The End... And Yet Not The End

Psalms 90-92

Just finished the last reading of my 2010 Read Through the Bible in a Year Plan... except that it was a reading from week 31 that I missed while we were on the Zambia trip. The last words of Psalm 92 were the  final verses for the reading plan this year.

Even in old age they [the godly] will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!

While half of a century isn't that old, age has certainly caught up with me this year, but scripture says that there is still fruit to produce. Next year, I won't be blogging on my daily readings, but I do intend to blog on some devotional readings that I've been meaning to get to for a while. My intent for 2011 is to undertake the Radical Experiment. If you've read David Platt's book Radical, then I'd invite you to join me and thousands of others. During the Radical Experiment we are committing to five specific challenges:

1. To pray for the entire world
2. To read through the entire Word
3. To commit our lives to multiplying community
4. To sacrifice our money for a specific purpose
5. To give our time in another context

What's the Purpose?

2 John

When you put 2 John up against Romans, you have to think that either the early church fathers were totally off their rockers when they put the canon together, or that there was a spirit directing their every move. Not saying anything bad about 2 John, just that it is not the same as Romans, but God has his purposes. What's the purpose for 2 John... a purpose that isn't met by any other of the 65 books of scripture?

... I don't know, but what if it is in those words that John doesn't actually write in the letter, but is going to tell to the chosen lady face to face. Maybe that foreshadows our own meeting with the Lord face to face when he will tell us those words meant only for us.

What's a Leader to Do?

Nehemiah 10-13

After having led the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and rededicate the people to the Law of Moses, Nehemiah returns to King Artaxerxes as he had promised. But when he returned later he found that the people had already reverted to their old ways... marrying Moabites and Ammonites, failing to pay the tithes to the Temple, despoiling the new Temple... what's a good leader to do?

About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair [...] One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence.

A good leader pulls the kids hair out... or the parents... hmmm! We are an ungrateful people, prone to wander and sin.

A Right View of Self

Psalms 143-145

One of the things that has always impressed me about David was his right view of self. While others honored him as King, David understood that God sees things differently... God doesn't just see the king, he also sees the man. David knows this well as he petitions God... "Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you." Regardless of how well others might think of him, David knows in his heart, that his sin will find him out before the throne of God.

Found, Missing Ark

Revelation 7-11

For centuries, explorers have searched the globe to find the Ark of the Covenant, but they were looking in the wrong place all along. Right there at the end of Revelation 11 it tells us exactly where it is... Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. If we want to find the Ark... we just have to look where God put it.

Your Eyes Are Like Doves

Song of Solomon 1-2

There is a lot of scripture that I don't get, but I really don't understand "your eyes are like doves." What is that supposed to mean? How are eyes like doves? Is that good? I don't know.

Perfect?

1 John 4-5

For some time I've been thinking that the church has sold itself short in the area of Christian perfection. Too often I hear teachers of the Word say that we cannot reach perfection this side of heaven, but the underlying insinuation is that we will always sin until we die. I don't think that was the message that John was teaching...

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

If we are children of God, then we will not continue to sin. There should be an end to our sin, not just a lessening... we should be seeking hard after the Kingdom rather than the World.

One More Reason For Diversity

Nehemiah 5-9

I tire of the seemingly ceaseless fights among some Biblical scholars over which translations are the most anointed or most liberal etc.. I have little room in my faith for their legalistic wrangling partly because each time I read through the Bible, God opens new verses to me that I did not see before, or seeing didn't understand, or even understanding didn't trust. I seriously doubt that a well-intentioned, suitably educated translator of the Word can do harm to the Word... for the Lord directs our ways even now.

I read through today's reading during a break at work today in a compact NIV version I have at work. In that version, Nehemiah 6:15 reads as follows:

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

It is interesting that it took such a short time span for Nehemiah to rally the troops to repair the breaches in the wall, given how long it had been down and it makes one wonder why anyone else did not have the same success previously, but we can see that the Lord's hand was on Nehemiah and that it was the Lord who got it done, etc., but the verse isn't as readable or personal as it could be, partly because the "25th of Elul" means absolutely nothing to me.

In the New Living Translation, which I presently prefer for general reading, the verse is rendered slightly differently. It goes like this...

So on October 2 the wall was finished—just fifty-two days after we had begun.

Now that makes all the difference in the world to me, because October 2nd is my birthday. Logically I know that I share that same birthday with approximately 1/365th of the world's population, but emotionally it means something that the previous rendering left out. Vive la différence!

His or Their

Deuteronomy 23-25

In general, I'm neither friend or foe of gender neutral translations of the Bible. My tendency is to interpret gender-specific terminology as gender neutral based on the context anyway, so editorial decisions have little real impact on my reading in this regard. However, there are times when the general context would seem to allow for a gender neutral translation, but upon closer examination... I'm not so sure it makes sense. Deuteronomy 23:3 is just such a verse.

The New Living Translation renders the following:

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

While the New International Version (1984) provides the following rendering:

 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.

I do not know how the Hebrew should be translated. In general, however, I would think that a gender neutral rendering would not present any problem with a verse like this. But when I think about Ruth and her great-grandson David, it suddenly makes a big difference. If none of the descendants of male Moabites are allowed in the assembly of the Lord, there is no trespass for David, but if no descendants of any Moabites are allowed, then David, the man after God's own heart, should not have been allowed in the assembly according to a strict legal interpreatation of the law.

Radical Belief

Acts 21-22

When Paul came back to Jerusalem to meet with the traditional believers at First Church of Jerusalem, he met some resistance. He had just given his report on the number of Gentiles being saved, when the leaders of the church at Jerusalem reminded Paul that many Jews had come to believe in Jesus, but they also followed the laws of Moses and would be offended by Paul's teachings. They weren't so much concerned whether Paul was preaching the truth, but rather that he was not preaching the old ways. Thus began the ending of Paul's ministry. However right Paul was... he was too radical for the old church. The establishment church doesn't beat radical preachers anymore, mostly it just hopes they will go away. I wonder how today's radical preachers will fare?

An Honest Prayer

Psalms 140-142

I like the honesty of David's prayer in Psalm 141...

Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.

There is no trace of arrogance here, just a desire to do right... to stay on the narrow path... to avoid anything that would even remotely carry him in the wrong direction.

The End is Near

Revelation 1-6

There is comfort in Revelation, even if there is also sometimes confusion.

God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.

 He is faithful to those who are faithful. May he find us faithful in the last days.

In Conclusion

Ecclesiastes 11-12

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.

After living a profligate, hedonistic life, Solomon comes to the conclusion that everything is vanity and that we must simply fear and obey God. Too bad he failed to do the same and teach his children likewise, for it was during their reign that Israel first split. Is a lesson learned too late actually learned?

Didn't Just Hear About Him

1 John 1-3

I love the way John's first letter begins... John wants us to know that he didn't just hear about Jesus... he saw Jesus, touched Jesus, heard Jesus, was in his presence... and found him real. Modern believers don't have the same opportunity that the apostles had, but we can choose to either lean on their experiences or reject them. In the end, that gives us much the same choice since many of their peers evaluated Jesus and his teaching and walked away. We will join John in proclaiming that he is the one that brings eternal life, or will we scoff and walk away?