Smite the loins of those who rise up against him;
strike his foes till they rise no more.
- Deuteronomy 33:11b
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
- Matthew 7:6
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
- Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Reading Isaiah 56 corrected an error in my thinking. I had always thought that God only became interested in the Gentiles after Christ had died and risen, with perhaps one or two exceptions.
I now know that God has always been willing to accept anyone who is willing to serve Him.
Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say,
"The Lord will surely exclude me from his people." ...
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to serve him, to love the name of the Lord ,
and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant - these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations."
The Sovereign Lord declares-
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
"I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered."
- Isaiah 56:3,6-8
Reading Deuteronomy 25, I gained the impression that I was reading not so much a statement of law as a series of verdicts or judgments.
In our society, laws are established by the government, and then refined and interpreted by the courts. Perhaps Moses was in a similar position - God defined the law through the Ten Commandments, and Moses found himself having to pass down rulings (with God's guidance) on how the laws were to be interpreted.
According to Deuteronomy 24:
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin."
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
Looking a this comic on gospelcom.net made me ask the question "Did Jesus ever play a practical joke?"
The bible doesn't seem to tell us much about Jesus's sense of homour. We get plenty of information about His other emotions: love, compassion, anger etc., but to the best of my knowledge, nowhere does it say "Jesus laughed".
Reading Revelation 20 today, I was a little confused about the order of things to come. It seems that some people will be raised from the dead, and will rule with Jesus for "a thousand years". So far as I can tell, it is those who are martyred that will receive this privilige. These will be "blessed and holy". During this time, Satan is bound and thrown into the abyss.
At the end of the thousand years, Satan is to be released, and after being defeated in battle, all the rest of the dead will be raised and "judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."
So, in other words, some people get the equivalent of university "early entry". Something to think about.
God commanded the Israelites to set aside six cities devoted to sheltering people who have killed by accident. (check out Deutoronomy 19) I guess it must have been a relatively common problem, if the six cities were populated.....
How do we translate this into modern day terms? In a sense, we provide shelter for all people who kill, either intentionally or otherwise, in the form of our gaols. The motives seem to differ however. Biblically, it was to prevent him being killed in revenge, since he was innocent. Modern day rationale says rather that it is for the protection of society in general, in case it happens again, and in punishment.
Two independent sources today convicted me of the need to expose those things in me that are secret - don't worry, this won't be the forum!
One talked about the way when you go to the doctor, you must remove any bandages or other dressings that are covering the wound. It is only then that both the patient and the doctor can assess the damage and take the appropriate corrective action.
The other referred me to Ephesians 5, where Paul says "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." (vv11-14)
As a christian, I often find myself avoiding any form of confession to anyone other than God, using such excuses as "It will hurt them too much," or "I wouldn't want to burden them with my problems." Nevertheless, God has given us to one another to help bear each other's burdens. Sharing our problems helps to keep us accountable to one another.
How much significance do the numbers in the bible have? Nowhere are they more prevalent than in Revelation. For example, see Revelation 13, where the beast has ten horns, seven heads, ten crowns, one fatal wound and forty-two months to rule.
If I'm reading John's vision in Revelation 11 then us poor Gentiles are to be relegated to the outer court - that is the place in the temple of God that has been alotted to us.
Furthermore, it is not to be measured like the other parts of the temple - I wonder if that is because the outer court is insignificantly small or immeasurably large?
How much of the old testament should we be bound by? Deuteronomy 12 seems to offer as good a bunch of (seemingly) antiquated laws as any - sacrifice, worship tied to one place, destruction of all the artifacts of other religions.
How should we respond to passages like this? Paul says we are "not under the law, but under grace" (Rom 6:14). Does this mean that the OT has been superceded, that it no longer has value? If so, why is it included in what we term the Bible?
Perhaps it remains only so that we may know what sin is, as Paul suggests in Rom 7:7ff. If so, should we be at least attempting to be living within the law as presented in the OT?
Interesting how easy it is to misjudge someone based on your first impressions - particularly when the only evidence you have is textual.
I have been reading through Isaiah, and had liked what I'd seen about Hezekiah. Here is a king who seems to be a man of some compassion, and to whom the Lord has granted a new lease of life (see Isaiah 38).
Today I reached chapter 39, and was very surprised to read Hezekiah's reaction to a prophecy of destruction, both against Jerusalem and against his descendants.
Whereas in Chapter 37 his reaction was to tear his clothes and put on sackcloth, now he rejoices because "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."
