from being taken into Nebuchadnezzar’s harem, which would have been her expected fate. She was to be an ancestress of the Lord Jesus, that is why. Another reason is that she deeply loved the husband of her youth, though I do wonder if he really deserved her love.
The
young queen spared
Even in this terrible, frightful situation God’s love was at work.
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his
compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Jeremiah described
the surviving elders among the exiles as like good figs. The
Lord said through the prophet, my eyes will watch over them for their
good, and will give them a heart to know me.
Soon after the melancholy procession had left Jerusalem, Jeremiah sent a letter to Babylon. The postman was Elasah son of Shaphan, a secret disciple of Jeremiah’s. His message included this advice: have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
These elders took Jeremiah’s comforting words and his advice seriously. They petitioned the government in Babylon and obtained permission for Jeconiah’s young queen to live with him in jail. She was eager to oblige. The happy events that ensued are recorded in the Chronicles: the sons of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) the captive: Shealtiel his son, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah.
Family
records found
The family ‘ration book’ – an official baked clay tablet
– has been dug up in Babylon. It indicates that she shared prison
life with her husband from the age of 18 until they both were 55. She
bore him five sons and several daughters before being pardoned at long
last by the Babylonian king Evil-Merodach. On this clay tablet in Babylonian,
the name of the fourth son is Sheshbazzar (Shenazzar). I am sure it must
have been a long wait, those 37 years, as they longed for the release
that Jeremiah had promised. They would surely empathize with us as we
wait for the times of refreshing and the redemption of our bodies.
Jeremiah could never have imagined that the fulfilment of God’s promises and the coming of the Great King, the LORD our Righteousness, of which he spoke so often, would depend on this despised object no one wants and his wretched discredited captive queen making love in their prison cell. But such are the inscrutable ways of the Almighty. We tend to generalize sinners and stereotype the wicked. God does not. He is not concerned with masses. His great love is poured out abundantly on this particular man and that individual woman, on you and me.
Release
from prison
At last the longed for day came. Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to
Jeconiah and his faithful wife. They were freed from prison. He gave Jeconiah
a seat of honour. They ate regularly at the king’s
table. The family got a regular allowance as exiles, but they had
to accept God’s will, as Jeremiah had spelled it out years before:
You will never come back to the land you long to return to. As
an involuntary exile myself, I can understand their heartache.
Sheshbazzar would have been a young man in his early twenties when his parents were released from prison. To the Jews he was hanasi, the prince, a representative of the ‘overturned’ Davidic line. Ezekiel, God’s prophet among the exiles was emphatic that he would never become king. The regal diadem of Israel would remain unworn until he comes to whom it rightfully belongs. In Jerusalem, Jeremiah also prophesied of the Righteous Branch: a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. This is the name by which he shall be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
Cyrus
encourages the return
Another 33 years went by. Sheshbazzar, now in his fifties, must have rejoiced
with other faithful Jews when Cyrus the Persian entered Babylon in triumph
and almost immediately decreed the Jews’ return to Zion. The 70
years captivity was over. For those, that is, who were willing and eager
to take advantage of God’s mercy. Many Jews were happy to forget
Jerusalem and stay in Babylon. Sheshbazzar was not one of them. He was
in a sense among the first Zionists.
He immediately accepted the tremendous responsibility resulting from Cyrus’ decree. Cyrus made him pechah, a term meaning governor of a minor province, which Judah was then. In the official language of the court, this title was Tirshatha.
One great day in Sheshbazzar’s life was when he was called to the big ziggurat (temple of Nebo) in Babylon. Mithredath, Cyrus’ royal treasurer, handed over to him five thousand gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar’s army had carried off from the temple in Jerusalem 70 years before. Just the metal alone would be worth 50 million US dollars in today’s terms, while to find even one of those vessels in an archaeological dig would be a discovery of priceless worth. Sheshbazzar joyfully took on the job of conveying this huge treasure back to the ruined city of David.
Exiles
return
When the first party of returning exiles arrived at the ruins of Jerusalem,
Sheshbazzar had another great day. As representative of the Persian crown,
protocol demanded that it was he who laid the foundation of the house
of God. Unfortunately, for a long time nothing was built upon that
foundation, but at least Sheshbazzar had shown the way.
There were some who claimed to be priests, but their birth certificates and family records had been lost in the captivity. So they could not provide proof. They were told by the governor not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim. This was the divine oracle within the High Priest’s breastplate that would present God’s infallible verdict on a matter.
Sadly, Sheshbazzar never lived to see that day. Hundreds of years were to elapse before Jesus, the great High Priest, suddenly came to his temple.
Sheshbazzar comes before us just once more. He must have been an old man by that time. Under the prodding of two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, reconstruction of the burned out shell of the temple in Jerusalem had begun and was progressing well. But his overlord Tattenai, the governor of the province of Trans-Euphrates, of which Judah was a small part, smelled rebellion and demanded to know who had authorized this work. King Darius of Persia was contacted, and there was a flurry of diplomacy. But God was blessing the work, and Tattenai was told in no uncertain terms: Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.
Sheshbazzar is an example of a man who, like Joseph, went from prison to the rulership, and who took very seriously the job of leading God’s people in difficult times, and from sadness to joy.
Mary Eyre
Bible references:
II Chronicles 36:8; II Kings 24:3-4; Jeremiah 36:22-25;
II Chronicles 36:6; Jeremiah 22:19; Numbers 14:23; Matthew 12:32; Jeremiah
22:23,28; Lamentations 1:8; Jeremiah 29:1-7; Jeremiah 24:1-7; Lamentations
3:22,23; I Chronicles 3:17; Acts 3:19; Romans 8:23; Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah
52:31-34; Jeremiah 22:27; Ezekiel 37:25; Ezekiel 21:25-27; Jeremiah 23:5-6;
Ezra 1:7-11; Ezra 5:14-16; Ezra 2:63; Malachi 3:1; Ezra 6:7; Ecclesiastes
4:14.