The Librarian

Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 6:17 a.m. – I woke to this song in my head:

Marian the Librarian / From The Music Man / Meredith Wilson
Harold:
Madam Librarian
What can I do, my dear, to catch your ear
I love you madly, madly Madam Librarian...Marian
Heaven help us if the library caught on fire
And the Volunteer Hose Brigademen
Had to whisper the news to Marian...Madam Librarian! (Etc.)
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/themusicman/marianthelibrarian.htm

I also woke from A DREAM: There were abandoned rows of benches (with backs) in some kind of a pavilion. A woman took it on as her project to restore them, beginning with the front row of benches.

Scene change: There was a traffic jam ahead. All the way in the left lane was a possible opening, but some kind of a blanket or tarp was blocking the view – blocking all but a small opening near the bottom. I looked beyond this obstruction and saw a clearing, so I told the rest of my party that I believed we could drive through there. It was a step of faith.

So I led the way down the lane on the left through the obstruction to a safe clearing in the road. Afterwards, I talked with a large man about Jesus. I told him we made it through the obstruction because of faith in Jesus Christ. I encouraged him to put his faith in Jesus Christ, too. I think I may have whispered that in his ear. END

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 18:

At the Potter's House
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

11 "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' 12 But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.' "

13 Therefore this is what the LORD says:
"Inquire among the nations:
Who has ever heard anything like this?
A most horrible thing has been done
by Virgin Israel.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon
ever vanish from its rocky slopes?
Do its cool waters from distant sources
ever cease to flow?

15 Yet my people have forgotten me;
they burn incense to worthless idols,
which made them stumble in their ways
and in the ancient paths.
They made them walk in bypaths
and on roads not built up.
16 Their land will be laid waste,
an object of lasting scorn;
all who pass by will be appalled
and will shake their heads.
17 Like a wind from the east,
I will scatter them before their enemies;
I will show them my back and not my face
in the day of their disaster."

They said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says."

19 Listen to me, O LORD;
hear what my accusers are saying!
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember that I stood before you
and spoke in their behalf
to turn your wrath away from them.
21 So give their children over to famine;
hand them over to the power of the sword.
Let their wives be made childless and widows;
let their men be put to death,
their young men slain by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses
when you suddenly bring invaders against them,
for they have dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden snares for my feet.
23 But you know, O LORD,
all their plots to kill me.
Do not forgive their crimes
or blot out their sins from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 18:13-17. “Judah stood alone among the nations in her stubborn refusal to follow her God (cf. 2:10-11). Even the snow on the slopes of Lebanon and the cool waters that flow from these majestic mountains were more dependable than fickle Judah. She had turned from God to worship worthless idols (cf. comments on 2:5) which only caused her to stumble. By abandoning the ancient paths of obedience to God (cf. 6:16), Judah found herself on bypaths, wandering aimlessly over rough roads.

“God would judge the nation for her sin by having her land ... laid waste. She would become an object of ... scorn to those who were appalled at her stupidity in abandoning her God (cf. 19:8; Lam. 2:15). The Lord vowed to scatter the nation like the wind from the east (cf. Jer. 4:11-12; 13:24). They should expect God’s judgment (His back), not His favor (His face).”

My Understanding: I believe that the Lord is showing here first of all a picture of a workman who restores abandoned benches. I see benches as having to do with people in positions of leadership who have abandoned their faith in God and thus God has brought this judgment upon them.

Just as the potter reforms the clay that is marred in his hands, or this woman restores these benches, the Lord sometimes needs to reform us by first of all destroying what we were and then taking us again into his hands and remolding us into His image.

Although Professor Harold Hill of Music Man is not what I call a good example to follow, still the point of this song was that he was trying to talk with the Librarian but she would not listen, so he shouted and she hushed him. So, he says “Heaven help us if the library caught on fire and the volunteer fire fighters had to whisper the news to the Librarian,” because she would not listen to his shouts of admiration and love towards her.

The “Librarian,” from a financial perspective could be Wall Street (someone responsible for the books) and God has been shouting to them but they haven’t been paying attention, so God is having to bring the “fire” in order to get their attention. In another sense, the “Librarian” could be anyone sitting on a “bench” in some kind of position of authority over our nation and God has been shouting at them, as well, but they also are not listening and the “fire” has come and will come.

So, we are having to walk (or drive) on bypaths financially and literally through road blocks and obstructions of destroyed buildings and homes, but the Lord is showing that there is a ray of light if we will follow His lead. These dual disasters of Wall Street and of Hurricanes open the door for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached. It must be “whispered” now because many of these people are without power and can be reached no other way than person to person. I pray that the gospel will get out to everyone in our nation affected by these disasters and that many will turn their hearts to Jesus.

This passage of scripture, though, does not cast much hope on too many people turning from their ways and turning to God, even in the face of disaster.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080916/D937IHJG0.html