Every once in a while you find yourself halfway between destinations. Yup! You are in the middle of a trip, a life, a relationship, a...well let's face it, everything has a middle! Many times we find this "middle" to be a benchmark of achievement or perhaps a resting place where we can evaluate the journey and make sure we want to continue the effort to reach the destination.
When I was younger, the middle was represented by a row of strawberries that I was attempting to pick or a row in a garden that needed hoeing, or maybe, my half of the grass in our yard that needed cutting. Rarely, was it a journey that seemed exciting. The middle represented a continuation of the work to be done and was rarely celebrated. Don't get me wrong, those times are treasured memories as I was usually doing them with a family member and could reap the benefits of my efforts. And we did celebrate when the tasks were completed.
There were many good "middles". For example, the middle of the school year comes with Christmas celebrations and a time of recharging. Regardless of the season these times remind me that I am rarely ever alone. I always have "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right..." to whom I could commiserate in our "middleness" and sing "...stuck in the middle with you..."
Many things were happening in 1973. Some of these things were good. The United States was withdrawing from the Viet Nam conflict. Some of them, well...not so much. Roe vs. Wade was settled as law on a Federal level. 63 million lives have been eliminated since then. Regardless of where you are in the current debate, overturning Roe would make the decisions regarding the legality of abortion at the state level, where it should be. 63 million. That is a lot of productivity, creativity, and life. It's no wonder we can't find workers...but I digress. Perhaps another time.
In April of 1973, a band called Stealers Wheel would release their eponymous debut album which included the single "Stuck In The Middle With You". Written by Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Right Down The Line" (Gerry Rafferty)) the song would be bolstered by its music video (yes there were music videos before MTV, one would question if there are any there now...). The video featured guitarist Egan lip-syncing the lyrics because Rafferty had left the band before the album had even been released. Rafferty would briefly reappear in the band but just as quickly quit again. But he wasn't the only one. Stealers Wheel would see 8 band members in its short existence. Because of this continual merry-go-round of musicians, Stealers Wheel would only last until 1975 with 3 studio albums in their discography and "Stuck In The Middle With You", the song they wrote as a pseudo parody of Bob Dylan's sound, being their biggest hit.
"Stuck In The Middle With You" would quickly gain the attention of the music listening public and soar up the charts, peaking at #6 on Billboard's Hot 100. The song was so popular in 1973 that it came in at #30 on the Billboard listing of top songs of the year.
"Stuck In The Middle With You" is one of those songs that continue to be embraced by the music listening public. The longevity of the song can be attributed to its constant use in popular media. It helped a then-new director Quentin Tarantino with his debut project Reservoir Dogs in 1992. "Stuck In The Middle With You" served on the picture's soundtrack as the backdrop for a brutal torture scene. As a result of this scene becoming so iconic, it and its accompanying song have since been parodied time and again.
Bolstering the popularity of "Stuck In The Middle With You", portions of the song can also be heard in television shows (The Wonder Years, Supernatural, Malcolm In The Middle, Gilmore Girls, et. al). and on television in advertisements for IBM.
They say the best form of flattery is imitation. That being the case, today's song has been "flattered" a couple of times. Most notably, Grace Potter (Grace and Frankie Soundtrack) and Joshua Lee Turner have covered the song. Turner's version was a YouTube cover and has scored over 4 million views.
It doesn't appear that the middle has come or is anywhere close for the tenure of this song. Yet, here in Tuesday's Musical Notes Land, we have reached a "middle" by which we need do need to ponder.
Today we depart from our normal focus in the middle of our blog. No, the above is not Scripture. But yes, it is an accurate depiction of the middle of the Bible. No, we won't be stuck in the middle with you in the Bible as next week we will look at an overview of The New Testament. (Honestly, we're using next week's overview as a thought-provoking delay tactic to get us to May 31 and our special edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes! What special edition you may ask? Stay tuned!)
We find ourselves in the middle of our journey in the great narrative stories of the Bible. This is the time known as the Silent Years or the Intertestamental Period. The time between the Old and New Testaments is rich with history and prophecy that comes to fruition. It is considered the Silent Years because there are no new prophecies or writings that are considered inspired Scripture. ("What Are the Apocryphal Books and Do They Belong in the Bible?" by G. Conner Salter from christianity.com, April 29, 2021) Malachi, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Esther as contemporaries all appear to be the last stories and prophecies of the Old Testament and as such are what most Protestant believers hold to be the last accounts of life in the post-exilic period of the nation of Israel. These books of the Old Testament overlap with and lead us into this time.
So what happened during this time? First, many prophecies came into fulfillment. Daniel 7-9 New American Standard Bible/The Amplified Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel includes the prophecies relating to the world powers that come and go during the 400 years that exist between the Testaments. Daniel observed the Babylonian captivity of Israel and then witnessed the Persian overthrow of the Babylonians which would have been the lead up to the Silent Years.
The Persians would rule over the region for over 200 years and then see themselves replaced by Alexander the Great and his Greek armies which are also prophesied in the above passages of Daniel. Alexander would rule for a decade and make worldwide changes. At his death, the kingdom was divided into 4 parts, again fulfilling prophecy, and the Promised Land would find itself under the rule of Greek Egyptians. During this time The Old Testament was translated into Greek as there was some semblance of religious freedom under the Greek and Greek Egyptian rulers.
The next 100 years were a time of chaos as the Syrians would return to power. These folks would be the descendants of the Moabites and the Amalekites who hated the Hebrews. The Syrian rule continued observing a Hellenistic lifestyle, yet restricted religious freedoms, especially for the Jews as once again a prophecy of Daniel comes to life...Daniel 11:28-31 NASB/AMP/KJV.
This crackdown on serving God as they were accustomed led to a revolt among a group of Israelites called the Maccabees. (Worship of Yahweh had also evolved into something very different from what Moses had instituted (Exodus 20-31 NASB/AMP/KJV)). The priestly order, which had been eliminated under Syrian rule, was reinstated during the Maccabean revolt time and the Pharisaical order we see by the time of The New Testament comes into fruition. To complete the overthrow of the Syrians, agreements are made with Rome. Soon after, the Romans come into their own as the world power of the time. The Israelite language, Hebrew, has been virtually eliminated and replaced in the Holy Land first by the Greek language and then by Roman as the languages spoken and written.
So it would seem that during the time between the Testaments the Israelites, the Hebrews, the Jews, were stuck in the middle of world events that they could not control. As a nation, they had observed the Davidic dynasty morph into a Solomonic World Power and then they devolved as their disobedience, arrogance, selfishness, and idolatry brought them back into a perpetual slave state under changing world orders. All of which were prophecies in the Old Testament and served to set up the times of the New Testament.
Second, as we've mentioned during the time between the Testaments there was a religious renewal of sorts. The Silent Years are filled with religious compromises, yet we see that the idolatry and disobedience that caused the exile, have transitioned into an almost hyper-religious fervor that resulted in legalism and corruption among the priestly orders of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
As we have followed Abraham's family through the Old Testament, I hope we have seen ourselves in the process. Both the political as well as religious changes that occurred during the Intertestamental period served to continue God's historic timeline and propel the world to Jesus and bring our world to a complete understanding of who Jesus is. God desires for us to come to Him through Jesus' sacrifice and have the Eden relationship restored. He then wants us to go about telling the world of our restoration. Yet, just like the patriarchs, the judges, the kings, and the Hebrews of the prophet's time, there are times when we succumb to our sin and allow our wants and desires to blind us to the salvific mission with which we have been tasked. Yup, we are stuck in the middle with something...
For pre-believers, you may be wondering what all of this history means for you? You're not stuck in the middle with anyone, much less the Bible. Friend, the Silent Years between the Testaments shows there is a continuity in the Bible that you can trust. It shows the stories of the Old Testament testify, if you will, to the stories of the New Testament and that the entirety of the Bible is a cohesive narrative that tells God's desire to be reconnected with mankind. It shows that God chose one family to restore the relationship broken in Eden and fulfills that restorative plan through Jesus. Your part in the restoration process? Believe. Take a step of faith and believe. Believe that Jesus is the only sacrifice that will provide healing and rehabilitate the relationship that you know you need with God. Believe friend, believe. Jesus was Who He said He was. Jesus did what the Bible said He did. Believe...
Herein lies the question in which all of us, believers and pre-believers find ourselves. Will we remain stuck in this middle? Will we break off the bonds which so easily distract us and refocus on our mission? Will we reflect and proclaim, "Well I don't know why I came here tonight. I've got the feeling that something ain't right..."? And then do something about it by claiming Jesus as the Savior and Redeemer of our lives? Or, will we be satisfied with the "...clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right..."? Will we stay, "...stuck in the middle with you."?
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment