Giants and Wanderers

Oh Israel… how can you be afraid
Of the Giants, the Amalekites, this Canaanite parade?
Don’t you remember? Don’t you know your stories?
Oh Israel, believe!

Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, son of Shem like you
Came to Kadesh, killed the Amalekites, killed the Amorites, too
Went into the hills and killed the Rephaim; they’re giants!
And all those giant peoples were beaten and subdued…

Oh Israel… how can you be afraid
Of the Giants, the Amalekites, this Canaanite parade?
Don’t you remember? Don’t you know your stories?
Oh Israel, believe!

With three hundred eighteen men, Abraham your father
Came by night and put to flight that mighty giant killer
And brought back all his people, and gave the praise to God,
And this God is your God…

Oh Israel… how can you be afraid
Of the Giants, the Amalekites, this Canaanite parade?
Don’t you remember? Don’t you know your stories?
Oh Israel, believe!

In the hill country of Seir lived the Horite people
And the blood of giants flowed in their veins.
They were long ago defeated and driven from their land
Now Esau your brother, he walks those hills in peace…

Oh Israel… how can you be afraid
Of the Giants, the Amalekites, this Canaanite parade?
Don’t you remember? Don’t you know your stories?
Oh Israel, believe!

Many years ago when she was just a girl
She lived on the hills where the sun goes down
Her younger sister too, when father was still true
And Abram was around…

Then one day they moved to the valley
Took along her world and headed east
Man and beast, little girls not the least…

Ohhhhhhh, ohhhhhhhh

In the valley schools, walking with the fools
Growing to believe her conscience free
Her younger sister too, too weak to be the few
To swim against the stream…

Evil days of war swept her under
Taken as a captive way up north…
Though in the dark of night a saviour found her
She stayed her course…

Ohhhhhhh, ohhhhhhh

Now she’s in a cave upon the hillside
Thinking like a slave and not a bride
All she ever had was taken from her
But what’s inside…

Ohhhh, ohhhh, ohhhh,

Many years ago when she was just a girl
She lived on the hills where the sun goes down
Her younger sister too, when father was still true
And Abram was around…

Once there was a Hebrew lad (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
His mother an Egyptian lass (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
The apple of his father’s eye (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
And to inherit, first in line (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
(ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)

The boy rejoiced when laughter came (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
Rejoiced that Laughter had a name (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
But did he laugh along in fun? (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
His mother’s mistress came undone (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)

For promises are promises
And Laughter gains the best of this
But glorious promise still remains
For the boy, the first of Abram’s strength…

So early in the morn they rise (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
And in the wilderness she cries (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
But a well of water God provides (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
A son and mother satisfied (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)

And God was with the boy, he grew (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
The wilderness of Paran he knew (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
A nation grew upon that land (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)
And he took a wife from Egypt’s sands (ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh,)

For promises are promises
And Laughter gains the best of this
But glorious promise still remains
For the boy, the first of Abram’s strength…

In the house of my fathers
I have learned how to wait
I’m a rich family daughter
With an ear for the tales I have heard them relate
They have told me of family
Back before I was born
Who left from this place
So to follow a God who was not made of stone
And I’m biding my time…

I have never been idle
Not a thing out of place
And the dust I have brushed from the idols we trust
Is my tutor in grace
For they never have spoken
Like in the tale I was told
How Abram was called by his name by a God
That nobody here knows
So I’m biding my time…

If He ever should call me
I would not hesitate
I would pack up and leave and before you could breathe
I’d be out the front gate
But I’m biding my time…

Isaac, Isaac, why won’t you listen?
Isaac, Isaac, why won’t you hear me?
You are blind now, you don’t see, it seems…

Isaac, Isaac, you crave your game now
Isaac, Isaac, it’s all the same…
You are blind now, can’t you see? Can’t you see?

I’m not deaf, you know, I heard Esau go
I heard you scheming…
If you think you will cut Jacob from your will
You must be dreaming

Isaac, Isaac, I’m not blind now
Isaac, I’ll be you eyes
Isaac, Isaac, I’ll use my mind now
Isaac, you’ll be surprised
For you are blind now
You don’t see, it seems…

In this place, far away
I have laboured, I have paid
For my house I have grown, I have gained
Sons and daughters for my pain
In this place, God of grace

But I long for the land of my home
Now I long for the land of my home

Years have wings… it’s been twenty
Flocks and herds I’ve gained in plenty
But I’m tired of this place
Let us go, let us leave here
We’ve no further cause to be here
In this place
Make a way, O God of grace

For I long for the land of my home
Now I long for the land of my home

For I long for the land of my home
Now I long for the land of my home

Go on across the river, Rachel my love,
Take Leah, the eleven, and this bounty from above
For I fear my brother Esau will not greet us with love
I don’t want you here
Down by the Jabbok River I know I’m not alone
He’s come again to take and make my privilege his own
But what the Lord has surely given
I’ll defend with flesh and bone
I will stand

You have come here for a fight
It has lasted all the night
For you know I’m in the right, I’ll prevail
But I don’t want you to run at the rising of the sun
Look upon me when I’ve won and you failed

I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me

Daylight at the river, in wonder and pain
The sunrise upon me as I limp on again
It seems I was mistaken
In the struggle undertaken in the night
All my life I’ve striven, again and again
To hold on to the word You’d given when I began
Now my name is Israel For I fight with God and man and win

I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me
I won’t let you go unless you bless me

In the end
Was your lust for vengeance dead?
Did it bow to love instead?
Did your sword ever rest on the mantle above your fireplace?
By the end
Did you come to reconcile?
Did your brother gain your smile?
Did the plan of the Lord find a home in your heart?

Or did you fall… as your children did
Again and again and again
Until your mountains were laid waste
But of you I have a question;
Will I behold you again standing with Jesus
In the end?

A whip could not drive this work from me
A threat to my safety could not make it come
The shackles and chains of my past tried in vain
But nothing like this could I have done

Then I faced the days of Your terror
When everything round me was shattered and razed
And freedom like water came down all around me
I stood in it soaked and amazed

When You came to the mountain
In billowing darkness and flame
We crowded around at the foot on the ground in the rain
And we begged You to speak to Moses
It was too hard to hear You, we claimed
But when Moses was gone on the mountain
You called me by name, You called me by name

There’s plenty of skill in my fingers
My mind is as clear as the high desert sky
And the worship You call for has glory and beauty
A maker of glory and beauty am I

Silver and gold, blue and purple
Are better by far than a brick made of straw
I will spend myself gladly in making the holy
I’m Bezalel, Uri’s son, loving Your law

When You came to the mountain
In billowing darkness and flame
We crowded around at the foot on the ground in the rain
And we begged You to speak to Moses
It was too hard to hear You, we claimed
But when Moses was gone on the mountain
You called me by name, You called me by name

Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber
Of tentdwelling women most blessed
He asked for water… she gave him milk
She brought him curds in a noble’s bowl
She sent her hand to the tent peg
Her right hand to the workman’s mallet

She struck Sisera, she crushed his head
She shattered and pierced his temple
Between her feet, he sank, he fell, he lay still
Between her feet, he sank, he fell
Where he sank, there he fell down dead!

The king of the land was an old, old man
When you became his prize
No son you could bear would ever be an heir
You were just a concubine
For evil times hold evil men;
Your husband’s crimes were many then
But then he died, and other men
Could tell you were a prize…
May you never be despised

The land’s leading man came to hold your hand
And the scandal made the news
A fight over you, and your husband’s house was through
And the whole tribe sang the blues
Your leading man was lost again
And calmer times for you began
You raised your sons from boys to men
And hoped the sky stayed blue…
May the sun yet shine on you

Then the famine came
And the Lord laid blame
Blessed be His Name…

Sackcloth on a rock you spread
And day and night you kept your dead
Until the rain fell on your head
And washed this death away
May you rise to endless day

Why do we serve our enemies
In hunger and in thirst In nakedness, and lacking everything?
Why this yoke of iron on our necks
Until this people are destroyed
By the nation God will bring?
Because we did not serve the Lord our God
With joyfulness and glad of heart
For the abundance of all things…
This is why we serve our enemies
In hunger and in thirst
In nakedness, and lacking everything.

Because we did not serve the Lord our God
With joyfulness and glad of heart
For the abundance of all things…
This is why we serve our enemies
In hunger and in thirst
In nakedness, and lacking everything.
This is why we serve our enemies
In hunger and in thirst
In nakedness, and lacking everything.

What will become of the people
Who run from the one true God
Who stand unafraid of the vows they have made to an idol?
They will forget, they will not remember,
His Name will be gone from their lips

What will become of the people who trade
The knowledge of God for a lie they have made?
Who know where they’ve been,
But now worship the queen of heaven?
They will be watched by the Lord, but not for good
Disaster will come and they will never return
They will forget, they will not remember
His Name will be gone from their lips

My name is Azariah, I live in Babylon
I was born in Jerusalem before our time was gone
I remember well the gleaming
Of the temple on the hill of Zion
When Jeremiah warned us how my heart within me burned
Though I was just a lad, I knew our compasses had turned
And a place in the royal family put a target on my chest
And a spot in this line of captives out of the west

With Mishael beside me, Hananiah as well,
And Daniel in his chains off to the right
We walked along the Crescent
Till the great Euphrates shone in the night…

Each of us believed the word the prophecy had shown
To seek the peace of Babylon, for there we’d find our own
So in the royal palace with a language yet unknown, we began
We set our hearts to service, we went the extra mile
To serve the king, and serve the Lord above
And not defile ourselves on this food
Or the idols of this place
Or this Babylonian education state…

New names they’ve come to give us
New names that we will wear
So Daniel they call “Belteshazzar” now
Hananiah’s “Shadrach”, and Mishael is “Meshach”,
And I am called “Abed-nego”, but I’ll redeem it as I go

My name is Azariah, I live in Babylon
I was born in Jerusalem before our time was gone
I remember well the gleaming
Of the temple on the hill of Zion

I hang around the synagogue, I do what I am told
A man, a land, a withered hand, we’re crippled from of old
The Sabbath rules and we are fools
We live and move and be
Without a hand to help a man arise when he’s in need

Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh

He came our way one Sabbath day, and I became the bait
Could I be healed upon this day, or would I have to wait?
He did the deed to meet my need;
He said “Stretch out your hand!”
I stretched it out, without a doubt as whole as any man

Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh

Now here within the synagogue they’re plotting to destroy
The man who healed my withered hand;
Their question was a ploy
For Sabbath rules will harden fools who will not bend the knee
For Jesus is the Sabbath King, and mercy His decree

Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh Ohhhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhh

When evening came
We went down to the sea
Our boat was there
We sought the shores of Galilee
Darkness fell
Upon the empty seat
“Jesus has not come, Jesus has not come…”
Oh let Him be…

Sea grew rough
Waters dark and deep
Wind was strong
The miles were long and hard to keep
When we saw Jesus
Walking on the sea
Fear was in the boat
Our hope could stay afloat
This we all could see

He told us
It is I, it is I, do not be afraid
(We thought He was a spirit)
It is I, it is I, do not be afraid
(We were utterly confounded)
It is I, it is I, do not be afraid
(We were so ashamed)
It is I, it is I, do not be afraid

Our fathers in the wilderness
Ate the bread of angels
The food we had was heaven-sent
Moses was no stranger
What about you?
What sign do you do?

We see no signs but only bread
Food to feed our hunger
We eat and drink until we’re dead
And no one stops to wonder
No one but You, no one but You…

You speak of bread from heaven
Giving life both then and now
You say You are the bread of life…
How?

Your father was our carpenter
Your mother is our neighbor
You say You fulfill it all
The manna and the laver
But we know you…
How could it be true?

You speak of bread from heaven
Giving life both then and now
You say You are the bread of life…
How?

Your flesh and blood You’ll give us
He who feeds on You will live
As if eternal life was Yours to give…

You speak of bread from heaven
Giving life both then and now
You say You are the bread of life…
How?

Thirty-eight years, has it been, since I’ve been to the feast
Lying here in the midst of the sick and diseased
There is no-one who can move me
Down to the pool to relieve me
Some other fool supersedes me, I am still here

Thirty-eight years I’ve been lost in this wilderness
Wandered here long ago, now I wander less
Nobody cares for a stranger
Too much to do, maybe danger
Here we all wait for an angel
And hope in a dream

Do I want to be healed?
I don’t know what to say
When You stand before me and tell me
Get up, take your bed, and go your way
Do I want to be healed?
What kind of man could say
What You said when You stood there and told me
Get up, take your bed, and go your way
Take your bed and go your way
I got in trouble straight away… (chuckle, laugh)

Thirty-eight years it has been, now I’m keeping the feast
Standing here in the throng, I have been released
He was the one who could move me
He was the pool for my healing
I was the fool, unbelieving
But now I am here
Jesus the one who could move me
Jesus the pool for my healing
I was the fool, unbelieving
But now I am here