SOARING UNDER THE RADAR – TO HEAVEN

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

Recently, Michael and I were talking about people in our lives who have done great deeds, yet carried them out so quietly that few are aware of the powerful nature of their journeys in this life. They flew under the radar of this world, though their accomplishments in it have often lived long after them.

Our conversation took me back in my mind to my college days and to the last paragraph of a book titled “Middlemarch.” The author was George Eliot, a pen name for Mary Ann Evans, who wanted to be considered according to her literary talent and themes, rather than her gender. I suppose that, in so doing, she was, herself, flying under the radar. Over the years, I have read and reread the following paragraph, one that has much to do with this week’s blog:

“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive, for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a HIDDEN LIFE (emphasis added) and rest in unvisited tombs.”

We all have such people who have touched our lives – many of whom we are not even aware. Some were on this Earth generations ago, their etched tombstones now indistinct and, as “Middlemarch,” chronicles, unvisited. In God’s paradigm, however, it is all quite different. Let’s look at Matthew 6:4, NKJV, to be reminded of this:

“That your charitable deeds may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

Through the ages, God visits and revisits our good works and makes sure that others do also. Examples of this are replete in Scripture. Two, in particular, come to our minds for this blog.

In an article titled, “Of Rahab, Rehab and the Lord’s Radar,” Saresh Manohare wrote of Rahab and her example of this. Rahab was a woman few expected to achieve greatness in anything except sinning, but then that’s what makes a good story, isn’t it? It is told in Chapter Two of Joshua in The Message translation, as Joshua sends out two men as spies:

“Go. Look over the land. Check out Jericho. They left and arrived at the house of a harlot (a prostitute) named Rahab and stayed there. The King of Jericho was told, ‘We’ve just learned that men arrived tonight to spy out the land. They’re from the People of Israel.’ The King of Jericho sent word to Rahab: ‘ Bring out the men who came to you to stay the night in your house. They’re spies; they’re come to spy out the whole country.’ The woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, ‘ Yes, two men did come to me…At dark, when the gate was about to be shut, the men left. But I have no idea where they went. Hurry up! Chase them – you can still catch them.” (Verses 4-6)

In truth, she had hidden the men on the roof. Her ploy worked and the King gave chase after the phantom Israelite spies. Rahab then told the two men how she knew that God had dried up the Red Sea and given them the land of Jericho. She asked these men to promise to protect her family after they take the land God gave them. They promised and she lowered them down out a window with a rope. Now, they were safely outside the city gate. She had taken an oath not to tell anyone where they were going; they vowed to save her and her family. She was to hang a red rope out the window to show her house as the one to be saved. And so it was. They hid three days in the hills, as Rahab had suggested, and then safely returned to Joshua. Rahab had, at great potential peril to herself, misled the King and saved the Israelites. Her courage was formidable and, as we will see, significantly rewarded by God.

Our second Biblical example of such behind the scenes bravery involves Jonathan who, like Rahab, defied a King, but, in this case, that King was his father! Jonathan, King Saul, the first King of Israel’s son, had everything to gain by going along with his father’s plans and schemes. He could have hoped to succeed him as King had he done so. But Jonathan did not subscribe to such a life at the risk of losing his character. Quietly, faithfully, he followed a very different path and saved God’s entire plan to send Jesus through the line of David.

In a pattern of terrible judgment on the part of Saul, he had taken credit for his own son’s victories against Israel’s arch enemy, the Philistines. (1 Samuel 13:4; 1 Samuel 15:11) Much worse, Saul had usurped the priestly role by offering sacrifices, thus resulting in God’s rejecting him as the King. (1 Samuel 15:26) Now, one of the few things that eased Saul’s mind was having David play music for him in a palace where he was only a figurehead. Through David’s presence there, he and Jonathan became close friends, no doubt something providentially arranged by God. Over time, David received acclaim throughout Israel in defeating the Philistine giant, Goliath, and by beginning to be a powerful military leader, thus causing vicious jealousy on the part of Saul:

“Saul called his son, Jonathan, together with his servants and ordered them to kill David. But, because Jonathan treasured David, he went and warned him.” (1 Samuel 19:1) The Message

Jonathan then attempted to reason with his father:

“Jonathan brought up David with his father, speaking well of him. ‘Please,’ he said to his father, ‘don’t attack David. He hasn’t wronged you…look at all the good he has done! He put his life on the line when he killed the Philistine. What a great victory God gave Israel that day! You were there. You were applauding with everyone else. So why would you ever think of sinning against an innocent person, killing David for no reason whatsoever?” (1 Samuel 19:4-5) The Message

Jonathan’s defense of David temporarily persuaded Saul. However, soon, he was again threatening David’s life. Suspecting this, Jonathan and David formed a plan to make sure. Saul had invited David to come to dinner with him and when Jonathan told his father, as prearranged, that David desired to go to Bethlehem and needed Saul to excuse him from dinner, Saul gave himself away as to his true murderous intentions toward David:

“Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan…’you son of a perverse…woman. You have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame…As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR KINGDOM WILL BE ESTABLISHED. (emphasis added) Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!” (1 Samuel 20:30-31) NIV

What Saul, a fame seeker, could not understand was Jonathan’s allegiance to goodness, not to establishing his own kingdom. He was happy to be behind the scenes when this was where God’s mission for him lay. He would never have traded protection of his friend, David, for his own aggrandizement in life.

Jonathan went on to warn David that, in fact, Saul did intend to take his life and David was saved, along with God’s own plan for Jesus to be born in David’s line. How great were the stakes here, how much was riding on Jonathan choosing God’s way and Kingdom and not his own.

Two heroes, Rahab and Jonathan – God viewed what they did in secret and honored both openly.

In the case of Rehab, God placed her name in the genealogy of His Son. (Matthew 1:6) To reward that done so privately. it is hard to imagine a more public and enduring recognition.

With Jonathan, God also chose to honor him in His Word and through David. In 2 Samuel 9:1-3, The Message, Scripture records David asking,

“Is there anyone left of Saul’s family? If so, I’d like to show him some kindness in honor of Jonathan’…A servant from Saul’s household.,,told the King, ‘Yes, there is Jonathan’s son, lame in both feet.”

When the son, Mephibosheth, whose father Jonathan had died in battle, appeared at David’s request, in the palace, David greatly honored him:

“I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather, Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” (2 Samuel 9:7) NIV

Under the radar, behind the curtain, in this life – but Rahab and Jonathan were openly glorified forevermore, their hidden lives lived as soldiers for the Lord.