Month: September 2022

An icon not needed

eejoseph

“But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

(Hebrews 10:39, NASB)

There should be no question who are those persons of whom the writer makes this picture of contrasts.

A covenant like no other

“Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord.” (Hebrews 8:9, NASB)

Why anyone might want to be likened to (a) Israel en route to Canaan (b) a levitical kingdom (c) a people deported is beyond me. We should keep our parables and lessons close to the realities such as a the house built on rock.

Better translation alert!

eejoseph

“My mouth is filled with Your praise And with Your glory all day long.” (Psalms 71:8, NASB)

“Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.” (Psalms 71:8, KJVA)

Should not common sense tell the reader that surely the psalmist speaks to others on many occasions and places a multitude of requests before God? His mouth is filled (niphal imperfect of male‘, מלא) with other things besides praise and glory.  There is no sign of a jussive (“let there be” kinds of meaning) as in the King James version.

יִמָּ֣לֵא פִ֭י תְּהִלָּתֶ֑ךָ כָּל־ הַ֝יּ֗וֹם תִּפְאַרְתֶּֽךָ׃

Better translation! 

The difference between the NASB and King James translation of the verb to fill cannot be reconciled. “Is filled” all day is bit over the top, and “let … be filled” is asking unrealistically.

My mouth keeps getting filled…from time to time.

Hosannah to David’s son

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David is an Old Testament figure and his sons are the kings of Judah with rare exception.  Still his progeny are mentioned twice as often in the New Testament period, a time when Judah had no Davidide monarchs. People in New Testament times are beside themselves in expectation of and reverence for a son of David. He turns out to be neither king in the normal sense, nor prophet, nor priest, but a sacrificial lamb.

God’s kingdom and civic obligations

24) When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” 25) He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26) When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.” (Matthew 17:24-26, NASB)

This deliberation ended with Yeshua and Peter paying the toll, to avoid scandal.

Yahweh and David’s son

Solomon should come to mind due to his distinct reputation as successor of David. He was responsible for bringing David’s dream to reality, and yet he devastated the Davidide standard by worshipping other gods. When Christ said “Someone greater than Solomon is here” oppressed persons were already appealing to Him for mercy and calling him “Lord”.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord”

Matthew 9:27-28, NASB

Neither Solomon nor the temple and its administration should come to mind after Christ displays the mercy that makes blind persons (not necessarily males) see. This approach to David’s son continued.

And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 20:30, NASB)

Receiving the king with highest praise

Mounted on donkey, riding into Zion, the word of God comes to pass. The highest praise possible concerns a saving king, not a levitical priest or prophet. The crowds and the children were not shouting “hallelujah” but “hosannah”, and not to Moses.

The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9, NASB)

Church is intensely private

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Scrub teaching, the communion service, and intercessory prayer, as inappropriate, from public viewing because Church of God – ekklesia – business is something intimate. When members of the church come together it is not for public consumption. It has to make one wonder what kind of accountability Christian leaders can report when the people they lead are at a distance from the appointed worship leader. They are distant from the Christ that they are naming, so it is no surprise that especially since the covid19 pandemic struck church is a public deal with most of the church’s valuables remaining unidentified due to private preferences dominating the flow of grace from Christ to the Church, whose focus can never escape the unity that belongs to Christ’s body.

My book and my second-rate commentary for sale or free

It’s really does not matter whether people are selling or giving stuff away.  Mass distribution of God’s word is abominable because the follow up to casting out the gospel net requires a response which ideally ends in conversion, baptism, and reception into a local congregatio.  Teaching also requires the questions of people who are learning all the examination of what people are getting from reading the Scriptures. Without questions and contributions coming from the audience the essential gifts of Christ to the Church are superfluous.

Gifts to the church

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [FOR HOW LONG?] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, [TO WHAT END?] to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. [WHAT IS IN IT FOR US?] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

Eph 4:11-16, NASB

In the snares of Satan

Churches have been manipulated into doing big public things that can only properly be associated with capitalism or Mammon, to use a biblical term, and they dare to call what they do “Church”.  If you want to see how obscene Western Christianity has become just spend an hour watching programs on TV pitching for money to help the poor in foreign lands, while on the streets of America, while in the congregation of those same “churches” there are impoverished souls who do not seem to matter.  They actually think that the righteousness of Christ has nothing to do with corruption in a political system or blatantly criminal behavior by elected officials.   Man! Has the devil got them! Some of these entities, trapped by the devil in discrimination and greed, are not even churches. They are loose corporate entities run by individuals in partnership with other individuals to enrich themselves. This is a well known fact.

Bodyworks the world cannot appreciate

In a local congregation there is an inevitable personal contact with all who come through the doors.  TV and radio can only hope that people who tune in will contact the programmers.  There are few operators who are engaged with the believer and the unbeliever in biblical ways.  The Church is Christ’s body in focused activity with the Head at centre stage and in first place in every situation. The world cannot understand much less absorb the proceedings, even when the proceeding is a ritual (Communion, for example).

Church business beyond the grasp of outsiders

As long as preachers and teachers think that speaking for 30, 45 minutes or an hour and getting an amen or even a nay-men from the audience something is responsible Christ and the apostles would not recognize the assembly. The point of teaching is to facilitate change in at least four essential ways: reproof, correction, training in righteousness, and equipping for good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NASB).

Church business that never happens in public or private

If somone is going to offer reproof, correction, training and equipping apart for what the Scriptures teach people will be at risk of being pulled in every direction. We should expect a biblical precedent in practice or plain teaching, and anything short of that less should get our nod. Sure enough people can walk into our service from off the street and see what we are doing, but they have no right to be sitting at the table with the same provo6leges as those who have confessed Chirst as Saviour. Nor can the instruction in Christian thought from a pastor mean anything to a person off the street. If believers want to keep hearing the same things over and over, receive no experience of growth in grace, then we can keep doing the public monologue. People bitten by the kingdom of heaven are curious, they search for answers. The discoveries are public, written in Scripture, for all to see, so let the two-way edification proceed in the privacy of the environment between Christ and his disciples.

Freedom convoy mask lifted

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How many more Canadians are ready to assault federal politicians using raw and unvarnished statements, obscenities, and physical intimidation is anyone’s guess.  Those politicians who have been careful to distance themselves from the freedom convoy approach to protest must be recognized as prudent.  The slippery slope of separatist sentiment and intemperate opposition appeared first in the Conservative leader Scheer calling his debate opponent, the then prime minister “a fraud”.  After the conservative-leaning mob’s siege of Ottawa, the face of wrong-headed freedom and opposition fighters is on display.

Beware, Canada, the ides of civic fracture have come

The increase of discriminatory and intolerant behavior sometimes posing as the indifferent expression of free speech will result in a spokesperson arising who will launch a campaign of purifying civic life.  Of highest value will be unity, even when that unity rises from the ashes of tribal and nationalist  strongholds. Conservatives will never convince their constituents that an honourable partnership between individuals (their voting constituents) and corporations is possible.  Corporate interests will always seek bigger barns at the expense of hardworking citizens.

Insurrectionist Canucks?

They will have an even more difficult time covering up their willingness to unseat the Canadian government by means other than the ballot box.  Going for the fall of the government from the first day of parliament is nothing short of disrespect for the Canadian electorate. Heck! Even the iconic conman, Jacob-Israel, has a change of mind and an action plan that reflects his humility and grasp of grace as a global need. Is it too much to ask opposition politicians to take off the mask of “freedom fighter” and help Canadians to enjoy their government? Nobody wants a devoted satan (killer, thief, destroyer) in their house. Sheesh, man, or shush man!