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Week 17 Isaiah

Halfway through his book Isaiah launches into the story of the Assyrian threat against Jerusalem.
The Assyrians began with a bit of Bronze Age psychological warfare – a long public address telling Judah why they should surrender. The Rabshakeh offered several reasons-to-give-up. His last one was: don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying ‘the Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim?…What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? Name just one!
His argument was…
a) states depend on their gods for protection
b) Assyria had conquered every state
c) Assyria had therefore bested the local gods, and
d) the Jerusalem-god would fail too.
If he had quit after point (c) the Rabshakeh would have been on safe historical ground. But he went on to predict that what happened before would happen again.
Hezekiah thought it was a convincing speech. He was petrified.
Isaiah was less impressed. He told Hezekiah: do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me (i.e. against the Lord).
The big difference between Hezekiah and Isaiah was that Hezekiah was worried that something that wasn’t necessarily true was. By contrast Isaiah stood outside propaganda’s borders. Out where you don’t get to call a lie the truth.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 36:18-20 & 37:6 (NLT)

Week 17 Isaiah

“Though the Lord is very great and lives in heaven, he will make Jerusalem his home of justice and righteousness. In that day he will be your sure foundation, providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge” – those are Isaiah’s words and then he says that residents of Zion are people:
Who are honest and fair
Who reject making a profit by fraud
Who stay far away from bribes
Who refuse to listen to those who plot murder
Who shut their eyes to all enticements to do wrong.
These people sound like contestants for the Citizen of the Year Award – honest upstanding law-abiding people.
But there’s a key difference between garden-variety good citizens in – let’s say – Medicine Hat and good citizens in Zion. Isaiah says that Zion’s a place of good citizens and it’s also: a place of worship and celebration…(where) the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king.
So Isaiah distinguishes between normal Good Citizens and Zion-quality Good Citizens. The first are good citizens who are good citizens because (a) being a good citizen is good, and (b) being a good citizen is preferable to being a bad citizen. The second are good citizens who are good citizens because (a) being a good citizen is good, (b) being a good citizen is preferable to being a bad citizen, and (c) the Lord is their judge, their lawgiver, and their king.
Almost the same but different.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 33:5-6, 15 & 20-22 (NLT).

Week 16 Isaiah

Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of four kings of Judah – Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah – so he spent a lot of his book talking to or about the reigns of those four.
But there’s a section of the book – taking up maybe 14% of the total – where Isaiah makes prophecies about other states in the region: Babylon Assyria Philistia Moab Damascus Ethiopia Egypt Edom Arabia & Tyre. Eleven chapters of international predictions.
When I started reading chapter nineteen I wasn’t too surprised to see that a lot of gloom-and-doom things would be showing up on Egypt’s horizon: fear civil-war confusion military-conquest economic-collapse delusion helplessness oppression.
But then I was surprised: in that day the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians…The Lord will strike Egypt in a way that will bring healing. For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas and heal them.
I wondered when that would happen. Egypt was the traditional enemy of Israel and lots of times in the OT Egypt is code for Bad-Guys. But Isaiah predicted that at some future time the Lord would embrace Egypt.
Reading-through the OT I routinely get a strong sense of Israel-centrism. So this forecast about Egypt turning to the Lord is a nice example of inclusion in what usually seems like an exclusive text.

Note: quote from Isaiah 19:21-22 (NLT)

Week 16 Psalm 101

My main goal in reading-through is to read all 1189 chapters of the bible by the end of the year. That doesn’t mean my main goal is my only goal. Secondary goals are legitimate. And one secondary goal is the pretty personal one of ferreting-out guidelines that help me understand myself and live my life. [Obviously an easier way to understand myself and live my life would be to just absorb the standard 21st-century southern-Alberta cultural norms for self-understanding and life-living. But the one downside there is that I’d have to assume our contemporary Alberta standards are definitive.]
Anyway I was reading Psalm 101. I saw that David had listed about fifteen Intentionality Goals. A few of them sounded like guidelines for political rulers – not so interesting for me. But others sound like guidelines for anyone looking for pretty practical directions for self-understanding and life-living.
I will be careful to live a blameless life
I will lead a life of integrity in my own home
I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar
I will reject perverse ideas
I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors
I will not endure conceit and pride
When I look at the list I don’t exactly feel giddy with excitement – even though I am looking for reliable pointers for living my life. But I don’t guess the writer was writing to promote my happy feelings. And maybe happy’s not a necessary requirement for life-living.

Note: quotes from Psalm 101:2-5 (NLT)

Week 16 Isaiah

Adjectives are a big help when you’re reading through.
I got this reminder in chapter ten when Isaiah tells Israel that they’re going to get clobbered by Assyria!
Isaiah says: the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has already decided to consume (Israel) (another version says destroy). So the Lord had decided to destroy Israel and that plan would happen soon enough. It’s an unhappy forecast and Isaiah’s graphic death-and-destruction language make a lot of his prophesies hard to digest.
I know what the word destroy means and on the surface I tend to dislike what the Lord plans to do here. So that’s why it’s a bit of a relief that verse twenty-two tips me off that destruction isn’t just anything I think or want it to be.
Isaiah says the destruction he’s talking about here is a fairly specific class of destruction. He calls it destruction that’s: overflowing with righteousness.
So…righteous destruction – a helpful adjective for a word that needs help. I’m not left with figure-it-out-for-yourself destruction. Isaiah says that the Lord’s destructive capacity isn’t just a free-wheeling random destructiveness. It’s not wanton unthinking casual aimless remorseless mindless angry unreflective detached destructiveness. It’s a pretty specific kind of destruction.
Of the different categories of destruction in the world this one is in the righteous class of destructions. Good and necessary destruction.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 10:23, 22 (NLT & NASB)

Week 16 2 Kings

I finished reading Kings yesterday which means I’ve spent about five weeks in the Samuels and the Kings.
The stories were good right up until the end of the Elisha section. Then the last fifteen chapters of 2 Kings bogged me down a bit. It’s the account of the two kingdoms told in parallel – first the one king and then the other, back-and-forth, interweaving the events, giving barebones data about when the king came to power, his age, length of reign, some character description, his death and burial.
For some reason the thought of starting in on Chronicles today seemed too weighty so I’ve decided not to keep reading in bible order.
[I’m telling myself I just want a bit of a change. The reason why I want a bit of a change might be something worth asking but I’m not asking it. The main thing is that I’m going to keep reading. Which book is less of a concern.]
Anyway I’ve decided to jump to Isaiah. I most likely chose Isaiah because near the end of 2 Kings his name showed up a few times. He fits right into the 2 Kings timeline. His story coincides with four kings of Judah – Uzziah Jotham Ahaz & Hezekiah.
So today I started reading Isaiah. If I read three chapters-a-day I’ll be reading Isaiah until May 10 – about three weeks. So I’ll try to speed up a bit and finish by May 1.

Week 16 2 Kings

There’s a nice bible-reader’s story near the end of the book.
It’s about Josiah – one of Judah’s best kings and a bit like David. When he was a young king he started to renovate the temple. During that clean-up a priest found the Book of the Law. [It’s pretty hard to imagine how it got lost in the first place since it was supposed to be the foundational text of the Jewish religion.]
Anyway a scribe read the book to the king and: when (Josiah) heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair – which meant he was upset fearful distraught anxious disconcerted and like that. It was obvious that contemporary religious practices didn’t line up with the Book and Josiah concluded: the Lord’s anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll.
So he adopted the Book of the Law as his new Procedures Manual. He did two things: a) he got rid of religious practices not prescribed in the book, and b) he reinstituted things that were in it. Josiah’s religious revamp was summed up this way: he did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scrolls that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s temple.
Josiah reminded me that the Book is best used as an Assessment Evaluation & Operations Guide.
Otherwise it’s basically just a lost book.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 22: 11, 13 & 23:24 (NLT)

 

Week 15 2 Kings

After his stunning & miraculous healing from leprosy Naaman offered Elisha a big cash reward but then got his second surprise of the day when Elisha told him: as surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.
Standing there listening Gehazi was surprised too and figured Elisha was crazy to refuse the money: my master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him. So Gehazi chased down Naaman and got the reward.
Even though Gehazi lied to Elisha his master knew what was going on. Elisha asked him: is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants?
It’s an interesting question: is this the time to receive money?
If Gehazi was a modern-day Albertan he would say yes (anytime is a good time).
But the answer to Elisha’s question was no. Now isn’t the time to receive money.
So I’m left wondering what all determines the timing of monetary acquisition.
I heard about a business major who inexplicably left Alberta to help in a small church in a country in southeast Asia. And I figure it’s a pretty safe bet to say that at some point this guy asked himself Elisha’s question: is this the right time for me to be making money?

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 5:16, 20, 26 (NLT).

Week 15 2 Kings

I got to the story of Naaman today so I was looking forward to the chapter.
But before I’m past the intro I’m already onto a mental sidetrack. It said: the king of Aram had high admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories.
That last phrase doesn’t sound quite right and I guess the reason is because Israel is supposed to be the star of the bible’s story. For the last three-hundred chapters or so I’ve been focused on Israel. Which is okay. But I have to remember not to catch Israelite Tunnel-Vision.
And for that Naaman is a good reminder. Naaman was an Aramean. Arameans were national enemies of Israel. Aramean marauders captured Israelites. Naaman had his own Israelite slave girl. Arameans were bad guys. And then I also read: through (Naaman) the Lord had given Aram great victories. Naaman – an outsider & enemy – got military assistance from the Lord.
So – even if I am – the Lord isn’t suffering from national-tunnel-vision. He’s operating on an international scale. He might key in on Israel…but he’s Master of the whole world.
I look at a map of the bible world: Egypt Libya Ethiopia Syria the Hittites the Hurrians Assyria Babylon Medo-Persia; later there’s Greece Rome; off the map there’s Japan India China Peru & eventually even Alberta.
The Lord’s seriously engaged in all of them.

Note: quote from 1 Kings 5:1 (NLT)

Week 14 Psalm 90

I’m reading along through Moses’ psalm in the normal bible-reader’s way and I realize – since I’m a human being – that it isn’t doing much to jack up my ego.
Moses – talking about what the Lord does – says: you turn people back to dust…You sweep people away like dreams that disappear or like grass that springs up in the morning…but by evening it is dry and withered.
Moses – talking about the short time that I have here on earth – says: even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble.
So I get the not-too-elevating notice that I’m roughly comparable to dust. To a dream. To prairie grass growing along the coulee. Plus my time is running out.
It leaves me feeling light-weight…like there’s a fluffy airy feathery foamy buoyant vapouriousness to me. I just have dust-mote consequentiality as I phantom my way through life.
I slow down in that middle section of the psalm. I don’t feel too great about what it says but realize that everything that can be said about something can’t be said in a couple of verses. There’s other things to be added…but not right here. So that’s a bit of a relief because it means even if my life is only dream-light that’s not the whole picture.
There’s more to me than psalm 90. Which isn’t saying 90 isn’t accurate.
It’s totally accurate in what it says without saying everything there is to say.

Note: quotes from Psalm 90:3-6 & 10 (NLT)