Month: August 2022

Week 35  Ecclesiastes

I finished reading Ecclesiastes today and one of the verses near the end said: you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.
If someone asked “why-read-the-bible?” one answer would be: to learn things about the Lord. So having Ecclesiastes say that I don’t know the Lord’s activity could mean a) that there’s no point trying to find out about the Lord by reading the OT or else b) something that seems clear on the surface maybe isn’t so clear unless I scratch into the subsurface.
I’ll stick with b) for now. A simple modification of the phrase you do not know the activity of God could be you do not comprehensively know the activity of God. That makes sense since I notice the writer says a bit later: know that God will bring you to judgment. The Lord judging me is one of his activities. Which means I do know one of his activities. Therefore you do not know the activity of God doesn’t mean that I know absolutely nothing about his activity.
I don’t figure the writer is telling me something that’s incorrect – maybe he figures I shouldn’t need to be spoon-fed every single thing.
Anyway I’m relieved that I do know some things. But I’m less relieved that I don’t know very much.

Note: quotes from Ecclesiastes 11:5 9 (NASB). Month-end reading report: 77% completed; 75% of the year gone.

Week 35  Ecclesiastes

A couple of days ago I started reading Ecclesiastes. Then yesterday I realized I’d already read it back in June-July. So…to read or not to read? Since my reading is on-track I’ll reread. I’ll start Matthew on September 1.
Reading Ecclesiastes again isn’t a bad idea since it’s a thorny book to read. For example today I read that: it is the same for all people. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked…As the good person is, so is the sinner…This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all people. Another version says ‘one destiny’ in place of ‘one fate’.
The problem with the paragraph is that it sounds like it doesn’t make any difference if I’m good or bad since good people and bad people have the same fate. The way I live my life has no effect on my destiny. Which seems like a bible anomaly.
Anyway as I kept reading I saw this: anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better than a dead lion. It occurred to me that maybe that’s the one fate we share – we all end up dead. Of course I can’t say for sure that death is the Common Fate. But for now it’s a relief to discover an alternate way to think about a problematic bit of text.

Note: quotes from Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 4 (NASB & NIV)

Week 35  Malachi 4

The second-last verse of the OT says this: I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
I notice that Malachi says that Elijah is going to return to earth. Even though this sounds like Elijah is going to return to earth I’ve read the NT and I know where this is going and I check the marginal reference to the gospel of Matthew where the Lord tells his disciples that Elijah had already come back and that their own John-the-Baptist was in reality Malachi’s Elijah. So when Malachi said Elijah would come he didn’t mean that Elijah would come back in person but that someone a lot like Elijah would come back (i.e. John).
Another thing I notice is that Elijah-John would bring in not only the great but also the terrible day of the Lord. When I think about the day of the Lord words like great wonderful fantastic grand notable profound intense unsurpassed superior come to mind. But Malachi added that it would be terrible too. Not bad terrible. Maybe more like frightening alarming awesome shocking intimidating fearsome stupendous & full-of-dread terrible. Like that. Both-And.
Anyway I leave the OT prophets with reader’s reminders like: Don’t relax! Keep Thinking! Read With Care!

Note: quote from Malachi 4:5 (NLT) and see Matthew 17:10-13. Added note: I finished Malachi today but not the OT. Since I skipped Ecclesiastes back in June I’ll be reading it between now and the 31st.

 

Week 34  Habakkuk 2

The Habakkuk Backstory: Babylon was becoming a world-power. Maturing into Empire Building Adulthood. Starting to stomp weak countries with imperial boots. Worst of all Babylon was going to crush Israel.
The Lord said two things to Habakkuk that caught my attention.
The first one was how prophetic communication worked. The Lord told Habakkuk to: write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. So in Habakkuk’s case the Lord spoke in a vision. Then Habakkuk wrote the message down. Then he gave it to a speaker who publicized the message orally. So that was the process in Habakkuk’s case.
The second more important thing was that the Lord also said: the things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. This gives me a heads-up about one of the recurring concerns with prophetic communication. Timing.
I think back to Moses giving Pharaoh the plague forecasts. Pharaoh didn’t have to wait long. A day or so. They happened very quickly. But lots of times people have to wait-and-see. Personally I think one of the huge downsides  with prophecy is the wait time.
There are two different ways to manage wait time – a) frustrated-and-impatient waiting and b) patient-self-controlled waiting. Prophetic content pretty much requires b).

Note: quotes from Habakkuk 2:2 & 3 (NIV)

Week 33  Joel & Jonah

A couple of days after reading Joel I read Jonah.
I like the story. Despite doing exactly the opposite of what the Lord told him to do Jonah finally got to Nineveh and preached to them. The king issued a decree: let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger.
This sounded very familiar to me and I flipped back a few pages. Joel had said: return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.
Who knows is an interesting question. It’s about action that’s taken…but that action has an uncertain outcome.
The action was to call urgently on God (Jonah) and to return to the Lord your God (Joel). The action was based on a couple of known qualities about the Lord: he may relent and with compassion turn (Jonah) and he may turn and have pity (Joel).
Action: turn to the Lord.
Outcome: the Lord might relent. Maybe. Who knows for sure?
On balance I figure the Lord will probably relent nine times out of ten since it takes real effort for someone to get to the Point of No Return. But in Joel & Jonah some uncertainty remained.

Note: quotes from Jonah 3:8-9 Joel 2:13-14 (NIV)

Week 33  Obadiah

A verse in Obadiah is already underlined in my bible: the day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. I underline the second phrase again: as you have done, it will be done to you.
It seems to me like an important thing to keep in mind. I’ve seen it before:
Joshua asks Achan: why have you brought this disaster on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you today
Adoni-bezek: now God has paid me back for what I did
David to Shimei: now the Lord will repay you for your wrongdoing
Nehemiah prays: remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for this people
Haman’s scheme: came back on his own head
David about an evil person: the trouble he causes recoils on himself.
There’s quite a few like that.
As you have done, it will be done to you sounds to me like a rock-solid principle that operates everywhere and always. Which means it applies to me too: as I have done, it will be done to me.
I move through my life accumulating all my behaviours. Most of them might disappear from my memory but none of them get disconnected from their own repercussions.

Note: quotes from Obadiah 15 Joshua 7:25 Judges 1:7 I Kings 2:44 Nehemiah 5:19 Esther 9:25 Psalm 7:16 Proverbs (NIV)

 

Week 33  Joel 2

I’ve been reading the prophets for a month-and-a-half now so I’ve gradually shifted into a mental zone where I’m expecting quite a bit of gloom-and-doom.
Reading Joel today I wondered what “quite a bit” converted to in numerical terms so I decided to count verses.
There’s 73-verses in the book and I decided I’d do a simple two-part contrast: Dark Forecasts vs. Non-Dark Forecasts. I recorded them by putting a penciled dot beside Dark Forecast verses.
The number I had in my head before reading – it was a pure guess – was that Joel would have maybe 80% Dark Forecasts.
In the first 31-verses I dotted 27 verses: ~87%!
But then partway through chapter 2 Joel said (quoting the Lord): even now…return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. And then Joel added: return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.
From that point on I wasn’t adding many dots. Almost the whole rest of the book was Non-Dark (my final Dark tally dropped to 42%).
Anyway…all that aside I thought about Joel’s pretty good question: who knows?
One of the tricky things with prophetic forecasts is that even though they sound very definite there sometimes seems to be an open-endedness to them too. Dependably predictable. But not absolutely predictable.

Note: quotes from Joel 2:12 13-14 (NIV)

Week 33  Daniel 9 & 10

Prayer #1:
In chapter 9 Daniel prays a serious prayer: I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I wore rough sackcloth and sprinkled myself with ashes.
The chapter records that sixteen-verse prayer…and then this happens: as I was praying, Gabriel…came swiftly to me…He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. I am here to tell you what it was”.
Prayer #2:
Daniel had a slightly different experience in the next chapter. Just like before it was a serious prayer: I, Daniel, had been mourning for three weeks. All that time I had eaten no rich food or meat, had drunk no wine, and had used no fragrant oils.
Eventually a man (who was in reality more-than-a-man) appeared: don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself…your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer.
Prayer #1 Response Time: swiftly.
Prayer #2 Response Time: twenty-one days.
In both cases Daniel prayed and the prayer was registered/received – from the look of it – right away. But the response times were different.
Even though Daniel’s prayers arrived instantly he found out that he had to expect and manage shorter and longer feedback wait times.

Note: quotes from Daniel 9:3 21-22 & 10:2-3 12 (NLT)

Week 32  Daniel 2

Daniel’s prayer told me several things about the Lord:
He alone has wisdom and power
He determines the course of world events
He removes kings and sets others on the throne
He gives wisdom to the wise…
He reveals deep and mysterious things
(He) knows what lies hidden in darkness
Though he himself is surrounded by light.
While I’m reading through I usually look for things that the bible says about the Lord – and Daniel’s prayer told me seven or eight.
But one caught my attention: the Lord determines the course of world events.
That’s what it says. And I sat wondering what it meant.
If the Lord determined every single action to the point where no individual in reality actually decided anything independently then that would be Total Determination. It’s possible that if every single action was totally determined then I maybe wouldn’t know about it but either way if Total Determination’s the rule it’s a pretty theoretical one.
I’m more interested in practical day-to-day reality where I decide to do something and then it happens. In which case when the Lord determines the course of world events it makes sense that he’s managing it in an open-ended Non-Total kind of way. People in China Brazil Turkey Canada Russia make decisions that push world events in one direction…and different decisions would push them in another direction. But while all that’s happening the Lord makes overall determinations. He’s a Determination Coordinator.

Note: quote from Daniel 2:20-23 (NLT)

Week 32  Ezekiel 40

The last big section of Ezekiel is about Ezekiel’s vision of a Temple. A bible reader might think it’s tedious reading but – for me – it’s tedious in an interesting way. There are quite a few exact measurements of the structure and detailed descriptions of the floor plan & decorative elements & furnishings. If I’m trying to mentally reconstruct the temple it’s easy to get lost. But I’m not really aiming at an architectural replica.
Last year I wrote that “Ezekiel’s Vision-Temple was never built (that I know about) and whether it’s a future building-project waiting-to-happen is debatable.” And I was thinking about that same thing this year.
There’s at least two ways to think about Ezekiel’s Temple. The first is that it was a building that Ezekiel was shown in a visionary experience and he was toured around the facility and given specific measurements. And the plan was that that building would eventually be built. That’s one way to see it.
The other way is to see it as a vision of something fantastic to come. But not a real live temple like the one Ezekiel saw in his vision.
Two ways: a temple-in-a-dream that was a forecast of a temple that would eventually become a temple in real life. Or else a temple-in-a-dream that would never become a real temple because it was meant to represent something temple-like but not an actual temple.

Note: see “Ezekiel’s Temple” July 13, 2021.