Searching the Night Sky

When Israel knew the source

of their violent subjugation

they wondered, what was the course

of their long-awaited redemption?

Along that strange and winding story,

one byway left the main route

to wander through the fading glory

of a foreign people come to doubt

that the magic of their scholars

could stand before a mighty God,

that the wisdom of their elders

could save them from a mighty God.

But if God himself could save them

as he had done once for his own,

even as he had chastised them,

as spoken by one of their own,

then that was a God to search for.

So the calamity of God’s nation

became a witness to their captors

for the hope of their salvation.

Seventy years passed. Israel

returned to their desolate land.

They rebuilt wall, temple, and well

with sword and tool close at hand.

Hundreds of years more, God’s people

grew hard as revelation ran dry.

They disputed broken laws and feeble,

while three men afar searched the night sky.