Day 22: Isaiah 1-39

I wanted to post today so as to not miss a post. However, that being said, I feel like crap today thanks to my allergies. As a result, even though I most certainly did read Isaiah 1-39, my mind wasn't sharp enough to come up with something witty, profound or even worth commenting on.

Those of you who are following this thing will hopefully forgive me one day without a "substantive" post.

See you Monday.

Day 21: Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs

Two of the stranger books of the Old Testament...on the same day! Yippee!

The Straw Man

The book of Ecclesiastes has long been a source of confusion and even conflict in the church. When you read the book, much of what you hear seems to contradict what you know to be true from other places in the Bible. It is difficult to reconcile "eat, drink and be merry" with the narrow gate Jesus talks about, for example.

What is happening in Ecclesiastes, though, is a satirical "spoof" of the worldly view of things. The writer of Ecclesiastes caricatures the perspective of the god-less and writes as if he shares that perspective. The whole book, then, can be seen as sort of a straw man argument. The key verse in the whole book is Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 -

"That's the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do including every secret thing, whether good or bad."

The point of knowledge is to point us to God. When we let knowledge draw us away from God, we lose our way and everything becomes "utterly meaningless."

Love is Good

Song of Songs is enough to make you blush. It is the ultimate song in praise of love. It tells the story of two lovers and all the stuff that goes along with their love. Over the course of history, people have attempted to explain away the erotic nature of the Song by saying that it is really not the story of two human lovers but the story of God's love for humans or the story of salvation history.

Such attempts diminish the significance of the Song. The Song is a beautiful poem that reminds us that love is good. Love is created by God and given as a gift to us. In our world in which sex is casual and "I love you" is thrown around without a thought, the words of the Song are a welcome reminder that love is more than all of that.

Day 20: Proverbs

There is so much going on in the book of Proverbs that it is impossible to even begin trying to distill it all into one thing. The book is so full of pithy and profound sayings that it can quickly become overwhelming. That said, I did find several threads that seemed to run throughout the book.

Wisdom

Throughout the entire book, time and time again there are proverbs that refer to wisdom. Wisdom is praised over wealth, over possessions, over land, over nearly everything else. Wisdom is the ultimate gift of God. It is what true followers of God are meant to seek, to go after with all of our heart.

The question that must be answered, then, is "What is wisdom?" That's a question with a thousand answers - wisdom is defined as knowledge, sanity, good sense, judgment, and a plethora of other things. The challenge is to determine which of these fits what Proverbs says we should seek. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but I will say that it seems to me that the kind of wisdom Proverbs talks about includes all of the above.

Discipline

Aside from wisdom, the topic of discipline seems to be the most mentioned theme in Proverbs. Multiple times the writer says something like "a wise man enjoys discipline but a fool spurns it." It seems as if the writer of Proverbs wants us to be sure to embrace constructive criticism. It's not our first reaction to accept it when people criticize us...but wisdom would tell us that we should be more open to rebuke and correction.

That's all for today - I could write more, but my Dad's in town for a visit, so I think I'll sign off for now. More tomorrow on Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

Day 19: Psalms 101-150

Three days in the Psalms - longer than it will take me to read any other book of the Bible - draw to a close today.

You Wrote a Love Song for What?

Imagine if, on around April 15, while you were scrambling to finish your tax return, you ran across a friend who looked right at you and said, "I love the IRS." You'd think they were crazy. Then imagine if that same friend brought out a copy of a poem s/he had written titled "Ode to the Tax Code" - and insisted on reading all five pages of it to you. At that point, you would probably start becoming seriously concerned for your friend's mental well-being, right?

As absurd as that circumstance might be, it is rather close to what happens when one starts reading Psalm 119. It is a Psalm dedicated completely to the Law of God. For 172 verses (far and away the longest single chapter in the entire Bible), the psalm goes on and on about how wonderful God's laws are and how fun it is to meditate on them and so forth. It's almost enough to make you question the sanity of the author.

Yet there is something about the psalms unwavering dedication to obedience that is quite moving. Something about a no holds barred approach to God's commands seems attractive. Perhaps it is not the author of Psalm 119 who is crazy or who is going a little overboard or who is taking things too seriously. Perhaps I am not taking things seriously enough.

Pilgrimage Songs

In the latter part of the book, there is a whole group of psalms that fall under the heading, "Song(s) of Ascent." These were songs that the people would sing while they were on their annual trip to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and celebrate feasts. I can only imagine how awesome it must have been to be a witness to the singing of these songs - thousands of Jews traveling toward Jerusalem, each family singing one of these songs, their voices mingling together in a joyous cacophany of praise and worship to the God who had rescued them from all kinds of disasters.

Maybe that's what Heaven is going to be like - millions of people singing "songs of ascent" in praise to Jesus.

A Fixed Law

I am generally loathe to enter into the evolution v. creation debate. It's not because I do not have an opinion (anyone who knows me knows that I have an opinion on everything, even if I know absolutely nothing about it). Neither is it because I am afraid to engage in debate. Mostly, I stay out of it because I think it is a largely unimportant issue that has become too divisive.

However, there are times when I find myself drawn into thought about the early days of the world. Whenever I read Psalm 148, I experience one of those times. Verses 5-6 say this:

"Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.

He set them in place forever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away."

I see those words and the former physics student in me smiles. I see in those words a confirmation that the natural order of things was ordained by God - that all the laws of physics and chemistry are a part of God's creation. As strange as it may sound, I see in Psalm 148 a song in praise of the laws of nature and the God who established them. It was not Newton that caused gravity to be, it was God. We can debate until we are blue in the face about how exactly God did it, but we can no longer throw out the sciences and discard the input of physics and chemistry and geology and so forth. God set things in place and gave a natural law that will never pass away, and we have to incorporate that natural law into our way of understanding both God and the world.

Day 18: Psalms 51-100

I am nearing the halfway point - both of the Bible and of Lent itself. In fact, I will reach the halfway point of the Bible a couple of days before the halfway point of Lent. Can I just say up front that that makes me happy...very happy...because it means the readings will be a little shorter in the latter part of Lent. I have no idea why I elected to share that, but I did. Moving on now...

Not Just Pretty Words

When you read the Psalms, it is important to keep in mind something that I mentioned in yesterday's post - that Psalms is the hymn book of the Bible. Each Psalm functions in much the same way as a hymn does for us today. It is a tool for worship and for teaching.

I find that important because it helps me make sense of some of the words and phrasing in the Psalms. Like hymns, Psalms refer to important events and ideas in the life of God's people.

For example, just reading the words, "See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down," doesn't immediately make a whole lot of sense...until you remember that those are lyrics to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, a classic hymn of the church that (obviously) refers to the death of Jesus the Christ. Knowing something of the events that precipitate the writing of a hymn greatly helps our ability to understand it (another good example would be the hymn Amazing Grace and its connection to William Wilberforce).

Similarly, If you read: "I will wipe my feet on Edom" in Psalm 60, it is tempting to wonder what exactly is going on. Then you realize that Psalm 60 refers to a time when David fought against and conquered the people of Edom. Suddenly the reference to using Edom in a hymn of praise to God makes a whole lot more sense. Many of the psalms refer back to events in the life of Israel and a good study Bible will help a reader make those links.

Not All David's

My favorite misconception about the Psalms is that all 150 psalms were written by David during the time he was king over Israel. Unless David frequently changed his name or wrote under a pseudonym, that simply isn't the case. Many of the psalms are indeed written by David, but if you pay attention to the notes at the beginning of each psalm (I know - I usually don't either, but I've been really trying to read every word for this Lent thing), you'll find psalms written by a guy named Asaph, psalms attributed to the descendants of Korah, a psalm attributed to Moses and even some anonymous/unlabeled psalms.

There's no profound deep meaning (that I am aware of) to that, but it is still interesting and good to know as we read our Bibles...

Day 17: Psalms 1-50

This is the first day of three days in the Psalms...the hymn book of the Bible.

Extreme Emotion

There are some who call themselves Christians who seem to believe that being Christian is synonymous with being stoic. No matter what happens in your life, you must not show it. You must always keep an even keel. You must always keep your emotions pent up inside or, at the very lease, vent them where no one else can see it. After all, the argument goes, non-Christians might see you get emotional and be turned away from following Jesus. I know these people are out there because I have met some of them (and been scolded by them, too).

As I read through the first 50 psalms, I realized that these kinds of Christians must hate reading the psalms. It must just drive them crazy when they open to the psalms and see little except for raw emotion. Fury, hurt, worry, doubt, pain, etc. are omnipresent throughout these first 50 psalms.

Christianity is not a stoic religion. Christians are not immune to the events and happenstance of life...and the writer(s) of the Psalms make it clear that followers of God are not expected to hide their emotional reactions to the happenings of life. In fact, Christians do a disservice to non-Christians when we hide our emotions. One of the things about being a Christian is taking advantage of the opportunity to model healthy ways of dealing with emotions.

And the Psalms are a good place to start looking for healthy expressions of even the most raw of emotions.

Return of the Preferential Option for the Poor

In the first chunk of Psalms, one theme comes up over and over again - that God cares deeply and specially for the poor, the oppressed, the orphan. One verse stood out in particular - Psalm 9:18 - "But the needy will not be ignored forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed." Can it get any clearer? Is there any way to interpret those words other than as a factual statement that God will look out for the interests of the lowest in society?

I find two lessons in the constant appearance of this theme. First, there is a lesson of comfort for the person is poor and needy. They can take comfort in the words and in the knowledge that no matter what their current situation, God will one day vindicate them.

The second lesson, though, is more apropos to my own situation. There is a word of caution in these verses for the wealthy and privileged. Our time will not last forever. We will not be permitted to forever crush the spirit of the lower classes. No matter what laws we pass or how hard we try, there will come a reckoning where the poor are raised up. Perhaps we should allow that realization to affect the decisions we make today - and spend time working on lifting up the poor while we still have a chance.

Day 16: Job

Job is one of the more interesting books in the Old Testament. As early as the late 6th/early 7th century, commentaries were being written by great thinkers of the faith (one example would be the Magna Moralia of Gregory the Great).

There have always been questions about Job - such as "What exactly is the 'Leviathan' referred to in the text?" & "Is Job a retelling of real events or some sort of Old Testament 'play' meant to illustrate a spiritual point much the way the parables do in the New Testament?"

Add to that the deeply personal nature of Job and the emotions conveyed in its words and you have a recipe for a good book.

Worst. Friends. Ever.

Much of the book centers around speeches made by Job and three of his so-called "friends." Prior to the speeches, Job undergoes a litany of terrible events: he loses all of his property (and he had been very wealthy), his children are killed and he is afflicted with a bad disease. It is while Job is mourning for all that he has lost that his "friends" show up, ostensibly to bring comfort to their wounded friend.

I put quotes around "friends" because whatever these three men are, they are not real friends to Job. Each of them spends the majority of their speeches trying to convince Job that he has somehow sinned and brought all the calamity on himself. Meanwhile, Job protests his innocence. Over and over the cycle repeats itself - Job proclaims innocence while his "friends" pronounced him damned. It's enough to make you wonder why Job even puts up with these guys.

It also brings to mind an experience I had some years back. I was working at a church when I first recognized that I was having issues with depression. When I went to my boss to seek counsel, though, he simply asked me if I had prayed about it...as if whatever was going on in my head was being caused by a lack of prayer or some other spiritual misdeed. I distinctly remember what I felt when he said that - ignored, diminished and unheard. My boss - from whom I sought comfort - became an agitator instead, condemning me instead of comforting me.

Perhaps the moral here is that it is better to be silent than to say something stupid. As difficult as it is for me, I have learned that when I am in the presence of deep grief, sadness or other emotion, I am much more helpful if I simply keep my mouth shut. To be sure, Job's "friends" could have been better friends if they would have foregone their strange need to condemn.

Defending God? (Job 13.2-7)

The following verses stood out to me on the page as if they were in bold font:

"Are you defending God with lies?

Do you make your dishonest arguments for his sake?

Will you slant your testimony in his favor?

Will you argue God's case for him?

What will happen when he finds out what you are doing?

Can you fool him as easily as you fool people?

No, you will be in trouble with him if you secretly slant your testimony in his favor.

Doesn't his majesty terrify you?

Doesn't your fear of him overwhelm you?

Your platitudes are as valuable as ashes.

Your defense is as fragile as a clay pot.

In a time when we are quick to come to God's defense with proofs and arguments in favor of his existence and logical PowerPoint presentations that prove Jesus is the son of God, these words should provide a much needed caution. We have to be careful in our apologetics that we do not get off-track, that we do not cross the line in our zeal. It is not okay to do anything to win souls - we have to work within the boundaries of Scripture and of good morals. Should we fail to stay within those boundaries, we will find ourselves in the place of defending ourselves to God for our out of bounds efforts.

Day 15: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

Today is a triple book day. Three different books with lots of good stuff. In order to keep it short enough, though, I'm going to go with one observation from each.

Ezra: Mixed Emotions

In the first couple of chapters of Ezra, the goal of the people is stated fairly clearly - they are seeking to rebuild the temple of God that had been originally built by Solomon and then later destroyed when the Jews were hauled off into exile. The task was given to Ezra to oversee.

One of the first things that has to happen in any kind of construction project is the laying of the foundation, and the new temple was no exception. The people located the ruins of the old temple and began the process of laying a foundation for the new one. What is interesting to me is the reaction of the people to the laying of a new foundation. It's found in Ezra 3:12-13:

"But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple's foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance."

There were people there for the laying of the new foundation who had seen the old Temple - and they wept at the sight of the new. We don't know if they were tears of sadness for what had been lost or tears of gladness for what was being regained. What we DO know is that in the whole crowd of people there was joy mixed with tears. And that together, the sounds of joy and sadness mingled in a loud racket that could be heard far away.

Sometimes when we break new ground in life - relocating for a job, having a child, watching a child grow up, etc. - we experience the kind of conflicted emotions that were present as the Jews laid the new foundation. My sister once told me about raising kids: "You never want them to get any bigger/older, but you always love the next stage as much as the last." What she said is true not just of raising children but of life in general. What the people in Ezra 3 teach us is that it is okay to feel both joy and sadness...for both are part of life.

Nehemiah: Stubborn as a Donkey

Nehemiah was a stubborn, stubborn man. He gets sent by the king to re-build the city of Jerusalem - starting with the walls - and nothing is going to get in his way or stop him from accomplishing his task. Over and over again throughout the book you find people trying to stop him, to no avail.

They try to threaten military attack, so Nehemiah tells the people to bring their weapons to work. They try to convince Nehemiah to come to a secret meeting, but Nehemiah simply tells them he doesn't have the time for meetings. They try to discredit Nehemiah with the people by getting him to hide in the Temple, but Nehemiah isn't afraid and doesn't fall for it. The even try to discredit Nehemiah with the King, but that, too, fails.

It didn't seem to matter what his enemies tried, nothing was able to sway Nehemiah from the task given to him by God. I don't know about you, but reading stories like Nehemiah's inspires me to be more single-minded in my obedience and dedication to the task, the calling given me by God. Every one of us has a calling from God, something God has asked us to do. And I firmly believe that every one of us, if we approach our task as passionately as did Nehemiah, will be able to rely on the same God who protected Nehemiah from his enemies to protect us from ours.

Esther: The Great Unmentioned

Esther is the one book of the Bible in which God is not mentioned by name. Not even once. Throughout Esther's screenplay like plot twists and turns, you never hear a character pray or thank God or anything like that. In fact, on the surface, this seeming "absence" of God can make one wonder why exactly Esther's story is included in our Bibles.

Well, God's name might not appear in Esther's story, but God's fingerprints are all over it. The events themselves take turns that can only be attributed to favor from God. Though the reader cannot "see" God in the text, it is nonetheless obvious that God is indeed present. To me, this is the great moral of Esther's story - that God does not have to be mentioned or be seen in order to play a part in our stories. God's role is not always obvious, but God is always there. I may not be able to name or describe in detail how God played a part in a specific turn of events, but I know - it is obvious to me - that God is there.

In some respects, Esther reminds me of that old poem Footprints, about someone who looks back on life, sees only one set of footprints in the sand and assumes that God had abandoned them during those moments when instead, it was during those moments that God carried them. God certainly carried Esther and Mordecai through their lives...even if He's not mentioned in their story.

Days 13 & 14: 1 & 2 Chronicles

I confess that I am kind of at a loss when it comes to 1 & 2 Chronicles. Much of what is in these two books is a repeat of the same events that were narrated in 1 & 2 Kings...but here goes anyway:

Why "The Prayer of Jabez" is Flawed...

At the beginning of 1 Chronicles, in the midst of an exceedingly tedious listing of name after name, lies the now-famous "prayer of Jabez" - about which Bruce Wilkinson wrote a little book that became a phenomenon. It became the poster-child for the "name it, claim it" way of thinking.

The logic went like this - Jabez prayed that God would bless him and expand his territory, and God did. Ergo, if we pray for those things, God will do them for us. Makes sense, right?

There is, however, one major problem with this way of thinking that occurred to me as I slogged through those genealogies last night - Wilkinson and other Jabez prayer aficionados have made a big jump from "occasional" to "universal." In other words, they look at the story of Jabez, which merely says that God answered Jabez' prayer, and they assume that what God did on that particular occasion is universally applicable.

What, then, are we to do with those times when people pray for God to bless them and expand their territory and it did not happen?

I think it is important for anyone who reads the Bible to take care not to jump too quickly from an occasion of God's power to a universal "law" of God's power.

Interlude...

For those of you who are following this, I want to let you know that I have not forgotten to read today. It's been a crazy busy day, so I am a little behind...I will read 1 Chronicles today and include any observations tomorrow...

My bad.

Day 12: 2 Kings

I don't have anything witty or wise to say as a prelude, so I'll go right to the observations:

Patience is a Virtue

God is extraordinarily patient. That much is obvious from even a surface reading of 1 & 2 Kings. God puts up with king after king after king - in both Israel and Judah - who do the wrong things, who worship idols. He puts up with it for generation after generation without dramatically punishing the people.

According to the terms of the covenant - the relationship between God and the Jewish people - God would have been well within His "rights," so to speak, to completely destroy the people after just one instance of idolatry. Yet He doesn't. He gives them chance after chance. Occasionally in the process of the story, there is a king who recognizes God's great power and patience (Hezekiah & Josiah being the two most influential, but there were others, too), and the presence of these "good" kings seems to justify God's patience. Yet within a few years, the people and their kings are back to idolatry.

Even in the end, God does not completely destroy the people - He shows mercy even in this judgment, sending them to exile instead of to death. Many people read the Old Testament and see a God who is harsh and judgmental of His people. Yet as I read it, I see a God who is patient with His people, wanting to give them every opportunity to do what is right. And to be honest, I find great comfort in knowing that God is a patient God.

Because He certainly has needed that patience with me...

Revival in the Land

One of the most prominent characters in 2 Kings is King Josiah. Josiah was one of the "good" kings who did what God desired and who did not worship idols. Josiah, though, led a revival of worship of the True God that was unparalleled. During his reign, the priests discovered a copy of the Torah - the early books of Jewish law - hidden in the temple.

When he read the words, Josiah immediately realized that the people were in trouble, that they were in violation of the covenant and subject to God's judgment. So he took action. He demolished all the idols and shrines to foreign gods - not just some of them, every last one of them. He reinstated the celebration of Passover, which had not happened since the days of the judges - a period of many, many years. What Josiah did, though, that caught my eye and stood out to me the most, was to organize a public reading of the law and a public covenant renewal ceremony.

Sometimes it happens that, as years pass in our relationship with Christ, we begin to forget the "terms" of the covenant. It's not intentional necessarily, but the longer we serve Christ, the easier it is to assume that we know what's important to God and that we know exactly what it means to be in a covenant relationship with Jesus. I wonder, though, how we would react if we "rediscovered" the original terms - if we went back and examined again God's word and Jesus' life and all the promises made and judgments promised.

I can't say for sure how everyone would react, but I can confess that this Lenten Bible project is becoming, for me, a Josiah-moment. I am remembering and recapturing things that I had lost over the years. And I am hopeful that this rediscovery will lead to a renewal of commitment to the ultimate covenant of love I have with God.

Day 11: 1 Kings

Quick story from yesterday. Before church, I sat in the sanctuary and prayed that God would open the doors for our church to become more ingrained in our community, that God would give us opportunities to grow.

Fast forward to church. I get up to do the announcements and I look out over the sanctuary and see a young couple from the neighborhood sitting in the back; and by the time I finished the announcements we had a gal from the neighborhood who was, to put it nicely, a little tipsy, come in as well. Apparently God heard my prayer for opportunities...

On to 1 Kings:

Apparently, Stupid is Contagious (or Genetic)

As I read through 1 Kings, I kept running across one particular phrase: "he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." Over and over again, that phrase came up as a descriptor of the kings of Israel and of Judah. In fact, if I recall right, there was only one king - Asa - that escaped that phrase (don't hold me to that, as I didn't go back and actually count - but I'm pretty sure).

What makes it all the more amazing is the way that God continually made himself clear to the kings about what they should do. Take just one example - Jeroboam. Jeroboam became king after Solomon began to worship some foreign idols. Before he became king, though, God tells Jeroboam exactly why He was making Jeroboam king - because Solomon worshipped idols. Then God promises Jeroboam that, if he - Jeroboam - is faithful to God, God will make his family royalty for generations.

It doesn't get much clearer than that - follow God, don't worship idols and you will prosper. Simple, right? Apparently not, because a few verses later, Jeroboam is getting deposed as king...for worshipping idols.

It just goes to show how tempting (and dangerous) it is to worship idols.

A Quick Response

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about this Lenten reading project is the chance to re-read stories that have become familiar to me and find within those stories insights that may have eluded me before.

This happened to me as I read the account of Elijah versus the prophets of Ba-al in 1 Kings 18. The Cliff's Notes for the story are as follows: the people, led by King Ahab, are worshipping idols (see above). Elijah is a prophet of God and God tells him to challenge the prophets of Ba-al, one of the idols, to a duel of sorts. Both the prophets of Ba-al and Elijah will set up altars and place a sacrifice on them. Then each will pray to their God and the God who sends fire wins.

I have read this story and heard it preached many times. It is one of my favorite Old Testament stories...especially the part when Elijah starts mocking and making fun of the prophets of Ba-al. But what I have never noticed before is that difference between the prayers of the two "contestants." The prophets of Ba-al prayed for hours and hours - they wailed, they cried, they moaned, they cut themselves. From morning through evening they cried out to Ba-al, to no avail.

When it was Elijah's turn, he prays a short prayer (reading the words of the prayer as its recorded takes less than a minute) and immediately God sends fire to consume the sacrifice. God didn't make Elijah go into histrionics or play emotional games to get an answer to his prayer. Elijah prayed a straightforward prayer and God answered it. Perhaps there is a lesson for us somewhere in there.

Food for Thought

1 Kings 20:11:

"The king of Israel sent back this answer: 'A warrior putting on his sword for battle should not boast like a warrior who has already won.'"