[Matthew 4:1]
It was when Wild at Heart quoted this passage that I knew that book was going to suck. It used "the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness" as Biblical proof that macho bear-wrestling men are God's favorite kind of men, leaving off the rest of sentence that says the wilderness thing was so Jesus could have a run-in with the Devil.
Eldredge's brainwashing crap aside, it's interesting that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tempted. Immediately after Jesus publicly accepted his death and resurrection, He gets to take a test over what it's going to take to pull this off.
Know that when you make a decision, you're immediately going to have to face tough choices about it. The devil likes to attack your decisions to convince you that you're not able to commit things in hopes that you'll stop trying, and God tends to allow these temptations so that you can see that you can overcome them.
[4:2-4]
To prep for the adventures ahead, Jesus fasted for forty days. After a forty-day fast, He was hungry. This brought on the first test: the devil told him "well, you've got your magic Jesus-powers, and I assume your fast is over since you Jews like your forty-day things, so why don't you just zap yourself up some bread out of these here rocks?"
Jesus replies with the Scripture "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
So the first test was basically for Jesus to "cheat" and get Himself some bread using His privileges as God. We'll see later that Jesus is not hesitant to use a miracle or two when it comes to making food for people, so it's interesting that this miracle is one He won't do. Part of it is that this miracle would have been only for Himself, and not others. But I think the biggest issue here is that He's fresh off of His baptism, committing Himself to the mission of coming and dying for our sins. This requires that He comes and lives life as human being completely: that He walks as we walk, eats as we eat, and resists temptation using the same willpower that we use. If He were not fully human and able to fall for all the same reasons we could, His sacrifice would not have been as transferable as it was and teh redemption of the human race would not have been complete.
If Jesus had gone through with this desire and miracled up some bread, that would have been a step away from His commitment to live life as a human. If He can conjure up food whenever He feels like it, it's a slippery slope from there to just poofing around everywhere with teleport powers and making sure other temptations come nowhere near Him, cheapening and possibly nullifying His victory over sin. There probably was nothing wrong with making some bread, but it was the beginning of a path He did not want to travel.
It must have been hard for Jesus to go through life, knowing this power was there and not using it. It's like playing a video game and trying not to use a guide, when the internet is just sitting there going "Come on...you're stuck... look up the solution to this one puzzle... you're not even having fun right now, what could it hurt?" but that first solution you look up pretty much dooms you to using a guide for the rest of the game, and your achievements are hollow and fake.
So don't compromise anything about your goals, your promises, or your work. Even if you skimp on something that's not technically wrong, compromise leads to compromise and you'll likely end up destroying what you set out to do.
Actually, I don't really feel good ending on that note. While that's a good lesson, it's not the point of this passage. We don't learn about Jesus just to get pithy advice for our everyday life. We learn about Jesus so we see how awesome Jesus is. So when you're praying and you're worshiping, add this bit of information about what Jesus went through for you to your awareness. When you're thanking Jesus for who He is and what He's done, let there be a little more awe behind your praise because of everything Jesus had to put aside and not use, even though it was staring Him in the face. At any moment, He could have said "Forget this, I'm living like the King I am" and zapped Him up the best food in the world, spawned a palace under His feet, and said "you guys suck. I don't feel like destroying you all, so you can all come be My slaves and feed Me stuff," propped His feet up, and lived as our eternal earthly King. But He didn't. He didn't do it because He loves us so much that the death on cross route was more appealing to Him. He refused to even make bread for Himself so that He could empathize with our lives. He didn't compromise at all so that we could have eternal rewards that we don't deserve.
This took way too long, so I'm gonna cut it off short here, but yeah. Think about that.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sons of Snakes
Since it seems like I generally won't have time on Sundays, I think I'm going to switch Friday to a New Testament day, just so I at least get it twice in the week.
[Matthew 3:1-5]
There was on Old Testament prophecy that, before the Messiah came, there would be a forerunner who told of His coming and warned people to get their act together. This role was filled by John the Baptist, who spent the time before Jesus started His ministry telling people to repent, because stuff was about to go down. It wasn't hard to him to get people's attention, because he was quite a character who wore patchwork clothes he probably made himself, he lived in the desert, and he ate bugs.
Even by Old Testament prophet standards (except possible Ezekiel), John was a bit eccentric. I'm sure God got a huge kick out of sending someone like John to be the first step in His plan, just because of how much it likely bothered the persnickety religious folk of the time. God likes to disrupt our views of how we think things should go, so it fits that, in a culture that valued proper behavior, nice clothes, and clean temples, that God would kick everything off with a bug-eating hobo.
Never get so wrapped up in your image of what Godly person looks like or how God works in general, because it's easy to miss it when God decides to use someone outside of your mold. The people at this time were waiting for a Messiah, and probably assumed He'd be a rich, attractive political powerhouse who would lead an army to Rome and win everyone their freedom, so the leaders missed this stinky crazy guy in the desert for not fitting their image. Nowadays we look for the eccentric poor underdog to be the source of God's work so much that we balk at any rich eloquent people who dare to be rich AND sincere. The minute you think you know the kind of person and events through which God works is the minute He throws something outside your comfort zone at you to see if you'll break down your perceptions.
[3:6-10]
John, like Jesus who will soon come after Him, is not a fan of Pharisees, who were the higher-ups in the church at the time. When the Pharisees come into the crowd, John immediately begins insulting their mothers and telling them to repent, certainly winning him lots of points back in town.
Being the spiritual leadership at the time, the Pharisees were the ones who read the Scriptures, interpreted the rules, and passed them on to the common people who mostly couldn't read. They were quite proud of their knowledge of all of the Old Testament laws and the extra laws they had come up with to make sure no one got close to breaking the real ones. The law said that you couldn't work on the Sabbath, so they determined that it you couldn't walk more than a certain amount on the Sabbath. They spent a good deal of their time arguing rules like this and informing people of any new ones they came up with.
The law was for the Jews, who were the descendants of Abraham (Abram currently in our Old Testament reading, but we'll get to his name-change soon.) Being God's chosen people, the Phraisees and all of Israel took pride in their heritage, so John was making quite the stir when he said that it wasn't that big a deal and that God could give Abraham children from rocks. When seemed to downplay the importance of Abraham as an ancestor and said an ax was going to the tree,he was foreshadowing how Jesus was about to come and open up a covenant with everyone, not just the Jews. The ax was going to the root of the old Covenant, and a new one was going to be planted in tis place where the children of Abraham don't get special treatment just for their family tree and memorizing long books and getting punches on their good deeds card. He was calling for repentance and realization of their sins to prepare them for the covenant that was coming.
So you can see why John was really popular with the religious folk.
[3:11-12]
When John baptized, he was making people aware of their sins, and getting them prepared mentally and spiritually for the message Jesus was going to bring. John submersed them in water to represent their death to the old ways and their birth to the new one, but physically he was just getting them wet. He was doing this to prepare them for Jesus, who was going to baptized them with the Holy Spirit and with fire, both which have a much more noticeable effect upon submersion that you can't hide with a dark t-shirt.
John was a big deal. He was prophesied centuries before he came on the scene, he was bearing the most important message of all time, and he had the whole country's attention. But John knew his place. John knew that what he was doing was merely symbolic, and that his job was just to prepare the way for Jesus to come do His work.
In whatever ministry you're called to, you are merely preparing the way for Jesus to come do His work. You are not the star, Jesus is the star. You're not worthy to carry Jesus' shoes for Him, so you are definitely not worthy of taking credit for His work. It would have been easy for John to get a cocky "I'm in the freaking Bible!" attitude and feel good about himself, but he knew his place. You should know yours as well.
[3:13-17]
So it was probably pretty awkward for John, with this realistic attitude of his, when Jesus Himself comes up and asked to be baptized. John was likely hesitant to let Jesus go through this symbolic shedding of the sinful nature and rebirth into the new nature, because the entire message here kinda revolved around Jesus being the one who does not sin. But Jesus insisted, and John knew better than to argue.
When everyone else was baptized, it represented death to their old, sinful self and rebirth to the new, fulfilled self. Jesus chose this act to mark the beginning of His ministry, not because He had sin to repent of, but because His entire reason for coming was to take the death that everyone else deserved for the sins, and rise again, victorious over these sins. His baptism did not represent exactly the same thing, but He too agreed to a symbolic death and rebirth, to signal to everyone present and to God the Father up in Heaven that He accepted His purpose and was ready to begin His ministry.
[Matthew 3:1-5]
There was on Old Testament prophecy that, before the Messiah came, there would be a forerunner who told of His coming and warned people to get their act together. This role was filled by John the Baptist, who spent the time before Jesus started His ministry telling people to repent, because stuff was about to go down. It wasn't hard to him to get people's attention, because he was quite a character who wore patchwork clothes he probably made himself, he lived in the desert, and he ate bugs.
Even by Old Testament prophet standards (except possible Ezekiel), John was a bit eccentric. I'm sure God got a huge kick out of sending someone like John to be the first step in His plan, just because of how much it likely bothered the persnickety religious folk of the time. God likes to disrupt our views of how we think things should go, so it fits that, in a culture that valued proper behavior, nice clothes, and clean temples, that God would kick everything off with a bug-eating hobo.
Never get so wrapped up in your image of what Godly person looks like or how God works in general, because it's easy to miss it when God decides to use someone outside of your mold. The people at this time were waiting for a Messiah, and probably assumed He'd be a rich, attractive political powerhouse who would lead an army to Rome and win everyone their freedom, so the leaders missed this stinky crazy guy in the desert for not fitting their image. Nowadays we look for the eccentric poor underdog to be the source of God's work so much that we balk at any rich eloquent people who dare to be rich AND sincere. The minute you think you know the kind of person and events through which God works is the minute He throws something outside your comfort zone at you to see if you'll break down your perceptions.
[3:6-10]
John, like Jesus who will soon come after Him, is not a fan of Pharisees, who were the higher-ups in the church at the time. When the Pharisees come into the crowd, John immediately begins insulting their mothers and telling them to repent, certainly winning him lots of points back in town.
Being the spiritual leadership at the time, the Pharisees were the ones who read the Scriptures, interpreted the rules, and passed them on to the common people who mostly couldn't read. They were quite proud of their knowledge of all of the Old Testament laws and the extra laws they had come up with to make sure no one got close to breaking the real ones. The law said that you couldn't work on the Sabbath, so they determined that it you couldn't walk more than a certain amount on the Sabbath. They spent a good deal of their time arguing rules like this and informing people of any new ones they came up with.
The law was for the Jews, who were the descendants of Abraham (Abram currently in our Old Testament reading, but we'll get to his name-change soon.) Being God's chosen people, the Phraisees and all of Israel took pride in their heritage, so John was making quite the stir when he said that it wasn't that big a deal and that God could give Abraham children from rocks. When seemed to downplay the importance of Abraham as an ancestor and said an ax was going to the tree,he was foreshadowing how Jesus was about to come and open up a covenant with everyone, not just the Jews. The ax was going to the root of the old Covenant, and a new one was going to be planted in tis place where the children of Abraham don't get special treatment just for their family tree and memorizing long books and getting punches on their good deeds card. He was calling for repentance and realization of their sins to prepare them for the covenant that was coming.
So you can see why John was really popular with the religious folk.
[3:11-12]
When John baptized, he was making people aware of their sins, and getting them prepared mentally and spiritually for the message Jesus was going to bring. John submersed them in water to represent their death to the old ways and their birth to the new one, but physically he was just getting them wet. He was doing this to prepare them for Jesus, who was going to baptized them with the Holy Spirit and with fire, both which have a much more noticeable effect upon submersion that you can't hide with a dark t-shirt.
John was a big deal. He was prophesied centuries before he came on the scene, he was bearing the most important message of all time, and he had the whole country's attention. But John knew his place. John knew that what he was doing was merely symbolic, and that his job was just to prepare the way for Jesus to come do His work.
In whatever ministry you're called to, you are merely preparing the way for Jesus to come do His work. You are not the star, Jesus is the star. You're not worthy to carry Jesus' shoes for Him, so you are definitely not worthy of taking credit for His work. It would have been easy for John to get a cocky "I'm in the freaking Bible!" attitude and feel good about himself, but he knew his place. You should know yours as well.
[3:13-17]
So it was probably pretty awkward for John, with this realistic attitude of his, when Jesus Himself comes up and asked to be baptized. John was likely hesitant to let Jesus go through this symbolic shedding of the sinful nature and rebirth into the new nature, because the entire message here kinda revolved around Jesus being the one who does not sin. But Jesus insisted, and John knew better than to argue.
When everyone else was baptized, it represented death to their old, sinful self and rebirth to the new, fulfilled self. Jesus chose this act to mark the beginning of His ministry, not because He had sin to repent of, but because His entire reason for coming was to take the death that everyone else deserved for the sins, and rise again, victorious over these sins. His baptism did not represent exactly the same thing, but He too agreed to a symbolic death and rebirth, to signal to everyone present and to God the Father up in Heaven that He accepted His purpose and was ready to begin His ministry.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
First Patriarch Problems
[Genesis 13:1-5]
It sounds like they had been journeying for quite some time. I'm sure this was still some awkwardness about the whole Egypt incident, and that Sarai was probably going to hold that over Abram's head for the rest of his life any time she wanted to buy something expensive. But since spirits were getting low, they all traveled back to the altar that Abram had set up when God promised him the land and they did some praying there.
In addition to thanking God for something the moment He promises it to you, it's also wise to do like Abram did and set up a reminder of it. Abram built an altar, but your reminder can be as simple as writing it down somewhere and keeping in a notebook, or in your wallet, or taped to your mirror, or as a reminder that pops up on your phone once a day. When it seems like life is taking forever and that the promise is never going to happen, go back to that marker and cry out to God. If we look at the prayers of people like king David in Psalms, God's not afraid for you to ask questions about what in the world is going on.
[13:6]
"God gave me land, but my brother and I are so rich that it's not big enough #ChosenOneProblems"
[13:7-9]
It was a bit cramped in Canaan, and there was starting to be some sheep fights or something. Abram really doesn't want their employees squabbling amongst themselves, so he offers to split the land up. He gives Lot first pick of the land, and promises to go settle the opposite direction from where Lot goes so they can give each other some elbow room.
In-fighting is one of the quickest ways to kill off any movement. When people are starting to squabble amongst themselves and unity is starting to degrade, it needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. I read a book on theater directing which stated that if someone is damaging the unity of the group, they need to be fired immediately regardless of how talented they are. Abram saw the team spirit starting to fall apart, and he did the right thing as a leader and decided they needed to give each other some space. I'm sure it was tough, since they had all assumed they were in this together, and living on opposite sides of their land was probably not in the original plan. But unity is the most important attribute for any team, and it needs to be preserved at all costs. Even if this means some members going their separate ways, it's better than the entire operation falling apart.
[13:10-13]
Lot got first choice of the land, and poor Lot made a really bad decision. The land was nice, and there was a city nearby so he could make a Costco run when he needed to, but unfortunately it was home to a group of people that have the distinction of being the only people after the flood that were so screwed up that God just nuked them. That hasn't happened yet and I'm sure Lot thinks he's gotten off pretty well, but it will turn out to be a decision that comes back to bite him.
[13:14-18]
And Abram gets the rest of the land. God also takes this moment to tell Abram exactly how big this nation of his is going to be: really stinking big. More than can be counted.
It's interesting that God waited for Lot to be gone before delivering this message. I have two possible interpretations of it and I'm not sure which one is more accurate.
First is that God waited until now because Abram had just decided to settle down and his territory was now official, so God could reveal the next step of the plan. After spending some time journeying around, Abram had finally come back to where God said He was going to be in the first place and decided to take a stake in it, so God could start the next phase. In this case, the lesson is that, even when you don't know the long-term plan, if God has told you the next step, you need to pitch your tent and make it official. While you're still journeying around trying to figure stuff out, God's not going to show you what's next. Pitch your tent in the land He's promised you, and He'll go from there.
The other thought is that getting rid of Lot was what allowed God to reveal the next step. It could be that Abram was never supposed to bring Lot in the first place, and that finally settling down with Sarai and going it alone like he was initially told was what triggered God revealing the rest of the plan. In this case, when God tells you something, don't change the terms. Abram putzed around for quite a while before heading out with just his crew, and probably wasted a good deal of time. When God tells you to do something, then do it, and do it completely.
It sounds like they had been journeying for quite some time. I'm sure this was still some awkwardness about the whole Egypt incident, and that Sarai was probably going to hold that over Abram's head for the rest of his life any time she wanted to buy something expensive. But since spirits were getting low, they all traveled back to the altar that Abram had set up when God promised him the land and they did some praying there.
In addition to thanking God for something the moment He promises it to you, it's also wise to do like Abram did and set up a reminder of it. Abram built an altar, but your reminder can be as simple as writing it down somewhere and keeping in a notebook, or in your wallet, or taped to your mirror, or as a reminder that pops up on your phone once a day. When it seems like life is taking forever and that the promise is never going to happen, go back to that marker and cry out to God. If we look at the prayers of people like king David in Psalms, God's not afraid for you to ask questions about what in the world is going on.
[13:6]
"God gave me land, but my brother and I are so rich that it's not big enough #ChosenOneProblems"
[13:7-9]
It was a bit cramped in Canaan, and there was starting to be some sheep fights or something. Abram really doesn't want their employees squabbling amongst themselves, so he offers to split the land up. He gives Lot first pick of the land, and promises to go settle the opposite direction from where Lot goes so they can give each other some elbow room.
In-fighting is one of the quickest ways to kill off any movement. When people are starting to squabble amongst themselves and unity is starting to degrade, it needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. I read a book on theater directing which stated that if someone is damaging the unity of the group, they need to be fired immediately regardless of how talented they are. Abram saw the team spirit starting to fall apart, and he did the right thing as a leader and decided they needed to give each other some space. I'm sure it was tough, since they had all assumed they were in this together, and living on opposite sides of their land was probably not in the original plan. But unity is the most important attribute for any team, and it needs to be preserved at all costs. Even if this means some members going their separate ways, it's better than the entire operation falling apart.
[13:10-13]
Lot got first choice of the land, and poor Lot made a really bad decision. The land was nice, and there was a city nearby so he could make a Costco run when he needed to, but unfortunately it was home to a group of people that have the distinction of being the only people after the flood that were so screwed up that God just nuked them. That hasn't happened yet and I'm sure Lot thinks he's gotten off pretty well, but it will turn out to be a decision that comes back to bite him.
[13:14-18]
And Abram gets the rest of the land. God also takes this moment to tell Abram exactly how big this nation of his is going to be: really stinking big. More than can be counted.
It's interesting that God waited for Lot to be gone before delivering this message. I have two possible interpretations of it and I'm not sure which one is more accurate.
First is that God waited until now because Abram had just decided to settle down and his territory was now official, so God could reveal the next step of the plan. After spending some time journeying around, Abram had finally come back to where God said He was going to be in the first place and decided to take a stake in it, so God could start the next phase. In this case, the lesson is that, even when you don't know the long-term plan, if God has told you the next step, you need to pitch your tent and make it official. While you're still journeying around trying to figure stuff out, God's not going to show you what's next. Pitch your tent in the land He's promised you, and He'll go from there.
The other thought is that getting rid of Lot was what allowed God to reveal the next step. It could be that Abram was never supposed to bring Lot in the first place, and that finally settling down with Sarai and going it alone like he was initially told was what triggered God revealing the rest of the plan. In this case, when God tells you something, don't change the terms. Abram putzed around for quite a while before heading out with just his crew, and probably wasted a good deal of time. When God tells you to do something, then do it, and do it completely.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sister Act
[Genesis 12:1-4]
And here we meet Abram.We don't get a ton of backstory, but it starts with God telling him "pack your things and start walking. I'll tell you when you get where I want you." Now, I think this is an awesome idea for a road trip, but as the next step in your life I can image it would be fairly intimidating. Granted, it did come with fancy promise that he was going to be the start of a big nation and that he was going to have divine protection from anyone that may try to mess with him, so that probably helped, but it still takes some guts to pack up your family and move out "that-a-way!"
On top of all this, Abram was 75 years old, which seems like a bit late to start your nation-building project, since nation-building involves lots of fighting and baby-making, which you're not quite as good at in your 70's than you are earlier in your life.
We have a hard enough time doing what God tells us when it's something as simple as "go tell this to that person" or "give that guy five dollars" or "stop being such a jerk all of the freaking time." We like to completely discount the idea of God telling you what your next step in life is and make it some weird puzzle based on your talents. We won't do some of these even when God does give you a specific reason and outcome, and yet Abram packs his family up and headed off to Canaan. There's a reason Abram becomes a shining example of faith later on.
[12: 5-9]
While trekking through Canaan, God reveals that eventually this land is going to belong to Abram's descendants, giving Abram a hint of the size of what was to come from this journey. Abram finds a good camping spot, and builds an altar to God there. Nothing had really happened yet other than God saying what the plan was, but Abram built an altar regardless.
Usually, even if it's a day or so before payday, I can do my budget because I've calculated the hours I've gotten and have a good idea of how much goes out for taxes. I don't have the check yet, and the possibility exists that I'll go to work the next day and the owners have run away with the money and burned the place to the ground, but I have enough faith in the agreement we have to know I'll get paid and plan for it in advance. Abram hadn't seen any evidence of this nation he was going to father beyond God saying it was going to happen, but he had enough faith to build an altar anyway thanking God for it. When God tells you something, you can plan around it immediately.
Early on in your Christian walk, it makes sense to be hesitant because you're new and haven't seen enough to really be certain of how this all works. But eventually, you should have enough confidence in God's word to know that, when He tells you something, it's going to happen, and you can start thanking Him for it and planning around it the moment He says.
[12: 10-20]
This is a weird little story, and it actually happens again later. They're going through Egypt, and Abram is afraid that his wife is so unbelievably hot that Pharaoh would have him killed to get to his wife. Since Abram was 75 at the time, it makes sense that Sarai was somewhere around there, so she had to be some kind of knockout to still be that paranoia-inducing gorgeous in at least her 60's.
To avoid being killed, Abram passes Sarai off as his sister rather than his wife. At first it seems like this could just be an old man flattering his old wife, but no, shortly after they enter Egypt Pharaoh takes a liking to her and decides she's going to stay with him. During her stay, the Egyptians treat Abram very well, I guess as a thank-you for having such a hot sister. However, since God already promised that things would not go well for anyone that messes with Abram, Pharaoh starts having some plagues in his house for messing with Abram's wife. When he finds out what's happened, he's pissed off, but doesn't want to mess with these guys any further since they seem to have some kind of divine shield over them, so he just kicks them out.
This whole stunt seems a bit silly, but I think this happened as a first sign to Abram that God was serious when He said that "I will curse those who curse you." If Abram had thought it through some more, he probably would have seen that the whole sister act (teehee) wasn't necessary, because God had already said He was going to fight on Abram's side. Instead they had to step through the whole awkwardness of this situation and bring some plagues on Pharaoh's house that may not have had to happen otherwise. But this served as a good lesson for Abram, that God was going to protect him.
And here we meet Abram.We don't get a ton of backstory, but it starts with God telling him "pack your things and start walking. I'll tell you when you get where I want you." Now, I think this is an awesome idea for a road trip, but as the next step in your life I can image it would be fairly intimidating. Granted, it did come with fancy promise that he was going to be the start of a big nation and that he was going to have divine protection from anyone that may try to mess with him, so that probably helped, but it still takes some guts to pack up your family and move out "that-a-way!"
On top of all this, Abram was 75 years old, which seems like a bit late to start your nation-building project, since nation-building involves lots of fighting and baby-making, which you're not quite as good at in your 70's than you are earlier in your life.
We have a hard enough time doing what God tells us when it's something as simple as "go tell this to that person" or "give that guy five dollars" or "stop being such a jerk all of the freaking time." We like to completely discount the idea of God telling you what your next step in life is and make it some weird puzzle based on your talents. We won't do some of these even when God does give you a specific reason and outcome, and yet Abram packs his family up and headed off to Canaan. There's a reason Abram becomes a shining example of faith later on.
[12: 5-9]
While trekking through Canaan, God reveals that eventually this land is going to belong to Abram's descendants, giving Abram a hint of the size of what was to come from this journey. Abram finds a good camping spot, and builds an altar to God there. Nothing had really happened yet other than God saying what the plan was, but Abram built an altar regardless.
Usually, even if it's a day or so before payday, I can do my budget because I've calculated the hours I've gotten and have a good idea of how much goes out for taxes. I don't have the check yet, and the possibility exists that I'll go to work the next day and the owners have run away with the money and burned the place to the ground, but I have enough faith in the agreement we have to know I'll get paid and plan for it in advance. Abram hadn't seen any evidence of this nation he was going to father beyond God saying it was going to happen, but he had enough faith to build an altar anyway thanking God for it. When God tells you something, you can plan around it immediately.
Early on in your Christian walk, it makes sense to be hesitant because you're new and haven't seen enough to really be certain of how this all works. But eventually, you should have enough confidence in God's word to know that, when He tells you something, it's going to happen, and you can start thanking Him for it and planning around it the moment He says.
[12: 10-20]
This is a weird little story, and it actually happens again later. They're going through Egypt, and Abram is afraid that his wife is so unbelievably hot that Pharaoh would have him killed to get to his wife. Since Abram was 75 at the time, it makes sense that Sarai was somewhere around there, so she had to be some kind of knockout to still be that paranoia-inducing gorgeous in at least her 60's.
To avoid being killed, Abram passes Sarai off as his sister rather than his wife. At first it seems like this could just be an old man flattering his old wife, but no, shortly after they enter Egypt Pharaoh takes a liking to her and decides she's going to stay with him. During her stay, the Egyptians treat Abram very well, I guess as a thank-you for having such a hot sister. However, since God already promised that things would not go well for anyone that messes with Abram, Pharaoh starts having some plagues in his house for messing with Abram's wife. When he finds out what's happened, he's pissed off, but doesn't want to mess with these guys any further since they seem to have some kind of divine shield over them, so he just kicks them out.
This whole stunt seems a bit silly, but I think this happened as a first sign to Abram that God was serious when He said that "I will curse those who curse you." If Abram had thought it through some more, he probably would have seen that the whole sister act (teehee) wasn't necessary, because God had already said He was going to fight on Abram's side. Instead they had to step through the whole awkwardness of this situation and bring some plagues on Pharaoh's house that may not have had to happen otherwise. But this served as a good lesson for Abram, that God was going to protect him.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Babel On
[Genesis 10]
Genesis 10 is a bit of freebie, as it's a genealogy. Most of the names in here aren't as well known, so it's harder to do cool things with it like you can with some of the later ones. Nimrod stands out because he, like Dorcas and other funny-named Biblical characters, cannot be taught in Sunday School because it will quickly derail into nothing by funny name jokes.
Really though, I got nothing for this. They did their job and started having babies.
[Genesis 11:1]
At first this sounds like a contradiction since we the previous list of people sorted them out by language, and then it says here they all had one language. I assume that this story happens sometime in the middle of that list of people, instead of happening right at the end. Either that or the sorting could have been applied retroactively based on whose descendants got what language. I dunno.
[Genesis 11:1-3]
"They had brick for stone," (NKJV) but no one would trade with them because they had 8 victory points on the board and a development card on the table that's been there for 9 turns, so that stone will probably make them a city and win the game.
...
Sorry.
So they're all travelling in one big pack, and have figured out brick-making by now. Based on the genealogy above, they were doing good at the "make babies" command, but so far not doing so hot on the "spread out and populate the Earth" part of the plan. They were getting the city-building thing down pretty good and were reluctant to start spreading out like the earth needed.
The hardest part of God's call on your life can often be the people that you have to leave behind. There's the obvious times when you've been hanging out with deadbeats and you need to find some people who won't hold you back, but even more difficult is the times when it's just time to move on to some place new. God didn't necessarily want them to spread out because they were all bad people and needed to be separated (though they didn't end up too great, based on the rest of the passage), but because the plan for repopulation required them to go elsewhere. Sometimes with the talents God gives you and the call that's on your life, you have to relocate and mess up some ties with the people where you are. But you can't let that fear of change stop you, because you may be messing up a bigger plan than you realize.
[11: 4-9]
So these guys, to save themselves from having to spread out, decide they're going to build a massive tower that will serve as a central hub for civilization, and all settle right around there.
What's interesting here isn't just that they did that, because that's just human nature to not want to leave each other, but that God said "Crap, they can pull this off. We have to do something here." Specifically God was worried because, with the level of unity they had, they could do whatever it was they decided. It took God mixing up their languages and forcibly scattering them around the world to stop this plan from happening.
What's sad here is that we have a perfect example of the power that we have when we band together and work for a common cause, but it was being put towards a project that was so stupid it took a miracle from God just so we wouldn't jack up the entire earth in the process. The lesson here is to make sure that our leadership knows what's up and is in tune with God. More specifically, if you are in a leadership position, make sure you know where God is going in your field. When leaders can get people rallied together and working towards a common goal, they will achieve that goal. So never underestimate the power of people working together, and always keep tabs on the people leading these movements and make sure their inevitable success will be a good thing.
[11: 10-32]
And then we get another big genealogy chunk. This one's a bit of a bigger deal though, because it introduces us to the next major set of players in Biblical history: Abram, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. They were originally from Ur, and they moved to Canaan. They will be the focus of the next chunk of Scripture, so we'll leave it there for now.
Genesis 10 is a bit of freebie, as it's a genealogy. Most of the names in here aren't as well known, so it's harder to do cool things with it like you can with some of the later ones. Nimrod stands out because he, like Dorcas and other funny-named Biblical characters, cannot be taught in Sunday School because it will quickly derail into nothing by funny name jokes.
Really though, I got nothing for this. They did their job and started having babies.
[Genesis 11:1]
At first this sounds like a contradiction since we the previous list of people sorted them out by language, and then it says here they all had one language. I assume that this story happens sometime in the middle of that list of people, instead of happening right at the end. Either that or the sorting could have been applied retroactively based on whose descendants got what language. I dunno.
[Genesis 11:1-3]
"They had brick for stone," (NKJV) but no one would trade with them because they had 8 victory points on the board and a development card on the table that's been there for 9 turns, so that stone will probably make them a city and win the game.
...
Sorry.
So they're all travelling in one big pack, and have figured out brick-making by now. Based on the genealogy above, they were doing good at the "make babies" command, but so far not doing so hot on the "spread out and populate the Earth" part of the plan. They were getting the city-building thing down pretty good and were reluctant to start spreading out like the earth needed.
The hardest part of God's call on your life can often be the people that you have to leave behind. There's the obvious times when you've been hanging out with deadbeats and you need to find some people who won't hold you back, but even more difficult is the times when it's just time to move on to some place new. God didn't necessarily want them to spread out because they were all bad people and needed to be separated (though they didn't end up too great, based on the rest of the passage), but because the plan for repopulation required them to go elsewhere. Sometimes with the talents God gives you and the call that's on your life, you have to relocate and mess up some ties with the people where you are. But you can't let that fear of change stop you, because you may be messing up a bigger plan than you realize.
[11: 4-9]
So these guys, to save themselves from having to spread out, decide they're going to build a massive tower that will serve as a central hub for civilization, and all settle right around there.
What's interesting here isn't just that they did that, because that's just human nature to not want to leave each other, but that God said "Crap, they can pull this off. We have to do something here." Specifically God was worried because, with the level of unity they had, they could do whatever it was they decided. It took God mixing up their languages and forcibly scattering them around the world to stop this plan from happening.
What's sad here is that we have a perfect example of the power that we have when we band together and work for a common cause, but it was being put towards a project that was so stupid it took a miracle from God just so we wouldn't jack up the entire earth in the process. The lesson here is to make sure that our leadership knows what's up and is in tune with God. More specifically, if you are in a leadership position, make sure you know where God is going in your field. When leaders can get people rallied together and working towards a common goal, they will achieve that goal. So never underestimate the power of people working together, and always keep tabs on the people leading these movements and make sure their inevitable success will be a good thing.
[11: 10-32]
And then we get another big genealogy chunk. This one's a bit of a bigger deal though, because it introduces us to the next major set of players in Biblical history: Abram, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. They were originally from Ur, and they moved to Canaan. They will be the focus of the next chunk of Scripture, so we'll leave it there for now.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Meat!
In a bit of hurry this morning, so I may may this one kinda quick.
Also, I found a way to indent my paragraphs on Blogger, so when I get some time to mess around in the CSS I'll fix up the formatting on these.
Back to Genesis!
[Genesis 9: 1-4]
After the flood, God allowed meat-eating. Mainly because the lifespan-shortening He wanted to do would go a lot faster if He put man on the track to discovering double quarter-pounders.
Originally God did not allow meat-eating, because death of any sort wasn't in His plan. Even when He finally allowed it, He did not allow them to eat the blood with the meat because the blood represented the life of the animal. To God, eating the blood was devaluing the life of the animal and not taking the fact that there is now death when there shouldn't have been too lightly. Even though we are not held to the letter of the old laws anymore, we can still use the law to find out something about the character of God. God respects all life, and we should never spill blood casually. Even in hunting, at the very least eat it or skin it or sell it.
They say an early sign of a kid being a psychopath is cruelty to pets and other animals. It makes sense, since God, who made us in His image, values all life, and so losing that fundamental bit of our intended nature is a sign that something has gone horribly wrong.
[5-6]
Even more so with human life. Spilling animal blood willy-nilly got you punished, but God required your life for spilling human blood.
Like I said back in the first chapters, never forget that, while all life is valuable, human life is far more valuable.
[7-17]
God tells Noah and his family to begin repopulating, and also irons out some details on the promise He made to not destroy Earth again. More specifically, He meant He'll never destroy Earth with a flood again, leaving Himself a nice little loophole to destroy it with fire during the apocalypse.
Also the rainbow He uses as a reminder of this promise is a fun one for creation scientists who hold the canopy theory. If the water canopy was really around the earth, it makes sense that it would screw with the humidity in the air and the conditions would never be right for a rainbow. Since the flood theoretically destroyed the canopy, there can be rainbows now, which is why there hadn't been one until this promise.
So every time it rains and you see a rainbow afterwards, maybe God was thinking about destroying everyone then went "Oh, right, that."
[18-29]
They start settling down and deciding who's going to do what, and Noah takes some farming duty. Noah grows some grapes and later gets plastered off the wine. I suppose if you'd just seen literally everyone in the world except you and your family die, and were probably still finding dead bodies laying around everywhere, you'd need a strong drink too. Anyway, he gets wasted and ends up passing out naked in his tent. One of his kids finds that hilarious and goes and tells the other two, who smack him upside the head and tell him that he's one of seven people alive at the moment so he should really stop being an idiot. The other two go in the tent backwards with a blanket so they can cover Noah up without looking at him. They get commended by Noah and Canaan gets a curse for his troubles.
Since these guys are effectively the first generation of a new era and a new covenant, God has to lay down some precedents. It sounds like there wasn't a lot of consequence before them (not counting...you know... the flood) and that God is establishing some rules now that there haven't been before. Even though there are rules and consequences that God takes very seriously, He was still not into publicly shaming people who do something stupid. Noah over-drank and embarrassed himself, but, even with more consequence now than usual, it wasn't good to make a big deal out of it beyond what needed to be done.
We need to always be helping each other grow, but we can respect privacy in the process. There is a time to involve others, especially when the person we're trying to help is being stubborn and it's for their own good, but always try to keep it between as few people as possible. When there's nothing more to be done, especially when it's not habitual, let's cover each other up and help each other save face.
Also, I found a way to indent my paragraphs on Blogger, so when I get some time to mess around in the CSS I'll fix up the formatting on these.
Back to Genesis!
[Genesis 9: 1-4]
After the flood, God allowed meat-eating. Mainly because the lifespan-shortening He wanted to do would go a lot faster if He put man on the track to discovering double quarter-pounders.
Originally God did not allow meat-eating, because death of any sort wasn't in His plan. Even when He finally allowed it, He did not allow them to eat the blood with the meat because the blood represented the life of the animal. To God, eating the blood was devaluing the life of the animal and not taking the fact that there is now death when there shouldn't have been too lightly. Even though we are not held to the letter of the old laws anymore, we can still use the law to find out something about the character of God. God respects all life, and we should never spill blood casually. Even in hunting, at the very least eat it or skin it or sell it.
They say an early sign of a kid being a psychopath is cruelty to pets and other animals. It makes sense, since God, who made us in His image, values all life, and so losing that fundamental bit of our intended nature is a sign that something has gone horribly wrong.
[5-6]
Even more so with human life. Spilling animal blood willy-nilly got you punished, but God required your life for spilling human blood.
Like I said back in the first chapters, never forget that, while all life is valuable, human life is far more valuable.
[7-17]
God tells Noah and his family to begin repopulating, and also irons out some details on the promise He made to not destroy Earth again. More specifically, He meant He'll never destroy Earth with a flood again, leaving Himself a nice little loophole to destroy it with fire during the apocalypse.
Also the rainbow He uses as a reminder of this promise is a fun one for creation scientists who hold the canopy theory. If the water canopy was really around the earth, it makes sense that it would screw with the humidity in the air and the conditions would never be right for a rainbow. Since the flood theoretically destroyed the canopy, there can be rainbows now, which is why there hadn't been one until this promise.
So every time it rains and you see a rainbow afterwards, maybe God was thinking about destroying everyone then went "Oh, right, that."
[18-29]
They start settling down and deciding who's going to do what, and Noah takes some farming duty. Noah grows some grapes and later gets plastered off the wine. I suppose if you'd just seen literally everyone in the world except you and your family die, and were probably still finding dead bodies laying around everywhere, you'd need a strong drink too. Anyway, he gets wasted and ends up passing out naked in his tent. One of his kids finds that hilarious and goes and tells the other two, who smack him upside the head and tell him that he's one of seven people alive at the moment so he should really stop being an idiot. The other two go in the tent backwards with a blanket so they can cover Noah up without looking at him. They get commended by Noah and Canaan gets a curse for his troubles.
Since these guys are effectively the first generation of a new era and a new covenant, God has to lay down some precedents. It sounds like there wasn't a lot of consequence before them (not counting...you know... the flood) and that God is establishing some rules now that there haven't been before. Even though there are rules and consequences that God takes very seriously, He was still not into publicly shaming people who do something stupid. Noah over-drank and embarrassed himself, but, even with more consequence now than usual, it wasn't good to make a big deal out of it beyond what needed to be done.
We need to always be helping each other grow, but we can respect privacy in the process. There is a time to involve others, especially when the person we're trying to help is being stubborn and it's for their own good, but always try to keep it between as few people as possible. When there's nothing more to be done, especially when it's not habitual, let's cover each other up and help each other save face.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
We're done with boats!
Saturday means it's New Testament time!
[Matthew 2:1-2]
A little background information will help make this scene make more sense, specifically about King Herod. The main thing you need to know is that King Herod was freaking insane. Among some of his accomplishments (courtesy of Wikipedia):
[2:13-15]
Also wise: an angel advises Joseph and Mary to get out of town and wait until Herod's dead, since Herod will likely do some nutty things to try to off this kid.
Matthew points out that this also fulfills a prophecy about Jesus being called out of Egypt.
[2:16-18]
Since the wise men didn't come back, Herod assumed that they, and likely the kid's parents, figured out what he was intending on doing (He was surprised, as his reign so far has been famous for subtlety.) So, instead of making all the effort to find which kid is the right one, he decides to just kill all the children born between the first sighting of the star and now. Not terribly surprising gien Herod's previous record.
In Anne Rice's "Christ the Lord" novel (which I will totally finish someday, I promise) there's a scene where Jesus has something of an existential meltdown when He realizes that all those kids died on a search for Him. I like that scene, because it touches on how mentally difficult it must have been for Jesus to go through with the plan for His life. I'm sure no one at the time really blamed Jesus, since Herod probably would have done the same thing once he saw that people put "Baby's laughter" above him on a poll about things they like, but still. I don't really have a point with this, it's just interesting to think about the human implications for Jesus growing up.
Oh, and this fulfilled another prophecy.
[2:19-23]
Later on, after Herod was finally dead (They didn't actually go through with his order to kill all the other officials when he died. Because he was dead, and he wasn't there to enforce it,) they're told to go back. While they're heading back, they get warned in a dream to "actually, don't go ALL the way back, because Herod's son is in charge and only slightly less psychotic than Herod was. So, instead, go to Galilee." I'm sure Joseph was like "Well, why didn't you say that in first place? What? Galilee sucks! The only place with a vacancy is stinking Nazareth! Argh!" but all of this worked towards another one of the prophecies, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. So even though it felt like their trip got botched, it needed to happen.
There are many times it feels like God called you to something that absolutely fell flat on its face. When that happens, it's easy to think either you misunderstood God and weren't supposed to do that, or that you royally screwed up and now God's plan is ruined. It's very possible in those times that the calling was just to get you to where you are now, and the success or failure of the call was irrelevant to what would come afterwards.
[Matthew 2:1-2]
A little background information will help make this scene make more sense, specifically about King Herod. The main thing you need to know is that King Herod was freaking insane. Among some of his accomplishments (courtesy of Wikipedia):
- Wanted to marry a teenager, but couldn't because of his wife and three kids. So he banishes said wife and kids
- Was suspicious of new wife's brother, so had him drowned while he was a party
- Later thought the new wife and his kids were plotting to take over his throne, so he executed them
- Since everyone hated him, he realized no one would cry when he died. So he ordered that, when he died, a bunch of popular officials should also be killed so there would be some crying
Most of his insanity came from his paranoia about his throne and I imagine the ego problems that resulted from his being about 4'2". So, to get a clear picture of Herod, just imagine this guy:
Think he's compensating for something?
In his favor though: he funded the Olympics and built a bunch of cool massive buildings. So there's that.
Anyway, you can imagine that this guy didn't take it too kindly when some creepy guys from other countries come up to him asking about "The King of the Jews" and not referring to Herod himself.
[2:3]
The rest of Jerusalem wasn't actually troubled that there might be a new king, they were just troubled because they weren't sure who was going to be executed next.
[2:4-8]
Psychotic paranoid king casually wanting to know where this new king is so he can go worship him too? Seems legit.
[2:9-11]
There's different opinions about the "Star of Bethlehem." Using fancy astronomy tools, we can see how the night sky looked around the time Jesus was born, and there was indeed a convergence of planets that may have been what the Wise Men were following. It's a little tough to attribute it directly to that, since it seems like it led them west to Herod, then back East to Jesus, though it could just be funny writing or translation giving this impression. It could also have been an angel or just some supernatural warning light, or it may have been Navi. Who knows?
A lot of people don't like reading this part too carefully because it kinda messes with our manger scenes and our Christmas plays. Following this chronologically, it seems pretty obvious that Jesus' birth happened quite a while before the wise men got to Him. All of our plays, Christmas cards, and horrible movies show the wise men getting there shortly after the birth of Jesus at the manger, but it's not really possible to get that from reading the text. I know that most people know at this point that were probably not three wise men, but I see why we stick to that imagery. I don't know why we insist on having them show up the second after Jesus is born. And why Jesus is born several months old already. And why He's perfectly clean. And why He didn't have an umbilical cord. And why it took about 30 seconds. And why Mary is incapable of emotion. And why angels look like Keith Green.
God, I hated that movie.
Anyway, it's interesting that the wise men brought Myrrh as one of their gifts. They were outsiders, and the details of Jesus' death and resurrection were difficult to glean from the Old Testament prophecies alone (At least, it seemed to take the disciples by surprise.) It probably seemed like a pretty morbid gift to give a young child, but it was super fitting along with their other three gifts to go along with what Jesus would end up doing. It's funny how these outsiders seemed to understand exactly who Jesus was and what He was called to do, when no one else in Israel seemed to get it.
Regardless, God used pagans to highlight what He was planning on doing through this birth. We tend to think we're so special and that God will use us for so much, but if we don't step it up and do what we're supposed to, God's not afraid to work through people we consider beneath us just to remind us that He is, in fact, God, and can do whatever He feels like by whatever means He feels like.
[2:12]
For all their insight, they had to have a divine warning to not go back to Herod. You'd think THAT would be the obvious part of this whole situations.
[2:13-15]
Also wise: an angel advises Joseph and Mary to get out of town and wait until Herod's dead, since Herod will likely do some nutty things to try to off this kid.
Matthew points out that this also fulfills a prophecy about Jesus being called out of Egypt.
[2:16-18]
Since the wise men didn't come back, Herod assumed that they, and likely the kid's parents, figured out what he was intending on doing (He was surprised, as his reign so far has been famous for subtlety.) So, instead of making all the effort to find which kid is the right one, he decides to just kill all the children born between the first sighting of the star and now. Not terribly surprising gien Herod's previous record.
In Anne Rice's "Christ the Lord" novel (which I will totally finish someday, I promise) there's a scene where Jesus has something of an existential meltdown when He realizes that all those kids died on a search for Him. I like that scene, because it touches on how mentally difficult it must have been for Jesus to go through with the plan for His life. I'm sure no one at the time really blamed Jesus, since Herod probably would have done the same thing once he saw that people put "Baby's laughter" above him on a poll about things they like, but still. I don't really have a point with this, it's just interesting to think about the human implications for Jesus growing up.
Oh, and this fulfilled another prophecy.
[2:19-23]
Later on, after Herod was finally dead (They didn't actually go through with his order to kill all the other officials when he died. Because he was dead, and he wasn't there to enforce it,) they're told to go back. While they're heading back, they get warned in a dream to "actually, don't go ALL the way back, because Herod's son is in charge and only slightly less psychotic than Herod was. So, instead, go to Galilee." I'm sure Joseph was like "Well, why didn't you say that in first place? What? Galilee sucks! The only place with a vacancy is stinking Nazareth! Argh!" but all of this worked towards another one of the prophecies, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. So even though it felt like their trip got botched, it needed to happen.
There are many times it feels like God called you to something that absolutely fell flat on its face. When that happens, it's easy to think either you misunderstood God and weren't supposed to do that, or that you royally screwed up and now God's plan is ruined. It's very possible in those times that the calling was just to get you to where you are now, and the success or failure of the call was irrelevant to what would come afterwards.
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