The Donkey Story With No Donkeys
Plus: new projects, why apology is hard, and God's work as puff pastry
Hello! Hope you’re well. Here’s the latest:
On Apology
Wanted to share this insight on apology. I think this is very, very true—and it’s why saying “I’m sorry” often is one of our family’s explicitly stated core behaviors.
“It seems easy to apologize. It’s just a couple of words sittin’ in the back of your throat and you just gotta get ‘em out. But if you don’t let ‘em out fast, those words just go deeper and deeper into you, until you can’t find them. And it’s stuck in your ribs, in your heart, in your lungs. And every mistake you’ve ever made, and everything you’ve ever done wrong, grabs onto them and holds onto those words so tight, they ain’t never lettin’ go.”
That was from Season 3 Episode 7 of The Bear, by the way. I continue to be floored by how good this show is. So much profanity, yes, but an unflinching, truly hopeful look at human beings in all their broken beauty.
Lost Donkeys and Found Destiny
This week saw the release of Season 6 Episode 5 of Holy Ghost Stories: “The Once and Future King (part 1).” It’s the origin story of King Saul, and of the Israelite monarchy itself. I think because his story is so connected to David’s, Saul doesn’t get hardly as much airtime. But his life was fascinating, as were his encounters with Yahweh. I loved spending time in these moments and crafting the first of two episodes from 1 Samuel 8-10.
Here are some details for you.
BITS AND BOBS
I had it wrong.
For a long time, I was under the impression that Saul was the king the people chose (he was tall and handsome and just looked like a king), while David was the king that God chose (after all, Yahweh corrects Samuel when he looks at the very kingly looking Eliab and says to the prophet, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
But the text is clear: When Samuel communicates the people’s desire for a king, Yahweh chooses Saul.It’s layered.
While the monarchy wasn’t Yahweh’s plan for Israel, and while He knew it would come with various negative consequences, He also faithfully accompanied His people into this new social infrastructure. He foresaw this (as I mention in this episode) and used (or offered to use) Israel’s kings as channels of His leadership and provision. This “even-though-you’ve-chosen-against-My-path” presence is a special kind of grace and is the focus of this episode’s introduction.
By the way, I’ve tried to empathize with the people’s point of view—hopefully that comes through. Too often, we caricature and villainize the Israelites in their struggle to remain faithful to Yahweh, which inevitably waters down the power of the narrative—we don’t identify with villains (or heroes, for that matter), and so we fail to see ourselves in their struggle.Where did this happen?
This episode takes place in the territory of Benjamin—a sliver of hill country on the west side of the southern end of the Jordan River Valley. Here’s a map and a photo of the area:
I made it Fall & Spring
For narrative reasons, I imagine the first half of this episode taking place in the Fall, with the second half happening in the Spring. I like the symbolism of this timing.Donkeys & Kings
This episode features a quest for lost donkeys. Cambridge professor Alistair Roberts shares some interesting tidbits concerning the Biblical association of donkeys and royalty in this audio post (timestamp: ~6:30). (In fact, Roberts’ audio on 1 Samuel 8, 9, & 10—about 12 minutes on each chapter—is jam-packed with good stuff. Well worth a listen.)
Going up?
The Biblical text continues to amaze me with its devotion to story craft. In this story, you’ll find the narrator emphasizing Saul’s ascension to power by way of a series of “up” moments:Up the hill to the city
Up to the high place
Up to the head of the table
Up to the roof to sleep
Up before dawn at Samuel’s command
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
At one point in this episode, you’ll hear a reference to both the song of a blackbird and the screech of a barn owl (both are present in that part of the world). It’s, of course, a metaphor for the dissonance between what could and will be. Here are the two very different sounds:
History repeats itself
It’s interesting (and sad) to see the pattern: Eli’s children become corrupt, and he adopts the promising Samuel. Samuel’s children become corrupt, and he adopts the promising Saul. Though Saul’s son, Jonathan, remains faithful, Saul becomes a (terrible) father figure to the promising David. There’s a lot of this repetition in Scripture (and in the world, I suppose).
I like Saul.
Saul has some decidedly unlikeable moments as his story continues, and I wasn’t expecting to like him hardly as much as I did in this episode. But I think he’s a really good guy here at the beginning—he’s devoted to his father, he’s humble, he’s kind to his attendant, he’s tall and handsome (evidently super impressive overall) but not full of himself, he’s thoughtful (“Come on—let’s go before my father stops worrying about the donkeys and starts worrying about us” [1 Sam 9:5]). And besides all this, he’s chosen by Yahweh as king—that’s quite something. Sure, he’ll get off track later, but I enjoyed enjoying him as his earlier self. Sometimes, we’re tempted to see the worst parts of someone as the truest parts of them. I hope others don’t make such an ungracious decision about me.
When dinner says it all
It’s easy for a modern reader to miss the epic significance of what Samuel serves Saul for dinner (1 Samuel 9:23-24), but the thigh of the offering was explicitly to be reserved for the priest (cf Lev 7:33-34). By having Samuel give it to Saul, Yahweh seems to be creating a new category of spiritual office. The God-ordained offices of ‘prophet’ and ‘priest’ are now joined by a new one: ‘king.’ Eventually, of course, Jesus will act in all three roles.
ENJOY
I hope this one blesses you! One of the things that I like about this story is how present-but-mysterious Yahweh is. He’s orchestrating things and is deeply involved in Saul’s life, but Saul is only getting clues and glimpses along the way. It feels familiar to me. :)
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What’s Next?
Episode 5 completes the first part of Season 6—we’ll pick back up with the Season on September 9th with “The Once and Future Kings (part 2).” In the meantime, here’s what the Hazefire Studios team will be working on:
The next episodes in Season 6: in addition to the conclusion of Saul’s origin story, tales about a little known Israelite queen, the origin of a famous strong man, and a couple of Old Testament classics that listeners have been waiting for for a long time now. I can’t wait.
A live show happening next month at a benefit dinner for The Magnolia Foundation, a nonprofit that ministers to parents who’ve lost a child. I’m working with a new musician on this one—a cellist named Mardochée Dade—and I’m excited to see how this collaboration goes.
A new project from Hazefire Studios that’s been in the works for months—it’s a powerful expression of our mission to bring you to a place where story becomes worship.
A brand new way to interact with the Holy Ghost Stories library.
Catching up on bonus content for our beloved patrons.
Outlining a very special future season of HGS. 🤫
Too, I’ll be taking some time off work with my family. I’m super ready for that. :)
The Bible is puff pastry.
As I researched this episode, I couldn’t help thinking about the way God intentionally layers different events/encounters/etc on top of one another in some of these places. Before he’s put into power over the nation of Israel, Yahweh essentially leads him (under the guise of a donkey recovery mission) on a tour of the same roads and trackways Jacob and Abraham walked before him—the places where they encountered Yahweh, made altars, buried their dead. This is not unique in Scripture—take Mount Moriah, for instance, near the northwest corner of the Dead Sea: It’s where Abraham meets Melchizedek, and where Yahweh provides a substitute sacrifice for Issac, and where David establishes his capital Jerusalem, and where Solomon builds the temple and places the altar of sacrifice.
It’s puff pastry. You know puff pastry, yes? That marvelous creation made by layering dough ontop of itself again and again and squishing all those rich, buttery layers together? That’s what Yahweh’s doing in these places. One significant event, then another and another—moments in different layers of time, all squished on top of one another. If you don’t look closely, you might miss the complexity of it. But pay attention and you’ll see the strata.
And then there are moments (many of these happened while Jesus was on earth, many more are to come, surely) when it’s like the pastry is put into the oven and magic happens—all that layering is now transformed into one beautiful, intricate product. Mount Moriah is (essentially) where Christ is crucified. Moments collide and ricochet and create a loaded event, delicous complexity made manifest.
3 Cool Things
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - This movie didn’t get much acclaim when it came out in 2013 (it’s the second of two loose film adaptations of a 1939 short story by James Thurber), but I love it. We showed it to our teenage girls recently and they loved it too. Not exactly sure why, but for me it lives on the shelf in my heart that Dan In Real Life lives on—and that’s high praise. Shot on real film and the soundtrack’s great, too.
The Mind-Blowing Math of Sunflowers - Yeesh. I just don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.
Coda - Another movie rec for you (it’s summer, after all). I skipped this when it premiered a few years back, but finally watched it with the family the other night. It’s fantastic.
That’s the latest! Do share your thoughts about “The Once and Future Kings”—I love hearing from you.
Gratefully,
Justin