Beacon2Light

Have you ever read a book in which you thought, “That was a good book!” and yet the subject matter was so sobering that you felt funny thinking that? That is my reaction to Think No Evil by Jonas Beiler and Shawn Smucker. This book is well worth reading, I wholeheartedly recommend it. October 2, 2006 is a date that will be etched into the minds of the Amish living in Nickel Mines and the larger community of “English” that surrounds it. For it was on that day that a lone gunman, someone that a good number of them knew, sent five girls into eternity, five others into life-threatening injuries and then shot himself at an Amish schoolhouse. Blasting away at ten young to little girls and then turning the weapon on himself, Charles Roberts victimized those girls, their families, his own family, the Amish as a whole community, emergency responders and so many more. The tragedy got our attention but what happened next gripped the nation. The Amish immediately began the process o...

I am sure that nearly everyone has heard the story of Gideon, the reluctant judge in Israel who led his nation to victory against the Midianites. What may be less familiar to you is the rest of the story. Gideon had seventy sons by various wives and another son named Abimelech by a concubine. Abimelech approached the people of Shechem with a proposition. Why should they have seventy sons of Gideon rule over them when they could have one of their own? The Shechemites agreed and Abimelech slaughtered sixty-nine of his seventy half-brothers. Jotham, the only remaining brother, got away. From Mt. Gerizim, Jotham put a curse, so to speak, on Abimelech and the people of Shechem. He stated that if they did well with his father and his house, especially considering all that he had done for them in rescuing them from the Midianites, then may it go well with them. Yet if it weren’t deserved, may Abimelech and Shechem turn on each other. What struck me about this passage was the ve...