Fallen Into Knowledge

A series of thoughts from todays reading:

1. Both Eli’s and Samuel’s sons failed to follow in their footsteps. Aaron, too: two of his sons offered “strange fire” before the Lord, and subsequently bit it. While Israel is consistently commanded to recount the faithfulness of God to their children, they are never reported as doing so. Seeing Samuel’s sons’ waywardness, Israel decides that the solution to their problems is to have a king “like the other nations.” Methinks they missed the point. From this vantage point in chapter 8 the reader can look back on the history of the Judges and see how bad that era was. Readers can also look forward and see that the history of Israel’s kings - in balance - is not much better.

2. Huh. In chapter 11:8 it says, “When he [Saul] mustered them at Bezek, those from Israel were three hundred thousand and those from Judah seventy thousand.” This is well before the division of Israel to northern and southern kingdoms, and yet they are here referred to as if the division had already happened. The editor showing his (presumably a he) hand?
(more…)

I don’t have much to say about Ruth apart from what I have already said, except that I am constantly amazed by the story - ever more as my familiarity with it increases.

Reading Joshua and Judges together was quite interesting: quite a contrast. Yet the seeds of the book of Judges are there in Joshua; little phrases, “but Israel did not…” These little exceptions quickly snowball.

Gideon’s idolatry (ch. 8:22ff) bears a close resemblance to Aaron’s (Ex. 32): Both made an idol of gold that Israel bowed down to. In both cases the gold for the idol was provided by the people, who gave their earrings.

Gideon is also asked to be King over the Israelites, beginning a theme of the book of Judges; to his credit, he refuses, “I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” But - he then makes the idol. And. And then he names his kid “Abimelech.” That name should sound familiar, there several Abimelechs in Genesis alone - each is a king in Egypt. What a name for a son who “will not rule over you.” Are we surprised when he tries to establish a monarchy?

Judges ends with two stories, which act as pictures of how far Israel had fallen: The first is of a Levite who is a sort of Priest for Hire - worshipping any god who comes along, and for meagerly wages at that. The second story bears an uncanny similarity to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In between the stories, and also at the end of the book, is the refrain, “in those days there was no king in Israel.” Given how badly the book of Judges turns out, I have always wondered whether the book was advocating Monarchy or not.

I have always wondered: if Rehab lived in the walls of Jericho, as was commanded to stay there in her house, and the walls fell down with her in them - you know where this is going.

Noah traveled the flooding waters in an ark. Moses passed through the waters in a basket (ark). Israel passed through the Red Sea into the desert. Israel passed through the Jordan with the ark into the Promised land. Passing through the waters is a “type scene” in the Old Testament: it marks for the person(s) traveling through the waters a major change - almost always for the better. There are others, too: Elijah, Elisha, Naaman, and Jonah come to mind.

I’ve been particularly interested in the cities of refuge (ch.20): they are mentioned quite often in the Pentateuch I’m not entirely sure yet why my attention is piqued by them. I will be on the lookout as I cruise through the OT to see when these cities show up: Kedesh, Shechem, Kiriath-arba (Hebron), Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan. Just look at those names: many of them figure prominently in Israel’s narrative.

{reminder: there are no readings on Sundays. The schedule is here}

The First commandment (Dt. 5) is pretty explicit about what counts as an idol, but the second commandment is really undefined, by comparison:

“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.”

Usually the word is “blaspheme:” What constitutes wrongful use? What constitutes right use of the Name?

Some wrongful uses, perhaps: making oaths in the Name, Speaking falsely of Yahweh - attributing to Him characteristics that are not properly His (theologians ,tremble!), Failing to attribute to Him glory due Him.

As I think about it, I am not sure the quasi-expletive “oh, god” falls into this category: simply put it confuses a class of beings (deities) with a proper name (Yahweh.) Saying “oh, god” is the same as “oh, deity and not the same as “oh Yahweh;” it does not specify the deity in question.
Am I splitting hairs? Maybe. But, (and this is a full-bodied but) we have often fallen into the trap of understanding all generic god-talk as talk about the God of the Bible. Some examples, off the top of my head:

1. Mistake: when our founding fathers spoke of “god,” they meant “the God of Bible.” Not necessarily true, and definitely not true in the cases of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.

2. The gods that show up in literature: Beowulf comes to mind. Yes, it was edited by a monk, but even still Beowulf is not a Christian text.

3. Philosophers have talked of God for a long time, and have special language for god: lots of “omni”s. This language has become the norm in theology, even, and we have become used to referring to god’s “attributes” in this philosophical language. The Bible is clear, however: not by our logic, but through Jesus Christ do we come to know God.

4. Also, see this (warning: academic language ahead!)

Also, I noticed while reading Deuteronomy that it is much more focused on the plight of the poor than are the other books of the Pentateuch: for example, the provisions for leaving the remnant of the produce of the field for the poor is expanded greatly in Deuteronomy (ch. 24:14ff).

The Pentateuch ends outside the land, and it is the story of a landless people. While there are references to some institutions that landed people have, the rules governing the People are rules appropriate to Exodus-ing / Exiled people.
Christians, in a sense are called to be Exodus-ing people, too. We are the Kingdom, and yet the Kingdom is still ahead of us. That is, we are called to live as God’s people but not yet in God’s Land. We must therefore live in and around other peoples and nations - in the middle of other social orders - while living differently from these. In that sense the theology of the Pentateuch is amazingly relevant to the church.
While we may not be offering sacrifices, we still have to cope with the urge to cry out, “Why have you lead us out to this wilderness to die? Life in egypt was much better!” For, truly we are people of the wilderness, and we must attend carefully to the words of God and to obeying them if we are to enter His rest.

Here is a short list of notes taken while reading Numbers:

1. (chapter 6): What are the vows of the Nazarite for? We get a exhaustive explanation of what they are, and what to do if they are broken, but to what end would someone take these vows?

2. (chapter 16):
a. when talking to Moses, they claim, “you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness.” They referred to Egypt using the language appropriate to the Promised Land.

b. at the end of Koran’s rebellion, a plague of the Lord is spreading among the people. Aaron runs out with the incense to make atonement for them: “He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped.” What a great picture of priesthood! It also reminds me of Camus’ The Plague.

3. (chapter 18): The priests have “no allotment in their land” but the Lord was to be their “share” and “possession.” We are called, by Paul, “a kingdom of priests.” Ponder.

4. (chapter 33): A long list of names both familiar and unfamiliar creates a sense of a long, arduous journey.

Leviticus is unrelenting. There are a total of five sentences of narrative in the book (24:10-12, 23), the rest is entirely taken up in laws. Dr. Sailhamer once mentioned that he thought that the experience reading the laws reflects the oppression of living under them.

I was struck again by how concerned God is that the land itself enjoy a sabbath rest - in chapter 26, amidst a list of curses that God will bring upon an unrepentant Israel, and after Israel is driven from the land, it reads,

Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. (vs.34-35)

(more…)

(more…)

Second day, second troubling observation:

After the people have Aaron make a golden calf (actually it sounds like the calf was his idea) in Exodus 32, God is angry. People die because they worshipped the calf that Aaron had made. But Aaron did not die, but instead went on to be the first high priest. Why?

I don’t know.

I do know, however, that the Bible tends to be a troubling book; and I must assert that if I wasn’t troubled after having read a chunk of it my ease would be a sure sign that I wasn’t paying attention.