Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 4 verses 24 through 26:
24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.”
This morning’s Lesson is mysterious and bizarre and I hesitate to use it as the Lesson because it is so peculiar. Yet it is stories like this which often trip people up in reading the Bible, and so having some guidance is helpful.
First off, it should be said outright that the story is so veiled that we don’t even know for sure who it’s about. The pronouns in the Hebrew are unclear, so we can’t really determine who it is that is in danger here in the encounter — Moses or his son Gershom.
A case can be made for either. Gershom has not been circumcised; and there is thought that perhaps Moses himself had not been circumcised either, as it would have been a dead give away that he was a Hebrew child in hiding amidst Pharaoh’s genocide. In either case, Moses is now returning to his people — he and his kindred — and therefore he and his whole household will be subject to God’s commands. The flint-stone “cutting” of the first-born child is therefore likened as a circumcision; its blood binding the father to the son in redemptive fashion just as the blood of the lamb will later redeem all the firstborn children of Israel.
Even more, the story echoes the earlier Genesis story of Jacob, who himself also had a mysterious and little-understood encounter with the divine in the middle of the night when he was returning to his own homeland following a long sojourn. In that sense the story is archetypal. Moses, like Jacob before him, is coming back home to face his nemesis, and more importantly, his own fears. So as with Jacob, there is wrestling in the night. The task before him will not be easy. And neither is the moment. There is pain. There is blood, sweat, and tears.
And, there is the letting loose. For Moses has contended with God now; and so old Pharaoh will be nothing . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Monday’s Lesson will come from Exodus chapters 7 through 15.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 30, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 1 verses 15 through 22:
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Moses is the hero of the Exodus story; but Moses would not have been Moses without the heroic actions of no less than five females who helped him survive the murderous plans of Pharaoh.
First there were the two midwives, Shiprah and Puah, who refused Pharaoh’s scheme to kill the male-born Israelite babies and [civilly?] disobeyed his command.
Then there was Moses’ sister and mother who hid Moses away for three months, and then set his bassinet (the Hebrew word is “Ark”) in the reeds upon the Nile, in hopes that while out bathing in the river someone from Pharaoh’s house might find the boy and take him in.
And, indeed, that is what happened. For even amongst Pharaoh’s house there was human tenderness, and compassion, and the desire to care for and love a child, and so Pharaoh’s own daughter herself took the baby in and gave him the name “Moses” which means, “I drew him from the water.”
Five loving and courageous females. Five heroines behind the hero. Only four women and a girl — and mighty Pharaoh didn’t stand a chance.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. We’re in Exodus now. Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from chapters 4 through 6.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Moses is the hero of the Exodus story; but Moses would not have been Moses without the heroic actions of no less than five females who helped him survive the murderous plans of Pharaoh.
First there were the two midwives, Shiprah and Puah, who refused Pharaoh’s scheme to kill the male-born Israelite babies and [civilly?] disobeyed his command.
Then there was Moses’ sister and mother who hid Moses away for three months, and then set his bassinet (the Hebrew word is “Ark”) in the reeds upon the Nile, in hopes that while out bathing in the river someone from Pharaoh’s house might find the boy and take him in.
And, indeed, that is what happened. For even amongst Pharaoh’s house there was human tenderness, and compassion, and the desire to care for and love a child, and so Pharaoh’s own daughter herself took the baby in and gave him the name “Moses” which means, “I drew him from the water.”
Five loving and courageous females. Five heroines behind the hero. Only four women and a girl — and mighty Pharaoh didn’t stand a chance.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. We’re in Exodus now. Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from chapters 4 through 6.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 29, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 50 verses 1 through 6:
We cannot rush or hasten the process of grief. Publicly there is a time of grief for the community. Friends and acquaintances and our social networks grieve and mourn with us. They show up with casseroles, and at the funeral, and send kind contributions to the church in our loved ones memory. These are all good things; but eventually they slow and finally pass also.
But the grieving process goes on. Like in the Lesson, burying a loved one ends up being a long, long journey even after “the days of weeping are past”. The journey is long. And it brings up hard things from the past, as it did for the sons of Jacob. Just as the brothers were brought to weep on the threshing floor in verse 10 of this same Lesson’s chapter, so too does grief bring us to a place where hard places in our hearts get cracked open and exposed, just as a kernel of wheat is cracked open and exposed on the threshing floor. The hurt and pain is raw, things we didn’t even know were inside us come out, and the floodgates of grief’s tears are opened.
All that can be said of this is that this is necessary. Nobody knows quite how long the journey is. Every family and every person has to take it in their own time. The rest of the world grieves, but only a little while. But as in the story, the family and the closest of loved ones actually have to go across the Jordan to bury their loved ones. They themselves have to in some sense cross the river into the Land of Canaan. And how long it takes to get back one can never really say because in some sense some part of them will always be left there across the Jordan, in the place the world knows as Canaan, but we even now still dare to call the Promised Land . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the Bible together this year and we’ve completed Genesis! Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Exodus chapters 1-3.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 28, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 47 verses 17 through 21:
17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph; and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock. 18 When that year was ended, they came to him the following year, and said to him, “We can not hide from my lord that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. 19 Shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; just give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.
Over and over again in chapter 47 of Genesis is the word “slaves” mentioned. This is the writer’s way of foreshadowing what is to come: though Pharaoh is now kind and gracious towards his chief-of-staff Joseph’s family, there will come a day when a new Pharaoh will arise who “knows not Joseph” and will make slaves of his descendants by the power that Joseph himself amassed for the Pharaohic destiny.
What we empower now in positions of authority can have bearing for generations to follow. The authority we give to so-called “benevolent dictators” can later be used to suppress and enslave a nation ruled by more heavy-handed Pharaohs.
The “knows not Joseph” test is a valuable one. We should ask ourselves at all times and all circumstances, “Will what we are empowering in this Pharaoh today be prudent to also give another Pharaoh who knows not Joseph tomorrow?”
NOTE: We’re reading the Bible together this year. Tomorrow we conclude Genesis with chapters 48 through 50.
17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph; and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock. 18 When that year was ended, they came to him the following year, and said to him, “We can not hide from my lord that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. 19 Shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh; just give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.
Over and over again in chapter 47 of Genesis is the word “slaves” mentioned. This is the writer’s way of foreshadowing what is to come: though Pharaoh is now kind and gracious towards his chief-of-staff Joseph’s family, there will come a day when a new Pharaoh will arise who “knows not Joseph” and will make slaves of his descendants by the power that Joseph himself amassed for the Pharaohic destiny.
What we empower now in positions of authority can have bearing for generations to follow. The authority we give to so-called “benevolent dictators” can later be used to suppress and enslave a nation ruled by more heavy-handed Pharaohs.
The “knows not Joseph” test is a valuable one. We should ask ourselves at all times and all circumstances, “Will what we are empowering in this Pharaoh today be prudent to also give another Pharaoh who knows not Joseph tomorrow?”
NOTE: We’re reading the Bible together this year. Tomorrow we conclude Genesis with chapters 48 through 50.
Monday, January 27, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 27, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 45 verses 4 through 8a:
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
The Genesis writer is likely writing to a people in exile and bondage, something like the kind of exile and bondage Joseph endured in Egypt. He is trying to tell them not to despair. He is trying to articulate to them a hope that God is and always has been and always will be at work — even in their bondage.
Theologians call this “salvation history”; it is the often hidden, yet ongoing, and ultimately revealed way God works in history to redeem the world.
Joseph was sold into exile by his brothers. That is true. That is history. But God was also working in all this to ultimately save Joseph, his family, and indeed the whole world from famine. That is salvation history.
In the most difficult times and even amidst the most evil deeds God is still working God’s purposes out. God is for us. And in the end, when all is revealed, it will be shown how God purposes all things to the good.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
The Genesis writer is likely writing to a people in exile and bondage, something like the kind of exile and bondage Joseph endured in Egypt. He is trying to tell them not to despair. He is trying to articulate to them a hope that God is and always has been and always will be at work — even in their bondage.
Theologians call this “salvation history”; it is the often hidden, yet ongoing, and ultimately revealed way God works in history to redeem the world.
Joseph was sold into exile by his brothers. That is true. That is history. But God was also working in all this to ultimately save Joseph, his family, and indeed the whole world from famine. That is salvation history.
In the most difficult times and even amidst the most evil deeds God is still working God’s purposes out. God is for us. And in the end, when all is revealed, it will be shown how God purposes all things to the good.
Friday, January 24, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 24, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 35 verses 1-4, 6-7, and 11-14:
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes; 3 then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem . . . 6 Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, 7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel,because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother . . . 11 God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. 12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him. 14 Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. 15 So Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
Jacob comes again to Bethel, the “House of the LORD” where twenty-some-odd years before he first encountered God and made a vow:
“If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you,” (Genesis 28:20-22).
Jacob keeps his vow. When Jacob first laid his head on the rock to sleep at Bethel he had nothing but the clothes on his back and a staff at his side. But Bethel was a special place, a place of mysterious encounter with the divine, and it was the beginning of a change for Jacob. For the first time, no longer was he living just for himself, but now also for God. Thus the vow.
It takes Jacob two-plus decades for fulfill his vow. Through many toils he will have to come. But in the end he realizes he’s been blessed. And though we was once poor, now he is very, very rich — both in worldly goods and also in spirit — so he comes back to the sacred place of encounter, to rebuild the holy place, and to make his faithful offering to God in Bethel, “the House of God”.
So may it be with all of us also.
NOTE: I’m trying to read the whole Bible this year. Monday’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 38 through 45.
God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes; 3 then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem . . . 6 Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, 7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel,because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother . . . 11 God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you. 12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him. 14 Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. 15 So Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
Jacob comes again to Bethel, the “House of the LORD” where twenty-some-odd years before he first encountered God and made a vow:
“If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you,” (Genesis 28:20-22).
Jacob keeps his vow. When Jacob first laid his head on the rock to sleep at Bethel he had nothing but the clothes on his back and a staff at his side. But Bethel was a special place, a place of mysterious encounter with the divine, and it was the beginning of a change for Jacob. For the first time, no longer was he living just for himself, but now also for God. Thus the vow.
It takes Jacob two-plus decades for fulfill his vow. Through many toils he will have to come. But in the end he realizes he’s been blessed. And though we was once poor, now he is very, very rich — both in worldly goods and also in spirit — so he comes back to the sacred place of encounter, to rebuild the holy place, and to make his faithful offering to God in Bethel, “the House of God”.
So may it be with all of us also.
NOTE: I’m trying to read the whole Bible this year. Monday’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 38 through 45.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 23, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 32 verses 22 through 31:
22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
In the mystical journey back to the true self we call home forces us to look deeply within in order to come to terms with who we are, where what we have done, and whom we have harmed.
Jakob is at the ford of the Jabbok, the archetypal point which he must cross over in order to come back home after being gone for many years. He must come home to himself and the acknowledgment of who he has been.
He wrestles at night with a mysterious being. “What is your name?” he is asked. “Jacob”, he must admit, which means “grasper”, or “swindler”, the name which was given to him because he grasped the heel of his twin brother Esau in the womb, but then later denied when he stole Esau’s blessing from their father. Now he must come to terms. He is Jacob, and always has been Jakob. He’s been a swindler by birth, and it’s how he got where he is.
But then, just at the moment when he admits that he is Jakob, the mysterious being he wrestles with tells him he will not longer be Jakob, but now he will be Israel, meaning “Wrestles with God”.
The night is long. The match severe. Jakob loses. But in losing, he also wins. He will now walk with a limp forever. The pain of the encounter with his own self leaves him wounded. It will be a reminder of where he has been and he will carry it forward as he crosses the river.
But he will cross the river. And he will come back home. And he will come back no longer a swindler but now a wrestler, no longer a clutching, grasping, lying, and conniving Jakob, but now a blessed Israel — a blessed, and also limping Israel.
NOTE- We are reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come fro Genesis chapters 35 through 37.
22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
In the mystical journey back to the true self we call home forces us to look deeply within in order to come to terms with who we are, where what we have done, and whom we have harmed.
Jakob is at the ford of the Jabbok, the archetypal point which he must cross over in order to come back home after being gone for many years. He must come home to himself and the acknowledgment of who he has been.
He wrestles at night with a mysterious being. “What is your name?” he is asked. “Jacob”, he must admit, which means “grasper”, or “swindler”, the name which was given to him because he grasped the heel of his twin brother Esau in the womb, but then later denied when he stole Esau’s blessing from their father. Now he must come to terms. He is Jacob, and always has been Jakob. He’s been a swindler by birth, and it’s how he got where he is.
But then, just at the moment when he admits that he is Jakob, the mysterious being he wrestles with tells him he will not longer be Jakob, but now he will be Israel, meaning “Wrestles with God”.
The night is long. The match severe. Jakob loses. But in losing, he also wins. He will now walk with a limp forever. The pain of the encounter with his own self leaves him wounded. It will be a reminder of where he has been and he will carry it forward as he crosses the river.
But he will cross the river. And he will come back home. And he will come back no longer a swindler but now a wrestler, no longer a clutching, grasping, lying, and conniving Jakob, but now a blessed Israel — a blessed, and also limping Israel.
NOTE- We are reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come fro Genesis chapters 35 through 37.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 22, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 31 verses 19 and 20:
19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away.
Today’s Genesis reading from chapters 30 and 31 is the long and taxing tale of the manipulative and conniving Laban, his daughters, and his son in-law Jacob. It is fundamentally a story of gaslighting and abuse, and the family’s final need to escape psychological torment.
In the escape, Rachel stole her father’s gods — small she could keep in the well of her camel’s saddle. But these were just outer symbols of what she was really doing. Her father Laban was himself his own god; when she chose to flee with her family and swiped the idols, she was in fact stealing away with all her father’s power over her. And when Laban caught up with her and her family’s caravan but could not find the gods, she had hidden them in the seat from which she did not rise “because of the way of women” — menstruation. So the god-like power of the patriarchal abuser is in the end felled by the self-empowerment hidden within a woman of his own household.
Let those with need to hear have ears to understand.
NOTE — We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 32 through 34.
19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. 20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away.
Today’s Genesis reading from chapters 30 and 31 is the long and taxing tale of the manipulative and conniving Laban, his daughters, and his son in-law Jacob. It is fundamentally a story of gaslighting and abuse, and the family’s final need to escape psychological torment.
In the escape, Rachel stole her father’s gods — small she could keep in the well of her camel’s saddle. But these were just outer symbols of what she was really doing. Her father Laban was himself his own god; when she chose to flee with her family and swiped the idols, she was in fact stealing away with all her father’s power over her. And when Laban caught up with her and her family’s caravan but could not find the gods, she had hidden them in the seat from which she did not rise “because of the way of women” — menstruation. So the god-like power of the patriarchal abuser is in the end felled by the self-empowerment hidden within a woman of his own household.
Let those with need to hear have ears to understand.
NOTE — We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 32 through 34.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 21, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 29 verses 10 through 17:
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed[d] in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
I love this story.
Jacob is on the run from his angry brother and in search of a woman to call his wife and comes to “a certain place” where he takes a pillow for the night from a heap of stone ruins, having no idea that this heap of rocks is from the altar which his grandfather Abraham once built to God in his own journey many years before. He falls asleep with absolutely no sense of the holiness of the place.
But then mysteriously he dreams, and a ladder from heaven is pulled down on which angles ascend and descend. Then the voice of the God speaks to him in his sleep: “I and the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring . . . And all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”
Jacob then awakens from his sleep and exclaims, “Surely the LORD is in this place — and I did not know it . . . How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of the LORD!
And so it is, one generation builds an altar, or a Temple, or a church, and as the years go by it is almost left to utter ruin, but then two generations down, stumbles another from the family into this “certain place” which seems like “any old place” but turns out to be, mysteriously, that awesome place where heaven comes down and earth goes up, the very House of the LORD.
May it be so, dear God; may it be so again in all your holy places . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will be taken from Genesis chapters 30 and 31.
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed[d] in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
I love this story.
Jacob is on the run from his angry brother and in search of a woman to call his wife and comes to “a certain place” where he takes a pillow for the night from a heap of stone ruins, having no idea that this heap of rocks is from the altar which his grandfather Abraham once built to God in his own journey many years before. He falls asleep with absolutely no sense of the holiness of the place.
But then mysteriously he dreams, and a ladder from heaven is pulled down on which angles ascend and descend. Then the voice of the God speaks to him in his sleep: “I and the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring . . . And all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.”
Jacob then awakens from his sleep and exclaims, “Surely the LORD is in this place — and I did not know it . . . How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of the LORD!
And so it is, one generation builds an altar, or a Temple, or a church, and as the years go by it is almost left to utter ruin, but then two generations down, stumbles another from the family into this “certain place” which seems like “any old place” but turns out to be, mysteriously, that awesome place where heaven comes down and earth goes up, the very House of the LORD.
May it be so, dear God; may it be so again in all your holy places . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will be taken from Genesis chapters 30 and 31.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 20, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 22 verses 9 through 14:
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
In 1957 Nashville, TN integrated its public school system by admitting nineteen African American children into several eight different elementary schools. Just as had been the case in several other Southern cities forced to integrate, the Nashville children were met with angry white mobs; and someone even bombed one of the schools overnight. Other threats were made to bomb black homes and churches.
Kelly Miller Smith was a black Baptist minister and civil rights leader whose daughter Joy was among the children integrating one of the schools. Amidst the threats, a night watch was organized and Smith and another white minister named Will Campbell set up one night keeping watch in Smith’s study.
Rev. Campbell asked Rev. Smith why he was willing to go so far as even to risk the life of his own daughter.
“Kelly, what if something happens to little Joy?” Rev. Campbell asked.
As Rev. Campbell later told it, Rev. Smith opened his Bible and read from today’s Lesson, where the LORD asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham had been ready to do so. But atop the mountain there was a ram caught in the thicket, snagged by its horns, and the LORD told Abraham to sacrifice the ram instead.
Rev. Smith then looked up at Rev. Campbell from his Bible and offered a short but stunning prayer, “Lord, make the thicket tight and the ram’s horns long. Amen.”
We are reading the Bible all the way through this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 27 through 29.
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
In 1957 Nashville, TN integrated its public school system by admitting nineteen African American children into several eight different elementary schools. Just as had been the case in several other Southern cities forced to integrate, the Nashville children were met with angry white mobs; and someone even bombed one of the schools overnight. Other threats were made to bomb black homes and churches.
Kelly Miller Smith was a black Baptist minister and civil rights leader whose daughter Joy was among the children integrating one of the schools. Amidst the threats, a night watch was organized and Smith and another white minister named Will Campbell set up one night keeping watch in Smith’s study.
Rev. Campbell asked Rev. Smith why he was willing to go so far as even to risk the life of his own daughter.
“Kelly, what if something happens to little Joy?” Rev. Campbell asked.
As Rev. Campbell later told it, Rev. Smith opened his Bible and read from today’s Lesson, where the LORD asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham had been ready to do so. But atop the mountain there was a ram caught in the thicket, snagged by its horns, and the LORD told Abraham to sacrifice the ram instead.
Rev. Smith then looked up at Rev. Campbell from his Bible and offered a short but stunning prayer, “Lord, make the thicket tight and the ram’s horns long. Amen.”
We are reading the Bible all the way through this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 27 through 29.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 17, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 16 verses 7 through 13:
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
you shall call him Ishmael,
for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12
He shall be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
and everyone’s hand against him;
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”
13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”
The story of Hagar, the slave-girl of Abraham and Sarah, is sorrowful and even maddening. The world of the Bible was harsh and exploitative and not even Abraham, the Father of our many Faiths, was above the cruel customs of the time. Our task is not to defend him or Sarah, but to try to come to terms with their stories, just as we must try to come to terms with the cruelties within our own family stories.
But lest we fix too much on Abraham and Sarah, the writer of Genesis is careful to tell us the story of Hagar. He [or she or they] is careful to include her story, and her voice, and God’s care over her.
Yes, she was dismissed coldly when she was found to be with child. And yes GOD found her in the wilderness and sent her back to Abraham and Sarah, still a slave. But that will not be the end of the story for Hagar and that is not the point in telling the story. The point is that she was there and God saw her.
Yes; she was sent back a slave. But that was her option for now.; for she could not have made it through the wilderness with this child in her womb. She was sent back, and she was sent back for good; but she was not sent back forever. And we will learn more about what happens to her as the story goes on.
But for now the Genesis writer is content to tell us that God sees Hagar, God sees this lowly, exploited, and seemingly forsaken slave girl. And, in that she is given a prominent place, not only in Genesis, but in the entire Biblical canon as the only person — male or female, slave or free — who actually names God in all the Scriptures. And the name she comes up with is “El-Roi” which means “God who sees”.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible this year. Read along! Monday’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 19 through 26.
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
you shall call him Ishmael,
for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12
He shall be a wild ass of a man,
with his hand against everyone,
and everyone’s hand against him;
and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”
13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”
The story of Hagar, the slave-girl of Abraham and Sarah, is sorrowful and even maddening. The world of the Bible was harsh and exploitative and not even Abraham, the Father of our many Faiths, was above the cruel customs of the time. Our task is not to defend him or Sarah, but to try to come to terms with their stories, just as we must try to come to terms with the cruelties within our own family stories.
But lest we fix too much on Abraham and Sarah, the writer of Genesis is careful to tell us the story of Hagar. He [or she or they] is careful to include her story, and her voice, and God’s care over her.
Yes, she was dismissed coldly when she was found to be with child. And yes GOD found her in the wilderness and sent her back to Abraham and Sarah, still a slave. But that will not be the end of the story for Hagar and that is not the point in telling the story. The point is that she was there and God saw her.
Yes; she was sent back a slave. But that was her option for now.; for she could not have made it through the wilderness with this child in her womb. She was sent back, and she was sent back for good; but she was not sent back forever. And we will learn more about what happens to her as the story goes on.
But for now the Genesis writer is content to tell us that God sees Hagar, God sees this lowly, exploited, and seemingly forsaken slave girl. And, in that she is given a prominent place, not only in Genesis, but in the entire Biblical canon as the only person — male or female, slave or free — who actually names God in all the Scriptures. And the name she comes up with is “El-Roi” which means “God who sees”.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible this year. Read along! Monday’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 19 through 26.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 16, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The ideal that the LORD’s call came to one person and one family out of all the other persons and families of the world seems repugnantly exclusionary and ripe for all kinds of abuse. And, indeed, some Jews and especially many Christians have interpreted this text in all kinds of vile, segregating, and triumphalist ways.
But read the text and we see that the blessing comes to one persons for the sake of blessing all other peoples. “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It is not a blessing from God unless and until it is shared. To whom much is given much is required. And the blessing of one who walks the earth must in turn be blessing of all the earth also.
We are reading the Bible together this year. The whole thing! Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 16-18.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The ideal that the LORD’s call came to one person and one family out of all the other persons and families of the world seems repugnantly exclusionary and ripe for all kinds of abuse. And, indeed, some Jews and especially many Christians have interpreted this text in all kinds of vile, segregating, and triumphalist ways.
But read the text and we see that the blessing comes to one persons for the sake of blessing all other peoples. “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It is not a blessing from God unless and until it is shared. To whom much is given much is required. And the blessing of one who walks the earth must in turn be blessing of all the earth also.
We are reading the Bible together this year. The whole thing! Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 16-18.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 15, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 40 verses -0 through 17:
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
I believe it was one of our Duke professors Ellen Davis who first helped me to see the courage, the mighty, mighty courage, of this text.
Job lost everything, including all children, in the first chapters. Yet here at the end, he dares to open himself to having children once more. He knows suffering. He knows just how painful life can be. He has loved and lost. And now, after who knows how long, he has somehow come through, and opens himself to love again.
Garth Brooks has a ballad about titled “Learning to Live Again” about a widower trying to figure out life again after loss. He’s dating again, he trying to live life again. He’s having to actually learn to live life again; but, he says, “This learning to live again is killing me.”
There is tremendous pain after. And it takes time. So much time. I don’t know if there really is ever “closure”. But little by little, a day at a time, somehow Job survives. He learns to live again.
He also knows he may lose again. As my boyhood pastor John Claypool who lost his own young daughter to Leukemia often said, “Life is gift,” and it has to be received on its own terms. And death and pain are a part of the deal. But Job is willing to risk this. He’s willing to open himself to the risk of pain that he might also open himself to living again.
Ellen Davis says the names of Job’s second set of children are telling. The first is Jemimah, which means Dove, the second Keziah which means Cinnamon, and the third Keren-happuch which means Horn of Eyeshadow. These are joyous names. They are delightful names. Job has opened himself to life again, he has opened himself to receiving its gift once more, and he has received it with joy and with delight.
We are continuing to read the whole Bible this year with our Daily Lessons. Tomorrow we will be back to Genesis, reflecting on Genesis chapters 12 through 15.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
I believe it was one of our Duke professors Ellen Davis who first helped me to see the courage, the mighty, mighty courage, of this text.
Job lost everything, including all children, in the first chapters. Yet here at the end, he dares to open himself to having children once more. He knows suffering. He knows just how painful life can be. He has loved and lost. And now, after who knows how long, he has somehow come through, and opens himself to love again.
Garth Brooks has a ballad about titled “Learning to Live Again” about a widower trying to figure out life again after loss. He’s dating again, he trying to live life again. He’s having to actually learn to live life again; but, he says, “This learning to live again is killing me.”
There is tremendous pain after. And it takes time. So much time. I don’t know if there really is ever “closure”. But little by little, a day at a time, somehow Job survives. He learns to live again.
He also knows he may lose again. As my boyhood pastor John Claypool who lost his own young daughter to Leukemia often said, “Life is gift,” and it has to be received on its own terms. And death and pain are a part of the deal. But Job is willing to risk this. He’s willing to open himself to the risk of pain that he might also open himself to living again.
Ellen Davis says the names of Job’s second set of children are telling. The first is Jemimah, which means Dove, the second Keziah which means Cinnamon, and the third Keren-happuch which means Horn of Eyeshadow. These are joyous names. They are delightful names. Job has opened himself to life again, he has opened himself to receiving its gift once more, and he has received it with joy and with delight.
We are continuing to read the whole Bible this year with our Daily Lessons. Tomorrow we will be back to Genesis, reflecting on Genesis chapters 12 through 15.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 14, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job 38 verses 19 through 21:
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20
that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21
Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
At first reading the LORD’s speech to Job is deeply dissatisfying. There is nothing really new said. “Were you there who I laid the foundation of the earth?” “Or who shut up the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?”
The imagery is vivid, stunning even; but there is no deeper to what is said by the LORD from this whirlwind in chapter 38 than there is said by the mortal Elihu in the chapters preceding.
But perhaps we should pay attention to what is not said. Wisdom is often found not in what is stated, but left unstated and Job is a wisdom book. And the wisdom from the whirlwind is the wisdom of silence when it comes to suffering.
Yes, the LORD seems to see and know everything. He knows when the mountain goat gives birth, and where the prey of the lion lives, and where the storehouses of the snow is hidden. This is all spoken. But what is left unspoken is why Job suffers.
All the other speakers in Job seem to have Job’s suffering figured out. They moralize it, basically saying he deserves it. But the LORD offers no light of wisdom on this. Only the LORD is wise enough to remain silent about the meaning of suffering.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light and where is the place of darkness?” Who knows, save the LORD? And where the LORD is silent, how dare any of the rest of us presume to speak?
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will conclude our reading of Job with chapters 40 through 42.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20
that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21
Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
At first reading the LORD’s speech to Job is deeply dissatisfying. There is nothing really new said. “Were you there who I laid the foundation of the earth?” “Or who shut up the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?”
The imagery is vivid, stunning even; but there is no deeper to what is said by the LORD from this whirlwind in chapter 38 than there is said by the mortal Elihu in the chapters preceding.
But perhaps we should pay attention to what is not said. Wisdom is often found not in what is stated, but left unstated and Job is a wisdom book. And the wisdom from the whirlwind is the wisdom of silence when it comes to suffering.
Yes, the LORD seems to see and know everything. He knows when the mountain goat gives birth, and where the prey of the lion lives, and where the storehouses of the snow is hidden. This is all spoken. But what is left unspoken is why Job suffers.
All the other speakers in Job seem to have Job’s suffering figured out. They moralize it, basically saying he deserves it. But the LORD offers no light of wisdom on this. Only the LORD is wise enough to remain silent about the meaning of suffering.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light and where is the place of darkness?” Who knows, save the LORD? And where the LORD is silent, how dare any of the rest of us presume to speak?
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will conclude our reading of Job with chapters 40 through 42.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 13, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 29 verses 1 through 13:
Job again took up his discourse and said:
2
“O that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me;
3
when his lamp shone over my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness;
4
when I was in my prime,
when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
5
when the Almighty was still with me,
when my children were around me;
6
when my steps were washed with milk,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7
When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I took my seat in the square,
8
the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose up and stood;
9
the nobles refrained from talking,
and laid their hands on their mouths;
10
the voices of princes were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11
When the ear heard, it commended me,
and when the eye saw, it approved;
12
because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the orphan who had no helper.
13
The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
A few days ago I was with a dear friend and former pastor who is now old and frail and winding down. We were eating together in the dining hall at his senior living home and I found myself telling everybody we met how significant of a person he is to me, what all he had accomplished in his life, and just how important he once was. I actually found myself wanting to stand up and yell for everyone’s attention and let them know what company they were all in.
Then I realized probably everyone in the dining room had somebody who wanted to do the same thing. Everybody there was once someone very, very significant to somebody.
In this morning’s Lesson Job laments:
“O that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me . . .”
His wisdom reminds us that “life is gift”, and that we have to receive the gift on its own terms. And the terms clearly state that we will have what we have for today; but tomorrow it will be gone.
This is not something to despair. It is something to see, and understand, and give shape to our living. It puts everything and everyone in perspective, and reminds us that one day we will all lay down our trophies, and the earth will give way like the snow, and what will be left of us will remain only in the heart of God.
NOTE: I am reading the whole Bible this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson is from Job chapters 37 and 38.
Job again took up his discourse and said:
2
“O that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me;
3
when his lamp shone over my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness;
4
when I was in my prime,
when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
5
when the Almighty was still with me,
when my children were around me;
6
when my steps were washed with milk,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7
When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I took my seat in the square,
8
the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose up and stood;
9
the nobles refrained from talking,
and laid their hands on their mouths;
10
the voices of princes were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11
When the ear heard, it commended me,
and when the eye saw, it approved;
12
because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the orphan who had no helper.
13
The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
A few days ago I was with a dear friend and former pastor who is now old and frail and winding down. We were eating together in the dining hall at his senior living home and I found myself telling everybody we met how significant of a person he is to me, what all he had accomplished in his life, and just how important he once was. I actually found myself wanting to stand up and yell for everyone’s attention and let them know what company they were all in.
Then I realized probably everyone in the dining room had somebody who wanted to do the same thing. Everybody there was once someone very, very significant to somebody.
In this morning’s Lesson Job laments:
“O that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me . . .”
His wisdom reminds us that “life is gift”, and that we have to receive the gift on its own terms. And the terms clearly state that we will have what we have for today; but tomorrow it will be gone.
This is not something to despair. It is something to see, and understand, and give shape to our living. It puts everything and everyone in perspective, and reminds us that one day we will all lay down our trophies, and the earth will give way like the snow, and what will be left of us will remain only in the heart of God.
NOTE: I am reading the whole Bible this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson is from Job chapters 37 and 38.
Friday, January 10, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 10, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 24 verses 21 through 25:
21
“They harm the childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
22
Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
23
He gives them security, and they are supported;
his eyes are upon their ways.
24
They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
they wither and fade like the mallow;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25
If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
It has been 2,500 years since Job was written, yet today’s Lesson could have been written this very morning. Strong and powerful men, Job says, do harm to vulnerable women with impunity. It seems the more that things have changed in three millennia the more they’ve stayed the same.
Yet Job reminds us that the lives of these men are only sustained by a single and simple breath, which will one day, like all breath, give out. They are strong now, but will soon be weak, mighty now, but in the blink of an eye old and shriveled lying in bed in some nursing home somewhere.
Time tarries for no man, no matter how mighty or strong. And no matter how cruel or abusive or exploitative, the sands of time are falling and will soon run out.
And they who grabbed the world by their then mighty hands will be helpless and feeble and left to the hands of the Almighty God . . .
Note: I’m reading the Bible through this year. Join me! Monday’s Daily Lesson will be on Job chapters 29 through 37.
21
“They harm the childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
22
Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
23
He gives them security, and they are supported;
his eyes are upon their ways.
24
They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
they wither and fade like the mallow;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25
If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
It has been 2,500 years since Job was written, yet today’s Lesson could have been written this very morning. Strong and powerful men, Job says, do harm to vulnerable women with impunity. It seems the more that things have changed in three millennia the more they’ve stayed the same.
Yet Job reminds us that the lives of these men are only sustained by a single and simple breath, which will one day, like all breath, give out. They are strong now, but will soon be weak, mighty now, but in the blink of an eye old and shriveled lying in bed in some nursing home somewhere.
Time tarries for no man, no matter how mighty or strong. And no matter how cruel or abusive or exploitative, the sands of time are falling and will soon run out.
And they who grabbed the world by their then mighty hands will be helpless and feeble and left to the hands of the Almighty God . . .
Note: I’m reading the Bible through this year. Join me! Monday’s Daily Lesson will be on Job chapters 29 through 37.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 9, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 21 verses 5 through 9:
Look at me, and be appalled,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6
When I think of it I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7
Why do the wicked live on,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8
Their children are established in their presence,
and their offspring before their eyes.
9
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
Job’s complaint is bitter; it is angry. But Job’s rawness, if we allow it to have its word, has something to say about society and its injustice.
It is those who suffer from the daily hardships of the order of our world who can see its inequities. They know first hand how we treat the poor and powerless compared with the rich and powerful. They call suspicion upon the given narrative that things are as they are simply because it is what people deserve. That is a narrative of the powerful and the privileged. Job gives us another narrative, bitter as it is.
Job is hard to listen to. His pain is deep. His anger is raw. But we must listen to his lament. We must look with his eyes. They tell us something if we dare to look through them. Job was rich, and prospering, and everyone respected him. He was a man of privilege. Now he is poor, and cursed, and contemptible to all. Now he is a waste, and a drag, and a burden to society. But Job is the same man.
To allow Job to have his say is to let him speak to us in our own privilege. It is to allow him to say things about how we treat others and how our government treats them also. The poor, the aged, the cursed of society — these are the Jobs. And, they could well have been us.
Maybe even still could be . . .
Look at me, and be appalled,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6
When I think of it I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7
Why do the wicked live on,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8
Their children are established in their presence,
and their offspring before their eyes.
9
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
Job’s complaint is bitter; it is angry. But Job’s rawness, if we allow it to have its word, has something to say about society and its injustice.
It is those who suffer from the daily hardships of the order of our world who can see its inequities. They know first hand how we treat the poor and powerless compared with the rich and powerful. They call suspicion upon the given narrative that things are as they are simply because it is what people deserve. That is a narrative of the powerful and the privileged. Job gives us another narrative, bitter as it is.
Job is hard to listen to. His pain is deep. His anger is raw. But we must listen to his lament. We must look with his eyes. They tell us something if we dare to look through them. Job was rich, and prospering, and everyone respected him. He was a man of privilege. Now he is poor, and cursed, and contemptible to all. Now he is a waste, and a drag, and a burden to society. But Job is the same man.
To allow Job to have his say is to let him speak to us in our own privilege. It is to allow him to say things about how we treat others and how our government treats them also. The poor, the aged, the cursed of society — these are the Jobs. And, they could well have been us.
Maybe even still could be . . .
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
DailyLesson for January 8, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 19 verses 23 through 27:
“O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
24
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
25
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
27
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
The “Redeemer” Job speaks of here might also be translated “Vindicator” or even “Avenger”. This was often a relative or kinsman who would come to avenge the death or redeem the capture of another. For Job, who has lost all his family save his wife who has turned against him, a “redeemer” now can only be God, who Job says he shall one day see “on [his] side.”
We see now headlines and feeds debating whose side God is on. Some say God is on their side. Others push back and say God is on nobody’s side.
Job tells us God is on the side of the suffering, the bereaved, the downtrodden, the poor of spirit, and the unjustly accused and condemned. God is on Job’s side.
Job has given up on justice in this world. He has given up on peace. He does not believe he will live to see his fortunes turned. His losses cannot be regained. He believes he will die in grief and contempt.
But he also believes in a Redeemer. And he believes that at the last the Redeemer shall stand upon the earth, and that even in death Job will see him. Job will see Him at his side, and all else of the world will see also . . .
NOTE: I am trying to read the the whole Bible this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Job chapters 21 through 23.
“O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
24
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
25
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
27
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
The “Redeemer” Job speaks of here might also be translated “Vindicator” or even “Avenger”. This was often a relative or kinsman who would come to avenge the death or redeem the capture of another. For Job, who has lost all his family save his wife who has turned against him, a “redeemer” now can only be God, who Job says he shall one day see “on [his] side.”
We see now headlines and feeds debating whose side God is on. Some say God is on their side. Others push back and say God is on nobody’s side.
Job tells us God is on the side of the suffering, the bereaved, the downtrodden, the poor of spirit, and the unjustly accused and condemned. God is on Job’s side.
Job has given up on justice in this world. He has given up on peace. He does not believe he will live to see his fortunes turned. His losses cannot be regained. He believes he will die in grief and contempt.
But he also believes in a Redeemer. And he believes that at the last the Redeemer shall stand upon the earth, and that even in death Job will see him. Job will see Him at his side, and all else of the world will see also . . .
NOTE: I am trying to read the the whole Bible this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Job chapters 21 through 23.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 7, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 16 verses 1 through 3:
Then Job answered:
2
“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3
Have windy words no limit?
Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?”
When I was a CPE (Certified Pastoral Education) student our supervisors made us do what are called verbatims — reconstructions of conversations we had while making the rounds as chaplains in the hospital. We would write down what the patient or the nurse or doctor said and then how we responded and try to trace the conversation as we best remembered it. Our supervisors were always much more interested in what we rather than our interlocutors. Our anxieties always appeared. Our need to explain, or control, or theologize pain and suffering always, showed up in what we said and/or how we said it. So did our tendency to redirect conversations away from places which made us nervous or uncomfortable back onto firmer terrain. Come to find out, we were really master manipulators with how we could orchestrate the direction of a conversation. But our supervisors could see right through us. They would reflect with us, always asking the question, “Why? — Why did you say that? Where did that come from? What need in you was served by what you said?”
Job’s interlocutor Eliphaz is a wise man. Some of the most profound things in all of Scripture come from his mouth. “Are the consolations of God too small for you,” is a question for us all to consider when we suffer or struggle.
But Job is the one with the real wisdom in today’s Lesson. And the real wisdom comes in the question, “Why?” or, in the translation above, “What? — What provokes you that you keep on talking?”
We may have wisdom to give. We may have good advice to offer. We could really reframe things. But when it comes to other people’s suffering, we should keep on asking ourselves “Why?” or “What? — What provokes is to say the things we do?”
It’s not that we must remain silent when we face other people’s suffering. Silence is no answer. But we have to reflect and keep on reflecting on the words we do offer, lest they be empty, or insensitive, or cruel, or — most likely — just for us.
NOTE — I’m reading all the Bible this year. For those who want to read along, tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will be from Job chapters 17-20.
Then Job answered:
2
“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3
Have windy words no limit?
Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?”
When I was a CPE (Certified Pastoral Education) student our supervisors made us do what are called verbatims — reconstructions of conversations we had while making the rounds as chaplains in the hospital. We would write down what the patient or the nurse or doctor said and then how we responded and try to trace the conversation as we best remembered it. Our supervisors were always much more interested in what we rather than our interlocutors. Our anxieties always appeared. Our need to explain, or control, or theologize pain and suffering always, showed up in what we said and/or how we said it. So did our tendency to redirect conversations away from places which made us nervous or uncomfortable back onto firmer terrain. Come to find out, we were really master manipulators with how we could orchestrate the direction of a conversation. But our supervisors could see right through us. They would reflect with us, always asking the question, “Why? — Why did you say that? Where did that come from? What need in you was served by what you said?”
Job’s interlocutor Eliphaz is a wise man. Some of the most profound things in all of Scripture come from his mouth. “Are the consolations of God too small for you,” is a question for us all to consider when we suffer or struggle.
But Job is the one with the real wisdom in today’s Lesson. And the real wisdom comes in the question, “Why?” or, in the translation above, “What? — What provokes you that you keep on talking?”
We may have wisdom to give. We may have good advice to offer. We could really reframe things. But when it comes to other people’s suffering, we should keep on asking ourselves “Why?” or “What? — What provokes is to say the things we do?”
It’s not that we must remain silent when we face other people’s suffering. Silence is no answer. But we have to reflect and keep on reflecting on the words we do offer, lest they be empty, or insensitive, or cruel, or — most likely — just for us.
NOTE — I’m reading all the Bible this year. For those who want to read along, tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will be from Job chapters 17-20.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 6, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 1 verses 6 through 12:
6 One day the heavenly beings[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
At the heart of Job is a central and compelling question offered, somewhat ironically, by Satan in the story: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” or as another translation puts it, “Does God worship God for nothing?”
It is a profound question, and one which could be posed of me. So much of my own prayer life and spirituality revolves around asking for help, guidance, protection, and crumbs of bread scattered along this scary and bewildering path we call life.
And most other people are the same. We plead to God for our wants and needs. This is why it is said that no matter what the Supreme Court decides there will always be Prayer in schools so long as there are math tests in classrooms.
But would we worship God for nothing? Would we fear God if we didn’t get a thing? Or, would we fear God if, like Job, we lost everything?
Job tests our faith. It refines our motives. It purifies our religion.
There is nothing wrong with praying for our daily bread. There is nothing wrong with praying to God for our own safety, protection, and prosperity. But the book of Job teaches us that in the end we must be faithful to accept the freedom of God and the ignorance of our own wisdom.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a “Covenant Prayer” which one of my dear friends and mentors used to pray daily:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Our Covenant with God is based on grace and not works. And the saints teach us that that is true not only of our own works, but also of God’s. We must all learn to worship God “for nothing”. And that is a wisdom and a faithfulness that can only be found in suffering and in loss.
Teach us this wisdom, dear LORD, but teach it mildly we pray . . .
NOTE: As we are reading through the Bible this calendar year, tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Job chapters 14-16.
6 One day the heavenly beings[a] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
At the heart of Job is a central and compelling question offered, somewhat ironically, by Satan in the story: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” or as another translation puts it, “Does God worship God for nothing?”
It is a profound question, and one which could be posed of me. So much of my own prayer life and spirituality revolves around asking for help, guidance, protection, and crumbs of bread scattered along this scary and bewildering path we call life.
And most other people are the same. We plead to God for our wants and needs. This is why it is said that no matter what the Supreme Court decides there will always be Prayer in schools so long as there are math tests in classrooms.
But would we worship God for nothing? Would we fear God if we didn’t get a thing? Or, would we fear God if, like Job, we lost everything?
Job tests our faith. It refines our motives. It purifies our religion.
There is nothing wrong with praying for our daily bread. There is nothing wrong with praying to God for our own safety, protection, and prosperity. But the book of Job teaches us that in the end we must be faithful to accept the freedom of God and the ignorance of our own wisdom.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a “Covenant Prayer” which one of my dear friends and mentors used to pray daily:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Our Covenant with God is based on grace and not works. And the saints teach us that that is true not only of our own works, but also of God’s. We must all learn to worship God “for nothing”. And that is a wisdom and a faithfulness that can only be found in suffering and in loss.
Teach us this wisdom, dear LORD, but teach it mildly we pray . . .
NOTE: As we are reading through the Bible this calendar year, tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will come from Job chapters 14-16.
Friday, January 3, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 3, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 9 verses 20 through 22:
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
The Flood Story is full of irony, a story whose characters decorate the halls of church nurseries all over, it is also the most destructive and violent story in the Bible.
Yet there are other ways to read the Bible. St. Augustine learned from St. Ambrose to read the Scripture allegorically, so the Flood story can be read to signify God’s intervening act of love in the saving of creation. If symbolic reading sounds strange, this is in fact how at least one Biblical author read this story. From 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 20 and 21:
“in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also.”
However literal or figurative we read the Story, I get that the author’s ultimate intent of the story was to to say: “Never Again.” Never again shall life on earth be destroyed in such a violent and universal fashion.
This point is evident in two vivid scenes from the text. First, the “sweet savor” the LORD smells in the sacrifice after the water recede compels the the LORD to say, “Never again,” and God then hangs up his “bow” — literally the word for arms, signified in the sky by the “rainbow”. We are then left to wonder if the “sweet savor” of the offering wasn’t so sweet after all as perhaps God can see that those saved in the ark will only again repeat the sins of those drowned in the flood.
Indeed, Noah, said to be the most righteous man on earth builds the altar of sacrifice, then plants a vineyard, and then immediately proceeds to get drunk, naked, and then to bring down a curse upon his family — telltale signs of the behavior of an alcoholic.
So the curious symbol of a raven being let out the window of the ark in chapter 8 verse 7 has meaning. Yes, the dove, in it’s sign of peace, is let lose and there is peace for a time after the flood. But the raven is also let lose. There will be peace; and there will also be war. Life and death. Righteousness and unrighteousness.
And so the LORD will have to find another way to deal with the evil of humanity other than by trying to drown it in vengeance and so never again will the bow be taken down from the sky, but left there to remind God that there must be another way . . .
NOTE: Daily Lessons are following a chronological reading of the Scriptures this year. Genesis is divided into separate eras and authorship. We will return to Genesis later. Monday’s Lesson will be over the first 13 chapters of the Book of Job.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
The Flood Story is full of irony, a story whose characters decorate the halls of church nurseries all over, it is also the most destructive and violent story in the Bible.
Yet there are other ways to read the Bible. St. Augustine learned from St. Ambrose to read the Scripture allegorically, so the Flood story can be read to signify God’s intervening act of love in the saving of creation. If symbolic reading sounds strange, this is in fact how at least one Biblical author read this story. From 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 20 and 21:
“in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also.”
However literal or figurative we read the Story, I get that the author’s ultimate intent of the story was to to say: “Never Again.” Never again shall life on earth be destroyed in such a violent and universal fashion.
This point is evident in two vivid scenes from the text. First, the “sweet savor” the LORD smells in the sacrifice after the water recede compels the the LORD to say, “Never again,” and God then hangs up his “bow” — literally the word for arms, signified in the sky by the “rainbow”. We are then left to wonder if the “sweet savor” of the offering wasn’t so sweet after all as perhaps God can see that those saved in the ark will only again repeat the sins of those drowned in the flood.
Indeed, Noah, said to be the most righteous man on earth builds the altar of sacrifice, then plants a vineyard, and then immediately proceeds to get drunk, naked, and then to bring down a curse upon his family — telltale signs of the behavior of an alcoholic.
So the curious symbol of a raven being let out the window of the ark in chapter 8 verse 7 has meaning. Yes, the dove, in it’s sign of peace, is let lose and there is peace for a time after the flood. But the raven is also let lose. There will be peace; and there will also be war. Life and death. Righteousness and unrighteousness.
And so the LORD will have to find another way to deal with the evil of humanity other than by trying to drown it in vengeance and so never again will the bow be taken down from the sky, but left there to remind God that there must be another way . . .
NOTE: Daily Lessons are following a chronological reading of the Scriptures this year. Genesis is divided into separate eras and authorship. We will return to Genesis later. Monday’s Lesson will be over the first 13 chapters of the Book of Job.
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 2, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 4 verses
1 through 7:
4 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
We read this story and our natural inclination is to condemn Cain for his malice and murder.
But this is an archetypal story — meaning it is a story about us — and the way we are to read it is by letting it speak to the Cain that is within us.
Do we have anger, bitterness, a sense of resentment, and/or malice towards others? Could our contempt be a projection of our own inner hostilities? Could our condemnation of others have much more to do with the unresolved anxieties, dissonance within own ourselves about our own commitments to God?
Moreover, do we see ourselves as righteous Abel, but are we really dealing with our own unrighteousness Cain-like guilt?
We all like Cain fall short in what we offer to God. We cannot all be righteous Abel all the time. So then sin enters in; and its desire is to eat us up with shame. This usually masquerades as righteous anger. And the spiritual task is to recognize this within ourselves, to unmask it, to master it before it masters us.
The LORD asks Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”
And what the Cain in us must learn to see is that the answer is Yes, always Yes. Yes we will be accepted, always and completely, not because our offerings to God are great or even good, but, much more importantly, because they are honest.
Note: I am attempting to read the whole Bible in 2020 and taking Daily Lessons from the prescribed Daily Scriptures. Tomorrow’s Scripture is Genesis chapters 8 through 11.
1 through 7:
4 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
We read this story and our natural inclination is to condemn Cain for his malice and murder.
But this is an archetypal story — meaning it is a story about us — and the way we are to read it is by letting it speak to the Cain that is within us.
Do we have anger, bitterness, a sense of resentment, and/or malice towards others? Could our contempt be a projection of our own inner hostilities? Could our condemnation of others have much more to do with the unresolved anxieties, dissonance within own ourselves about our own commitments to God?
Moreover, do we see ourselves as righteous Abel, but are we really dealing with our own unrighteousness Cain-like guilt?
We all like Cain fall short in what we offer to God. We cannot all be righteous Abel all the time. So then sin enters in; and its desire is to eat us up with shame. This usually masquerades as righteous anger. And the spiritual task is to recognize this within ourselves, to unmask it, to master it before it masters us.
The LORD asks Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”
And what the Cain in us must learn to see is that the answer is Yes, always Yes. Yes we will be accepted, always and completely, not because our offerings to God are great or even good, but, much more importantly, because they are honest.
Note: I am attempting to read the whole Bible in 2020 and taking Daily Lessons from the prescribed Daily Scriptures. Tomorrow’s Scripture is Genesis chapters 8 through 11.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Daily Lesson for January 1, 2019
Today’s Daily Lesson is from Genesis 3 verses 14 through 24:
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
We stand now at the Gate of the Year -- outside the Gate in fact. There is no going back to what was. There are no mulligans for the decisions we made last decade. We have to live with the choices we made, and accept their consequences. We cannot unlock the gate behind us. Our future is in front of us -- East of Eden.
It is dangerous out here. There are wolves and bears and the ground doesn’t grow like it’s supposed to. There’s thorns everywhere.
But the good LORD didn’t send us out here without care. We aren’t naked. We’ve been given these skins for protection, skins which the rabbis said were made from the serpent who tricked us and St. Augustine said are the hides on which the scrolls of Holy Scripture were once written.
So off we go, stepping out into the first light of this New Year, the Good Book in our hands and a pair of quality, handmade rattlesnake skin boots on our feet. We’ll need both.
And, we’ll need each other . . .
Note: I will be reading through the Bible this year and Daily Lessons will come from the daily readings. Read along with me if you like! Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 4-7.
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
We stand now at the Gate of the Year -- outside the Gate in fact. There is no going back to what was. There are no mulligans for the decisions we made last decade. We have to live with the choices we made, and accept their consequences. We cannot unlock the gate behind us. Our future is in front of us -- East of Eden.
It is dangerous out here. There are wolves and bears and the ground doesn’t grow like it’s supposed to. There’s thorns everywhere.
But the good LORD didn’t send us out here without care. We aren’t naked. We’ve been given these skins for protection, skins which the rabbis said were made from the serpent who tricked us and St. Augustine said are the hides on which the scrolls of Holy Scripture were once written.
So off we go, stepping out into the first light of this New Year, the Good Book in our hands and a pair of quality, handmade rattlesnake skin boots on our feet. We’ll need both.
And, we’ll need each other . . .
Note: I will be reading through the Bible this year and Daily Lessons will come from the daily readings. Read along with me if you like! Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Genesis chapters 4-7.