Medicine Hat Joe

Week 31  Zechariah 6

The Lord told Zechariah to visit the high priest – a man named Joshua – and say: here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. So it makes it sound like Joshua is the Branch.
I’ve got a niggling concern about this so I check the five marginal references in my bible:
In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit
The days are coming…when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land
Listen Joshua, you and your associates…are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.
These other verses explain a couple of reasons why Joshua is not the Branch.
First the Branch is – genealogically-speaking – going to come from David’s clan. Not Levi’s.
Second Zechariah says the Branch will come at a future time. The Branch is waiting-in-the-wings.
Third Zechariah tells Joshua he only symbolizes the real Branch. A kind of logo… a trademark.
So whoever the Branch actually is…he isn’t Joshua the priest.

Note: quotes from Zechariah 6:12 Isaiah 4:2 11:1 Jeremiah 23:5 33:15 Zechariah 3:8 (NIV)

Week 31

I’ve never met a bible reader who says “I sit down to read every day and I always feel the same.” Same level of interest. Same motivation. Same focus.
I’ve not met one. Because every day isn’t the same. Some days are better than others.
Occasionally I can account for why a day isn’t so good:
I’ve got a headache
I travelled through six times zones yesterday
I just said good-bye to a friend
I’ve got an unhappy conversation coming up in an hour.
But other times there’s no telling what to make of how today feels.
In general terms I tend to categorize my reading-days under three rough divisions:
Good Days
Average Days
Bad Days.
Every day it’s going to be one of those. Good. Average. Bad. Fairly randomly. And unpredictably enough that my bible-reading exercise varies.
Sure…I’m trying to beef-up my total number of Good Days (and trying to reduce the Bad ones). That’s a part of my (ragged) longer-term Personal Life Management plan.
But meanwhile I just try to keep reading – come-what-may. Pretty good reads on good days. Grind-it-out reads on grind-it-out days.

Note #1 grind-it-out reading is a technique that I can usually do pretty successfully. It’s not too rewarding. And it’s maybe not the way for everyone since we’re all finding-our-way & finessing-our-way through our reading program. Part of the reading is discovering how to manage.
Note #2 End-of-month reading report. I’ve been speeding ahead the last several weeks and have read 78% in 58% of the year.

Week 28  Jonah 1

Once I get past the thirteen-word introduction the next thing I read is the Lord giving Jonah a very specific instruction: go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.
The first thought that comes to me is that it’s rare for the Short Prophets to begin with an explicit actionable directive. I decide to test that so I quit reading Jonah and go back and scan through the opening verses of the other little prophets. I see that Hosea got a very definite actionable directive: go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her. But that’s it. Other than that and Jonah’s go to the great city of Nineveh I don’t find any other up-front orders. The books just jump right into the message:
hear this you elders…
the Lord roars from Zion…
we have heard a message from the Lord…
So it was just Hosea and Jonah. Each of them told to do a definite (and unpalatable) thing. And each taking action. But the difference was that Hosea did what he was told. Jonah didn’t.
I can’t think of any other prophet like Jonah. He just walked away. A real renegade.
In the end the coercive arm-twisting of the big fish forced Jonah to comply. But it never really changed his mind. A maverick to the end. Even when he did what he had to do he couldn’t be forced to like doing it.

Note: quotes from Jonah 1:2 Hosea 1:2 Joel 1:2 Amos 1:2 Obadiah 1:1 (NIV)

Week 28  Proverbs 8

The second half of the chapter gets around to asking the question: how old is Wisdom? The short answer: Wisdom has always been around.
Wisdom was:
• at the beginning of (the Lord’s) creation
• before (the Lord’s) works of long ago
• before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began
• when there were no watery depths.
There could be a debate about whether wisdom has existed forever or if it was created by the Lord way back when. But that’s a technical point. My bigger concern here is that wisdom – as far as it matters to me in practical terms – has been around forever. It’s a permanent fixture. People didn’t think-it-up. It didn’t evolve over eons. Wasn’t doped-out over time. It pre-existed everyone-everything. Greeks. Babylonians. Hebrews. The bible. Adam & Eve. Wisdom isn’t a human invention. It’s a square one perennial. Always there. Never absent in the history of everything.
I was a skilled craftsman beside him (the Lord). I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him. I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.
So it looks like Solomon isn’t sitting around thinking up proverbially wise sayings. It’s more like he’s tapped into this deep and universally accessible well of Wisdom and then he siphoned off thimblefuls of prepackaged digestible understandable wisdom to benefit his readers. Uncomplicated sayings from the Deep Well.

Note: quotes about wisdom are from Proverbs 8:22-24 and 8:30-31 (CSB)

Week 28  Daniel 2

Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a metal statue. It had a:
• Gold head
• Silver chest & arms
• Bronze abdomen & thighs
• Iron legs
• Iron & Clay feet
What can I make of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?
I don’t have to guess about the first two elements. Daniel says that the upper metal sections are two consecutive state powers. Nations.
The gold head represents Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
The second one – silver – is Persia.
So far so good. I’ve heard about Babylon & Persia.
But after that I’m on-my-own.
I figure it’s legitimate to pencil-in Greece as bronze (even though Daniel didn’t specifically say so). But things get fuzzier then. Even though Rome was the next big imperial power I think that saying Rome is the iron legs is moving into educated-guess territory.
And the iron & clay feet? That’s uneducated-guess territory. A divided empire. Strong but brittle. United…but not organically. Who?
The thing that’s most interesting in this progress-of-empires scheme is the rock. The non-metallic kingdom.
The (Lord) will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever .
Unlike the other kingdoms the Rock Kingdom will be set up by the Lord. It will displace all the other kingdoms. And unlike them it will be indestructible & non-transferrable & permanent. Unfortunately for Daniel the Rock Kingdom – the Lord’s Kingdom – was still waiting in the wings.

Note: quote from Daniel 2:44 (CSB)

 

Week 27  Proverbs 6

My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor…(then) deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand
I look at several other versions. Some of them use the word surety. But others are a bit more helpful:
if you have put up security for your neighbor…
if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor…
if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor…
One of them cuts straight to-the-chase: don’t promise to pay for what your neighbor owes.
I check the word surety. A surety is a security bond.
A security bond works like this. Let’s say there’s three guys.
Guy #1 has $10,000
Guy #2 needs $10,000
Guy #2 asks Guy #1 to loan him $10,000 but Guy #1 isn’t confident that Guy #2 can pay it back.
That’s when Guy #3 appears. Guy #2 asks Guy #3 if he will be ‘surety’ for him. That means that Guy #3 (who Guy #1 does trust) will promise to repay the $10,000 debt if Guy #2 doesn’t.
Thinking about sureties today I come away with two things. First I need to be very cautious about promising to repay someone else’s loan.
Second thing is this. Solomon was a very deeply & thoughtfully religious man (at least until later in life) and some of his proverbs were deeply & thoughtfully religious. But others – like this one about not guaranteeing someone else’s loan – aren’t religious at all. (Unless telling someone not to be a financial moron is religious advice.)

Note: quotes from Proverbs 6:1 & 6 (NASB and CSB CEB LSB NIRV)

Week 27  Proverbs 3

In chapter three there’s a bunch of Ifs & Thens. It made me wonder if there’s supposed to be an exact correspondence between them (for instance if I’m kind will I then be healthy?)
I drew up a table with two columns.
In the Left Column are the Ifs. If you…
• Remember the teaching
• Keep the commandments
• Are kind
• Are truthful
• Trust in the Lord
• Aren’t arrogant
• Fear the Lord
• Turn away from evil
• Are charitable
• Accept the Lord’s discipline.
In the Right Column are Thens. Then you’ll…
• Live long
• Live in peace
• Win people’s favor
• Have a good reputation
• Have a straight path
• Be healed / healthy
• Be financially enriched
• Know the Lord loves you
Unfortunately the Ifs & Thens didn’t line up nicely  in tabular form. I couldn’t tell for sure that (let’s say) if I’m truthful then I’ll have a good reputation. The connection wasn’t that tight.
I thought about some bible characters: Job Joseph Jeremiah Peter Paul John. People who did the Ifs. But they also seemed to have been put-on-hold when it came to the sunny Thens. They just seemed to do the Ifs because the Ifs were the best way to live.
Do beneficial Thens really follow the Ifs? No doubt. But maybe not in direct or immediate or obvious ways.

Note: Proverbs 3:1-12. The items on the If list are in 3:1 3 5 7 9 11. The Then list is in 3:2 4 6 8 10.

Week 27  Proverbs

A couple of days ago I calculated that Solomon used the words path or paths about 25% of all the times it’s used in the bible. I reread the verses (there’s maybe 20 of them) looking for things that explained something about the path.
The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
So there’s an element of progress & enhancement when I travel the path. Degree-of-brightness isn’t uniform. Currently things aren’t as bright as they will be eventually. As I travel the path things brighten.
The path of the upright is a highway (but a slacker’s way is like a thorny hedge).
The path here is called a highway because it’s open. Accessible. Uncluttered (unlike the other route with its obstacles).
For the prudent (person) the path of life leads upward, so that he may avoid going down to Sheol.
I clarify this verse for myself by paraphrasing it: the path of life leads upward to life but the path of death leads down to the realm of the dead. So there’s a clear choice of paths & destinations.
The (person) who follows instruction is on the path to life.
This verse is very useful. There’s a kind of ‘geographic’ positioning test to verify the path I’m on. Q: how do I know if I’m on the path to life? A:  I’m following instructions.

Note: quotes from Proverbs 4:18 15:19 (rearranged) 15:24 (CSB & MHJ) 10:17 (CSB). Reading report for June – 70% completed.

 

Week 26  Proverbs 2

Solomon talks here about two paths – there’s his recommended Path-to-Take and then there’s the undesirable (and dangerous-looking) Path-to-Avoid.
The two paths are completely different. For instance when he talks about the Path-to-Take he calls it:
A path of justice
A path of uprightness
A path of life
The path of the righteous.
By contrast he says that the Path-to-Avoid is:
The way of evil
The way of darkness
A path that’s crooked
A track that leads to death.
Looking at the lists it’s easy to see big & serious-looking differences between the two paths. But even though it’s pretty clear that Solomon is endorsing his preferred Path-to-Take he still recognizes that people have an option. They get to make their own choice.
One of the reassuring things I noticed was what Solomon says about moving along the Path-to-Take. The Lord acts as a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. So it’s a huge advantage for people who are on that path – the Lord is acting as their shield & guard & protector.
I also notice that Solomon doesn’t spell out comprehensively how the Lord’s assistance takes shape. For instance he doesn’t say whether the Lord’s shielding function will protect me from – let’s say – cancer cells. So Solomon is definite about the Lord’s help…but he’s non-specific about it too.

Note: the Path-to-Travel list is from Proverbs 2:8 13 19 20. Path-to-Avoid list: Proverbs 2:12 13 15 18. Quote from Proverbs 2:7-8 (ESV)

Week 26  Proverbs 1

One of the first pieces of advice that Solomon tells readers is to steer clear of a class of people that he identifies as ‘sinners’: do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path.
Other versions agree:
don’t travel that road with them or set foot on their path
do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths
do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths.
Each version uses the same figure-of-speech – a ‘path’ or ‘paths’ – to talk about the route I should be looking for to avoid travelling in the company of this group of people Proverbs calls ‘sinners’.
I do a quick count. ‘Path’ is used about 32 times in the bible – eight times in Proverbs. ‘Paths’ 44 times – thirteen times in Proverbs. Proverbs uses the picture of a pathway >25% of the times it’s used in the bible. Solomon doesn’t overuse it…but it’s one of his repeater ideas.
While I’m looking up references I see that two paths are identified: a) there’s the path that ‘sinners’ travel (keep off the path of the wicked) and b) there’s a path for ‘non-sinners’ (the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn).
One way to read Proverbs is to think of it as a kind of roadmap for taking a recommended path. And an travel advisory of one to avoid.

Note: quotes from Proverbs 1:15 (NASB CSB ESV NIV) & 4:14 18 (CSB)