“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.” (Isa. 52:7, NKJV)
Running up to the writing of this milestone, the 1000th teaching in our Manna series, I wondered what God would choose as the subject thereof. Great was my surprise when research clearly pointed to John the Baptist. After almost seven years worth of studies which you painfully birthed you almost can’t remember all the different subjects that have been under discussion. Yet I’ve been clearly experiencing the Holy Spirit’s emphasis on the spirit of Elijah and John the Baptist’s prototypical roles as manifestation of that anointing, yet I had thought that topic has by now been thoroughly discussed from all angles.
But alas not. In a few teachings about spiritual fatherhood there were some references to Elijah’s calling of fatherhood. In Day 575-577 a single paragraph explained Elijah’s mantle which fell and was carried over onto the next generation, but as part of a series of teachings on the topic of heaven. In Day 683-684 John the Baptist’s genealogy was traced in reference to Elijah, and recently in Day 923-925, which concerned the tithe, the meaning of John the Baptist’s words to Jesus, about not being worthy of loosening his sandal strap, was examined. That is all.
Not a single word on Elijah, John the Baptist, and what Luke 1:17 calls “the spirit and power of Elijah”, and its implications for the Bride! It is as if God hid ElijahAfrica’s main focus for over 1000 teachings, to only reveal it in the 1001st one!
This immediately reminded me of the classic Persian tale of Scheherazade. She was chosen to become wife of a king, but the king believed all women are guilty of infidelity, and after the wedding night he had every new wife beheaded. Scheherazade however had a plan, and on their wedding night she started telling the king a story which captured his attention to such an extent that he allowed her to live so that he could hear how the story ends. For a thousand nights she let her story unfold, and remained alive. On night 1001 the king decided not to behead her.
In his anthology Language, Counter-memory, Practice (p. 58), Michel Foucault has the following to say about this: “And in this privileged night … a space is opened”, which removes death from the scene, and allows us to walk into the unfolding eternity of life.
Whilst writing the last couple of teachings just before the teaching of Day 1000 I received a new spiritual name (Rev. 2:17; Isa. 65:15) from God, which was initially hard for me to accept – camel hoof. If it had been camel foot it was perhaps a bit less crass, but camel hoof?! Because I’ve had a deformed foot from birth (which bears an uncanny resemblance to the hoof of a camel), it was obviously not a name I embraced. The next day, after I had officiated a marriage, the videographer walked over and delivered a prophetic word from God. God said to me: “How beautiful … are the feet of him who brings good news” (Isa. 52:7). When I made peace with the fact that also my body was knitted together perfectly in my mother’s womb, I knew that “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth” (Ps. 139:15), and starting praising Him for this, at which time He answered me directly through reading a new poetry anthology about which I had
Day 1001
to write a review. On page 9 of Melanie Grobler’s newly published anthology, deur ruite van die reis, I was struck by the following lines: “With hooves like those of a camel …” But – the matter was now settled and legitimised, and I read further, to p.35, where it unexpectedly says: “There is no water but the flow of ink on paper/ continues. layer upon layer I cross the desert/ day after day the hooves of camels sound”.
I am struck by God’s wondrous poetry. Yes, indeed – “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” (Prov. 25:2).
Searching through old emails, I suddenly find this photo a friend sent through, and I look closer – what one sees on the image are not camels, only their shadows. Beneath each shadow a small dot, which is the real camel. For a thousand-and-one nights I serve “the shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:17)! Those lovely camel hooves treading the temporality of this existence are nothing more than jots on the Kalahari’s white paper, but due to them “a space is opened”, an eternal space in which true life is made possible. Indeed – the eternal God who embraces everything, is a home (Deut. 33:27)! And whilst we are telling our story, we suddenly realise: the body belongs to Christ, and “we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.” (Eph. 5:30). Camel hoof of his camel hoof, indeed.
When I embraced this deep wound of the camel hoof, knowing that hidden in your deepest wound is also your highest calling, God whispered, as if smiling: “Actually your new name is Gamaliel”. And then the larger picture started forming: In Acts 22:3 Paul wrote that he sat “at the feet of Gamaliel”! From history we know that Gamaliel was head of the Sanhedrin and a respected expert of the Law, but was particularly sympathetic to the new “sect” (Acts 5:34-40). Gamaliel embraced the Christian faith with enthusiasm. The historiographer Photius documented the fact that Gamaliel was baptised by the apostles Peter and John, along with his son Nicodemus (Paton James Gloag: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1, p. 191)!
Gamaliel means “reward of God”, but the root of the word derives from camel (gimel)! Camel hooves wondrously becomes “the feet of Gamaliel”. ElijahAfrica started walking this path with the spirit of Elijah. The word walk in Hebrew is halak, and his shadow is kalah, which means, Bride. Thus – Keep walking, Bride!
- Selah: Ponder your 1001st night and the wondrous new day!
- Read: 49-58.
- Memorise: 52:7 (This synchronicity of God is my greatest reward. Praise Him!)
