No foolin’

April Fool’s Day.   The first day of the fourth month of the year traditionally known for the harmless (usually) jokes and pranks people like to pull on one another.  A friend of mine posted on her Facebook page yesterday, how she had given a co-worker a message to call Mr. Bear at such and such number.  When the co-worker called the number, it was the number for the local zoo.  Clueless ’til the end, she told my friend, “I tried calling Mr. Bear at the number you gave me and the zoo answered”.  It was not until she saw the look on my friends face that she realized that she had been had. Gotcha!

How did this tradition get started?  Well, a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that April Fools Day is celebrated around the world and dates back to the middle ages where the first mention of the day is found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1392.  But, it really didn’t answer my question as to how the day got started.   But, what I did find was this interesting bit of information.

Iranians play jokes on each other on the 13th day of the Persian new year (Norouz), which falls on April 1 or April 2. This day, celebrated as far back as 536 BC, is called Sizdah Bedar and is the oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today; this fact has led many to believe that April Fools’ Day has its origins in this tradition.^[83] 

 Interesting, because this is amazingly close to the time period when Esther was in Persia. Is it possible that the Persian tradition for playing pranks actually originated with the events of Purim? I wonder.  To this day, it is a popular Purim custom to wear a mask or be in masquerade as a representation of the Queens identity as a Jew, which was concealed until she revealed it to the King.

Whether these customs are related or not, I really can’t say.  But, the enmity between Haman (Persia/Iran)  and the Jewish people remain until this day.  When Iranian leader Ahmadinejad and other Islamic leaders vow to wipe Israel off the face of the map and bring death and destruction to infidel nations, we can believe them.  They ain’t foolin’.   Just ask the 12 UN workers killed in Afghanistan a few days ago including the two who were beheaded. 

April.  A month for the wise or a month for fools?  The English name for this month may have originated with the latin word Aperire  which means “to open”.  A possible reference to spring and the opening of flowers and the budding of trees.  But, could it mean more?

Already in the first days of the month, a scenario is working itself out strangely reminiscent of the one last summer which started with the explosion of the BP Oil rig on April 20.  In the news today, “efforts to plug leak of radioactive water in to Pacific Ocean fails.”    Hmmmm ….. effort fails. How many attempts did it take to finally seal up the Macondo Well last year before it was successful. (If indeed, it was successful).  

 April 2010, the Macondo Well. When looking up the meaning of the word Macondo, I found out it is the name of a town in a novel, a fictious town which had been cursed.

The name Macondo is the same name as the fictitious cursed town in the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Colombian nobel-prize winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

 April 2011, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.   The name Fukushima means “Island of Good Luck” – sadly, not so lucky anymore as it will take an estimated one hundred years before the fuel rods can be made safe.  Hmmm … one hundred years, one hundred years.   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42397653/ns/world_news-asiapacific/   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371793/Japan-nuclear-crisis-Fukushima-plant-entombed-concrete-radiation-leak.html

I opened my Bible to read this morning and turned to Ezekiel chapter 45.  In verse 18, the Lord instructs his people to take a young bull on the first day of the first month of the year and sacrifice it.

“This is what the sovereign Lord says:  In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect  and purify the sanctuary.  The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gate posts of the inner court.  You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple.”

It’s interesting to note that all of the instructions above precede the observance of Passover which takes place on the fourteenth day of the month, the month of Nisan (April on our calendar). The instructions above speak of sanctification.  God wants his people purified and set apart for him.  This is what he did when he brought them out of Egypt.  He set them apart.  He caused them to pass through the sea on dry land. The sea did not touch  them.

It strikes me that the twin disasters of oil and radioactive material spilling in to the sea speak  of something quite the opposite.  They speak not of purity, but, of defilement.  The sea representing people and nations. And, the fact that both disasters occurred during the same month one year apart (not the earthquake) but, the spilling of the radioactive material itself and the spilling of the oil  make for a very weighty argument, that we should probably pay attention to.

 If King Belshazzar was given a warning via a message on a wall, we’ve been given a ten-story high billboard.  No foolin’.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper who love thee”  Psalm 122:6.    Watching and waiting with YOU for the soon return of Jesus!   Cindy