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Week 24 Jeremiah

I was reading chapters 34-35-36 today.
Jerusalem’s Big Bad Wolf – Nebuchadnezzar – was huffing-&-puffing at the gates and while that was going on the Lord told Jeremiah to: go to King Zedekiah of Judah and tell him… So luckily for me I’d been reading about Zedekiah approximately 28-days ago (May 21 post was the-final-four). At that point I’d decided to track the kings of the southern kingdom for Character Quality but I also decided to eliminate the last four kings because they were puppets to foreign states. Those last four ‘kings’ were: Jehoahaz-Jehoiakim-Jehoiachin-Zedekiah. I remembered Zedekiah and I knew he was the very last king (because his initial was the very last letter of the alphabet).
Anyway the point is that Jeremiah gave his message to Zedekiah – the last king – in chapter 34. So then I started reading chapter 35 and saw this: this is the message the Lord gave Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. Hmmmm…
This was a good reminder that the bible isn’t moving ahead in chronological sequence. The 66-books aren’t necessarily chronological and the book’s contents aren’t necessarily either.
That’s not really a glitch. I was reading a modern novel where the author was bouncing back-and-forth from present to past. A chapter would start with something like: Twenty years earlier.
Is writing non-chronologically a problem? I doubt it.
Is it worth keeping in mind? No reason not to.

Note: quotes from Jeremiah 34:2, 35:1 (NLT). I forget which novel – maybe a Jack Ryan story.

Week 24 Jeremiah

When I’m reading-through I usually think my job – my only job – is to read through. It’s not to do other things. Which isn’t always the easiest thing to do and I got a reminder of one of those Other Things today – prayer.
Prayer is a totally different exercise to reading-through. But it’s hard to keep the two separated because most of what I find out about prayer I find in the bible.
Jeremiah 20 is pretty much a verbatim prayer. Since I’m reading-through I can’t avoid it. And so I incidentally find out something about prayer.
It’s a Downside Prayer. Jeremiah identifies a bunch of the price-to-pay social outcomes that come with being a prophet:
Now I am mocked by everyone in the city…
These messages…have made me a household joke…
I have heard…many rumors about me…
My old friends are…waiting for a fatal slip.
By the end of the prayer Jeremiah hasn’t turned the psychic-corner – the last five verses talk about how he wished he was dead.
Jeremiah reminds me that following the Lord isn’t a cakewalk. Plus I might end up losing friends. And along with that he reminds me of a couple of things about prayer:
I can pray when things are pretty bad
My prayers might be untidy
I can pray but still end up feeling awful.

Note: quotes from Jeremiah 20:7, 8, 10 (NLT). Added note that’s not in Jeremiah but that I think is true: a poor prayer is better than no prayer.

Week 24 Jeremiah

The Lord told Jeremiah: if I announce that a certain nation…is to be uprooted…but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I planned. And if I announce that I will build up…a certain nation…making it strong and great, but then that nation turns to evil…I will not bless that nation as I said I would.
It’s a helpful bit of insight about how the system works.
The Lord sees that Nation A is evil so he plans to eliminate Nation A. If Nation A makes no adjustments it will be eliminated. But if it turns to the Lord then Nation A can sidestep annihilation.
And the reverse is true. Nation B is good. The Lord plans to back-up Nation B. But if Nation B turns around and rejects the Lord then Nation B will experience negative consequences.
This is a useful thing to keep in mind reading the prophets. The prophets give messages that are future-predictive. The Lord tells them something is going to happen. What that could mean is something is absolutely going to happen no matter what. But it could also mean something is definitely going to happen (unless something else changes).
Tracking prophecies to see if they’re qualified or unqualified would take too much time right now.
But I’ll keep in mind that not everything that sounds like it’ll definitely happen will.

Note: quote from Jeremiah 18:7-10 (NLT)

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)

Week 22 Nehemiah

If someone found out I was reading through the bible and he put me on the spot by saying he wanted a brief synopsis of the OT what would I say? Other than: Uhhhhhhh……………………?
If my mental faculties were operating anywhere near full capacity I’d be smart to refer to Nehemiah. In chapter nine there’s a thirty-three verse public prayer & review of history section that covers lots of the major topics – from Genesis 1 to the return of the exiles.
Reading nine this year the thing that really registered was how many times the Lord is mentioned as being the Major Player in Israel’s history. There are thirty-seven references to the Lord doing things all along the way. For example:
You preserve and give life
You displayed miraculous signs
You came down on Mount Sinai
You gave them bread from heaven
You helped our ancestors conquer great kingdoms
You sent them deliverers
You rescued them repeatedly
You sent your Spirit
You showered your goodness on them
Like that.
37-actions in 33-verses. What’s that? 1-action every .9-verses?
Can’t really get around it. If I want to synopsize the OT the Lord’s intervention is a big part of the synopsis.

Note: quotes from Nehemiah 9:6, 10, 13, 15, 22, 27, 28, 30, 35 (NLT). End of month reading note: I finished Nehemiah and the book of Psalms today. My reading total is 931-pages. So I’m staying ahead.

 

 

Week 21 Psalm 148

Psalm Summary: everything that’s created should praise the creator.
On the surface it sounds plausible until you read on a bit and see that the writer included in the Everything category: a) created things that actually have – as far as I can see – the capacity to praise and b) created things that – as far as I can see – lack the capacity.
I can see where an angel has the capacity to praise the Lord. But not a star. I can see that a man has the capacity to praise the Lord. But not hail. I sit wondering what I can do at this border that divides what I think I see from what I don’t.
I have no problem understanding how all created things that can think & communicate can praise the Lord. But the writer names several created things – snow and cedar trees – that cannot think or communicate but that are supposed to praise the Lord.
From my perspective I’m tempted to say definitively that a limestone cliff cannot praise the Lord. But since I don’t know every thing that there is to know maybe I should back up. Maybe a wall of limestone – that can be shown by 21st century detection-technology to be absolutely and totally inanimate and beyond any measurable capacity to communicate – is emanating some kind – a qualitatively different kind – of praise.
I’m not saying limestone hums. I’m just saying I don’t hear it.
But it’s something to keep on the back-burner.