Assassin's Creed: Judges

One of my favorite new video game titles in recent years has been the Assassin's Creed series.



In this series, you play as a highly trained, skilled, stealthy, and acrobatic assassin fighting against corruption and evil. The assassins are the ultimate swordsmen, dangerous with any edged weapon, who escape into the shadows as soon as their mission is complete...

And on the brink of next month's release of the next game in the series, "Revelations," I just discovered the original Assassin... in the Bible. His name is Ehud and his story takes place in the book of Judges, Chapter 3. Ubisoft should probably do a prequel and make the judge Ehud into the main protagonist. The first mission would go something like this...

¹⁵Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes.

¹⁷And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. ¹⁹But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." And he commanded, "Silence." And all his attendants went out from his presence.

²⁰And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." And he arose from his seat. ²¹And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²²And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. ²³Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them.

Skills.

Buddy Christ

I somehow managed to make it all the way through public high school without ever being required to read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. After discussing this shocking fact with my friend Josh Johnson, he gave me a copy of it for my birthday. I finally got around to reading it (after forcing myself to take a break from Tom Clancy) recently...

In so doing, I stumbled across what I thought was a rather poignant statement that reflects on our society as much as it does Bradbury's fictional one. (SPOILER ALERT) The statement takes place when Montag, the protagonist, has met with an elderly former professor whose vast knowledge and skills have no place in a world that deemphasizes personal knowledge and wisdom. Quality education has ground to a halt and free thinking is discouraged. Books, the keepers of information and thought, are targeted as the actual source of discord within mankind. The knowledge and wisdom of one individual creates a schism between him and his fellow man who lacks the same knowledge. This rift causes disharmony and thus the book, or more accurately the thoughts and words within it, is evil as it turns man against another. The solution? Systematically hunt down and burn all books, thus destroying the knowledge they contain.

Upon locating what very well may be the last remaining copy of the Bible, (which literally means "book," by the way) Montag brings it to professor Faber. The Bible is the best selling book of all-time and in my opinion is the most important book in history. But in Montag's world, it is forgotten... just another book to be burned. Some of the teachings and the concepts within it still remain but are distorted, dumbed down, and bent to the whim of the government. For instance, Jesus Christ, the focal point of the New Testament and the Messiah the Old Testament alludes to, is still a recognizable figure. Recognizable in that Christ appears on the TV to market certain commercial products. In Montag's world, Christ, the King of Kings, is relegated to selling deodorant.

Upon seeing the Bible and reading the Scriptures again for the first time in decades, professor Faber says: "I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down?"

Is our society in America any less guilty of "dressing down" Christ? Guilty of putting Him in a box, bending Him to fit our picture of how we think He should be? Guilty of twisting His teachings to be more palatable? Guilty of neglecting those teachings that aren't convenient? Guilty of seeking wisdom apart from that which He offers? Guilty of removing Him from a place of prominence? Guilty of trivializing who He is and what He did? Guilty of dethroning Him from being the Son of God to just another salesman peddling another philosophy? We may not be burning Bibles, but how faithful has this "Christian nation" been to its groom? Have we exchanged the truth for a lie?

Would God recognize His Son the way He appears in society today? In our homes? In our schools? In our churches? I'm sure in a lot of places He would, but I'm equally sure there are others that He would not... All I can say is that I pray and strive to make sure that if God looks at my life, at my family, at my church, He'll see someone He recognizes... He'll see His Son.