Month: June 2021

Week 23 Jeremiah

Chapter fifteen is ominous. The Lord said that even if two stellar characters like Moses & Samuel begged him to cut Judah slack he wouldn’t do it. The only thing that Judah could expect (actually there were four things) was Death War Famine & Captivity (and the next verse piles on a follow-up Quartet of Destroyers). It’s pretty grim.
As I’m reading along I’m kind of lulled into a dark reverie where I don’t bother thinking much about what’s behind the Death-War-Famine-Captivity (best guess is idolatry disobedience injustice and like that). So I’m jolted when I read why: because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
Manasseh! I posted on Manasseh last month when I was reading 2 Chronicles. He was an outrageously terrible king. One of the worst. But then that maybe-most-despicable king repented. And he was forgiven.
I go back and reread the story. Manasseh was humbled. He called out to the Lord. The Lord heard him forgave him restored him saved him.
Looked like everything was good.
But now I see that everything wasn’t good.
I don’t exactly understand the inner workings of the system but Manasseh had been instrumental in importing a bunch of the worst possible evils into Judah. And unfortunately his repentance didn’t make the effects magically disappear.
Manasseh was forgiven but his evils hung around. Now compensation was required.

Note: quote from Jeremiah 15:4 (NLT). Manasseh’s story is in 2 Chronicles 33.

Week 23 Proverbs

I noticed it in chapter seven where a guy is willingly seduced sexually by an energized woman – the thing about the way. The story starts when the eyes-wide-open guy: takes the way to her house (where I guess he got his racy & tantalizing sexual experience). At first I was thinking about the issue of Pre-Sexual-Activity Decision-Making. But then Solomon goes on to say that the guy discovers – or will discover – that the woman’s place is just a whistle-stop on a longer trip. In reality: her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.
So then it occurred to me that even though Solomon  was talking about an erotic adventure that wasn’t all he was talking about.  He was thinking about things that take me along the-way-that-leads-to-the-grave.
I got out a wordbook and looked up the word way. Most of the references in Proverbs 1-9 fall into either Way #1 or Way #2. Way #1 is the way of evil the way of evil men the way of the wicked the way to Sheol and the evil way. Way #2: the way of the good person the way of wisdom the way of life the way of righteousness the way of understanding.
Proverbs – at the simplest level – is recommending Way #2 as its preferred option.
So as enigmatic & indecipherable as Solomon might get at some points, here at the front end he’s presenting me with a pretty basic choice.

Note: quotes from Proverbs 7:8 & 27. References to Way #1 – 2:12, 4:14, 4:19, 7:27, 8:13, & Way #2 – 2:20, 4:11, 6:23, 8:20, 9:6 (NASB)

Week 23 Jeremiah

Jeremiah begins his book with the account of how the Lord gave him his assignment as a prophet. There were two things I noticed.
The first was that there was a Pre-Life Element to Jeremiah’s story that he wasn’t likely aware of. Something earlier was going on. The Lord told him: I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world. So…that’s pretty interesting since my guess is that most modern people don’t much buy into the idea of pre-conception goings-on (unless they belong to, say maybe an eastern religion that does believe there are pre-conception goings-on). But the Lord tells Jeremiah that his Material-World Day One was not the point when things got rolling. They were rolling quite a bit before his birth day.
The other thing is that the Lord told Jeremiah: you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and take care of you. Since I was reading 2 Chronicles a couple of weeks ago I remember what happened to Jeremiah. He didn’t exactly have a fun-filled & carefree life with no opposition antagonism ill-treatment disrespect and like that. So when I see the Lord saying this thing about I-will- be-with-you-and-take-care-of-you I won’t be translating that as meaning a week in Hawaii.

Note: quotes from Jeremiah 1:5 & 7-8 (NLT)

Week 22 Proverbs

A couple of days ago I was reading the introduction to Proverbs and I wanted to get clarification on the word discipline so I looked at another version of the bible.
One version used the word discipline and the other said instruction. A third version also said discipline (so I wondered if I could use a Majority-Rules rule to break the tie).
I also saw that one version said equity but the other two said fair.
One said clever. The others prudence.
One said purpose. Two: discretion.
But then I saw that all three agreed that: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
None of them thought up an alternate word for fear. I looked up fear in an old paperback thesaurus and saw things like bad-feeling fright danger anxiety apprehension dread panic. Like that. None of which sound so great.
I’m concerned about fear and I’ve noticed that sometimes my bible has a marginal substitute: revere. Revere adds something to fear. Which is good because I figure there’s something different about fearing the Lord than, say, being terrified by a zombie.
I checked a word book. Fear was used at least 400 times in the OT. More than a hundred of those were about fearing the Lord.
I need to think more about fear. Solomon says that fearing the Lord is a prerequisite to knowledge. Mandatory Step One.
Start with fear…then move on from there.

Note: quote from Proverbs 1:7 (NLT NIV & NASB)

Week 22 Proverbs

I finished reading Nehemiah yesterday. Near the end of the second-last chapter I saw this: for in the days of David and Asaph, in ancient times, there were leaders of the singers, songs of praise and hymns of thanksgiving to God
The reason I mention it is because while I was reading that exact verse I had one of those weird & sudden & unsettling out-of-the-blue questions flash into my mind. It was: why in the world am I reading this book because the whole exercise seems like such a pointless and stupid waste?
The question doesn’t come up too often. Occasionally it just kind of drifts out like a puff of smoke seeping through a crack in the ground from a sulfurous subterranean cave. It’s a here-then-gone question. But it smacks me with a powerful emotional Whap! A disregardable question that’s tough to disregard.
Anyway I started reading Proverbs this morning and in a nice follow-up coincidence Solomon starts out by giving a pretty good answer to my question: why in the world am I reading this because it seems like such a pointless and stupid exercise?
Solomon says: the purpose of these proverbs is to teach people wisdom and discipline, and to help them understand wise sayings. Through these proverbs, people will receive instruction in discipline, good conduct, and doing what is right, just, and fair.
None of which sound pointless and stupid.

Note: quotes from Nehemiah 12:46 (NASB) & Proverbs 1:2-3 (NLT)