Ok fair warning: the content below contains plenty of history and writing styles you will typically find in a thick history book. If your response to history is to bury the textbook and forget it ever existed, I strongly suggest you read only the part on the parables. Like all history texts, this is expectedly long and I ask for your patience as you scan through the post. I’ve tried my best to shorten it. Haha! Here’s this week’s ASS, history style.


On May 7, 1945, at General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Rheims in France, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, formally ending almost six years of war in Europe. Following six years of violence and bloodshed, it took only a mere three seasons for the Grand Alliance of United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union to fall into pieces. The broken alliance between ‘The Big Three’ spelt the beginning of the ‘cold war’, a term coined by the preeminent journalist Walter Lippmann of the 1940s, and painted a torrid picture of clashing ideologies for generations to remember.

In the study of history, the basic rule of thumb is to identify the cause and effect the situation brings about. We read that once Hitler invaded Poland, seeds of World War II were sown. That’s cause and effect. I like history because I’m always fascinated on how old men used to lead their younger days, how they made silly mistakes. Turn the clock back to 1945 where an uneasy peace nestled upon the globe, where the world mourned for the lost in WWII. Turn further back and you find part one of the World War Saga, where Hitler was a sergeant in the German Armed Forces.

The point I’m driving across is that we all possess a piece of history tucked under our arms and we do not even realise it. It is recorded in the Gospels, the many parables Jesus told to the people, the hidden secrets of how the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Yet some treat the parables clearly as a boondoggle. We read:

(This week’s scripture text is taken from Matthew 13: 44 – 52)

I was pondering on how we can link the bible to what happens in the not-too-distant history, the World Wars and the Cold War. The flexing of military might is commonplace not only in the form of the United States Army and it’s entirety of weaponry, but also in the bible too. The ten North Korean divisions led by tanks and supported by 1,643 guns crossing the 38th parallel mirrors the invasion of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar and his army.

In more ways than one, history strengthens the why Jesus died for us. Jesus is part of history, but He isn’t history. AMEN! The often-overlooked human cost of fighting the Cold War finds a clear voice in “MIA,” by Marilyn Elkins, the widow of a Navy airman. The prolific incidents of Dien Bien Phu, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion point at the possible numbers printed on the press listed as dead. Encompassing so many perspectives and events, the cold war succeeds at an impossible task: illuminating and explaining the history of an undeclared shadow war that threatened the very existence of humankind. Jesus Christ succeeded in an impossible task: beating the devil down with two sticks and nails and saving humankind with His blood.

Throw the surface-to-surface and intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Cuba away. Throw the bows, arrows and spears used by King David and his magnificent army away and we have the same thought lingering since man knew how to think: life after death. What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus tells the people about the kingdom of heaven through parables because even though they have seen and heard from the Son of God Himself, they still are adamant and do not believe.

As important as the first strike capability was to the US and the Soviets at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so is the importance of grasping the meaning of the parables. We are at DEFCON 1-wartime. Because things need to be done and lives are waiting to be saved. Because we hold the key to letting our friends know about the truth of salvation.

“Dear God, thank you for teaching me the valuable lessons through the parables and through history as well. Help me Lord, to identify the areas of my life that are not in accordance to Your Word. Teach me Lord, to use the parables to reach out to my fellow friends. Your will be done, Lord! In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.”



God and the soldier all men adore,
In time of danger and not before.
When the danger is past,
And all things righted,
God is forgotten and the old
Soldier sighted.*


*The above poem was found in a British sentry box at Gibraltar.


With His blessings,
Isaac
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