Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Passages

  • The Importance of Things Left Out

    The Importance of Things Left Out

    As I was listening to 1 Samuel today while walking on my treadmill I was reminded of a comment my mother once made on the story.

    We learn about Hannah and her desire for a son, and her sadness that she was barren. Her husband, Elkanah, somewhat full of himself, wonders why she’s crying and miserable. “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” he asks (1 Samuel 1:8).

    I remember my mother commenting that this missed the point, in fact, it missed all the points. It didn’t deal with a woman’s desire for a child, or the prestige of having sons in that time, or the shame of barrenness, which many would see as a curse of God.

    The writer emphasizes this in a way we are not always aware of in English storytelling: “After they had finished eating …” continues verse 9.

    Hannah’s opinion is expressed in a very meaningful silence.

    Be aware of the silences of scripture!

  • Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me

    Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me

    Blessed are you LORD.
    Teach me your statutes.

    Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Or something like that. I’ve found a number of variations, all attributed to Twain.

    The prayer, “Teach me!” is one that is pretty much guaranteed an answer, positive at least in the sense that learning will take place. The psalmist asks the Lord to teach him.

    It’s a bit of a dangerous request, looked at from one direction, but then from another, you might as well pray this pray, because God’s gonna get you in any case! The universe can be an unforgiving place, and most of us have some pretty clear places where experience came from bad decisions.

    This is where I like to note that the entire created world informs us of its creator. The person who studies quantum physics studies God no less than the person who meditates on theology. Perhaps even more.

    One big reason to be thankful for Torah in the broad sense–God’s instruction–is that it is evidence of God’s care, a gift that teaches.

    And boy do we ever need that!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart

    Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart

    In my heart have I hidden your Word,
    That I might not sin against you.

    I was introduced to Psalm 119 in elementary school. I had read a fair amount of Bible before that time, but hadn’t read it through. I went to a small Christian school where Bible memorization was a key component.

    We memorized various verses, chapters, and larger sections, such as the Sermon on the Mount, or a lengthy chapter such as Luke 2. And we memorized Psalm 119, all 176 verses of it.

    People have asked me what I thought about that part of my education. Was all that memorization worth it? Didn’t I resent it? I would add that we didn’t just learn the words, and we were not allowed to stumble through our recitation. Our recitation had to be perfect. We had to be able to write the passage perfectly including punctuation.

    I was so steeped in the language of the King James Version that during my first year in college I acquired the nickname “Therefore.”

    Now there are many ways of approaching Bible study. I’m reminded of the story of Dwight L. Moody, approached by a woman who disapproved of his method of evangelism. He asked her how she did it, to which she replied that she didn’t. His response? “I like my method of doing it better than your method of not doing it.”

    I feel the same way about criticism of someone’s way of doing Bible study. If you’re doing it, encourage others, suggest helpful approaches, but don’t be a critic. Would I run a school in the same way? No. But I don’t regret a moment of my Bible memorization there. I’m delighted to be able to find so many passages quickly because I hid them in my heart when I was young. Even though it wasn’t by my choice!

    What’s your way of hiding God’s Word in your heart?

  • With All the Faults and Failings

    With All the Faults and Failings

    One of the things I find most interesting about the Bible is the way that its stories openly–one might even say brutally–cover the faults and failings of the main characters. Nobody manages to come off all that well in the story. Even Moses, author of the Torah, or perhaps receiver of it, is not presented as a perfect man, though his failings seem rather minor. I’m reasonably certain that I would have done massively worse in his situation!

    I was reminded of this aspect of Bible stories when I listened to the story of Jephthah while walking on my treadmill, and then listening to my pastor’s sermon on Sunday, which was taken from Matthew 1. The sermon was focused on the righteous actions of Joseph, but I couldn’t help looking over the genealogy as he spoke.

    We’re introduced to Jephthah as “a mighty warrior” but he was the son of a prostitute. Yet he’s presented as one of the people who saved Israel. In Judges 11:15-28 he gives quite a recitation of the history of Israel, and in verse 29, the spirit of the LORD comes up him. What struck me in reading the story, besides the always disturbing story of his daughter, is that he is otherwise presented as a solid leader in Israel.

    My mind links things in sometimes odd ways, and what struck me in this story was the mention that Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute. It’s sparse and bold, neither covered up nor overemphasized. It was not, as one can gather from the story itself, something that endeared Jephthah to the good and normal citizens of Israel.

    That, in turn, led me to the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. It’s odd, considering the times, that there are four women mentioned here. Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law while acting as a prostitute (Genesis 38), Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho who saved her family’s lives by helping the Israelite spies escape, Ruth the Moabitess (Deuteronomy 23:3), who was quite clearly a chaste woman, but barred from becoming an Israelite by the law, and finally “the wife of Uriah the Hittite,” the victim of David’s lusts.

    It interested me to consider why the Bible emphasizes these people. And I do the authors of these stories as making these folks stand out. Further, they stand out in some of the most powerful stories in the Bible. Genesis 38 hardly seems a necessary part of the story of the patriarchs, yet it is woven in later.

    I think there’s a point to be made here. The Bible is not a story of spiritual superheroes with superior ancestors. The heroes of the Bible do not stem from noble stock, the sort of people from whom we expect great things. Jephthah had become an outlaw with good-for-nothing men gathered around him. Then he got a call and the spirit of the LORD came upon him.

    And here in Matthew we have a close tie to the stories of Hebrew scriptures in these little hints provided in the genealogy. Jesus is the son of David–such noble ancestry! But look! There are some moments in that story that other people might prefer to tell.

    All that stands between you and me and doing great things is that call and that spirit. Good-for-nothing isn’t really in God’s vocabulary. “Nothing” is waiting for God’s “something.”

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:10 – Seeking and Finding

    Psalm 119:10 – Seeking and Finding

    With my whole heart I have sought you.
    Don’t let me wander from your commands.

    The word here translated commands is mitsvot, which is often thought of as good deeds, but Jewish commentators use this primarily of the 613 commands in Torah. In this way, the mitsvot can be considered another way to refer to the entire Torah.

    When I read Leviticus alongside the three volume Anchor Bible commentary on Leviticus by Jacob Milgrom I was struck by his comment that the commands of Torah, and in this case specifically commands regarding the temple ritual were clearly intended as a training ground for Israel.

    And history shows us that in at least one way, this training worked. Israel built up an identity that was difficult to destroy. We can still identify Israelites today, unlike the vast majority of the cultures that existed at that time and for centuries before and after.

    There were two aspects to this identity. One is simply those aspects of behavior and lifestyle that identified one as first Israelite, and in later times as a Jew. This identity kept Jews distinct from the surrounding culture. But there is another identity inherent in Torah, which we can infer from many specific statements, such as the opening for the ten commandments. “I am YHWH your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). God claimed the Israelites as his own before giving any law.

    In this verse, we have the two sides of this equation, but not necessarily in historical or logical order. The psalmist has sought God with his whole heart, doing everything he can. But he recognizes the part of that identity that can be summarized as “God’s own person/people.”

    If we belong to God, a claim also made by Christians, we need to be identifiable as people who belong to God.

    Set the boundaries, God!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:9 – Talking about Purity

    Psalm 119:9 – Talking about Purity

    How shall a young man keep to a pure way of life?
    By keeping it in the bounds of your word!

    I have a feeling that some would question the way I translated that verse. It’s OK. Poetry is challenging. In this case I was aiming more for meaning that being faithful to the poetic form. For those who read some Hebrew, let me recommend Psalm 119 as a good way to become more comfortable with these poetic forms.

    There are all kinds of things that we could take from this verse, but through the day today my mind was repeatedly brought back to this: We need to teach sanctification, holiness, integrity in living, truthfulness, and the breadth and comprehensive nature of God’s Word.

    Sanctification is by grace (there’s a big subject), or better, in the words of the Psalm, it’s a path of blessing. I think it’s no accident that Psalm 119 starts with “blessed.” We need to realize that this is God’s work. It’s worked in us, but it is about God both in goal and in method.

    If we don’t talk about living a pure life in the church, people are likely to drift into perfectionism, legalism, arrogance, spiritual pride, and condescension. Those who avoid those issues usually wind up in cynicism and discouragement.

    The one way to go, and I think it is the way of this Psalm, is to recognize that it’s all about God, the creator of all. God sustains us (see Psalm 104, for example) on a constant basis. The way to holiness without arrogance is a profound thankfulness and recognition of blessings received. The best antidote to spiritual pride is to keep our eyes on God’s law.

    That will lead to being blessed and being kept in the pure path.

    For more thoughts about God’s word, see Seven Barriers to Hearing the Word.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:1-8 – Wrapup

    Psalm 119:1-8 – Wrapup

    As I’ve meditated on these first eight verses of Psalm 119, I’ve opened up a number of topics. Let’s put them together, sort of!

    1. Being blessed is a fairly broad and comprehensive thing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we have everything we want, or accomplish everything we want. It’s being under God’s watchful eye, and that’s positive (God has a purpose/God believes in us), and also negative (if we go off track, there is God). Perhaps we need to redefine “negative.”
    2. God’s law is a great deal more than a list of rules. God’s law is God’s self-revelation. We see this in Judaism in the centrality of the Torah, one of two broad words used in Psalm 119. (The other is Word/words.) When the Psalmist celebrates the law, as many English translations render it, he is celebrating being chosen as one of God’s people and God’s immanence in the self-revelation of the law. This carries over into Christianity (John 1:1-18, Hebrews 1:1-4) with Jesus as the Word, God’s message in human flesh.
    3. There is a joy that shines through the text. This is not poetry written by someone who felt he was obliged to praise God for the Torah. He loves it. He’s thankful for it. He finds joy in it.
    4. We start with blessing, and that’s important. Our temptation is to do things to seek blessing. The reality is that the ability to do and the motivation to do is itself a blessing, from which acts follow. Lead with the blessing!
    5. Sometimes it’s OK to shout “Help!”

    I hope you’re enjoying this journey as I am. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be posting the first verse in the second section.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:8 – I’m Going to Do It; Help!

    Psalm 119:8 – I’m Going to Do It; Help!

    I will observe your statues.
    Don’t completely forsake me!

    Sometime we’re so busy looking for the really holy things and the absolutely correct commands in scripture that we fail to see the human element. But to miss that human element really misses much of the message of scripture. Scripture speaks in the way it developed and was preserved, as well as through the nature of its human authors, as much or even more than it does in propositions.

    This verse is very human. It’s the cry of most religious or spiritual people, or rather those who aspire to be such. I’m going to do this. Here’s my plan. Here are the spiritual practices I’m going to carry out. These practices will help me be truly spiritual, holy, and generally a better person.

    At the same time, there are those moments when we realize we need all the help we can get. Consider my idea of taking Psalm 119 a verse at a time, meditating on it for a day, and then writing a post that evening to be published the next morning. Yes, I’m blogging, but this blogging is based on me carrying out a spiritual practice, simple in structure, and personal.

    Then there was the day when I realized in the middle of the afternoon that I couldn’t even remember the words of the verse I was supposed to be meditating on. Things had gone multiple directions and I don’t handle that well. I had to pull out the text and remind myself.

    Or I could talk about right now. It’s later than I planned to write this. Suddenly I thought, Oh no! I have to write something about that verse. It was another of those scattered days.

    So I’m coming to my computer sort of like the Psalmist to his writing. Lord, I have a plan. Don’t give up on me completely.

    It may not be the best theology in the world, but it’s very human.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:7 – Praise with Integrity

    Psalm 119:7 – Praise with Integrity

    I will praise you with an upright heart
    When I learn your righteous judgments.

    What does learning about God’s righteous (right) judgments have to do with praise?

    If we think of this Psalm as expressing joy over a list of rules, this might be a good question. If you haven’t yet, please read my earlier post on what “law” means in Psalm 119. To summarize, in Psalm 119 we heard one of God’s people praising God for God’s revelation in Torah. The various words for law direct us to the varied things that are present in this revelation of God.

    This is important in terms of praise. Genuine praise results from looking at God’s self-revelation. We look at what God has done and the response is in praise. This is genuine praise.

    There is also praise that is manipulative. “Lord, I praise you, and I want …” There is false praise. “Lord, I’m praising you because otherwise you might wipe me out. I hope you don’t notice that I don’t really mean it.”

    This doesn’t mean that praise somehow results from knowing everything there is to know about God. We’re never going to do that this side of eternity. What it does mean is that genuine praise from us results from our observation of God’s revelation.

    The more we observe, the more we praise. Not because God needs it, but because it flows from that knowledge.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:6 – Overcoming Shame

    Psalm 119:6 – Overcoming Shame

    Then I won’t be ashamed,
    When I keep my eyes on all your commands.

    I didn’t get the poetry in my translation. It’s hard to get everything into it at once.

    This verse strikes at one of our most serious problems. Our identity. Our ability to live with ourselves.

    You’ve surely heard stories of people going on various pilgrimages to find themselves. Others go through their lives with a continuous question of whether they are important, or contribute, or make a difference of some kind. Who are we?

    Often this comes as shame. We are ashamed of things we have done. Let me confess that there are things I have done in my life of which I am not proud. Even more, I have rarely (almost never) done my work to what I consider a high level of quality. There are always things in what I do that I want to apologize for, even to myself.

    But when we get our eyes on God, in this case the God revealed in the commands he gave, we can begin to find our identity. The God who did these things actually cares about us.

    7 “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NRSVue)

    For a New Testament quote,

    1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

    1 John 3:1a (NRSVue)

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)