"Joshua may have felt a sense of loneliness, and waited expectantly near the Jordan River to hear the voice of God. He was not disappointed. When God’s servants take time to listen, He always communicates. In the present Age He usually speaks through His written Word. But in the Old Testament He spoke in dreams by night, in visions by day, through the high priest, and occasionally in an audible voice." -BKC
Interesting to think about the ways that God communicates---differently at different times. I never have quite understood this. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, yet his communication is different. Why?
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Deuteronomy 30
God tells Moses to teach the people a song:
"In the song that Moses would teach them they would find the reason for their judgments and the path of repentance (Deu_31:19-22). The song would also serve as a warning of the judgment to come for apostasy. God is fully aware of the tendency of the human heart to stray from Him: I know what they are disposed to do." -BKC
Song was used to teach people truth that needed to stay in their hearts.
Also interesting:
"After a life of service to the nation Moses heard saddening news from the Lord… these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering." -BKC
Moses spent his life ministering to this group of people and the next generation of people only to
"In the song that Moses would teach them they would find the reason for their judgments and the path of repentance (Deu_31:19-22). The song would also serve as a warning of the judgment to come for apostasy. God is fully aware of the tendency of the human heart to stray from Him: I know what they are disposed to do." -BKC
Song was used to teach people truth that needed to stay in their hearts.
Also interesting:
"After a life of service to the nation Moses heard saddening news from the Lord… these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering." -BKC
Moses spent his life ministering to this group of people and the next generation of people only to
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Deuteronomy 20
Interesting little tidbit on stewardship:
Deu 20:19 "When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?
Deu 20:20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
"Why should Israel cut down trees whose fruit she could eat? And why should trees, that were not men, be besieged? Even in lands outside Canaan the practice was to be avoided because it showed a lack of respect for God’s creation and an infatuation with the harsh and excessive use of destructive power." -BKC
To me, it boils down to not infringing upon His creation in insensitive ways.
Deu 20:19 "When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?
Deu 20:20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
"Why should Israel cut down trees whose fruit she could eat? And why should trees, that were not men, be besieged? Even in lands outside Canaan the practice was to be avoided because it showed a lack of respect for God’s creation and an infatuation with the harsh and excessive use of destructive power." -BKC
To me, it boils down to not infringing upon His creation in insensitive ways.
Deuteronomy 19
"The law of retribution, known in Latin as the lex talionis, was previously given in Exo_21:23-25 and Lev_24:17-22. This law was given to encourage appropriate punishment of a criminal in cases where there might be a tendency to be either too lenient or too strict. The law codes of the ancient Near East did provide for the maiming of a criminal (e.g., gouging out an eye, cutting off a lip, etc.). With one exception (Deu_25:11-12) Israelite law did not explicitly allow such mutilation. Apart from this one instance, therefore, only the first part of this law, life for life, was applied to indicate that punishment ought to fit the crime (punishment in kind). Thus a slave who lost his eye was freed (Exo_21:26). The lex talionis also served as a restraint in cases where the punisher might be inclined to be excessive in administering punishment. Jesus did not deny the validity of this principle for the courtroom, but He denied its usage in personal relationships (Mat_5:38-42). There should be no personal retaliation or revenge." -BKC
***************
Never teased this out before, but there is a difference between corporate justice and private justice. Jesus asks us NOT to demand private justice, to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile.
Also intrigued that this seems to indicate that beyond "life for life" mutilation as punishment was discouraged. type thing never was applied except for the one bizarre case.
And as I thought "eye for eye" was pretty severe, it never occurred to me that such stipulations were also helpful in limiting MORE severe reactions and punishments.
Lots to think about in this piece of scripture and commentary...
***************
Never teased this out before, but there is a difference between corporate justice and private justice. Jesus asks us NOT to demand private justice, to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile.
Also intrigued that this seems to indicate that beyond "life for life" mutilation as punishment was discouraged. type thing never was applied except for the one bizarre case.
And as I thought "eye for eye" was pretty severe, it never occurred to me that such stipulations were also helpful in limiting MORE severe reactions and punishments.
Lots to think about in this piece of scripture and commentary...
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Deuteronomy 6
Heard a good discourse on the self-centeredness of God yesterday with John Piper. I can't even begin to quantify it as it's such an abstract deep thing. It's certainly not about the narcissistic self-centeredness that plagues the best of us, but more about God's self-existent and fully satisfactory, complete nature, His glory and desire to bring all things to Himself and that those things glorify/magnify Himself.
Anyway, this passage from Deuteronomy touches back unto this for me (the jealousy as part of His nature)
Deu 6:13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
Deu 6:14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you--
Deu 6:15 for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God--lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
"And this act of unfaithfulness would result in judgment since the Lord… is a jealous God (cf. Deu_4:24; Deu_5:9; Deu_32:16, Deu_32:21). This means He is zealous to protect what belongs to Him alone. Jealousy in this sense is ethically right. Jealousy in the sense of envy for another’s possessions or privileges is, of course, wrong." Comment from BKC
Anyway, this passage from Deuteronomy touches back unto this for me (the jealousy as part of His nature)
Deu 6:13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
Deu 6:14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you--
Deu 6:15 for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God--lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
"And this act of unfaithfulness would result in judgment since the Lord… is a jealous God (cf. Deu_4:24; Deu_5:9; Deu_32:16, Deu_32:21). This means He is zealous to protect what belongs to Him alone. Jealousy in this sense is ethically right. Jealousy in the sense of envy for another’s possessions or privileges is, of course, wrong." Comment from BKC
In the discourse, they mentioned that before his conversion, C.S. Lewis found this self-centered praise to be like an old lady who needs to hear compliments about herself all the time....praise Him for this, praise Him for that...kind of thing. Interesting...
Thursday, March 7, 2013
OT Odds & Ends
On 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel 1 Kings, 2 Kings
Paraphrased from Daily Audio Bible:
1 and 2 Samuel were called 1st & 2nd Kings
1 and 2 were called 3rd & 4th Kings
in the Septuagint
From Wikipedia:
Septuagint--Greek translation of OT, dated as early as late 2nd century AD, Paul references in NT writings, possibly commissioned by Ptolmey II
The Septuagint derives its name from the Latin versio septuaginta interpretum, "translation of the seventy interpreters.
Latin Vulgate
4th century, largely the work of St. Jerome
"The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation",[1] and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church. Its widespread adoption led to the eclipse of earlier Latin translations, which are collectively referred to as the Vetus Latina.
The Vulgate's Apocrypha section is smaller than the King James Bible's, with a correspondingly larger Old Testament.
The Vulgate was given an official capacity by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) as the touchstone of the Biblical canon concerning which parts of books are canonical." -Wikipedia
From Sacred Texts.com:
This is the Latin Bible, or 'Vulgate'. Translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic by Jerome between 382 and 405 CE, this text became knowns as the 'versio vulgata', which means 'common translation'. 'Vulgate' should not to be confused with the term 'vulgar', which has taken on a divergent meaning in modern English.
The collection and order of the books which make up this version of the Bible differs slightly from the ones in the King James Version, it includes several of the Apocrypha.
The Vulgate was the standard version of the Bible for Roman Catholics for over one and a half millenia. Since Latin was only studied by priests and scholars, the vast majority of people could not read or understand the Vulgate, even though they would hear passages from it every time they went to church.
Until 1450, when Gutenberg printed this text, copies were also very rare and expensive. During the Protestant reformation in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Bible was finally translated into modern languages, against great resistance from the Church. Finally in the mid-20th Century, the Roman Catholic church abandoned the use of Latin for liturgy. However, this remains one of the most historically important Latin texts.
Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites, Hittites:
Interesting history:
The Canaanites were the indigenous population of Canaan. The Amorites had entered Canaan from northeast Aram (Syria) sometime before 2000 b.c., had driven the Canaanites out of the hill country, and took their place there. The Hittites originated in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) about 1800 b.c. and slowly spread south and southeast, probably identifying with the Amorites in Canaan. Nothing is known of the Jebusites except that they were centralized in Jerusalem and were also considered an Amorite group (Jos_10:5). They remained in control of Jerusalem till 400 years after Moses, when David drove them out, captured the city, and made it his capital, in 1004 b.c. (2Sa_5:6-10). -BKCh
Paraphrased from Daily Audio Bible:
1 and 2 were called 3rd & 4th Kings
in the Septuagint
From Wikipedia:
Septuagint--Greek translation of OT, dated as early as late 2nd century AD, Paul references in NT writings, possibly commissioned by Ptolmey II
The Septuagint derives its name from the Latin versio septuaginta interpretum, "translation of the seventy interpreters.
Latin Vulgate
4th century, largely the work of St. Jerome
"The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation",[1] and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church. Its widespread adoption led to the eclipse of earlier Latin translations, which are collectively referred to as the Vetus Latina.
The Vulgate's Apocrypha section is smaller than the King James Bible's, with a correspondingly larger Old Testament.
The Vulgate was given an official capacity by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) as the touchstone of the Biblical canon concerning which parts of books are canonical." -Wikipedia
 |
| Koberger Bible, 1487, Nuremberg--Vulgate Translation |
From Sacred Texts.com:
This is the Latin Bible, or 'Vulgate'. Translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic by Jerome between 382 and 405 CE, this text became knowns as the 'versio vulgata', which means 'common translation'. 'Vulgate' should not to be confused with the term 'vulgar', which has taken on a divergent meaning in modern English.
The collection and order of the books which make up this version of the Bible differs slightly from the ones in the King James Version, it includes several of the Apocrypha.
The Vulgate was the standard version of the Bible for Roman Catholics for over one and a half millenia. Since Latin was only studied by priests and scholars, the vast majority of people could not read or understand the Vulgate, even though they would hear passages from it every time they went to church.
Until 1450, when Gutenberg printed this text, copies were also very rare and expensive. During the Protestant reformation in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Bible was finally translated into modern languages, against great resistance from the Church. Finally in the mid-20th Century, the Roman Catholic church abandoned the use of Latin for liturgy. However, this remains one of the most historically important Latin texts.
Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites, Hittites:
Interesting history:
The Canaanites were the indigenous population of Canaan. The Amorites had entered Canaan from northeast Aram (Syria) sometime before 2000 b.c., had driven the Canaanites out of the hill country, and took their place there. The Hittites originated in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) about 1800 b.c. and slowly spread south and southeast, probably identifying with the Amorites in Canaan. Nothing is known of the Jebusites except that they were centralized in Jerusalem and were also considered an Amorite group (Jos_10:5). They remained in control of Jerusalem till 400 years after Moses, when David drove them out, captured the city, and made it his capital, in 1004 b.c. (2Sa_5:6-10). -BKCh
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