Monday Evening Faith Conversations

The Gospel of Mark

2008-10-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

We began the evening in prayer then reviewed the background information on the origin and style of Mark using the handout. We viewed a video from You Tube on the Gospel of Mark:

Each member of the group chose one of the passages from the handout for reflection and sharing. Then we spent some time refreshing our understanding of Lectio Divina using the handout (from the website (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/38/story_3879_1.html) We used lectio divina to focus on Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35.The evening closed with prayer.

MARK
The Gospel of Mark is anonymously written but traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark. The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate,” said Dr. Paul S. Rees. “It is an announcement!” Many of the stories bear the mark of eyewitness testimony. The early church believed that Mark, a close companion of Peter, reported what Peter had witnessed, and represents Peter’s testimony to the life of his Lord. The Gospel narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension (or to the empty tomb in the shorter recension), but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life (chapters 11-16, the trip to Jerusalem). Its swift narrative portrays Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah), the Son of Man, and the Son of God.

Two important themes of Mark are the Messianic secret and the obtuseness of the disciples. In Mark, Jesus often commands secrecy regarding aspects of his identity and certain actions. Jesus uses parables to obscure his message and fulfill prophecy (4:10-12). At times, the disciples have trouble understanding the parables, but Jesus explains what they mean, in secret (4:13-20, 4:33-34). They also fail to understand the implication of the miracles that he performs before them.

The general theory is that Mark is a Hellenistic gospel, written primarily for an audience of Greek-speaking residents of the Roman Empire. Jewish traditions are explained, clearly for the benefit of non-Jews (e.g., Mark 7:1–4; 14:12; 15:42). Aramaic words and phrases are also expanded upon by the author.

Alongside these Hellenistic influences, Mark makes use of the Old Testament in the form in which it had been translated into Greek, the Septuagint, for instance.

Starting in the 19th century, textual critics have commonly asserted that Mark 16:9–20, describing some disciples' encounters with the resurrected Jesus, was a later addition to the gospel. Mark 16:8 stops at the empty tomb without further explanation. The last twelve verses are missing from the oldest manuscripts of Mark's Gospel. The style of these verses differs from the rest of Mark, suggesting they were a later addition. In a handful of manuscripts, a "short ending" is included after 16:8, but before the "long ending", and exists by itself in one of the earliest Old Latin codices.

OUTLINE OF MARK
I. Jesus has authoritative credentials. 1:1-13
II. Jesus ministered and taught in Galilee. 1:14-6:29
III. Jesus ministered and taught outside Galilee. 6:30-9:50
IV. Jesus moved toward his Passion. 10:1-13:37
V. Jesus was crucified and resurrected. 14:1-16:20

Mark 1-5 Read it quickly:
• How does it describe Jesus
• What or who authorizes Jesus

Reflect on the following stories:
1. Calling Disciples 1:16-20
2. Healing Man with Unclean Spirits 1:21-28
3. Healing Simon’s Mother 1:29-34
4. Healing the Leper 1:40-45
5. Healing the Paralytic 2:1-12
6. Healing the withered hand 3:1-6
7. Plucking grain on the Sabbath 2:23-28
8. The Sower and the Seed 4:1-20
9. Bushels and seeds 4:21-32
10. Calming the Storm 4: 35-41
11. Gerasene demoniac 5:1-20
12. Jairus daughter and woman with hemorrhage 5:21-42

THE PROCESS of LECTIO DIVINA
by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.

Lectio - reading/listening
THE ART of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply. This gentle listening is an “atunement” to the presence of God in that special part of God's creation which is the Scriptures. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately.

Meditatio - meditation
ONCE WE have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures that speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and “ruminate” on it. Like Jesus mother Mary we should allow for “pondering in her heart”. For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires.

Oratio - prayer
THE THIRD step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves; bringing even our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio.

Contemplatio - contemplation
FINALLY, WE simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.

MARK - The Gospels: God Walks Among Us

2008-10-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

WIKIPEDIA:
The word gospel derives from the Old English god-spell (rarely godspel), meaning "good tidings" or "good news".

The first canonical gospel written is Mark (c 65-70), which in turn was used as a source for the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke may have also used the hypothetical Q source. These first three gospels are called the synoptic gospels because they share a similar view. The last gospel, the gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics. The canonical gospels were originally written in Greek.

Of the many gospels written in antiquity, only four gospels came to be accepted as part of the New Testament, or canonical. An insistence upon there being a canon of canonical four, and no others, was a central theme of Irenaeus of Lyons, c. 185.

• Irenaeus declared that the four he espoused were the four Pillars of the Church: "it is not possible that there can be either more or fewer than four" he stated, presenting as logic the analogy of the four corners of the earth and the four winds (3.11.8).
• His image, taken from Ezekiel 1, of God's throne borne by four creatures with four faces—"the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle"—equivalent to the "four-formed" gospel, is the origin of the conventional symbols of the Evangelists: lion, bull, eagle, man.

By the turn of the 5th century, the Catholic Church in the west, under Pope Innocent I, recognized a biblical canon including the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which was previously established at a number of regional Synods, namely the Council of Rome (382), the Synod of Hippo (393), and two Synods of Carthage (397 and 419). This canon, which corresponds to the modern Catholic canon, was used in the Vulgate, an early 5th century translation of the Bible made by Jerome under the commission of Pope Damasus I in 382.

DATING: Estimates for the dates when the canonical Gospel accounts were written vary significantly; and the evidence for any of the dates is scanty. Because the earliest surviving complete copies of the Gospels date to the 4th century and because only fragments and quotations exist before that, scholars use higher criticism to propose likely ranges of dates for the original gospel autographs. Scholars variously assess the consensus or majority view as follows:
• Mark: c. 50–73,
• Matthew: c. 70–100. c 80-85. Some conservative scholars argue for a pre-70 date, particularly those that do not accept Mark as the first gospel written.
• Luke: c. 59–100, with most arguing for somewhere around 80-85
• John: c 50-100, The majority view is that it was written in stages, so there was no one date of composition.

OTHER GOSPELS: In addition to the four canonical gospels there have been other gospels that were not accepted into the canon; perhaps as many as 50.
Generally these were not accepted due to
1. doubt over the authorship,
2. the time frame between the original writing and the events described,
3. or content that was at odds with orthodoxy.
For example, if a gospel claimed to be written by James, yet was authored in the second century, clearly authorship was not authentic. This differs from the four canonical gospels which historians agree were authored before 100. For this reason, most of these non-canonical texts were only ever accepted by small portions of the early Christian community. Some of the content of these non-canonical gospels (as much as it deviates from accepted theological norms) is considered heretical by the leadership of mainstream churches, including the Vatican.

The Jesus Seminar All four gospels present Jesus as both the Son of God and son of man. They all record His baptism, the feeding of the 5,000 from five loaves and two fishes, Mary's anointing of the Lord Jesus, His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, His betrayal, trial, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. However, each writer does so in a slightly different way, recording additional details or emphasizing one aspect more than the others.

The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 200 individuals who include "scholars with advanced degrees in biblical studies, religion or related fields [as well as] published authors who are recognized authorities in the field of religion" founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan under the auspices of the Westar Institute. One of the most active groups in biblical criticism, the seminar uses votes with colored marbles (see below) to determine what Jesus, as a historical figure, may or may not have said or done. In addition, the seminar popularizes research into the historical Jesus.]

MARK
The Gospel of Mark is anonymously written but traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark. The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate,” said Dr. Paul S. Rees. “It is an announcement!” Many of the stories bear the mark of eyewitness testimony. The early church believed that Mark, a close companion of Peter, reported what Peter had witnessed, and represents Peter’s testimony to the life of his Lord. The Gospel narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension (or to the empty tomb in the shorter recension), but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life (chapters 11-16, the trip to Jerusalem). Its swift narrative portrays Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah), the Son of Man, and the Son of God.

Two important themes of Mark are the Messianic secret and the obtuseness of the disciples. In Mark, Jesus often commands secrecy regarding aspects of his identity and certain actions. Jesus uses parables to obscure his message and fulfill prophecy (4:10-12). At times, the disciples have trouble understanding the parables, but Jesus explains what they mean, in secret (4:13-20, 4:33-34). They also fail to understand the implication of the miracles that he performs before them.

The general theory is that Mark is a Hellenistic gospel, written primarily for an audience of Greek-speaking residents of the Roman Empire. Jewish traditions are explained, clearly for the benefit of non-Jews (e.g., Mark 7:1–4; 14:12; 15:42). Aramaic words and phrases are also expanded upon by the author. Alongside these Hellenistic influences, Mark makes use of the Old Testament in the form in which it had been translated into Greek, the Septuagint, for instance.
Starting in the 19th century, textual critics have commonly asserted that Mark 16:9–20, describing some disciples' encounters with the resurrected Jesus, was a later addition to the gospel. Mark 16:8 stops at the empty tomb without further explanation. The last twelve verses are missing from the oldest manuscripts of Mark's Gospel. The style of these verses differs from the rest of Mark, suggesting they were a later addition. In a handful of manuscripts, a "short ending" is included after 16:8, but before the "long ending", and exists by itself in one of the earliest Old Latin codices.

OUTLINE OF MARK
I. Jesus has authoritative credentials. 1:1-13
II. Jesus ministered and taught in Galilee. 1:14-6:29
III. Jesus ministered and taught outside Galilee. 6:30-9:50
IV. Jesus moved toward his Passion. 10:1-13:37
V. Jesus was crucified and resurrected. 14:1-16:20

EXPLORE
1. When your group members come in have Mark 1:1 written on the chalkboard. Ask each to quickly read through Mark 15, and select the “most compelling evidence that Jesus is the Son of God.”
2. Explain that Mark, like the other Gospel writers, reported what really did happen, but may sequence events to support a particular emphasis. Chronological sequence isn’t the only valid way to organize material.

Then outline the organizing principle of authentication as it functions in these chapters. Jesus was:
1. •authenticated by God (Mark 1:1-13);
2. •authenticated by power (Mark 1:14-29);
3. •authenticated by compassion (Mark 1:40–3:12);
4. •authenticated by personal authority (Mark 3:13–5:43).
Together work through the first of these sections, pointing out the nature of the authentication and the importance of witnesses.

EXPAND
1. Break into teams to examine the other three “authenticating” segments. Each team is to look at the nature of the authenticating words, guided by the section titles. Each is also to note the witnesses. Finally each team should try to explain just how the incidents reported are linked to each other.
Do not follow up these studies by having each team report its findings to the others.
2. Have each group member select one incident from these chapters as his or her favorite. Each is then to read and reread his or her incident, and write down two or three “lessons for living” that can be learned through it.

APPLY
Form teams of four. Each person should share the “lesson for living” that he or she drew from a Mark incident that is most important to him or her personally, and explain why this lesson has personal value.

2008-09 Faith Conversations

2008-10-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

We are following a new format this year as we journey through the Gospels. Each week begins with a presentation of some background material around the Gospel we are studying and the verses on which we are focusing. Occasionally, we will use videos to help us explore more about the setting, people, culture and environment of the time. Most of our time will be spent in listening to God, each other, and the words of scripture as a prayerful way of bringing the Truth of God alive in the stories and teachings we read.

This week we reviewed the variety of scholarship on the origins of the 4 Gospels that made it into the Bible. This week we also looked at a video that talked about the countryside through which Jesus walked. As the video explored the birth of Jesus our conversation evolved into reflections on the nature and role of angels in scripture, tradition and experience.

You are welcome to read the posted material each week to add to your insight and understanding of the sacred Word of God.

THE EPISTLES II: Letters to the Early Churches

2008-06-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

TIMOTHY: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament
The Pastoral Epistles:“The Pastoral Epistles” is a term used to designate Paul’s two letters to Timothy and one letter to Titus. Two things distinguish these three epistles from Paul’s other letters: (1) They are among the last things Paul wrote, reflecting the sort of concerns which burdened the apostle near the end of his ministry. (2) They are ostensibly addressed not to a congregation but to two young men who were functioning in pastoral roles. This does not mean, of course, that the letters were not read before congregations. The epistles show clear signs that their author intended them to be used widely. Nor does this mean that the epistles are mere handbooks on pastoral duties. There is much of general interest in the letters. Yet 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are distinctive among Paul’s letters. They are highly personal, practical, and unsystematic in nature; and they deal with matters of church order which Paul had not hitherto addressed except in passing. The evolving need for structure in the churches, combined with Paul’s awareness that his own steadying influence would soon be passing from the scene, prompted him to treat certain ecclesiastical and pastoral subjects which have profited the church immensely ever since.

New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
First Timothy was written by Paul to encourage Timothy to take care of the church, the house of the living God , in his absence. Paul directed Timothy to combat false teachers and their teaching anything different from what the apostles had taught. He also gave Timothy instructions about the worship in church meetings, the selection of qualified elders and deacons, the appointment of widows to church care and church service, and his relationships with sisters and older brothers in the church. This is followed by a personal appeal to Timothy, as a man of God, to fight the good fight of faith until the time of the Lord’s appearing.

READ: 1 Timothy 3:8-13, 1 Timothy 6:3-14,2 Timothy 1:3-7, 2Timothy 2:8-26

TITUS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
Paul’s Epistle to Titus was written probably from Corinth after his first imprisonment. Therefore, the Epistle to Titus was written between a.d. 63 and 67. This epistle is much like 1 Timothy; both were written from the same place, Corinth, and at dates not widely apart—1 Timothy shortly after coming to Corinth (before he had planned a journey to Epirus) and the Epistle to Titus afterwards. Corrupt elements soon showed themselves in the church similar to those noticed in the Epistles to Timothy: Judaism, false pretensions to science (or Gnosticism), and ungodliness. Paul, on his late visit, had left Titus in Crete to establish church government and ordain elders. Paul then followed up with instructions by letter those he had already given to Titus in person on the qualifications of elders and the graces becoming the old, young, and women.

Titus was a Greek and therefore a Gentile; he was converted through Paul’s ministry. He accompanied the apostle on the deputation sent from the church of Antioch to Jerusalem to consult the apostles about the circumcision of Gentile converts. He was in company with Paul at Ephesus, from where he was sent to Corinth to commence the collection for the Jerusalem saints and to ascertain the effect of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. He next proceeded to Macedonia, where he joined Paul, who had been already eagerly expecting him at Troas. He was then employed by the apostle in preparing the collection for the poor saints in Judea and became the bearer of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

READ: Titus 1:5-16, Titus 2:114,

PHILEMON: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
Paul’s Epistle to Philemon is closely linked with Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. Both were carried by the same bearer, Onesimus. Paul and Timothy stand in the headings, and Paul appears as a prisoner. Hence it follows, it was written at the same time and place as the Epistle to the Colossians (which was about the same time as the Epistle to the Ephesians), viz., at Rome, during Paul’s first imprisonment, a.d. 61 or 62.

Onesimus, of Colosse (called “one of you”), slave of Philemon, had fled from his master to Rome after having defrauded him. He was brought to Christ by Paul, and being encouraged by him to return to his master, he was furnished with this epistle, recommending him to Philemon’s favorable reception—as being now no longer a mere servant but a brother in Christ. Paul ends by requesting Philemon to prepare him a lodging, as he trusted soon to be set free from prison and then to visit Colosse. This epistle is addressed also to Apphia, who is believed to be Philemon’s wife because of the letter’s domestic subject matter, and to Archippus (a minister of the Colossian church, who is believed to be a relative of Philemon for the same reason. In the Apostolical Canons (73) Onesimus is said to have been emancipated by his master. Ignatius, Epistola ad Ephesum, 1, speaks of him as an elder of the Ephesian church.

READ: Philemon

HEBREWS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
Since the writer of Hebrews did not identify himself (or, herself), readers throughout the ages have made conjectures about its authorship. Among the candidates who have been named are Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, and Luke.

Clement of Alexandria attributed it expressly to Paul, on the authority of Pantaenus (second century). Clement said that since Jesus is referred to as the “apostle”, Paul, through humility, does not call himself an apostle of the Hebrews. This is especially appropriate since Paul is known as the apostle to the Gentiles. Clement added that Paul prudently omitted his name on it because the Hebrews to whom it was written were prejudiced against him. (Clement also thought that Paul wrote it in Hebrew and Luke translated it into Greek.) The earliest extant collection of Paul’s epistles in one volume, namely the Chester Beatty Papyrus (P46), dated early third century, includes Hebrews as the second book in the collection, following Romans. Origen quoted Hebrews as being an epistle of Paul; however, in his Homilies, he regarded the style distinct from that of Paul, and as “more Grecian” but the thoughts as the apostle’s—adding that the “ancients who have handed down the tradition of its Pauline authorship must have had good reason for doing so, though God alone knows with certainty who was the actual writer.” In the African church, in the beginning of the third century, Tertullian ascribed it to Barnabas.

The author’s intention in this epistle is to show the superiority of Christ and the new covenant over Judaism and the old covenant. The new covenant was introduced by one far higher than the angels or Moses, through whom the Jews received the law. And the OT priesthood and sacrifices are inferior to Christ’s priesthood and sacrifice. Besides, Christ is the substance of which the former are but the shadow, and type necessarily gives place to the antitype. Now we are no longer kept at a comparative distance from God, as under the law, but have freedom of access through the opened veil, i.e., Christ’s flesh. His readers, Jewish Christians, were in danger of returning to Judaism and the OT economy—and thereby committing apostasy. The writer urges them to see the preeminence of Christ over everything in the old covenant, to not return to Judaism, and to go forward in pursuit of Christ.

READ: Hebrew 3:12-15, 4:14-16, Hebrews 8:1-12, Hebrews 11:1-3, Hebrews 13:1-9

JAMES: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
The first mention of James’s epistle by name occurs early in the third century in a writing by Origen, who died c. a.d. 254. None of the Latin fathers before the fourth century quotes it; but soon after the Council of Nicea (a.d. 325), it was admitted as canonical both by the Eastern and Western churches, and was specified as such in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage (a.d. 397). The Epistle of James took a long time to be accepted into the NT canon because of “its untheological nature, its brevity, the question of James’s identity, the fact that it was not written by one of the twelve apostles, and its general address (sent to no specific person or church)” (Burdick). But eventually this epistle (along with 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation) was accepted into the NT canon and read as authoritative Scripture.

Most scholars have identified this James as Jesus’ brother, the prominent elder of the church in Jerusalem. The whole character of the epistle coincides with what we know of this James’s legalism and Jewishness.

As an elder of Jerusalem writing to the twelve tribes of the dispersion, James set forth the gospel in its relation to the law, which the Jews so reverenced. As Paul’s epistles are a commentary on the doctrines flowing from the death and resurrection of Christ, so James’ epistle has a close connection with Christ’s teaching during his life on earth, especially his Sermon on the Mount. In both the Sermon on the Mount and the Epistle of James, the law is represented as fulfilled in love—and the very language is remarkably similar. The whole spirit of this epistle breathes the same gospel-righteousness that the Sermon on the Mount inculcates as the highest realization of the law.

READ: James 1:1-11, James 1:19-27, James 2:14-17, James 3:1-12, James 5:13-20

PETER: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
The genuineness of Peter’s first epistle is attested by 2 Peter 3:1—also by Polycarp (c. 70-160), who, in writing to the Philippians, quotes many passages. Eusebius states it as the opinion of those before him that this was among the universally acknowledged epistles. The internal evidence is equally strong. The author calls himself the apostle Peter and “a witness of Christ’s sufferings,” and an “elder”. The energy of the style harmonizes with the warmth of Peter’s character; and, as Erasmus says, this epistle is full of apostolic dignity and authority and is worthy of the leader among the apostles.

Peter wrote this epistle to console the persecuted and prepare them for a greater approaching ordeal, and to exhort all—husbands, wives, servants, elders, and people—to live godly lives in the presence of the heathen so that they could not reproach Christianity but rather be won to Christ. Peter himself explained why he wrote this epistle: “I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand”. The expression “exhorting and testifying” refers to Peter’s exhortations throughout the epistle grounded on testimony that he bore to the gospel truth, already well known to his readers by the teaching of Paul in those churches (Alford). Therefore, Peter did not set forth a complete statement of this gospel in this epistle. He reaffirmed it with his own style and expression.

READ: 1 Peter 1:3-12, 1Peter 2:11-17, 1 Peter 5:6-11, 2 Peter 3:8-13,

JOHN: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
Our records of early church history show that the first epistle of John was readily received and recognized as John’s writing. Eusebius says of Papias, a disciple of John and a friend of Polycarp: “He used testimonies from the First Epistle of John.” Irenaeus, according to Eusebius, often quoted this epistle.

The similarities between John’s Gospel and John’s epistles are so remarkable that no one could doubt that all four of these writings were done by the same person. The syntax, vocabulary, and the thematic developments are so strikingly similar that even the inexperienced reader can tell that John’s epistles were penned by the writer of the Gospel of John. One reason for this similarity in style is that John probably wrote the epistles shortly after he compiled his Gospel. The Gospel was written c. a.d. 90, and all three epistles were written most likely c. a.d. 90-95.

Many scholars think that John wrote these epistles to certain local churches in Asia—especially to those around Ephesus, the church in which John functioned as an elder in his latter days. One of the reasons that prompted his first epistle was that a heretical faction had developed within the church, a faction that promoted heretical teachings concerning the person of Christ. Scholars have identified this heresy as Docetism. The Docetists denied that Jesus had actually partaken of flesh and blood; they denied that God had come in the flesh. According to Irenaeus, they “represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nevertheless was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. But at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being”. John refuted this heresy.

John urged his readers (1) to have fellowship with God in the light, (2) to confess their sins, (3) to love God, (4) to love their fellow Christians, (5) to abide in Christ, (6) to purify themselves from worldly lusts, (7) to know God personally and experientially, (8) to appreciate the gift of eternal life, (9) to follow the Spirit of truth (and the anointing) in discerning false teachings, and (10) to esteem Jesus Christ as the true God. Above all these items, John stressed how necessary it was for the early believers to maintain a proper relationship with those who had been with Jesus.

READ: 1 John 1:5-10, 1 John 4:7-12, 2 John 1:7-11, 3 John 1:2-11

JUDE: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
The writer of this epistle identified himself as Jude, a brother of James. Most commentators agree that this James is not James, the brother of John and son of Zebedee, but James, the brother of Jesus and prominent elder in Jerusalem. As such, Jude was also Jesus’ brother. In fact, Jude (Greek, “Judas,” from the Hebrew word “Judah”) is named as one of Jesus’ brothers in Matthew.

Jude did not believe that his brother Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, until after Jesus’ resurrection. Instead of introducing himself as the brother of Jesus, he called himself a brother of James (an eminently known figure—especially to Jewish Christians) and “a slave of Jesus Christ”. This shows his humility.

Jude wrote this epistle primarily to Jewish Christians who were being infected by a form of libertine Gnosticism through heretical teachers. Gnosticism had adherents who practiced asceticism and adherents who lived in carnal self-indulgence. The NT apostles wrote various epistles to counter various gnostic teachings and practices. Jude wrote this short polemic to defend the true faith and to reprove the false teachers who promoted their libertine notions and lived lawless lives.

READ: Jude 1:17-25

REVELATION: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume
The author of Revelation calls himself John. Justin Martyr (c. a.d. 100-165) in his Dialogue quotes from Revelation, as the work of John the apostle, with respect to the prophecy of the millennium of the saints, to be followed by the general resurrection and judgment. This testimony of Justin is referred to also by Eusebius.

The best authorities among the Fathers state that John was exiled under Domitian (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria; Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, . Victorinus says that he had to labor in the mines of Patmos. At Domitian’s death, a.d. 96, John returned to Ephesus under the emperor Nerva. He received the Revelation while he was on the island of Patmos. This island is one of the Sporades group of islands. Its circumference is about thirty miles. “It was fitting that when forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of the earth’s lands, he was permitted to penetrate the secrets of heaven” (Bede, Explanations of Apocalypse).

Tregelles well says, “There is no book of the New Testament for which we have such clear, ample, and numerous testimonies in the second century as we have in favor of the Apocalypse. The more closely the witnesses were connected with the apostle John (as was the case with Irenaeus), the more explicit is their testimony. The doubts that prevailed after ages must have originated either in ignorance of the earlier testimony, or else from some supposed intuition of what an apostle ought to have written. The objections on the ground of internal style can weigh nothing against the actual evidence. It is in vain to argue, a priori, that John could not have written this book when we have the evidence of several competent witnesses that he did write it.”

Gregory of Nyssa (fourth century) called Revelation “the last book of grace.” It completes the volume of inspiration, so that we are to look for no further revelation till Christ himself shall come. Appropriately the last book completing the canon was written by John, the last survivor of the apostles. The NT is composed of the historical books, the Gospels and Acts, the doctrinal epistles, and the one prophetical book, Revelation. The same apostle wrote the last of the Gospels, and probably the last of the Epistles, and the only prophetical book of the NT.

After a brief introduction that sets forth the main subject of the book, viz., to “show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” Revelation begins with admonitory addresses to the seven churches from the divine Son of man, whom John saw in his vision (chaps. 1-3). From chapter 4 to the end is mainly prophecy, interspersed with practical exhortations and consolations similar to those addressed to the seven churches, and so connecting the body of the book with its beginning. In fact, chapters 4–22 can be seen as containing expansions of many of the important themes introduced in the first three chapters.

Basically, three schools of interpreters exist: (1) the Preterists, who hold that almost the whole prophecy of Revelation has been fulfilled. (2) The historical interpreters, who hold that it comprises the history of the church from John’s time to the end of the world, the seals being chronologically succeeded by the trumpets and the trumpets by the vials. (3) The Futurists, who consider almost the whole prophecy as yet future, and to be fulfilled immediately before Christ’s second coming. The first theory was not held by any of the earliest fathers. The Futurist school is open to this great objection: it would leave the church of Christ without prophetical guidance or support under her fiery trials for 1700 or 1800 years. The Jews had a succession of prophets who guided them with the light of prophecy. What their prophets were to them, the apocalyptic Scriptures have been, and are, to the church. Also, there are schools of interpretation with respect to the coming of Christ and the millennial kingdom. (1) The premillennial interpreters believe Christ will return just prior to establishing a millennial kingdom on earth. (2) The amillennial interpreter does not think there will be a literal millennial kingdom (he takes the language in 20:3-6 to be figurative). (3) The postmillennial interpreter thinks the church age will produce the kingdom on earth—after which time Christ will return.

READ: Rev. 1:1-10, Rev 2 &3 (the Seven Churchs), Rev 7:11-17, Rev 21:1-8, Rev 22:1-5, Rev 22:12-21

THE EPISTLES: Letters to the Early Church

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CORINTHIANS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume

The authenticity of this epistle is attested by Clement of Rome (Epistle to the Corinthians, 47), Polycarp (Epistle to the Philippians, 11), Irenaeus (Against Heresies, 4.27.45), Clement of Alexandria (Paidagogos, 1.6.33), and Tertullian (Prescription of Heretics, 33). The city to which it was sent was famed for its wealth and commerce, which were chiefly due to its situation between the Ionian and Aegean Seas on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese with Greece. In Paul’s time it was the capital of the province Achaia and the seat of the Roman proconsul (Acts 18:12). The state of morals in it was notorious for debauchery, even in the profligate heathen world; so much so that “to Corinthianize” was a proverbial phrase for “to live like a Corinthian in the practice of sexual immorality” (Mare); hence, arose dangers to the purity of the church at Corinth, which was founded by Paul on his first visit (Acts 18:1-17).

Paul had been the instrument of converting many Gentiles (12:2) and some Jews (Acts 18:8), notwithstanding the vehement opposition of the countrymen of the latter (Acts 18:5), during the year and a half in which he lived in Corinth. The converts were chiefly of the humbler classes (1:26). Crispus.

According to Greek legend, Sisyphus was a king of Corinth. For defying the gods with his insolent wit he was sentenced to the eternal drudgery of pushing a huge stone up a hill. When he would reach the summit, the stone would roll back to the bottom and force resumption of the task. Camus, a 20th-century philosopher, found in this legend of the Corinthian king a picture of modern man’s condition, the purposeless absurdity of life.

If Camus had read the two biblical letters sent to the Corinthians, he would have gotten a different picture, one with a message of purpose and hope for misdirected people. The attitude of these Corinthians, like their legendary king, smacked of proud self-centeredness. But instead of dealing with a capricious Zeus, these first-century Corinthians interacted with the gracious and loving God and His messenger, the Apostle Paul.

Read 1 Cor 12, 1 Cor 13, 1 Cor 15, and 2 Cor 3, 2 Cor 12:6-10

PHILLIPPIANS: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament

On his second missionary journey Paul visited Philippi. Through his ministry there several people trusted Christ as their Savior. Some of these were Lydia and her family and the Philippian jailer and his family (Acts 16:14-34).

Soon after Paul’s visit a local church was established in Philippi. The church helped the apostle in different ways so this epistle was written to acknowledge their help, as well as to help them.

Philippians is personal and practical in its tone and teaching. Paul emphasized the need for believers to rejoice in Christ. “Joy” (chara) is used four times (Phil 1:4, 25; 2:2; 4:1); “rejoice” (chairō) occurs eight times (1:18 [twice]; 2:17-18; 3:1, 4:4 [twice], 10); and “glad” occurs thrice (2:17-18, 28). (In 1:26 the word “joy” is a different Gr. word; there it is the word “glad,” “boast,” or “glory,” [kauchēma], which also occurs in 2:16 and 3:3.) Paul wrote frequently in this epistle about the mind of a child of God. One’s manner of life is truly a reflection of what occupies his mind.

Read Phil 2:1-11, Phil 4:4-9

GALATIANS: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament

Galatians, though one of Paul’s shorter epistles, is highly esteemed as one of his greatest and most influential. Since both Romans and Galatians teach the doctrine of justification by faith, the former has been considered by some to be an expansion of Galatians and the latter has been called “a short Romans.”

Like 2 Corinthians the Epistle of Galatians eloquently defends Paul’s apostolic authority and contains in summary form what the apostle taught. In particular it contains a clear statement of justification by faith and builds on that foundation a defense of Christian liberty against any form of legalism.

In the early church, as the separation between Judaism and Christianity was taking place, the letter to the Galatians no doubt helped clarify that cleavage. Centuries later it played such a key role in the Reformation that it was called “the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation.” This was because its emphasis on salvation by grace through faith alone was the major theme of the preaching of the Reformers.

Read Gal 2:15-21, Gal 3:34-39, Gal 5:16-26

ROMANS: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament

This letter is the premier example of the epistolary form of writing, not only in the Pauline body of material and in the New Testament but also in all of ancient literature. It stands first in every list of the Apostle Paul’s writings though it was not first in time of composition. This bears witness to the importance of the work both in its theme and in its content. It may also reflect the significance of the location of the letter’s first readers, the imperial capital of Rome. In addition a possible tie grows out of the fact that the Book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome so that his letter to the Romans follows naturally in the order of Bible books.

That Paul is the author of this letter is denied by almost no one. Even the ancient heretics admitted Romans was written by Paul. So do the modern (19th century and later) radical German critics, who deny many other facts in the Scriptures. Paul identified himself as the author by name, of course; but that is no guarantee of the acceptance of his authorship, since he did that in all his letters, including those for which his authorship is questioned or denied. In Romans Paul referred to himself by name only once, in contrast with several of his other letters; but a number of other internal details support Paul’s authorship.

Read Rom 2: 1-4, Rom 7:14-25, Rom 8:26-30, 36-39, Rom 12,

EPHESIANS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume

The headings (1:1 and 3:1) show that this epistle claims to be that of Paul. This claim is confirmed by the testimonies of Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.2.3 and 1.8.5; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 4.65, and Paidagogos, 1.8; Origen, Against Celsus, 4, 211. It is quoted (3:14-18) by Valentinus (a.d. 120), as we know from Hippolytus’s Refutation of Heresies. Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 12, testifies to its canonicity. So does Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.17. Ignatius, in Ephesians, 12, alludes to the frequent and affectionate mention made by Paul of the Christian state, privileges, and persons of the Ephesians in his epistle.

This epistle was addressed, most probably, to several churches in the district around Ephesus—namely, Asia. The Epistle to the Ephesians, so-called, was not really intended to be only for the church at Ephesus. Most modern scholars are convinced that it was an encyclical that went to several churches in Asia, including Ephesus. There are several reasons to affirm this. First, the earliest manuscripts (the Chester Beatty Papyrus—P46, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus) do not contain the words “in Ephesus” in Ephesians 1:1. It appears that Paul purposely left the name of the locality out, so as to be filled in later as the letter circulated to each locality. Since Ephesus was the leading city of Asia, it was quite natural for scribes to assign this epistle to the church at Ephesus. Second, the Epistle to the Ephesians has all the marks of being a general treatise rather than an epistle to a specific local church. Paul had lived with the saints at Ephesus for three years (Acts 20:31). He knew them intimately. And yet in this epistle there are no personal greetings or specific exhortations. When we consider Paul’s manner in many of his other epistles, it would be quite unlike him to have excluded these personal expressions. Quite the contrary, Paul speaks to the saints whom he has only heard about and who have only heard about him. It is possible that this epistle was the one sent to Laodicea, and several scholars since have affirmed the same.

Twice in this epistle Paul referred to himself by name as the author of the book Yet the Pauline authorship of Ephesians has been greatly disputed in recent years. Some critics think that the book reflects aspects of vocabulary, style, and doctrine that differ from Paul’s writings. Though the book has a close affinity with Colossians, critics claim that Ephesians is uncharacteristic of Paul. They suggest that the book was pseudonymous, that is, it was written by someone who did not use his own name but who instead claimed to be Paul.

However, pseudonymity was not practiced by the early Christians. Also this book is regarded by many as the crown of all Paul’s writings. Thus it seems strange that a disciple of Paul would be greater than Paul in theological and spiritual perception. Furthermore, Ephesians was extensively and undisputedly accepted in the early church as Paul’s letter. There is no strong reason for rejecting the Pauline authorship of Ephesians.

Read Eph 3:14-21, Eph 4, Eph 5:21-33, Eph 6:10-20

COLLOSIANS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume

Colosse was a city of Phrygia, on the river Lycus, a branch of the Meander. The church there was mainly composed of Gentiles (cf. 2:13). Alford infers from 2:1 that Paul had not seen its members and therefore could not have been its founder. Colossians 1:7, 8 suggests the probability that Epaphras was the founder of the church there. The date of its foundation must have been subsequent to Paul’s visitation, “strengthening in order” all the churches of Galatia and Phrygia (Acts 18:23); for otherwise he must have visited the Colossians, which 2:1 implies he had not. Had Paul been their father in the faith, he would doubtless have alluded to the fact.

This epistle was written at Rome, during Paul’s first imprisonment there (Acts 28). In the Introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians, it was shown that the three epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, were sent at the same time, viz., during the freer portion of his imprisonment Colossians 4:3, 4 and Ephesians 6:19, 20 imply greater freedom than he had while writing to the Philippians,. This epistle, though carried by the same bearer, Tychicus, who bore that to the Ephesians, was written before that epistle; for many phrases similar in both appear in the more expanded form in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 6:21).

The reason Paul wrote Colossians was to counteract various theological errors that had crept into the church at Colosse. From the text of Colossians we can infer that the Colossians were infiltrated by a system that combined elements of legalistic Judaism, asceticism, and Gnosticism. The gnostic element was the most pronounced and most ardently fought against by Paul.

It is essential to understand Gnosticism if one is to comprehend what lies behind many of Paul’s statements in this epistle. Curtis Vaughn has provided an excellent summary of Gnosticism, especially as it relates to the Colossian heresy:

Gnosticism, in all its forms, was characterized by belief in the evil of matter, in mediating beings, and in salvation through knowledge. Beginning with the assumption that all matter is evil, the Gnostics argued that God didn’t create this world and that he has absolutely no contact with it. However, intellectual necessity did not permit them to break completely the bond between divinity and the material world. They therefore taught that God put forth from himself a series of “aeons” or emanations, each a little more distant from him and each having a little less of Deity. At the end of this chain of intermediate beings there is an emanation possessing enough of Deity to make a world but removed far enough from God that his creative activities could not compromise the perfect purity of God. . . . Belief in the inherent evil of matter made it impossible for the Gnostics to accept the real incarnation of God in Christ. Some of them explained it away by denying the actual humanity of Jesus, holding that he only seemed to be human. The body of Jesus, they taught, was an illusion, a phantom, only apparently real. . . . Other Gnostics explained away the incarnation by denying the real deity of Jesus.

Paul combated this denigration of Christ’s deity by presenting the preeminent, all-inclusive, and all-sufficient Christ.

Read Col 1:15-23, Col 3:1-25,

THESSALONIANS: New Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Testament Volume

At the time Paul wrote this epistle, Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman second district of Macedonia (Livy, 45. 29). It lay on the bay of Therme and has always been, and still is, under its modern name Thessaloniki, a place of considerable commerce. After his imprisonment and scourging at Philippi, Paul went to Thessalonica; and in company with Silas (Acts 17:1-9) and Timothy founded the church there. The Jews, as a whole, rejected the gospel when Paul preached it for three successive Sabbaths; but a few “believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout [i.e., proselytes to Judaism] Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” The believers received the word joyfully, notwithstanding trials and persecutions from their own countrymen and from the Jews. Paul’s stay at Thessalonica was probably not limited to the three weeks specified in —for his laboring there “with his hands” for his living, his receiving supplies there more than once from Philippi, his making many converts from the Gentiles, and his appointing ministers all imply a longer residence. As at Pisidian Antioch, at Corinth, and at Ephesus, after having preached the gospel to the Jews who rejected it, Paul then turned to the Gentiles. He most likely held Christian meetings in the house of Jason, perhaps “the kinsman” of Paul mentioned in His great subject of teaching seems to have been the coming of Christ to establish his kingdom, and that they should walk worthy of it. When Paul was in Thessalonica he must have preached about Jesus’ kingship, for the charge which the assailants of Jason’s house brought against him and the other brethren was, “These do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus”

Read 1 Thess 4:9-12, 1 Thess 5:1-11, 2 Thess 2:13-17, 2 Thess 3:1-5,

The Gospels

2008-05-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

THE GOSPELS: GOD WALKS AMONG US

WIKIPEDIA:

The word gospel derives from the Old English god-spell (rarely godspel), meaning "good tidings" or "good news". The first canonical gospel written is Mark (c 65-70), which in turn was used as a source for the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke may have also used the hypothetical Q source. These first three gospels are called the synoptic gospels because they share a similar view. The last gospel, the gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics. The canonical gospels were originally written in Greek.

Of the many gospels written in antiquity, only four gospels came to be accepted as part of the New Testament, or canonical. An insistence upon there being a canon of canonical four, and no others, was a central theme of Irenaeus of Lyons, c. 185. In his central work, Adversus Haereses Irenaeus denounced various early Christian groups that used only one gospel, such as Marcionism which used only Marcion's version of Luke, or the Ebionites which seem to have used an Aramaic version of Matthew as well as groups that embraced the texts of newer revelations, such as the Valentinians (A.H. 1.11). Irenaeus declared that the four he espoused were the four Pillars of the Church: "it is not possible that there can be either more or fewer than four" he stated, presenting as logic the analogy of the four corners of the earth and the four winds (3.11.8). His image, taken from Ezekiel 1, of God's throne borne by four creatures with four faces—"the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle"—equivalent to the "four-formed" gospel, is the origin of the conventional symbols of the Evangelists: lion, bull, eagle, man. Irenaeus was ultimately successful in declaring that the four gospels collectively, and exclusively these four, contained the truth. By reading each gospel in light of the others, Irenaeus made of John a lens through which to read Matthew, Mark and Luke. By the turn of the 5th century, the Catholic Church in the west, under Pope Innocent I, recognized a biblical canon including the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which was previously established at a number of regional Synods, namely the Council of Rome (382), the Synod of Hippo (393), and two Synods of Carthage (397 and 419). This canon, which corresponds to the modern Catholic canon, was used in the Vulgate, an early 5th century translation of the Bible made by Jerome under the commission of Pope Damasus I in 382.

DATING: Estimates for the dates when the canonical Gospel accounts were written vary significantly; and the evidence for any of the dates is scanty. Because the earliest surviving complete copies of the Gospels date to the 4th century and because only fragments and quotations exist before that, scholars use higher criticism to propose likely ranges of dates for the original gospel autographs. Scholars variously assess the consensus or majority view as follows:

· Mark: c. 50–73,

· Matthew: c. 70–100. c 80-85. Some conservative scholars argue for a pre-70 date, particularly those that do not accept Mark as the first gospel written.

· Luke: c. 59–100, with most arguing for somewhere around 80-85

· John: c 50-100, The majority view is that it was written in stages, so there was no one date of composition.

OTHER GOSPELS: In addition to the four canonical gospels there have been other gospels that were not accepted into the canon; perhaps as many as 50. Generally these were not accepted due to

1. doubt over the authorship,

2. the time frame between the original writing and the events described,

3. or content that was at odds with orthodoxy.

For example, if a gospel claimed to be written by James, yet was authored in the second century, clearly authorship was not authentic. This differs from the four canonical gospels which historians agree were authored before 100. For this reason, most of these non-canonical texts were only ever accepted by small portions of the early Christian community. Some of the content of these non-canonical gospels (as much as it deviates from accepted theological norms) is considered heretical by the leadership of mainstream churches, including the Vatican.

Two non-canonical gospels that are considered to be among the earliest in composition are the sayings Gospel of Thomas and the narrative Gospel of Peter. The dating of the Gospel of Thomas is particularly controversial, as a minority of scholars date it to before the writing of the canonical gospels. Like the canonical gospels, scholars have to rely on higher criticism, not extant manuscripts, in order to roughly date Thomas.

The Gospel of Judas is another controversial and ancient text that purports to tell the story of the gospel from the perspective of Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. It paints an unusual picture of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. The text was recovered from a cave in Egypt by a thief and thereafter sold on the black market until it was finally discovered by a collector who, with the help of academics from Yale and Princeton, were able to verify its authenticity. The document itself does not claim to have been authored by Judas (it is, rather, a Gospel about Judas), and dates no earlier than the second century.

The Jesus Seminar All four gospels present Jesus as both the Son of God and son of man. They all record His baptism, the feeding of the 5,000 from five loaves and two fishes, Mary's anointing of the Lord Jesus, His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, His betrayal, trial, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. However, each writer does so in a slightly different way, recording additional details or emphasizing one aspect more than the others.

The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 200 individuals who include "scholars with advanced degrees in biblical studies, religion or related fields [as well as] published authors who are recognized authorities in the field of religion" founded in 1985 by the late Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan under the auspices of the Westar Institute. One of the most active groups in biblical criticism, the seminar uses votes with colored marbles (see below) to determine what Jesus, as a historical figure, may or may not have said or done. In addition, the seminar popularizes research into the historical Jesus.]

http://virtualreligion.net/primer/outlines/outlines.html

Synoptic Gospel Outlines
Outline	Narrative Segment	Matthew	Mark	Luke
1	Jesus' background	1:1 - 4:11	1:1-13	1:1 - 4:13
2	Jesus teaches in Galilee	4:12 - 9:17	1:14 - 3:19	4:14 - 7:10
2a	Jesus' Sermon	5:1 - 7:27		6:20-49
3	Jesus' Prophetic Mission	9:18 - 12:50	3:19-35	7:11-50
4	Jesus Uses Parables	12:46 - 13:52	3:31 - 4:34	8:1-21
5	Who is Jesus?	13:53 - 18:25	4:35 - 9:50	8:22 - 9:50
6	Jesus Journeys to Judea	19:1 - 20:34	10:1-52	9:51 - 19:27
7	Jesus at Jerusalem	21:1 - 25:46	11:1 - 13:37	19:28 - 21:38
8	Jesus' last days	26:1 - 27:66	14:1 - 15:47	22:1 - 23:56
9	Resurrection reports	28:1-20	16:1-8 (9-20)	24:1-53

[the Gospel summaries are edited and revised from Wikipedia]

MATTHEW

Of the four canonical gospels, Matthew is most closely aligned with the Jewish tradition, and the author was apparently Jewish. Most scholars consider the gospel, like every other book in the New Testament, to have been written in Koine Greek, though some experts maintain the traditional view that it was originally composed in Aramaic.

The book can be divided into its four structurally distinct sections: Two introductory sections; the main section, which can be further broken into five sections, each with a narrative component followed by a long discourse of Jesus; and finally, the Passion and Resurrection section.

· Containing the genealogy, the birth, and the infancy of Jesus (Matthew 1; Matthew 2).

· The discourses and actions of John the Baptist preparatory to Christ's public ministry (Matthew 3; Matthew 4:11).

· The discourses and actions of Christ in Galilee (4:12–26:1).

· The Sermon on the Mount, concerning morality (Ch. 5–7)

· The Missionary Discourse, concerning the mission Jesus gave his Twelve Apostles. (10–11:1)

· The Parable Discourse, stories that teach about the Kingdom of Heaven (13).

· The "Church Order" Discourse, concerning relationships among Christians (18–19:1).

· The Eschatological Discourse, which includes the Olivet Discourse and Judgement of the Nations, concerning his Second Coming and the end of the age (24–25).

· The sufferings, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the Great Commission (26-28).

The one aim pervading the book is to show that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah — he "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" — and that in him the ancient prophecies had their fulfillment. This book is full of allusions to passages of the Old Testament which the book interprets as predicting and foreshadowing Jesus' life and mission. This Gospel contains no fewer than sixty-five references to the Old Testament, forty-three of these being direct verbal citations, thus greatly outnumbering those found in the other Gospels. The main feature of this Gospel may be expressed in the motto "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (5:17).

This Gospel sets forth a view of Jesus as Christ and portrays him as an heir to King David's throne, the rightful King of the Jews.

The cast of thought and the forms of expression employed by the writer show that this Gospel was written by Jewish Christians.

Some believe this gospel was written to the Jewish community, thus explaining all the allusions to passages of the Old Testament; however, see also Great Commission (which is directed at "all nations") and Interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount and Christian view of the Law

MARK

The Gospel of Mark is anonymously written but traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark. It narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension (or to the empty tomb in the shorter recension), but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life (chapters 11-16, the trip to Jerusalem). Its swift narrative portrays Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah), the Son of Man, and the Son of God.

Two important themes of Mark are the Messianic secret and the obtuseness of the disciples. In Mark, Jesus often commands secrecy regarding aspects of his identity and certain actions. Jesus uses parables to obscure his message and fulfill prophecy (4:10-12). At times, the disciples have trouble understanding the parables, but Jesus explains what they mean, in secret (4:13-20, 4:33-34). They also fail to understand the implication of the miracles that he performs before them.

The general theory is that Mark is a Hellenistic gospel, written primarily for an audience of Greek-speaking residents of the Roman Empire. Jewish traditions are explained, clearly for the benefit of non-Jews (e.g., Mark 7:1–4; 14:12; 15:42). Aramaic words and phrases are also expanded upon by the author.

Alongside these Hellenistic influences, Mark makes use of the Old Testament in the form in which it had been translated into Greek, the Septuagint, for instance.

Starting in the 19th century, textual critics have commonly asserted that Mark 16:9–20, describing some disciples' encounters with the resurrected Jesus, was a later addition to the gospel. Mark 16:8 stops at the empty tomb without further explanation. The last twelve verses are missing from the oldest manuscripts of Mark's Gospel. The style of these verses differs from the rest of Mark, suggesting they were a later addition. In a handful of manuscripts, a "short ending" is included after 16:8, but before the "long ending", and exists by itself in one of the earliest Old Latin codices.

OUTLINE OF MARK

I. Jesus has authoritative credentials. 1:1-13

II. Jesus ministered and taught in Galilee. 1:14-6:29

III. Jesus ministered and taught outside Galilee. 6:30-9:50

IV. Jesus moved toward his Passion. 10:1-13:37

V. Jesus was crucified and resurrected. 14:1-16:20

LUKE

The Gospel of Luke is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. The text narrates the life of Jesus, with particular interest concerning his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. It ends with an account of the ascension.

The author is characteristically concerned with social ethics, the poor, women, and other oppressed groups. Certain popular stories on these themes, such as the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, are found only in this gospel. This gospel also has a special emphasis on prayer, the activity of the Holy Spirit, and joyfulness. D. Guthrie stated, “it is full of superb stories and leaves the reader with a deep impression of the personality and teachings of Jesus."

The text is internally anonymous. One of the two oldest surviving manuscripts (circa 200), has the attribution According to Luke. The other manuscript which 'is probably to be dated earlier has no such (surviving) attribution. Tradition holds that the text was written by Luke the companion of Paul (named in Colossians 4:14) but scholars are divided on this issue.

Luke is the only gospel with a formal introduction, in which the author explains his methodology and purpose. It states that many others have already "undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word." The author adds that he too wishes to compose an orderly account for Theophilus, so that Theophilus "may know the certainty of the things [he has] been taught".

OUTLINE OF LUKE

I. Preface (1:1-4)

II. Infancy narratives: John the Baptist and Jesus (1:5-2:52)

III. Preparation for Jesus’ ministry (3:1-4:13)

IV. Jesus’ ministry in Galilee (4:14-9:50)

V. Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27)

VI. Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem (19:28-21:38)

VII. Passion of Jesus (22:1-23:56a)

JOHN

The Gospel of is traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. Like the three synoptic gospels, it contains an account of some of the actions and sayings of Jesus, but differs from them in ethos and theological emphases. The Gospel appears to have been written with an evangelistic purpose, primarily for Greek-speaking Jews who were not believers: "these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name"(John 20:30-31). A second purpose was to counter criticisms or unorthodox beliefs of Jews, John the Baptist's followers, and those who believed Jesus was only spirit and not flesh.

Of the four gospels, John presents the highest Christology, describing him as the Logos who is the Arche (a Greek term for "existed from the beginning" or "the ultimate source of all things"), teaching at length about his identity as savior, and possibly declaring him to be God.

Compared to the Synoptic Gospels, John focuses on Jesus' mission to bring the Logos ("Word", "Wisdom", "Reason" or "Rationality") to his disciples. Only in John does Jesus talk at length about himself, including a substantial amount of material Jesus shared with the disciples only. Certain elements of the synoptics (such as parables, exorcisms, and possibly the Second Coming) are not found in John.

Since "the higher criticism" of the 19th century, historians have questioned the gospel of John as a reliable source of information about the historical Jesus. J. D. G. Dunn comments: "few scholars would regard John as a source for information regarding Jesus' life and ministry in any degree comparable to the Synoptics". Most scholars regard the work as anonymous, and date it to 90–100.

John portrays Jesus Christ as "a brief manifestation of the eternal Word, whose immortal spirit remains ever-present with the believing Christian." The gospel gives far more focus to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father. Many have used his gospel for the development of the concept of the Trinity while the Synoptic Gospels focused less directly on Jesus as the Son of God. John includes far more direct claims of Jesus being the only Son of God than the Synoptic Gospels. The gospel also focuses on the relation of the Redeemer to believers, the announcement of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and the prominence of love as an element in the Christian character.

OUTLINE OF JOHN

I. The Prologue (1:1-18)

II. The Book of Signs: Jesus Reveals the Father (1:19-12:50)

III. The Book of Glory: Jesus Returns to the Father (13:1-20:31)

IV. Last Discourses of Jesus: (13:31-17:26)

V. Passion Narrative (18:1-19:42)

VI. Resurrection Narrative (20:1-21:25)

WISDOM WRITINGS - Insights for Living

2008-04-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Wisdom Literature

(From the NIV Study Bible)

An ancient tradition among the Jews divided the collection of their holy books into three major divisions: the Law (Pentateuch), the Prophets (Former and Latter) and the Writings. Included within the third division are Psalms and wisdom materials such as Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (also some psalms and probably the Song of Songs—see introduction to that book: Interpretation).

This wisdom literature is usually associated with the sages who are mentioned along with priests and prophets as an important force in Israelite society (see, e.g., Jer 18:18 and note). These gifted persons were recognized as possessing wide knowledge of the created world (see 1Ki 4:29-34), special insight into human affairs (as exemplified by proverbs) and exceptionally good judgment regarding courses of action to be followed to attain success in various enterprises (see 2Sa 16:15-23). In general, priests and prophets dealt with religious and moral concerns (proclaiming, teaching, interpreting and applying God's word to his people), whereas the sages generally focused more on the practical aspects of how life should be guided in the created order of things (Proverbs) and on the intellectual challenges that arise from the ambiguities of human experience (Job, Ecclesiastes).

Israel's sages reflected on life in light of God's special revelations to his people, but for their unique contribution to understanding how people ought to live in God's world they drew heavily on human experience of the created order. In this they learned much from the sages and wisdom traditions of other peoples. Comparison of their writings with those of their neighbors discloses their acquaintance with the larger intellectual world of the ancient Near East but also the distinctive perspective they brought to their reflections on the human condition.

Ecclesiastes

http://www.cathtruth.com/catholicbible/wisdom.htm

Ecclesiastes means a "preacher," or a "Collector" of sayings and maxims, or the chief of an assembly of

the wise. The author was a Jew who accepted the great religious principles of the Old Testament and adhered to the Monotheism and religion of his forefathers.

Although the book is lacking in a logical arrangement of subject matter, we may, nevertheless distinguish two sections in it. The first part (ch. 1-4:16) is in a certain sense theoretical and strives to answer the following question: What in this world can bring permanent happiness to man? His own investigations had brought him to the mournful conclusion: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." A permanent and immutable happiness, which alone can make man blessed, is not to be found in this world. And why? Because man is short-lived and mortal; things are subject to a constant flux and change; in the present order of things good and evil are inseparably intermingled and man is helpless to change it. Earthly things, such as honor, glory, riches and sensual pleasures bring ennui -- a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest -- rather than an abiding happiness. Wisdom itself shows the defects in the world, the perversion of justice, and the vanity of all things.

In the practical part of the book (ch. 4:17 to 12:8) the author points out what man must do to attain happiness. He must observe the commandments of God, submit to Divine Providence, refrain from inquiring too curiously into the ways of Divine Wisdom, avoid covetousness, sensuality, folly, ambition, and detraction, practice patience and mortification, be diligent in good, and remember death and judgment The author cautions us against excesses of all kinds, strikes out for moderation and the happy medium in which virtue and morality consist, and concludes his investigation with the words: "Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is all man" (12:13).

Ecclesiastes 1:1 - 8 (NRSV) 1The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow. 8 All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.

Ecclesiastes 1:12 - 18 (NRSV) 12I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. 14I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. 15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 2:1 (NRSV) 1I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - 15 (NRSV) 1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. 9What gain have the workers from their toil? 10I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 13moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. 14I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. 15That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.

Ecclesiastes 12:9 - 14 (NRSV) 9Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. 10The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly. 11The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. 12Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO READ THE WORDS OF ECCLESIASTES? WHAT DO YOU THINK THE AUTHOR IS TRYING TO SAY? HOW IS THIS LIKE THE CHRISTIAN AND BUDDHIST CONCEPT OF NON-ATTACHMENT? WHAT IS THE TRUE SOURCE OF CONTENTMENT, PEACE AND HAPPINESS FOR YOU?

Song of Solomon

http://www.cathtruth.com/catholicbible/wisdom.htm

Both Jewish and Christian tradition interprets the Canticle of Canticles as an allegory, that is, a description of one thing through the image of another. In the words and imagery of an earthly love between a royal bridegroom and his lovely bride the book represents the union between God and His chosen people, between Christ and His Church, and between God and the sanctified soul. The Old Testament frequently describes the love between God and His creatures in the terms of earthly friendship or love; for example: "The bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee" (Isaias 62:5). In the book of Ezechiel, Jerusalem, under the figure of an unfaithful wife, is upbraided by God with her ingratitude and manifold disloyalties (ch. 16). In the New Testament the allegory of marriage is used frequently to portray the union and love between Christ and His Church. We shall quote three passages illustrative of this fact; "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride" (Matthew 25:1); "the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, He is the saviour of his body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church" (Ephesians, 5:23- 25); 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 21:1 – 4)

Song of Songs 1:1 - 4 (NRSV) 1The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine, 3 your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you. 4 Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

Song of Songs 2:10 - 13 (NRSV) 10 My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Song of Songs 8:6 - 7 (NRSV) 6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT AS THOUGH GOD WAS SINGING A LOVE POEM OR SONNET TO YOU? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE RELATIONSHIP OF LOVE BETWEEN GOD AND THE CHURCH? WHAT DOES THIS TEACH YOU ABOUT THE NATURE OF GOD?

Job

http://www.cathtruth.com/catholicbible/wisdom.htm

The book deals with the difficult problem of reconciling the sufferings of just and innocent men with the justice and goodness of God. The author does not discuss the question in abstract terms but illustrates his principles by means of a concrete story about the patient and God-fearing Job. Job probably lived in patriarchal times. His home was in the land of Hus in the northeastern part of Palestine. He was the head of a large clan and was rich in lands and cattle. In rapid succession he lost his children and his possessions, was afflicted with a loathesome disease, and became an outcast from his own people. His three friends - Eliphaz, Baldad and Sophar - who for seven days mourned over him in silence, open the discussion as to the cause of Job's sufferings (ch. 1-3). Sufferings, they contend, are the penalty of wrong doing. God is a severe and just judge who punishes the evil and rewards the good (ch. 4-31). Eliu, one of the bystanders, reaffirms the justice and omnipotence of God, and maintains that sufferings purify us from vice and strengthen us in virtue (ch. 32-37). Job, in his defense, replies over and over that he has done nothing sufficiently equal to the suffering he has experienced and demands an audience (actually the language of a court trial) with God. God’s response in the end doesn’t offer an explanation, only a contrast between the perspective and power of God and the limitations of humans.

Job 1:1 - 12 (NRSV) 1There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did. 6One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan [or The Accuser] also came among them. 7The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:11 - 13 (NRSV) 11Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Job 4:1 - 9 (NRSV) 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking? 3 See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands. 4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. 6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? 7 “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. 9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

Job 7:16 - 21 (NRSV) 16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, 18 visit them every morning, test them every moment? 19 Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? 21 Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

Job 38:1 - 7 (NRSV) 1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

Job 42:1 - 9 (NRSV) 1Then Job answered the LORD: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done.”

JOB’S STORY IS OLDER THAN SCRIPTURE. IT DEALS WITH THE PERPLEXING STRUGGLE OF THE IMPACT AND EXISTENCE OF EVIL IN A WORLD CREATED BY A JUST AND BENEVOLENT GOD? HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND GOD’S ANSWER TO JOB?

PSALMS & PROVERBS: Life is Hard, How Do I Get Through It?

2008-04-14T06:14:00.001-07:00

Introducing the Psalms

by Dennis Bratcher (http://www.crivoice.org/psalmsintro.html)

The Psalms are some of the most widely read portions of the Old Testament. They have a long history of popularity in the Christian tradition, so much so that often the Book of Psalms is bound with the New Testament in pocket editions. Such popularity reflects sensitivity to the fact that the psalms are about people, the struggle and joy of living life under God. While too often the psalms are seen as a sort of spiritual "pick-me-up," a view reflecting the distorted "feel-good" mentality of modern society, their message goes far deeper, addressing the entire range of human existence.

It is important to recognize that the psalms are not doctrinal statements, creeds, or history but that they are both poetry and prayer, poetry intended to be set to music and prayed in worship. In ancient Israel, no less than in the modern world, poetry and music were the means by which people expressed the deepest of human feelings and emotions, the most profound of insights, and the most tragic and joyous of human experiences.

Types of Psalms include:

· Lament Psalms – Expressions of sorrow, crisis, despair….moves to place of trust, hope and joy. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 137, 143

· Thanksgiving Psalms – offering gratitude… Psalms 18, 21, 30, 32, 34, 40:1-11, 65, 66, 67, 75, 92, 107, 108, 116, 118, 124, 136, 138

· Trust Psalms…expressing trust in God…11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 63, 91, 121, 125, 131

· Royal Psalms… speaking of Israel’s Kings or God as King…2, 18, 20, 21, 29, 45, 47, 72, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 110, 144

· History Psalms…recounting God’s involvement in Israel’s History 8, 105-106, 135, 136

· Wisdom Psalms…reflecting human or divine wisdom and God’s Law 1*, 19, 36*, 37, 49, 73, 112, 119, 127, 128, 133\

· Creation Psalms…observing the divine wonders of creation…8, 19, 29, 33, 65, and 104

PSALMS WERE USED AS A HYMNBOOK IN THE WORSHIP OF ANCIENT ISRAEL. BUT THEY HAVE ALSO BEEN USED FOR CONTEMPLATION AND PRAYER THROUGHOUT CHRISTIAN HISTORY. PICK A PSALM AND READ IT SEVERAL TIMES AND LISTEN FOR THE VOICE OR INSIGHT OF GOD IN ITS WORDS.

Introducing the Proverbs:

The authorship of Proverbs has long been a matter of dispute. Solomon’s name appears in Proverbs 1:1, "The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel", although this does not necessarily mean that he was the author. There are references to Agur and Lamuel as authors distinct from Solomon that are missing in the Greek Septuagint, which regarded King Solomon as the author of the whole Book of Proverbs. Although medieval scholars had in the Vulgate a more faithful rendering of 30:1 and 31:1, in their eyes the words "Agur" and "Lamuel" were but symbolical names of Solomon. Solomon is often mentioned as someone who has extensive wisdom in the Bible as well as in extra-biblical literature.

The central theme to the book of Proverbs can be linked to Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." This theme of centrality of the knowledge of God runs through the entirety of the book. The instructions that are given, although they are for everyday circumstances, allude to humankind’s uprightness before God. The thought pattern that the reverence and respect for God in all circumstances brings true knowledge is encouraged in this book. The book centers on the willingness to learn as important. God’s people were brought into the belief that God’s law is something that is part of life and is a duty, and this required obedience. Proverbs calls this kind of obedience the fear of the Lord. This obligation, which is similar to the knowledge of God that they had from the prophetic books, involves reverence, gratitude, and commitment to do the will of God in every circumstance. The main goal of Proverbs is to define clearly what it means to be fully devoted to God’s will and seeing his will accomplished in this world.

Proverbs is a part of the Wisdom literature. It is the genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about God and about virtue. The key principle of wisdom literature is that whilst techniques of traditional story-telling are used, books also offer wisdom, insight and 'truths' about the nature of life and our reality.

In Proverbs Wisdom is personified as a lady in the first 8 chapters. This is echoed again in the final chapter (31). It is contrasted with the way of foolishness, personified as a prostitute. This aspect of Wisdom was later connected to the Holy Spirit and with Jesus Christ. (Compare Proverbs 8:22-31 with John 1:1-5)

Read Proverbs 1: 1-7

Read Proverbs 31

READ THROUGH PASSAGES AND FIND VERSES THAT SPEAK TO YOU. PROVERBS IS ANOTHER BOOK MEANT FOR DAILY READING AND REFLECTING. FIND A VERSE YOU LIKE EACH MORNING AND LET IT COME TO MIND OVER AND OVER AGAIN THROUGHOUT THE DAY

The Exile

2008-03-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

How do we sing the Lord’s Song in a foreign land?

". . . You will leave everything you love most: this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first. You will know how salty another's bread tastes and how hard it is to ascend and descend another's stairs . . ." Paradiso XVII: 55-60

HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF IN A COUNTRY, A CULTURE, A NEIGHBORHOOD, A SITUATION THAT WAS UNFAMILIAR AND UNCOMFORTABLE TO YOU? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A PLACE WHERE YOU DIDN’T KNOW THE RULES OR THE LANGUAGE?

Exile

http://bible.gen.nz/amos/history/exile.htm

Bible Study notes and Biblical commentaries by Dr Tim Bulkeley

The deportation of leaders was a common feature of both Assyrian and Babylonian imperial policy. In biblical studies the term "the exile" or "captivity" refers to the deportation of Judah's leaders from Jerusalem in the 6th century. Earlier the leaders of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) had been deported by the Assyrians, following the fall of Samaria in 722BC.

The estimates of numbers deported vary (Jer 52:28-30 lists three deportations and gives 4,600 as the total exiled from Judah; while 2 Kgs 24:14 claims 10,000 in the first deportation alone). Whatever the exact figure, only a proportion of the population was directly affected. Yet since these were the leaders and skilled craft workers (2 Kgs 24:14,16) and since, at the same time, the Lord's temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed, the effect on the nation was traumatic. Psalms like 137 and the quotations from exiles in the prophets (e.g. Is 49:14) give a feel of the extent to which the foundations of faith and nation were shaken.

Thus "the exile" in this sense is a watershed in the history of the Old Testament. Literature after the exile (post-exilic) is very different from that addressed to the period of the monarchy (pre-exilic).

While it was the deportation of Judah's leaders which marked the Old Testament texts most, when Amos speaks of exile it is deportation from the North by Assyria of which he warns. Amos fears that the coming punishment may be final, for God's patience is near its end. Amos 5:3 warns of military decimation, while in 5:14-15 (one of the few places where the disaster is not spoken of as total) notice that the possibility of "grace" is opened only for the "remnant" of Joseph, thus after the destruction. ("Joseph" is here Northern Israel personified.) In fact, although we know of Judean exiles who returned (see 2 Chronicles 36:22f.; Ezra, Nehemiah etc.) there is no indication in the Bible or other sources of the fate of the Northern exiles.

Jeremiah 25:1 - 14 (NRSVA)

1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon), 2which the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. 4And though the LORD persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, you have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear 5when they said, “Turn now, everyone of you, from your evil way and wicked doings, and you will remain upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your ancestors from of old and forever; 6do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.” 7Yet you did not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. 8Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, 9I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the LORD, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace. 10And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. 13I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

Psalm 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

1 By the rivers of Babylon—

there we sat down and there we wept

when we remembered Zion.

2 On the willows there

we hung up our harps.

3 For there our captors

asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How could we sing the LORD’S song

in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand wither!

6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites

the day of Jerusalem’s fall,

how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!

Down to its foundations!”

8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator!

Happy shall they be who pay you back

what you have done to us!

9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones

and dash them against the rock!

Jeremiah 29:1 - 14 (NRSVA)

1These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. 3The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: 4Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD. 10For thus says the LORD: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14I will let you find me, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

THE EXILE IS ONE OF THE PIVOT POINTS IN BIBLICAL HISTORY. IT IS A TIME WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE TO DISCOVER A NEW IDENTITY AND A NEW WAY OF LVING OUT THEIR FAITH. IT IS A TIME FULL OF QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT GOD IS DOING OR ISN’T DOING.

WHY WOULD GOD HAVE PERMITTED THE EXILE?

IN WHAT WAYS WAS THE EXILE INEVITABLE AND NECESSARY?

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FEELINGS OF THOSE IN EXILE?

WHAT ARE THE NECESSARY LESSONS OF EXILE?

The Minor Prophets

2008-03-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

All introductions are from THE MESSAGE by Eugene Peterson

Introduction to HOSEA

We live in a world awash in love stories. Most of them are lies. They are not love stories at all—they are lust stories, sex-fantasy stories, domination stories. From the cradle we are fed on lies about love. This would be bad enough if it only messed up human relationships—man and woman, parent and child, friend and friend—but it also messes up God-relationships. The huge, mountainous reality of all existence is that God is love, that God loves the world. Each single detail of the real world that we face and deal with day after day is permeated by this love. But when our minds and imaginations are crippled with lies about love, we have a hard time understanding this fundamental ingredient of daily living, “love,” either as a noun or as a verb. And if the basic orienting phrase “God is love” is plastered over with cultural graffiti that obscure and deface the truth of the way the world is, we are not going to get very far in living well. We require true stories of love if we are to live truly. Hosea is the prophet of love, but not love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God’s love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it—a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way—goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. Once we absorb this story and the words that flow from it, we will know God far more accurately. And we will be well on our way to being cured of all the sentimentalized and neurotic distortions of love that incapacitate us from dealing with the God who loves us and loving the neighbors who don’t love us.

HOLMAN’S COMMENTARY: Based on information gleaned from his book, Hosea was from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His familiarity with place names, religious practices, and political conditions in Israel suggests that he was a native. Internal evidence suggests that Hosea’s ministry continued from the last days of Jeroboam II to near the end of the Northern Kingdom (approximately 750-725 B.C.). Hosea’s prophetic ministry included the period of Near Eastern history when Assyria emerged as a new world empire under the capable leadership of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.C.). Hosea rebuked efforts at alliance with Assyria and Egypt as the means to national security. Hosea had the unenviable task of presiding over the death of his beloved nation, but he held out hope of national revival based on radical repentance.

Hosea 1:2 - 7 (NRSV) 2When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” 3So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4And the LORD said to him, “Name him Jezreel [“God sows”] for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” 6She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the LORD said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah,[“not pitied”] for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. 7But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.” 8When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9Then the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi,[Not my people] for you are not my people and I am not your God.”
Hosea 14:4 - 7 (NRSV) ⁴ I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon. 6 His shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like that of Lebanon. 7They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE NATURE OF GOD’S LOVE? HOW HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCED IT?

Introduction to JOEL

When disaster strikes, understanding of God is at risk. Unexpected illness or death, national catastrophe, social disruption, personal loss, plague or epidemic, devastation by flood or drought, turn men and women who haven’t given God a thought in years into instant theologians. Rumors fly: “God is absent” … “God is angry” … “God is playing favorites, and I’m not the favorite” … “God is ineffectual”

It is the task of the prophet to stand up at such moments of catastrophe and clarify who God is and how he acts. If the prophet is good—that is, accurate and true—the disaster becomes a lever for prying people’s lives loose from their sins and setting them free for God. Joel is one of the good ones: He used a current event in Israel as a text to call his people to an immediate awareness that there wasn’t a day that went by that they weren’t dealing with God. The event that Joel used as his text was a terrible locust plague that was devastating the crops of Israel, creating an agricultural disaster of major proportions. He compared it to a massive military invasion. He projected it onto a big screen and used it to focus the reality of God in the lives of his people. Then he expanded the focus to include everything and everyone everywhere—the whole world crowded into Decision Valley for God’s verdict. This powerful picture has kept God’s people alert to the eternal consequences of their decisions for many centuries.

There is a sense in which catastrophe doesn’t introduce anything new into our lives. It simply exposes the moral or spiritual reality that already exists but was hidden beneath an overlay of routine, self-preoccupation, and business as usual. Then suddenly, there it is before us: a moral universe in which our accumulated decisions—on what we say and do, on how we treat others, on whether or not we will obey God’s commands—are set in the stark light of God’s judgment.

In our everyday experience, right and wrong and the decisions we make about them seldom come to us neatly packaged and precisely defined. Joel’s prophetic words continue to reverberate down through the generations, making the ultimate connection between anything, small or large, that disrupts our daily routine, and God, giving us fresh opportunity to reorient our lives in faithful obedience. Joel gives us opportunity for “deathbed repentance” before we die, while there is still time and space for a lot of good living to the glory of God.

HOLMAN’S COMMENTARY Two approximate dates generally are given as the possible times of the authorship of the book, either before the Exile around the time of the boy-king Joash (about 836-796 B.C.) or after the return from Exile (about 500-400 B.C.). The position of the book among the early prophets in the Hebrew canon is considered as evidence for an early date. Also, the omission of a king’s name would be appropriate if a young boy such as Joash had not achieved maturity.

Joel 1:13 - 15 (NRSV) 13Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. 15Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

Joel 2:25 - 32 (NRSV) 25I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 28Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29Even on the male and female slaves in those days, I will pour out my spirit. 30I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 32Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

WHEN HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED AN EVENT THAT BROUGHT YOU CLOSER TO GOD AND HELPED YOU DEEPEN YOU RELATIONSHIP TO GOD?

Introduction AMOS

Morepeople are exploited and abused in the cause of religion than in any other way. Sex, money, and power all take a back seat to religion as a source of evil. Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to humankind. The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing, and oppression is staggering. The biblical prophets are in the front line of those doing something about it.

The biblical prophets continue to be the most powerful and effective voices ever heard on this earth for keeping religion honest, humble, and compassionate. Prophets sniff out injustice, especially injustice that is dressed up in religious garb. Prophets see through hypocrisy, especially hypocrisy that assumes a religious pose. Prophets are not impressed by position or power or authority. They pay little attention to what men and women say about God or do for God. They listen to God and rigorously test all human language and action against what they hear. Among these prophets, Amos towers as defender of the downtrodden poor and accuser of the powerful rich who use God’s name to legitimize their sin.

None of us can be trusted in this business. If we pray and worship God and associate with others who likewise pray and worship God, we absolutely must keep company with these biblical prophets. We are required to submit all our words and acts to their passionate scrutiny to prevent the perversion of our religion into something self-serving. A spiritual life that doesn’t give a large place to the prophet-articulated justice will end up making us worse instead of better, separating us from God’s ways instead of drawing us into them.

Amos 7:12 - 15 (NRSV) 12And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” 14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Amos 2:6 - 8 (NRSV) 6Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— 7 they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.

Amos 5:21 - 24 (NRSV) 21I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

THE MESSAGE OFFERS SOME EVOCATIVE AND PROVOCATIVE STATEMENTS IN THE INTRODUCTION…HOW DOES RELIGION GO WRONG? HOW DO YOU TEST ALL HUMAN LANGUAGE AND ACTION AGAINST THE WILL AND WISDOM OF GOD?

REFLECTING ON THE STATUS AND CLASS AND EDUCATION OF AMOS, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT GOD?

Introduction to OBADIAH

It takes the entire Bible to read any part of the Bible. Even the brief walk-on appearance of Obadiah has its place. No one, whether in or out of the Bible, is without significance. It was Obadiah’s assignment to give voice to God’s word of judgment against Edom. Back in the early stages of the biblical narrative, we are told the story of the twins Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25–36). They came out of the womb fighting. Jacob was ancestor to the people of Israel, Esau ancestor to the people of Edom. The two neighboring peoples, Israel mostly to the west of the Jordan River and Dead Sea and Edom to the southeast, never did get along. They had a long history of war and rivalry. When Israel was taken into exile—first the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 b.c. and later the southern kingdom by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.—Edom stood across the fence and watched, glad to see her old relative get beat up.

At first reading, this brief but intense prophecy of Obadiah, targeted at Edom, is a broadside indictment of Edom’s cruel injustice to God’s chosen people. Edom is the villain and God’s covenant people the victim.

But the last line of the prophecy takes a giant step out of the centuries of hate and rivalry and invective. Israel, so often a victim of Edomite aggression through the centuries, is suddenly revealed to be saved from the injustices of the past and taking up a position of rule over their ancient enemies the Edomites. But instead of doing to others what had been done to them and continuing the cycle of violence that they had been caught in, they are presented as taking over the reins of government and administering God’s justice justly. They find themselves in a new context—God’s kingdom—and realize that they have a new vocation—to represent God’s rule. It is not much (one verse out of twenty-one!), but it is a glimmer (it is the final verse!).

On the Day of Judgment, dark retaliation and invective do not get the last word. Only the first rays of the light of justice appear here. But these rays will eventually add up to a kingdom of light, in which all nations will be judged justly from the eternal throne in heaven.

Obadiah 1:2 - 5 (TMSG) 2“Listen to this, Edom: I’m turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. 3You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, Thinking to yourself, ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!’ 4 Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face, Even if you build your nest in the stars, I’ll bring you down to earth.” God’s sure Word. 5“If thieves crept up on you, they’d rob you blind—isn’t that so? If they mugged you on the streets at night, they’d pick you clean—isn’t that so?

Obadiah 1:20 - 21 (TMSG) 20Earlier, Israelite exiles will come back and take Canaanite land to the north at Zarephath. Jerusalem exiles from the far northwest in Sepharad will come back and take the cities in the south. 21The remnant of the saved in Mount Zion will go into the mountains of Esau And rule justly and fairly, a rule that honors God’s kingdom.

WHAT WOULD CAUSE GOD TO ABANDON OR CONDEMN A WHOLE NATION?

Introduction to JONAH
Everybody knows about Jonah. People who have never read the Bible know enough about Jonah to laugh at a joke about him and the “whale.” Jonah has entered our folklore. There is a playful aspect to his story, a kind of slapstick clumsiness about Jonah as he bumbles his way along, trying, but always unsuccessfully, to avoid God. But the playfulness is not frivolous. This is deadly serious. While we are smiling or laughing at Jonah, we drop the guard with which we are trying to keep God at a comfortable distance, and suddenly we find ourselves caught in the purposes and commands of God. Stories are the most prominent biblical way of helping us see ourselves in “the God story,” which always gets around to the story of God making and saving us. Stories, in contrast to abstract statements of truth, tease us into becoming participants in what is being said. We find ourselves involved in the action. We may start out as spectators or critics, but if the story is good (and the biblical stories are very good!), we find ourselves no longer just listening to but inhabiting the story. One reason that the Jonah story is so enduringly important for nurturing the life of faith in us is that Jonah is not a hero too high and mighty for us to identify with—he doesn’t do anything great. Instead of being held up as an ideal to admire, we find Jonah as a companion in our ineptness. Here is someone on our level. Even when Jonah does it right (like preaching, finally, in Nineveh) he does it wrong (by getting angry at God). But the whole time, God is working within and around Jonah’s very ineptness and accomplishing his purposes in him. Most of us need a biblical friend or two like Jonah.

Jonah 1:1 - 3 (NRSV) 1Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2“Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 2:1 - 10 (NRSV) 1Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2saying, “I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’ 5The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. 7As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!” 10Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah 4:1 - 4 (NRSV) 1But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4And the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

GOD WANTS JOEL TO SAVE HIS ENEMIES, THE OTHER, THE FOREIGNER. WHAT CHANGES HIS MIND? WHERE ARE YOU CHALLENGED TO HELP (SAVE) THOSE WHO HAVE HURT YOU?

Introduction to MICAH

Prophets use words to remake the world. The world—heaven and earth, men and women, animals and birds—was made in the first place by God’s Word. Prophets, arriving on the scene and finding that world in ruins, finding a world of moral rubble and spiritual disorder, take up the work of words again to rebuild what human disobedience and mistrust demolished. These prophets learn their speech from God. Their words are God-grounded, God-energized, God-passionate. As their words enter the language of our communities, men and women find themselves in the presence of God, who enters the mess of human sin to rebuke and renew.

Left to ourselves we turn God into an object, something we can deal with, something we can use to our benefit, whether that thing is a feeling or an idea or an image. Prophets scorn all such stuff. They train us to respond to God’s presence and voice.Micah, the final member of that powerful quartet of writing prophets who burst on the world scene in the eighth century b.c. (Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos were the others), like virtually all his fellow prophets—those charged with keeping people alive to God and alert to listening to the voice of God—was a master of metaphor. This means that he used words not simply to define or identify what can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted, but to plunge us into a world of presence. To experience presence is to enter that far larger world of reality that our sensory experiences point to but cannot describe—the realities of love and compassion, justice and faithfulness, sin and evil … and God. Mostly God. The realities that are Word-evoked are where most of the world’s action takes place. There are no “mere words.”

Micah 2:1 - 3 (TMSG) 1Doom to those who plot evil, who go to bed dreaming up crimes! As soon at it’s morning, they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned. 2They covet fields and grab them, find homes and take them. They bully the neighbor and his family, see people only for what they can get out of them. 3God has had enough. He says, “I have some plans of my own: Disaster because of this interbreeding evil! Your necks are on the line. You’re not walking away from this. It’s doomsday for you.

Micah 4:1 - 4 (NRSV) 1 In days to come the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, 2 and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; 4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.

Micah 3:9 - 11 (NRSV) 9 Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, 10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! 11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, “Surely the LORD is with us! No harm shall come upon us.”

Micah 6:6 - 8 (NRSV) 6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF YOU?

Introduction to NAHUM

The stage of history is large. Larger-than-life figures appear on this stage from time to time, swaggering about, brandishing weapons and money, terrorizing and bullying. These figures are not, as they suppose themselves to be, at the center of the stage—not, in fact, anywhere near the center. But they make a lot of noise and are able to call attention to themselves. They often manage to get a significant number of people watching and even admiring: big nations, huge armies, important people. At any given moment a few superpower nations and their rulers dominate the daily news. Every century a few of these names are left carved on its park benches, marking rather futile, and in retrospect pitiable, attempts at immortality. The danger is that the noise of these pretenders to power will distract us from what is going on quietly at the center of the stage in the person and action of God. God’s characteristic way of working is in quietness and through prayer. “I speak,” says poet George Meredith, “of the unremarked forces that split the heart and make the pavement toss—forces concealed in quiet people and plants.” If we are conditioned to respond to noise and size, we will miss God’s word and action.

From time to time, God assigns someone to pay attention to one or another of these persons or nations or movements just long enough to get the rest of us to quit paying so much attention to them and get back to the main action: God! Nahum drew that assignment in the seventh century b.c. Assyria had the whole world terrorized. At the time that Nahum delivered his prophecy, Assyria (and its capital, Nineveh) appeared invincible. A world free of Assyrian domination was unimaginable. Nahum’s task was to make it imaginable—to free God’s people from Assyrian paralysis, free them to believe in and pray to a sovereign God. Nahum’s preaching, his Spirit-born metaphors, his God-shaped syntax, knocked Assyria off her high horse and cleared the field of Nineveh-distraction so that Israel could see that despite her world reputation, Assyria didn’t amount to much. Israel could now attend to what was really going on.

Because Nahum has a single message—doom to Nineveh/Assyria—it is easy to misunderstand the prophet as simply a Nineveh-hater. But Nahum writes and preaches out of the large context in which Israel’s sins are denounced as vigorously as those of any of her enemies. The effect of Nahum is not to foment religious hate against the enemy but to say, “Don’t admire or be intimidated by this enemy. They are going to be judged by the very same standards applied to us.”

Nahum 1:1 - 4 (NRSV) 1An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD, the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger but great in power and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

Nahum 1:12 - 15 (NRSV) 12 Thus says the LORD, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 13And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you.” 14 The LORD has commanded concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your grave, for you are worthless.” 15 Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off.

GOD IS DESCRIBED AS JEALOUS AND VENGEFUL AS WELL AS SLOW TO ANGER…WHICH IS IT…CAN GOD HAVE IT BOTH WAYS?

Introduction to Habakkuk

Living by faith is a bewildering venture. We rarely know what’s coming next, and not many things turn out the way we anticipate. It is natural to assume that since I am God’s chosen and beloved, I will get favorable treatment from the God who favors me so extravagantly. It is not unreasonable to expect that from the time that I become his follower, I will be exempt from dead ends, muddy detours, and cruel treatment from the travelers I meet daily who are walking the other direction. That God-followers don’t get preferential treatment in life always comes as a surprise. But it’s also a surprise to find that there are a few men and women within the Bible who show up alongside us at such moments. The prophet Habakkuk is one of them, and a most welcome companion he is. Most prophets, most of the time, speak God’s Word to us. They are preachers calling us to listen to God’s words of judgment and salvation, confrontation and comfort. They face us with God as he is, not as we imagine him to be. Habakkuk speaks our word to God. He gives voice to our bewilderment, articulates our puzzled attempts to make sense of things, faces God with our disappointment with God. He insists that God pay attention to us, and he insists with a prophet’s characteristic no-nonsense bluntness. The circum-stance that aroused Habakkuk took place in the seventh century b.c. The prophet realized that God was going to use the godless military machine of Babylon to bring God’s judgment on God’s own people! It didn’t make sense, and Habakkuk was quick and bold to say so. He dared to voice his feelings that God didn’t know his own God business: “God, you don’t seem to make sense!” But this prophet companion who stands at our side does something even more important: He waits and he listens. It is in his waiting and listening—which then turns into his praying—that he found himself inhabiting the large world of God’s sovereignty. Only there did he eventually realize that the believing-in-God life, the steady trusting-in-God life, is the full life, the only real life. Habakkuk started out exactly where we start out with our puzzled complaints and God-accusations, but he didn’t stay there. He ended up in a world, along with us, where every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Habakkuk 1:2 - 5 (NRSV) 2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted. 5 Look at the nations, and see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told.

Habakkuk 2:4 - 5 (TMSG) 4“Look at that man, bloated by self-importance— full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive. 5“Note well: Money deceives. The arrogant rich don’t last. They are more hungry for wealth than the grave is for cadavers. Like death, they always want more, but the ‘more’ they get is dead bodies. They are cemeteries filled with dead nations, graveyards filled with corpses.

Habakkuk 3:17 - 19 (NRSV) 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the leader: with stringed instruments.

HOW OR WHERE WOULD YOU SEE THESE WORDS APPLYING TO YOUR SELF, YOUR CHURCH, YOUR NATION, YOUR WORLD?

Introduction To Zephaniah

We humans keep looking for a religion that will give us access to God without having to bother with people. We want to go to God for comfort and inspiration when we’re fed up with the men and women and children around us. We want God to give us an edge in the dog-eat-dog competition of daily life. This determination to get ourselves a religion that gives us an inside track with God but leaves us free to deal with people however we like is age-old. It is the sort of religion that has been promoted and marketed with both zeal and skill throughout human history. Business is always booming. It is also the sort of religion that the biblical prophets are determined to root out. They are dead set against it. Because the root of the solid spiritual life is embedded in a relationship between people and God, it is easy to develop the misunderstanding that my spiritual life is something personal between God and me—a private thing to be nurtured by prayers and singing, spiritual readings that comfort and inspire, and worship with like-minded friends. If we think this way for very long, we will assume that the way we treat the people we don’t like or who don’t like us has nothing to do with God.

That’s when the prophets step in and interrupt us, insisting, “Everything you do or think or feel has to do with God. Every person you meet has to do with God.” We live in a vast world of interconnectedness, and the connections have consequences, either in things or in people—and all the consequences come together in God. The biblical phrase for the coming together of the consequences is Judgment Day. We can’t be reminded too often or too forcefully of this reckoning. Zephaniah’s voice in the choir of prophets sustains the intensity, the urgency.

Zephaniah 1:1 - 3 (NRSV) 1The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah. 2 I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, says the LORD. 3 I will sweep away humans and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will make the wicked stumble. I will cut off humanity from the face of the earth, says the LORD.

Zephaniah 3:1 - 6 (NRSV) 1 Ah, soiled, defiled, oppressing city! 2 It has listened to no voice; it has accepted no correction. It has not trusted in the LORD; it has not drawn near to its God. 3 The officials within it are roaring lions; its judges are evening wolves that leave nothing until the morning. 4 Its prophets are reckless, faithless persons; its priests have profaned what is sacred, they have done violence to the law. 5 The LORD within it is righteous; he does no wrong. Every morning he renders his judgment, each dawn without fail; but the unjust knows no shame. 6I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without people, without inhabitants.

Zephaniah 3:17 - 20 (NRSV) 17 The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing 18 as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. 19 I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. 20 At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the LORD.

EUGENE PETERSON TALKS ABOUT INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND CONSEQUENCES IN OUR WORLD. WHAT DOES ZEPHANIAH ADD TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S EXPECTATIONS OF OUR BEHAVIOR AS INDIVIDUALS AND AS A CHURCH?

Introduction to Haggai

Places of worship are a problem. And the problem does not seem to be architectural. Grand Gothic cathedrals that dominate a city don’t ensure that the worship of God dominates that city. Unpainted, ramshackle, clapboard sheds perched precariously on the edge of a prairie don’t guarantee a congregation of humble saints in denim. As we look over the centuries of the many and various building projects in God’s name—wilderness tabernacle, revival tent, Gothic cathedral, wayside chapel, synagogue, temple, meetinghouse, storefront mission, the catacombs—there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the buildings themselves and the belief and behavior of the people who assemble in them. In noticing this, it is not uncommon for us to be dismissive of the buildings themselves by saying, “A place of worship is not a building; it’s people,” or, “I prefer worshiping God in the great cathedral of the outdoors.” These pronouncements are often tagged with the scriptural punch line, “The God who made the universe doesn’t live in custom-made shrines,” which is supposed to end the discussion. God doesn’t live in buildings—period. That’s what we often say. But then there is Haggai to account for. Haggai was dignified with the title “prophet” (therefore we must take him seriously). His single task, carried out in a three-and-a-half-month mission, was to get God’s people to work at rebuilding God’s Temple (the same Temple that had been destroyed by God’s decree only seventy or so years earlier). Compared with the great prophets who preached repentance and salvation, Haggai’s message doesn’t sound very “spiritual.” But in God’s economy it is perhaps unwise to rank our assigned work as either more or less spiritual. We are not angels; we inhabit space. Material—bricks and mortar, boards and nails—keeps us grounded and connected with the ordinary world in which we necessarily live out our extraordinary beliefs. Haggai keeps us in touch with those times in our lives when repairing the building where we worship is an act of obedience every bit as important as praying in that place of worship.

Haggai 1:1 - 4 (TMSG) 1On the first day of the sixth month of the second year in the reign of King Darius of Persia, God’s Message was delivered by the prophet Haggai to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak: 2A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: “The people procrastinate. They say this isn’t the right time to rebuild my Temple, the Temple of God.” 3Shortly after that, God said more and Haggai spoke it: 4“How is it that it’s the ‘right time’ for you to live in your fine new homes while the Home, God’s Temple, is in ruins?”

Haggai 1:9 - 11 (TMSG) 9You’ve had great ambitions for yourselves, but nothing has come of it. The little you have brought to my Temple I’ve blown away—there was nothing to it. “And why?” (This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, remember.) “Because while you’ve run around, caught up with taking care of your own houses, my Home is in ruins. 10That’s why. Because of your stinginess. And so I’ve given you a dry summer and a skimpy crop. 11I’ve matched your tight-fisted stinginess by decreeing a season of drought, drying up fields and hills, withering gardens and orchards, stunting vegetables and fruit. Nothing—not man or woman, not animal or crop—is going to thrive.”

Haggai 2:4 - 9 (TMSG) 4“‘So get to work, Zerubbabel!’—God is speaking. “‘Get to work, Joshua son of Jehozadak—high priest!’ “‘Get to work, all you people!’—God is speaking. “‘Yes, get to work! For I am with you.’ The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is speaking! 5‘Put into action the word I covenanted with you when you left Egypt. I’m living and breathing among you right now. Don’t be timid. Don’t hold back.’ 6“This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies said: ‘Before you know it, I will shake up sky and earth, ocean and fields. 7And I’ll shake down all the godless nations. They’ll bring bushels of wealth and I will fill this Temple with splendor.’ God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so. 8‘I own the silver, I own the gold.’ says the God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 9“‘This Temple is going to end up far better than it started out, a glorious beginning but an even more glorious finish: a place in which I will hand out wholeness and holiness.’

WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT STEWARDSHIP OF GOD’S HOME? IS THE CHURCH BUILDING A SACRED SPACE? HOW MUCH PRIORITY SHOULD WE PLACE ON OUR SANCTUARIES?

Introduction to Zechariah

Zechariah shared with his contemporary Haggai the prophetic task of getting the people of Judah to rebuild their ruined Temple. Their preaching pulled the people out of self-preoccupation and got them working together as a people of God. There was a job to do, and the two prophets teamed up to make sure it got done.

But Zechariah did more than that. For the people were faced with more than a ruined Temple and city. Their self-identity as the people of God was in ruins. For a century they had been knocked around by the world powers, kicked and mocked, used and abused. This once-proud people, their glorious sacred history starred with the names of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and Isaiah, had been treated with contempt for so long that they were in danger of losing all connection with that past, losing their magnificent identity as God’s people. Zechariah was a major factor in recovering the magnificence from the ruins of a degrading exile. Zechariah reinvigorated their imaginations with his visions and messages. The visions provided images of a sovereign God that worked their way into the lives of the people, countering the long ordeal of debasement and ridicule. The messages forged a fresh vocabulary that gave energy and credibility to the long-term purposes of God being worked out in their lives. But that isn’t the end of it. Zechariah’s enigmatic visions, working at multiple levels, and his poetically charged messages are at work still, like time capsules in the lives of God’s people, continuing to release insight and hope and clarity for the people whom God is using to work out his purposes in a world that has no language for God and the purposes of God.

Zechariah 1:1 - 6 (NRSV) 1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying: 2The LORD was very angry with your ancestors. 3Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. 4Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” But they did not hear or heed me, says the LORD. 5Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your ancestors? So they repented and said, “The LORD of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he planned to do.”

Zechariah 7:8 - 12 (NRSV) 8The word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying: 9Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; 10do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. 11But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. 12They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

Zechariah 9:9 - 10 (NRSV) 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IDENTITY OF A PERSON OF FAITH OR FOR A CHURCH?

Introduction to Malachi

Most of life is not lived in crisis—which is a good thing. Not many of us would be able to sustain a life of perpetual pain or loss or ecstasy or challenge. But crisis has this to say for it: In time of crisis everything, absolutely everything, is important and significant. Life itself is on the line. No word is casual, no action marginal. And almost always, God and our relationship with God is on the front page. But during the humdrum times, when things are, as we tend to say, “normal,” our interest in God is crowded to the margins of our lives and we become preoccupied with ourselves. “Religion” during such times is trivialized into asking “God-questions”—calling God into question or complaining about him, treating the worship of God as a mere hobby or diversion, managing our personal affairs (such as marriage) for our own convenience and disregarding what God has to say about them, going about our usual activities as if God were not involved in such dailiness. The prophecy of Malachi is made to order for just such conditions. Malachi creates a crisis at a time when we are unaware of crisis. He wakes us up to the crisis of God during the times when the only thing we are concerned with is us. He keeps us on our toes, listening for God, waiting in anticipation for God, ready to respond to God, who is always coming to us. Malachi gets in the last word of Holy Scripture in the Old Testament. The final sentences in his message to us evoke the gigantic figures of Moses and Elijah—Moses to keep us rooted in what God has done and said in the past, Elijah to keep us alert to what God will do in the days ahead. By leaving us in the company of mighty Moses and fiery Elijah, Malachi considerably reduces the danger of our trivializing matters of God and the soul.

Malachi 1:6 - 8 (TMSG) 6“Isn’t it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I’m your Father, where’s the honor? If I’m your Master, where’s the respect?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: “You priests despise me! “You say, ‘Not so! How do we despise you?’ “By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship. “You ask, ‘What do you mean, “defiling”? What’s defiling about it?’ 7“When you say, ‘The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,’ that’s defiling. 8And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you’re trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn’t that defiling?

Malachi 2:5 - 8 (TMSG) 5My covenant with Levi was to give life and peace. I kept my covenant with him, and he honored me. He stood in reverent awe before me. 6He taught the truth and did not lie. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He kept many out of the ditch, kept them on the road. 7“It’s the job of priests to teach the truth. People are supposed to look to them for guidance. The priest is the messenger of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 8But you priests have abandoned the way of priests. Your teaching has messed up many lives. You have corrupted the covenant of priest Levi. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

Malachi 3:1 - 5 (NRSV) 1See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. 5Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

HOW COULD WE REFINE OR PURIFY OUR WORSHIP AND OUR LIVES?

NEHEMIAH AND EZRA

2008-03-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

NEHEMIAH

WIKIPEDIA: Nehemiah or Nechemya (נְחֶמְיָה "Comforted of/is the LORD ," is a major figure in the post-exile history of the Jews as recorded in the Bible, and is believed to be the primary author of the Book of Nehemiah.. His ancestors resided in Jerusalem before his service in Persia. (Neh. 2:3).

Nehemiah lived during the period when Judah was a province of the Persian Empire, having been appointed royal cup-bearer at the palace of Shushan. The king, Artaxerxes I (Artaxerxes Longimanus), appears to have been on good terms with his attendant, as evidenced by the extended leave of absence granted him for the restoration of Jerusalem.

Primarily by means of his brother Hanani, (Neh. 1:2; 2:3) Nehemiah heard of the mournful and desolate condition of Jerusalem, and was filled with sadness of heart. For many days he fasted and mourned and prayed for the place of his fathers' sepulchers. At length the king observed his sadness of countenance and asked the reason of it. Nehemiah explained this to the king, and obtained his permission to go up to Jerusalem and there to act as governor of Judea.

He arrived in Jerusalem in the 20th year of Artaxerxes I, (445/444 BC) with a strong escort supplied by the king, and with letters to all the leaders of the provinces through which he had to pass, as also to Asaph, keeper of the royal forests, directing him to assist Nehemiah.
The book of Nehemiah puts the historical record of Nehemiah's mission in a theological context. Viewed from a political angle his actions were the result of the Persians' desire for increased security in the Middle East and enhancement of Imperial control.

The reality of the 5th century BCE was that the Egyptian revolt continued with an increasing Greek military presence. The security concerns of the Persian Empire required some strategic reforms, namely the refortification of Jerusalem and proper categorization of people living within the Levant. Hence the rebuilding of the walls and the ban on inter-marriage.

Nehemiah 1:1 - 11 (NRSVA) 1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, 2one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.” 4When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. 7We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. 8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ 10They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah 2:17 - 20 (NRSVA) 17Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” 18I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good. 19But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”

EZRA

WIKIPEDIA: Ezra was a Jewish priestly scribe who led about 5,000 Israelite exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem in 459 BCE or 428 BCE or 397 BCE. Ezra reconstituted the dispersed Jewish community on the basis of the Torah and with an emphasis on the law. According to the Hebrew Bible, Ezra resolved the identity threat arisen by the intermarriage between Jews and foreigners and provided a definite reading of the Torah. Ezra is highly respected in the Jewish tradition. His knowledge of the Torah is considered to have been equal with Moses. Like Moses, Enoch, and David, Ezra is given the honorific title of "scribe" and is referred to as "Ezra the scribe" in Jewish tradition.

Ezra 6:2 - 5 (NRSVA) 2But it was in Ecbatana, the capital in the province of Media, that a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. 3In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, 4with three courses of hewn stones and one course of timber; let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5Moreover, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God.”

Ezra 9:5 - 14 (NRSVA) 5At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the LORD my God, 6and said, “O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case. 8But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery. 9For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem. 10“And now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us without remnant or survivor?

WHY WOULD IT MAKE SENSE TO REQUIRE DIVORCE OF SPOUSES AND FAMILY MEMBERS WHO WERE NOT ISRAELITES?

Ruth & Esther

2008-03-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

ESTHER

HOLMAN’S BIBLE DICTIONARY: ESTHER Persian personal name meaning, “Ishtar.” Heroine of biblical Book of Esther whose Jewish name was Hadassah. Esther is the story of a Jewish orphan girl raised by her uncle, Mordecai, in Persia. She became queen when Queen Vashti refused to appear at a banquet hosted by her husband, King Ahasuerus. Esther did not reveal that she was Jewish.

Mordecai heard about a plot against the king’s life which he reported through Esther. Haman was made prime minister and began to plot against Mordecai and the Jews because they would not pay homage to him. The king issued a decree that all who would not bow down would be killed. Esther learned of the plot and sent for Mordecai. He challenged her with the idea, “Who knoweth whether those art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). She asked Mordecai and the Jews to fast with her while she decided. She entered the king’s presence unsummoned which could have meant her death. The king granted her request.

Haman was tricked into honoring Mordecai, his enemy. At a banquet, Esther revealed Haman’s plot to destroy her and her people, the Jews. Haman was hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai. Mordecai was promoted, and Esther got the king to revoke Haman’s decree to destroy the Jews. The Jews killed and destroyed their enemies. The book closes with the institution of the festival of Purim.

ESTHER 4: 8Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people. 9Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. 10Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, 11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.” 12When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, 13Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” 15Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, 16“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” 17Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT THAT GOD PUT YOU SOMEPLACE FOR A SPECIFIC REASON? DID YOU EVER FEEL CALLED BY GOD TO DO SOMETHING THAT WAS DIFFICULT OR PERILOUS?

HOLMAN BIBLE DICTIONARY:RUTH
The woman, an ancestor of David and Jesus, and the biblical book which tells the story of the reversal of fortunes for Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi.

Ruth is a self-contained story and is not dependent on other Old Testament narratives for continuity. The story’s time is set in the period of Israel’s judges. Story place is given as the agrarian world of Moab and the environs of Bethlehem. It can be divided into a series of scenes or episodes with different narrator’s comments. The story begins by telling why Naomi is in Moab and her plight following the deaths of her husband and sons.

* Episode A (1:6-22) narrates her return to and reception in Bethlehem, and how Ruth came to be with her. Episode B (2:1-16) finds Ruth and Boaz meeting while she gleans grain during harvest.
* Episode C (2:17-23) shows Naomi and Ruth discussing Ruth’s day in the field and identifies Boaz as a kinsman with a certain role to fulfill.
* Episode D (3:1-5) finds Naomi pressing Boaz’s role as kinsman.
* Episode E (3:6-13) follows a transition in which Ruth and Boaz encounter each other, and Boaz is confronted by his responsibility as kinsman.
* Episode F (3:14-18) delays the plot’s resolution while Naomi assures Ruth that the matter will be settled.
* Episode G (4:1-6) tells of Boaz at the gate settling the matters of Elimelech’s property and Ruth, with another kinsman. A narrative aside (4:7-8) explains the custom of the sandal. Boaz’s actions are witnessed, and he is blessed by the people and the elders for his role as kinsman in Episode H (4:9-12).
* Episode I (4:13-17a) reverses the fortunes of Naomi and Ruth with Obed’s birth, who is declared a child of Naomi. This declaration ensures a name and a future for Naomi’s family. A coda (4:18-22) ties up the story with a family genealogy.

In a social context, Ruth speaks against postexilic particularism by accepting Ruth (a native of Moab) into Israel’s genealogical mainstream and the book into the Hebrew canon. Ruth is concerned with Israelite family and marriage patterns and obligations. Religiously, the book tells the story of the faith of Naomi and Ruth and shows the ways of God in one unique family situation. A framework of devotion is deployed in the story and is variously applied to Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, and Yahweh. The text’s final form speaks to political concerns by a genealogy which details David’s family background and serves to legitimate him as king on Saul’s throne.

Ruth 1:15 - 19 (NRSVA) 15So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” 18When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. 19So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

IN YOUR LIFE WHO ARE THE PEOPLE AND THINGS THAT HAVE CAPTURED YOUR LOYALTY?
HOW HAVE YOU ENCOURAGED OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THE RIGHT THING?

The Major Prophets

2008-03-04T06:27:00.000-08:00

Isaiah (c. 740-681 BCE)

Isaiah 1:1 (NRSV) 1The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

The prophetic vision that affirmed principles of absolute justice and morality emerged in the Jerusalem of the First Temple period. This, together with the traditions related to the genesis of the three monotheistic faiths, transformed Jerusalem into a major city in the history of human civilization. The prophets emphasized the concept of historical linearity, which maintains that the flawed present, with its rampant suffering and injustice, will ultimately undergo a radical metamorphosis, and that finally absolute justice, peace, harmony, and spiritual awareness will prevail. It was in Jerusalem that people first lifted their eyes toward a more hopeful future.

Isaiah was witness to one of the most turbulent periods in Jerusalem's history, from both the political and the religious standpoint. His status enabled him to take an active part in events, and in some cases to guide them. His relations with the senior m embers of the royal house, as described in the Bible, and the fact that he had free access to the palace, together with the complex linguistic style of his prophecies, suggest that he belonged to the Jerusalem aristocracy. This, though, did not prevent him from being an outspoken mouthpiece of the common people, who were being victimized by the rampant corruption of the ruling class: "What need have I of all your sacrifices? says the Lord... Put your evil doings away from my sight... Devote yourselves to justice;... Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow"(1:11-17).

Isaiah was the most "political" of the prophets. In the face of Assyrian expansionism he counseled a passive political and military approach. He put his faith in divine salvation, which would certainly follow from a necessary change in the moral leadership and in the people's spiritual tenacity.

The book, as a whole, has been divided into three main parts: (1.) The first thirty-five chapters, almost wholly prophetic, writing about Israel’s enemy Assyria, it presents the Messiah as a mighty Ruler and King. (2.) Four chapters are historical (36-39), relating to the times of Hezekiah. (3.) Prophetical (40-66), Israel’s enemy Babylon, describing the Messiah as a suffering victim, meek and lowly.

Isaiah 6: 1-9 The Call of Isaiah

HOW DOES GOD CALL ISAIAH? HOW DOES ISAIAH REACT?

Isaiah 1:12 - 18 Isaiah 1:23 - 28 Isaiah 5: 1-8

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT ISAIAH NAMES? WHAT ARE TODAY’S PARALLELS?

Isaiah 2: 1-3 Isaiah 40: 1-11 Isaiah 35 Isaiah 55 Isaiah 65:17 - 25

WHAT FUTURE DOES ISAIAH DESCRIBE?

Isaiah 7: 10-14 Isaiah 9: 1-7 Isaiah 11: 1-9

THESE ARE FAMILIAR PASSAGES FROM THE CHRISTMAS SEASON? WHAT DO THEY TELL US ABOUT THE MESSIAH?

THE SUFFERING SERVANT

Isaiah 42: 1-9 \ Isaiah 49: 1-7 Isaiah 50: 4-10 Isaiah 52:7 through Isaiah 53

WHAT DO THESE PASSAGES TELL US ABOUT THE SUFFERING SERVANT (THE MESSIAH – THE CHRIST)? WHAT WILL HE BE LIKE? WHAT WILL HE HAVE TO ENDURE? WHAT WILL HE ACCOMPLISH?

JEREMIAH (627 – 580 BCE)

WIKIPEDIA: His writings are collected in the Book of Jeremiah and, according to tradition, the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah is also famous as "the broken-hearted prophet" (who wrote or dictated a "broken book", which has been difficult for scholars to put into chronological order), whose heart-rending life, and true prophecies of dire warning went largely unheeded by the people of Judah. God told Jeremiah, "You will go to them; but for their part, they will not listen to you".

The book of Jeremiah depicts a remarkably introspective prophet, a prophet struggling with and often overwhelmed by the role into which he has been thrust. Jeremiah interspersed efforts to warn the people with pleas for mercy until he is ordered to "pray no more for this people" -- and then sneaks in a few extra pleas between the lines. He engages in what may seem like strange behavior, but which we might describe as 'acted parables', such as walking about in the streets with a yoke about his neck and engaging in other efforts to attract attention. Others engage in rival acts that parody and critique his. He is taunted, put in jail, at one point thrown in a pit to die. He was often bitter about his experience, and expresses the anger and frustration he feels. He is not depicted as a man of iron, and yet he continues in preaching and praying for God's people.

HOLMANS BIBLE DICTIONARY: The Bible tells us more about personal experiences of Jeremiah than of any other prophet. We read that his father’s name was Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth. He was called to be a prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah (627/B.C.). He was active under the Kings Jehoahaz-Shallum (609 B.C.) ), Jehoiakim (609-587 B.C.), Jehoiachin/Jeconiah/Coniah (597 B.C.), and Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.). When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., Jeremiah moved to Mizpah, the capital of Gedaliah, the newly appointed Jewish governor of the Babylonian province of Judah. When Gedaliah was assassinated, Jeremiah was deported to Egypt against his will by Jewish officers who had survived the catastrophes. In Egypt he continued to preach oracles against the Egyptians and against his compatriots.

Jeremiah is depicted as living in constant friction with the authorities of his people, religious (priests, prophets; or both), political, or all of them together, including Jewish leaders after the Babylonian invasion. Still his preaching emphasized a high respect for prophets whose warning words could have saved the people if they had listened

THE CALL OF JEREMIAH: Jer. 1: 1-10

WHAT IS GOD’S JOB DESCRIPTION FOR JEREMIAH? WHAT ARE HIS QUALIFICATIONS FOR THIS JOB? WHAT DOES HE FEEL ABOUT THE JOB?

GOD’S DILEMMA AND ACCUSATION: Jer. 2, Jer. 5:19, 23-28, Jer. 7:5-10, Jer 13:1-11

WHAT HAVE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL DONE WRONG? WHAT ARE PARALLELS TO TODAY?

THE COMING CALAMITY: Jer. 6: 12-16, Jer. 18:1-12, Jer. 21:1-10

DO YOU THINK THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES FOR PEOPLE, CHURCHES OR NATIONS THAT FAIL TO HONOR AND SERVE GOD?

THE HOPE BEYOND: Jer. 23:1-7, Jer. 29:1-14, Jer. 31: 27-34 Jer. 32:6-16

HOW DOES GOD THROUGH JEREMIAH CONVEY HOPE BEYOND EXILE?

THE DAVIDIC PROMISE: Jer. 33:14-32

PROPHECIES LIKE THESE HELP TO SET THE FOUNDATION FOR AN EXPECTED MESSIAH

EZEKIAL (CIRCA 597 - 577BCE)

WIKIPEDIA: The Book of Ezekiel gives little detail about Ezekiel's life. In it, he is mentioned only twice by name: 1:3 and 24:24. Ezekiel is a priest, the son of Buzi (my contempt), and his name means "God will strengthen". He was one of the Israelite exiles, who settled at a place called Tel-abib, on the banks of the Chebar, "in the land of the Chaldeans." The place is thus not identical to the modern city Tel Aviv, which is, however, named after it. He was probably carried away captive with Jehoiachin (1:2; 2 Kings 24:14-16) about 597 BC.

HOLMAN BIBLE DICTIONARY The book bearing his name points unmistakably to a Babylonian locale. However, it has been argued that since most of the messages were addressed to the people of Jerusalem, it would have been meaningless to deliver them to the exiles. Also, some believe his intimate knowledge of events in Jerusalem (for example, his description of worship practices in the Temple and Pelatiah’s death) would require that he was in Jerusalem. To resolve the difficulties, some have suggested that he was in Babylon part of the time and in Jerusalem at other times.

All objections to the Babylonian locale can be answered satisfactorily, however. Prophets frequently delivered messages for audiences not present. Furthermore, the genuine visionary experience (through which Ezekiel claimed to receive his knowledge) cannot be dismissed arbitrarily. Of course, visitors from Jerusalem could have kept him informed about events at home and carried his messages back when they returned. Therefore, there is no need to reject Babylon as the location of Ezekiel’s entire ministry.

Ezekiel was married, but little else is known about his family life. His wife died suddenly during the siege of Jerusalem. Ezekiel continued to preach until at least 571 B.C. His ministry can be divided into two phases: (1) 593-587, characterized by warnings of coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, and (2) 587-571, a period characterized by messages of encouragement and hope for the future.

It is not known when Ezekiel died or the manner of his death. An ancient Jewish tradition says he was put to death by his own people because of his preaching. A tomb in Kifl, south of ancient Babylon, is claimed to be that of Ezekiel. His influence on later Judaism cannot be overemphasized. Some have insisted that he was “the father of Judaism” rather than Ezra.

Much has been written about Ezekiel’s personality. He has been labeled neurotic, paranoid, psychotic, or schizophrenic because of his unusual behavior (for example, lying on one side for 390 days and on the other for 40 days; shaving off his hair; and his many visions). A better explanation for his strange behavior is that anyone who conscientiously obeys God will be considered “strange” by some people.

The messages of Ezekiel are not easy to understand because of their frequent use of symbolic imagery. The modern reader is not alone in struggling to understand Ezekiel. There is evidence of opposition to the book for liturgical purposes and public reading that continued into the first century A.D., although it had been recognized as part of the canon for several centuries. At one time those under age 30 were not allowed to read the first chapter and chapters 40+

VISIONS: Eze. 1, Eze. 4:1-8, Eze. 10

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND TO BE THE MEANING OF THESE VISIONS

GOD’S DILEMMA AND ACCUSATION: Eze. 2, Eze. 5:1-12, Eze. 15:16-41

WHAT IS GOD STRUGGLING WITH? WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

THE HOPE BEYOND: Eze.11:14-21, Eze 28:25-26, Eze, 33:10-20, Eze 34:11-31, Eze 36:8-12,16-36 WHERE DO WE RECOGNIZE OR EXPERIENCE THIS HOPE TODAY?

DEM BONES: EZE. 37 WHAT DOES THIS TEACH ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP AND ROLE WITH GOD?

SAMUEL, KINGS AND CHRONICLES The Two Kingdoms – How do you build a healthy faithful team, family, or nation?

2008-02-25T06:29:00.000-08:00

SAMUEL’S BIRTH
1 Samuel 1:26 - 28 (NRSV) 26And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. 27For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me the petition that I made to him. 28Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD.” She left him there for the LORD.
WHAT OTHER STORIES DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF?

SAMUEL’S CALL
1 Samuel 3:7 - 12 (NRSV) 7Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 11Then the LORD said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.
WHY DIDN’T SAMUEL RECOGNIZE GOD’S VOICE?

SAMUEL’S LEADERSHIP
1 Samuel 7:3 - 6 (NRSV) 3Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Astartes from among you. Direct your heart to the LORD, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4So Israel put away the Baals and the Astartes, and they served the LORD only. 5Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6So they gathered at Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD. They fasted that day, and said, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
WHAT IS SAMUEL TRYING TO TEACH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL?

THE PEOPLE ASK FOR A KING
1Samuel 8:4 - 19 (NRSV) 4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” 6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, 7and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 10So Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. 16He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
19But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, 20so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
WHY DOESN’T SAMUEL WANT THE PEOPLE TO HAVE A KING?
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW THEM A KING?

SAUL SELECTED TO BE THE FIRST KING
1 Samuel 9:15 - 21 (NRSV) 15Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed to Samuel: 16“Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have seen the suffering of my people, because their outcry has come to me.” 17When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall rule over my people.” 18Then Saul approached Samuel inside the gate, and said, “Tell me, please, where is the house of the seer?” 19Samuel answered Saul, “I am the seer; go up before me to the shrine, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. 20As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, give no further thought to them, for they have been found. And on whom is all Israel’s desire fixed, if not on you and on all your ancestral house?” 21Saul answered, “I am only a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel, and my family is the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. Why then have you spoken to me in this way?”
WHAT DOES THIS TELL YOU ABOUT THE CHARACTHER OF SAUL

MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT A KING
1 Samuel 10:17 - 27 (NRSV) 17Samuel summoned the people to the LORD at Mizpah 18and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said, ‘No! but set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your clans.” 20Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. 21He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of the Matrites was taken by lot. Finally he brought the family of the Matrites near man by man, and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. 22So they inquired again of the LORD, “Did the man come here?” and the LORD said, “See, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” 23Then they ran and brought him from there. When he took his stand among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them. 24Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!” 25Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship; and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Then Samuel sent all the people back to their homes. 26Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went warriors whose hearts God had touched. 27But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.
NAME THE DIVERSE REACTIONS TO A KING.

SAUL’S ERROR IN JUDGEMENT
1 Samuel 13:5 - 15 (NRSV) 5The Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude; they came up and encamped at Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. 6When the Israelites saw that they were in distress (for the troops were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns. 7Some Hebrews crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. 8He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people began to slip away from Saul. 9So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the offerings of well-being.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived; and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. 11Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the people were slipping away from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines were mustering at Michmash, 12I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of the LORD’; so I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you. The LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, 14but now your kingdom will not continue; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart; and the LORD has appointed him to be ruler over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 15And Samuel left and went on his way from Gilgal. The rest of the people followed Saul to join the army; they went up from Gilgal toward Gibeah of Benjamin.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL YOU ABOUT SAUL’S CHARACTHER?
WHY IS SAMUEL UPSET?

A NEW KING IS TO BE CHOSEN
1 Samuel 16:1 - 7 (NRSV) 1The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” 4Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is now before the LORD.” 7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
WHAT CRITERIA DO YOU THINK GOD USES TO CHOOSE LEADERS?

1 Samuel Chap 21-31: David gains and Saul diminishes
WHY COULDN’T SAUL LET GO OF LEADERSHIP AND HAND IT OVER TO DAVID?

2 Samuel Chap 21-31: David become king
· Eliminates the old order
· Unites north and south
· Moves capital to Jerusalem; a strategic military and social location
· Battles and subdues neighbors

DAVIDS ERROR
2 Samuel 11:1 – 11, 14 (NRSV) 1In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” 6So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” 11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.”
14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
CONTRAST THE CHARACTER OF DAVID, BATHSHEBA AND URIAH.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL YOU ABOUT HUMAN NATURE?

THE TRADGEDY AND TRIUMPH OF DAVID
2 Samuel Chapters 12 – 24
· A New Prophet, Nathan, condemns David
· The child dies
· David’s son leads a rebellion against David
· David consolidates power externally while losing it internally
· Absalom killed in battle
· 1 Kings 1:1 (NRSV) 1King David was old and advanced in years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm.
· Solomon “appointed” to succeed David over his siblings protests and schemes
DAVID IS CONSIDERED ISRAEL’S GREATEST KING…WHY?
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE WAY SOLOMON BECOMES KING?

SOLOMON ASKS FOR WISDOM
1 Kings 3:3 - 14 (NRSV) 3Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” 10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”
WHAT WOULD YOU ASK OF GOD IF YOU RECEIVED THIS OFFER?

SOLOMON’S REIGN
1 Kings Chapters 2-10
· Consolidates wealth
· Forms alliances
· Builds temple and palace
· Establishes and flourishing kingdom based on his wisdom
· Kingdom is based on power, wealth and information
IN WHAT WAYS CAN POWER, WEALTH AND INFORMATION BECOME THE TRIAD OF DEATH?

SOLOMON’S ERROR AND THE PATTERN FOR ISRAEL’S KINGS
1 Kings 11:4 - 13 (NRSV) 4For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow the LORD, as his father David had done. 7Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods. 9Then the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD commanded. 11Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. 12Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
HOW DO WE EXEMPLIFY THIS ERROR IN OUR LIVES AND WORLD TODAY?

THE KINGDOM SPLITS
1 Kings 12:3 - 16 (NRSV) 3And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” 5He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away. 6Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” 8But he disregarded the advice that the older men gave him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. 9He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus you should say to this people who spoke to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; thus you should say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” 12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13The king answered the people harshly. He disregarded the advice that the older men had given him 14and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 15So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David.” So Israel went away to their tents.
WHERE DO YOU FIND PARALLELS TO THIS IN HUMAN HISTORY AND TODAY?

KINGS COME AND GO:
1 Kings Chapters 13 – 16
WHAT MAKES A KING GOOD OR BAD?

ELIJAH AND ELISHA WRESTLE WITH THE RULERS TO MAKE ISRAEL RIGHTEOUS
1 Kings 17 TO 2 Kings 13
· Elijah and the starving widow (17)
· Elijah on Carmel triumphs over priests of Baal (18)
· Elijah flees and encounters God in the ‘voice of sheer silence’ (19)
· Swing Low Sweet Chariot: Elijah taken to heaven, Elisha receives mantel (2 Kings 1)
· A succession of Kings
· Elisha does his own miracles (2 Kings 2-5)
WHAT DOES A PROPHET NEED TO ENDURE TO SERVE GOD?

MORE KINGS:
2 Kings Chap 13 – 16

ASSYRIA TAKES CHARGE
2 Kings Chap 17 – 19
WHAT ARE THE POLICIES OF ASSYRIA IN RELATION TO THEIR CAPTIVES?

BABYLON EMERGES
2 Kings Chap 20 - 25
HOW IS BABYLON DIFFERENT FROM ASSYRIA?

LINEAGE
1 Chronicles chap 1-8
From Adam to Saul
WHY IS LINEAGE IMPORTANT? WHAT DOES YOUR LINEAGE SAY ABOUT YOU?
From Bible Query: http://www.muslimhope.com/BibleAnswers/1chr.htm
Q: What is the difference in emphasis between the books of Chronicles and Kings? A: There are a number of differences between these two writings. Time: Chronicles was written later, during the exile. It emphasizes the genealogies, which would be important for the returning Jews. Numbers: Chronicles is the most number-oriented book in the Bible, with the size of armies, and numbers of priests and descendants. References: Kings mentions the Book/Annals of Kings of Israel, the Book/Annals of Kings of Judah, and the Book/Annals of Kings of Israel and Judah in 32 verses. Chronicles mentions books of various kings only 12 times, and it never mentions "the Book/Annals of the Kings of Judah" without mentioning Israel too. Kingdom vs. Temple: Nehemiah as well as 1 and 2 Kings emphasize the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Chronicles and Ezra also mention those, but they have a greater emphasis on the Temple. International Affairs: Kings focuses on battles and alliances with Aram, Edom, Moab, and nearby kingdoms, including Egypt. Chronicles focuses on trading alliances with Hiram of Tyre, the Queen of Sheba, and Egypt. Consequences of Wickedness vs. Repentance: Kings focuses more on the results of the sins of the kings, while Chronicles tells of their personal walk with God. David: Chronicles does not tell us much about David, except that he wanted to build the Temple. Kings tells us almost nothing about David, since David was covered in 1 and 2 Samuel. Solomon: Chronicles tells us little about Solomon, except as it related to building the temple and his wealth. With the exception of Pharaoh’s daughter, only Kings tell of the serious moral compromises Solomon made. Manasseh’s repentance, which had no political impact, is mentioned only in Chronicles. Manasseh removed many idol altars, but his repentance had almost no effect on the kingdom. Jehoiakim is given more attention in 2 Chronicles 36 than in 2 Kings 24. Geography: Between the time of the Divided Kingdom and Hezekiah, Chronicles, being concerned with the Temple, has a southern emphasis on Judah, while Kings discusses both kingdoms at length. Consequently, Chronicles provides no dates or lengths of reign of the kings of Israel, while Kings provides information on both Judah and Israel. Kings also has more material on Elijah and Elisha. Time Written: Chronicles was written later, and likely presumed the reader had a knowledge of Kings. Chronicles and not kings tells of the return of the Jews under the reign of Cyrus of Persia.

1 Chronicles chap 9: Saul
1 Chronicles chap 10 – 29; David
1 Chronicles chap 23 - 2 Chronicles chap 9: Solomon and the Temple
2 Chronicles chap 10 – 31 Stories of Kings with focus on their relationship and obedience to God
1 Chronicles chap 31 – 35: Assyria rises and falls
1 Chronicles chap 36: Babylon arises

WHAT DIFFERENCES DO YOU SEE IN THE HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS AND PERSPECTIVES BETWEEN KINGS AND CHRONICLES?

NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY, JOSHUA, JUDGES: Finding a New Beginning

2008-02-11T06:15:00.000-08:00

Joshua takes over from Moses…
Joshua 1:2 - 8 (NRSVA) 2“My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. 3Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. 4From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. 5No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.

Spies sent ahead into Canaan
Crossing the Jordan as they had the Red Sea…on dry land because priests stood with the ark in the middle of the River.
God now travels with them in the presence in the Ark.
Jericho falls at the sound of the priests.
Battle is waged by the army and the priesthood.
When they occupy the land they renew their commitment to God by recording and reading the Laws Moses had written.
As they spread throughout the land, they divide it up among the 12 tribes of Israel; descendents of the 12 children of Israel.

Joshua 23:1 - 13 (NRSVA) 1A long time afterward, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years; 3and you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you. 5The LORD your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you. 6Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left, 7so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them, 8but hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. 11Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. 12For if you turn back, and join the survivors of these nations left here among you, and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours, 13know assuredly that the LORD your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. 16If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.”
Joshua 24:14 - 21 (NRSVA) 14“Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” 16Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; 17for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” 19But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” 21And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the LORD!”

Deuteronomy: Introduction From The Message
Deuteronomy is a sermon—actually a series of sermons. It is the longest sermon in the Bible and maybe the longest sermon ever. Deuteronomy presents Moses, standing on the Plains of Moab with all Israel assembled before him, preaching. It is his last sermon. When he completes it, he will leave his pulpit on the plains, climb a mountain, and die.

The setting is stirring and emotion-packed. Moses had entered the biblical story of salvation as a little baby born in Egypt under a death threat. Now, 120 years later, eyesight sharp as ever and walking with “a spring in his step,” he preaches this immense sermon and dies, still brimming with words and life.

This sermon does what all sermons are intended to do: Take God’s words, written and spoken in the past, take the human experience, ancestral and personal, of the listening congregation, then reproduce the words and experience as a single event right now, in this present moment. No word that God has spoken is a mere literary artifact to be studied; no human experience is dead history merely to be regretted or admired. The continuous and insistent Mosaic repetitions of “today” and “this day” throughout these sermons keep attentions taut and responsive. The complete range of human experience is brought to life and salvation by the full revelation of God: Live this! Now!

The Plains of Moab are the last stop on the forty-year journey from Egyptian slavery to Promised Land freedom. The People of Israel have experienced a lot as a congregation: deliverance, wanderings, rebellions, wars, providence, worship, guidance. The People of Israel have heard a lot from God: commandments, covenant conditions, sacrificial procedures. And now, poised at the River Jordan, ready to cross over and possess the new land, Moses, preaching his great Plains of Moab sermon, makes sure that they don’t leave any of it behind, not so much as one detail of their experience or God’s revelation: He puts their entire experience of salvation and providence into the present tense (chapters 1–11); he puts the entire revelation of commandment and covenant into the present tense (chapters 12–28); and then he wraps it all up in a charge and a song and a blessing to launch them into today’s obedience and believing (chapters 29–34).

Deuteronomy 6: The heart of the book and the heart of Scripture
Deuteronomy 9 and 10: The Ten Commandments – Part two

COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT VOL. 1: PENTATEUCH
By C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch
NUMBERS:
The First part, which extends from ch. 1-10:10, contains the preparations for departing from Sinai, arranged in four groups:—viz.,
(1) the outward arrangement and classification of the tribes in the camp and on their march, or the numbering and grouping of the twelve tribes around the sanctuary of their God (ch. 1 and 2), and the appointment of the Levites in the place of the first-born of the nation to act as servants of the priests in the sanctuary (ch. 3 and 4);
(2) the internal or moral and spiritual organization of the nation as the congregation of the Lord, by laws relating to the maintenance of the cleanliness of the camp, restitution for trespasses, conjugal fidelity, the fulfilment of the vow of the Nazarite, and the priestly blessing (ch. 5 and 6);
(3) the closing events at Sinai, viz., the presentation of dedicatory offerings on the part of the tribe princes for the transport of the tabernacle and the altar service (ch. 7), the consecration of the Levites (ch. 8), and the feast of Passover, with an arrangement for a supplementary Passover (ch. 9:1-14);
(4) the appointment of signs and signals for the march in the desert (ch. 9:5-10:10).

In the Second part (ch. 10:11-21), the history of the journey is given in the three stages of its progress from Sinai to the heights of Pisgah, near to the Jordan, viz.,
(1) from their departure from the desert of Sinai (ch. 10:11-36) to their arrival at the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, including the occurrences at Tabeerah, at the graves of lust, and at Hazeroth (ch. 11 and 12), and the events at Kadesh which led God to condemn the people who had revolted against Him to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the older generation that came out of Egypt had all died (ch. 13 and 14);
(2) all that is related of the execution of this divine judgment, extending from the end of the second year to the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh at the beginning of the fortieth year, is the history of the rebellion and destruction of Korah (ch. 16-17:15), which is preceded by laws relating to the offering of sacrifices after entering Canaan, to the punishment of blasphemers, and to mementos upon the clothes (ch. 15), and followed by the divine institution of the Aaronic priesthood (ch.17:16-28), with directions as to the duties and rights of the priests and Levites (ch. 18), and the law concerning purification from uncleanness arising from contact with the dead (ch. 19);
(3) the journey of Israel in the fortieth year from Kadesh to Mount Hor, round Mount Seir, past Moab, and through the territory of the Amorites to the heights of Pisgah, with the defeat of the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and the conquest of their kingdoms in Gilead and Bashan (ch. 20 and 21).

In the Third part (ch. 22-36), the events which occurred in the steppes of Moab, on the eastern side of the plain of Jordan, are gathered into five groups, with the laws that were given there, viz.,
(1) the attempts of the Moabites and Midianites to destroy the people of Israel, first by the force of Balaam’s curse, which was turned against his will into a blessing (ch. 22-24), and then by the seduction of the Israelites to idolatry (ch. 25);
(2) the fresh numbering of the people according to their families (ch. 26), together with a rule for the inheritance of landed property by daughters (ch. 27:1-11), and the appointment of Joshua as the successor of Moses (ch. 27:12-23);
(3) laws relating to the sacrifices to be offered by the congregation on the Sabbath and feast days, and to the binding character of vows made by dependent persons (ch. 28-30);
(4) the defeat of the Midianites (ch. 31), the division of the land that had been conquered on the other side of the Jordan among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh (ch. 32), and the list of the halting-places (ch. 33:1-49);
(5) directions as to the expulsion of the Canaanites, the conquest of Canaan and division of it among the tribes of Israel, the Levites and free cities, and the marriage of heiresses (ch. 33:50-36).

ADAM CLARKE’S COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT
By Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., etc.

Preface to the Book of Judges
The persons called Judges, Shophetim, from, shaphat, to judge, discern regulate, and direct, were the heads or chiefs of the Israelites who governed the Hebrew republic from the days of Moses and Joshua till the time of Saul. The word judge is not to be taken here in its usual signification, i.e., one who determines controversies, and denounces the judgment of the law in criminal cases, but one who directs and rules a state or nation with sovereign power, administers justice, makes peace or war, and leads the armies of the people over whom he presides.

Judges 2:11 - 23 (NRSVA) 11Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and worshiped the Baals; 12and they abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13They abandoned the LORD, and worshiped Baal and the Astartes. 14So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring misfortune, as the LORD had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress. 16Then the LORD raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them. 17Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD; they did not follow their example. 18Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them. 19But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 20So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors, and have not obeyed my voice, 21I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.” 22In order to test Israel, whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their ancestors did, 23the LORD had left those nations, not driving them out at once, and had not handed them over to Joshua.

Chapter 3 - 4: Deborah
Chapter 6-9: Gideon
Chapter 12-16: Sampson

EXODUS: The Wilderness Journeys - How Do You Get Through Dry Times?

2008-02-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

Exodus is one of the central stories of scripture and of the formation and identity of Israel. They go from loose knit slaves in Egypt through a time of wilderness wanderings where they learn to trust God to the arrival as a new nation in the promised land. It is also the story of every person, family, group that goes through a fundamental change of direction, vision and identity in their lives.

These are the pivot point verses from the Exodus story.Exodus 1:5 - 10 (NRSV) 6Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. 7But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. 8Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

Worked hard… Male infants killed
Moses hidden and rescued by daughter of pharaoh
Exodus 2:10 - 12 (NRSV) 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” 11One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Moses flees
Exodus 2:23 - 25 (NRSV) 23After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

Exodus 3:1 - 8 (NRSV) 1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:13 - 15 (NRSV) 13But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” (Or I am what I am or I will be what I will be) He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
Exodus 4:9 - 17 (NRSV) 9If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” 10But Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” 11Then the LORD said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” 13But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” 14Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. 15You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. 17Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”
Exodus 5:1 + (NRSV) 1Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’” 2But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”
15Then the Israelite supervisors came to Pharaoh and cried, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look how your servants are beaten! You are unjust to your own people.” 17He said, “You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19The Israelite supervisors saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You shall not lessen your daily number of bricks.” 20As they left Pharaoh, they came upon Moses and Aaron who were waiting to meet them. 21They said to them, “The LORD look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

The 10 Plagues: Water Turned to Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Livestock diseased, Boils, Thunder and hail, Locusts, Darkness, Death of the First born

Passover: Lambs blood, On Doorpost… Unleavened Bread
Exodus 13:3 - 6 (NRSV) 3Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the LORD brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten. 4Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this observance in this month. 6Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the LORD.
Exodus 13:17 - 22 (NRSV) 17When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle. 19And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph who had required a solemn oath of the Israelites, saying, “God will surely take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones with you from here.” 20They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21The LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

EXODUS 14: Crossing the Red Sea

Exodus 15:22 - 26 (NRSV) 22Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah. 24And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25He cried out to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. 26He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.”
Exodus 16:8 - 15 (NRSV) 8And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD.” 9Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’” 10And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11The LORD spoke to Moses and said, 12“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’” 13In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.

Exodus 17:1 - 7 (NRSV) 1From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Exodus 18:13 - 23 (NRSV) 13The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening. 14When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” 15Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make known to them the statutes and instructions of God.” 17Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. 19Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God, and you should bring their cases before God; 20teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do. 21You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace.”

Exodus 20:1 - 20 (NRSV) TEN COMMANDMENTS: 1Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. 12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 13You shall not murder. 14You shall not commit adultery. 15You shall not steal. 16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 18When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,

On The Mountain -- Exodus 20-31: Laws: Concerning the Altar, Slaves, Violence, Property, Restitution, Social and Religious Laws, Justice for All, Sabbatical year and Sabbath day, Annual festivals, Appointments for the Tabernacle, Religious rituals,

Exodus 32:1 (NRSV) 1When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Exodus 33:12 - 21 (NRSV) 12Moses said to the LORD, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. 16For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.” 17The LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” 19And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The LORD’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” 21And the LORD continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock;

Exodus 34:11 - 16 (NRSV) 11Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you. 13You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles 14(for you shall worship no other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God). 15You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice. 16And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.

Exodus 34-39 Creating the Tablernacle

Exodus 40:34 - 38 (NRSV) 34Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey; 37but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. 38For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.

LEVITICUS: The Holiness Code

2008-02-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

Leviticus come from the name Levite. Levi was one of the sons of Jacob/Israel. When the promised land was divided up, 11 sons received portions of the land kept in perpetuity for the family/clan. The 12th son was to be the priestly family. They received no land, but were given the task of attending to the temple and offering religious services, rituals, teachings in every clan as well as the court. Leviticus is the rules for how to keep the nation, the temple, the people, and the individual ‘HOLY’ before God. Holiness is what made you worthy and safe enough to come into the presence of the Lord.

The Holiness Code includes prescriptions for social behavior, ritual acts, temple rites, holy days, and health and wellness.

Everyone chooses a chapter from the list below and explored and shared insights from verses.

Here are the chapter topics:
1) Burnt Offerings
2) Grain Offerings
3) Offerings of Well Being
4 & 5) Sin Offerings
6) Offerings with Restitution
7) Instructions concerning sacrifices
8 - 10) Rites and instructions for priesthood
11 -12) Clean and unclean food and animals
12) Purification of Women after childbirth
13-14) Leprosy
15) Concerning Bodily Discharge
16) The Day of Atonement
17) The slaughter of animals
18) Prohibitions around blood
18) Sexual Relations regulations and prohibitions
19) Ritual and Moral Holiness
20) Penalties for Holiness violations
21) The Holiness of Priests
22) The Use of Holy Offerings
23) Acceptable Offerings and Festivals
24) High Holy Days and regulations
25) Bread for the Tabernacle, Blasphemy, The Sabbatical Year
26) The Jubilee Year, Rewards for Obedience
27) Penalties for Disobedience, Votive Offerings

GENESIS: The Call and the Covenant

2008-02-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

Humanity as a whole has not learned to trust God and is choosing to force others to love and serve them instead of offering the love and service to God and others. Now God’s plan moves from all of humanity to two people who will form a nation that will be God’s ambassadors to the world

Genesis 12:1 - 9 (NRSVA)
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Genesis 13:14 - 18 (NRSVA) 14The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD.

THE PROMISE of God is to provide offspring and land to form a nation. The role of the nation is to be representatives of God’s love (God’s Blessing) to all the nations.

Flaws: All the people God chooses to bring the plan to fulfillment are inherently flawed
Genesis 3:1+ Adam, Eve and Serpent
Genesis 4:1+ Cain and Abel
Genesis 9 18+ Noah’s drunk
Genesis 12:10+ Abram and Sarah in Egypt
Genesis 21:1 + Ishmael
Genesis 25:29+ Esau and Birthright
Genesis 27:1 + Jacob gets blessing
Genesis 37:11+ Joseph sold

Abraham
Isaac and Ishmael (Israel and Arab)
Jacob and Esau (Esau marries a daughter of Ishmael)

Jacob Narrative Genesis 23 – 36
Jacob, the Grandson of Abraham, through a long epic journey transforms and becomes “Israel”

Joseph Narrative Genesis 37 – 50
Joseph gets sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. This begins another epic journey where he becomes the second in command of Egypt opening the way for his family (Israel) to move into the safety of Egypt during a time of famine.

GENESIS: The Creation

2008-02-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

Creating God, you continue to make new life, a new world, and a new community. Let these ancient stories be occasions for wonder rather than reasons for argument. Let them proclaim you creative and renewing power, and let our hearts and minds respond in awe. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Genesis is not a book of history or science, it is an explanation of God’s plan and relationship between humans and God, nature and each other.

“What is the literary genre of this text? [Genesis 2 – 3} Clearly it is not an eyewitness account, nor is it instruction in history of geography. Rather, it is the reflection of wise ones whoa re raising the great human questions. Where do we come from” Where are we going? What is the reason for life, suffering death? Why the mysterious attraction between the sexes? What is the relationship between us and God, us and rather, us and the persons around us?

To try to reply to these questions, the author(s) relies on personal reflections, but also on those of the wise ones of other civilizations. Above all, the starting point for reflection is faith: believers before had already meditated on the Exodus and the entry into Canaan; in these events they discovered something of the aspect of their God. And it is above all in terms of what he already knows about God in this way that the author tries to respond.” Etienne Charpentier How to Read the Old Testament

FIVE AFFIRMATIONS REVEALED IN GENESIS
ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND CREATION
God creates creation and has a specific purpose for it.
The relationship between God and creation develops through speaking and listening.
God’s word to creation is a sovereign call, but it is the kind of call which invites obedience rather than demanding allegiance.
God loves creation, but creation refuses to let God be God.
The relationship between God and creation is marked by tension between God’s purposes and creation’s resistance to God’s purposes.

A Word Study of key words from the text:
1) Formless: From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain:—confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.

Spirit/Wind: wind; by resemblance breath, that is, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):—air, anger, blast, breath, cool, courage, mind, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).

The earth was a formless void. God forms and orders the world out of existing, chaotic matter. The deep … the waters. In the mythology of Canaan and Mesopotamia the waters were the symbols of chaos which the more powerful beneficent deities had to bring under control.

God Called: A primitive root (rather identical with H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met); to call out to (that is, properly address by name, but used in a wide variety of applications):—bewray [self], that are bidden, call (for, forth, self, upon), cry (unto), (be) famous, guest, invite, mention, (give) name, preach, (make) proclaim (-ation), pronounce, publish, read, renowned, say. The power of God to achieve his purpose is evident when he speaks his intention and it is accomplished.
Light: llumination or (concretely) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.):—bright, clear, + day, light (-ning), morning, sun.

God separated the light from the darkness. The ordering of light and darkness establishes the rhythm of time, with evening followed by morning, which is the principle of Israelite days beginning at sundown.

Dome: properly an expanse, that is, the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky:—firmament.

And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning…

Genesis 1: the creation of the human being
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Dominion: A primitive root; to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off:—(come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule, (-r, over), take.

Image: From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol:—image, vain shew.

2) “then the LORD God formed man

from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life;
and the man became a living being.”

Breath; a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect or (concretely) an animal:—blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit. –Nephesh
Life; alive; hence raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively:— + age, alive, appetite, (wild) beast, company, congregation, life (-time), live (-ly), living (creature, thing), maintenance, + merry, multitude, + (be) old, quick, raw, running, springing, troop.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it
Till: A primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc.:— X be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, + husbandman, keep, labour (-ing man), bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve (-ing, self), (be, become) servant (-s), do (use) service, till (-er), transgress [from margin], (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper.

Keep: A primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to, etc.:—beware, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep (-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch (-man).

GOD’S PLAN IS REVEALED AT THE END OF CREATION. GOD HAD CREATED HUMANS TO LOVE AND SERVE AND LIVE IN COVENANT HARMONTY WITH EACH OTHER AND ALL OF CREATION. HUMANS WERE TO HAVE AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP OF PRAISE, LOVE AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD. BUT LOVE CAN ONLY BE REAL IF HUMANS HAVE CHOICE

THE FALL…Humanity breaks its relationship to God by choosing to disobey God’s limits

CAIN AND ABEL….Humanity breaks its relationship to each other. Cain and Abel also reflect Israel’s (Shepherds) competition and conflict with their neighbors (farmers)

THE FLOOD…Return to Chaos and Creation… God begins again.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;

BABEL…Humans try to create a stairway to Heaven to become God’s equals.

The central problem presented at the beginning of the Bible is that people do not trust God to take care of them…so instead of offering love and service to others they try to force others to love and serve them.

Traveling Through The Bible

2008-01-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Journey with Rev. Don Remick at First Congregational Church of Hanover through the sacred texts that are the “lamp for our footsteps and the light for our path.” From cover to cover we will feel the pulse of God’s living Word. It is a pulse that will not only shape your mind with keen insight, but will also shape the song of your soul and the texture of your life. You are warmly welcome any or every Monday evening from 7:30-9:00 p.m. in the church Vestry for great conversations, sumptuous snacks, warm fellowship, enriching insights and a hot cup of coffee or tea. Note that the conversations are designed for beginning explorers and seasoned travelers alike.

JANUARY The Torah: The Foundations for Understanding
7: Genesis: The Creation - What was God trying to accomplish?
14: Genesis: The Call - Look who gets picked
21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Holiday
28: Leviticus - “The Holiness Code” for the Spirit-Filled Life

FEBRUARY The Kingdom: Let’s Get Organized
4: Exodus: Wilderness Journeys - How do you get through dry times?
11: Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges - Finding a new beginning
18: President’s Day - Holiday
25: The Two Kingdoms - How do you build a faithful team, family or nation?

MARCH The Prophets: Return to the Heart
3: Major Prophets I - What does God want?
10: Major Prophets II - What does God really want?
17: Minor Prophets - What really does God want?
24: Easter Holiday
31: The Exile - Things ain’t the way they used to be!

APRIL The Wisdom Teachings: Sometimes life is hard . . . . How do I get through it?
7: The Psalms - The voice of the human soul
14: Proverbs - The collected wisdom of the ages
21: Patriots Holiday
28: Other Wisdom (Solomon, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes) - Insights for living

MAY The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles: Christ, The Tipping Point
5: Matthew and Mark - The first Gospels
12: John - Learnings that came later
19: Luke and Acts - The two-volume work of the physician
26: Memorial Day Holiday

JUNE The Epistles: The Way of the Pilgrim
2: Pauline Letters - Let’s get out there
9: Other Letters - Now what do we do?
16: Revelation and Wrap up