This weekend, dear diary and sweet friends who have stopped by to visit, is a sacred time for Christians. As followers of Christ, we honor the many wonders of our Lord. His birth, certainly. His first miracle. His baptism. His own death. That horrific crucifixion, so barbaric and brutal. Believers gasp at the literal details of Jesus’ last hours. What the Roman whip did to His flesh before they strapped the crossbar to His shoulders; the thorns, woven into a crown and shoved into His head; the endless, unimaginable torture.
He could have called legions of angels to save Him, but He didn’t. He could have come down or stopped at any time. But He didn’t. He chose to die. He knew what was coming and He chose. He was buried in a sealed tomb so He could perform the greatest miracle of all. His resurrection. Jesus rose from death. He conquered everything they did to Him. His empty grave is why we celebrate Easter. His empty grave is why we celebrate everything.
These things are so much more than stories in the Bible. It’s easy to knock off the rough edges of truth and sing pretty songs once every Spring. We forget that the life and death of Jesus Christ formed, and transformed, the entire world. Whether you’re a believer or not, before you and somewhere in the generations of your ancestors, billions of people lived their lives firmly grounded on the simple truth of Jesus, the only son of the ever living God. God. The great I am. The God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The God that gently lifts the fallen sparrow and parts 174,000 square miles of the Red Sea. The God of ancient Egypt and Hollywood, California. The God of skid row and Park Avenue. The God of perfect people and jezebels. The only God.
The God of Job. Here was a man of faith. People talk a lot about the patience of Job, but what about the FAITH of Job? Job was a wealthy man. He had lands, camels, oxen, herds of sheep, sons, daughters. He was the greatest of all people in the East. He feared God, shunned evil and.. I love this part.. he would go and make burnt offerings just in case his sons had sinned against God. He covered all of his bases. He made sacrifices in case God might be displeased with his family. Job: good man.
Long story short. We all know what happened. To prove Job’s faithfulness wasn’t just because he was so rich and life was easy, God allowed Satan to take everything from him, but his life. Herds. Lands. Home. Wife. Sons. Daughters. Friends. Health. All gone, just like that. Now he was broke, grieving and alone. He was covered in sores that he was scratching with broken pieces of pottery. Satan really pulled out all the stops. He was determined to shake Job’s faith. But it didn’t happen. Because real faith isn’t built on things. Real faith is like real love: it’s unconditional. Job said “naked I came into the world and naked I shall return. Blessed be the name of the Lord”. There would be no cursing God on Job’s watch. Then God restored everything that had been taken and more.
Here’s a new one you may not have heard much about. I really, really like her. Her name is Jael. No, autocorrect, not Jake. Jael. She’s in the book of Judges. Her story is short and sort of sweet, depending on how you look at it. It’s true that she did invite Sisera, the Canaanite commander of the enemy army, into her tent when her husband wasn’t around. And she did give him fermented milk (a kind of alcoholic delicacy back then). Yeah ok, she got him drunk. Then she covered him with a warm blanket and, by offering this hospitality, she pretty much made what was considered a “covenantal commitment”. He knew he should be safe there. So, Sisera…this big, bad commander of the enemy king’s army, now safe and warm and drunk, fell into a deep asleep.
Given what happened next, he should thank his lucky stars or goats or whatever pagans thanked, that it was a deep sleep. We’re told that “Jael softly went to Sisera” and not so softly, “took a mallet and drove a tent peg through his temple and into the ground on the other side. And Sisera died”. Cause of death: tent peg through the temple. By golly, that’ll do it every time.
I picture Jael as having dark hair and being kind of feisty. Not really one to ask hubby’s permission about much. She also had to be physically strong. Women set up the tents, along with everything else, so she was no stranger to hard work. And she was able to make decisions quickly. This scenario wasn’t planned. She looked out and saw the general coming up the road towards her. He was probably running too, because he had deserted his troops. Captain Coward was trying to hide.
Now we don’t really know a whole lot about Jael. What we do know is that, although her husband was an ally to the enemy king, she didn’t consult him before.. well, assassinating the king’s general. This would have been an important piece of information. It’s not like she accidentally overdrew the checkbook. Killing the leader of the king’s army gave Israel victory. Jael ended the war for God’s chosen people, with God’s approval, without asking her husband’s permission and she did it with a tent peg.
The Bible says she went out to Sisera and invited him into her tent. She saw him. She knew he was evil. She made a decision. She formed a plan. She acted. She invited him in. She got him drunk. She tent pegged him to the ground. She delivered Israel. She didn’t ask permission. She didn’t run and hide. She had to be terrified. She didn’t cower. She didn’t question God. It wasn’t pretty. It was a time of war. It was ugly, deceptive, hard, scary, bloody. Whoever started the idea that serving God is nothing but easy, clean, gentle work is seriously confused.
The battle between good and evil is just that. A battle. It’s not brunch. It’s not girls night out or Bunco or golf. There’s a very real war still raging. It’s still ugly, deceptive, hard, scary and bloody. If you don’t think so, look at the crime in our town alone. That’s doesn’t frighten you? That’s war, my friend. And we are smack dab in the middle of it. God will choose His strongest warriors, who are up to the task, for this fight. Warriors with pure hearts and ugly scars to do the hard things. The Jezebels.
The perfectly imperfect living-outside-of-the-boxers. The leading-the-packers. The shine-a-little-brighters. The bar raisers. The trend trashers. The tapestry weavers. When others hear a song, we hear the music. When others follow the same well worn path, we walk off into the unknown. We weave a tapestry of winding roads and ever changing colors held together by the golden thread of God. Like Job and Jael, we face fear and uncertainty with unwavering love and unshakable faith.
At the end of a long week, when others are self-satisfied, comfortable in their accomplishments, so proud & plump in evident excess, jezebels are wrapped in the warmth of the Father. No bells. No whistles. Nothing that moth and rust can corrupt. Just a soft blanket with the sweet love of God ever so carefully woven into every fiber. Stitch by stitch, breath by breath, memory by memory, His hand never once stops. He’s always working. Always moving.
Life has hard turns, sharp curves and drop offs that leave you falling without a net. There are dead ends and fake doors that find the trusting jezebel quite blindsided. But we get back up every. single. time. We never forget whose hand holds us; chooses us to do all the hard things; covers us with love and binds us back together with golden threads. We are God’s jezebels. Chosen for our flaws and used for His perfect purpose. We don’t run. We don’t quit. We don’t question. The more God uses us, the more we go to battle for Him, the more beautiful our lives become.
Hold a diamond up to the sun and you can see light in all the different facets. Hold a Jezebel up to The Son, and you’ll see magnificent colors like you’ve never seen. Breathtaking beauty shining through every scar, every wound, every flaw; reflecting faith, strength, healing and an all consuming love.
Jezebel diaries * day 4 * cliff notes: * Christianity isn’t for sissies. all crosses are heavy but so worth it. * if God sends you into battle, go stand next to a jezebel. she may be rough around the edges, but you won’t win war with gossip and glitter. * jael shows us that God uses beautiful women to do ugly things. also tent pegs clearly have more than one purpose. * if your name is captain coward, don’t drink the milk and don’t take a nap * jezebels tend to follow their own path. they make beautiful memories. they go where no man has gone before.. then they call someone for directions because they’re lost in another state. * jezebels bring light and love and beautiful color to the lives they touch. if you have one, you know this. if you lost one, you know this. * when you look at a jezebel, all you may see are the scars. but hold her up to The Son, and she’ll sparkle all over you. *
Colorful Chaos 