So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
- Genesis 11:8-9
So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”
The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
- Numbers 12:13-16
And Saul approved of their killing him.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.
- Acts 8:1-5
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Acts 1:7-8
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life. Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’ She was not human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant. Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs. After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.
This Week’s Question
In the last episode, Babs looked back at the craziness of the holidays and how it was far from a religious observance. Now, we were back on the road, and Babs was perky. She even sang “On the Road Again.”
I asked, “And why are you so happy that we are on the road again?”
Babs bubbled, “I am your travel buddy. You felt at home when you were home, but I wanted to go. I do not know why you like it at home. Your neighbors do not like you very much. That neighbor across the street has a spy camera pointed at your house.”
I corrected her, or so I thought, “No, that is a security camera to catch prowlers coming into his yard.”
She scrunched her nose, “Nope, it is pointed at your house, and he makes note of everyone that comes and goes. I think he’s a bit creepy. But now that we are on the road, I can share Jesus with people I do not even know.”
I mused, “And for the next few months, they may return the favor. The southeast United States used to be called the Bible Belt, but these days the Bible Belt is more of a rotting cloth belt with a lot of holes in it. Yet, you will find less people who are offended if you say “Praise the Lord” or “I’ll pray for you.”
Babs shook her head, “That’s one that bothers me. Why should anyone be offended if you say that you will pray for them. If there is no God, then I am wasting my time. But God is real, and praying for them is a good thing.”
I chuckled, “Not if they want to go on sinning and they do not want God messing with their plans.”
Babs groaned, “Yes, there is that. But being on the road seems the right thing to do. God always wanted people to spread out and have dominion over the earth, but then people kept congregating in one spot.”
I knew, but I wanted her to lead the Bible study. “What do you mean by that?”
Babs shrugged, “It started with the Tower of Babel. They were all in one city, all the descendants of Noah, or at least almost all of them. Then, the scrambling of their languages caused them to scatter. They not only did not scatter on their own, they tried to build a tower up into the heavens to show how wonderful they were.”
I shrugged, “Sure that’s one situation, do you have any other examples?”
Babs smiled and nodded, “The believers in the Way were concentrated in and around Jerusalem. But when Stephen was stoned and Saul started going house to house to throw people into prison, the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem, but most of the believers scattered all over Judea and Samaria. Even some of the deacons scattered. God used Philip in a mighty way to spread the Gospel. But that is what Jesus commanded just before He ascended into Heaven. He said to go to the ends of the earth.”
“That phrase, the ends of the earth, that seems strange. The earth is round.” I mused.
Babs sighed, “But, Harold, if you were to walk west in Europe, you get to the Atlantic Ocean. You might think that is the end of the earth.”
“But we know that there was land beyond the ocean, and those people were not getting the Gospel preached to them. The same thing if we walked east. We would get to the Pacific Ocean, but then, there was land and people beyond that. Wow! A lot of land when you consider all those tiny islands.”
Babs made a Bronx cheer. “You are messing with me, aren’t you?”
I snickered, “A little bit. The people in biblical times probably thought the earth was flat, but we do not really know. The point of our east/west argument could be settled in that you get in a boat and keep going and when you reach your friend coming the other direction, you might say you have gotten to the end. But then, on our little trip to the ends of the USA, we are going south to an interstate that takes us east. To compare that to the human body, we’ll use this interstate as our artery to the east. We’ll go to customers all along the way. Then we’ll go south along the Atlantic Coast. When we reach Orlando, Florida, we’ll attend a convention. There will be so many people for you to meet there. Then we’ll travel up to another east/west interstate that is further south from the one we will take first. We will take that vein back west, but although I see all my customers, there are parts of the USA that we will miss between those interstates. Within the year, you will see all forty-eight contiguous states, but there will be a lot of small places that we miss. Someone could call those places an end of the earth, right?”
Babs scrunched her nose, “Absolutely! If there is any place that has not heard about Jesus, that could be an end of the earth as far as what Jesus was talking about.”
I continued with the travel plans. “When we get back to this interstate, we will have to decide to go back north to Tracy or keep going. I think you want to keep going west, don’t you?”
Babs nodded, “I sure do! I want to see as much of this country as I can and as many people as I can, and when we get to the end of an interstate, it’s never the end, because we just get on another road. But if you have some illness, we can stop back in Tracy. I’m ‘other living.’ I’ll be fine, but you never know when you might get leprosy.”
I nearly swerved off the road. “Leprosy?!”
“Like Miriam, the sister of Moses. She was healed, but they had to stay put until she was clean for seven days. It talked about that in Numbers 12.”
I nodded, “Okay, Babs, I’ll make a deal with you. I won’t argue that I can run this expedition any better than Moses could and rebel against God’s chosen leader, and you don’t bring up any talk about me getting leprosy. Okay?!”
Babs giggled, “Okay, Harold, and I like the way you flipped the discussion this time. I saw what you did.”
I played innocent, “What did I do?”
Still giggling, she said, “You had me come up with the Bible references, instead of you laying out the Bible study. But you’re not off the hook. You must teach me something when we get to a hotel tonight. Deal?”
I smiled, “Deal!”
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
Here is the Willie Nelson hit, On the Road Again.
H. L. Menkin is credited with coining the phrase “Bible Belt” in an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1924. It refers to those parts of the USA that are more apt to live according to strong religious conviction (mostly Christian since the word “Bible” is part of the phrase). Other countries have picked up this phrase for regions in their country. I grew up in Mississippi, definitely in the Bible Belt, but as the big cities get bigger and the population gets mixed with people outside the Bible Belt, there is not that overall cultural norm of discussing the Sunday school lesson while at work Monday morning (even though your co-workers went to a different church studying a different part of the Bible – and note how all the adults were expected to be in Sunday school), at least not as much as there used to be.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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