The War of 1812 began on this day, June 18th. The British had captured American ships and enslaved sailors. They incited Indians to capture Fort Mims, massacring 500 men, women and children. They captured the Capitol, burnt the White House, bombarded Fort McHenry and attacked New Orleans. Outraged, many volunteered for the Army, including Davy Crockett. In his declaration of war, President James Madison stated: “I… exhort all the… people of the United States… as they feel the wrongs… forced on them… [to] consult the best means under… Divine Providence of abridging its calamities.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

God
- the John Doe of philosophy and religion.
--- Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927

... from here, there and everywhere

19 A violent-tempered person will be punished;
if you try to save him from it, you make things worse.

20 Listen to advice, and accept discipline,
so that in the end you will be wise.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                         Don’t think now, take the road

     And Peter … walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. --- Matthew 14:29–30.

     The wind was actually boisterous, the waves were actually high, but Peter did not see them at first. He did not reckon with them, he simply recognized his Lord, and stepped out in recognition of Him and walked on the water. Then he began to reckon with the actual things, and down he went instantly. Why could not our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves as well as on the top of them? Neither could be done saving by recognition of the Lord Jesus.

     We step right out on God over some things, then self-consideration enters in and down we go. If you are recognizing your Lord, you have no business with where He engineers your circumstances. The actual things are, but immediately you look at them you are overwhelmed, you cannot recognize Jesus, and the rebuke comes: “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” Let actual circumstances be what they may, keep recognizing Jesus, maintain complete reliance on Him.

     If you debate for a second when God has spoken, it is all up. Never begin to say—‘Well, I wonder if He did speak?’ Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

For the first twenty years you are still growing
Bodily that is: as a poet, of course,
You are not born yet. It's the next ten
You cut your teeth on to emerge smirking
For your brash courtship of the muse.
You will take seriously those first affairs
With young poems, but no attachments
Formed then but come to shame you,
When love has changed to a grave service
Of a cold queen.

From forty on
You learn from the sharp cuts and jags
Of poems that have come to pieces
In your crude hands how to assemble
With more skill the arbitrary parts
Of ode or sonnet, while time fosters
A new impulse to conceal your wounds
From her and from a bold public,
Given to pry.

You are old now
As years reckon, but in that slower
World of the poet you are just coming
To sad manhood, knowing the smile
On her proud face is not for you.

R.S. Thomas

          here is a need for wine and a need for vinegar.

     BIBLE TEXT / Genesis 6:1–2 - When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, the divine beings saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and took wives from among those that pleased them.

     MIDRASH TEXT / Genesis Rabbah 26, 4 / When men began. Rabbi Simon said, “In three places it uses this language [הֵחֵל/hey-ḥale, “began”] to indicate rebellion, ‘It was then that men began to invoke the Lord by name’ (Genesis 4:26); ‘When men began to increase’ (6:1); and ‘Cush also begot Nimrod, who began to be the first man of might on earth’ ” (10:8, authors’ translation). An objection was raised: Is it not written “[If, as one people with one language for all,] this is how they have begun to act …”? He [Rabbi Simon] said to them, “He [God] smacked Nimrod on the head and said to them [the generation of the tower of Babel], ‘He is the one who incited them against me!’ ”

     To increase on earth. They used to spill their seed on the trees and stones, and because they were steeped in lust, He gave them many women, as it is written, “When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them.”

     The wife of Rabbi Shimon son of Rabbi bore a daughter. Rabbi Ḥiyya the Great saw him. He said to him, “The Holy One, praised is He, has began in bless you!” He [Rabbi Shimon] said to him, “From where do you know this?” He said, “As it is written, ‘When men began to increase on the earth and daughters were born to them.’ ” He [Rabbi Shimon] went to his father, who said to him, “Did the Babylonian [Rabbi Ḥiyya] offer you congratulations?” He [Rabbi Shimon] said, “Yes and this is what he said …” He [Rabbi] said to him, “Even though there is a need for wine and a need for vinegar, the need for wine is greater than that for vinegar. There is a need for wheat and a need for barley; the need for wheat is greater than that for barley. When a man marries off his daughter and incurs a lot of expenses, he says to her, ‘May there not be for you [a reason to] return here!’ ”

     CONTEXT / The Hebrew word הֵחֵל/hey-ḥale means “to begin.” Based upon its use in three contexts, the Rabbis see it as meaning not just “to start” but “to rebel—by beginning to deviate from precedent.” Humankind “began to rebel” by engaging in three types of sins: idolatry (referring to their idols as God); sexual immorality (through wanton promiscuity); and violence (Nimrod—whose name contains the same letters as the word מֶרֶד/mered, “rebellion”—is seen as a hunter and a man of war).

     The phrase “to increase” implies sexual activity. The words “on earth” are interpreted literally; men were ejaculating onto the ground. This sentence provided the Rabbis with the opportunity to state that at this early moment in history, men were sexually out of control. Their desires and lust were unchecked and led them to seek release and gratification at any time and in any place. The Bible then speaks of the “daughters of men” who were taken as wives. The Midrash understands this as the “remedy” to the “disease.” Women and marriage will help to channel male sexuality into a positive, socially accepted path.

     This is followed by two stories that open the discussion to the relative merits of men and women, or more precisely, boys and girls. The wife of Rabbi Shimon (son of “Rabbi,” Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi) gives birth to a girl. Rabbi Ḥiyya congratulates the father on having a daughter and tells him that now God has begun to bless him. (Note that the idea of “beginnings” ties back to the first paragraph of the Midrash!) However, Rabbi Shimon’s father, Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi, isn’t as enthusiastic as Rabbi Ḥiyya (“the Babylonian,” from his birthplace) about the worth of girls. In his pointed analogy, Rabbi grudgingly accepts the necessity of females, but likens them to vinegar, or barley, as opposed to the more desired wine or wheat. Daughters, apparently for economic reasons among others, were viewed as a burden by many men. (The cost of rearing a daughter and marrying her off was great. And then, her work potential was transferred from her own family to her husband’s.)

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. --- Hebrews 5:8

     There is a fifth light that flashes out before us. Classic Sermons on Suffering (Kregel Classic Sermons Series) It is the gift that suffering brings to character, the contribution trouble makes to the molding and shaping and beautifying of the soul. Even of Jesus it stands written that “he learned obedience from what he suffered.”

     It takes a world with trouble in it to make possible some of the finest qualities of life. You do not need to be an art connoisseur to realize that it is an essential of a good picture that in it there should be shadow as well as light. Now life is like that. If there were no risk and danger in life, where would fortitude and chivalry be? If there were no suffering, would there be compassion? If there were no discipline and hardship, would we ever learn patience and endurance?

     It takes a world with trouble in it to satisfy the human demand for a dangerous universe. The passion for adventure haunts the human spirit. There is that in us which craves risk.

     It takes a world with trouble in it to train people for their high calling as children of God and to carve on the soul the profile of Christ.

     Who are those whose names stand on the dramatic roll-call of the faithful in the Epistle to the Hebrews? Are they people whose days were happy and unclouded and serene? “They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated.… They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” That, declares the New Testament, has been in every age faith’s grim heredity! And it is not from sheltered ways and quiet, sequestered paths; it is from a thousand crosses that the cry ascends—“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns” (Rev. 19:6).
--- James S. Stewart

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     Expecting the day of the Lord

     Joel’s message to Judah (and to us) is reaching its conclusion. He has described the immediate “Day of the Lord,” the terrible plague of the locusts. This led to a description of the imminent “Day of the Lord,” the impending invasion of the northern army. All that remains is for him to describe the ultimate “Day of the Lord” when God will judge all the nations of the earth. “For the Day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen” (Obad. 15).

     Joel describes a sequence of events relating to this “great and terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31), what will happen before that day, during that day, and after that day.

     1. Before That Day: the Spirit Poured Out (Joel 2:28–32)

     In the Hebrew Scriptures, these five verses form chapter 3 of Joel’s prophecy; and chapter 4 in the Hebrew Scriptures is chapter 3 in the English Bible. The Jewish scholars who arranged the Old Testament Scriptures evidently thought that this paragraph was important enough to warrant a chapter by itself. However, now that we have a completed Bible, this important passage must be studied both in its Jewish context and in the context of the New Testament church.

     The Jewish context. The “afterward” in 2:28 refers to the events described in 2:18–27 when the Lord heals the nation after the Assyrian invasion. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean immediately afterward, for many centuries passed before the Spirit was poured out. When Peter quoted this verse in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit led him to interpret “afterward” to mean “in the last days” (Acts 2:17).

     “The last days” began with the ministry of Christ on earth (Heb. 1:2) and will conclude with “the Day of the Lord,” that period of worldwide judgment that is also called “the Tribulation” (Matt. 24:21, 29) and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7). Many students of prophecy think that this special time is detailed in Revelation 6–19, climaxing with the return of Christ to earth to deliver Israel and establish His kingdom (Isa. 2:2–5; Zech. 12–14; Rev. 19:11–20:6). (Note that the phrase “a thousand years” is used six times in Revelation 20:1–7. The Latin word for “thousand years” is millennium; it is used to describe the kingdom Jesus Christ will establish on earth in fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to Israel. However, some students prefer to “spiritualize” these promises and apply them to the church today, and these people are called amillennialists, meaning “no millennium.” Premillennialists are Christians who believe Jesus will return before the kingdom is established, for how can you have a kingdom without the King? There was a time when a postmillennial interpretation was popular: the church would “change the world” and “bring in the kingdom,” and then Jesus would return to reign. The wars and atrocities of this past century and the spread of apostasy in the church have pretty well done away with this optimistic outlook.)

     Joel promised that before the “Day of the Lord” begins, there will be a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit accompanied by signs in the heavens and on the earth. During the Old Testament era, the Holy Spirit was given only to special people who had special jobs to do, like Moses and the prophets (Num. 11:17), the judges (Jud. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29), and great men like David (1 Sam. 16:13). But the promise God gave through Joel declared that the Spirit will come upon “all flesh,” which includes men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile. “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32, NKJV; see Acts 2:39).

     The church context. In Acts 2, Peter did not say that Joel’s prophecy was being fulfilled. He said that the same Holy Spirit Joel wrote about (“this is that”) had now come and was empowering the believers to praise God in various languages understood by the Jews who were assembled in Jerusalem from many parts of the Roman Empire (Act 2:5–12). In his prophecy, Joel promised “wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.… The sun … turned into darkness, and the moon into blood” (Joel 2:30–31), but there is no record that any of these things occurred at Pentecost. The miracle that fascinated the crowd was the miracle of the tongues, not remarkable signs of nature. (Some say that the darkening of the sun from noon until three o’clock (Matt. 27:45) and the local earthquake (vv. 51–54) fulfilled Joel’s promise, but Matthew doesn’t say so. Invariably, when something happened that fulfilled Scripture, Matthew calls it to our attention (26:24, 56; 27:9, 35). At least twelve times in his Gospel, Matthew uses the word “fulfilled” to point to an Old Testament messianic prophecy, but he doesn’t include Joel 2:28–32.)

     Furthermore, Joel’s promise included a much wider audience than the one Peter addressed at Pentecost. Peter’s audience was made up of men (Acts 2:22, 29) who were either Jews or Gentile proselytes to Judaism (v. 11). The Gentiles didn’t enter into the blessing of the Spirit until Cornelius and his family and friends were converted (Acts 10–11). Peter used Joel’s prophecy to declare that the promised Spirit had come and this was why the believers, men and women (1:14), were praising God in such an ecstatic manner. Peter was answering the accusastion that the believers were drunk (2:13–16) and backing up his defense from the Scriptures. (In Scripture, you sometimes find “near” and “distant” fulfillments of God’s promises. The “near” fulfillment is partial, while the “distant” fulfillment is complete. In 2 Samuel 7, God promised to build David a house. The near fulfillment was the Davidic dynasty that ruled until Judah was exiled to Babylon. The distant fulfillment is found in Jesus Christ, the Son of David, whose reign shall never end (Luke 1:32–33).)

     When it comes to Israel, “the last days” (or “latter times”) will involve both tribulation and exaltation (Isa. 2:1–5; Micah 4:1–5), a time of trouble followed by a time of triumph and glory. As far as the church is concerned, “the last days” involve “perilous times” of satanic opposition in the world and apostasy in the church (1 Tim. 4:1–5; 2 Tim. 3:1–8; 2 Peter 3:1–9; 1 John 2:18–23; Jude 18–19). Many Christians believe that during those trying “last days,” the Lord will send a great moving of his Spirit, and many sinners will turn to the Savior before the awful “Day of the Lord” is ushered in.

     Certainly the church today needs a new filling of the Spirit of God. Apart from the ministry of the Spirit, believers can’t witness with power (Acts 1:8), understand the Scriptures (John 16:13), glorify Christ (v. 14), pray in the will of God (Rom. 8:26–27), or develop Christian character (Gal. 5:22–23). We need to be praying for revival, a deeper working of the Spirit in His people, leading to confession of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and unity.

W. W. Wiersbe, (1996) Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship (The BE Series Commentary)