Issachar-the Hired Hands-the "Reward: Recompense"
By
Chen H. Fang
Other Benjamites and some men from Judah also came to David in his stronghold. David went out to meet them and said to them, "If you have come to me in peace to help me, I am ready for you to join me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence, may the God of our ancestors see it and judge you."
Then the Spirit came on Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said:
"We are yours, David!
We are with you, son of Jesse!
Success, success to you,
And success to those who help you,
For your God will help you,"
So David received them and made them leaders of his raiding bands.
These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at
Hebron to turn Saul's Kingdom over to him, as the LORD had said: … from
Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do-200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command; … All these were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel.
All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.
The men spent three days there with David, eating and drinking, for their families had supplied provisions for them,
Also, their neighbors from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali came bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen.
There were plentiful supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisin cakes, wine, olive oil, cattle and sheep, for there was joy in Israel. (I Chronicles 12: 16-18, 23, 32, 38)
Issachar is a name we do not really know. Yet, it is necessarily that we take a closer look at this name-the name of Issachar and how this name will relate to us as we going through the daily livings among the rest of the World. Issachar is the fifth son of Leah and the ninth son of Jacob, Jacob is the essential personality one would not want to miss when contemplating the geniuses of the spiteful and tacit tactics that he was able to utilized to gain his power over his only twin brother-Esau!
Despite the fact that he was indeed the master mind of his generation, Jacob had to be hired to do all that were needed to make him from nobody to somebody. These blessings of Isaac did not come cheaply, when treachery led the way to deceptions, Even if the blessings should have fallen on to Esau, his personality type or his temperaments would still force its way through to abdicate what had to be rendered for others to take.
When Ruben came in to the tent whereby Leah, his mother and Rachel, his auntie were chatting off the day in essence of their youthful life, the mandrake fruits made the way of pick and pay, on the other hand, it was the paid and pay for ruled the one thousand and one night of their fantasies. Fancy as it may, the results were nominal and genuine to be seen by the plumped body shape of Leah, such as if it had never been the chance given to live another life in another time.
Leah, who had to give up her first position rendering that Rachel was the sweet heart of the young Jacob, retained for her the patent sought by the family to harvest when it's the harvest time of wheat, barley, and grapes.
Summer has been long and at times unbearably hot when the sun scotching heat radiated from the rocks across the field. Nonetheless, it was a choice Jacob was offered when returning home by his ladies that the man of the house had to decide to what extent was this duty of the husbandman, i.e., the hiring hands to do to gain the unexpected surprise. Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, and the commentators were all arguing amongst them on the correctness of such an unexpected afford hands experience. Issachar-the reward had to be given to his parents-an honorable and princely descendent to our biblical account of Exodus, of Crossing the Jordan, of Scaling the land, of taking down the enemies,
On the plain of Eschelon, on the foothill of Carmel, on the toe of the Valley of Jezreel, laid of the future event which will drastically change the historical outlook of humankind-laid in the lot given to Issachar-a focal point of conflicts and conquests-whereby laid the defeats of the intruders-over and over again throughout the history of the land. Discern what the story might have revealed to us the wordings of the sentences, the unspoken details neglected by the historical criticism, annoyed by the textual criticism, and acknowledged by God through direct instruction given to John, the evangelist on the isle of Patmos.
Everybody was looking for Jesus when he was among us, and everybody fancied about the reality of the son of God lived among us. Nobody knew what made Jesus different from us until John and Peter took a hike to the top of Mountain Tabor, the church of Transfiguration first got her name, that name was not revealed to us but to God. Again we were in the land allotted to Issachar, often time, we ignore the greater details and tending to the minor ones, therefore, taking communion have to be part of the formulated equations on the trip.
When Elijah defeated the prophets and the prophetesses of Baal and Asherah, people saw the light, a mighty and marvelous light came forth and shined into the darkness. This was indeed a surprise to all of us, even though we were just reading a historic account of what went on and what was happening. The people of Issachar they took into mind. Howbeit, we live in a day and time, the signs and wonders supersede their time, but we too are short sighted and more often than not ignoring what the natural tried to un-avail to communicate with us on our urgent needs, David will have to be King of Israel again. The Davidic Kingdom is forging his way forward. Day by day there are people accepting Jesus and the Salvations God has offered to each and every one of us, just as we have accepted on the appointed day, time, and places. Those mighty men of God were Volunteers to help David by taking away the Kingdom from Saul and giving it to their Monarch, King David.
We too are the men of Valor, yet, we often time were slow in response, and at times, evading our duties as if we had never been enrolled in the camp together with the rest of the people of God. Given the fact that following David could well be paying a pricy cost, nonetheless, preservations, conservations, reservations, and solicitations occupied our days week by week, month by month, at times, ear by ear. They worked to establish the Kingdom; we talked to elaborate what the coming of the Kingdom might have to offer.We are color blinded by the fact what God sees between Jews and Gentiles, and we read the book full of Jewish identities and never envisioned to be partakers of Christ Jesus. The whole Bible is full of figures of personalities instead of personae. We read without understanding how the people made the decisions that concerned them. When indeed what those Heroes had to say was how to keep up with their callings from God, to His words, to His Kingdom, and to the rules of Kingdom of God. Their burden was their tabernacle; their salvation was the survival of the people of God, their help laid only within the range of their fingers.
While, our burden was what Jesus had accomplished on the cross, our Salvation has been the acceptance of God, our help laid not only on our fingers, by and large inside our hearts. How then can we discern the time and the things to do when all have been given both inside and out?
We come to church also were fully determined. But, not quite as what the bible said about them. We have decided to get to God what could have been ours.
We were not so committed to the work of the Lord, as the spirit in us does not always functioning in compliance with the words of God. We are presented, yet, we are not accounted for, for anything there might have been or will have to be.
The world is a little bit too small for us since it fits into the monitor screen of our hand held i-phone, i-pod, i-cloud, and i-aye! The neighborhood we live is only too big for us, although our cars have to run across their front yards, main gates, and at times, side doors to get to the church in another neighborhood. We did not intend to see the whole neighborhood to become the domain of our God,
There is no comparison to say the least between the Evangelicals, and the Conservatives to save a historical district within the county line. Yet, the ranks of King David constituted all the fighting men needed to get the job done. They grew daily. While the Church shrinks daily. The initial zeal God has placed in a human being is no different between one versus another. But, the outcome has been drastically different due to the fact of faithlessness versus being faithful to one's calling, i.e., one's duty. King David is only a person, a figure of heroic deeds, and a man of his own, Jesus, who is our King, contrasts what a flesh and blood could do, yet, who is also a God of his own. If David who they can see, can talk, can mingle with will need all the help he could get, then, Jesus who we do not yet see with our own eyes of flesh, who does not always talk back to us, and we cannot intermingle with, will have to solely depend on us to tell, to see to, to reach out to others who can only see us, talk to us, intermingle with us. We then have a role to play, have a duty to perform, have a place to act, and a choice to decide, Issachar is therefore a name, a clan, a place name, a figure, and a title to those whose hearts are in the right places. We have had more than three days in a week, in a month, in a yearly fashion to super and to dine with our God, whether He is busy or not to celebrate His Body, and the Wine,
The three days that Jesus was not among his people, we celebrating it not, as to keep up with the Church traditions. There could be much to say. However, we accept one another and we also assume that God of King David also accept us. Without demonstration of loyalty, with little interests to the things important to our King-King Jesus, we expect tremendously what God can bring into our life, when we cannot be too sure about the forgiveness of our sins on the first place. We descend to a lower lifestyle, which we despised eagerly. Yet, we must be accepted in order to continue live out the life style we anticipated to be when we first accepted Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
However, life is not to be without hope. When King David accepted Benjamites into his stronghold-He gave them a second chance to prove themselves. Today we the new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later Day say that we are the sons and daughters of the modern day Issachar. For we are the rewards of those who have labored in the field, and we too were chosen to labor in the vineyard to bring forth the good works to be the rewards to our God, this is what the King Jesus wants from us, i.e., to be a person of discernment, who can discern the time and know what to do. Today our King Jesus comes out to meet us. During the worship we have given unto him our renewal, our Redeemer his peace of Mind, i.e., our allegiances. This in addition to our daily devotional living, our time of quietness, our fellowship with the Saints, our mind focusing on his words, and with our deeds performing the duties assigned to us by the work of Holy Spirit, we surrender ourselves to our King David-Jesus the Christ.
Can you say frankly that you belong to Jesus? Can you discern the time and the things you need to do in order to stay in relationship with God correctly?
Remember the well and the Samaritan woman who came to the well to fetch water to meet her needs? What did Jesus say to her? Issachar is just in the north of Samaria. Do you want Jesus to come back successfully? Or do you want to do otherwise? If you want the blessings from God, of course, everybody would want to have the blessings from their God, the Father in Heaven, would you not have helped Jesus by reaching out to the neighborhood community around your house or apartment complexes?
God help those who help themselves. Perhaps it is a farfetched statement to most of the believers; nevertheless, the world sees it the other way.
They have actually applied the teachings of the Church to reach their personal goals, professional goals, and even more so the economic goal, which to us the believers is the financial freedom. Nobody needs to be just a person by himself or herself. We are not to be called to an island, therefore, quit that islander mentality and stay afloat with others.
Of all the stories relating to the land of Issachar, I can honestly say to you that only at this place that the Mongols were defeated by their Islamic contenders at Ain Jalut, the Spring of Goliath, in September 3rd, 1260. The Mongolian Cavalry won at the first, and then lost to the archers at the front center array. One of the leaders named Kitbuqa Noyan, who was a Nestorian Christian, he was to be killed in battle, and the Consolidated Mongolian Forces succumbed under the arrays of the fiery darts, arrows: They did not surrender, but to fight to their ultimate ends, without fear, nor complaints.
This was the first time that Mongol Forces failed to resurrect their defeat or to restore their names, and the invasion of Egypt ceased altogether. Therefore, do not think for one minute that the Bible got nothing to do with us-Chinese Christians, even if it was only a history now, yet, the characters shown had proven loyalty to their lords and their masters. It serves only to prove to us that God was in control and still is in control.
Ain Jalut is slightly east of the town called Jezreel, at the right bank of the Spring of Goliath when facing the East; 'Ain Jalut' is very close to the modern day city of 'Ein Harod-Meuhad,'
It is only a few miles away from the Megiddo Fortress, to be exact: it is less than four miles from the water way inside the fortress. Take Route 71 going North West to Afula, then, changes to Route 65 going South West to Route 66, at Route 66 turn right to go on to Megiddo or else one may continue on to go up to the Mountain Carmel.
It is in Adullam Cave, that King David and his followers, neighbors celebrated the alliance of the forces utilized from across the land of Israel to join him. Likewise, today it is in church we celebrate with our friends, neighbors, and our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ together for a joyful Shabbat and a three day feasts that is coming up at the Thanksgiving week. We rejoice not because we have extra burden to carry, but because of the commands we received from the Holy Spirit to rejoice. For the joy of the Lord is our Strength, Therefore, keep a joyful heart, and shake off the spirit of sadness caused by a burdensome lifestyle in Jesus Name.
Wherefore, discern yourself. Be ye the sons and daughters of Issachar, for there is not any other option offered to us at this time, the Spirit that came on Amasai before, has also come on us. The Spirit of God that moved on Amasai, have to move on us. When Amasai sang under the influence of the Spirit of God, He then belonged to King David, Today, we also want to say to Jesus our King what Amasai said to his king, i.e.,
"We are yours, Jesus!
We are with you, son of David!
Success, success to you,
And success to those who help you,
For your God will help you."
If you want to get married, come to Cana, which is in the center of Issachar. Every Great man had to have a wonderful woman to help him. If you are coming to San Francisco, do not forget to wear a flower on your hair. Likewise, if you are coming to Issachar, do not forget that Jesus's Mother-Maria who had asked the Lord only once in the Bible to change the water into wine. So that we can have Shalom in the World we live today, Amen.