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Mark on Mark - 16 February 2010

Another flash of inspiration from Mark Horne’s wonderful little commentary on Mark’s Gospel, this time concerning Mark 4:35-5:20. Jesus rescues his disciples from a stormy sea, before driving out “Legion” from a demon-possessed man.

There’s a fairly obvious link between the calming of the storm and Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea (4:35-41). But Horne takes it further by highlighting the connection to the next passage. “Legion,” says Horne, is “a military term for a great number of soldiers.”And lots of strange things happen in this (extended) exorcism account. Like the demons (soldiers?) get drowned in the sea.

Ringing any bells yet? Over to Mr Horne again:

Jesus has just brought [His disciples] through the sea by a miracle and now He drives a demonic horde into that same sea to drown them. Like Moses at the Red Sea, the enemy army is destroyed by the very means God uses to transport His people across the water. (pp. 94-95)

I’ll leave you to chew over why Mark bothers to mention that before being liberated the demon-possessed man was always “bruising himself with stones” (5:5). (Genesis 3:15; Judges 5:26; 9:53; etc).

Feeling hungry? - 15 February 2010

There’s a good deal about food and drink in the book of Micah. Sometimes it’s connected with positive themes of prosperity and blessing; sometimes it carries much more negative overtones.

For an example of the latter, consider Micah 6:14-15.

14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. 15You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

This is the kind of eating that produces no satisfaction; the kind of drinking that leaves a ravaging thirst. Like eating stale bread and drinking salt water.

Or perhaps it’s like drinking sour wine (Mark 15:36), or drinking the cup of the wrath of the LORD (Mark 13:36), as Jesus did as he suffered on the cross for our sins.

In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. (Ps. 75:8)

Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. (Isa. 51:17)

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.’ (Jer. 25:15-16)

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup large and deep; it will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of ruin and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. You will drink it and drain it dry; you will dash it to pieces and tear your breasts.’ I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezek. 23:32-34)

You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD’s right hand is coming round to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. (Hab. 2:16)

It is because Jesus drank like this that we may enjoy the other kind of eating and drinking pictured by the prophet Micah:

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks … they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 3:3-4)

Bible guides – Mark 8:22-9:1 - 27 January 2010

A blind man is healed in an unusual way. The first half of Mark’s Gospel reaches a climax as Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus then explains the kind of ministry that he will have in the chapters that follow.

What is unusual about the way that Jesus heals the blind man (verses 22–26)?
What different ideas do people have about Jesus’ identity (verses 27–28)? What does Peter think (verses 29–30)?

It’s possible that the two-stage healing in verses 22–26 is intended to illustrate Peter’s two-stages understanding of Jesus’ mission. Like the man after the first stage of his healing, Peter could see, but not very clearly. Peter understands (sees) that Jesus is the Christ; but he doesn’t yet see that Jesus must suffer.

Jesus now begins to teach something that we’ve not yet heard much about in Mark’s Gospel. What is it? How does Peter respond (verses 31–33)?
How does Jesus’ explanation in verses 34–38 address Peter’s initial reaction?

Why might Peter have said what he did in verse 32? Do you ever find yourself thinking the same way? How might verses 34–38 be relevant to you?

Setting the ball rolling - 31 December 2009

The genealogies of Shem and Terah in Genesis 11 come to an abrupt halt with the announcement that Abram’s wife ‘Sarai was barren; she had no child’ (v. 30). ‘Digressions within a genealogy are of special significance,’ writes Wenham (Genesis 1-15, p. 273), ‘and this is no exception.’

But who could have guessed just how significant this particular digression would prove to be? Here we catch our first glimpse of the theme that will occupy much of our attention for not only the rest of the book of Genesis, but the whole Bible – how will God create and preserve a people to fulfil the task at which Adam failed in Genesis 3?

It’s striking that the theme is introduced as a problem to be solved, a human impossibility that God alone can overcome. The moment when human wisdom and strength can go no further is the point at which God really sets the ball rolling.

We see emptiness; God sees a vessel that he alone can fill. We see impenetrable walls; God sees a city doomed to destruction. We live in weakness; God sees an opportunity to display his grace and power.

Rebuilding the walls - 17 December 2009

Last Sunday our children’s Sunday School started looking at the book of Nehemiah. Here are some thoughts on the big picture. (The long words won’t make it into the teaching material for the kids.)

The book of Nehemiah is all about rebuilding the wall and gates of Jerusalem, so we must understand their significance in order to grasp the message of the book.

The walls of a city are a means of security and defence, and thus a comfort for its citizens and a measure of its stature as a city. It’s handy to have high walls because you can drop millstones from them onto people’s heads (Judges 9:52), while if the walls are broken down, the city is finished (Josh 6). Walls define the geo-political ‘space’ occupied by the city, and thus serve as the boundaries of the city’s civic activity, governance, and so on.

The gates in particular serve this civic function – lots of civic affairs take place there (e.g. Dt 17:5; 21:19; 25:7; Ruth 4; Amos 5:10; Ps 127:5). The gates are also the place where public announcements are made (since it’s the main thoroughfare) and the place where God’s people encounter the pagan world. So if you wanted to proclaim the gospel to the nations, where would you stand?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the walls and gates of the City of God are ‘salvation’ and ‘praise’ (Is 60:18), and the LORD himself is identified with the walls of his city (Ps 48:12-14). After all, what else would God’s people announce to the world other than the gospel of their King, and who else would be their protection?

In summary, the walls and gates of the people of God say two things to the world:

1. Walls mean KEEP OUT! The Israelites built the walls to keep the nations out so that they could follow the Lord. So also the church needs to be separate from the unbelieving world so that we can follow Jesus.

2. Gates mean COME IN! The Israelites built the gates to welcome the nations in so that they could also follow the Lord. So also the church needs to welcome people in so that they can also follow Jesus.

Or, to put it another way, we’re separate from the world for the sake of the world. We leave the world in order to save the world. And so on.

For more, see ‘Wall’ and ‘Gate’ in the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (IVP).

Making friends with Samson - 15 December 2009

I think I may have been a little unfair during Sunday morning’s sermon to Samson and Jephthah, a couple of the Judges mentioned towards the end of Hebrews 11. Prompted by a couple of conversations after the service (many thanks to you both…), here are some further thoughts.

It wasn’t really fair of me to describe Samson as suicidal. True, he ended his life by pulling down the Philistine temple on top of himself and the Philistine army. But given his circumstances (blinded, imprisoned, etc) this was actually a fairly brave thing to do. And, after all, we all rejoice in a Saviour who willingly gave himself up to death in order to conquer our enemy. ‘Suicide’ isn’t quite the right word.

Perhaps Samson’s problem was not so much the way he died, but the sense of uncontrolled fury that pervaded his life. He was hardly a man in control of his desires and actions, in stark contrast to the Lord Jesus, who always knew exactly what he was doing.

Jephthah is a little more complicated. On Sunday I said that his great mistake was the foolish vow he made to God, that ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering’ (Judges 11:30-31). This rather hasty undertaking backfired spectacularly when ‘Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter’ (vv. 33-34).

It then looks like Jephthah made matters far worse by actually going ahead and doing what he’d promised. Convinced that he ‘cannot take back [his] vow,’ Jephthah ‘did with her according to his vow that he had made’ (vv. 35, 39).

However, it’s just possible that we should read the passage another way. James Jordan suggests that after the Spirit of God ‘empowered’ Jephthah, He ‘provoked’ him to his vow, which was ‘calculated, not rash.’ It was an expression of ‘gratitude to God,’ and a confession that only ‘God is able to do the work.’ Jephthah is anticipating that a person, not an animal, will come to meet him – after all, sacrificial animals don’t live inside houses. And, crucially, ‘the whole burnt sacrifice represents the consecration of the whole person to God, wholly dedicated to him.’ Jephthah had in mind not the execution of anyone or anything, but ’some permanent service to God that would prevent the person from living a normal life’ (Jordan, Judges: A Practical and Theological Commentary, pp. 200-201).

Perhaps this reading gains additional credence from the fact that Jephthah’s daughter laments not her death, but her virginity (vv. 38-39). On the other hand, such appalling mistreatment of women was not entirely unheard of during the period of the Judges (cf. ch 19). Dan Block is one commentator who takes the more critical view of Jephthah (Judges, Ruth [NAC], pp. 364-379), and his treatment is well worth considering in detail. For now, I’m not sure, though I still think I incline more towards Block’s negative interpretation of Jephthah’s actions than Jordan’s positive construction.

Maybe we’ll have some sermons on Judges sometime.

Changes to the ESV - 10 December 2009

It’s quite normal for Bible translations to be revised slightly a few years after they’re first published. This gives the editors a chance to improve punctuation and style, tweak details of the translation and so on.

The English Standard Version (ESV, which I love, and which we use for the readings and sermons at Emmanuel) was first published in 2001. A second edition appeared in 2007, and contains a number of these tiny changes. A representative of the ESV translation team has given a brief explanation. Most of the changes are pretty insignificant. A few, however, are worth knowing about, especially if you happen to be a preacher speaking to a congregation of ESV-users who might, in fact, have (very slightly) different versions.

Surprisingly, the ESV team haven’t published a complete list of these changes. However, the list below was compiled by Rick Mansfield, who was alert with some Bible software during the rather odd process by which the updated version was released.

Anyway, here’s the list of verses that have been changed.

Gen 2:19; Gen 24:60; Gen 25:20; Gen 26:17; Gen 30:35; Gen 37:22; Gen 37:24; Gen 38:12; Gen 44:18; Ex 17:15; Ex 20:11; Ex 22:16; Ex 29:27; Ex 32:31; Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Lev 20:24; Lev 20:27; Lev 23:6; Lev 26:46; Num 4:7; Num 21:3; Num 21:14; Num 21:18; Deut 9:26; Deut 18:11; Josh 10:14; Josh 11:5; Judges 2:20; Judges 6:17; Judges 6:21; Judges 6:24; Judges 8:1; Judges 11:6; Judges 11:8; Judges 11:9; 1 Sam 1:14; 1 Sam 10:3; 1 Sam 11:3; 1 Sam 13:18; 1 Sam 16:14; 1 Sam 16:15; 1 Sam 16:16; 1 Sam 16:23; 1 Sam 17:19; 1 Sam 23:14; 1 Sam 23:15; 1 Sam 27:11; 2 Sam 8:4; 2 Sam 18:9; 2 Sam 24:23; 1 Kings 2:24; 2 Kings 5:5; 2 Kings 5:22; 2 Kings 5:23; 2 Kings 19:15; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Kings 22:16; 1 Chron 4:31; 1 Chron 7:9; 1 Chron 19:19; 2 Chron 1:5; 2 Chron 9:18; 2 Chron 21:2; 2 Chron 21:19; 2 Chron 30:14; 2 Chron 31:17; 2 Chron 33:6; 2 Chron 34:24; 2 Chron 34:32; 2 Chron 36:9; Ezra 6:21; Ezra 7:8; Neh 1:9; Neh 3:15; Neh 9:29; Neh 9:35; Neh 11:30; Neh 13:24; Job 39:29; Psalm 2:2; Psalm 8:2; Psalm 10:1; Psalm 11:4; Psalm 19:4; Psalm 28:6; Psalm 35:21; Psalm 40:6; Psalm 40:8; Psalm 40:14; Psalm 42:3; Psalm 42:10; Psalm 53:6; Psalm 64:5; Psalm 65:2; Psalm 70:2; Psalm 80:19; Psalm 86:14; Psalm 106:7; Psalm 107:8; Psalm 107:15; Psalm 107:21; Psalm 107:31; Psalm 109:31; Psalm 139:16; Prov 6:33; Prov 20:14; Prov 24:22; Prov 30:15; Eccl 7:22; Eccl 9:2; Eccl 9:7; Eccl 10:20; Song 4:14; Isa 2:6; Isa 5:26; Isa 7:8; Isa 8:1; Isa 8:3; Isa 8:6; Isa 8:13; Isa 10:30; Isa 14:22; Isa 26:12; Isa 28:24; Isa 31:4; Isa 37:16; Isa 45:15; Isa 48:14; Isa 49:13; Isa 51:9; Isa 53:1; Isa 53:10; Isa 59:14; Isa 66:19; Jer 2:20; Jer 9:26; Jer 11:11; Jer 18:11; Jer 22:2; Jer 23:23; Jer 29:11; Jer 29:13; Jer 31:19; Jer 31:38; Jer 32:17; Jer 38:10; Jer 44:30; Jer 46:14; Jer 48:3; Jer 49:3; Jer 50:20; Jer 52:31; Ezek 3:7; Ezek 16:30; Ezek 21:9; Ezek 33:19; Ezek 37:11; Ezek 44:19; Ezek 46:20; Ezek 48:35; Dan 2:26; Dan 7:9; Dan 11:11; Jon 2:4; Mic 4:3; Mic 5:2; Mic 7:19; Hab 1:13; Zech 9:9; Zech 14:14; Mal 2:16; Mal 3:10; Matt 3:7; Matt 3:11; Matt 5:32; Matt 8:18; Matt 13:17; Matt 13:38; Matt 16:26; Matt 17:18; Matt 17:24; Matt 19:5; Matt 22:15; Matt 24:37; Matt 25:26; Matt 27:62; Mark 1:10; Mark 2:5; Mark 3:30; Mark 3:35; Mark 4:41; Mark 5:5; Mark 7:25; Mark 8:34; Mark 8:36; Mark 8:37; Mark 9:23; Mark 10:8; Mark 13:14; Mark 13:22; Mark 13:35; Luke 1:19; Luke 1:53; Luke 8:12; Luke 14:14; Luke 18:24; Luke 20:4; John 3:19; John 3:20; John 3:21; John 4:7; John 4:14; John 5:46; John 6:58; John 6:53; John 7:21; John 8:17; John 8:39; John 8:41; John 12:2; John 12:8; John 15:2; John 15:13; John 19:17; John 20:23; Acts 1:3; Acts 1:18; Acts 2:15; Acts 2:42; Acts 3:11; Acts 5:21; Acts 7:52; Acts 8:7; Acts 10:6; Acts 13:15; Acts 13:38-39; Acts 17:19; Acts 20:4; Acts 25:10; Acts 27:34; Rom 1:23; Rom 2:2; Rom 2:3; Rom 3:30; Rom 4:5; Rom 5:17; Rom 6:12; Rom 6:20; Rom 6:21; Rom 7:2; Rom 7:6; Rom 7:7; Rom 7:8; Rom 7:15; Rom 8:6; Rom 8:21; Rom 9:10; Rom 9:11; Rom 9:21; Rom 10:2; Rom 10:3; Rom 10:12; Rom 10:14; Rom 11:20; Rom 11:25; Rom 11:30; Rom 12:16; Rom 13:6; Rom 13:9; Rom 14:8; Rom 15:27; 1 Cor 1:30; 1 Cor 1:31; 1 Cor 4:4; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Cor 7:9; 1 Cor 7:16; 1 Cor 9:17; 1 Cor 9:24; 1 Cor 10:1; 1 Cor 11:5; 1 Cor 11:27; 1 Cor 12:8; 1 Cor 15:19; 1 Cor 15:30; 2 Cor 2:10; 2 Cor 4:16; 2 Cor 4:17; 2 Cor 5:1; 2 Cor 8:3; 2 Cor 8:13; 2 Cor 9:3; 2 Cor 9:7; 2 Cor 9:11; 2 Cor 10:14; 2 Cor 11:2; 2 Cor 11:5; 2 Cor 12:7; Gal 2:21; Gal 3:28; Eph 1:5; Eph 2:15; Eph 4:9; Eph 4:11; Eph 5:7; Eph 5:19; Phil 2:21; Phil 3:3; Col 3:12; Col 4:5; 1 Thess 4:1; 1 Tim 1:3; 1 Tim 1:11; 1 Tim 3:15; 1 Tim 4:15; 1 Tim 5:1; 1 Tim 5:2; 1 Tim 5:16; 2 Tim 2:26; Phlm 5; Phlm 14; Heb 2:11; Heb 3:9-10; Heb 3:14; Heb 6:4; Heb 6:6; Heb 6:10; Heb 7:18; Heb 9:13; Heb 10:2; Heb 10:3; Heb 10:9; Heb 11:29; James 1:20; James 1:27; James 3:2; James 5:6; 1 Pet 1:20; 1 Pet 2:2; 1 Pet 3:3; 1 Pet 3:5; 1 Pet 3:15-16; 1 Pet 4:3; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:24; Jude 12; Jude 14; Jude 20; Rev 1:14; Rev 2:23; Rev 6:4; Rev 17:13

Streams in the Negeb - 4 December 2009

Psalm 126:4 urges us to pray, ‘Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb.’ Among the many things this could mean, here’s one thought.

How many times have you found yourself diligently pouring in your efforts over here, only to discover that the Lord pours out his blessing over there. You spend ages praying and trying to explain the gospel to the bloke across your desk at work, all to no avail; and then your next-door neighbour calls round out of the blue to ask if he can come to church with you next Sunday.

This is how the ’streams in the Negeb’ work. There are no streams in the Negeb – at least not most of the time. It’s a desert. But occasionally, when you get heavy rain up in the mountains a hundred miles away, the Negev’s river beds spring into life. Heavy rain over here; abundance of life over there. The water comes from … well, nowhere obvious. But it certainly makes an impact when it does.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at this. It was shot in the Negeb at Nahal Zin, about 40 miles south of Beersheba. I’m not sure whether the guy with the camera is brave or just plain stupid. That’s right, he’s standing at the edge of a waterfall…

That’s beautiful - 1 December 2009

Hebrews 11:23 says that Moses’ parents hid him from the Egyptian slaughterers because ‘they saw that the child was beautiful.’

Strange thing to say, don’t you think? Don’t all parents think that their kids are beautiful? And in any case, why would Moses ‘beauty’ be sufficient reason to hide him?

Look closer, and we discover a couple of intriguing details.

The word translated ‘beautiful’ (asteion) is, to put it mildly, a bit tricky. To put it less mildly, no one really knows what it means. It appears only a couple of times in the Greek translation of the OT, one notable example being Judges 3:17, where ‘beautiful’ is hardly an apt description of King Eglon. So why use it about Moses?

One possibility is that it rhymes. Seriously. Here’s what the full phrase says in Greek: eidon asteion to paidion.

It means, literally, ‘They saw [that] beautiful [was] the child.’

Try reading it out loud a few times, accenting the bold bits. There, good huh? Poetry. That’s beautiful.

Another possible explanation is found in the underlying Hebrew phrase in Exodus 2:2, where Moses’ mother says (literal translation again), ‘She saw that he was good.’

Now where have we heard something like that before? Yup, Genesis 1, where God says exactly the same thing over and over again about the newly-created, perfect world.

So, maybe Moses’ parents saw something (who knows what) that told them that their little baby would grow up to lead God’s people into a New World, a land of freedom, away from the sin-cursed land of Egyptian tyranny.

That would be a good reason to keep him hidden, don’t you think?

Red letter Bible - 30 November 2009

Here is a simplified version of this outline of Hebrews 11:23-28, which might help if you’re inclined to listen to this.

²³By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful,

and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

²⁶He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt,

not being afraid of the anger of the king,

for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.