Author: henry

¹Brothers and sisters, you don’t need me to write to you about the times and the seasons, ²because you yourselves are well aware that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  ³When people are saying “Peace and security,” then destruction will come on them suddenly, like  labor pains on a woman who is pregnant, and they will be unable to escape.

⁴But as for you, brothers and sisters, you are not in darkness that the day should come on you like a thief.  ⁵For you are all children of the
light and children of the day!  We are not of the night or of the darkness.  ⁶Because of that, let’s not sleep like the rest, but watch and be clear headed.

⁷For those who sleep do so at night, and those who are drunk, do that at night.  ⁸But since we are day people,let’s be clear headed, dressed in the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of the hope of salvation.  ⁹Because God has not appointed us for wrath, but to experience salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us so that whether we watch wakefully or whether we sleep, we will live together with him.  ¹¹Therefore comfort one another and build one another up, just as you already do. — 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

 The only textual issue is a minor grammatical variant in verse 4.  It’s interesting that this verse has been used of the rapture, because it indicates that the return of Jesus will arrive as a thief in the night, but this may be carrying the analogy too far, as it is the sudden destruction that comes as a thief, while those in the know are not supposed to be caught off guard.

This is also not a translation note, but Paul brings grace into the passage in a special way.  He’s calling on Christians to watch and be ready, yet because of the salvation we receive through Jesus, whether we remain awake or not, we will live with him.

¹After Ehud died, the Israelites again did what was evil in YHWH’s eyes. ²So YHWH sold them into the hand of Jabin, King of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Harosheth of the Nations.

³Then the Israelites cried out to YHWH, because Jabin had 900 iron chariots and he had oppressed the Israelites harshly for 20 years. ⁴Now Deborah was a woman, a prophetess, wife of Lapidoth. She judged Israel at that time. ⁵She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mount of Ephraim. The Israelites went up to her for her to judge.

⁶She sent and called for Barak, son of Ahinoam from Qedesh-Naphtali, and she said to him, “Has not YHWH, God of Israel commanded that you go and set up on Mt Tabor and take with you 10 thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulon? ⁷And I will bring Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, and his chariots, and his host, out to you to the brook Qishon, and I will give him into your hand.  — Judges 4:1-7

The translation of this passage is pretty straight-forward except for a bit in verses 6-7 where it’s hard (for me, at least) to convey the idea of God drawing Barak out to one place to prepare for battle and doing the same thing to Sisera.  They are both drawn out to a battle arranged by God.

Another reasonable question is whether, at the time Deborah calls for him, God has already told Barak to go out, or whether this is the first news.  When Deborah says, “Has not the God of Israel told you . . .” she could be speaking of her own statement, or she might be referring to something Barak already knew–or should have known.

Psalm 123, Proper 28A/Ordinary 33A/Pentecost +27
November 16, 2008

(Note that I always use Text Week for my  lectionary study)

A song of ascents.

¹To you we lift up our eyes,
You who live in heaven.
²As the eyes of slaves turn to the hand of their master,
As the eyes of a maid looks to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to our God until he shows us favor.
³Show us favor, YHWH,
For we have had more than enough contempt.
⁴Our souls are satiated
— on the mocking of those at ease.
— on the contempt of the arrogant.

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