Monthly Archives: June 2019

Daily Bible Study

June 11, 2019 Bible Study — Dealing With Depression

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 6-10.

Job responds to Eliphaz by asking rhetorically if he does not have the right to cry out in pain when he suffers, a right to complain about the pain he experiences.  He then answers his own question by giving examples from nature.  He goes on to tell Eliphaz that his attempt at comfort was no comfort at all.  But he takes Eliphaz’s advice and lays his case before God.  However, Job goes beyond crying out to God for relief.  He accuses God of tormenting him.  Which brings us to Bildad’s response to Job.  Bildad accuses Job of claiming that God is unjust and tells him that if his children died because they were guilty of some grave sin.  Even if it is true, telling that to a grieving parent serves no useful purpose.  Worse still, Bildad uses that as a jumping off point to tell Job that all he has to do to be restored to fortune and happiness is turn from his sins and seek God.  By doing so, Bildad implies that the only reason Job is suffering is because he sinned.

Job replies to Bildad by pointing out that even if he put on a happy face as Eliphaz had suggested his pain would still be there; he would still be suffering.  He points out that while God does things too marvelous to understand, that is the problem; those things are too marvelous to understand.  We know that he does these things, we even see them being done, but we cannot see God, nor understand why He does what He does.  As a result we cannot reason with God, because we do not understand Him. Job points out that there is a disconnect between our understanding and God’s.  Then Job makes a most insightful statement: if only there was a mediator between man and God who could translate God’s thoughts so that we could understand each other.   And we have such a mediator in Jesus Christ.  

A little further on in his cry to God Job says something else very insightful, something which reflects a worldview basic to the Bible.  The New International Version translates Job 10:10-11 as:<blockquote>Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese,
 clothe me with skin and flesh
    and knit me together with bones and sinews?</blockquote>

God did indeed form each and everyone of us.  So, only God has the right to decide when our lives will come to their end.  This understanding forms the basis for the prohibition against child sacrifice, or human sacrifice of any kind.  Here it is the basis for Job’s complaint: did God form him merely to make him suffer?  And yet Job wonders why God would have allowed him to be born if his only purpose was to suffer.  

I have never truly suffered from depression, but every time I read the Book of Job I feel even more strongly that reading it offers relief from that malady.    The Book of Job does not offer an easy answer to suffering.  In fact it tells us that there is no easy answer.  Which should offer some relief to those who are suffering and do not understand why.

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2019 Bible Study — How Do We Deal With Suffering? And How Do We Comfort Those Who Suffer?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

There are a lot of things that can be learned from studying the opening chapters of the Book of Job.  I want to focus on Job’s response to suffering misfortune.  When Job received news that he had lost all of his worldly possessions and that his children had been killed in a disaster, all on the same day, he threw himself on the ground in grief and worshiped God.  Then later when he was struck with a terrible illness and his wife advised him to curse God and die, he declined to do so.  Job was willing to accept both the good and the bad which came from God.  Job continued to worship and praise God even as he suffered.  Doing so is not easy and human nature spurs us to do as Job’s wife advised, but following Job’s example will bring us joy in due time.

Eventually, Job expressed the wish that he had never been born.  Such a response to suffering such as Job’s is perfectly understandable.  Job’s friend Eliphaz felt a need to respond to his friend’s deep depression, which is only natural.  We need to read what Eliphaz says here in light of the fact that at the end of this book God takes him to task for what he said to Job.  And here I find it quite clear what Eliphaz did wrong.  He begins by telling Job that he is wrong to be depressed by what he is experiencing.  Even the good advice which Eliphaz gives in the middle of this monologue becomes a sort of condemnation because of the rest of what he says.  Certainly it is good advice to suggest that those who suffer depression, whether they do so in isolation or as a result of other suffering, take it to God, because God has indeed done wonderful things which are too marvelous to understand, but Eliphaz worded his suggestion so as to imply that Job had not already done so.  In a way. Eliphaz’s response to Job suggests that Job’s suffering is not real.  When we encounter those who are suffering, we should strive to remember that their suffering is real, even if the cause may not be.  Perhaps Eliphaz meant to suggest to Job that pretending to be happy would help his situation.  That would not have been bad advice, sometimes pretending to feel a particular emotion will cause us to feel that emotion.  It probably would not have helped in this case.  I will repeat that Eliphaz was wrong to suggest that Job was in the wrong for feeling badly about the suffering he was enduring.

Daily Bible Study

June 9, 2019 Bible Study — Dueling Edicts

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Esther 8-10.

In order to fully understand how the edict which Mordecai composed worked to counter that which Haman had sent out I needed to go back and read what was recorded in chapter 3 about Haman’s edict.  The two edicts were remarkably similar.  Haman’s edict ordered that all of the Jews, men, women, and children, be killed on one day and that those who killed them would be given their property.  Mordecai’s edict gave the Jews the permission to defend themselves by killing those who attacked them or their kin and take their property.  Haman’s edict caused confusion, people did not understand why the Jews were targeted.  I perceive two reasons for the success of Mordecai’s edict.  The first being that Mordecai was alive and in a position of power when the two edicts went into effect, while Haman had been executed.  Everyone would have understood that the king may have officially issued both edicts, but he stood behind that of Mordecai, not that of Haman.  The second is a little more nebulous.  People were uncomfortable with Haman’s edict, which called for the murder of women and children.  Mordecai’s edict on the other hand only called for the death of those who threatened the lives of Jews.  Another key factor in how things turned out: Mordecai’s edict allowed the Jews to take the property of their enemies but they did not do so.   

 

 

 

Daily Bible Study

June 8, 2019 Bible Study — There Is Purpose In Why We Find Ourselves In the Position We Are In

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Esther 4-7.

The exchange between Mordecai and Esther contains themes we can all understand.  Mordecai publicly mourned over the threat to the Jewish people posed by the edict Haman had issued.  We have lost a sense for petitioning God in the way that Mordecai was doing here.  Throughout the Old Testament we see numerous examples of this sort of prayer and petition to God.  I am not even sure how to give a generalized description for what they did, for what Mordecai was doing here.  It seems to me that Mordecai spent the time he would normally have spent on his personal grooming crying out to God for rescue. And because he was not going to take any care of his clothes, he wore only the cheapest possible clothes.   I was not planning on going this direction with this, but as I read the passage and began writing I felt a need to write about it.  As a society today we could use a revival of this very public abandonment of decor in order to cry out to God, whether in repentance for our sins, or for rescue from our troubles.

Now, back to the point I was going to make before I took that detour.  When Mordecai asked Esther to use her position to address the threat to her people, she was reluctant to approach the king.  To be precise, she was afraid to do so.  I can only imagine Esther thinking, “Why me? Why do i need to do this? Couldn’t someone else do it?”  Mordecai’s response to Esther was a message we all need to hear, “You are where you are because God put you there for this very purpose.  If you don’t do it, God will use someone else, but this is your purpose in life.”   We can all sympathize with Esther’s dilemma, hopefully we will also act as she did.   When Esther decided to act, she asked her support group to fast and pray for God to guide her actions and intervene on her behalf.

I want to make one final point about the contrast between Haman and Mordecai.  Haman sought glory and recognition.  His actions were intended to advance himself.  Haman was angry because Mordecai did not stroke his ego and was not afraid of him.  He acted in ways to increase his importance and in order to make sure everyone knew how important he was.  Mordecai, on the other hand was humble.  He had saved the king from assassination and then went on about his business without any special recognition.  Haman’s arrogance and pride led to his downfall, while Mordecai’s humility led to his elecation.

Daily Bible Study

June 7, 2019 Bible Study — Setting the Stage

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Esther 1-3.

The Book of Esther is in many ways a perfect model for storytelling.  Each of the first three chapters is a self-contained story which sets up the one which follows.   Each one of them contains lessons we can learn from.  The first chapter can be used to illustrate many mistakes which can be made in a marriage relationship.  However, I believe that only one of them was put there on purpose by the writer.  Herodotus wrote that when the Persians had a big decision to make they would get drunk and debate what should be done.  Then when they sobered up they would review their decision, and only if it still seemed like a good idea would they implement it.  In this story, King Xerxes and his advisers made a decision while they were drunk, and immediately implemented it.  The decision making process described by Herodotus may have some merit, if used carefully.  The decision making process described here will lead to many regrets, as we see in the next chapter.

The second chapter builds upon the first.  King Xerxes came to regret his decision to depose Queen Vashti.  His advisers came up with a plan to avoid losing their position for giving him advice he regretted.  Again, there are many lessons which this passage can be used to illustrate, but there are only two  to which I want to pay particular attention.  When Esther was brought into the king;s harem, she was humble and friendly.  She acted in a manner which earned her the friendship of the eunuch in charge of the king’s harem.  She could have been haughty and dismissive of the eunuch as many beautiful women would have done.  Or she could have been resentful and angry towards him, as many other women would do in a similar situation.  (Note: I am not saying that these are failings which are unique to women).  Instead, Esther acted in a way which earned the man’s friendship.  Then when she was called to the king’s bed, she took the eunuch’s advice.  She did not connive or scheme how she could manipulate the king.  Once gain she displayed humility and friendliness, which earned her the king’s favor.

The first two chapters were introduction.  They set the stage.  Here in the third chapter the story actually starts.  The chapter begins by introducing the last of its characters, Haman.  The first thing we come across is that Mordecai got away with not obeying the king’s command to bow to Haman, which brings us to the second lesson from the second chapter.  Mordecai could do this because he had demonstrated his loyalty to the king by revealing a plot to assassinate the king.  If Haman had tried to punish Mordecai, he would have been revealed as the petty man that he was and because Mordecai had revealed his loyalty to the king previously doing so might have also cost him his postion.  So, when Haman realized that he could not make a direct example of Mordecai, he sought another way to make him pay.  And Haman had the power and cunning to pull off this plan.  He was able to convince the king, through slander and bribery, to allow him to order the death of all of the Jews, which only “incidentally” included loyal Mordecai.  Which gives us a fourth lesson.  Standing up to powerful people may cost us a price we did not anticipate.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2019 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 11-13.

Earlier in the Book of Nehemiah, when the wall around Jerusalem was first completed, Nehemiah had noted that few people lived within the city and most of those who did were government officials.  At no point does it explicitly address this, but the implication was that there were not enough people in the city for it to be economically viable.  Today’s passage begins with the solution Nehemiah came up with to this problem.  He had the Returned Exiles living in villages outside of Jerusalem all draw lots for a few from each village to move to Jerusalem.  Those who remained in the villages provided support so that those who moved to Jerusalem could afford to do so.  This provides a model upon which much modern missionary work is supported.

The Book of Nehemiah ends with what appears to be a hard-line approach to Jews marrying non-Jews, or even to non-Jews joining and becoming part of the Jewish people.  When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and resumed his governorship over Judea, he expelled all of those of foreign descent from the assembly.  However, this took place after it was discovered that the priest put in charge of the Temple storerooms had made one of the larger storerooms available to Tobiah for storage.  Tobiah was one of the non-Jewish local officials who had opposed Nehemiah’s restoration of Jerusalem.  The storeroom turned over for Tobiah’s use had been intended as a storage room for offerings given for the support of priests and Levites working in the Temple.  As a result of its misappropriation many of the Levites had been forced to leave Temple service in order to support themselves.  In addition, in Nehemiah’s absence many of the leaders of the Jewish people had resumed doing business on the Sabbath, despite having signed the “confession of faith” where they stated they would not do so.  So, overall, this hard-line stance came in response to the fact that rather than demanding that those who wished to join with them in worshiping God abandon all of their pagan practices, the Jewish people had begun adopting some of those practices.  I want to note that it is likely that Tobiah wanted a room in the Temple to store his goods because by doing so he could bypass taxes on those goods.  

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2019 Bible Study The People Confess Their Sins and Make a Plan To Do Better

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

A few weeks after completing the Festival of Shelters the Returned Exiles gathered once more in an assembly.  This time they gathered to grieve over and confess the sins of themselves and their ancestors.  As part of this exercise they stood and listened to a reading of the entire Book of the Law which took three hours.  Then when the reading was completed they spent three more hours standing there confessing their sins and worshiping God.  The passage does not describe what that was like, but I have an image of what happened based on the prayer of confession which the Levitical leasers prayed.  I imagine that the leaders read out excerpts from Exodus through Chronicles of the sins which the people of Israel had committed, interspersed with songs and opportunities for the people to think over their own lives and how they had failed to obey God’s Laws just as their ancestors had failed.  As part of their confession they acknowledged that God had repeatedly given their ancestors opportunities, which they and their ancestors had squandered in their wickedness.

At the conclusion of this six hour service the leaders of the people presented a document which they had prepared to the people.  This document was a confession of faith which the leaders had all signed and which they called on the people to affirm.  This confession of faith highlighted areas where they believed that failure would lead to all of the other sins which they and their ancestors had committed.  Further they believed that following the practices laid out in the document would make them and their descendants more likely to obey all of God’s commands.  So, they did not just grieve over what they had done wrong.  They made a plan to do better and committed themselves to follow that plan.  To my mind the confession of faith had three key elements.  First, they agreed not to intermarry with those who did not subscribe to this confession of faith.  Second, while they would not prevent outsiders from doing business on the Sabbath, they would not do so themselves, not even with those outsiders.  Third, they committed themselves to an annual tax for the maintenance of the Temple and its priests.   

Daily Bible Study

June 4, 2019 Bible Study — The Returned Exiles Celebrate the Festival of Shelters

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 7-8.

When the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt, Nehemiah delegated governing the city to his brother and another trusted subordinate.  Reading the instructions he gave them suggests that he wanted Jerusalem to be like a gated community.  No one to be allowed into the city without giving a valid reason for doing so.  Further, he set up what sounds an awful lot like a neighborhood watch for the entire city: “Appoint the residents of Jerusalem to act as guards, everyone on a regular watch. Some will serve at sentry posts and some in front of their own homes.”  This leads me further down my interpretation about the Returned Exiles having once before this rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.  The walls and gates had been destroyed because a criminal element had been coming in and out of Jerusalem, using its lack of secure governance as a way to launder stolen goods and bypass taxes.  Related to that, I think that was why Nehemiah registered who actually lived in the city.  I think when the walls were completed and everyone had to pass through a check point where they were identified that he was surprised to realize how few people actually lived in the city.  This made him realize that many of those who had seemed to fill the city were doing things for which they would prefer no one knew they were in the city. 

Once the project to restore security to Jerusalem was completed and the workers from outside of Jerusalem had had a chance to put their lives back in order, the Returned Exiles gathered once more in Jerusalem for a festival.  As part of the gathering, Ezra the priest read the Law of Moses to the people and explained what God commanded them to do in it.  The people responded in much the same way that King Josiah had before the Exile.  They mourned the failure of themselves and their ancestors to obey God’s Laws.  They did so to such an extent that their leaders needed to remind them that they had gathered, according to that same Law, to worship God and celebrate the great and wonderful things He had done for them.   The people responded to this command from their leaders because they realized what a wonderful thing it was to be able to hear and understand what God’s word for them was.  

We should encourage new believers to follow the example set here.  They should rejoice that they have learned God’s will for their lives and celebrate that He has offered them an opportunity to be transformed by His love.  Even the part where the following day the people discovered the Festival of Shelters offers a model.  It is good for new believers to spend some extended time away from their ordinary cares in fellowship with those who worship and obey God when they first come to know the Lord.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2019 Bible Study — Virtue Is the Antidote to Corruption

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 4-6.

When Nehemiah started construction work on the walls of Jerusalem, Sanballat and Tobiah were angered by the work and tried to discourage the workers.  Both Sanballat and Tobiah were officials of the Persian government and had seen Nehemiah’s letters from the King of Persia.  Neither Sanballat nor Tobiah had any official authority over Jerusalem.  However, both had unofficial interests there and their official positions had given them significant clout with those who had had authority in Jerusalem before Nehemiah’s arrival.  The passage does not spell it out, but I believe that at least part of their opposition to Nehemiah was related to his economic reforms.  An account of one of those economic reforms is sandwiched in between passages describing how Snaballat and Tobiah tried to intervene in Nehemiah’s governance of Jerusalem.

When Nehemiah became aware of how the wealthy were using their economic power to further impoverish the poor, he took action.  I am going to read between the lines a little bit here.  It appears that to one degree or another, the wealthy described here had built their wealth, at least in part, on the basis of being descended from those who had been taken into Exile from Jerusalem or the surrounding area.  However, they used that wealth to gain more wealth from other Returned Exiles who failed, for one reason or another, to capitalize on that heritage.  The wealthy were using their wealth to take advantage of the misfortunes of those who were not wealthy.  Rather than helping their coreligionists when they experienced misfortune, they were taking advantage of their misfortune.  The passage does not spell out the point I am about to make, but I think it fits what the passage does say.  The wealthy had gained their wealth because of favorable business arrangements which they were able to gain because they were members of the Returned Exiles.  However, rather than offer similar favorable arrangements with the less well off members of the Returned Exiles, they took advantage of their misfortunes to pad their own wealth.  Once they had gained their wealth they began to see themselves as having more in common with the corrupt officials of the surrounding peoples than with their fellow Jews. 

The corrupt officials among the surrounding peoples realized that they were going to be unable to stop Nehemiah from refortifying Jerusalem.  Further, he was convincing the Jews to close ranks and support each other rather than take part in the corrupt practices from which these officials profited.  So, they tried to set up a clandestine meeting with Nehemiah.  Again the passage does not say this, but the wording suggests to me that they implied an opportunity for Nehemiah to collaborate with them for both to profit.  Nehemiah, however, believed that they intended to ambush him if he went to the meeting.  When that failed, they attempted to blackmail Nehemiah with false accusations.  Again, the passage does not clearly say this, but the blackmail appears to have been, “Either cut a deal with us, or we will tell the King that you are plotting rebellion.”  That failed because Nehemiah was acting within the mandate he had received directly from the King of Persia and Nehemiah knew that it would take more than mere rumors and unsupported allegations to undermine his position.  They next attempted to take advantage of Nehemiah’s paranoia to make him an ineffective governor.  They hoped to get him to hide from assassins, which would have served the dual purposes of making him less aware of corruption among those under his authority and discredited him with his supporters for taking protective measures which were not available to them.

Daily Bible Study

June 2, 2019 Bible Study — New Thoughts (For Me) About the Book of Nehemiah

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 1-3.

As I read this today I thought about the news Nehemiah receives from those who recently visited Jerusalem.  When they tell him that the walls have been torn down and the gates destroyed by fire I have always understood that, and have even heard preachers preach, this goes back to the fall of Jerusalem.  If the walls of Jerusalem had never been rebuilt since the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, this would not have been news to Nehemiah..  Which suggests that the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt earlier by the Returned Exiles, and torn down again.  It also puts the commission Nehemiah receives from the King of Persia in a different light.  Actually, it puts Nehemiah’s trepidation in making his request in a different light as well.  By asking permission to go and rebuild Jerusalem, Nehemiah risked the possibility that Jerusalem’s condition was actually the king’s policy and also risked suggesting that the king had failed to keep control over his kingdom.  This understanding also gives new insight into why the King of Persia sent a military bodyguard with Nehemiah.

My thoughts concerning the end of today’s passage go in a completely different direction.  Usually when I read this account of the people who rebuilt the different sections of the wall I wonder why I should care who built which portion.  However, today I noticed something I was aware of but never thought about before.  Many of the sections of Jerusalem’s walls were built by people who did not live in Jerusalem, or even very close to it.  When I paid attention to where the people were from, it reminded me of Mennonite Disaster Service crews going into an area after a disaster.  While some of the sections of the wall around Jerusalem were repaired by residents of Jerusalem, many of the work crews came from several days travel away.  The walls of Jerusalem were not rebuilt by people taking a few hours a day away from their normal activities.  Those who worked to rebuild the wall were not just people looking out for their own interests as would be the case if everyone who did so lived within the city.