"He's no monster, Gaston. You are!"

- Belle, from Beauty and the Beast

"What makes a monster, and what makes a man?"

- Clopin the Jester, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

You know, from a monster's point of view it is men who are unreasonable and violent. Many times I think they really have a good point.

Monsters are scary. Monsters are loud and express themselves. Monsters don't "fit in" and look or act like everyone else. They hurt people, often times by accident, but regardless since they are disliked so much everything they do is suspect and their motives always described as sinister. They are relentlessly pursued, sometimes with pitchforks and torches, and driven to live in isolation.

Because of our just passed holiday, I was thinking about monsters a bit. I suppose there are monsters in the bible, too. Leviathan is coming up in our study of Job, all scaly and fire breathing, with glowing eyes and three toed legs, able to swallow men whole with its fierce teeth. But that wasn't the kind of monster I was recalling.

It wasn't a cockatrice, either, that flying fiery serpent. I could see how you might want to avoid that critter. Or a dancing satyr, although a strong unicorn might be fun to have around. A behemoth might be too much, he sure does drink a lot!!! Nor was I thinking of the dragon, that old serpent, although he certainly is a monster. No, I was thinking of a whole different kind of monster.

Can you name the monster in these verses? It isn't always obvious.

Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

The king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

There are a LOT of this kind of monster in the bible. Do monsters dwell among us today?

In the story of the world around us, Christians are "scary" to many. While often fearless, they express themselves at the most inconvenient (to sinners) times. They "hurt" people by pointing out things that the world doesn't want to hear, sometimes by accident by simply doing the right thing themselves while everyone else does wrong. Because of envy and shame, Christians are judged harshly, everything they do is suspect, and their motives are said to be "better than you" or judgmental in a "do whatever feels right" world. If they are faithful to God's will they are relentlessly pursued, sometimes to their deaths, or at least to being socially ostracized.

So tell me, who is really the monster in that story?

Randy