Medicine Hat Joe

Week 24 Isaiah

Something changes in Isaiah 13 and stays changed for eleven chapters.
Something geopolitical.
I drew a rectangle on a sheet of paper, and then inside that I drew a smaller one. I wrote “ISRAEL” in the inside box and outside that I wrote “EVERYONE ELSE”.
If you’re a bible-reader you pretty much figure on spending your time in the small box alongside Abraham, the twelve tribes, Israel in the desert, Israel in the promised land, Israel the nation, Israel in captivity. Enough Israel to forget about “EVERYONE ELSE”.
But Isaiah 13-23 is a reminder that the Lord is not just a parochial deity in a jerkwater province. He’s a fair bit bigger than that. The bible’s focus on the small box isn’t saying the Lord lacks focus outside the lines.
Instead of just Ephraim-this and Zion-that Isaiah also shines a light on Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, and Tyre. Each one important, each with opportunities, each making decisions, each acting actions that’ll have outcomes.
In chapter 14 the Lord has a plan for Assyria. And also bigger plans: I have a plan for the whole earth, for my mighty power reaches throughout the world. The Lord Almighty has spoken – who can change his plans?
Isaiah 13-23 is a nice reminder of the bible’s internationalism. And a nice reminder of comprehensive planning.
The bible concentrates on the insiders, so I tend to, too.
But the Lord isn’t quite as provincial.

Note: quote from Isaiah 14:26-27 (NLT version)

Week 23 Isaiah

Isaiah 10 is about Assyria.
I turned back to II Kings: the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria…and carried Israel away into captivity.
So Assyria was doing some empire-building. But then Isaiah quotes the Lord, who says that Assyria was: the rod of My anger.
I doubt that Assyria thought of itself as the Lord’s rod. As far as it was concerned it had its own independent foreign policy agenda which was to conquer other nations. Assyria wasn’t consulting the Lord.
And yet Assyria is referred to in this instrumental way – the tool of the Lord – and Isaiah says the Lord’s plan was to: send (Assyria) against a godless nation and commission it against the people of My fury.
So two things are going on: Assyria has a plan and the Lord has a plan. And the plans come together.
It’s pretty clear that the Lord’s in the driver’s-seat. But the driver’s not taking the passenger where the passenger doesn’t want to go. In fact Assyria figured it was in the driver’s seat because it said: by the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this.
The Assyrians figured they were the initiators. So it’s hard to imagine them complaining that they were forced to do something if what they were forced to do was exactly what they wanted.

Note: quote from I Kings 17:5-6, Isaiah 10:5-6, 13 (NASB version)

Week 23 Isaiah

Three different things jump out at me as I read.
One: Isaiah had a vision: I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
It reminded me of Week 22’s post Out of Sight. The events there with Micaiah and Job were located in an outside-of-the-world place, maybe a different dimension. And here Isaiah reports another event, something happening out past the borders of the natural world.
Two: Isaiah mentions a person called The Branch, and he predicts that: he will delight in obeying the Lord. He will never judge by appearance, false evidence, or hearsay. He will defend the poor and the exploited. He will rule against the wicked and destroy them…He will be clothed with fairness and truth.
The Branch is a heroic person. But when I checked a word book I saw The Branch was only mentioned six times in the OT. Not many for such a key-sounding player.
Three: there’s a forecast about Babylon’s fall that left me with a bit of a shiver. Death is bad enough, but what about a place of the dead? Isaiah says: Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come. It arouses for you the spirits of the dead.
Maybe not enough there to develop a postmortem view of things. But it makes you wonder what’ll happen.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 6:1, 11:3-5, 14:9 (NASB and NLT versions)

Week 23 Isaiah

Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
In chapter seven King #3 – Ahaz – was under attack.
Isaiah went to him with a not-to-worry promise from the Lord.
Since anyone can make a promise Ahaz was offered a follow-up reassurance: ask me for a sign, Ahaz, to prove that I will crush your enemies…Ask for anything you like, and make it as difficult as you want.
So the idea was that if he asked for something impossible and the impossible thing happened then he’d be confident that the victory-promise was solid.
But Ahaz refused to ask for a sign: no, he said, I wouldn’t test the Lord like that.
At first I was thinking how nice is that? Bravo Ahaz! You’re not putting God to the test. What a good guy you are.
But I remember that Ahaz wasn’t a good guy. I read about him a month ago in II Chronicles 28. I went back and looked at his story. He was a terrible king.
What Ahaz said was: oh no, I wouldn’t test the Lord like that.
What Ahaz meant was: what do I care about the Lord and his stupid tests? (and instead he hired a mercenary army).
So anyway this was a bible-reader’s alert to me about jumping to quick conclusions.
I quick-jumped this morning by congratulating Ahaz. Then I had to jump back.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 7:11, 12 (NLT version)

Week 23 Isaiah

I’ve started in on Isaiah.
Right away I notice that Isaiah knocks religious practices – sacrifices, ceremonials, prayers, etc. He quotes the Lord: I have had enough of burnt offerings… Bring your worthless offerings no longer… I hate your new moon festivals… Even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.
Surprising since I was reading Moses about twenty weeks ago when he was setting up these rituals & sacrifices. And they were okay then.
Now Isaiah is saying they aren’t.
What’s going on?
After he slams Moses Isaiah goes right on to list things Judah should be doing:
Learn to do good
Seek justice
Help the oppressed
Defend the orphan
Fight for the rights of widows
Is this a replacement list?
Can I overwrite Moses’ laws with Isaiah’s list?
That seems like the simplest option, but I think I’ll be cautious; look-before-I-leap.
I’m only in chapter one so there’s time to decide.
As of today it occurs to me that Isaiah could be saying something like: if I don’t practice some things then that non-practice will negate some other things that I am practicing.
Or, not doing some things can unravel things I am doing. Like there’s an interactivity going on, an interdependent value-retention or value-loss factor in play.
Dumping Moses has a certain tidy appeal to it. So I’ll try to keep that temptation in mind, try to see what else Isaiah says about formal religious practices and ritual.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 1:11, 13, 14 (NASB), 17 (NLT version)

May 31, 2020

I ran my numbers today.
Page totals for Genesis-to-Job + Psalms 1-90 + Proverbs & Song of Solomon = 891 pages.
In my 1730-page bible that’s 51.44%. Which is good. And now I’ve got to make a quick decision on the best way to tackle the prophets.

Note: I read Psalm 90 today – a prayer of Moses. In the middle verses he talks about the anger of the Lord.
Thinking about the Lord’s anger is a good bible-content-and-subject-management exercise. Basically a reader asks: what-do-I-do-with-this-topic? What is it with divine anger?
One popular remedy is to say the OT-God is a terrible bad-tempered surly & fearsome ogre.
Another option might be to split the testaments, leaving the awful god of the OT replaced by a sunnier, friendlier NT-God.
Moses didn’t land on either of those.
The Lord was angry and Moses knew it. Moses had experienced it firsthand. But he was pretty calm, subdued, free from psychic-agitation, phlegmatic, aware of what invites the anger: you (the Lord) spread out our sins before you – our secret sins – and you see them all.
The Lord’s anger wasn’t random & inexplicable & incoherent. It was focused & predictable, and it gained momentum over time.
Moses didn’t think the Lord’s anger was unsolicited and unfair. If he did the prayer wouldn’t be so forlorn, dejected. And if he did I’ve got to think he wouldn’t have asked the Lord to: come back to us.
Quotes are from Psalm 90:8 & 13 (NLT version)

Week 22 Job

In Job 38-41 the Lord asked Job roughly seventy questions in a row and Job didn’t answer any of them. He just admitted: I am nothing – how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have already said too much. I have nothing more to say.
Which is a pretty hard place to land: I am nothing.
In Alberta we don’t encourage people to express themselves that way. It’s more: you’re good, you’re okay, you’re awesome, like that.
Of course Job didn’t live in Alberta, and he wasn’t exactly dealing with low self-esteem.
Job had arrived at the I-am-nothing place because he was being interrogated by the Lord. And he realized the simplest way to express his self-estimation was to say he was nothing. I’m guessing that the word nothing is used in a contrastive sense: there’s Job, and there’s the Lord, and looking at the two Job admits: I’m nothing. It wasn’t nothing where nothing is absolutely nothing, not Job-has-zero-valuation. More like nothing by contrast.
Job was still Job.
And Job was a great, great guy.
But the fact was that compared to the Lord Job was close enough to zero (without actually being zero) that he thought it was better to round down to nothing.
Up to chapter 37 Job figured he had a case, at which point he had to make an adjustment.

Notes: quote from Job 40:3-5 (NLT version). Seventy questions is an estimate.

Week 22 Job

Without even trying the book of Job is a One-Story-Story-of-the-Bible book.
Reading Job-in-a-week is like reading the bible-in-a-year.
In both there’s a short brilliant and satisfying beginning and a short brilliant and satisfying ending and in between those two there’s a long interlude. The interlude isn’t brilliant or satisfying. It’s as different as Montreal smoked meat and rye bread.
The interlude features things like loss, sadness, despair, tragedy, gloom, sorrow, anger, uncertainty, sickness, death, ruination. Like that.
Another feature of the interlude is guys sitting around trying to get a handle on what’s happening – the book of Job could be subtitled The Book of Unsuccessful Efforts to Dope Out Undopeables.
These days I’m reading one psalm a day and today I read Psalm 88. The sons of Korah wrote 88 but Job easily could have:
O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out to you day and night…for my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. I have been dismissed as one who is dead.
You have thrust me down to the lowest pit, into the darkest depths.
O Lord, why do you reject me?
Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
You have taken away my companions and love ones; only darkness remains.
88 is a great psalm. An awful psalm. A psalm still in the middle. A desolating psalm that’s as sad and true as the Job interlude.

Note: quotes from Psalm 88:1-4, 6, 14, 16, 18 (NLT version)

Week 22 Job

A month-and-a-half ago I read the story of Micaiah, a prophet who had an other-worldly vision of the Lord sitting on a throne surrounded by heavenly beings, discussing king Ahab and how he would decide to believe a lie that would lead to his death.
There’s a similar thing in Job: there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Two behind-the-scenes accounts of what else is going on.
At least two times, location not precisely known, there were gatherings of beings, maybe ranked in an escalating hierarchy of transcendence but all inferior to the Lord, and the Lord was discussing events in the world and what people were doing.
These are sobering stories; a little frightening; kind of eerie; dangerous.
If I’m a material guy and know that the only real things are materials-I-have-sensory-access-to then I’m not concerned with Micaiah’s cock-and-bull vision.
But Job and his colleagues weren’t material guys. They were all pretty religious guys who you’d think knew that things were going on out past the skin of this world. But they go on and on and on talking, the whole time missing a big piece of the puzzle, forgetting to remind themselves: we have a huge knowledge-deficit. And if it crossed their minds how much they didn’t know they didn’t let on.

Note: quote from Job 1:6; see Michaiah in 1 Kings 22:19 (NASB)

Week 22 Job

The basic story: Job experiences a series of catastrophically terrible things that smash him into a kind of physical-psychic pulp. Four friends visit him.
Even though technically they’re friends, I would draw a double-line down the middle of a page and write Job on the left side and Eliphaz Bildad Zophar & Elihu on the right because soon enough they look like adversaries. Friendly adversaries, but a little more adversarial than friendly.
The thing I notice is that even though EBZ&E are opposed to Job each of them say some things that are pretty good, things that sound just about right. I’m up to chapter 14. So far EBZ have chipped-in about ninety verses of right-side-of-the-page input. And out of those ninety I count sixty-four that sound pretty good, pretty okay. For example Eliphaz says: God will not reject a man of integrity. Nothing wrong with that.
There’s still about eighteen chapters of back-and-forth so I don’t know if EBZ&E will keep saying good-sounding things at a 70%-clip. But so far it’s definitely not goofy stuff.
And on the other hand Job sounds like he’s edging toward the dark side when he says things like: though I am guiltless (God) will declare me guilty.
Anyway wherever the right-side and left-side will end up, to this point they’re both having trouble explaining the experience of pain. Neither one seems to have the horsepower to do the job.

Note: quotes from Job 8:20 and 9:20 (NASB version)