That’s the name of an article of mine that was posted today at the Bible Study Magazine blog. It was originally published in the magazine, and appears in my book, I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible
In case you’ve never read the short essay, I’ve linked to it here.
Michael,
It was Biblical Home Field Advantage. Some visiting teams will secretly throw some dirt from their home field on to a visiting teams field before a game. Nahum tried to take some Israeli Home Field Advantage with him and In this case it did work.
liked the analogy!
Fascinating yet simple.
So when did this change? I mean, nobody goes and digs up land from Israel today. Today, God is everywhere. He’s not seen as tied down to anything
The short answer is “New Testament theology.” Holy ground is now wherever believers are (NT theology – application of the OT theology) since believers are the temple of God.
Interesting. Would you say that Jews themselves were influenced by the NT? Obviously Jews today don’t shovel dirt into their pockets when visiting Israel.
Many Jews today don’t think about their God at all; their god is their armed forces (not being pejorative there – I’ve had Jews tell me that, and it’s understandable given their circumstances). But again, the theocratic state and OT worldview were planned to be obsolete in light of the coming of Christ (Consequently, I wouldn’t fill my pockets today either if I went to Israel).
I wonder if Bram Stoker got the idea about a vamp laying in his native soil from this passage.
Irregardless, Naaman’s actions are an awesome illustration of the divine council worldview, and I use it as a teaching illustration quite a lot.