Beware

Widow's mite

Beware of religious people. Jesus is in Jerusalem investigating the religious institution there and he doesn't like what he sees (Mark 12-13). 

He sees the religious leaders dressing and acting in ways that draw attention to themselves and away from the injustices they are purveying.

Jesus notes that they crave wealth so much that they "devour widows' houses." The term "widow" is used in the Bible to represent an entire class of underprivileged people, those who are the most vulnerable and lacking in power and access to resources. 

See Exod 22:22-24; Deut 10:18; 24:17-21; 26:12-13; 27:19; Isa 1:17; 9:17; Jer 7:6; 22:3; 49:11; Zech 7:10; James 1:27; and 1 Tim 5:3, for examples of how serious God is about us caring for the marginalized.

Just as Jesus is commenting on the religious leaders' oppression of the poor, a number of rich people come and give large sums to the corrupt temple treasury. In the midst of them a poor widow comes and gives two copper coins, or about a penny. 

The widow making her offering.

Jesus tells his followers, "this poor widow gave more than all the others. They gave out of their wealth and she out of her poverty has given everything."

The Greek word used for what she gave is bios, "life" - she literally gave all she had to live on.

This passage is often used as an example of proper stewardship in relation to giving. But that's not what's going on here. 

Jesus is lamenting the widow's mistreatment under the corrupt temple structure; a structure that keeps her in poverty. She is a tragic example of a religious system that takes advantage of the very people most in need of its help.

The question for us is: Are our religious institutions protecting the most vulnerable members of our society? Or is there something inherent in the way we do things, that exploits the very people we are charged to protect?

Reclaim Your World

The Bible starts with a poem,  where line after line, God rhythmically creates a good world, and sets human beings, both male and female, at the pinnacle of his efforts.

We were made to enjoy the good word and participate with God, and the rest of creation, as co-creators.

This concept of the world being an inherently good place, blurs the arbitrary line between the secular and the sacred. The spark of God is everywhere in creation, and at no time more potently in human form, than in Christ, who spent his life reclaiming creation; restoring people to full participation in the world; empowering people to be most who they were to be.

In this way beauty and truth are everywhere. This is why we are  awestruck by music we hear, or art we see, or incredible physical feats we witness. We are seeing the spark of God that indwells all creation:

Unfortunately, some Christians historically have swung the pendulum in the opposite direction, shunning the things of "this world" and have adopted more ascetic values. 

But such practices do not come from a balanced perspective on life. Paul ran into this in 1 Tim 4.4, and combats such thinking when he writes, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected." 

This isn't to say we embrace everything. The world is full of truth and beauty, but it has also been marred by our inability to follow the plot. We have been unfaithful co-creators and have brought things into creation that do not bring life and completeness.

So we take very seriously the task to discern what is good and wholesome. We reclaim the things of our world that are beautiful and awe inspiring, as testimony to what the harmonious relationship between God and humanity is supposed to look like.

Not Accorinding to Plan

Boat on the Sea of Galilee

Things don't always go as planned. In Mark 6, Jesus had just miraculously fed five thousand people, and before that had been giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and helping the lame walk.

But these had all been public events and involved people with whom he didn't have a close relationship. So Jesus comes up with an idea: he is going to show his best friends, the disciples, that he is connected to God like no one else.

He sends the disciples across the Sea of Galilee and goes off to pray. They struggle all night rowing their boat into the wind and just when they are most fatigued, Jesus comes effortlessly walking on the water beside them.

Mark tells us that Jesus "intended to pass them by," which is kind of frustrating because they could have used some fresh arms for rowing, but Jesus had different plans. "Pass them by" is the same phrase used in Exodus 33.17ff where Yahweh shows Moses his glory by "passing him by."

Unfortunately things don't go so well for Jesus. As he is passing the disciples by, they see him and freak out, thinking he is a ghost. Jesus allays their panic and says "Don't be afraid, it is I." The Greek phrase Mark uses is ego eimi, "I am," which is the Greek translation of Yahweh from Exodus 3:14.

W.O.W.: only for special circumstances.

But announcing he was there wasn't enough, so Jesus gets into the boat with them. He saw that they weren't ready to step toward him and see him for whom he was, so he steps toward them.

They hadn't figured out that he was God manifest as a human; doing the things only God had historically done for his people: feeding them in the wilderness, healing, sustaining, providing life giving teaching, and showing them his glory.

If Jesus' best friends, those who witnessed everything he did, had a hard time believing, how much harder is it for us? But that's OK. Jesus doesn't push it. He puts some things on hold he had been planning and gets into the boat, meeting us right where we are. 

Super Funny

In case you need a good laugh:

Hope your Holidays are great!

Pre-Approved

"Congratulations! You've been pre-approved!" How many credit card offers do you get a week announcing such wonderful news? It's kind of validating, isn't it?!

There are a couple of passages in the Bible that announce similar news. One comes from Romans 8.28ff., where Paul writes some comforting words for those experiencing trials: 

We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God....for those whom he foreknew he also predestined...and those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Such words are incredibly comforting, but have led some to adopt a deterministic view of the world, where humans are not free to choose their own destinies. This is one of the problems with the individualistic nature of our culture.

Passages in the Bible that refer to predestination are directed at  corporate groups of people: You, as an entire people group, were chosen to be a part of the family of God. For that we should take great comfort.

Holding a belief that God has picked some individuals to experience life and others death, seems to be in opposition to the inclusive love of God. It is God's desire that the entire world experience the substantive life he offers (cf. Is 2.2-4; Jn 3.17, 12.32; 1 Tim 2.3-4; Tit 2.11).

So next time you go to the mail box, let the credit card offers stimulate you to think about your place in the family of God.

The Virgin

 Gozzoli, 1450.

Mary was a virgin. This is what the gospel author Matthew wants to communicate. Matthew anchors the Jesus story in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in Mt 1.23, as he describes Mary's miraculous conception, he quotes a passage from Isaiah 7.14: 

"Look, the virgin (Gk. parthenos) shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Immanuel."

Some argue that the Isaiah passage does not refer to a virgin, because it uses the word almah, "young woman," instead of the more common Hebrew term for "virgin," bethulah. 

They would note that Matthew uses the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which translates almah with parthenos - a technical term for virgin, instead of translating directly from the Hebrew.

The Septuagint

The argument is heated, but there is not as much at stake as one might originally think. Matthew was recording a historical event and wanted to anchor it within the context of his community's authoritative scriptures. 

Whether or not Isaiah was referring to a virgin, or a young woman, or a young woman who was a virgin, is irrelevant. Matthew, while not discounting the original context of Isaiah 7.14, is telling his community what the text means for them NOW. 

The struggle for the modern day reader is to live in the tension of a passage that referred to a specific historical situation (the events of Isaiah's day) but was malleable enough to be applied to another historical event, the birth of Jesus, that occurred over 700 years later. 

On this eve, that commemorates the ultimate Imma-nu-el, lit. "with us is God," we reflect on God's saving activity both past and present, and thank God for the historical reality of the birth that brought restoration and life, to a broken and dying world.

Fully Known

D.C., on the East coast, at night.

There is so much I don't know. I was in my early twenties when a dentist told me brushing my teeth too hard had led to gum recession and the cavity like pain I was experiencing. 

A friend of mine, who is very intelligent, was in her second year of college when she realized that Washington D.C. was not in the state of Washington - she just hadn't thought about it. 

There is so much we don't know. The western world lived for thousands of years thinking the earth was the center of the universe, as well as flat. People were even killed our kicked out of their communities for questioning such assumptions. 

We all admit we hold beliefs that are probably not true; the problem is, we don't know which ones they are! 

These thoughts add so much color to a passage from the end of the "Love chapter" in 1 Corinthians 13 - the one you have heard at 99% of the weddings you have been to. 

The author writes: "For we know only in part...for now we see in a mirror dimly, but some day we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I am fully known."

This passage is so powerful. We are constantly arguing over what we know - pinning our understanding of science, religion, politics, ethics against one another, all the while running around in differing states of ignorance. 

In my state of perpetual ignorance, I take great comfort in believing that it is not about how much I know, but that I am fully known.

Simple

It is the job of the church to spread the love of God to the world, but sometimes we let things get in the way. Check out this video from a friend's church that attempts to simplify things a bit:

Please leave your thoughts below!

Rated R

The Bible is R-rated. When kids are taught the David and Goliath story, most teachers leave out the fact, that after David knocks out the giant with a rock, he decapitates him. 

The Bible is filled with all sorts of stuff that make up an R-rated film: sex, war, murder, genocide, adultery, bribery. Such content naturally lends itself to censorship. 

A great example comes from Daniel chapter 5, where the Babylonian king sees something that terrifies him: fingers of a human hand writing on a wall. 

The message written was one of judgment and that very night the king was killed. This story is where we get the phrase, "the writing is on the wall," signifying coming misfortune.

Rembrandt's depiction of Daniel 5.

The censorship though, comes in verse 6, which records the  king's reaction to the writing. Most modern translations render it: "His limbs gave way" (NRSV) or "his legs became weak" (NIV).  

But the Aramaic is literally: "his loins loosed" (Ar. charats sheray) which, to put it bluntly means, "he pooped his pants."

Apparently, most modern translators felt this was offensive and avoided it, but the literal translation certainly conveys the fear the king was experiencing!

Bringing the Rain

Desert rain

"Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass?" - Job 38.25-7

                                              

This verse comes from a passage in the book of Job,  where Yahweh is helping Job realize that he is not the center of the universe. It includes a concept that was very strange in the ancient world: Why does it rain in places people don't live? 

The pre-modern world view, believed that the gods were responsible for bringing rain and would only do so if humans had properly appeased them.

Drought

Droughts then were understood as times when the gods where unhappy for some reason. This way of thinking was very familiar to the ancient Israelites and can be seen in Deuteronomy 28 and 1 Kings 18.1.

Today we understand that rain is less a direct act of God and more reflective of a cycle that God put in place to bring life to the whole world. 

As God spoke to Job, he did so based on Job's understanding of the world. This is a very important concept to keep in mind when reading the Bible: 

God acts within human history, so to get the most out of our reading, we attempt to understand the world to which God originally communicated.

If we don't do this, we are in danger of misunderstanding and misapplying the Bible. A danger with which the world is all too familiar.

Jumping to Conclusions

Don't be too quick to judge. A while back I was in a fast food joint, seated with a view of a parking lot, when a white van pulled into the packed lot and took the only spot available - the handicap space. 

The driver of the van, a fit guy in his twenties, hopped out and slammed his door shut. If he was handicapped, I was Santa Claus. I was appalled. 

"What a jerk!" I said to myself. But just as all hope in humanity waned, he cut left at the back of the van and walked around to the passenger's door. What happened next shocked me. 

He reached into the van and pulled out a wheel chair. "That's strange," I thought, "what does he need one of those for?" 

He then proceeded to reach back into the van, this time pulling out a severely handicapped person, whose face told me he was the brother of the driver. The driver strapped the passenger into his chair and headed for the restaurant. 

I felt horrible. I figured the least I could do was get up and open the door for them.

How often does this happen to you? How many times have you jumped to conclusions only to find out you were completely wrong? 

I have found it's best to give people the benefit of the doubt. This is what I would want people to do for me. 

This may be one of those perfect opportunities for you to "treat others as you would want to be treated."

The Toss and Turn

Sleep well.

Life sometimes keeps me up at night. It may be concerns about finances, tests or meetings the next day, physical endeavors, family issues, you name it.

It's a shame too because I really enjoy sleeping, but the trouble is the more I try to quiet my mind, the more it races on. 

Do you ever experience this?

One of my favorite passages in the Bible to turn to during these times, is Philippians 4.6ff: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

The passage goes on: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

This is not a formula for removing anxiety, nor will the peace always come right when you need it, but there is something powerful about letting God know what's on your mind and then asking for his peace to comfort you.

So when the temporal events of this life have you tossing and turning, give Philippians 4 a try and get yourself some good sleep!

A God Permeated World

There is no word in Hebrew for nature. All events in the world were a direct result of the hand of God - so there was no need to distinguish between the realm of God and realm of nature.

For instance, they believed God held store houses for rain, hail, and snow, (Deut 28.12, Job 38.22ff.,  Jer 51.16) in heaven and would open the storage containers when the earth needed them. They also held that God's direct hand would carry the sun through the sky (Ps 19).

In this way, every event in the world was a testimony to God's direct involvement. Rob Bell has some interesting comments on this way of looking at the world: 

What does it look like to think of God permeating every area of our world? Is such a concept reserved for the ignorant pre-modern world or does it have implications for us today? 

As always, please leave you comments below. 

Finding Balance

David and Goliath

What is the balance between faith and wisdom? Between relying on God and relying on self?

I often hear people cite the David and Goliath story as an example of the power of faith: here is this young boy, who against all odds, takes down the mighty warrior. 

The story certainly is an example of faith, but the kid also knew how to throw a rock.

Or take this for example. Let's say you planned a road trip and meticulously prepared for everything and despite all  your preparations, an hour into the trip, your tire blows out. 

Would you sit in the car asking God to miraculously fix the tire? Probably not. You would get out and do it yourself. You might pray for safety while making the repair or you might thank God no one was hurt as you careened off the road. But you are responsible to take action for the things within your control.

But what about cancer or the death of a child? Circumstances out of your control and ones that don't make sense. What is the balance there? 

How is your balance?

The idea might be, that we apply the balance we use in the little moments to the moments that don't make sense. 

We evaluate our circumstances and take action for the things within our control and surrender to God the things out of our control.

We must leave room for God to act in our lives, to come through for us. But we must also come through on our end.

Where in your life do you need to surrender control to God?  And on the other side, where in your life do you need to take accountability and take action yourself?

Jesus Reads Genesis

A debate has been raging for some time now, about how to read the first couple chapters of the Bible. On one side of the spectrum are people who read it as a scientific document and argue the earth is only 6,000 years old.

On the other side are people who feel the first few chapters of Genesis are more interested in telling us why the world was created, than the specifics of how it was created.

But setting aside that debate for a moment, how would Jesus have read it? Or at least, how were the first couple chapters of Genesis read in Jesus' day. In the video below, leading scholar N.T. Wright provides interesting insight into that question:

Please leave your comments below.

Fill Your Tank

By the time you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated. In fact, most of us are dehydrated all the time. The key to maintaining proper hydration is taking time to drink. 

The symptoms of dehydration include: dry skin, headaches, muscle cramps, dizziness, blurred vision, and rapid heart rate. Dehydration also negatively affects a person's mood. 

The idea is that you were made to be filled up and when you lose even 1-2% of your water volume, you lose your ability to function properly.

The struggle to keep ourselves filled up is not limited to hydration alone. We are constantly being depleted on a number of levels. The key to a healthy life is taking time to fill ourselves up. Setting aside time, either daily or weekly, to stop and recharge.

This can take many forms: for some it will be a time to be still, pray, meditate, read, or just listen; for others it will be activity: like running, biking, or hiking. It is probably best to do this alone, but not all of us recharge while alone, so do what is best for you.

The Bible calls this time shabbat. It's what God did after creating the world and what he commanded his people to do after their escape from Egypt. It is sometimes incorrectly translated "rest" but actually means to "cease from working." Shabbat is a break in the routine; a time to fill the tank back up.

Are you setting aside time to renew yourself? Oddly enough, the symptoms of a depleted body are similar to those of a depleted soul. Begin your practice of Shabbat today.

Enough

You aren't wealthy enough, powerful enough, smart enough, pretty enough, handsome enough, talented enough, skinny enough, strong enough. You aren't enough.

This is the message of our culture. We are surrounded by images and ideas that highlight our inadequacies. We live in a world where people would empty their bank accounts to purchase something like this:

Next to the side effects, my favorite line in the ad is: "There is very little on earth that NZT can't solve."

We should all strive to be better human beings, as we are all flawed, but no amount of money, fame, talent, beauty, strength, or pills, will satisfy, until we come to peace with who we fundamentally are. For that we can turn to the Bible.

Psalms speaks of God knowing us "before we were born" and says of us that we are "marvelously made." And Genesis tells us we are the pinnacle of God's creation, made in God's image.

God intends to counter the message of our culture by telling us that we are enough, by loving us just the way we are, with all of our failures, limitations, and brokenness.

Next time you look at a magazine rack at the supermarket, don't compare yourself to the airbrushed depictions of reality.

Instead take comfort in knowing that you, just as you are, bear the image of the Creator and let that image shine brightly.

Open Your Eyes

You've probably seen this, but it's always worth another look:

Isaiah 6 says:

                             Holy, Holy, Holy is Yahweh of hosts; 

                               the whole earth is full of his glory. 

Another translation of the second line, and one that may be more accurate is:

                              the fullness of the earth is his glory. 

Both essentially convey the same thought, with the second adding a little more emphasis: the earth, in all its majestic splendor is the glory (Hb. kavod, lit. "weight") of God. 

With this is mind, the words in the video function as a benediction, "Open your eyes to the power, the majesty and the wonder of planet earth."

A Matter of Preference

Psalm 14 is identical to Psalm 53 - except for one thing. Well two things, but one major. Do you know what it is? If you like to figure stuff out on your own, compare the two, otherwise read on. 

The Book of Psalms is actually a collection of five books.

Last month I wrote about how the book of Psalms is actually a compilation of five books. 

This explains why two identical Psalms exist in the Bible. Psalm 14 is part of the first book and Psalm 53, the second. 

But back to the difference: Psalm 14 and 53 use different names for God. Psalm 14 uses Yahweh (English Bibles = LORD) while Psalm 53 uses Elohim (English = God). This actually is the significant difference between Book Two (Ps 42-72) and the rest of the Psalms.

Book Two is known as the Elohistic Psalter, which is a fancy way of saying it prefers to use Elohim for the name of God, against the rest of the Psalms, which prefer Yahweh. 

This tells us a lot about how the Bible came to be the way it is. At one point, Book Two was a complete collection used by a specific community as their worship manual. And for reasons unknown to us, they preferred the name Elohim over Yahweh (cf. Ps 40.17 & 70.4).

Do you prefer one name for God over another? When you pray, do you pray to Jesus? Yeshua? The Father? Yahweh? Jehovah? God? Spirit? Or maybe even Baby Jesus?

And what do think it means that you would be more comfortable with one name or another? Would it be healthy for you to vary the way you speak about God? Would it enrich your spiritual life?

Make Up Your Own Mind

John the Baptist is in prison and he's about to lose his head (Luke 7). Not in the figurative "lose his marbles" sense, but literally. He voiced his disapproval for Herod's choice in a lady friend a little too loudly and was in deep water.

Beheading of JTB by Stanzione

Herod took his sister-in-law as his wife. As this act was a violation of Jewish law, John had every right to disapprove, but at this point may have wished he had held his tongue. 

Initially John wasn't overly concerned, because his cousin Jesus, who was touted as the one who would lead a revolt against the established rulers, would come to his aid. 

But Jesus wasn't coming. He was busy healing the poor and raising people from the dead. So John asks some of his disciples to go to Jesus and ask him "Are you the one to come, or are we to wait for another?"

He wanted to know why Jesus hadn't started the revolution and along with that, why he hadn't broken him out of jail.

John's disciples find Jesus surrounded by the same people he was always with: the diseased, the blind, the cripples, and those with evil spirits. Not the type of people one would choose to lead a violent revolution against the Roman Empire.

Leprosy, one of the skin diseases healed

They ask Jesus the question and as the words are coming from their mouths, Jesus turns and "cures many people of diseases, plagues, evil spirits, and gives sight to many who were blind."

And then he answered them, "Go tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who supports a revolution that looks like this."

Jesus doesn't actually answer the question. In the words of a sermon I recently heard: Jesus says, "watch and make up your own minds."

We often come to God wanting all sorts of things, we want all sorts of answers, and what we are really asking is "are you the one for me? Are you what I should put my trust in or should I look somewhere else?"

And God, says, "Come partner with me. Be about the things I'm about.  See the world as I see it and then make up your own mind."

Jesus Ruins Funerals

Jesus ruins funerals. In Luke chapter 7 he strolls into the town of Nain, sees a funeral procession, walks up to the coffin and brings the dead man back to life.

Nain, now called Nein

Upon further investigation we learn that the man was the only son of a widow. This woman was in a terrible spot. Her husband had died and now her only son - all of her support systems were gone, both emotional and financial.

Her desperate situation moves Jesus and so he does something about it - bringing the man back to life and "giving him to his mother." Such actions show Jesus' incredible devotion to meet people in their darkest hours. 

These actions are the "feet" of his life mission: "to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted" - Luke 4.18-9 from Isaiah 61.1-2, 58.6

Elijah and the Widow from Zarepath

The other members of the funeral, noticing the similarity between this action and the great prophet Elijah, who also raised the only son of a widow in 1 King 17, "glorify God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God had looked favorably on his people!"

Jesus' was all about actions that restored a broken world. About bringing heaven to earth. What else is a miracle other than a testimony of how things are supposed to be? 

As we enter a season that commemorates the birth of Jesus, how are you bringing "feet" to your life mission? How are you partnering with God in tangible ways to restore this broken world?

Worth Dying For

The book of Acts tells the story of the early church as the message of Jesus travels from "Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth." 

In chapter 5, Peter and the rest of Jesus' closest followers, are stirring up trouble. They are living out Jesus message, bringing the good news of God to people by preaching and healing hundreds in Jerusalem. 

Things were going well, but word gets around to the same crew that had Jesus killed a couple months earlier and sure enough Peter and his buddies get thrown in jail. 

Herod's Temple, where our story takes place.

But they didn't stay locked up for long. During their first night, God opens the prison doors and instructs them to get back to the business of telling people how Jesus was the climax to Israel's history. How he had carried out his promise to bless the whole world through Israel (Gen 12). 

The next morning the religious leaders call for Peter and the crew to be brought to trial but they weren't in their cells. At that same moment, someone glances out into the Temple square and says, "Look! There are those guys you put into prison!" 

Infuriated, the Temple leaders round up the crew and put plans in motion to have them killed. But a wise leader named Gamaliel, who was respected by all, stands up, has the accused put outside and addresses his fellow leaders: 

Gamaliel addressing the council

"Fellas, consider carefully what you are going to do with these guys. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about 400 followed him; but he was killed and the whole movement died.

After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

So this time, don't over react. Let the chips fall where they may. If what is going on is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, nothing you do will stop them."

Gamaliel's wisdom saves the lives of Peter and crew, and although the council told them to stop talking about Jesus, they didn't heed the command for a minute. 

Jewish historian, Josephus

But a careful read will reveal problems with Gamaliel's speech. According to Josephus (Ant 20.97-98), Theudas raised his revolt in AD 44-46, a number of years after Gamaliel's speech. Furthermore, Judas the Galilean, was active about 40 years before Theudas. 

But such discrepancies are normal in the Bible and should not cause us any alarm. As with the other discrepancies, those here do not affect the overall message of the text. 

That is of course unless we come to the text wanting something it does not offer. Acts does not objectively report its events - it is history infused with meaning. To view the Bible as a mere history text is to have an incomplete view of Scripture.

Acts is about the message of God's redemptive plan for all of humanity, being spread by a group of people who felt they were a part of something worth dying for. 

Do you feel a part of something greater than yourself? Are you connected to a movement whose message is worth dying for?

A Question For You

A simple yet profound post for today:

I'll let the image speak for itself.

8 Nights & 8 Lights

Hanukkah has started. Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jew Reggae artist, has a pop video out about the celebration. It's quite catchy but a very goofy video:

Hanukkah commemorates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after it was defiled by Antiochus IV (Grape guy in video) in 167 BC.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Israel ceased to control the promised land, but experienced relative peace and prosperity under her new landlords: first with Alexander the Great (332-323) and then under the Ptolemies (333-198).  

As Greek philosophy and language were mixing with the Semitic cultures, a process known as Hellenism, Judaism struggled to figure out if the two cultures could co-exist.  The issue was mainly divided among the upper classes who embraced Hellenism and the middle and lower classes who resisted.

Alexander knew that assimilation was key to controlling such a vast empire.

All of this would come to a head when the Seleucid ruler Antiohcus IV, who inherited Alexander's empire in Mesopotamia and Syria, took control of Judea and began to force Jewish assimilation. He saw the distinct identity of the Jews as a potential problem and so he plundered the Temple and outlawed religious practices.

His plan backfired on him and lead to the first Jewish war of independence, a story told in the wonderful book of 1 Maccabees. When the Jews recaptured the Temple and were in the process of rededicating it, they only had enough oil to fuel the Eternal Flame (cf. Leviticus 6.13),  a candle representing the presence of Yahweh among his people, for one day.

A Menorah, in D.C. The middle light, called the shamash, is used to light the others.

But miraculously the oil lasted 8 days, just enough time for new oil to be pressed and consecrated. The Jews ended up gaining their independence and ruled Judea autonomously until 63, when the Romans took over.

Hanukkah is a wonderful holiday, rich with meaning and intrinsically tied to the Christian faith. It commemorates a definitive moment of God's saving activity in the world and one all Christians should be aware of. 

Re-Contextualizing Love

Exodus tells the story of Yahweh's liberation of his people. He brings them out of slavery in Egypt and gives them a list of laws they are to follow, which radically changed the way people in the ancient world interacted with each other and their god/s.

Heston's 10 Commandments were written in Epigraphic Hebrew.

By giving his people concrete instructions about how to live and what they needed to do to ensure right standing with him, Yahweh showed he had an accessibility unmatched in the ancient pantheon. He was concerned about even the most intricate and even mundane, details of their lives.

Deuteronomy, literally the "second law," re-contextualizes the laws given to the first generation who escaped from Egpyt. The first generation had spent 40 years wandering in the desert and with the next generation about to enter their new homeland, the laws needed to be updated.

The Laws are changed as the people are about to re-enter civilization.

Take, for example, Deuteronomy 15.12-18, which insists that the same laws should apply to both male and female slaves and also details the extra care to be taken when a slave is set free. Contrast this to Ex 21.2-11.

Ways of cooking the passover lamb even changed. Ex 12.8-9 says, "they shall eat it roasted over the fire" and "do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water." While in Deut 16.7, the Hebrew states, "You shall boil it."

I prefer roasted.

Chronicles, written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, records King Josiah's Passover celebration (2 Chron 35.13),  and adds a brilliant twist: "They boiled the passover lamb with fire according to the ordinance" - combining the instructions from Exodus and Deuteronomy.

These texts illustrate the incredible providence of God as he shows concern for every detail of our lives. He is interested in caring for all our needs (cf. Mt 7.11). This is the unchanging principle.

What does change is the application of the principle. If the laws had to be rethought after only 40 years, how much more are we, who live thousands of years after the Bible was penned, to rethink them for ourselves? 

This of course has happened. Christians have decided that most of the laws found in the Hebrew Bible are no longer to be strictly applied. But what about ways of running the church? Or male and female relationships? Or women's roles in ministry? 

God's love is to touch every area of our lives and because of this, we are charged by God, by the very nature of how the Bible teaches us to relate to him, to re-contextualize that love so that it is most powerfully experienced in our times.

The Unveiling Part III

Revelation, a letter meant to bring hope to persecuted Christians, uses vivid images, laden with symbolism, to convey the message that God is in control. A daunting task in a world where the Christian God seemed anything but in control. 

Many wondered: Was Jesus alive? Was God and not Caesar, really in control? Revelation shouts an emphatic "YES!" to both. The author, named John, writes: 

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come...and Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. 1.4-5

John challenges what Pausanias writes, "Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus will be." 

John then tells us he was in prison "because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" when he heard a "voice like a trumpet" urging him to write down all he sees and pass the message on. 1.9-11

He continues:

on turning I saw one like a son of man (a human)...his eyes were like a flame of fire...and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 1.12-15

The imagery is stunning and then John illustrates the true grandeur of what he sees:

In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force! 1.16

John sees Jesus, not the Jewish peasant, but the transcendent ruler of the cosmos,  who holds the stars in his hand and whose face is as bright as the noon day sun. Who was killed, but is now alive and controls all things. 1.17-8

The sword, his only weapon, represents the word of God (Is 49.2) and illustrates the power of "testimony" - that words and the ideas behind them, are mightier than any weapon.

This image of Christ was so important to the early Christians, for it helped them remain faithful to the proclamation that Jesus is Lord.

As we read the letter of Revelation, questions about what competes for our allegiance become paramount.

Do we cave to societal pressure and engage in activities that are contrary to the fundamental tenants of our faith: Loving God, and loving people, even our enemies? Of treating all humans as the divine image bearers they are? Do we fight for justice and liberation from both societal as well as individual evils?

These are the ideas behind the claim that Jesus is Lord and Revelation asks us, "How far are you willing to go for this proclamation?"

The Unveiling Part II

The Greek title for Revelation is Apokalupsis, Apocalypse, which literally means "the unveiling." The idea being that the readers of Revelation would have the "veil" pulled off their eyes and be presented with the actual picture of reality.

The letter, with all of its amazing imagery, showed the reader that things were not as they seemed and although it may not look like it, God, not Caesar, was actually the one in control of history. That "Jesus Christ was the ruler of the kings of the earth" (Rev 1.5).

A Christian Dirce by Siemiradzki - a Christian woman martyred under Nero.

At the heart of Revelation is a message aimed at bolstering perseverance in the face of adversity and as I wrote yesterday, the original readers were experiencing adversity.

Here's how the text conveys that message:

Revelation 1.3 reads "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it; for the time is near."

When a letter reached a community in the ancient world, the community would gather and listen to the letter read out loud.

So it's Brando and he's not reading, but you get the idea!

This is how the letter of Revelation was received by its original communities - a fact that dramatically affects how the book is to be understood. The first readers, the majority of which were actually "hearers", wouldn't have had the opportunity to sit and investigate every line of the letter.

Instead, the hearer-reader would have listened to the letter from start to finish and allowed the vivid imagery to overwhelm him/her. In this way the hearer-reader could not help but be immersed in the powerful message that God was in control and would one day make all things right (Rev 21.3-5).

And although the images are quite unfamiliar to the modern reader, they weren't to the original audience. Of the 404 verses in the letter of Revelation, 278 of them contain either an allusion to or a quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures.

The original hearer-readers had no problem understanding the powerfully symbolic language, nor any problem knowing what to do with it.

In this way, Revelation functions much like the modern day movie trailer:

The trailer, through its powerful images, intense music, and emotional subject matter, serves only one purpose: to convince the audience to see the movie.

Revelation's powerful images, intense scenarios, and incredible picture of hope for those who trust God, serve only one purpose as well: to infuse life into the most desperate of circumstances.

Keep this in mind the next time you crack open the letter of Revelation. Read it letting the images overwhelm you and use its message of hope and its challenge to live as if God is really in control, to guide you through your life.

For an excellent resource for your journey through the letter, see Eugene Boring's commentary that is the farthest from his namesake.

The Unveiling Part I

The letter of Revelation, written during the reign of the brutal Roman emperor Domitian (ruled AD 81-96), addressed an audience who wondered if being a Christian was worth the cost. General resentment towards Christians had started about 30 years earlier when Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome.

The Great Fire of Rome, AD 64

The Roman historian Tacitus (AD 56-117) tells us:

In accordance, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not as much of the crime of firing the city as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. (Annals, 15.44)

The Torches of Nero by Siemiradski, 1876. Look closely as Christians are the torches.

It was unclear whether the Christians "pleaded guilty" to arson or simply to being Christian. None-the-less they were severely punished and as Tacitus notes, not so much for the crime, but for "hatred against mankind." Christians objected to many elements of Roman culture and this caused them to be viewed in this way. 

In AD 70 the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. This was the second destruction of the Temple, the first being in 586 BC by the Babylonians. This event forever changed the face of Judaism and its relationship to the sacrificial system.

The Arch of Titus - carrying away the spoils from the Temple.

Then in AD 79 Mount Vesuvius erupted, blacking out the sky for hundreds of miles and burying Pompeii. 

Mt Vesuvius as seen from the ruins of Pompeii

Times were turbulent and to make matters worse, Domitian, who thought of himself as divine, began enforcing emperor worship. When he appeared in public he would urge the crowds to shout:

All hail to our Lord (kurios, which is the same word used for Jesus in the NT) and to his Lady!

Domitian

Domitian put police in place to enforce his veneration and those who did not comply were banished or even executed.

This is the context for Revelation. The recipients of the letter were feeling pressure to assimilate with the Roman culture, as being a Christian was beginning to cost them convenience, social status, and even their lives. 

They needed to hear that God was in control and proclaim that Kurios Christos, Christ is Lord, and not Kurios Kaisaros, Caesar is Lord, even in the face of death.

Revelation is one of the most misinterpreted texts in the Bible -  which is a shame because such interpretations miss out on how incredibly practical the letter is. 

Check back tomorrow for more on Revelation.