Daily Archives: December 16, 2012

Daily Bible Study

December 17, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

A Tree Awaits the Chainsaw
A Tree Awaits the Chainsaw

Nahum 1-3:19

     Today I read the book of Nahum. The prophet Nahum prophesies the downfall of Nineveh. The prophet tells us that God is slow to get angry, but He never fails to punish the guilty. None can stand against God’s anger or survive His fury. Yet, even so, He is a refuge when trouble comes and will protect those who trust in Him. The prophet asks Nineveh if it is any better than Thebes. He then answers the question in the negative. He tells us of how well defended the city of Thebes was, yet it fell to conquest. The same is going to happen to Nineveh. No nation will survive once it has aroused God’s anger against it.

Lighting the Second Advent Candle
Lighting the Second Advent Candle

Revelation 8:1-13

     Finally the Lamb that was slain opens the seventh seal on the scroll. Its opening was followed by about a half hour of silence. Seven angels were given seven trumpets. Another angel with an incense burner came before the altar. He burned incense before God. The smoke from the incense mixed with the prayers of God’s people and together the smoke and the prayers ascended up to God. Let us take note of this, our prayers are a pleasant aroma before God. I will strive to offer them more and work to avoid having them bear the stench of rotting flesh that is selfish desires.
     Today’s passage only covers the sounding of the first four trumpets. After the first, one-third of the earth is set on fire. After the second, one-third of the sea turns to blood and a third of the things living in it died. After the third, one-third of the fresh water became poisoned and many people died from drinking it. After the fourth, one-third of the sun, the moon and the stars went dark. There is a common theme here, one-third of the world is destroyed by each of these. Yet even after the destruction and terror of these four happenings there is a warning of greater terror to come from the last three trumpets.

Schtick Commences
Schtick Commences

Psalm 136:1-26

     Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. This psalm reminds us to consider all of the mighty and beneficent things God has done and to give Him thanks for them. In light of last Friday’s tragedy, this is an important reminder to us. God’s love does endure forever, even after an event like that. I will remember the good things God has done for me (some of which did not feel so good at the time, but were necessary) and I will thank and praise Him.

Admiring the Schtick
Admiring the Schtick

Proverbs 30:7-9

     The writer of today’s passage in Proverbs makes two very powerful requests to God. First, he asks God to help him to never tell a lie. Last night I was challenged on this by someone who did not even know they were doing it. A friend of mine was talking about interacting with someone who comes from the same religious background I do. He talked about how the person was very precise in the words he used, making sure that the meaning was clear. He said that it reminded him of me. I was both flattered and challenged because I knew from the conversation that my friend was impressed by the insistence of this person on complete honesty, that he would not even accept someone else lying on his behalf. I will strive once more, with God’s help, to never tell a lie, neither directly nor by omission.
     The second request is interesting. He asks God to give him neither poverty nor riches, but rather just enough to meet his needs. He writes that if he becomes too rich, he may deny God believing that he can rely on his wealth. On the other hand, if he becomes too poor, he may steal or otherwise insult God’s holy name. I am glad to be reminded of this as well. It has long been my take on life, but sometimes the desire for more comes upon me. I pray to God that He grant me peace with enough to meet my needs.

Opinion

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

The Third Advent Candle
The Third Advent Candle

(Edited to expound: When I started to blog about the events in Connecticut earlier this week, the pain was still too near, too raw, and I couldn’t get my point across the way I intended. Even in the best of times, I am challenged to compose and blog succinctly and clearly. Now that the initial shock and grief has passed, I can write with a clearer head.)

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel/And ransom captive Israel…”

I’ve sung this carol innumerable times in my life. Yet in light of Friday’s massacre in CT, today the song holds new meaning for me. I sing it with a renewed fervor that I selfishly never associated with it before (yet should have).

For years, O Come, Emmanuel was just another Christmas carol, one I sing along with, perhaps joyfully in the car by myself, at Christmas services with my brethren in Christ, or whilst caroling door-to-door with friends.

Indeed, many different bands and singers have done this very piece justice since its origin so many centuries ago. Perhaps one of my favorites of this carol was the arrangement by Mannheim Steamroller. There is a reverence in this adaptation that few other versions hold. With its haunting Gregorian chant and hand-bells, I heard it for the first time in the early 90s and have loved its beauty since.

Today I mourn with the rest of my country in the wake of Friday’s tragedy. Like others, my faith struggles as the joy of the Season is ripped so harshly from us. How do I go back to being joyous at what should be a joyous time of year when I am grieving? How can I celebrate when I am dying inside?

I turn to the Bible to renew in my heart the promises made good by God as promised (foreseen?) by the prophets thousands of years ago. I queue up the hymn and let its beauty flow over me as I seek healing, and perhaps, answers. As I listen, I hear an aching and an anguishing in the arrangement and lyrics I never heard before. I sing along with a heavy heart, as one would during a funeral dirge. While singing, I am reminded of Eowyn’s lament during her cousin Theodred’s funeral in J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Two Towers”.:

An evil death has set forth the noble warrior
A song shall sing the sorrowing minstrels of Meduseld
That noble cousin, who always held me dear
Now is held in darkness, enclosed

And I am convicted to juxtapose and compare it to this ages-old Antiphon:

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

You may find it an odd thing to compare Eowyn’s Lament with a Christmas hymn. We think of Christmas songs as joyous compositions. But there’s no denying the hymn and the lament touch on the sadness of death. The former mourns “the noble warrior” who lost his life on the battlefield, and the latter is a lamentation about the separation from God. There is a cry for deliverance from slavery (spiritual as well as physical), sin, and death. In the hymn and in Tolkein’s composition, both view death as a very sorrowful, and final event. (And while Gandalf does mention an Afterlife to Theodred’s father, Theoden King, in an attempt to offer sympathy and consolation, Eowyn’s Lament still speaks of a finality. By the way, this is not a bash on Tolkein’s works, nor am I diminishing the importance of the hymn.)

But O Come, Emmanuel is different. As I said above, there is anguish and heartache in this hymn. Many times in the Old Testament, we read of Israel’s sacking by Assyrians and Babylonians, and others. This is Israel’s song of oppression and captivity. It is a lament of countrymen, women and children who have perished, it is an ache for God’s deliverance. It echoes David’s plea in Psalm 13, which Phil blogged about this week:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Unlike the Lament, in the hymn, O Come Emmanuel, there is a message of HOPE:

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

In the fulness of time, in God’s own careful planning, the Son was given to us, who bore the iniquities of us *all*, not just Jerusalem, but every human being on this earth. Through Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection, “death’s dark shadows” were “put to flight”.

Indeed, there is victory in Jesus even in the midst of sadness and tragedy.

Father, God, thank You for fulfilling Your promises to us in the form of Your Son, Jesus. It is through Him, Emmanuel (God with us), that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. By saving us, He has given us “victory over the grave”. I pray that those grieving in Connecticut, will have a closer walk with Thee, even if they are not already believers. I pray, Father, that you give them healing and the peace that surpasses all understanding. Oh Lord, Jesus, come, and draw Your children unto You. Give them peace, comfort and joy knowing that You are in control.

“Veni, Veni, Emmanuel”.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Bible Study

Advent Season-Experiencing Joy

The Third Advent Candle
The Third Advent Candle

     It is hard to speak of joy two days after the shooting at the school in Connecticut, but that is usually the theme of the third Sunday of Advent. This morning the sermon was based primarily on Isaiah 35. The passage tells us that on the day of the Lord, the desert and the wasteland will be glad. It will bloom and burst forth into joy. What could be more of a wilderness and a wasteland right now than the hearts and souls of the parents of those children who were killed on Friday? I can not imagine how those hearts could ever burst forth into joy again. However, God promises, and He is faithful to keep His promises, that there will be singing and joy.
     The prophet tells us to strengthen those who have tired hands, to encourage those whose knees have gone weak. We are to tell those whose hearts are fearful to be strong and not fear. For God is coming, our God and your God. He is coming with divine retribution. He is coming to save us, coming to save those whose hands are tired, whose knees have grown weak, whose hearts are fearful. And when He comes He will open the eyes of the blind and give hearing to the deaf. He will make the lame to walk and those who cannot speak will not only talk, they will sing. When John the Baptist was in prison and starting to feel depressed because things were not turning out as he had expected, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One. Jesus answered them by saying “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” He was telling John that this passage from Isaiah was being fulfilled. Well if the passage from Isaiah was being fulfilled when Jesus was here, why don’t we see more of those things in the Church today? Let us get down and our knees and pray for forgiveness because we have failed to bring the joy of the Lord to our society. There are many reasons why Friday’s shooting took place, but one of them is because I do not spend enough time praying for the souls of those around me. That I do not spend enough time telling them about the joy of the Lord.
     The prophet finishes this passage by telling us of a highway that will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean and the wicked will not travel on it. Predators (human and otherwise) will not prey on those who walk on it. There will be no dangers on that highway (no drunk drivers, no people speeding beyond their ability to control their cars, no trucks careening out of control, no dangers). Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will travel this road as they return to the Heavenly Kingdom. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, even for those who have been victimized by a tragedy like the one on Friday. They will be filled with joy and gladness. I don’t know how, but this is a promise from God. Whatever the source of our pain and anguish, if we turn to the one whose coming the Advent Season is announcing, it will be washed away. Think about the suffering that Jesus experienced, is your pain greater than that? He understands.