Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Bitter and Sweet (05/28/09)
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TITLE: The Blessed Vineyard | Previous Challenge Entry
By Karey Schaitel
06/04/09 -
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“Ahhh, yes! You are right, good daughter. Well done. Now what do you suppose we do with these new grapes? Should we look at them and admire their beauty. I’m sure their beauty does not compare with yours.”
“Oh Papa,” she giggles. “You are so silly. We should taste them to see if they are good. Will you let me taste one? Please, Papa?”
“Alright go ahead, my lovely vine. How does it taste?”
“It is so sweet, Papa. Can I have another?”
“Not yet. Go get your Mama and brother. We will have a picnic down by the brook. I have a story for you.”
After the midday meal the children eagerly demand, “Tell us the story, Papa.”
“Josiah, my son, look out over our land, and tell me what you see?”
“I see hills full of grapevines, Papa.”
“Ahhh you do? What else do you see?”
Josiah quietly observes and declares proudly, “And dirt!”
“A ha! Well done, my confident son. The dirt you see has not always been blessed with grapevines, and this land has not always been in the Shtetl family.
Well, let’s see. Where do I begin? Ah, yes, about 30 years ago, in the fourteenth year of our good King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent a great army, under commander Rab-shakeh, to take over Judah.”
“Hezekiah sent his son, Eliakim, to receive the war terms and try to negotiate.”
“Eliakim traveled quickly up the hill outside the tent of Rab-shakeh for negotiations, his heart was heavy with concern for his people, “Rab-shakeh,” Eliakim asked, “Sir, what are your terms for negotiations? We have no interest in surrender but we do not want conflict between us.”
“Rab-shakeh announced, “Tell your father that the great king, the king of Assyria, wonders what is the confidence Israel trusts in THIS time? Is it that staff from the broken reed of Egypt? Or are you depending on your God? Don’t you know that Hezekiah had all the places of worship destroyed? Where will you go to communicate to your God now?” “Better yet,” he laughs “how about I give you two thousand horses, so we will be evenly matched before we slaughter you and your people.”
“Rabshakeh mockingly continued, “Now, I want you to know that YOUR God told me to destroy your land. The Assyrians have YOUR God on OUR side.”
“Sir, Eliakim asks, “Would you speak to us in Syrian instead of Hebrew? The people on the wall may hear.”
“Rabshakeh laughed and began to speak louder to the Jews, “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he cannot deliver you, and do not let your king persuade you by saying ‘the Lord will deliver us.’ Have any of the other gods of the other nations been delivered from the hand of the king of Assyria? Why should Israel expect your God to deliver Jerusalem?”
“Eliakim hurried away in humiliation and agony to tell the king.”
“The king was very upset and troubled, especially after the servants reminded him in a letter about the other ten tribes already taken into captivity by the Assyrians.”
“So, good king Hezekiah spread the letter out before the Lord and prayed, “Please listen and see, O Lord, all of the words Sennacherib has said against you. Save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord and you only.”
“Soon afterwards, Isaiah, the prophet came to Hezekiah and proclaimed a message from the Lord. “Because Sennacherib has reproached and blasphemed the Holy One of Israel and his people, the Lord will put a hook in his nose and a bridle to his lips and turn him back the way he came. Remember this sign: After three years Israel will reap the fruit of its own vineyards on the very land the Assyrian army now stands.”
“Listen children, on that very evening, the angel of the Lord killed the whole Assyrian army of 185,000 on our very own vineyard.”
“And now family, let us say a blessing over the bitter end of the Assyrians with the wine from our sweet grapes.”
“Blessed are You, HaShem, our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.”
(Isaiah 36 and 37)
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