No matter what the news may show
or what the mocking monsters throw,
go make your choice. Remember, though,
the Lord will always win.
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Ronovan Hester offers the word “victory” as inspiration for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. This was also posted on Poet’s Corner.
In the good old days the Ninevites were a wicked bunch. The Lord told Jonah to tell them to either repent or be severely punished which sent Jonah off on a boat in the opposite direction, because he knew, like everyone else, except perhaps the Lord, that Nineveh did not deserve an opportunity to repent.
When the Lord roughed up the waves to destructive levels below the boat Jonah was fleeing on, the reluctant crew threw him overboard at his own request so the sea would calm. A fish sent by the Lord scooped him into its mouth and held him in a disgusting state of indigestion for three days and three nights until the Lord finally let the fish relieve its bellyache by vomiting its cargo onto the shore. Then the Lord asked Jonah once again to tell the Ninevites to repent lest He destroy them.
Jonah recited the bare text of the Lord’s message hoping no one in Nineveh would listen, but the grotesque stench coming from his direction only confirmed the conspiracy theories about a fish and a boat and, since no one in Nineveh wanted whatever happened to him to happen to them, they all repented.
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Denise offers the prompt word “text” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. For what really happened see the short book of Jonah. Jonah son of Amittai was a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II: 2 Kings 14:25.
Dale offers the prompt “one thing inside another” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
In the first photo there are tiny plants growing inside the space between the rocks.
In the second, there’s a heart inside this huge palm branch, if you can see it.
In the third, there are three (oops, make that four) tiny birds inside this sunrise.
Don’t tolerate that tiny lie.
Deception rules until a cry
demands to know the reason why
we took God’s joy away.
If truth be known, the lies we spread
are moldy, wormy, wretched bread.
They’re traps that no one would be fed
were they not so deceived.
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Ronovan Hester offers “trap” as the inspiration word for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
Except for possibly Jehu, for whom she dolled herself up in a desperate seduction play, no one annoyed Jezebel as much as Elijah. In spite of the Lord confirming him over her prophets by sending fire from heaven only on his sacrifices, when Jezebel sent Elijah a death threat he fled so far away that only the Lord’s still, small voice could bring him back.
At that point his usefulness was compromised. To his credit, Elijah did accept his replacement, Elisha, even though Elisha wanted a double portion of what he had. Elisha inherited Elijah’s assigned tasks of acknowledging Hazael as king over Syria whom Elisha saw would become a butcher and anointing by proxy the headstrong Jehu as king over Israel who would pump out judgement upon the whole clan of Jezebel.
If only Jezebel had the wits to realize that manipulation through lies could last only as long as the true Lord (not her Baal) constrained the pressure cooker filled with hatred from exploding, things might have turned out differently and the dogs would not have had a bloody mess for dinner at the gates of Jezreel.
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Denise offers the prompt word “pump” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. To read what really happened and to make sure I didn’t misread it, see 1 Kings 16:29 – 2 Kings 10:36.
1 Kings 19:9-13 (Young’s Literal Translation, 1898)
9 And he cometh in there, unto the cave, and lodgeth there, and lo, the word of Jehovah [is] unto him, and saith to him, `What — to thee, here, Elijah?’
10 And he saith, `I have been very zealous for Jehovah, God of Hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant — Thine altars they have thrown down, and Thy prophets they have slain by the sword, and I am left, I, by myself, and they seek my life — to take it.’
11 And He saith, `Go out, and thou hast stood in the mount before Jehovah.’ And lo, Jehovah is passing by, and a wind — great and strong — is rending mountains, and shivering rocks before Jehovah: — not in the wind [is] Jehovah; and after the wind a shaking: — not in the shaking [is] Jehovah;
12 and after the shaking a fire: — not in the fire [is] Jehovah; and after the fire a voice still small;
13 and it cometh to pass, at Elijah’s hearing [it], that he wrappeth his face in his robe, and goeth out, and standeth at the opening of the cave, and lo, unto him [is] a voice, and it saith, `What — to thee, here, Elijah?’
Dale offers the prompt “up, down and sideways” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I first thought of taking a picture of a tree, but I have already done something like that.
I ended up going up and down the stairway.
Past reds and greens on pond or stream,
dangling from a drifting dream:
Why does that small voice ever seem
a lecture from the Lord?
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Ronovan Hester offers the word “destination” as the inspiration for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
1 Kings 19:11-13
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 