John's Revelation

I just read the last book of the Bible. I didn't understand a word of it. Okay, that's hyperbolic. I did understand the bit in the beginning about the churches, and some bits and pieces in later chapters made sense. But beast #1 and beast #2, and whoring dragons with a bunch of heads and the thousand years and the 144,000 faithful. Whoa.

I did find the ESV introduction very helpful. I didn't know that "Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished in the centuries following the completion of the OT cannon perhaps in part to help the oppressed people of God to find purpose in their suffering and hope for their future in the absence of genuine prophetic words from God." Kinda makes me want to 1) figure out what was going on historical and 2)research apocalypse as a genre.

Bucket list.

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King Rehoboam

I Kings 12:6-8 Then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon. “What is your advice?” he asked. “How should I answer these people?” The older counselors replied, “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers. The old men who advised... Solomon. Solomon? The dude who had a worldwide rep of being the wisest man in the known world. That Solomon? And junior goes to his advisers for advice and then? He rejects their advice and asks his buddies whom he grew up with (read between the lines; somehow, I don't think these were buddies he studied the law with) and asks them for advice. Hmm, you gotta wonder if this was the son who Solomon wrote the proverbs for. What's the lesson here? If you have a choic...

The Bull Exchange

They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. Psalm 106:20 Well when you put it that way. I mean, it would've been one thing if David had written that "They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull..." and left it at that, but when you tag it with "which eats grass" it makes them look so much more stupid. Um, nah, I'm trying too hard. No matter how you cut it, it sounds pretty pretty dumb to a modern reader. Mabye it would have been different if they'd exchanged their glorious God for power, fortune or fame and not the image of a cud-chewing bovine. Still not right, but much more tragic. That would've been the stuff of a great movie or novel. But wait. Let's not be too hasty in our judgement. I teach high school English and whenever I teach a historical text, I like to introduce my students to the concept of cultural determinism. Ie. "...the belief that the culture in which we are raised det...

Cutting Down Asherah Poles

2 Kings 17:28-29 " So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived." When I read Kings and Chronicles, I'm struck by the repeated stories of kings that were bad and had other gods, people that were bad had had other gods (who even sacrificed their children as burnt offerings) and then kings that were good and followed God like David did, oh, but some of those "good" kings still had other gods. And let's not forget the Asherah poles . Lots of Asherah poles that were being erected (bad) or being cut down (good). The above makes me wonder, How much of what I've been taught about "how [I] should fear the Lord" defines who I am and how much is defined by the gods of my history, culture, and ethnic...

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