Beyond The Rim…

This is a little belated—several things have intervened—but I did finish the first book in my fictional Lawgiver Chronicles series on the life of Moses. It is titled Beginnings, and takes place over one 24 hour period, the day Moses is put in the Nile river to be found by the sister of Pharaoh. I have already started on the second book, Remembrance, which I plan on finishing this year.

That would be a radical improvement, since it took 16 years to complete the first book. Nine months for the second would demonstrate what a publisher wants to see in a series. My former agent is no longer in the business but he did suggest another agent to me, so I submitted the proposal to him. I haven’t heard anything, but whatever comes of that the writing will go on. I can still hear in my mind’s eye my friend Keith’s refrain, “Moses, Moses, Moses” to spur me on.

I thought I would include a little of my proposal to give you an idea of what the book was all about. Stop here if you are not interested…

Background:

A lot of people, when they hear the subject say, “Oh, another Moses book” and start to dismiss it. However this book is not the same old, same old. Beginnings takes place over a twenty-four hour period, starting just after midnight with Jochebed and Amram finishing the waterproofing of the basket that would carry Moses on his journey down the Nile. After an eventful day, filled with signs, portents, a council meeting called by Pharaoh, and an attempted assassination, the story ends with the rescinding of the edict against the Hebrews and Moses being put to bed in the home of princess Asati by his mother Jochebed, her people saved from sure destruction by her infant son.

This book is unique in numerous ways, but two are most important:

1. Every other story I have read about the finding of Moses in the basket on the Nile uses as a major point in the story the attempt to hide the fact he was a Hebrew. My story does not. Instead, it adheres to the historical account of Josephus who claimed the Egyptians knew he was Hebrew from the beginning. This will be an important plot device throughout this and the next two books of the projected series.

2. No other story I have read deals with the rescinding of the edict against the Hebrew males. This book makes that issue the central theme of the story. Without the rescinding of the edict there would be no Exodus because there would be no Hebrews to save. This book deals with that.

Summary:

After a difficult journey to the river, Moses is put into the water by his mother, only to be found by the sister of Pharaoh, which sets off a series of events that lead to the rescinding of the edict against the Hebrew males and his inclusion into the household of Princess Asati.

Promo Sentence:

The river offered his only hope of survival, but would the Egyptian who found him embrace him, or turn him in to die?

Sales Handles:

An ancient power, a foundling child, and the day that changed the world!

Back Cover Copy:

The year is 1292 B.C. and Egypt has almost fully recovered from more than a generation of turmoil. Begun by the “Pharaoh who is not named,” the nation was plunged into social and religious chaos by a leader who overthrew the historic gods of the Two Lands in his desire to follow a single supreme and all-powerful deity, which he named Aten.

Now, fifty-five years later, during the fourth year of the new dynasty, a new threat is taken from the waters of the Nile; a Hebrew child who should rightfully be put death as an offering to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god. Throughout the twists and turns of an eventful day, the destiny of two nations is forever changed, as the name of Moses is first etched into the annals of history.

Audience:

This book is not just for a Christian audience. I wrote it to appeal to anyone and it has been favorably previewed by Muslim, Jewish, and non-religious readers, while at the same time, the core of the story and its overarching provenance is Judeo-Christian.

One of the reasons I eventually settled on the single day framework for the story was to lighten the demand on readers who do not normally read historical fiction and who might be drawn to the book. Rather than being forced to deal with a sweeping story covering many years with a lot to remember, readers enter in knowing they only have to deal with one day. That choice allows this and the follow-on books (I have plotted the other four as single day stories) to be highly detailed yet shorter, which should make them more accessible.

Characters:

Everyone in the story is true to their essential nature. The Egyptians believe in their own gods. They are not straw men or foils for the story. Each character is as real as you or I.

Historical Accuracy:

Early on, I engaged a PhD Egyptologist (David Lorton – see Amazon), who helped me with all aspects of the story. The book is historically accurate, with everything, including people, fitting within the period and historical framework. Areas in which I have created my own framework, such as the hatred of the Hebrews by the priests of Amun-Re, are legitimate elaborations that do no violence to the historical record, while actually enhancing the biblical historicity.

Well, there you have it. I hope someone wants it and it is available in a store near you by Christmas. However, it will be as God wills. Grace and peace.

Peggy Noonan had an interesting column this week. I almost didn’t finish it, but I am glad I did. She was commenting on the uproar over Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s various statements and said:

He seems like a bright man, warm, humorous and compelling, but also needful and demanding of the spotlight, a showman prone to crackpottery…

However, the key point is that she wasn’t angry as so many of her friends and acquaintances were. The reason is she thinks that while the whole situation is counterproductive and “part of the great ‘barbaric yawp,’ as Walt Whitman called the American people fighting, discussing, making things and living,” it is essentially not significant or definitive.

She likened Wright’s statements and Mr. Obama’s sitting under him in a church where these kind of statements would be made as “I am still Irish [Black]. I can prove it. I can summon the old anger” and a way to seek solidarity with the group you are part of. It does not define your day-to-day actions, the essence of who you are. It is similar to Confederate flags on the back of pickup windows (the South shall rise again) or hating the Yankees when they come to town to play your team. It is seeking a memory of solidarity as a sounding in the navigation of your life.

While I see Peggy’s point, I disagree with her about its significance. While I understand the Irish, Black, and other solidarity she alludes to, I think that in the end, if not outgrown, it evidences failure. It is not the evidence of a mature person, destined for significant leadership, but of an immature person, still spouting the raucousness of youth. It is not how someone leading a large Church should act, nor someone who seeks to be the President of the United States. We should hold our senior Pastors and our Presidents to higher standards than allowing them vent solidarity with bitterness.

This is especially true of those who claim the life of Christ as their own. “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) Leaders are supposed to be better than that. They are supposed to evidence what Paul told Timothy:

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. 2 Timothy 2:22-25a

Yes Peggy, I think you identified the issue, but failed to see the underlying failure. Your twenty something example did not fit grown mature men in positions of power, trust, and authority. You argument actually identified the problem more completely. Thank you for pointing that out, though that was not your intention. I am glad I finished the article.

My brother, James Paul Meisheid, died of a heart attack on Monday afternoon, while out deep sea fishing, something he loved to do. He was with his two brothers’-in-law. His death was sudden, unexpected, and nonrecoverable, despite heroic efforts by his wife’s two brothers and the Coast Guard, who arrived about 20 minutes later.

My sister and I had discussed the Lord with Jimmy (what everyone called him) for years. Born and raised a Catholic, he, like many of his contemporaries, drifted away from the church and any daily personal sense of God and could never raise the desire or energy to come back. Due to their discussions, my sister always thought that the sea was his cathedral. When Jimmy was out on the water, out of the sight of land, with the only sound being the lapping of the waves against the side of the boat, he said he felt close to God. The expanse of the ocean and his insignificance within it, made God feel personal to him.

Jimmy had a big heart, and was loved by many people. Being a Postal letter carrier, who for years filled in for other carriers’ routes, he knew a lot of people. His day always included personal contact with an ever-changing, but regular kaleidescope of people. Being personable, they all came to know him and to enjoy and look forward to his visits. He was that type of guy.

Some of his friends and those he interacted with during his deliveries have posted on his Obituary Guest Book. You cannot help but come away with the realization that he was a people person. Jimmy was someone who could talk with anybody. He just put you at ease.
He leaves behind a wife who became his sweetheart right after high school, a son (senior at South Florida in civil engineering), and a daughter (married, one child, works with and loves children). We will have his memorial service tomorrow. His soul is in God’s hands. His memory is in ours.

God give you rest, Jimmy, in His everlasting arms. You now know the real answers to all the questions raised in our discussions. Grace and peace.

You can see his Guestbook at the local paper here.

It has been a while since I posted anything. At first it was because I was on the drive to finish my book, which is finally behind me. But the absence also broke the habit I had cultivated and it has been hard to get back into even an intermittent posting groove.

But that changed yesterday when I set up my sister with a Wordpress blog (Dianne Zacharias’ Blog), which one day she will begin posting to. She puts her toes in new water very slowly. We are in Florida for the weekend attending my brother’s memorial service. He died on Monday from a heart attack. There was no previous warning of any problems.

So, it is a mixture of a sad occasion with helping out my sister that has prompted me to begin writing here again.

I have been working on my book, trying to finish the first novel in my Moses series. Between that and work, there hasn’t been a lot of time left for other things.

One thing did imping itself. Sunday evening my wife came into the room and said, “Moses died.” At first, I was a little perplexed, but then the connection hit home and I remembered the image of Charlton Heston standing between the Israelites and the Egyptians and saying, “Fear not! Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD”

As I have written my first story and worked on the ideas, plot, and images of the other four planned books, Heston has always been there, his commanding presentation of Moses burned into my memory. For my generation, he will forever be Moses and when we think of biblical character we will think, for good or ill, of Charlton.

May God give you rest in the everlasting arms, Mr. Heston. Grace and peace.

I am reading a book, “The War in Heaven” by Theodore Beale. There is a theme in the book, one among many, that speaks to me, primarily because I have always loved knowledge, the knowing of things. I became an expert in my field by learning as much as I could about it. The theme and issue I want to address is the relationship between knowledge and obedience.

Two events shaped my desire to learn. The first was my Latin teacher in High School, the venerable Mrs. Hage. Here is a section about her from an earlier post: Tests, Prayers, and What Really Matters.

When I was in high school, I had a Latin teacher by the name of Mrs. Hague. She was the classic classicist: older, bookish, spindly, and utterly devoted to learning. She once told me that the real difference in my life would come when I was more concerned about learning something than passing a test. I now believe that you can universalize that statement by changing “passing a test” to “just answering a question.”

The second was an article I read in the early 80’s in Reader’s Digest. It was about people who got up early and devoted an hour or two in the morning to learning something. Many of those people had become experts in their field.

The thing that ties Mrs. Hage’s advice to the Digest article is becoming an autodidact (self-taught learner). Most of my knowledge has come through personal and self-directed study, not classes or courses or any formalized training.

One of the things that drive autodidacts is the ever-present why? It is our searchlight into the formerly hidden information. Why did that happen; why does it work that way; why did they say that; why am I here?

The problem with why is that it knows no limits and sometimes it is a temptation to go beyond where God wants us to step. When I started looking at this I was surprised to find that why is found in 431 verses in the Bible. Even God asks why, but I believe his use is entirely therapeutic, because he already knows; he just wants us to deal with the question.

I believe many souls have broken themselves on the rocks of why. Often, when tragedy occurs, the first question is why and there is seldom a satisfactory answer. Job touched on the issue over twenty times. One especially speaks to the issue I am discussing.

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? Job 3:23

It is those times, when we face the difficult moments (remember Job had lost all of his children, his wealth, and his health), we expect God to explain why, to give us a satisfactory reason for what has happened to us. However, he seldom does answers our questions. Most of the time we are in the same plight as Job; we do not learn the reason and that, in the end, becomes our testing point. Do we push past or blame and turn on God, or do we, like Job, accept not knowing the reason and accept obedience as greater than knowledge.

In the end it is all about limits and the difficult balance between straining to the uttermost with all of our effort, persevering to the end as Paul puts it, and letting go and letting God, becoming like Job.

Sometimes we need to be Paul, sometimes we need to be Job, but all the time we need both their faith and trust that God is faithful, loving, and wants the very best for us.

Has your life recently run onto the rocks of why? I understand. I will not judge you, but hold your trial in prayer and compassion because Job has additional wisdom on the matter.

To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Job 6:14

A dimly burning wick we should not quench, or a bruised reed we should not break. Kindness is our task for those who have been broken and know not why, as they struggle to find the path of obedience. Remember that. May I never forget it.

Grace and peace.

When I got home from work tonight, my wife told me there was a deer laying in a hallow near the old tree stump on the edge of the stream that flows through our back yard.

Being a photographer I grabbed my camera and decided to try and get a few shots of the animal before it ran off. As I got closer, however, it did not attempt to leave and when I got very close, it was obvious something was wrong. It seems there is a sinkhole next to the stump and the deer had stepped into it and broken its back leg.

I found this out by trying to help her get out of the hole. We got a long 2X4 and I lifted her rear end, hoping to give her the leverage to get up out of the hole. She tried to move but couldn’t get up, even with my help. It was then we discovered that her left rear leg, in the hole, was broken in two places.

We called the authorities and a police officer came out to verify the situation and called Animal Control. She looked exhausted and while we were waiting she died.

There was nothing I could do and though I wanted to help, I only was able to expose the extent of the problem. It is like that sometimes. No matter how hard we try, or want to assist in a time of need, there will be those occasions when there is nothing we can do. We can only observe the events as they happen. It is frustrating, but that is often the way it is.

She was one of God’s beautiful creatures.