A Huge Crowd

This year, 2009, is the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, "3 Days of Peace & Music," familiar as simply Woodstock. It was a spectacular example of a Sixties event known as a "be-in," (in contrast with "sit-in" and the like) and remains culturally significant to this day. Over a three day period, August 15-18, a crowd of mostly young people listened to the top performers of rock, folk, and progressive popular music of that era. The site in the Catskill Mountains of New York had been selected because it had a natural bowl-shaped performance area, plus plenty of space for camping. The Festival organizers had anticipated a crowd of twenty or thirty thousand, possibly fifty thousand. As ticket sales advanced, they revised their estimate to 75,000, or maybe even 100,000. Wrong! Roughly half a million young people from all over the country descended on the area for what of necessity turned into a free event, creating critical shortages of food, drinking water and toilet facilities. Plus it rained off and on, making a tough situation even worse. Afterwards, the organizers and fans spent five days and $100,000 cleaning up the tons of trash.

When I was reminded of Woodstock this month, I began to compare it with other huge crowds. African American men conducted the Million Man March on Washington, D.C. in 1995, to draw attention to urban and minority issues. The number of attendees became a matter of bitter controversy, with estimates ranging from considerably under a million to just over that figure. Multiple sources conclude that the crowd for President Obama's inauguration this past January was the largest ever in Washington; the official estimate—contested, of course—being 1.8 million. (The trash was historic too.)

With no sound system like that at Woodstock or Jumbotrons such as were used at the inauguration, I can't imagine how all the people of Israel participated in the dedication ceremony for the magnificent temple Solomon had constructed! (I Kings 8) Some years earlier, King David had conducted a census of the kingdom, counting all the men eligible for military service, aged twenty and up. His captain, Joab, reported the figure as 1,570,000 but had excluded the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin. Subsequently, however, 70,000 men died in a plague, leaving a million and half (I Chronicles 21:5-6, 14), although the two uncounted tribes could add more hundreds of thousands to the total. Did they all come to the dedication? Or was it only the elders, heads of tribes, chief fathers, and priests? Did those younger than twenty come too? Or perhaps the women and children came as well, since the Scripture says "all the congregation of Israel." From the various descriptions, we just can't tell, but it was a huge crowd!

I think God doesn't need loudspeakers and enormous screens to make His people recognize His presence. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple, the singers and instrument players began praising the Lord—a good-sized worship team with 120 trumpeters alone! "He is good! His mercy endures forever!" Then a cloud of glory filled God's house, so heavy that the priests could not continue their service. Wouldn't the crowed, however large it was or how far away those on the edge were, see and feel that Presence? No disrespect to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin or to President Obama, but they can't compare to God Himself showing up on the scene!

The dedication ceremony with sacrifices and worship went on for seven days, and the feasting and celebration continued for another seven. When the festivities ended, the king dismissed everyone to go back to their homes, they blessed him in return, and went on their way with gladness in their hearts for the goodness of God to His people. (No mention is made in Scripture of the trash, but certainly there were no sleeping bags or Styrofoam cups!)

Whether you think of Woodstock as something in your lifetime or know it only as a historical event, remember that for centuries, millions of God's people too have had peace and music on their minds.

MaryMartha