Laurel? Yanni?

I'm on Twitter almost every day, which is pretty sad commentary, actually, but I do use it to tweet out my blog posts and in that crazy way "get the gospel out there".  At any rate, the other day I noticed this Laurel or Yanni thing trending.  For those of you who are non-Tweeters that basically means it was being tweeted about a lot.  It darn near broke Twitter, from what I understand, and even people in Europe were talking about it.  So, what was the big fuss, you ask?

Honestly, at the time I ignored it because I had other things to do.  But then, Wednesday night at a party, I was introduced to the controversy by my friend, D'Lynn.  Here's how it goes.  You can click on this internet site and hear an audio clip of one word.  Here's the controversy:  some hear the word as "Laurel" and others hear it as "Yanni".  How can one word sound so different, from one person to the other?  For the record, inquiring minds.....I am a "Laurel person".  The next morning on a new show, however, when they played the word, I heard "Yanni" as clear as day!

Here's what I think:  they play two different words.  End of story.  The official explanation is that each person focuses in on different wavelengths of this auditory illusion, essentially "hearing what they want to hear".

I was reminded of all this nonsense as I was reading from 2 Kings 3, because something similar happened there!  No, really!  Except that this time it was an optical illusion.  Let's take a look (lol, sorry....couldn't resist....)!

So, I was unfamiliar with this story.  It always comes as a shock to me when I run across a Bible story that I have not heard before (or if I have I don't remember it...).  At any rate, here was the scenario:

The story took place in the days of the prophet, Elisha, who figures prominently in the story.  The kingdom of Israel had already split into the Northern and Southern kingdoms.  The Northern kingdom, known as Israel, was being ruled by Jehoram, who was a mostly anti-Yahweh king, although not as bad as some.  He permitted some idolatry, but not the most extreme.  The southern kingdom, Judah, was being led by Jehoshaphat, a godly king who worshipped Yahweh (Jehovah).

The king of Moab at the time was a sheep breeder.  When Jehoram came to power, the Moabite king refused to honor his sheep trading agreement that had been in place with Jehoram's father.  Jehoram's reaction was to enlist the aid of Jehoshaphat and the king of neighboring Edom and march to war against Moab.

The armies of these three kings got out there in the wilderness and realized there was no water to be had.  Jehoshaphat, the only one who had any spiritual "sense" asked his men if there was a prophet of the one, true God, Yahweh, available.  Elisha was recommended and brought to the kings.  Interestingly, he asked for some godly music to be played and, in that atmosphere of worship, received an answer from the Lord God.  (I could go off on a tangent here, but will restrain myself...)

The answer was that God would send water for the men to drink, but that it would not be via rain or wind.  The next morning, the water appeared, flowing from the direction of Edom.  (This is a complete blog post in itself - - so much in this story, and I will return to it later.  For now, though ....)

The Moabites saw the water when they rose up that morning and here is where the optical illusion came in.  The way the sun shone on the water, it appeared to the Moabite army to be blood.  The conclusion they came to was that the three advancing armies had turned on each other and destroyed each other.  It was merely left to the Moabites to saunter in and collect the "spoils of war", which is what they attempted.  Unfortunately for them, they were wrong.  The "blood" was not the blood of the other army; however, the blood of the Moabites soon flowed to soak into the ground, as they were soundly defeated.

Although the Laurel/Yanni debate appears to be relatively harmless, some tricks of the eye and ear can be more harmful, as in our Bible story today.  Some illusions lead us astray or, if not deadly to our spirits, certainly leave us spiritually destitute. Whatever we fill our ears and eyes with shapes our souls and spirits, as we move through our lives.  No matter what we think we see or hear, let's always look to Jesus first in all our ways, praying and evaluating every bit of information in the context of God's Word.  This trust in Him will always lead to peace, everlasting, eternal peace.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)

But my eyes are to you, O GOD the Lord: in you is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

Psalm 141:8 (American KJV)