23rd Sunday after Pentecost, October 26, 2003
23rd Sunday after Pentecost, October 26
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Or
Jeremiah 31:7-9 and Psalm 126
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
Main Themes:
First alternative: Job 42, Psalm 34, and the New Testament passages
The theme here is restoration, the restoration of Job?s fortunes, the prayer for, and promise of restoration for the righteous in Psalm 34, the restoration (and improvement) of the covenant in Hebrews 7, and the restoration of sight in Mark 10.
Second alternative: Jeremiah 31, Psalm 126 and the New Testament passages
The theme here more specifically relates restoration and redemption to the type in the return from exile, leading to the ministry of Jesus as one of restoration. One could read this more sequentially by starting with the return from exile (Psalm 126 and Jeremiah 31:7-9), the redemption demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus (healing, Mark 10:46-52) and the continuing ministry through the personal access to God of each of us as shown in Hebrews. One good focus is on the restoring of spiritual sight as it connects to the access to God taught in Hebrews.
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
One should be careful in interpreting this passage in Job because it is extremely easy to gloss over the hardships of Job because we read of his restoration. But that is an error. I don?t believe there is any intent in this passage to minimize Job?s pain. New children don?t replace lost children. At the same time, what could be restored was restored.
There is also a temptation to try to interpret chapter 42 as though God has either answered Job, or condemned him for his complaints. But note that while God regards Job as fairly ignorant, he does not condemn him. Comments about Job?s blasphemous challenges to God [IB, for example] miss the point. Is there any reason that God can give Job that is really going to be satisfactory?
What Job gets is an encounter with God. He claimed that was what he wanted. When he did encounter God he no longer asked the questions he had planned. Note also 40:3-5 which is Job?s first response. The results of an encounter with God also don?t come instantly?they grow on you!
For further discussion see the previous three lectionary notes discussing Job. Revised Common Lectionary 29, Revised Common Lectionary 28, Revised Common Lectionary 27
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(1) Then Job answered YHWH and he said, (2) “I know that you can do anything, and nothing is impossible to you. (3) ‘Who is this giving ignorant counsel without knowledge,’ [you said]. So I spoke what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, that I didn’t comprehend. (4) ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will ask you and you will inform me,’ [you said]. (5) I had heard about you by report, but now my eye sees you.
(6) Therefore I reject myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
(10) So YHWH restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and YHWH added double to all that Job had. (11) And all his brothers and all his sisters, and everyone who knew him before came and they ate bread with him in his house, and they comforted him and consoled him with regard to all the evil that YHWH had brought upon him, and they each gave him one Qeshitah and each a one gold ornament. (12) And YHWH blessed the end of Job more than his beginning, And he had 14000 sheep and 6000 camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand asses. (13) And he had seven sons and three daughters, And he called the name of the first Jemimah, and the name of the second was Keziah, and the name of the third was Qeren Happuch. (15) And there were not found any women as beautiful as the daughters of Job in all the land, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. (16) And Job lived after this a hundred and forty years, and he saw his sons and the sons of his sons to the fourth generation. (17) And Job died, old, and full of days. |
This is the key difference. Even though Job is never accused of sin as such in what he said, he was simply projecting various rumors about God. In the end, he encounters God. He still doesn?t have an explanation for what happens to him. One characterization is that Job?s problem is not solved, but it has begun to dissolve [IB].
I don?t entirely like that, but it does lead in the right direction. Job?s relationship with God has changed because of direct encounter. He won?t be able to explain things that much better, but he feels a confidence he didn?t feel before. This verse is considered the key verse of the entire book by many.
Reject myself Literally ?I reject.? There is considerable discussion of this term, without agreement even on what root it is from. But the idea is clear, I think, in that Job simply comes to change his perspective. He?s not going to be able to argue with God. Remember that in the story, Job has none of the information we do concerning Satan and the council in heaven and God?s permission. He simply has been taken another direction. He?s not going to be able to understand the answers to everything. In particular we should avoid the explanation that says, ?Satan did it? because while that is the story presented as what happened, it is never presented as an explanation.
Restored the fortunes reading ?shibat? as correction rather than ?shebuth.? All translations are reading a correction here. I?m suggesting the metathesis of the letters bet and yodh, rather than a confusion of yodh and waw. |
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
The setting provided in the header is a prayer of David, but the Psalm has almost nothing specific to do with that instance. It is a testimony and praise for deliverance, which is of pretty general application.
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(1) Of David, when he changed his appearance before Abimelech, and he expelled him and he went.
(2) I will bless YHWH at all times, His praise will continually be in my mouth. (3) My soul will boast in YHWH, The afflicted will hear it and rejoice!
(4) Exalt YHWH with me, Let us lift up his name together. (5) I sought YHWH and he answered me, And he saved me from all that terrified me. (6) They look to him and they show their joy, And their faces are not dismayed. (7) This poor man called out, and YHWH heard, And from all his troubles He saved him! (8) The angel of YHWH encamps around those who fear him, So he can deliver them. (9) Taste and see that YHWH is good, Blessed are those who trust in him.
(20) Many are the disasters of the righteous, But YHWH delivers them from them all. (21) He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. (22) Disaster will destroy the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be found guilty. (23) YHWH will ransom the soul of his servants, And nobody who trusts in him will be found guilty. |
Changed his appearance idiom for feigning madness. The king as recorded in 1 Samuel is Achish rather than Abimelech. It?s possible that one is the Semitic name and the other the Philistine name, but that is uncertain at best. Note the Hebrew verse numbering. Subtract one to get the English numbers.
This illustrates the importance of testimony. Those who are suffering in the same way hear it and they?re strengthened by it. Most translations use the Jussive here. I suggest indicative.
This is the personal testimony of the Psalmist.
He then speaks the principles on which his deliverance is based.
This is a key text for me. God is not ?proven? through philosophy or logic, but rather through our own experience of God. I know that many regard this as subjective, which it is, and therefore unstable, which it is not. I can only imagine that those who regard the experience of God as unstable and questionable have not, in fact, experienced God. What is questionable is the logic that ?proves? that God exists. Faith is then placed in the logic, and not in God?in my view another form of idolatry. Faith in the Biblical sense demands personal experience. This doesn?t suggest that God is subjective?but I experience God, and I am a subject, so my experience is subjective. I can share it, but I can?t prove it. It must resonate in some way with the person with whom I share it.
This suggests that also a certain humility. I share my experience and my understanding of that experience. I cannot force someone else to have the same experience or understand it in the same way. Force is useless.
The only answer is ?taste and see.? You can?t force the taste. You can only offer.
This is an expression of faith in God?s plan. One could even contrast this with the experience of Job, and compare it to the statements of his friends. But we should not expect a full logical consistency in prayers and praises. They are for more limited circumstances. |
Jeremiah 31:7-9
This is one of the few positive passages in Jeremiah, giving a promise of hope in the midst of despair. It illustrates, along with Psalm 126, a problem with Biblical interpretation: Prophets write scripture; scholars interpret. Prophets tend to express themselves in forceful and sometimes flowery language. Prophets are concerned with the application and impact of the message, rather than systematic theology. Scholars wonder how someone can be convicting and promising punishment at one moment and then positive and promising restoration the next. But prophets have no trouble with this kind of change.
Some scholars believe most of this passage must come from a later pen than Jeremiah, and especially see some of the language as closely related to the language of 2nd Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). There is, indeed, some similarity of imagery, but I would suggest that neither the theme nor the vocabulary is outside of Jeremiah?s range. In fact, the passage is very much appropriate as a prophetic promise?a ray of light piercing through the gloom, looking forward to the coming deliverance after the exile.
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(7) For thus says YHWH, Shout for joy, about Jacob. Shout out concerning the head of the nations. Make the hallelujah heard!
Say: Save, Oh YHWH your people, the remnant of Israel! (8) Behold, I am bringing them from the land of the north, And gathering them from the ends of the earth, amongst them the blind and lame, pregnant and the one giving birth together, a great company! They shall return! (9) They went out with weeping but with encouragement I will bring them back.
I will lead them by streams of water in a straight path. They shall not stumble in it, because I have been Israel?s father and Ephraim is my first born son. |
Duhm, quoted in IB, suggests ?harim? (mountains) instead of ?goyim? (nations). This would result in something like ?shout on the mountaintops. There doesn?t seem to be any textual justification for the change however, and the two terms are not similar so as to easily explain the confusion, so it is supported only by the convenience of the rendering.
Head of the nations is a somewhat arrogant title for Israel, which seems to bother some commentators. But from the Biblical viewpoint, Israel is the most important nation.
Encouragement Hebrew ?tachnunim,? more commonly translated ?pleas for mercy.? I?m following the LXX here, but I don?t think the Hebrew needs to be emended as ?comfort? or ?encouragement? seems to be a reasonable extension of the meaning of ?tachnunim??the response to the pleas for mercy is indicated.
This is one of the key themes in 2nd Isaiah.
God has always been Israel?s father, even though he let them go into exile. Note that this passage includes the northern kingdom, often referred to as Ephraim, in the prophecy of restoration. |
Psalm 126
This is typically viewed as a memory of a past deliverance combined with a prayer for deliverance from the current difficulty. There are two common settings for it. First, it can be from the post-exilic time, after the euphoria has worn off, and people see that things aren?t as good as they hoped when they were first allowed to return home. In that case verse one is ?when YHWH returned? and looks back to the return, while the prayer is for the full restoration of Israel. The alternative places this Psalm in the exile and looks back to some previous time.
I prefer to place the entire Psalm in the time of the exile, and see a vision, whether prophetic or simply hopeful, along with a prayer for fulfillment of that vision. To understand the vision as prophetic is not out of place, since we would have the prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel on which to base this, and even if one places second Isaiah in the exile, very possibly the wonderful prophecies of Isaiah 40-55.
As a prayer example, it shows the blessing of catching the vision, and then praying for it. Very often prayer is seen as an attempt to change God?s will; to make God do something he didn?t wish to do. Very few of us will admit it, but I believe very many of us practice this type of approach. The secret, in my view, of a powerful prayer life is discovering what God wants to do and praying for that. The communication should be more from God to us than from us to God.
Of course, to use this Psalm in support of that idea (and it is by no means the only scripture one might use) one would need to accept the dating and interpretation of the verbs that I propose here. I admit that this interpretation is a bit controversial.
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(1) A song of ascents. When YHWH restores the fortunes of Zion
we will become like dreamers.
(2) Then our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with rejoicing. Then they will say among the nations, YHWH is great to do this with these people! (3) YHWH is great to do this with us. We will continually to rejoice.
(4) Return YHWH our captivity, Like a stream of water in the Negev. (5) Let those who plant with tears, harvest with rejoicing. (6) Let those who went forth with weeping, carrying the price of the seed, return with rejoicing, carrying the sheaves. |
Reading ?shibath? with the Masoretic text rather than the common emendation ?shebuth? based on the arguments of Dahood [AB: Psalms III].
I have struggled with this verb tense, which is perfect, and thus I would normally translate as a completed action, but I don?t regard it as a completed action in the past, but rather, the perfect is chosen to emphasize the singular nature of the event. They weren?t transformed slowly; it was a shock to the system.
Reading the perfect as emphasizing that God?s greatness is from eternity, rather than something that just occurred. Then the perfect form of ?to be? along with the participle rejoicing again emphasizing the instantaneous transformation.
No translation I?ve thought of conveys the poetry of the Hebrew, but technically one might say, ?we will be transformed into a continuing state of rejoicing.? This combination of perfect ?to be? with a participle is not frequent in Hebrew.
The first part of the verse is looking to the future, and written from that prophetic, vision perspective, and I have so translated the verbs. The second part is a prayer asking God for the that which is presented in the vision. |
Hebrews 7:23-28
One of the interesting elements of Hebrews, and in fact the entire ?new covenant? concept, is the idea of creation of a new and better covenant as the result of violation of the original. One theme one could use would take Psalm 126 about restoration, and Hebrews 7:23-28 about the new and better covenant, and compare and contrast the human handling of broken agreements and God?s handling.
In the ancient near east covenants were regarded as sacred, and a violation of a covenant was a very serious matter. Once the covenant was broken, one might make a new one, but the new one was not going to be nearly as favorable as the old. You can follow this in 2 Kings 23:28ff as the kingdom of Judah slides. God expresses his disapproval of violating the covenant even with the king of Babylon (Ezekiel 17:11-21). Each new conquest and covenant was worse than what proceeded. But God?s plan was to create a new covenant, which was better than the old one and eternal as well.
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22By this also Jesus has become the mediator of a better covenant.
23For whereas the many who became priests were prevented by death from remaining,
24he {Jesus} by remaining forever has the priesthood forever. 25Because of this he is able to save completely those who approach God through him, since he continually lives to intercede on their behalf.
26We now have just such a suitable high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners and come to the highest places of the heavens. 27He has no need to offer sacrifices each day first for his own sins, like the other high priests and then for those of the people, because he has offered himself once and for all. 28For the law appointed high priests who had weaknesses, but the word confirmed with an oath, which came after the law, appointed a Son, perfected forever. |
Mediator might better be ?assurance,? ?guarantee? or even the ?assuror.? (See also Craig Koester [AB Hebrews])
The ?better covenant? is the key here. The old covenant, even though it was violated, is not replaced by a punitive covenant, as would be expected in politics, but rather with one which allows people more direct contact with God.
One benefit is that we have the eternal high priest. This is a subject in itself. Do your best to take the Tabernacle service seriously if you are going to compare the sacrificial system with the ministry of Jesus. Don?t make the previous covenant bad, and especially don?t make it look silly. It all ties together, and it all comes from one wise God.
Intercession relates most commonly to forgiveness. A focus on intercession and forgiveness would be an excellent topic if one uses only this one scripture. Jesus eternally ministers in heaven, reconciling God to man, we are given a reconciling ministry, as were the priests in the sanctuary. Forgiveness is a key to redemption/restoration, which is a key to God?s activity in the world. (You could bring in 2 Cor. 5:11-15 as well.)
Look back at the previous three weeks of notes on Hebrews. Our author presents Jesus as fully able to sympathize with us, and also fully able to connect to God, in other words the perfect reconciler. You will not get a full picture of Jesus as shown in Hebrews without combining the prior texts. |
Mark 10:46-52
There are so many ways to approach this passage. First, we see Jesus adjusting his program and activities to the needs of others. The crowd feels that Jesus shouldn?t be bothered, but Jesus hears a cry for help. Second, we see the restoration of sight, a common thread in the ministry of Jesus. Symbolically, this connects to spiritual sight, the restoration of communication with God, which is also the theme of Hebrews from a different angle, and the focus of Job 42:5. This is not a matter of understanding certain theological points. It is a matter of the encounter with God that tends to make other things fade.
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(46) Now they came to Jericho, and as he was coming out of Jericho with his disciples and a sizeable crowd, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar sat by the road.
(47) And when he had heard that Jesus of Nazereth was coming, he cried out and said, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me.”
(48) And some folks began to rebuke him so that he would shut up.
(49) But Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Calm down! He’s calling you!” (50) But throwing his outer garment off he stood up and went to Jesus. (51) And Jesus answered him and said, “What do you want me to do? And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi! I want to see!”
(52) And Jesus said to him, “Go! Your faith has healed you.”
And immediately he began to see and followed him in the way. |
The translation of the name and the name itself are reversed from the usual order. Bartimaeus simply means ?son of Timaeus? in Aramaic.
Notice the difference in approach here and in the previous pericope (35-45). James and John want to make their request privately, because it is a request that they be preferred over others. This man simply cries out. He doesn?t care who hears his request. He doesn?t care who he bothers, because his need is so great. Hope has been aroused, and he won?t let it go.
The crowd has a plan, and it doesn?t include this blind beggar. Does this ever describe our church services and activities? Can we be derailed from our planned worship and theological schemes to respond to human need? If we claim to be followers of Jesus, we should be ready to respond. Jesus never let the ?plan? overcome human need.
Jesus hears and responds.
This question is similar to the one of James and John. But notice that Jesus leads into it. The man doesn?t try to get Jesus to promise before he knows the request; he just presents himself.
This is a request to which Jesus can respond without question.
Bartimaeus begins to follow Jesus. Contrast this to the impact of the request of James and John. When we look for preferment over others, we create schism. When we look for spiritual sight and to build our own relationship with God, we produce discipleship. |