1) Look at the map of Xerxes’ empire above. I always thought we were talking about a localized extinction of the Jewish people. The decree went out to all provinces. If carried out, this would essentially wipe out the dispersed Jewish nation.
Let’s see. Earth was totally corrupted at Noah’s time causing God to step in. Pharoah ordered all Jewish male babies killed. Queen in one of the book of Kings tried to wipe out David’s line. Herod ordered babies killed in Bethlehem. Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Iranian president wants Israel wiped off the map. See a PATTERN? Not sure you can find another ethnic group that over thousands of years has been the object of such “bad luck”. I believe it is part of Satan’s plan to either wipe out the “chosen people” or destroy the Messiah (or the Messiah’s line). If successful, the Bible is a lie, and maybe Satan has a chance to win his rebellion against God.
2) Keep this thought in mind for future reference. Haman was referred to as an Agagite. Most commentators mention that this would make Haman a survivor of the Amalekites. Since Mordecai is a Benjamite it would make hime from the tribe of King Saul. Chickens are coming home to roost from Saul showing mercy on the Amalekites contrary to God’s will.
But there is more. It may be true, and I believe it is, that the Amalekites were descended from Esau. As an Edomite, from a biblical perspective, the whole dynamic of Esau vs. Jacob (Israel) is playing out. We will follow this thread of thought more as readings in Old Testament proceed this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalek
3) Vance: you can’t be very hard on your friend. Historians are split on the issue of “Esther” being an actual Historical event.
There are valid arguments on both sides. I am in the Historical camp for reasons that will be revealed at end of Esther. However, I can understand those that will not admit to a Historical view of Esther.
1Cor11:17-34
The Corinthains are a handful. So far, they have: had troubles with unity, sexual immorality, marriage and divorce, civil law cases, gender blurring, yielding in love to others, and submission to authority.
Paul now has no praise for them because of the abuses of the “churche’s” communal meals, and it spills over into the Lord’s Supper (Communion).
======================================================
AGAPE OR LOVE FEAST
The early church had a tradition of coming together and having a communal (covered-dish type thing) meal. Followed by communion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape_feast
Before Paul had talked about theological disunity – now he addresses a practical problem.
“..the Corinthian Christians were coming from a culture where the pagans would commonly have wild, riotous banquets given in honor of a pagan god. This is how it might not seem so strange to the Corinthian Christians to even get drunk and a church common meal….In that day, at common meals, it was expected that the “upper class” would receive better and more food than the “lower class.” This cultural custom was being carried over into the church, and the Christians weren’t really sharing with one another. At the agape feast, the rich brought more food and the poor brought less food; but in Corinth they were not sharing the food fairly…Ancient culture, much more than modern American culture, was extremely class concious. It was respect of these class divisions which so grieved Paul.” – David Guzik
Don’t pig out, Don’t get drunk, share equally with those that have less, not only out of Christian Brotherhood – but out of respect for the Lord’s Supper (Communion).
======================================================
LORD’S SUPPER
(Notes)
1) Paul received instruction directly from Christ regarding the words of the Last Supper.
2) I believe Communion is done out of remembrance and to proclaim the sacrifice that was done for us. Christ died once for our sins, and the idea that communion is a re-enactment of his death over and over seems to denigrate that idea. I will just leave it at that.
3) We are “unworthy”, but we are not to partake of Commuinon in an unworthy manner. We should be reverant, submissive, reflective of Christ and His sacrifice for us, acknowledging His love for us, and certainly not drunk.
4)Examine yourself and make sure you are in the right frame of mind. If you partake of Communion in a careless, thoughtless manner that turns it into a ritual rather than an honest moment between you and Christ – “eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
[Note: Not “the” judgment, but a judgment of an action. God can assess this and not necessarily punish immediately or even here on earth, but HE does not forget. Apparently for Corinthians, chastening was meted out. The early church often got this to make sure wrong actions early on were corrected, as an example to others.]
5) Paul does say that because of this act of irreverance, the Corinthains have been punished here on earth – with sickness and even death.
======================================================
SOLUTION
If we judged (diakrino)ourselves, we would not come under judgment (krino).
If we decide for ourselves by self-examination and receive communion in a worthy manner, then we would not receive God’s judgment – it would not be necessary.
If not there will be chastening so that the “body of Christ” does not live as the world (in condemnation).
In Summary – Act rightly at the common meal and Lord’s supper, so that you do not sin and incur judgment and chastening.
John
======== Vance:
I have a good friend who was raised in Turkey; he is Muslim. He lived with me at my house for a time while he was in college obtaining his doctorate degree.
We would talk freely with one another about many things. It is a wonderful honor. We would talk faith, and about the difference between Islam and Christianity.
One day he and I got into a discussion about the book of Esther. Though normally a quiet spoken and gracious person, he became very angry when I told him the story of Esther—a Jewish woman made queen of Persia who God used to save the Jewish people from extinction.
It seems that Muslims do not believe this account ever happened. He informed me that the story was made up by people in the West.
~~~
Esther 3 (Amplified Bible)
10
And the king took HIS SIGNET RING FROM HIS HAND [WITH WHICH TO SEAL HIS LETTERS BY THE KING’S AUTHORITY] and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.
12
Then the king’s secretaries were called in on the thirteenth day of the first month, and all that Haman had commanded was written to the king’s chief rulers and to the governors who were over all the provinces and to the princes of each people, to every province in its own script and to each people in their own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus AND IT WAS SEALED WITH THE KING’S [SIGNET] RING.
I Corinthians 11 (Amplified Bible)
24
And when He had given thanks, He broke [it] and said, Take, eat. This is My body, which is broken for you. Do this to call Me [affectionately] to remembrance.
25
Similarly when supper was ended, He took the cup also, saying, THIS CUP IS THE NEW COVENANT [RATIFIED AND ESTABLISHED] IN MY BLOOD. Do this, as often as you drink [it], to call Me [affectionately] to remembrance.
29
For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ’s] body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself.
32
But when we [fall short and] are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not [finally] be condemned [to eternal punishment along] with the world.
NOTE:
Blood covenant. “Jesus paid it all—all to Him I owe” as the wonderful hymn goes.
Elements of blood covenant in the ancient world:
a.
God in Genesis 15 was saying to Abraham, “Even as the animals have died, I will stand with you and My promises. May what happened to these animals happen to Me if I do not keep My promise.
b.
Jesus, as the Son Who ratifies God’s Promises, now dies in our place as our Representative. He, as the Perfect Man, and as the Son of God says in the act of blood covenant: “I give Myself to you. I give you My strength. Your enemies are My enemies. I take your sins and weaknesses, and I give you My righteousness.”
c.
Seal of the covenant: Cutting of the flesh—life blood is being shed. The blood flows out of cut with promise of Jesus, “It is finished! Paid in full!”
d.
Jesus has become one with us and we with Him through blood covenant: The scar from the cutting of the flesh will never go away. It is the sign that we are one with Jesus and He is one with us.
e.
Our names change—from rebellious sinner to saved by Grace. When we sin now, it is a child of God who is redeemed. As such, as children, we need to thoroughly repent because we belong to Jesus and He lives inside of us. What an honor and privilege!
f.
Covenant meal of blood covenant in ancient times:
1.
Cup of wine:
* They drank wine, representing blood: “Drink my life’s blood
as I drink your life’s blood”.
* This means, “I see you fulfilling all the terms of the covenant
as I fulfill your life”.
2.
Piece of bread:
* The participants would feed each other as final statement: “Take me—all that I am. Eat of me, I am yours.”
~~~
We can see the blood covenant is how Jesus confirmed the covenant of the Father God with us. Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit are one in Trinity—three in one and one in three in perfect unity and agreement.
Jesus gave Himself as the Bread of Life. He confirmed it with blood covenant. Thus, as the Amplified Bible reads of I Corinthians 11:25: “THIS CUP IS THE NEW COVENANT [RATIFIED AND ESTABLISHED] IN MY BLOOD.”
~~~
Note that King Xerxes gave Haman his signet ring. In ancient times, when letters were signed, they would be sealed and closed with a small portion of melted wax. Then, the king would press the pattern of his signet ring onto the wax signifying that the letter was from him.
Whoever sealed a letter with the king’s ring was granted the same authority as the king!
There is a lot of symbolism here, but it is very practical for us today: Jesus—as the Son of God—ratified the covenant given by the Father for us. He took on our sins so we can become His righteousness. We are forever bonded with Jesus and the Father by blood covenant.
Jesus literally shares His own righteousness, strength, and authority with us. But—as I Corinthians 11 shows—we can only live and act in the Lord’s authority if we are living UNDER HIS AUTHORITY!
May we truly judge ourselves wearing the glasses of God’s Word. May we purge out the vile from the pure in our lives, so we can live up to the potential. We are made new creations in Christ. We are sons and daughters of the King.
If we properly judge ourselves and receive the discipline of the Lord, then we can become strong in our areas of weakness and we can glorify God!
~~~
The Corinthians were not eating and drinking the Lord’s supper in a worthy manner. Why is this? They did not treat the Lord’s supper in serious manner for what it is. As the Amplified Bible reads in I Corinthians 11:29:
“For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ’s] body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself.”
~~~
We are not—thank God—gods unto ourselves (though the devil would like us to believe that so we can enter judgment with him).
We are called to bear the image of Christ, and that only happens as we fulfill our part of the blood covenant: Jesus already shed His blood. Thank God there is no more blood to be shed.
Yet, we are called to give up our lives. “If Jesus be God and died for me, then nothing less than my life is fitting for Him.”
May we give our lives as living sacrifices unto God. When we sin and fail, may we quickly confess and become thoroughly cleansed from every stain of sin through Christ and His wonderful sacrifice.
Then, may we “walk in the Spirit so we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5). More than that, we can only fulfill God’s will so others can hear about and see Jesus through us as we yield to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the God’s seal—the seal that Jesus is the down payment guaranteeing God’s promise of salvation to us.
May we be sealed in our life and behavior through surrender to the Holy Spirit so we Christ can truly be “our life” as He in actuality is.
Colossians 3 (NKJV)
1
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3
For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Vance
======= Jan:
I ran across an article the other day “Sex in the City” by Mark Buchanan that focuses on Jonah, Esther & Daniel:
How do we respond to a corrupted culture? Two faulty examples and a better one.
In God’s Kingdom, judgement entwines with invitation, and is usually uttered with deep heartache. It’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance.
Jonah is my favorite prophet, and for no better reason than our uncanny resemblance. I’m bald and I figure him bald—why else his emotional tumult over how shade-dappled or sun-scorched his head? I’m short and I imagine him short: a stumpy, wiry guy, all that peevishness compacted tight as a nail bomb. He loved comfort and resented interruption, and that runs pretty close to my own bias. He was possessive, evasive, defensive, obsessive. Things not unknown to me.
Jonah is my least favorite prophet, and for exactly the same reason. He reminds me too much of me. I long to be Daniel-like in wisdom, Isaiah-like in righteousness, Ezekiel-like in faithfulness. I want the courage of Elijah, the endurance of Jeremiah, the long-view of Zechariah. I dream of standing down kings and outrunning horses, commanding drought and deluge with a word, calling down woe like thunderbolts and blessing like manna.
But I’m plagued with Jonah-likeness.
And here’s a deeper worry: so is the church. Not just my church, but the church—especially the church in North America. We’re evasive with God, resentful toward outsiders, smug about our own goodness. Prudish, hawkish, lovers of comfort, and nursing a giant grudge against anyone and anything that threatens it.
Just like Jonah.
That’s half the story, anyhow.
The other half is that the church is Esther, Esther prior to her awakening: assuming an insider status and willing to disguise her true identity for the sake of it, fearful of confronting her culture. We want to be like everyone else, only more so. We’re a people terrified of being peculiar. We’ll do almost anything to win a pagan king’s affections.
Jonah wants just to be left alone, and would happily let everyone else go to hell. Esther wants just to fit in, and willingly forsakes her distinctiveness to achieve that.
Between these two impulses, the kingdom always goes begging.
But this is about sex
And that’s exactly where I find these two stories so compelling, and so disturbing. Jonah and, implicitly, his community are threatened by Assyrian exile. Jonah is called as a missionary to the very people who bear that threat. Esther and, explicitly, her community are in the clutches of Persian exile. Esther is called to take a stand against the very people in whose land she and her people dwell but who now threaten to destroy them.
Neither story is about sex per se (though that’s a subtext in Esther: the things we do for love), but both are about God’s people living amidst pagan culture—a culture that is pervasive, seductive, potentially coercive, and often at deep odds with what God thinks. Both are about the ways God’s people try to negotiate their place toward or within that culture. And so both help us think through spiritual and ethical issues, including sexual ethics, for such a time as this.
How then shall we live?
Jonah chooses the way of condemnation. He hates the culture that threatens his own. His attitude is leave-us-alone and damn if you don’t. He is prideful of his distinctiveness (“I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land,” he smugly tells the sailors whose ship he’s boarded, even though he’s using these men to escape this God), but he’s not the least bit inclined to invite others to share in it.
So when God calls him to confront the people of Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, for their wickedness, Jonah flees. He simply doesn’t want to get involved. When God forces the issue, Jonah goes—grudgingly—and trumpets the doom of Nineveh, and then waits to behold it, and relish it. When the Ninevites repent and God shows mercy, Jonah throws a full-scale tantrum. This is what he long suspected God would do, and he turns surly and self-pitying about it.
Jonah’s attitude toward pagan culture is an old standby for the church. Avoid outsiders, and when you can’t, protest against them. Lament the sorry state of things. Call God’s judgment down. Imagine, with pleasure, the punishment to be visited on the disobedient. Meanwhile, make yourself as comfortable as possible. And if the threatened divine judgment fails to materialize? Sulk. Mightily.
It’s hard not to think here of some conservative churches’ reaction to the homosexual community. I live in Canada, where recently our government, against the wishes of most Canadians, pushed through legislation that legalized same-sex marriage. A few months prior to that, I attended a citywide prayer meeting where this issue was at the forefront.
Emotions were strong. I expected that, but what caught me by surprise was the tone of the meeting. It had a Jonah-like ring: jingoistic, gloating, self-righteous. People warmed quickly to themes of divine vengeance. They evoked it in vivid imagery.
The problem here is tactical as well as spiritual. Spiritually, we should be careful what we eat. Bloodthirst causes heartburn, severely. But tactically, this is hardly a way to start a kingdom revolution. The church on this issue should be begging God to help us to be Mark 2 communities: when people find out Jesus is in the house, they’re willing to break the roof open if that’s what it takes to get themselves and their sick friends inside.
I have talked with gay people about how they see Christians. Generally they see us as, well, you know the drill: bigoted, angry, narrow, hateful, afraid …
It’s a caricature, I know. Only, everything about that citywide prayer meeting supported it.
What if God’s larger desire is to invite people, all people, into the wideness of his mercy? Somehow the Ninevites were able to respond to God despite Jonah’s rancor and belligerence. After all, judgment is real, not to be trifled with. God’s wrath is being revealed against all godlessness and wickedness.
Only, Jonah doesn’t know anything but judgment. He is a Johnny-one-note. In God’s kingdom, judgment entwines with invitation, and is usually uttered with deep heartache (Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem …). It’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance. That kindness needs to be visible in the church. The consummation of the church’s missionary role will be that day when ten people from every tribe and tongue—Nineveh included—take hold of the hem of the robe of one believer and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech. 8:23).
But Jonah is not interested. He doesn’t want his enemy’s repentance. He doesn’t want them in church, singing the songs of Zion. He certainly doesn’t want them coming to his church and bringing their own strange music with them. He wants them to pay, to suffer. He wants judgment, not mercy.
Jonah’s moral dogmatism, I think, hides his theological ambivalence. That’s usually what dogmatism does. Jonah is wary and begrudging, not just toward Ninevites, but toward God. He’s boastful of his knowledge of God but cagey in his relationship with him. He finds God both too hard and too soft—hard toward his chosen ones, soft toward the enemy. God, in his view, lacks an appropriate sense of favoritism.
I wonder if this isn’t the hidden motive of churches that take up Jonah’s style. Maybe the angry, accusatory stance is mostly a mask for our own misgivings about God.
“Fanaticism,” Carl Jung said, “is overcompensation for doubt.” We can trace this theological trajectory in the Pharisees. They disapproved of whatever they did not initiate. But Jesus identified their problem as a broken relationship with God. They overcompensated for doubt.
Jonah wants to condemn the culture. He would love to see it destroyed. The idea that it could be reclaimed, redeemed, invited to share in the goodness of God—such thinking is anathema to him. After all, he can hardly invite anyone, friend or foe, to taste and see that the Lord is good when he has not tasted and seen such things himself.
That’s only half our problem
The other half is being Esther, prior to her moment of reckoning. When it comes to pagan culture, Esther moves in precisely the opposite direction.
Jonah avoids it, caricatures it, condemns it. Esther accepts it, embraces it, extols it.
Many early interpreters and Bible commentators viewed Esther (and/or the Jewish community depicted in the book) as a type of the church in compromised, semi-pagan form. Modern interpreters generally dismiss typological readings of Scripture (with good reason), but as one who adjusts to a hostile culture, her example can be instructive.
She conforms to whatever standards the culture sets—dress like the reigning pop queen, subscribe to whatever attitudes are au courant—in order to look like everyone else, only better.
And here, it’s hard not to think of many mainline churches. In the recent controversy over same-sex marriage in Canada, entire denominations have aligned themselves with the spirit of the age. They want to be deemed beautiful in the eyes of the pagan king. The Anglican Church in Canada is even ostracizing dissenting churches and defrocking their ministers. The idea that the church should do anything other than endorse the culture’s current thinking on sexual matters is, in the minds of these denominational leaders, a throwback to medievalism. We’re in a new millennium now, is the rallying cry. We must move with the times.
If Jonah’s theological ilk were the Pharisees, Esther’s were the Sadducees. They valued expedience above faithfulness (or, more to the point, equated the two). The worst sin was to be out of kilter with the culture’s dominant values. Their highest goal was to reduce the lag time between the latest trends and their blessing thereof.
Of course, Esther eventually awakens from this. She realizes, in the nick of time, that the culture whose acceptance she craves is laying ambush for her and her people. And then, with savvy and courage, she finds a new way of living in exile.
But before that happens, Esther immerses herself in pagan culture. The idea that she should confront it, or refuse its wares, is unthinkable. She wants to be left alone, too—not by the culture, but by any sense that her primary loyalty lies elsewhere.
Both Jonah and Esther define two of the church’s reactions to today’s sexual values.
Shun and denounce.
Embrace and extol.
In my own church, I see both attitudes. Recently, I made a comment from the pulpit that the starting place for Christians to uphold the “sanctity of marriage” is not the courts but our own households. I cited statistics on divorce rates among evangelical Christians that put us pretty much in a dead heat with society at large. I talked about the high incidence of spousal abuse within conservative churches. I spoke about the widespread estrangement that prevails among many church-going couples. I mentioned the hidden plague of internet porn that is withering intimacy between husbands and wives.
Some people came out swinging: stop meddling with matters in here, they told me. Start condemning what’s happening out there.
Jonah.
On the other side, the statistics on premarital sex among evangelicals hardly distinguish us from all the other people on the face of the earth. And yet whenever I address this, a few folks take me aside and say, in effect, what’s the big deal? Aren’t there more important issues? A few kids are mixing it up between the sheets—well, so? Why fuss over that when we have a crisis of global warming, when the Amazonian rainforests are disappearing, when the sperm whale faces extinction? Recently, the Christian parents of a girl from our church tried to convince her to go on the pill. She sat them down and told them in no uncertain terms that she had no intention of having sex until she was married. They told her that was unrealistic, and she should go on it anyhow.
Esther.
What’s the alternative?
I think Daniel is our best guide for such a time as this. He stands between the extremes of Esther and Jonah. He, like Esther, lived in a time of Exile—Babylonian, then Persian. He lived among people mostly indifferent to his own convictions but who, when put off by those convictions, grew swiftly and menacingly hostile. He had to sort out his place within that culture: what could he, without violating conscience, say “yes” to? What must he, regardless of the personal risk, say “no” to?
Daniel had neither Jonah’s surly, haughty ways, nor Esther’s coy, accommodating manner. He had simple clarity and quiet integrity. Some things about the pagan culture—their education system, the political structure, their habit of naming you after one of their gods—no problem. Go to their schools. Work in their government. Bear their god’s name.
But one thing especially was taboo: king’s food. Of that Daniel would not partake. The food wasn’t wrong in and of itself. But it had been dedicated to pagan deities. To partake was to submit. To eat was to worship. So better to subsist on a diet of raw vegetables than eat the king’s rich meats and richer sauces, his wines and confections.
But Daniel and his companions did not merely subsist on vegetables: they thrived. They ended up more healthy and bright-eyed than all the other young men being trained with them.
We can sit under the teaching of our culture, and emerge shrewder in our own convictions. We can participate in the government of our culture, and bring glory to God by our diligence and integrity. We can be named after our culture’s deities (Mark—god of war!), and not suffer diminishment to our faith.
What we can’t do is eat king’s food.
But what is king’s food now? What is that element within our culture that, if the people of God participate in it, will ruin us?
I think it’s our culture’s sexual ethics.
What this culture lacks is purity. The church—especially Jonah—has not helped here much, because always we want to impose morality. Purity is to morality what intimacy is to acquaintance, what love is to tolerance, what oneness is to equality. Purity is not just a higher thing: it is a category unto itself.
I think we should stop preaching morality and start preaching purity. After all, no one wants to drink merely sterilized water, chlorinated water, water with a drop of iodine.
What awakens and then slakes thirst is pure water.
Daniel embraces the way of purity. He will not taint his body with what has been dedicated to another god. And if there’s a clear lesson from his story, it’s this: that is the one true way to win a pagan king’s heart. Everywhere Daniel goes, the king ends up acknowledging that God alone is God.
At our church, we call young people to the way of purity, not morality. We call them to be Daniels. Far from languishing, they thrive.
Not long ago, I was invited by an Esther-like church to do a one-day seminar on worship. I was surprised by the invitation—I don’t get many like it. The pastor who invited me told me that most of his colleagues were deeply wary of me, some openly hostile. He told me of one fellow pastor who phoned him to denounce me. He denounced evangelicals as a breed. “What has this man in common with us?” he demanded to know.
“Why don’t you come and see?” the host pastor said.
I came with a team of worship leaders and dancers, men and women in their late teens or early 20s. Only a handful of people had registered. Even in the church’s tiny sanctuary, they seemed thinly scattered. I kept watching for the man who hated me. Though I never met him, I knew him the moment he entered. He walked in like he was hunting vermin. He sat down, his arms locked across his chest. When we started singing and asked the people to stand, he remained seated. He scrutinized the words on the overhead.
After lunch, we led seminars. The dancers taught basic choreography. The musicians taught basic song writing. And I taught a basic theology of worship. The man came to mine. He sat beside me, spoiling for a fight.
Ten minutes into it, he erupted. A woman commented how the mainline church had compromised the gospel, and he started trading blows with her. He had a litany of evangelical crimes against humanity. The argument escalated, and the host pastor jumped in.
“Well,” he said, mild-mannered. “I think the mainline tradition is perhaps somewhat narrow in its ecclesiology and broadly tolerant in its theology. Whereas the evangelical tradition is rigidly narrow in its theology, and somewhat loosey-goosey in its ecclesiology.”
A brief moment of silence followed. I seized my opportunity. “Who here are pastors?” I asked. A few put up their hands, including the angry man.
“Let me ask you this,” I said. “The young people I brought today, do you like them?”
Everyone did, including the angry man.
“Are there many young people like that in your own churches, who are that passionate, that in love with God, that committed to the church and her mission?”
No, they all said.
“Do you want young people like these in your churches?”
Yes, they all said.
“With all due respect,” I said. “I think you don’t have them exactly because of your broadly tolerant theology. That theology helped abort a third of their peers. With all due respect, it assisted in a creating a sexual ethic that robbed this generation of intimacy and hope. It has driven most of them out of the church.
“My opinion? If you’re really serious about seeing this kind of young people in your churches—not just warming the pews but leading—you might consider being less broadly tolerant.”
I went on to speak about how we don’t teach our young people to be moral. We teach them to be pure. We call them to be Daniels.
“You can see for yourself,” I said, “the difference that makes.”
I looked over at the man who hated me. He was stricken. I thought he hated me even more. I thought he would walk out. But to my surprise, he came back for the last session.
To my delight, he stood when we sang. To my amazement, he opened his arms and held them like he was catching rain.
And he sang with gusto. “Great is they faithfulness,” he declared. I think he meant it.
Daniel tends to have that effect on people.
Jan
Job 12-15:35
I have always been fascinated with the eleventh verse of chapter 12. Well, not always but ever sense this verse spoke to me about five years ago, I let it roll around in my mind. The Amplified Bible reads as follows,
Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between [wise and unwise] words, just as the mouth distinguishes [between desirable and undesirable] food? (Job 12:11 AMP). Taken by itself this verse would just be Job making a comment on what he has observed in life. But Jesus stated in the Book of John in answer to Pilate asking Him if He was King,
… You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice. (John 18:37 AMP)
Paul spoke in his letter to the Romans,
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it). [Jer. 2:11.] (Romans 1:24-25 AMP)
There are at least three witnesses in scripture that imply or say outright we know Truth when we hear it. We reject Truth because we have made a chose to reject it. Our ears have the capacity to discern Truth. If we make a choice to be a companion of Truth, we will hear Jesus’ voice, not only hear his voice but listen. If we are not dealing in Truth that means we have exchanged it for a lie. To exchange something one must have it in one’s possession. You cannot exchange what you don’t have.
Believers and unbelievers alike misquote and mangle this verse,
And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. (John 8:32 AMP)
This verse is dependent on the verse before it, 31, and cannot be separated from its subordinate clause,
So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples.
(John 8:31 AMP). I believe that one cannot know the Truth unless you are continuing in Jesus’ Word, thus becoming a disciple. When you are a disciple then Truth will be known to you. This has to happen this way because Jesus is the Truth.
(John 14:6) Jesus replied,13 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.14 No one comes to the Father except through me.
I know people who have searched every religion trying to find truth, looked under every rock and climbed all manner of trees looking for truth. Thinking they had found that truth, they hung out with the false truth for a while, but restless and desirous of something they didn’t have, they continued on their journey until they heard the voice of Jesus. Because they were looking for Truth, they heard His voice.
Regarding Truth, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible states,
The truth – The source of truth, or he who originates and communicates truth for the salvation of men. Truth is a representation of things as they are. The life, the purity, and the teaching of Jesus Christ was the most complete and perfect representation of the things of the eternal world that has been or can be presented to man. The ceremonies of the Jews were shadows; the life of Jesus was the truth. The opinions of men are fancy, but the doctrines of Jesus were nothing more than a representation of facts as they exist in the government of God. It is implied in this, also, that Jesus was the fountain of all truth; that by his inspiration the prophets spoke, and that by him all truth is communicated to men. See the notes at Joh 1:17.
There is much to think on.
Grace and Peace,
Ramona
======= Sammy:
I think that it is quite interesting that both the writers of Psalm 39 and Job 14 have the brevity of life on their minds and that both readings should occur on the same day in our annual journey. I especially like Job’s description of life: “How frail is humanity! How short is life, and how full of trouble! Like a flower, we blossom for a moment and then wither. Like the shadow of a passing cloud, we quickly disappear.”
Maybe the Lord is speaking to us today to rethink our lives and priorities to make sure they are in line with Him. Just a thought!
Sammy
======= Michelle:
Reading Job alongside the Psalms reminds me how many of the psalms could have been written by Job because they reflect his experience so well. Life is hard, but our hope is not in ourselves, but in God.
Michelle
======= Jan:
Regarding Mike’s comments: “Old Testament – I forgot how much trash-talking goes on here in the book of Job! It occurred to me that all of this bickering back and forth between Job and his friends keeps transpiring without Satan coming up in their comments at all. Meaning, no one seems to realize that Satan is the one who has afflicted Job! And I’m wondering if this happens in our lives today as well? Do we sometimes miss it when Satan is literally attacking us? Do we blame others? Blame ourselves? Maybe even blame God? When the blame should be directed at the Deceiver? I think Job and his friends could have used Michael the Archangel to come into the picture here and whoop up on Satan like he’s doing in this painting below from the year 1518 by the Italian artist Raphael:”
The one very most important lesson to be learned from Job is this – satan only has the power that God allows him & no more. God allowed satan to sift Job as he does us – usually to help us to become the image of Christ. There is nothing that affects the true sons & daughters of God that is not sifted through His hands first.
satan is a “functionary” by a divine purpose/person/God!!!
I refuse to capitailize his name/satan – but we are advised/warned in the scriptures to give him/satan respect & rebuke him only through God & that is not always the case in this day & time. If anyone can find the 2 scriptures I refer to – would you please, I don’t have my Strong’s Concordance here at work & I don’t like the one online – much harder to find.
Jan
======= Ramona:
Job 12-15:35
What is a friend? Job has these three “friends” surrounding him yet he finds himself defending himself from their accusations. Not only is Job arguing with them but he is also pleading his case before God. Job is wearing himself out using his words as a verbal defenses. I don’t know how it is with anyone else but when I find myself in a situation like Job is in, I become both mentally and physically exhausted. Here is a definition of a friend that I’ve heard on several occasions and have adopted it as my own. A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you. It doesn’t seem to me that Job’s so called friends really liked him—their companionship was based on specific conditions. Job had to be healthy, wealthy and posses a wisdom they personally approved.
Am I a friend like Job’s friends—one that only encourages when someone doesn’t really need encouragement? When the money is gone do a gripe, accuse? Is my silence one of silent prayer and intercession or am I quietly imagining all the things they must have done wrong?
Grace and peace,
Ramona
====== Jenny:
Very good point regarding satan attacking and no one mentioning it. I have trouble with a coworker, i just cant stand him!! I always pray God will help me love him. I went off by myself today at work to pray a bit and was thinking I hope God removes him from that job or changes him, but then I thought, no… rather God, change me! But good point…its not so much this fellow that is driving me nuts, satan is using this to attack me. Its not even so much this guy, aside from him being highly obnoxious and intolerable, satan is jumping on this to rile me up, perhaps even exaggerating the matter. Is it just me or does there always seem to be one coworker who just gets on our nerves so bad. I always pray about it and 1 or 2 things happens, they are removed, or, more often God changes me and i end up loving the person, really adoring them!
so far with this guy i mentioned, neither has happened. i just need patience. its tough!
Jenny
====== Richard:
In reference to Job and assigning blame for his problems to Satan, I do not understand the original interaction between God and Satan. This did occur before Jesus’ death and resurrection, so maybe our advocate was not available to speak up for Job. Satan asked permission to test Job, and God granted it. So Job and his friends are right to give responsibility to God for the horrible suffering he had to endure.
Today if Satan is allowed in God’s presence, a disturbing thought, God could point out any one of millions of believers around the world and say, “Have you seen my child _____? They are washed in the blood of my Son and lining a rightous life.”
Richard
====== Patsy Ray:
My thoughts on Job: As you read the Book of Job notice how Job wanted to “present his case” before God, which was to argue with God about the situation he was in, instead of just seeking help from God. Isn’t this what we do many times ourselves? We know what we want to happen in our life so we go to God in prayer asking Him to fulfill our wants instead of just turning our life over to God and asking Him to take control and do what is best for us and all concerned. Job never denied God because Job never doubted the power of God. However, it was not until Job humbled himself before God and sought God’s help that his misery was removed and his life restored. To me that’s the lesson we need to learn from the Book of Job.
Mike, we’ve been reading through the Bible together for four years now and each year is such a blessing. Thank you for keeping this daily Bible study active. What a wonderful ministry you are performing for our Lord and Savior.
God bless!
Patsy Ray
======= Chuck:
I don’t think Satan just made his bet with God, afflicted Job as God allowed him to, and then just sat out and waited to see what happened. He incited Job’s friends to give him their “wisdom” and thereby torment him far more than Satan had been able to so far. In my view, Satan appeared to Eliphaz in the night, and Eliphaz’s account of the visit is from Job 4:12-5:1, where the quotation ought to stop. Who else could’ve been that spooky spirit that made all of Eliphaz’s hairs stand on end, who accused God of arbitrary and violent injustice? Who else would have said that God places no trust in His servants, and charges His angels with error? Who else would have taunted Job through Eliphaz, “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?”
That was Satan, stirring the pot.
Chuck
====== Art:
Psalm 39:1
I said to myself, “I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say.”
The Message advises in this passage to watch our steps and tongue so they won’t land me in trouble. Do we remind ourselves daily or even hourly to take heed in what we say and do? We need to constantly remind ourselves of this pearl of wisdom as we go routinely about our lives and business. Godly advice for both Heaven and earth!
Art
====== Mary:
Very cool project, I’m absolutely going to check back every day. I’m wondering if you start to notice ant correlation between old and new testament weekly readings as you go through them in order and in detail ?
I’m soon moving into a 55 plus Christian community condo Toronto but haven’t been able to discuss scripture in so long. Thanks for the opportunity!
Mary
====== Jocye:
Mike and everyone,
I really appreciate the reminder in Proverbs 21:31 (Amplified Bible)-
“The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
But deliverance and victory belong to the Lord.”
In John Piper’s article “Use Means, but Don’t Trust in Means; Trust in God”, he quoted George Mueller’s words, “This is one of the great secrets in connection with successful service for the Lord; to work as if everything depended upon our diligence, and yet not to rest in the least upon our exertions, but upon the blessing of the Lord.” (Narrative, vol. 2, p. 290).
Pastor Piper’s article also references these Scriptures:
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
His article helps me understand Proverbs 21:31, hope it’s helpful for others too.
Blessings!
Joyce
======= Judie:
I have finally decided to think of Job’s “friends” as his “acquaintances.” Where is the love, the support, the compassion?
Judie
====== Dee:
The enemy floats around and uses us as his puppet. We hace to make sure we lean on the Lord and avoid being a stumbling block for our friends and self doubting ourselves and what God has planned.
I love in 1st Cor : good conduct is corrupted by bad manners ..we must choose our friends wisely. They can be encouraging or discouraging and negative. We need ones to uplift us. Iron sharpens iron.
Wisdom is learned knowing when to speak and when to be quiet. That is one I am still learning and growing in.
Proverbs..Wild horses tread but our strength comes from the Lord. He is our strength 💪 ❤️
Dee
====== Vance:
Job 13 (NKJV)
4
But you forgers of lies, you are all worthless physicians.
5
Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom!
13
“Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, then let come on me what may!
14
Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands?
15
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.
16
He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before Him.
NOTE:
verses 4 and 5 make me think of James 1 (NKJV):
19
So then, [Know this or This you know] my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
20
for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
~~~
What an amazing verse! Job clearly does not understand what is happening to him, nor why? He knows God is in control. He may not have insight into the devil
“licking his lips with delight”, asking God to let him harm Job.
Job’s persistent determined faith is truly a precious thing here. If Satan thought he could turn Job aside, he clearly was wrong.
May you and I set our wills and minds in dependence on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God through prayer, worship and praise in such a way. May we be like Job, as highlighted in James 5 (NKJV)
7
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
10
My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.
11
Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Also, may we NOT be like Job’s “friends”, also as in James 5 (NKJV):
9
Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned [judged]. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
~~~
I Corinthians 15 (NKJV)
33
Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
34
Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
NOTE:
Job, in his particular case, did not choose to spend time around his “friends” during his severe and frightening trial. They came to him.
Yet, we can choose our friends. May we choose wisely. Life is like a spider web: If you gently push on a spider web on one side, every other part of the web is affected. Life is like that. The friends and consistent company we keep will affect our spiritual life.
We need to always brush shoulders with non Christians so they can hear and see the Lord Jesus in us by the working of the Spirit through us.
Yet, we need friends to inspire and challenge us to follow after Christ with all we have and all we are.
I Corinthians 15 (NKJV)
49
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear [NOTE: or, let us also bear] the image of the heavenly Man.
56
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
NOTE:
I like the note added on verse 49: “Let us also bear” the image of the heavenly Man.
May we set our wills and minds to seek the Lord in praise and worship so we do just that. The world can hear truth from us—and there is no lack of words in the world.
The world hungers to see the Lord Jesus in us as we live and speak in the power of the Spirit.
We can only “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” through the Holy Spirit of Jesus working through us.
Psalm 39 (NKJV)
1
I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.”
NOTE:
Words are never “neutral”. Words consistently spoken are believed. They are like seeds which grow up to develop fruit.
May we only speak life so we can guard our ways and our hearts.
Proverbs 18 (NKJV)
20
A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled.
21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Vance
======= John:
Job
I agree with Ramona. The Participants in these arguments do not know God, because there has been no revelation by God.
There has been no revelation by God for the friends because they have put God in a box. They have figured God out, and they “talk” about God. How many Christians today do that? Do not seek to know God through His Word, but are comfortable with their perception of God and His ways as THEY understand it.
Job is addressing God ( a form of prayer), asking questions, and today wants a sitdown with God. Job wants to understand, and is seeking God. Job wants answers.
This is different perspective from his three friends. And it just struck me: WITHOUT THESE CALAMITIES HAPPENING TO JOB, MAYBE HE NEVER WOULD HAVE COME TO THIS PLACE. Maybe Job would have remained in the same mindset of his friends. Perhaps this is not about God proving something to Satan, as much as a means to get “man” to desire to KNOW God. What God reveals to Job will not be what he wants to know – but it will be what Job (and us) need to know.
======================================================
JOB REPLIES TO ZOPHAR
Job is geting tired of the same argument being presented over and over. Strikes back:
‘You are so smart, doubtless the earth will be left without wisdom when you die.’ (OUCH) He understands the concept of God as well as they do, but they are not looking at it from Job’s perspective of misfortune.
The unjust seem to prevail, while I suffer.
Acknowledges God controls all life, and God controls the fate of nations.
Job wants to argue his case before God.
Job’s friends are “worthless physicians” and smear Job with lies – it would be better if you were silent – that would be wisdom (OUCH II).
vs. 15a “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” NIV or “trust” in Him. Job may be forlorn, but he has not lost his faith.
Job challenges God: withdraw your hand, and let’s talk.
Job’s prayer: “why do you hide your face” Used in Psalm 13, 44, 88.
Life is short and full of trouble, even the mountains pass away.
Yet, in vs 13 and 14 Job questions God with thoughts of death and ressurection.
End of round 1. Theme: helplessness of Natural Man.
======================================================
ELIPHAZ TAKES THE GLOVES OFF.
The more diplomatic one of the friends now turns to a harsher tone.
Job condemns himself with his own words.
Job has no special revelation. (NOTE: But in his own way Job is seeking that special revelation).
No human is righteous. Fate of the wicked is destruction = precisely the situation of Job.
So repent of your sin.
======================================================
What are his Friends doing? Accusing or comforting job. Satan is the great Accuser of the righteous. I am becoming more convinced that the friends inspiration for arguments is not from their limited knowledge of God, but that limited knowledge inspired by Satan taken to a “locked in” thought process.
Remember Eliphaz’s vision. Perhaps that was not a vision from God?????
John
====== Jan:
John, I wondered about that vision also – sounded a little demonic to me too. BUT…I have seen His eyes of fire once in a dream/vision & it freightened me; I rebuked it if not from Jesus & accepted it because it was – and He spoke to me regarding those eyes of fire.
Jan
======== John:
1Cor15:29-58
All kinds of interpretations on this verse.
1Cor15:29 “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” NIV
To me the key is – Paul does not say “we” here. He is not refering to the Corinthians. Eleusis, a nearby city, whose pagan religion practiced “baptism for the dead” may have had influence on Corinthians. Corinthians may not have practiced this “baptism for the dead”. (No documentation anywhere that this parctice went on in Corinth.)But they may have argued for it or put it forth for consideration at the “assemblies”.
http://www.carm.org/questions/baptismfordead.htm
If this is true, then Paul may be saying. Look, how can one even consider “baptism for the dead” if there is no bodily ressurection? (Paul does not condone the practice, but points out that the concept itself screams a “bodily ressurection.”)
======================================================
“Bad company corrupts good character.” from Menander’s THAIS. ca. 300 BC
Menander was a Greek playwright who often moralized thoughts. Paul picks someone the Corinthians would know to exhibit that they need to come to their senses. We are to be in the world, yet separate. Corinthians are blurring the lines and trying to mix the “world” with God’s Word. That is a sin, cut it out, and rely on Scripture. This worldly wisdom is messing up your thought process on the Ressurection. The key element of Christianity.
======================================================
“How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”
It is a spiritual body and it will resemble Christ. It will be different – just like a seed looks like a seed, but the plant that comes from the seed (after seed died) looks different.
Through all the comparisons Paul makes of natural then spiritual. I would just like to point out that again – in vs. 45 Paul affirms Adam was a “real person”.
I don’t know what the spiritual body will look like. If it is true that the universe has at least nine dimensions as mathmeticians and physicists utilizing “string theory” claim – then God must have at least one more dimension. In this case, no wonder Jesus had to proclaim or reveal himself when he visited disciples after the crucifixion. Yet they could touch him and Jesus ate with them several times. Stuff to strange to figure out.
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/11.05/MathematicalDan.html
======================================================
RAPTURE
Rapture concept comes from verses 51-53 here and 1Thes 4:13-18. Timing is not specifically the issue in these verses. Some Corinthians do not believe in the bodily ressurection, and Paul here says not only is there a bodily ressurection of the dead, but guess what – I got a mystery for you.
Mystery – some teach that mystery is something not revealed in the OT. Others say it is just something really difficult to grasp.
Regardless, Paul says,not only is there a ressurection of the dead, but those alive when Christ comes back will be changed (transformed). Paul uses “we” and as he has been talking to church – this refers to believers.
“We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed”
Not all will be dead, but all (dead and alive) will be transformed.
This will happen quickly (flash, twinkling) at the last trumpet.
Much has been made of the last trumpet, and who knows who is right. Personally, I think it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to make it conform to Revelation verses or eschatology in general.
Let me give a simple way to look at it – it WILL BE at the last trumpet. In school (back in my day)there is a bell to dismiss a class, and a bell to mark when you should be in the next class.
If Christ, the last passover lamb, died at 3:00 pm on Passover like the gospels say – then it is possible that the passover lamb in the temple that day also was sacrificed at the exact same time. (Time period ranged from 2:30 to 3:30 pm for the temple sacrifice of passover lamb.)At the moment of sacrifice – the shofar (trumpet) was blown from the temple walls. This would be the first bell, indicating the time to dismiss class (leave the Mosaic covenant for the New covenant).
So now we are in the period of the “church”.
Then the last trumpet here might just signify that this is the time to be in the new class (Heaven). Of course Christ will do it so quickly that we will not be late 🙂
Or the Last Trumpet may just signify the end of the “church age” – even simpler, yet still keeps the concept of the first trumpet being that shofar blast at Christ’s death.
Just a thought.
Regardless the dead and alive (believers) will be transformed at that time – whenever it occurs.
======================================================
Timing becomes in issue when you look at the victory over death here and “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” in verse 26.
I guess they could be the same, but they may not be talking about the same thing. Victory over death could signify the idea of death being conquered in Christ (for believers) since this is when believers receive “glorified bodies”. Death as the last enemy may refer to after the millenium – (people will die during the millenium), and finally the unbelievers will be raised, judged and sent to “lake of fire”. that will be the final vanquishing of death. Everyone from then will exist eternally – in heaven or hell.
John