The title is not meant to pilfer from the great Genesis song by the same name. It is rather to elaborate more on a theme I find myself exploring more often lately–namely, understanding the times and perhaps speaking in the future about what to do.

I was coming back from a short lunch where I’d drunk a bottle of strawberry watermelon Prime. Love that stuff. And I’d used my lunch to read some history from a slim volume I’m currently working through.

On the way back to the office, I drove down the familiar asphalt road. Pine trees lined both sides of the road, some old and some young. And the humidity was so bad, my hands were swollen and sweaty, even with the car’s air conditioner blasting. A few black clouds crept above. Feelings of foreboding.

As I drove down the asphalt road, the heat waves were visible in eery throbbing images. A dead pine was on my left side. Black vultures perched on the rotten limbs.

1 Chronicles 12 records this wonderfully instructive line: “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do …” (1 Chronicles 12:32, ESV). That line about understanding the times and knowing what to do is pregnant with implications. I think it is safe to say that the line was a commendation–to have wise leadership who understood the lay of the land.

Those ominous vultures, though I’d passed them earlier, still circled above in my thoughts.

More to follow …