Bob Dylan's 'Jokerman' - an analysis - Part 1 - Introduction

Introduction
The album ‘Infidels’ – of which ‘Jokerman’ is the opening song –is usually not regarded as part of Dylan’s legacy of specific Christian albums. Although the album is littered with numerous Biblical allusions, it is, unlike its predecessors ‘Slow Train Coming’, ‘Saved’ and ‘Shot of Love’, which are generally labeled as Dylan’s Christian trilogy, not seen as outspoken Christian.  By some the album is seen as some sort of departure from confessed Christianity and even a tentative rapprochement to Judaism. In my opinion this is not the case .One may argue that Dylan – when he wrote these songs for this album sometime in 1983- had gone through a mental process of change which started ever since he converted to Christianity in 1978. The process of conversion to Christianity is marked by various stages which may be regarded as natural stages and all these phases constitute an integral part of Christian conversion.
Actually, the first stage on this road was the album ‘Street Legal’ (1978 which) may well be regarded as a prelude to his upcoming conversion to Christianity which became evident later on that year. The next stage was the album ‘Slow Train Coming’ (1979) which already showed on the cover of the album that Dylan had a works under construction and that it was now time to exactly pinpoint where he stood at that stage of his conversion. The album represents the phase of dogmatism and antitheses Dylan was going through: “Ya either got faith, or ye got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground” (Precious Angel) or “He who is not for Me is against me” (Gonna change my way of thinking’). ‘Slow Train Coming’ was followed by the album ‘Saved’ (1980). ‘Saved’ representing the next phase in Dylan’s conversion process, expresses joy and gratitude for Dylan’s personal salvation: ‘I’m so glad, I want to thank you Lord, I just want to thank you. ‘You have given me everything’’ ‘What can I do for You?.
‘Saved’ was followed by ‘Shot of Love’ (1981). ‘Shot of Love’ marks an entirely new phase. First of all, Dylan returned to what one may describe as a more secular way of writing songs. Secular themes often touched upon - like disaffected love - returned and were integrated in notions of apocalyptic deceit and formed a sort of synthesis with it. Although Dylan’s new songs written for the album ‘Shot of Love’ were no longer overtly Christian gospel songs or even blue grassy, yet the message was undoubted still the same but one had to make an effort to read between the lines to find it. In the first phase of conversion to the Christian faith there is certainty and this is expressed in overtly Christian lyrics but in the next stages there is also room for the expression of vulnerability, weakness, disappointment and self-doubt. In abundance we find this on ‘Shot of Love’, particularly in one of the greatest songs Dylan ever wrote: ‘Every Grain of Sand’.
The next phase, which at the same time is the most critical part in the process of conversion, is best described by the word ‘deception’. Seen from a religious point of view, conversion to Jesus evokes a spiritual war – as Dylan wrote in ‘Solid Rock’: ‘It is the ways of the flesh to war against the spirit, twenty-four hours a day you can feel it and you can hear it, using all devices under the sun. And He never gives up till the battle is lost or won’. Like in so many real wars it is deceit and deception that turns the balance. The devil is skilled in deception and addicted to deceit. The devil deploys these deceptive weapons in an ultimate attempt to turn the balance in his favor of those converts who ‘are hanging in the balance of the reality of man’.
It seems obvious that the album ‘Infidels’ is marked by this concept of deception and ambiguity. One of the best example of this is the lyrics of ‘Man of Peace’: ‘You know sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace’ which is quite clearly inspired by 2 Corinthians 11:14:‘and no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light’. We find the same phenomenon in ‘Jokerman’.  Sometimes it is as if the Jokerman is Jesus or Moses speaking, the next time it is as if the devil himself is speaking. To recognize the devil, you have to read carefully and you must know exactly what the Scriptures tell you, otherwise you will be deceived and you will end up joking like the Jokerman.  It was W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) the famous British dramatist and librettist who wrote: “Everything is a source of fun. Nobody's safe, for we care for none! Life is a joke that's just begun! That is exactly what the Jokerman wants to achieve through his deceit. In our next article we will take a closer look at some of the lyrics of this enigmatic song.

Het mysterie van de vervloeking van de vijgenboom

Het mysterie van de vervloeking van de vijgenboom.

Deze geschiedenis lezen we in Marcus 11. Jezus kreeg honger en zag in de verte een  vijgenboom. Hij ging naar de boom in de hoop iets eetbaars te vinden. Toen Hij bij de boom kwam vond Hij geen vruchten. Het was namelijk nog niet de tijd voor de vruchten. Jezus vervloekt de vijgenboom:"Nooit oftenimmer zal er nog iemand vruchten van je eten". De vervloeking kwam uit. Toen ze de volgende morgen langs de vijgenboom kwamen was de boom totaal verdord.

Een opmerkelijk verhaal. Jezus die praat tegen een vijgenboom alsof het een mens is. Nog opmerkelijker is het feit dat Hij kennelijk iets eetbaars verwacht te vinden aan de vijgenboom op een moment dat je dat van die vijgenboom helemaal niet mag verwachten. Je zou zeggen: Daar kan die vijgenboom toch niets aan doen!. Is die vervloeking niet zinloos?.

Het doet me denken aan vraag 9 van de Heidelbergse Catechismus. Daar wordt gevraagd: "Doet God de mens dan geen onrecht, dat Hij in zijn wet van hem eist wat hij niet doen kan"?. Het antwoord is: "Nee, want God heeft de mens zo geschapen, dat hij dit doen kon. Maar de mens heeft zichzelf en al zijn nakomelingen, op ingeving van de duivel en door moedwillige ongehoorzaamheid van deze gaven beroofd".

Dat gebeurde in de Hof van Eden. Er waren daar allerlei bomen met heerlijke vruchten (Gen.2:9) waar de mens op elk moment volop van genieten kon.Maar de mens viel in zonde door zijn moedwillige
ongehoorzaamheid. Hij trok de hele schepping mee in zijn val. Er volgde een vloek: voortaan zullen er dorens en distels groeien (Gen. 3:18).Het is niet meer een vanzelfsprekende zaak dat er vruchten aan een boom groeien. Die vloek kwam niet alleen over de planten wereld maar net zo goed over de dieren wereld. Een leeuw die je eerst kon aaien wordt na de zondeval een verscheurend dier dat je opeet. De eerste mens verloor zijn positie als onder- koning en nu wil de schepping hem niet langer gehoorzamen.

Jezus zegt: "Door het geloof zullen jullie een vijgenboom kunnen laten verdorren en zelfs bergen kunnen verplaatsen naar de zee" (Mat. 21:21).De eerste mens Adam doorstond de proef niet en kwam ten val en met hem viel de hele schepping. De tweede mens, Jezus Christus doorstond de proef wel  en daarom kon hij temidden van wilde dieren verblijven zonder dat ze hem verscheurden (Marc. 1:13).Maar zo kon het niet blijven. Voor Jezus geldt dat Hij nu de weg van de vernedering moet gaan. Hij die als Koning mag eisen,voor Hem zijn er nu geen vijgen om Zijn honger te stillen. Omdat Jezus volmaakt is doet de vijgenboom als schepsel Hem onrecht en daarom moet de boom vervloekt worden. Maar gelukkig zal het zo niet blijven. Door Zijn gehoorzaamheid zal de paradijs toestand weer hersteld gaan worden. Straks zullen er elke maand vruchten te plukken zijn. Ja zelfs de bladeren van de bomen brengen de volken genezing. Er zal niets meer zijn waarop een vloek rust. (Openb. 22: 2,3)

When the night comes falling from the sky - an analysis Part 3

Lyric analysis of Bob Dylan’s “When the night comes falling from the sky’ – Part 3 (final part).

Part 1 and 2 of this analysis were published a few months ago, so if you wish to put things together please first read Part 1 and Part 2 of my analysis. We now continue were we left off last time.
 
“In your teardrops, I can see my own reflection; luck was with me when I crossed the borderline.  I don't want to be a fool that's starving for affection; I don't want to drown in someone else's wine”. You can see your own reflection in the mirror. Her tears are so big and intense that he can see his own reflection in those tears, like looking into a mirror.  It is really all buckets of tears here. He sees his own reflection also means that he sees his own sorrow and grief, about the situation she is in now, reflected in her tears. ‘Luck was with me when I crossed the borderline’, the Empire Burlesque version has: ‘ It was on the northern border of Texas where I crossed the line’  is a metaphor to show that at a certain point during her lifetime, he was lucky enough to get away from her and to set himself free. On border towns Dylan is said to have said “You feel things and you’re not quite sure what you feel. But it follows your every move.” By crossing the borderline the poet was lucky enough to break away from her physically, yet mentally he is very much attached to her.
“ I don't want to be a fool that's starving for affection” reminds us of the poet Spenser who once said: “Most wretched man, That to affections does the bridle lend”. The Scriptures say that a fool is a person who acts contrary to moral and religious wisdom and who ends up dead. The poet seems to struggle with this misplaced affection, lust which will ultimately lead him to death. He cries out the same warning as in ‘Don’t fall apart on me tonight’: ‘No more decadence and charm, no more affection that’s misplaced girl’.
“ I don't want to drown in someone else's wine” may either mean that he is not willing to fall victim to the delight of others –the satanic powers that urge him to give in to the powers of the flesh –or some vague reference to the blood of Christ. In ‘Tight connection to my Heart’ Dylan wrote ‘Never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine” .In Matthew 26:27 it says: ‘And he (Jesus) took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people”. The meaning here may be that if he gives in to her, the blood of Christ will do him no good. The blood (the wine) which was meant to salvage him will be the cause of his ultimate spiritual death.

“For all eternity I think I will remember that whirlpool of light that's in your eye”.Again, the poet focusses on what will happen in all eternity. In eternity there is a large gulf between the two them which cannot be fixed. Yet it will be a narrow escape from her. Her life – some hear ‘life’ instead of ‘light’ here – is like a whirlpool that sucks all life out of him, just like a black hole in universe absorbs all energy of a galaxy. This whirlpool is like that temptation’s angry flame which tried to drag him into the morals of despair. He did not give in, but it was a narrow escape and for all eternity he will remember the power of force she had on him.
“You will seek me and you'll find me in the wasteland of your mind, when the night comes falling from the sky”. He fears that she will end up in hell. And just like the rich man in hell (Luke 16), in vain reached out to poor Lazarus for help, her attempts to reach out for him will fail. Yes, she will find him, but it will be in ‘the wasteland of her mind’.  A wasteland is an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation. She will find him but she will be unable to get into contact with him and reap the fruits of such an encounter, it will all be in vain.  
Dylan may have been inspired by T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" of which the critic Joseph King wrote that it ‘demonstrates a religious sentiment about the increasing lack of restraint in human sexuality. The reader experiences a morose overtone from the title of the poem to its almost nonsensical conclusion as Eliot describes this fantastic yet hauntingly familiar wasteland. The oncoming sexual revolution appeared imminent as a reaction to the repressive Victorian society of the past generations. Eliot sensed the changing world and forged this poem to strike at the heart of this growing trend of immorality."

“Well, I gave to you my heart like buried treasure, but suffering seems to fit you like a glove, I’m so tired of those who use forbidden pleasure, who think they've got a monopoly on love”.
Some hear here: Well I gave to you my heart without bad intention. Since there is no alternate transcription of the song, this may also be possible.
‘A buried treasure’ is usually defined as a surprising piece of code found in some computer program. The expression ‘A buried treasure’ may be used sarcastically, because what is found is anything but a treasure. Anyway, ‘buried treasure’ almost always needs to be dug up and removed. In slang ‘buried treasure’ may denote yet-to-be burnt weed found at the bottom of a deep bowl, usually covered by layers of ash. Furthermore Jesus speaks of a ‘buried treasure in Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field. When a man discovered it, he buried it again”.
Within the context of the song ‘buried treasure’ may mean that in the poet’s heart there is something very precious. This treasure may be faith in God. The treasure is buried deep in his heart, so it is not easy to dig it up but if she would have done her utmost, she would have found it. But she refused to do so and now it is too late, all that remains for her is eternal suffering, a suffering which is all around her and seems to fit her like a glove. Whereas peace, joy and delight fit those who are in heaven like a glove, those who are in hell fit suffering like a glove. Which one will fit you is a matter of choice, a choice you have to make here on earth. It is either one or the other (but one cannot say neither of the two).
“ I’m so tired of those who use forbidden pleasure, who think they've got a monopoly on love”. Some hear Dylan sing: “I'm so tired of those who use you for their own pleasure”, but this seems less appropriate. ‘Forbidden pleasure’ reminds us of the forbidden fruits of paradise. In “TV Talking song” Dylan warns us that watching TV will “Lead you to the land of forbidden fruits”. The forbidden fruits of paradise were a delight to the eyes and very tempting. Eve fell for the temptation of the devil and ate the forbidden fruits and by doing so dragged all mankind into sin. The core of all sin is separating the gift from the Creator of the gift and using the gift for one’s own pleasure, as a stand-alone item. This is exactly what those do who use forbidden pleasure. They have sex without love and without an embedding in a relationship of enduring love, loyalty and companionship, and that is what forbidden pleasure really is all about. Those advocates of forbidden pleasure make matters worse by claiming that this way of practising love is the only way of expressing love, they think they’ve got a monopoly on love, they look down in contempt on those prudish people, who reject free sex and who still connect love and sex. The poet is sick and tired of those advocates of free love and sex and that is why he ends the song with an unequivocal statement.
“Well, this time I'm asking for freedom, freedom from a world which you deny. And you'll give it to me now, I'll take it anyhow, when the night comes falling from the sky. This last verse has the force of an ultimatum; it is full of apocalyptical fire. The song reaches its climax. For him it is a matter of life or death. He does not want to abandon her but at the same time he demands freedom. He demands freedom to serve the Lord. He lives in a quite different world than she does. She constantly refuses to accept the existence of the spiritual world he lives in. He feels he has to make a choice. She must accept the reality of this spiritual world and if not he has to leave her. One thing is clear to him: he will not abandon his faith and if she is not willing to accept that, he must leave her, no matter how painful such a decision is. The bottom line is that if he has to make a choice between her and God, he will chose for God. When the night comes falling from the sky – the Latter Day is on the doorstep –he wants to make a clear statement about his dedication to God, this dedication is straightforward, plain and irrefutable and if he has to give up his beloved for this dedication he will do so, no matter how suffering and agony it will cost.  
As always do not hesitate to write a critical comment on this article. 

Bob Dylan's 'When the night comes falling from the sky'- an analysis - Part 2

Lyric analysis of Bob Dylan’s “When the night comes falling from the sky’ – Part 2.


‘I can see through your walls and I know you're hurting.  Sorrow covers you up like a cape. Only yesterday I know that you've been flirting with disaster that you somehow managed to escape’. The poet sees his beloved in hell. She cannot see him but he can see her, he ‘can see through her walls’, he experiences a vision which you normally cannot see on earth with your natural eyes. It is as if the camera now zooms into a scene which is very much reminiscent of the parable of poor Lazarus and the rich man as written in the gospel of Luke (16:19-31).It is as if we are invited to 'look into the fiery furnace and to see the rich man without any name'. If there is any place where you are covered with sorrow and where suffering fits you like a glove, this place is in hell. The tormented rich man in hell begs: 'send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame’. The  rich man may add: ‘All I see is heat and flame'  But it is as if Abraham says: 'there ain't no going back when the foot of pride comes down' Communication is no longer possible: 'Don’t look for me, I see you, there is this great gulf fixed between you and me' Oh yes, it was only yesterday, in this life on earth that everything seemed quite the opposite, but the rich man had been 'flirting with disaster' when he did all this injustice to the poor Lazarus. It looked as if the rich man somehow 'managed to escape’ judgement and disaster when after his luxurious life, he had that exuberant funeral but it is now time to face the bare facts. Elsewhere Dylan writes: ‘God knows you ain’t gonna be taking nothing with you when you go’. Whether you are rich or poor in this life, in the end it does not matter anymore. The same thing the rich man has experienced now seems to have happened to the poet’s beloved. That is why the poet goes on to say ' Well, I can't provide for you no easy answers. Who are you that I should have to lie? You know everything, my love. Down below and up above, when the night comes falling from the sky’. Jesus once said: “For the time is coming when everything that is covered will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all” (Mat 10:26). There is no need to beat around the bush any longer, the time for easy solutions has passed, the truth has to be faced. There is no sense in telling lies anymore because when the night comes falling from the sky, the truth will be known to all. Here on earth, ‘down below’- just like the rich man- you were able to keep up appearances, you thought you had it all and - just like the rich man did to poor Lazarus, even here in hell ‘up above’, you think you can order me to do things for you, but you have to keep in mind that now there is a large gulf between you and me, there is nothing left I can do for you , now  is time for your tears, the night has fallen from the sky.
“I can hear your trembling heart beat like a river and recently you thought you'd seen it all. But you're disappointed now in those who did not deliver, but it was you who set yourself up for a fall”. In this episode the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Luke Chapter 16) still lingers in the background. There is a wall between the poet and his beloved. He can not only see but also feel her pain, fear and agony; he can even feel her troubled heart beat like a wild river. Only yesterday she was living a life full of wealth and luxury and she thought she had everything under control, she needed nothing from anyone, she had seen it all and apparently was in a position to order people to do things for her. But now, up above here in hell, she has lost the high position which she recently had on earth.  Also the rich man in hell was no longer in a position to give orders to poor Lazarus. Abraham repudiated the rich man and said to him: “Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish” (Luke 16:25). It is as if Abraham says: ‘you have no reason to be disappointed that Lazarus no longer delivers. During your lifetime you had all the opportunities and all time in the world to help and to do justice to poor Lazarus but you refused to do so. Your contempt for poor Lazarus and your continuous refusal to help him is the reason for your downfall and that is entirely your own fault; it was you and no one else who set yourself up for a fall”. You cannot go on for ever defying doing justice on earth, when you do that you set yourself up for a fall and the outcome will be that ‘one day you open up your eyes (in hell), and you’ll see where you are’,  but then it will be too late.

“I've seen thousands who could have overcome the darkness, for the love of a lousy buck, I've watched them die. Stick around, baby, we're not through, don't look for me, I'll see you, when the night comes falling from the sky”.
It is said that ‘Achluophobia’, or the fear of the dark, puts many children and even some adults into terror. While many children grow out of it, some 28% of adults still have some sort of anxiety-related disorder. True as this may be, it is not this kind of darkness and fear, which the poet has in mind here. ’Darkness’ here reflects what is said in Colossians 1:13 “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son”. The kingdom of darkness represents hell. I Tim 6:10 says: 'the love of money is the root of all evil'. Ultimately, the love of money, the love for a lousy buck caused the rich man to end up in hell. Nowadays the poet sees the same thing happening all around him. Many people could have been saved but the love of money prevented them from overcoming the kingdom of darkness and entering into the kingdom of love and light. It is true what Dylan wrote many years earlier: ‘he not busy being born is busy dying’. ‘The love of a lousy buck’ seems to be inspired by a film called ‘On the Waterfront’. ‘On the Waterfront’ is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. There is a dialogue in the film in which Karl Malden says: "You want to know what's wrong with our waterfront? It's the love of a lousy buck. It's making love of a buck---the cushy job---more important than the love of man!"
‘Stick around’ means “Stay put in the corner here!"; "Stick around and you will learn something!, we’re not through, we are not finished yet. Over here in hell, the tables are turned. You cannot bully me any longer like you once did when we were on earth, I can’t hear you anymore, and from now on you have to listen to what I say. Don’t look for me I’ll see you, is again a quote from the Humphrey Bogart film "Maltese Falcon" here it means that there is a large gulf between you and me, I can see you in hell but you cannot see me, you cannot communicate with me, for all eternity you’re completely stuck. This is exactly what is going to happen ‘when the night comes falling from the sky’.
Will be continued. Please add your response.......

Bob Dylan's 'When the night comes falling from the sky'- an analysis - Part 1

Lyric analysis of Bob Dylan’s ‘When the night comes falling from the sky’ – Part 1.


This song was first released on the album ‘Empire Burlesque’ (1985). There is an earlier, much different version of the song, which was later released on ‘The Bootleg Series’ volume 1-3’.  John Bauldie, in the accompanying notes to the Bootleg series version of the song, quite rightly wrote in 1991: ‘it’s remarkable to remember that this is a take which was presumably judged as not being good enough for release, merely a workout, and yet Dylan sings wonderfully. The song seems capable of kicking itself into ever-higher gear, and as the band recognizes it, so does Dylan, who gets audibly more and more excited as the song progresses’. In comparison, the Empire Burlesque version is much more easy going and lacklustre. This outtake however, is full of apocalyptic menace and fire. This is the reason why I prefer the ‘Bootleg Series’ version and in my analysis I will follow the lyrics of the Bootleg series version.
What is this song about? The ‘woman’, which in Dylan’s earlier works may be seen much more as a goddess, has more and more turned into an evil power, certainly ever since his conversion to Christianity in the late seventies. Over the years, the ‘woman’ or so-called ‘love’ is more and more seen as an expression of selfish lust, a force which continuously distracts him and tries to lure him into the morals of despair. Yet he shows an ambiguous attitude towards this force. On the one hand he makes it clear that he now lives in a completely different world and is continuously involved in a quest to give up ‘the ways of the flesh’, on the other hand he is still very much attracted to his former way of living and thinking. We find this ambiguity, this struggle, in many a song, also in this one. Let’s see how this works out in the lyrics.
“If you look out across the fields, see me returning. Smoke is in your eyes, you draw a smile. From the fireplace where now my letters to you are burning, you've had time to think about it for a while”.  Satan did this once. Satan crossed the fields of the earth and reported his findings to God (Job 1:7). Here however, it is as if Jesus speaks through his mouth of Dylan. He immediately takes us in our mind to what will happen on the Latter Day. Revelation 1: 7 says: “Look! He (Jesus) comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him”. “The same way I leave here, will be the way that I came” Dylan would later on write, obviously about Jesus, in a poetical inversion when he composed the song “If you ever go to Houston”, reflecting Acts 1:11: “Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”. In the poet’s imagination that moment has now come. It is as if Jesus says: ‘be on the alert, look out across the fields, look up into the sky, I may return at any moment now”. “Smoke is in your eyes, you draw a smile” seems to be inspired by an old song called “Smoke gets in your eyes”, written by Otto Harbach for the 1933 operetta Roberta. In the original lyrics it says: “Yet today, my love has flown away, I am without my love. Now laughing friends deride tears I cannot hide, so I smile and say when a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes”.  The notion seems clear. It expresses what Dylan wrote in ‘What Good am I? : ‘I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings’. Judgement Day has arrived and although the smoke of the fire which accompanies this day is still visible and hurts people’s eyes, people draw a frozen smile, as if they are unwilling to admit defeat. Jesus goes on to speak through the mouth of Dylan and says: “From the fireplace where now my letters to you are burning, you've had time to think about it for a while”. Dylan may have had in mind the seven letters which Jesus sent to the seven angels of the seven churches of which we read in the book of Revelation, chapter 2 and 3. These letters were sent and meant to admonish and encourage these churches –in fact all churches of all ages - to keep on following the Lord, but it appeared that over the centuries, these warnings of Jesus were thrown to the winds and disregarded, these letters were thrown into the fireplace where they were burnt to such an extent that Jesus had to complain: “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”(Luke 18:8). Now almost two thousand years have passed since Jesus sent these letters and that is why Jesus says: you've had time to think about it for a while” which means: “I gave you time enough to repent but you chose not to do so, time has run out now, now I’m telling you that I've walked two hundred miles, now look me over, It's the end of the chase and the moon is high”. “I’ve walked two hundred miles” is really a metaphorical expression meaning: “I‘ve gone a long way, I’ve gone to great lengths to salvage you, I did not only walk two hundred miles, I have even waited two centuries and now you see me coming across the fields and from the skies, look me over, see how majestic I am, I’ve come to the end of my trail, it’s the end of the chase, the game is through, it is time for the few to judge the many”. “The moon is high” serves to indicate that the celestial bodies are involved at the Latter Day. Although the moon will be high at the Latter Day, yet it will be darkened as Jesus says in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken”.
“It don't matter who loves who, either you'll love me or I'll love you”. Here Dylan quotes the Humphrey Bogart film "Maltese Falcon" in which is said "I don't care who loves who...maybe you love me and maybe I love you”; Dylan however, seems to use this quote for his own purposes in the song, i.e. to express what will happen with love as soon as time turns into eternity, on and after the Latter Day, when the night comes falling from the sky. As long as we live under the sun, there are all kinds of ‘love’; matrimonial love, love between brothers and sisters, parents and children etc. In eternity however, a completely new situation will arise as we may read in Matthew 22:30: “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven”. In eternity love will be of one kind, love will fulfil all people, not the kind of love we are used to but a love which will be much deeper than we ever can experience on earth, a love which will reflect the eternal love and friendship and companionship which has existed for all eternity between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It may be the reason why the poet says that in eternity love will be such an overwhelming phenomenon that one may truly say that “It don't matter who loves who, either you'll love me or I'll love you”, love will be all around us. This is what will happen to the children of God ‘when the night comes falling from the sky’. The ‘night’ may be a metaphor for the Latter Day here. This night will not come gradually, like the twilight, but it will come suddenly, it will literally fall from the sky. It will come –as I Corinthians 15:52 says – “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”, this is exactly what will happen “when the night comes falling from the sky”

Will be continued…”when my memory is not so short”…….

As always please feel free to respond. 

Reflections on Bob Dylan's "Shooting Star"

Reflections on Bob Dylan’s: ‘Shooting Star’ – by Kees de Graaf.
 
The moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide .Suddenly there is this flash across the sky and I see a shooting star. Is it doom alone that counts now? In the twinkling of an eye time seems to have come to a permanent stop.
In an instant, as in a flash back, as in a curtain glance I see this star from heaven fall; in it I see the life of my beloved pass by. “You tried to break into another world, a world I never knew”, I saw it was all her world, a world I’ve never known, a world in which I feel like a stranger nobody knows, a stranger in a strange land. I feel eternal alienation because I live in another world, a world which is so different from yours, a world where life and death are memorized and where the earth is strung with lover’s pearls. I asked you for freedom to live in this world, freedom to live in a world which you deny. She did not give this freedom to me, but I took it anyway. And now I ask myself what has become of her: “I always kind of wondered, if you ever made it through”. I feel sadness come over me when I think of this. I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul. I can’t see you anymore and now it is as if I can see through your walls and I see you hurting, sorrow covering you up like a cape. Last night I knew you but tonight I don’t. You had to go your way and I had to go mine. What about the Judge? The idea that the Judge holds a grudge on you haunts me like it never did before.
And now, as I see this shooting star, I know that for her the night has fallen from the sky....
But I do not only see her life, I also see my own life pass by: “Seen a shooting star tonight and I thought of me, if I was still the same, if I ever became what you wanted me to be” .The balance sheet of my life is drawn up. For me the time has come for the deal to go down. What has become of me? Have I held up my part of the deal? It goes back to that destiny thing. I mean, I made a bargain with it, you know, long time ago. And I’m holding up my end. But did I succeed? Oh my Lord, did I ever become what you wanted me to be or do you see my life as a complete failure? I have no idea what you expect of me. Well, maybe I do but I’m just really not sure. What I do know for sure that there is no escaping or turning back from You now.  “Did I miss the mark or overstep the line that only You could see? Seen a shooting star tonight, and I thought of me”. As this shooting star slips away, I can now clearly see my own failures and sins, they haunt me like they never did before. I tried to hide my sins from other people but You my Lord, you saw them all. Only You my Lord can see right through me, You can look into the deepest shadows, into every nook and cranny of my heart and You saw all transgressions. Oh heart of mine, so malicious and so full of guile, if I give you an inch, you take a mile. Oh forgetful heart, why did you lose your power of recall, every little detail you don't remember at all! Why did I so often miss the mark and why did I so often overstep the line? On this Latter Day I find myself suddenly confronted with the holiness of the Almighty God and in despair I turn myself to thee and in despair I wonder: What good am I when I so often turned a deaf ear to the thunder in the sky? I find myself stark naked and now I have no other option left but to throw myself upon your loving mercy, my Lord, and that is what I’m going to do.  
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But this is not the end. Just remember that death is not the end. As the shooting star slips away, the camera zooms out from my personal introspective level and that of my beloved to a universal, cosmic level. I now turn my back to the Son because the light is too intense. I can see the great apocalyptic, cosmic happening of the Latter Day suddenly start now. I see tree-trunks uprooted; I can see trees that stood for thousand years, suddenly fall. I feel a change coming on, the last part of the day is already gone, therefore 'Listen to the engine; listen to the bell as the last fire-truck from hell goes rolling by'. Hear that undertaker’s bell; ring them bells with an iron hand so the people will know that the sun is going down upon the sacred cow. I can see the last convulsive movement, the agony of death of the satanic beast as he drives the fire truck from hell on its last journey to the pit. The satanic beast lashes out one more time from behind the wheels of fire, in a final outburst of resistance, the beast is determined to destroy all the gentle through a huge fireball that sails through the air. As the fire truck from hell goes rolling by, I can see all powers that linger in the fireball heat explode. The tail of the beast tears down one third of the stars and casts them to the earth (Rev.12:4). The good, just and devout people now know that the hour of reckoning has finally come; I see those people surrender to the mercy of the Lord and I see that 'All good people are praying'. They learned to pray in the darkness of the night and in the brightness of the day. When Jesus gave the Sermon of the Mount (Mat 5-7), He gave them instructions how to pray (Mat.6:9-14).

I know that “It’s the last temptation, the last account, the last time you might hear the sermon on the mount, the last radio is playing”. As from now on, let us not be enticed because today is the day I’m gonna grab my trombone and blow, making it clear  that today is the last temptation, tomorrow there will be no more temptation, there will be no more decadence and charm, no more affection that’s misplaced. On this dreadful day which has now arrived, I’d hate to be you because I know I cannot trade places with you, on this day I cannot do it for you. Well, I cried for you—now it’s your turn to cry a while. Remember that today is the day of the last account, on this Latter Day; there ain’t no goin’ back, when your foot of pride comes down. If you had listened on time to the sermon of the mount, Judgement would be something that you’ll never see. So don’t wait before it’s too late because today is the last time you may hear and see it and feel it. As for me, I’m hanging on to this solid Rock. I hear the sound of a radio coming from the room next door. It may be the last radio playing because it is already late in the evening and all the music seeping through warns me that it is not only late in the evening, in fact it’s way past midnight. It is mighty funny: the end of time has just arrived.it is time for the few to judge the many.
“Tomorrow will be another day, guess it’s too late to say the things to you that you needed to hear me say, seen a shooting star tonight slip away” I had so much left to say, I had so much left to do, but it is too late for that. Right now, I see nothing gained by any explanation; there are no words that need to be said. But I do know that tomorrow will be another day, a new morning. I’m so happy just to be alive, underneath the sky of blue, on this new morning with You, my Lord. I know there are so many things that I will never undo. You needed to hear me say those things and I owe you an apology for that, please forgive my shortcomings and transgressions. But as I see this shooting star slip away, the light of the new morning is beginning to shine on me.  It is not as the light that it used to be. How I long for this day and for this place where the tree of life will be growing again, the place where the spirit never dies and where the bright light of salvation shines in dark and empty skies.

This is what I thought when I saw this shooting star slip away………

As always please respond to this article and let me know your feelings.

Gereformeerd en Charismatisch met elkaar in gesprek.

Het blad ‘De Reformatie’ heeft onlangs een nummer[1] gewijd aan ‘Gereformeerd en charismatisch – Met elkaar in gesprek door middel van vragen’. Op twee artikelen reageer ik in het kort. Het eerste artikel is van Hans Burger: ‘Huiswerk voor Gereformeerden’. Het tweede artikel waarop ik reageer is van Ds Bas Luiten ‘Genade, Geest en gaven’ –belangrijke gereformeerde vragen aan charismatische christenen’.
Eerst het artikel van Hans Burger. Burger formuleert een zestal kritische vragen die vanuit charismatische hoek aan gereformeerden gesteld zouden kunnen worden en onderneemt vervolgens een poging om vanuit de gereformeerde praxis na te gaan in hoeverre deze vragen hout snijden. In zijn beantwoording van de kritische vragen spant Burger zich in om zo veel mogelijk ‘credit’ te geven aan de bezwaren van de charismatici en eerlijk in de door hem zelf gefabriceerde spiegel te kijken. Een enkel punt licht ik eruit.

De eerste vraag die gereformeerden zich zouden kunnen stellen, luidt: ‘Hanteren wij wellicht een gesloten wereldbeeld?’. In een gesloten wereldbeeld heeft God geen plaats en lijkt leven zonder God prima te kunnen. Burger stelt: ‘Ook wijzelf, gereformeerden, hebben last van die neiging tot afgeslotenheid voor God. Gereformeerden, in Kuyperiaans-vrijgemaakte variant, zijn betrouwbare doeners. Zij neigen tot nuchterheid, in elk geval in Nederland. We laten ons niet snel in het hart kijken en zijn niet zo goed in geloofsgesprekken. Voor het drijfzand van de beleving zijn we wat huiverig. Liever richten we ons op het objectieve van Gods belofte en het normatieve van Gods wet. Het geloof blijft daardoor veelal impliciet. Het is er wel, maar krijgt te weinig woorden’. Er schijnt dus volgens Burger een ‘Kuyperiaans-vrijgemaakte variant’ van Gereformeerden te zijn (geweest). Ik ken die variant niet. De term ‘Kuyperiaans-vrijgemaakt’ lijkt me nogal tegenstrijdig. Waren het juist niet de latere vrijgemaakten die de leer van de z.g. ‘veronderstelde wedergeboorte’ van Dr. A Kuyper hartgrondig verwierpen? Hoe kan je dan ‘Kuyperiaans –vrijgemaakt’ zijn? Welke generatie bedoelt Burger eigenlijk? Laten we in eerste instantie maar eens kijken naar de generatie die het meest lijkt te beantwoorden aan de omschrijving die Burger in dit citaat hier geeft. Dat is de generatie die de Vrijmaking van 1944 als volwassene bewust heeft meegemaakt en/of in die Vrijmaking een rol heeft gespeeld. Die generatie is nu in een snel tempo aan het uitsterven. Voor de naoorlogse baby- boomers –waartoe ik mijzelf ook reken – gaat het dan om de ouders en voor de huidige generatie veelal om de grootouders.
Die oude generatie die heeft er van ons de laatste jaren flink van langs gekregen. Velen van hen streden fanatiek, met inzet van alle krachten, voor het behoud van Schrift en belijdenis, inclusief een zuivere kerkleer. Daar hadden ze veel, zo niet alles voor over. In die strijd, die polemiek, gebruikte men – soms ook over en weer- grote woorden, eerst in de richting van de ‘synodalen’ en later ook in de richting van de z.g. ‘buitenverbanders’. Woorden die als we ze nu, vele decennia later, lezen, met afgrijzen vervullen. Verbijsterd en met plaats vervangende schaamte vragen we ons af hoe het zo ver heeft kunnen komen dat we elkaar genadeloos afmaakten. Natuurlijk, het is nu gemakkelijk oordelen. Je moet alles in de context van die tijd zien. Toen ging dat immers zo. Zo werd er toen gepolemiseerd. Elke tijd heeft immers zijn eigen vragen, uitdagingen en blinde vlekken. Je kunt er de klok op gelijk zetten dat komende generaties –althans indien de Heer niet is terug gekomen - zich ook verbijsterd zullen afvragen waarom wij in bepaalde situaties zus en zo gehandeld hebben en waarom niet anders en waarom we op bepaalde punten zo nalatig en naïef zijn geweest. Laten we in ieder geval voorzichtig zijn met al te grote woorden te uiten over vorige generaties.
Nu krijgt die generatie gereformeerden –en hun nazaten- ook nog te horen dat ze een ‘impliciet’ geloof hadden c.q. hebben. Het geloof is er wel maar krijgt te weinig woorden zo wordt gesteld. Dat komt ervan volgens Burger als je gefocust bent op ‘ het objectieve van Gods belofte en het normatieve van Gods wet’. Het verwijt ‘te weinig woorden’ kan een terecht verwijt zijn en we hebben dat ons aan te trekken. Als geliefden hun liefde voor elkaar niet in woorden weten uit te drukken, dan wordt die liefde maar een saaie bedoeling met maar weinig uitstraling. Dan klopt er iets niet. Daar staat tegenover dat, als geliefden de intimiteit van hun omgang met elkaar, hun bedgeheimen, aan de grote klok hangen, het een smakeloze vertoning wordt. In grote lijnen gaat het er in het geloof ook zo aan toe. Waar het hart vol van is, daar loopt de mond over. Als je zoveel liefde van de Heer ervaren hebt, dan vertel je andere mensen daar graag over. Tegelijkertijd heeft het iets breekbaars en kwetsbaars. Het hart is om een oud woord te gebruiken ‘arglistig’. Voor je het zelf in de gaten hebt, komen niet de grote daden van de Heer op de voorgrond te staan maar jijzelf, met jouw eigen daden, ervaringen en prestaties. Daar moesten die gereformeerden van toen – en velen ook nu nog - niets van hebben. Dat waren en zijn inderdaad echte ‘doe’ mensen, zo in de trant van: ‘Doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg’. Als er één ding is waar die generatie van de vrijmaking in te prijzen is, dan is het dit: trouw. Ze gingen ervoor en hun ja was ook ja, ook als het moeilijk werd en het hen vee kostte. Weglopen voor problemen was er nooit bij, ook al schoten ze in het tackelen van die problemen soms veel te ver door.
We komen vandaag steeds meer broers en zussen tegen, ook in de gereformeerde kerk, die- heel anders dan die vrijgemaakten van het eerste uur - heel expliciet zijn in het uitdragen van hun geloof. Ze hebben de naam Jezus voor in de mond liggen. Ze spreken continu over Jezus volgen, het is Jezus voor en Jezus na en alles wordt in gebed aan de Heer voorgelegd. Ze spreken ook met anderen openlijk over hun persoonlijke band met Jezus. Dit is een goede zaak en iets om echt om jaloers op te worden. Maar hoe oprecht en integer deze broers en zussen ook zijn, we zien ook bij sommigen van dit type gelovigen een bepaalde trend, een andere kant die als een schaduwzijde getypeerd moet worden. Vaak geven deze broers en zussen er blijk van dat hun persoonlijke band met Jezus zo sterk is dat ze ook allerlei persoonlijke boodschappen en instructies van Jezus ontvangen hoe ze in bepaalde situaties hebben te handelen. Het lijkt erop dat men een apart lijntje met de hemel onderhoudt. In de praktijk blijkt het dan moeilijk om tegen bepaalde opvattingen van deze broers en zusters vanuit de Bijbel bezwaren in te brengen. Immers, deze broers en zusters hebben de neiging zich bij bezwaren van anderen te beroepen op hun gevoel dat het Jezus of de Geest is is die hen een bepaald standpunt heeft ingegeven. Het wordt daardoor een individueel geloof dat zich door anderen niet gemakkelijk wil laten corrigeren en dat ten diepste gebaseerd is op gevoel. Je krijgt te maken met allerlei gevoelsargumenten die niet meer openstaan voor rationele argumenten vanuit de Bijbel of vanuit de kerkgemeenschap. Het kan niet anders of een individueel geloof moet zich keren tegen de gemeenschap, tegen de Bijbelse z.g. ‘koinoonia’. Dit type gelovige laat vaak maar weinig geduld zien en als men tegenspraak of tegenwerking ondervindt van anderen, dan heeft men snel de neiging om teleurgesteld af te haken en de benen te nemen. Kortom, het ontbreekt vaak aan twee essentiële Bijbelse begrippen nl. ‘trouw’ en ‘ volharding’, begrippen waar vorige generaties veel meer van hadden en die vandaag in toenemende mate gemist worden. Zonder die twee begrippen gaat het toch echt niet lukken in de kerk.
Dat apart lijntje met de Geest dat veel gelovigen zeggen te onderhouden, zorgt zoals gezegd voor een individueel toegesneden geloof. Daarin is zeker de invloed van de charismatische beweging merkbaar met zijn neiging om Woord en Geest van elkaar te scheiden. Maar dat niet alleen. Want wat bij Burger echter niet in beeld komt is het individualisme dat vanuit de cultuur en de maatschappij een geweldige invloed op ons denken en handelen verworven heeft. Het individualisme dat hand in hand gaat met de secularisatie heeft in de maatschappij gezorgd voor een afbrokkeling van de zuilen en de gezagsverhoudingen. Het van God los geslagen individu is, zoals Ds B. Luiten elders[2] in dit nummer schrijft, ‘zelf verantwoordelijk geworden voor geluk of ongeluk, is iets niet meer leuk, dan is men bijna aan zichzelf verplicht om over te stappen naar iets anders’. Ds Luiten besluit: ‘Jezus benadrukt het recht, de barmhartigheid en de trouw (Mat 23:23). Hier komt het op aan’.

Dan in het kort nog iets over het artikel van Ds. Bas Luiten ‘Genade, Geest en gaven’[3]- Ds Luiten stelt 10 belangrijke vragen aan charismatische christenen en geeft daar vervolgens zelf commentaar op. Ds Luiten doet dit vanuit een bewogen hart omdat hij –terecht - aan beide kanten het werk van de Geest van God ziet. De toonzetting van het artikel is dan ook enerzijds mild maar anderzijds ook  confronterend, juist omdat het gereformeerde gedachtengoed Ds Luiten zo dierbaar is. Ik moet u zeggen dat ik nog nooit eerder de belangrijkste geschilpunten met de charismatici op een zodanige compacte wijze en zo ‘to the point’ onder woorden heb zien brengen. Dit artikel is m.i. dan ook verplichte lectuur voor alle ambtsdragers , pastorale werkers en catecheten, maar natuurlijk ook voor heel de gemeente!.  Wat mij betreft heeft dit stuk de kracht van een manifest en zijn deze vragen en antwoorden zo actueel dat ze een goede basis kunnen vormen voor toevoeging aan bijv. H.C. Zondag 20 over het werk van de Heilige Geest, aan Zondag 27 over de doop enz..  Vrijwel alles uit dit artikel is het citeren waard, maar ik moet me beperken. Ik stip een paar punten aan.
Overtuigend toont Ds Luiten aan dat het nieuwe verbond niet in de plaats van het verbond met Abraham is gekomen, maar dat dit verbond het verbond verving dat op de berg Sinaï werd gesloten (Hebr. 8:9) ‘De Geest schrijft Gods geboden in onze harten, dat is het nieuwe (Hebr. 8:10)!Dit verbond met Abraham is ons dierbaar, omdat God het ook met de kinderen heeft opgericht (Gen.17) Wij worden door genade behouden, ‘net als Isaak die als kleine jongen werd besneden (Gal 4:28)’. God blijft in elk stadium van het verbond altijd dezelfde. Als Hij tegen het volk Israël zegt dat Hij het op adelaarsvleugels gedragen heeft (Ex. 19:4), dan blijft Hij dat ook nu doen.
Prachtig ook hoe de ‘pars pro toto’ – een deel voor het geheel – gedachte wordt uitgewerkt en op een hoger niveau wordt gezet wanneer Ds Luiten schrijft: ‘Is de doop niet de besnijdenis in het groot? Vroeger werd een stukje vlees weggesneden, in de doop wordt heel ons lichaam begraven (Kol 2:11-12). Ligt hierin niet de aanwijzing dat de doop ons is gegeven in het verlengde van de besnijdenis?’. Zo worden we steeds rijker omdat in de Nieuw testamentische bedeling heel ons leven een ‘heilig en God welgevallig offer’ wordt (Rom. 12:1).
Voorts wijst Ds Luiten ons er fijntjes op dat het woord ‘tongentaal’ geen goede vertaling is van het Griekse woord ‘γλῶσσα’. We lezen: ‘Het Bijbelse ‘glossa’ betekent óf tong óf taal – een van beide, maar niet ‘tongentaal’. Zo kan in het Nederlands ‘leer’ ladder betekenen óf gelooide huid. De vertaler moet kiezen, maar een ’ leren ladder’ is onzin’. Uit het vervolg blijkt dat Ds Luiten voor ‘taal’ kiest wanneer hij schrijft dat het spontaan spreken van een buitenlandse taal gezien moet worden als hét wonder van de Pinksterdag.

Ten slotte nog iets over vraag 9: ‘Waar in de Bijbel wordt de verantwoordelijkheid voor onze schuld aan de satan toegeschreven? . Wat mij betreft vraagt de beantwoording om een nadere toelichting. Terecht schrijft Ds Luiten: ‘Nergens leert de Bijbel ons dat wij demonen moeten opzoeken om hen uit te drijven. Het zoeken van contact met geesten en demonen is ons toch juist uitdrukkelijk verboden?’. We zien tijdens de rondwandeling van Jezus op aarde een toename, een explosie, van demonische krachten, mensen die door demonen zijn bezet en die het pad van het ambtswerk van Jezus kruisen. De duivel krijgt de ruimte om nog één keer met alle macht alle demonische registers open te trekken om zo het verzoenend werk van Christus te blokkeren. De vraag die nu gesteld kan worden is deze: Is sinds de overwinning van Jezus aan het kruis de macht van satan om mensen demonisch te bezetten niet op zijn minst sterk ingeperkt? Volgens het artikel van Hans Burger echter niet, want die schrijft dat ‘in onze niet meer christelijke wereld zou Christus als koning de invloed van het kwaad en van de duivel wel eens kunnen laten toenemen. Wanneer mensen expliciet de invloed van het kwaad zoeken en zich openstellen voor kwade geesten, krijgt de duivel meer ruimte dan hij voorheen in een christelijk Nederland had’. De vraag is of wat Burger hier schrijft identiek is aan demonische bezetenheid. Ik betwijfel dat. In de loop der eeuwen is men echter, wat men eerst voor demonische bezetenheid hield, door de ontwikkeling van de psychiatrie meer en meer gaan zien en herkennen, niet als een demonische bezetting, maar als een psychische ziekte, waarbij men, bij wijze van spreken, in toenemende mate verwees naar de psychiater i.p.v. naar de exorcist. Daarmee kan men een hoop angst voor ‘vermeende’ demonische bezetting en de daaruit voortvloeiende beschadiging worden voorkomen. Bij een psychische ziekte immers, hoeft er helemaal geen sprake van zonde te zijn en verwijzen we door naar de psychiatrische hulpverlening.
Terecht schrijft Ds Luiten dat het uitdrukkelijk verboden is om contact te zoeken met geesten en demonen. Het is bovendien nog erg gevaarlijk ook. Maar wat moeten we doen als wij deze demonen niet opzoeken maar als die demonische bezetting, in een uitzonderlijk geval, juist ons pad kruist? Wat moeten we doen als we tegen wil en dank er toch mee worden geconfronteerd? Ik schreef terughoudend over wat we demonische bezettingen mogen noemen maar valt daarmee geheel uit te sluiten dat we ook vandaag nog met demonische bezetting worden geconfronteerd? Ik durf dat niet geheel uit te sluiten. Maar ook dan mogen we dezelfde weg bewandelen die Ds Luiten aangeeft. We gaan niet de rechtstreekse confrontatie met de demon aan, maar we gaan naar Jezus toe: ‘We leren bidden tot Hem om verlossing van de boze’.  Tot zover het artikel van Ds Luiten. Ik zou zeggen: lees zelf verder, proef en smaak het goede……

Ik hoop en bid dat dit artikel de basis vormt voor een verder gesprek met de charismatische beweging en dat we zo samen verder mogen komen.


 

[1] Nummer 9 – Jaargang 87 -27 Januari 2012

[2] In de column ‘Kortetermijndenken’ pagina 170

[3] Pagina 178 e.v.

Bob Dylan's "All along the Watchtower" - a lyric analysis - Part 2

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke, “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke”. Elsewhere Dylan wrote: “When God is in His heaven, we all want what’s His, but power and greed and corruptible seed; seem to be all that there is”. Power and greed are typical of the joker but against all odds, things take a turn for the better when the thief starts talking. The thief on the cross has repented and has experienced what saving grace means. And because of that a new situation has now arisen on either side of Jesus hanging on the cross. On the one side there is now faith represented by the thief; on the other side there is continuous unbelief from the joker. On the one side is humility from the thief; on the other is arrogance from the joker. Profanity speaks out of one side and reverence speaks out of the other side. We said that the picture which is drawn here is timeless; these two voices have continued to speak from either side of the cross till this very day and will continue to do so until the Latter Day. The world has always been divided, and always will be divided, with Christ at the center. I read somewhere that God may have placed a man on each side of Jesus for this reason: one is the voice of the kingdom of this fallen world, the kingdom of Babylon, and the other is the voice of the Kingdom of God.
This saving grace from Jesus has made the thief humble and he now gently tries to persuade the joker to join his side saying: “No reason to get excited,” These words sound as if the thief says:  “You only worry about the loss of material things, your wealth and riches, your influence and power in this world; all these earthly principles which have corrupted you, the loss of all these things is no big deal and no reason to get excited about. Remember that all that there is in this world, is only temporary, only means to an end.  What really is bad and frightening in this world is that “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke”. Not only the chief priests, the scribes and soldiers standing around the cross, mocking and joking on Jesus, are meant here (Luke 23:35-37) but also the whole fallen world of Babylon of which the joker and the thief are both part of. Those who take life as a joke say: “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”(I Corinthians 15:32). They are without any hope; they “laugh in the face of what sorrow brings”.
It was W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) the famous British dramatist and librettist who wrote: “Everything is a source of fun. Nobody's safe, for we care for none! Life is a joke that's just begun!
When the thief goes on to say to the joker: “But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate”, it is as if the thief says: “We are both part of this fallen world of Babylon .I’m not naïve unworldly person; just like you, I experienced all the ups and downs and all the hardships of this fallen world. In this world I was no better a man than you are. We are both thieves and we fully indulged in whatever we could grasp in this world and we all grabbed it fast. We’ve both been to Sugar Town and we both shook the sugar down. We both deserve to die here on the cross but the saving grace of Jesus came over me and now I’m on my way to heaven and I will be in paradise with Jesus today (Luke 23:43). It was grace that taught me how to fear but Jesus reaches out for you too. You can either accept his hand or refuse it; that is your own responsibility. You can no longer hide and say that this is your fate, if you go down now, it’s gonna be your own fault”. “Fate” – if defined as the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned- is often unjustly invoked as a last resort to justify immoral practices.
Dylan has always been preoccupied with the concept of fate and destiny, the idea of “fate” as a last resort to justify immoral practices is very immanent in songs like "With God on our side" and in “Who killed Davey Moore” where the death of Davey Moore is in the end unjustly justified by: “Don’t say ‘murder,’ don’t say ‘kill’ It was destiny, it was God’s will”. Dylan wants to make it clear that although from a biblical point of view “fate” and “destiny” play an important role in the unfolding of God’s plans – “God knows everything, “God sees it all unfold”, “some perfect finished plan”- this concept never intends to neutralize individual human responsibility. On the contrary, when the thief on the cross says to the joker: “but this is not our fate” he wants to make it clear that they both have a choice. The choice is to either accept the saving grace of Jesus – which the thief will do – or to reject this saving grace; at the same time the thief emphasizes that is no use for the joker hiding behind words like “fate” or “destiny” when spiritual freedom for the joker is available just around the corner of his eyes. But if the joker perseveres in his unbelief, the thief presumably will have to heave a sigh in the end, saying to himself about the joker: “But with truth so far off, what good will it do!”
When the thief goes on to say to the joker “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” he increases the sense of urgency. The word "falsely” reminds us of the Biblical ninth commandment not to "bear false witness”. The ninth commandment tells us that we must never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one’s words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone rashly or without a legitimate hearing. But all these things happened to Jesus on the cross. It is as if the thief now says to the joker: “Look at that Roman officer standing there at the foot of the cross, this officer is a pagan, can’t you see that even he is convinced that the way in which Jesus died is such an unprecedented and world shaking event, that this officer has to admit:  “This man – Jesus - truly was the Son of God!”(Mark 15:39), so please open up your eyes to the truth which is now more apparent than ever,how long can you falsify and deny what is real, how long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal?”.
“The hour is getting late” is a biblical metaphor for the approach of the Day of Reckoning (Judgment, it) expresses here that time is running out quickly. Time is piling up for the joker and he has nearly reached the end of his trail, it is now or never. Just like the thief, the joker will die on the cross within the next few hours. The joker must come to a decision now. The thief now gently urges the joker, in the same way Dylan would do later at the beginning of this century when he performed the bluegrass gospel song “ This world  can't stand long”  38 times in concert: ”This world it can’t stand long, be ready don't wait too late,”.

We now come to the final verse which, as we said above, should actually be the first verse. It was Dave Van Ronk, a fan and mentor of Dylan at the time, who remarked that the “Along” of “All along the watchtower”, is simply a mistake. A watchtower is not a road or a wall, and you can't go along it. In van Ronk’s eyes it was a poetic liberty Dylan thought he could get away with. Probably the words “All along” were inserted for rhythm purposes or to focus not on what happened on the watchtower but on what happened alongside the watchtower, the activities surrounding the watchtower.  We also remarked above that he whole of the discussion between the joker and the thief on the cross is marked by this verse. This verse “All along the watchtower, princes kept the view…etc. “reflects the Book of Isaiah Chapter 21: 5-9 which reads:
“Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground”.
This prophecy of the great Prophet Isaiah (740-639 BC) focusses on the fall of the great Neo-Babylonian Empire. A typical phenomenon of the prophecy of the Old Testament is that a prophecy may have multiple fulfillments throughout the history of this world, even without the prophet necessarily being aware of these multiple fulfillments. The first fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy took place when the great Neo-Babylonian Empire fell in 539 BC. We see a next fulfillment - in fact the biggest and the ultimate fulfillment- when Jesus died on the cross and by doing so, Jesus did what is written in Colossians 2:15: “He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities”,’ in fact Jesus defeated the spiritual empire of Babylon on the cross. We see a next fulfillment of the prophecy of the fall of Babylon  represented in the fall of the Roman Empire and we sees a final fall of Babylon on the Latter Day, the fall of the great superpowers, the great Babylon as described in Revelation 18. The prophecy sees all these events as sequences, following one another in intervals, rather than as events next to one another as on a picture. This enhances the timelessness of the scene. Babylon stands for the all the powers which oppose the coming Kingdom of God. What strikes us in the prophecy of Isaiah is the great activity surrounding the watchtower – this may be the reason why the song says “all along” the watchtower. Isaiah sees a lot of stir and bustle: “a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, a chariot of camels, a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen”.  Dylan pictures the same activity, the same stir and bustle when he writes: “princes kept the view. While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too”. In some sort of a way whenever a big catastrophe, a world shaking event, is about to occur we see the highest state of alert in heaven and on earth, a whirlpool of activity. (Revelation 8:5; 11:13). We see the same stir and hustle around the cross: “all the women (John 19:25) came and went barefoot servants too”. Barefoot servants may represent the messengers of God, the prophets, the apostles, who gave up everything they owned to serve the LORD: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news” (Romans 10:15, even if these servants are poor and have to go barefooted. A barefooted servant may also be a messenger who publicly mourns for the sins of the people, like king David once did when he publicly mourned and wept for his own sins (2 Samuel 15:30). As we read in Revelation 18, the fall of the spiritual empire of Babylon is reason for ‘weep and wail’ (Revelation 18:9, 17).
“Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl, two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. In this final line the omen that something ominous is about to happen is getting stronger, as if we’re just past the stillness in the winds before the hurricane begins. We have the idea that “the last part of the day is already gone” and that “it’s way past midnight”.
“Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl” may be a contemporary way of saying what is written in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be watchful – that is: stay on the watchtower – Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”.
“Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. The two riders may be the two riders of Isaiah 21:7; they may be in a figurative sense the joker and the thief, approaching your life house, urging you to make a decision: “which side are you on? “or  the two riders may be, also in a figurative sense, the last two witnesses of Revelation 11.This final line warns us: “whatever you wish to keep, you’d better grab it fast” because the hour is getting late, the hour is near.

In part 1 of this analysis we raised the question why this song is so important for Dylan. Does Dylan see himself as some sort of a prophet like Ezekiel? Ezekiel received orders from the LORD:  “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me”.  (Ezekiel 33:7)
During his 1979/1980 gospel tour we hear Dylan say in a stage rap: “Years ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet" they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's no prophet." They just can't handle it”. In his 2004 CBS interview Dylan says that people use to say to him: "'You're the prophet. You're the savior.' I never wanted to be a prophet or savior. Elvis maybe. I could easily see myself becoming him. But prophet? No.".
We conclude that it is true that Dylan never regarded himself as a prophet with a capital “P”, speaking with divine authority like the biblical prophets. In I Corinthians 14, however, it says that all Christians may be in sense prophets, but they are prophets with a small “p” and Dylan is certainly one of them. And that is why this song is so important to him.
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