“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.
- Judges 5:6
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
- Genesis 12:6
“Be silent before me, you islands!
Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
let us meet together at the place of judgment.
“Who has stirred up one from the east,
calling him in righteousness to his service?
He hands nations over to him
and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
to windblown chaff with his bow.
He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
by a path his feet have not traveled before.
- Isaiah 41:1-3
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evildoers.
Avoid it, do not travel on it;
turn from it and go on your way.
For they cannot rest until they do evil;
they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
They eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
- Proverbs 4:14-17
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
- Luke 9:58
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
- Psalm 91:11-13
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 a 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 was thirsty. But then she had a problem with drinking too much too fast. The next morning, she was not responding to my usual requests for her to get ready. Time was of the essence. I had an early afternoon sales call, and we had a few hours of travelling to get there.
Babs moaned, “I do not want to get out of bed, Harold. I am warm and comfy. This bed is just the right amount of firmness. Can we just forget one little sales call and stay here a few more hours?”
I added, “And as long as we stay here, you do not have to worry about your bladder issues. You know, when you first became animated, you never got thirsty and I doubt if you were aware that you even had a bladder.”
Babs growled, “There you go again! Making fun of my ‘other living’ status. I told you yesterday that Jesus never changes, but I constantly change. Okay, OKAY! I am getting up. But you are going to have to teach me about why we are doing all this travelling.”
I replied, “And you are going to have to get ready quickly. I do not want to have to speed down the highway.” Then I noticed what she had worn to bed. “Wow! Babs, I have not seen you in your naughty lingerie for months. Thanks for sewing washcloths to cover the intimate places.”
Babs giggled, “You bought me the washcloths. Besides, I am wearing this to let you know we need a non-travel day. I only have one clean T-shirt and the last set of boxers. But I will admit, the lingerie gets me into that ‘sleep-all-day’ mode.”
I shook my head. Just a few weeks ago, she was pleased that we were back on the road. But it was good that after this afternoon’s sales call, we could stay at the hotel all day and we could get caught up on laundry. Babs changed clothes in the bathroom, and we had a quick breakfast on our way to the car.
As we pulled onto the interstate highway, she asked, “Is this going to be another winding path or will this be a highway with plenty of public restrooms?”
I snickered, “We were on the major highway yesterday, but we were travelling through the mountains. In a few months, you will see bigger mountains, but the mountains yesterday were not well populated. Not many exits and not many gas stations when we reached those exits. Today, we are past that. We will take a few by-passes just to avoid the heavy traffic in the cities, okay?”
Babs sighed, “Just as long as there are restrooms.”
I laughed, “But Babs, it sounded like you were quoting some of Deborah’s song in Judges 5. Who was the judge when the people of Israel avoided the highway and took the winding roads instead?”
“Wow! You asked a tricky question this time.” Babs scrunched her nose for a couple of minutes. “Oh, I get it! During the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael.”
I smiled, “And what do we know about Shamgar?”
She giggled, “He is only mentioned twice in the Bible. He killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad. Maybe he would have done better if he had a real weapon. And then, Deborah mentions him in her song, since Shamgar had been the judge prior to her being the judge. And before you ask, Jael is the wife of Heber and she killed the commander of the enemy army by driving a tent peg through his head. She killed the army leader instead of Barak, who was the Israelite army leader. And that was because he refused to go into battle unless Deborah came along. See! I remember things.” She stuck an index finger in her ear and looked at me cross-eyed. After she quit giggling, “So, the Israelites took the backroads to avoid their enemies?”
I nodded, “Yeah, the judge might cause the enemy to retreat. The judge might destroy one enemy, but the Israelites at that time were more a collection of twelve tribes rather than one nation. And all twelve tribes fell short of what God wanted for them. They sinned. Their long travel days might be behind them, but then they still had people within their borders that would cause them harm. God had commanded them to remove those people.”
Babs nodded, “But where did all this travelling start for the Chosen People?”
“How about Abraham?” I suggested. “His father left Ur of the Chaldeans and travelled up the Euphrates River. Then, Abraham left his father and travelled to the Promised Land. In fact, it was as Abraham arrived that God said that all he surveyed would be his. It just belonged to the Canaanites, but the Canaanites were a cursed nation.”
Babs grumbled, “But Isaiah (Is. 41:3) talks about travelling roads that you have never travelled before. You drive this same route all the time. I bet you if we got on some roads that you drive past, I bet there will be more restrooms and maybe something you have never seen before.”
I thought about that for a little while. “First, the traveler in Isaiah 41 is the Lord, the Helper of Israel. But you are right. For you, this is the first time you have seen anything like this. Tomorrow, we have a day off. How would you like to see the barrier islands and some sandy beaches? The water is a bit too cold, but it is not that far from our hotel. And we will still have time for the laundry.”
Babs smiled, “Yes, yes, and yes! You are definitely a smooth talker, Harold. But Harold, I would like to see some nice backroads. And the beach sounds like fun, even if we have to wear our coats, but are we going down any evil paths? You know what Proverbs 4 says.”
I chuckled, “That is talking about a way of life instead of one road or another, Babs. Proverbs 4 is talking about us not doing evil. Evildoers cannot get out of their way without doing evil. It seems everything they do is against what God wishes for us to do, but a trip to the beach when we have a day off from the constant grind of sales calls? That is rest. And God tells us to do that. We need a break, and from now on, when we have a day to rest. I will think about looking at something you have not seen. Deal?”
Babs giggled, “Deal!”
I stared at the endless highway in front of me and said, “We are like Jesus. I may have a den to rest my head, but Jesus did not have anywhere to lay his head. But wherever we go, Babs, God’s angels look over us. We are safe in His arms.”
And little did I know at the time that Babs was the angel that God had sent me to watch over me as Psalm 91 promises.
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.
My wife rarely had a day when she wanted to go back to sleep. She wanted to go, go, go. That is, until she got too sick to do any going.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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