Meditate on it

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jesus and Nicodemus, 1898 A few things convict me greatly in my faith. One is that Christians should know their Bibles well enough to articulate the context of favorite scripture passages. I think it does the Word of God a disservice to pull it apart into bite-sized quotes that can be slung around--sometimes rather carelessly--for this or that occasion. John 3:16 is such a passage. All of the 4-6th grade students in my Sunday School class could quote this verse from memory. I bet none, excepting my own daughter possibly, could provide the context and tell me that it was spoken in a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. In fact, last time Nicodemus came up in our Sunday School, none were familiar with him at all. But, that's another post! So, this morning, I am settling into John 2 and the story of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Here are some notable pieces of commentary, along with my observations: He was a Pharisee, a member of the

The Temptation of Christ, J. Kirk Richards I'm lingering in the temptation stories of Christ again this morning.  How could Christ be tempted if he could not sin?  Was this a legitimate temptation if the choice was not a choice? My band of Biblical commentators  gravitate toward an exploration of the Greek word for tempt, peirazō .  Strong's defines it as "to test (objectively), that is, endeavor, scrutinize, entice, discipline: - assay, examine, go about, prove, tempt (-er), try."  Jamison, Fasset, and Brown go on to point out that this is the same word used in the temptation of Abraham.   Hmmm, that story always hit me a bit funny also, perhaps because it doesn't seem loving or fair to tempt a person to evil. Also, I think of Job's journey, another temptation story that isn't an easy one to reconcile. Here Satan claims that Job is faithful only because God has provided physical blessings and placed a hedge around him. Satan taunts, "put fort

Right now I am reading about the early ministry of Christ.  Some of the events seem episodic.  If I was a liberal critic, I would suggest they are folkish--following patterns.   But, I am a believer---in Christ, in the purity of the Scriptures as a source of doctrine and not of man's manipulations.  Though I do not always understand the source and intent of scripture, I press on to better understand my God through them. Perhaps part of the problem is that narrative events do not explain themselves, and I long for context and explanation.  I prefer the letters of the New Testament because of they are by nature an explanation, directed toward Christians to help them understand their God and their faith.   In the gospels, we are given bones and must construct the flesh. Christ's temptations in the wilderness cry out for flesh.  Why does his professional life begin by a baptism and this journey into the wilderness?  Why the detailed temptations and conversations wit

Prayer is difficult, especially in our rushed and ready culture.  We heedlessly bypass activities that necessitate patience, waiting, meditating, and introspection with good hopes that we will have time for such another day.  The screaming demands of each day drown out the whispers of reflection. Prayer, for me, is a form of decompression and processing. It forces me to stop and frame the events of my life and the thoughts of my heart with an eye to God's hand in things. What is His perspective on this situation?  How is He working through it?  What is the correct posture of my heart on this matter?  How can I intercede for others?  What attitudes and thoughts need cleansing, purging, or redirecting?  All this, and a counter-full of dishes awaits me...more glaring, immediate.   But, despite his brief window of ministry on earth, Christ prioritized prayer. He folded it into every significant event.  He blocked off this time even when the crowds pressed and authorities plotte

From my quiet time this morning---I thought this passage on humility by John Ruskin lovely and worth contemplating: "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility doubt of his own power, or hesitation of speaking his opinions; but a right understanding of the relation between what he can do and say, and the rest of the world’s sayings and doings. All great men act only know their business, but usually know that they know it; and are not only right in their main opinions, but they usually know that they are right in them, only they do not think much of themselves on that account. Arnolfo knows he can build a good dome at Florence; Albert Durer writes calmly to one who has found fault with his work, “It cannot be better done”; Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked out a problem or two that would have puzzled anybody else; only they do not expect their fellow-men, therefore, to fall down and worship them. They have a curious under

John the Baptist, Guido Reni, 1637 Some thoughts on John the Baptist: 1. John was unpretentious and cared not for the opinions of men he didn't respect.  He dressed simply, wildly, and for function. He preached his message in the wilderness not the cities.   He told the high and low alike to repent and bear fruit.   Admonishing both the common crowds and lofty Herod, he didn't soften his message to assuage his audience or save his skin. 2. John joins the long list of men and women who did noble work for God but did not receive their reward on earth.  "That a man so worthless should be permitted to cut short the labours and the life of so holy and useful a character, and that, too, in order to gratify the revenge of an abandoned adulteress, and to reward the vain exhibition of a giddy damsel, must, no doubt, at first appear strange." -James Foote Beware of judging our work on earth by the world's standards.  If we are different, if we are long s

Each gospel has a distinct flavor.   Mark is "cut to the chase" with urgency.   Matthew is comprehensive and historical.  John is the wildest---poetic, big picture.  But, thank God for Luke because he reminds me most of myself.  If I was given the task of writing a gospel, I suspect I would proceed very much like Luke:  these are the things I've observed--- these are the things I've been told--now let me write them down so "that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught." (Luke 1:4).  Luke was not loosey-goosey or an optimistic romantic about life.  He recognized the need for an "orderly account," and rolled up his sleeves to "geter done." As a doctor, I imagine Luke was a thoughtful observer of people and life.  His preface "it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you" is measured and unassuming.  There are things that "see

“Christ was born of a woman, that neither sex might despair.” -Augustine My meditation on Luke 1 continues as my thoughts turn to Mary, mother of Jesus, this morning. On her deity: "Deify her, and, besides other things, you wrong the whole human race; you depose her from her rightful place at the head of Christian women; you cheat Christ’s sisters of their sweet queen, and say, in effect, that you can do nothing with a pure life and a humble spirit but make an idol of it. Give us back the mother of our Lord; we want her here with us on earth, that our maidens and our matrons, feeling her to be one of themselves, may learn from her, in each event of life, how to receive God’s will about themselves." E.T. Marshall As I grew up Catholic, I have a particular suspicion of super Biblical beliefs. I find no precedence for the special role that Mary has been assigned by the Catholic Church. In fact, this singling out goes against the entire thrust of New Testament theology. Did

The nativity narrative in Luke is like an old friend---comfortable and easy to take for granted.  Extraordinary events seem ordinary after dozens of encounters.  To keep things fresh, I'm back to the page for some intellectual accountability. 5 things to think about in Luke 1 1. Fulfillment of a hope may be long delayed but not dead.   Zechariah and Elizabeth were both blessed.  As a faithful priest, he had the privilege of seeing the beginnings of the Messiah.  And his son ushered this event in.   Elizabeth had the joy of bearing a child...a son with an incredibly honorable role to play. 2. God may interrupt your everyday plans for something better in His economy.  As John Wayne put it: "Sit loosely in the saddle of life."   Mary and Joseph were engaged and surely had their own dreams for the future, but the Lord had grander plans, and they embraced them. 3. The heavenly realm monitors events on earth.   As much as we'd like, we cannot peer into Heav

Last Batch of Kings I18--Hoshea- Hoshea assassinated Pekah. He ruled in Samaria for 9 years and began his reign in the 12 year of Ahaz of Judah.  Last king of Israel, conquered by and jailed by Assyrians. J12-Hezekiah --Ahaz's son, he was 25 when he became king and reigned for 29 years.  He co-reigned with his father Ahaz for 14 years. His mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah.  He tore down altars, broke Moses' bronze serpent because people had been sacrificing to it.  The text states that he was "faithful to the Lord" and that he "trusted Him."  He revolted against the king of Assyria and refused to pay tribute to him.  Hezekiah is also credited with conquering the Philistines.  J-13  Manasseh - -55 years, only son of Hezekiah, 12 years old when began reign, first king to not have a direct experience with Israel who had gone into captivity.  Re-instituted pagan worship and undid reforms of his father.  The Assyrians put a ring in his nose, but he

I sometimes dread reading the prophets but have disciplined myself to study them. The genre of prophetic literature has its own code--its own expectations and jargon. A piece of understanding the prophets requires understanding the code. But, personally, I enjoy them best when I get lost in the poetic imagery.  Isaiah 55 is a beautiful passage to wander and get lost in. I'm writing to "pick some flowers" along the way and take time to study them: "...eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." -Isaiah 55:2 A fat soul? Give me that! A soul that feasts well on God and His promises becomes fat, sated. More well-fed imagery: "And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." Isaiah 25:6 I love these promises of fatness and fruition. Sometimes my soul is heavy with the sad things o

I t's odd to think of the Word as having magical properties. The secular word magical gives me the creeps but thinking it through, isn't magical among the synonyms for supernatural? And as a Christian, I am admittedly reluctant to make room for the supernatural---I hold the supernatural at arm's length, inspecting it long and hard. Here's one of my favorite passages about the Word, from Isaiah: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." -Isaiah 55:10-11 This is from the Cambridge Commentary: This purpose of salvation is embodied in the word which goes forth from Jehovah’s mouth. The “word” is conceived as endowed with a self-fulfilling ener

Isa 1:29  For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. Isa 1:30  For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. Isa 1:31  And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. And the strong shall be as tow The tinder, and the spark “The strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and both shall burn together”—a vivid picture of the doom of transgressors, since the mighty man is made combustible, and his own act is that which kindles the flame. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.) The fire of judgment that consumes sinners does not need to come from without; sin carries within itself the fire of wrath. (F. Delitzsch.) Isa 1:28  But rebels and sinners will be completely destroyed, and those who desert the LORD will be consumed.  Isa 1:29  You will be ashamed of your idol worship in groves of sa

From the Biblical Illustrator: "God finds vindication in nature: I well remember two funerals going out of my house within a few brief months during my residence in London. There were cards sent by post and left at the door, in all kindliness; but one dark night when my grief overwhelmed me I looked at some of the cards and could find no vibration of sympathy there. I had not felt the touch of the hand that sent them. I went out into the storm that moaned and raged alternately, and walked round Regent’s Park through the very heart of the hurricane. It seemed to soothe me. You troy I could not find sympathy there. Perhaps not, but I at least found affinity: the storm without seemed to harmonise with the storm within; and then I remembered that He who sent that storm to sweep over the earth loved the earth still, and then remembered that He who sent the storm to sweep over my soul, and make desolate my home, loved me still. I got comfort there in the darkness, and the wild noise of

"For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon to accomplish his work, his peculiar work, to perform his task, his strange task." Isaiah 28:21 "God’s judgment of his own people is called “his peculiar work” and “his strange task,” because he must deal with them the way he treated their enemies in the past."  -net notes Isa 28:23 Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Isa 28:24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? Isa 28:25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? Isa 28:26 For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. Isa 28:27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Isa 28:28 Does one crush gr

In chapter 4, The Lord's complaint against the Northern Kingdom is three-fold: 1. Neither faithfulness (KJ--truth) 2. Nor loyalty (KJ--mercy, ESV--steadfast love, NLT--kindness) 3. Nor do they acknowledge the Lord (knowledge of God) No one likes doom and gloom, thus my impulse is to "get through" the prophets, as if they were a desert in marathon race.  However, my second impulse is that these three disappointments aren't complaints that I should rush by. He desires faithfulness.  Loyalty.   Acknowledgement.   His specific complaints were: *don't keep your vows *commit adultery *steal *kill *lying *violence The result: even the land will mourn and its inhabitants Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Understanding the Backdrop From Ellison via Constable's Notes: “For us alliances between nations are such a commonplace of life that we can hardly imagine a nation standing alone . . . “It should have been fundamental, however, for Israel that no foreign alliances were possible. The reason was quite simply that in those days the secular state did not exist, and so in practice it was impossible to distinguish between a state and its gods. In an extant treaty of peace between Rameses II of Egypt and Hattusilis the Hittite king it is a thousand of their gods on either side who are the witnesses to and guarantors of it.[86] So even a treaty on equal terms with a neighbouring country would have involved for Israel a recognition of the other country’s deities as having reality and equality with Jehovah. To turn to Assyria or Egypt for help implied of necessity that their gods were more effective than the God of Israel.” Breaking up fallow ground is what a farmer does when he plows land t

I'm forcing myself to slow down as I read the prophets---really I'm learning to slow down through the entire Bible reading process. There is great satisfaction in making headway through the Bible, even a type of spiritual pride can emerge--a sense that I am "faithfully mastering this text."  But the reality is, I'm not, and it's not designed to be mastered.  Instead, the hope is that it will shape and master me.  This requires a huge shift in perspective. A hope is that the Word will seep into me. And seeping takes time without substitute. If I want a strong cup of tea, I must leave the bag in...no dunking and dipping will achieve the same effect. Isaiah 8-11 requires savoring. After a few readings, subtle aspects of God's character become clearer. Chapter 10 clarifies powerfully that we are mere tools in His hand and should not misunderstand our role in the progress of time and events: "But the king of Assyria will not understand that he

I13--Zechariah I14--Shallum assassinated Zechariah in public, reigned 1 month, then assassinated by Menahem. I15--Menahem,  assassinated Shallum, killed the entire population of a town that refused to surrender.ripped open pregnant women.  Reigned 10 years in Samaria. King Tiglath pileser of Assyria invaded land, Menahem, paid him off by extorting money from Israel.  I16--Pekahiah son of Menahem, ruled 2 years.  The commander of his army, Pekah, conspired against him. With 50 men from Gilead, he went to the Citadel in Samaria and assassinated him. I17--Pekah He began his reign in the 52nd year of Judah's king Uzziah's reign.  He reigned in Samaria 20 years.  During his reign, the king of Assyria came back, conquered towns and took Israel captive. J10--Jotham Son of Uzziah, was 25 when began reign, reigned 16 years.  He rebuilt the upper gate of the temple, was good--like his dad--except did not destroy pagan shrines.  He conquered the Ammonites, buit

Basket of Fruit, c 1599, Caravaggio A poignant interpretation of the agricultural imagery in Amos 8 by the Biblical Illustrator: A basket of summer fruit As God set before Amos a basket of summer fruit, as a sign or parable concerning Israel; so, at harvest-tide God sets before us a basket of summer fruit, to teach us lessons to our soul’s health. 1. In preparing the earth for a harvest crop, and our lives for a crop of holiness, we must expect hard labour, and often sorrow. Whether we cultivate the fields or our souls, we must do it in the sweat of our face, with hard labour. Both the ground and our nature need cultivation, and that implies labour, and frequently sorrow. After the great fire of London, a flower called the Golden Rocket appeared, and beautified places wasted by the flame, though it had never been seen in that district before. The seeds were lying in the ground, but it needed the fire to make them live and grow. Some times we need the fire of affliction to b

Among many of the grey areas in my Christian walk is the question of prayer.  The Word tells us that the Lord hears our requests to varying degrees. I remember some passages where the Lord turns a deaf ear to cries and recall others where He listens closely.  We can make choices that distance ourselves from Him through our actions and by the gradual hardening of our hearts.  He is not capricious in degrees of listening, but there are definitely degrees and precedence. It would make an interesting study---clearly the prophets have a more direct line from Abram, through Moses and Samuel. Here, Amos successfully sways the Lord away from destruction by locusts: In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small."   So the LORD relented from this plan. "I will not do it," He said.  -Amos 7:2-3 From Constable's Notes: "The prayers of righteous individua

Amaziah then said to Amos, “Leave, you visionary! Run away to the land of Judah! Earn your living and prophesy there! Don’t prophesy at Bethel any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” Amos replied to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. No, I was a herdsman who also took care of sycamore fig trees. Then the Lord took me from tending flocks and gave me this commission, ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’ So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach against the family of Isaac!’ Amos 7:12-16 A Raindrop's Life , Neelesh Jain , Graphite on Paper Constable's comments on the Hebrew word for preach :  "Amaziah had told Amos to stop prophesying, namely, to stop preaching (v. 16). “Preaching” is from a verbal root meaning “drip” (Heb. natap ), as the heavens drip rain (Judges 5:4; cf. Amos 9:13). The idea is that Amos should stop raining down messages from heaven on his hearers. True prophets were people

North Fork of the French Broad River near Balsam Grove, photo by Duane McCullough But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!          -Amos 5:8  For me, the seamless artistry and beauty of the natural world is one of the strongest evidences of God. The Lord is ever overseeing the ebb and flow of the seasons and natural cycles. How do rivers begin in obscurity yet tirelessly gather and flow to the seas? It seems effortless. In contrast, our own efforts at artificial rivers seem forced and require much mechanical engineering and human maintenance. Studying the French Broad River with the children has given me a greater appreciation for rivers.  Why does the French Broad flow across the Eastern Continental Divide?  How does a river emerge and chart its course?  The slope of the land is the largest d