Monthly Archives: June 2023

Rich is “More” than money

Posted on June 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

16 And he told them a parable, saying, (AF)“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, (AG)‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my (AH)barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up (AI)for many years; relax, (AJ)eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, (AK)‘Fool! (AL)This night (AM)your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, (AN)whose will they be?’  21 So is the one (AO)who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

If there’s an opposite to ‘cliff notes’ this post is certainly it!
This parable had so many Old Testament (cross reference) letters I couldn’t ignore them.  They were an insistent interruption to an easy read.  The Old Words are compiled together in order of appearance below. Read in that way they verify there’s continuity of truth in the Bible that matters.
Jesus spoke the truth He knew about what turns a “rich man” into a rich “Fool.”
All the references are footnoted at the bottom.

THE OLD WORDS
1  Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.  For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.  For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light.  Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish. 2  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 3  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. 4  There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,
5  Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 6  Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. 7  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. 8  For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? 9 Surely a man goes about as a shadow!  Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
10  He may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. He builds his house like a moth’s, like a booth that a watchman makes. He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity; he flees from its power in headlong flight.

1 Psalm 49:16-20, 2 Ecclesiastes 5:10, 3 Proverbs 27:1, 4 Ecclesiastes 2:24,
5 Ecclesiastes 11:9, 6 Jeremiah 17:11,  7  Proverbs 27:1, 8 Job 27:8,”
9 Psalm 39:6, 10 Job 27:17-22

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Posted in Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah, Job, Light, Luke, New Testament, Old Testament, Parables, Proverbs, Psalms

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Preservation

Posted on June 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

THE STORY
7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. 8 And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
THE KING
21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence…23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.
EZRA
27 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, 28 and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

MY THOUGHTS
A long line of Persian kings have remembered the priestly history of the exiled people and the dramatic intervention of the “God of heaven” in their past.  What is remarkable is all those kings, who’ve revered many gods have kept a fearful reverence for the power of this God to act on behalf of His people in the present…and…Finally we meet Ezra himself.  Ezra is a descendent of Aaron the first High Priest and the son of the last High Priest before captivity. He was born in captivity.  That history has been the bookends of his life.  He has never personally experienced worship in a place filled with God’s presence but he’s “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” and the king has given him legal authority to act on God’s behalf.

Ezra’s heart is generous to the king.  “Blessed be the Lord, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers.”

The king’s generosity has seen the value of his support for “the people of Israel” as the preservation of his kingdom.  “Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.”

Ezra stands “before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers” knowing “the good hand of his God” is revealing God’s steadfast love and power that manages the heart even of a pagan king — for the preservation of His people.

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Posted in Ezra, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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The [3] Loaf Prayer

Posted on June 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 11:4b-13
He said to them,  4“…And lead us not into temptation.” 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity [yet to preserve his good name] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” NIV

There’s an interesting combination of ideas in this chapter that begins with the disciples request of Jesus in verse 1; “Lord, teach us to pray.” And He does — right through verse 4: “And lead us not into temptation. ” The “threes” caught my attention because of this request being at “midnight” — the scary dark time, the “shameless audacity” of the request in question [that the NIV footnotes is “yet to preserve his good name”] and those “three loaves.”  There was only the one man asking and one guest so why “three loaves?” There’s three other familiar words in this parable that echo Matthew 7: ask, seek and knock! Those three words are the sensible basis of most prayers. They’re the parameters of [1] relationship with God that is based on His Holiness not ours, [2] trusting His desire to meet our needs and [3] His willingness to grant us direct access to Himself. Here’s a BIG idea to ponder about prayer that may explain that request for a third loaf. Jesus wants us to approach Him free from this flawed reasoning. “Perhaps we shouldn’t bother Him with our petty needs. Or perhaps we should come apologetically and timidly, afraid to let Him know what is really on our minds. Maybe once we’ve let our needs be known, we should back off and not bother God again.”[a]

Jesus is teaching us how to pray the [3] Loaf Prayer
[Loaf 1] Ask because of our relationship to the “Friend”
[Loaf 2] Seek the courage to persist in trusting He will respond
[Loaf 3] Knock because “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him…And lead us not into temptation.”

[a] Approaching God

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Prayer, Wednesday

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Divided Hearts

Posted on June 18, 2023 | Leave a comment

1 Then Darius the king made a decree…
2 And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written:…
3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained…
4 with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.
5 And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God…be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place.
…11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.
12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

Preparation:
The exile’s return created a conflict of territorial, cultural and religious rights between them and the people who occupied the land in their absence. Frustration, intimidation and fear have resulted in a years-long delay of building and divided hearts in the people of God.

Proof:
God has chosen the prophet’s words to overcome the fear and intimidation of His people by their adversaries and prepare their divided hearts to resume rebuilding the temple.
AND the the long-awaited letter from Darius the King has arrived with full details of how the project is to to be funded, orders giving the Jews full territorial rights to this spot: to proceed rebuilding the house of God without the interference of the cultural opposition to the project and the promise to return the stolen religious treasures from the original temple.

Provision:
The most interesting truth of this story is it’s about God’s provision for divided hearts to accomplish His plan.  He used the challenging words of Haggaia so His own people could recognize their hearts were divided by circumstances.   And there was Godly preparation for the divided heart of a Persian king to acknowledge that despite territorial, cultural and religious disputes with those same people he would issue a dramatic decree of accountability to a God he did not really know…”May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

a Haggai

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Posted in Ezra, Haggai, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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The Good Samaritan

Posted on June 14, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”  29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.  32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” ESV

This parable begins with a question, not out of curiosity but to test Jesus.  “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus is not troubled by being tested nor does He consider the lawyer’s question a sign of ignorance.  In fact He assures him that the lovely words he’s memorized from the Shema are the truth to live by.  I know all about having faith based on the “right” memorized words and how wide the gap can be between them and the power of faith behind them, until we recognize Jesus came to bridge that chasm with His parables.

Part 1: The Test — The Memorized Answer  — The Assurance
There is a hangover flaw of sin in the heart that makes us content to be confident in the memories of what we already know; to just put our head down and move along to avoid any messy, uncomfortable challenges.   But our challenge as students of the Bible is to dare to test Jesus.  Jesus’s challenge is to dare us to learn beyond our memorized answers.  Jesus knows our reality better than we do. His encouragement is to acknowledge the truth of what is already memorized and to create a new structure of learning that supports the desire to think and remember more.  

Part 2: The Attackers — The Victim
Don’t miss Jesus’s identification that these attackers are “robbers.” They are thieves who will attack an unprepared traveler without mercy to steal everything and leave their victims behind with nothing but their nakedness, and near death.

Part 3: The Priest — The Levite — The Samaritan
The ordained, respected one passes by “on the other side” to insure he will be clean enough to perform the rituals and sacraments required of him somewhere else.  Next, one of God’s own chosen tribe, singled out for special service to assist in worship chooses to pass this unclean man by “on the other side” too.  “But a Samaritan”…the outcast…is the one who remembers compassion and interrupts his own journey to make caring for this defiled, broken man his business. 

Part 4: The Unlikely Neighbor — The Result…Mercy
Martin Luther King noted that the priest and the Levite asked ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ The Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I don’t stop to help him, what will happen to him?’ a  Mercy that prompts action is what turns memorized answers into truth that reveals faith.

a  https://www.jesus-story.net/the-good-samaritan/

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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Not Yet Finished

Posted on June 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

Excerpts: 5:3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”…5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it. 6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River…sent to Darius the king…8 Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders and spoke to them thus: ‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’…13…in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt. 14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor; 15 and he said to him, “Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.” 16 Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.’ 17 Therefore, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.”

Stop! That was the order from the local authority of “Beyond the River” that brought the rebuilding of the temple to a halt. Beyond the River was the name given by Persian rulers to their province that included Judah and Israel.  The local authority was foreign people, aka “samaritans,” brought into this land by the Assyrians to replace the exiled tribes after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. During the years of exile they have become the controlling presence in the land and are determined to protest the Jews right to rebuild the temple.  They have no legitimate connection with Jerusalem, but they see themselves as heirs of the Northern Kingdom. They’re not a bit confused about the legality of what the people of God are doing but they’ve found a loophole to explore using the only bureaucratic tool they’ve got.

The letter to the King details good things about the work on the project using all the right words and then taints the truth of their words by asking King Darius to verify certain things for them. Did Cyrus really issue such an edict and does it limit the Jews in any way? Just asking. Is this letter a veiled warning to the King that he “let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem.” Is this persistent building of the Jews only the first phase of a larger plan to take over the whole city and undermine the king’s authority, and theirs? What has prompted my question is their odd phrasing in the last half of verse 16…“from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.’”

The Jews are acting as “the servants of the God of heaven and earth” and they have faith in the legality of the edict of King Cyrus that gave them permission and support to rebuild the temple on it’s former site in Jerusalem. Their confidence in those two things has encouraged them to resume building “the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is not yet finished.” The Altar has been repaired √, the foundation completed √ — and now under the watchful “eye of their God” there will be a new temple “and it is not yet finished.” Stay tuned, there’s drama to come.

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Posted in Ezra, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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The Sower

Posted on June 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

Old Testament cross references are added by current evangelical scholars and pastors but they’ve made it possible to see how influential those “old” resources were to the New Testament and to Jesus in particular.  I’m playing the role of “traffic light” today. I’ve copied the NLT cross references to this parable in green and added them in order of their appearance in the text.  You can tap on the link an it will open the reference for you.  Jesus’s familiar words are in red letters.  It’s a fairly new experiment for me to read Old Testament references as the “go-to” truth that backs up the New Testament, then “stop” and ponder how that old evidence is what makes both Testaments of the Bible one “whole.” The whole truth is Jesus spent his life learning the evidence of those old truths and based His simple stories for us on them…wrapped in the mystery of thought.  

The Parable of the Sower:
Luke 8:4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 (Isa 55:10 & Amos 9:13)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among (Jer 4:3) thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded (Gen 26:12)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so (Isa 6:9 & 10)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it (Isa 58:2 & Ezek 33:31)with joy. But these have no root; they (Hos 6:4)believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and (Hos 14:8)bear fruit with patience.

The Simple Mystery…
The sower has a source that supplies good seeds. Once given those seeds can’t be returned.  They must either produce fruit or they will be wasted.  Ground that may seem useless can be made to produce fruit that fulfills the purpose of those seeds; growth and nourishment.  Sowers can learn to prepare soil for the seeds and when that happens “The time will come,” says the Lord, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested…” There is one little catch that is the mystery behind the simplicity of this story.  It’s more than the simple repetition of the familiar activity of sowing and reaping that results in the growth that produces blessing. The mystery requires the sower giving conscious and purposeful attention to all the details of the process of preparing the soil to produce an abundant harvest.  The secret of the Kingdom of God is His good seed becomes mature fruit that blesses both the sower and the reaper with more good seed.  “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.“

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Posted in Amos, Ezekiel, Genesis, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Light, Luke, New Testament, Old Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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The Big Restoration

Posted on June 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

4:1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”  4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.  6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

Seventy years have passed in exile and now the “people of Israel” who have lived through the punishment of exile and years of slowly being assimilated into a foreign culture are finally “home.”  By the good grace of a king, Cyrus, they can rebuild the temple and once again be able to offer the sacrifices of their heart to God in His dedicated house.  Now they’re faced with a new problem; who are the foreigners here?  The “people of the land,” the who have occupied this place for 70 years are accusing them of being the foreigners and disputing the edict of the king that made their homecoming possible. The years of exile have resulted in the loss of their identity as “the people of Israel” in the eyes of their adversaries.  Now they are only “the people of Judah.”  That’s a subtle and discouraging slur.

Some who still remember witnessing the destruction of that first Holy temple have returned with hope that rebuilding this temple will restore God’s glory to all Israel while others born during the time of exile have only heard the stories of that historical glory and have come longing to finally experience God’s glory for themselves in a proper place of worship.  They’re “home” now but discouraged, outnumbered and surrounded by occupiers on all sides.

It’s true, they’ve  returned to rebuild the temple, but the big restoration God has planned for them is more than a new building on this holy site.  It’s purpose is greater than walls that identify their territorial rights as the “people of Israel.”  God has restored these exiles to establish this new temple as a visible sign to the people of the land that the glory of God is made visible through their efforts to reveal their true identity as the “people of  the Lord, the God of Israel.”

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Posted in Ezra, Light, Old Testament, Sunday

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