Aug 4

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 Psalm 27:1-6 Proverbs 20:20-21

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We finish off the books of Chronicles today. We read at length about Josiah's Passover celebration. Despite having hyped up Hezekiah's Passover celebration, the author of Chronicles sees no reason to say why Josiah's was better. Perhaps Josiah's Passover won more acclaim because more people attended and more animals were sacrificed. But whatever the reason, the author of Chronicles did a terrible job of setting this scene up.

We do, however, have an indication that the chronicler may have been aware of the literary shortcomings:

Never since the time of the prophet Samuel had there been such a Passover. None of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover as Josiah did, involving all the priests and Levites, all the people of Jerusalem, and people from all over Judah and Israel. [emphasis added]

The author specifically compare this to the Passovers held by the kings of Israel, not the kings of Judah. Now, perhaps the author here meant "Israel and Judah", but usually the author of the books of Chronicles seems pretty careful about differentiating the two.

Next week read about Josiah's death. I noticed that Josiah's death was very similar to that of evil king Ahab of Israel. In both cases,

• the king goes into a battle the Lord has advised him not to go into
• the king disguises himself
• despite the disguise, the king is hit by an enemy archer
• the king flees and dies

I find that interesting given that Josiah is one of the best kings in the history of split kingdoms and Ahab one of the worst.

After that the end sure comes quickly, at least in the narrative. We go with blinding speed through the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah to the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon to the Persian conquest of Babylon and the return of the exiles. The end.

New Testament

We start 1 Corinthians today. Let's see what our references have to say about it. According to Understanding the Bible (Seventh Edition) by Stephen Harris,

Paul's letters to Corinth urge the recipients to overcome their serious divisions, abandon competitive behavior, and strive for unity of belief and purpose. The most important topics include differences between human and divinely revealed wisdom, Christian ethics and responsibilities, proper conduct at Communion, appreciation for gifts of the Spirit, and resurrection of the dead.

It was probably composed in the mid-50's AD and is amongst the earliest of Paul's letters. Based on scholarly analysis, only 1 Thessalonians is believed to have been composed earlier. Like most of the authentic Pauline letters, this letter to the Corinthians was meant to address specific problems being experienced by that church.

Also, I was disappointed to learn from Harris's book that Paul's letters in the New Testament are ordered, roughly, from longest to shortest. Lame! Chronological would be better. (Why? Because I say so.)

Paul starts by greeting the members of the church at Corinth. He thanks God for the spiritual gifts that have been given to the Corinthians for their beliefs. This passage is one of many that implies that Paul believed Jesus' return would happen soon:

Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

Paul then goes on to admonish those who would form factions in the Corinthian church. My favorite part of this passage is this, which shows Paul was composing this letter on the fly:

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.)

This makes me giggle.

In any case, 1 Corinthians is off to a much less annoying start than Romans.

Psalms and Proverbs

Our first proverb is quite amusing if taken literally:

If you insult your father or mother,
your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.

And this one seems empirically true. In fact, now that we have starlets, I would update it to "A fortune obtained too early in life".

An inheritance obtained too early in life
is not a blessing in the end.

Aug 3

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 33:14-34:33 Romans 16:8-27 Psalm 26:1-12 Proverbs 20:19

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

In yesterday's reading, Manasseh converted from his evil ways. In today's reading, he sounds almost good enough to be another Hezekiah.

Manasseh also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. However, the people still sacrificed at the pagan shrines, though only to the Lord their God.

Manasseh's son Amon lives up to our expectations for a bad king. He is murdered by his own officials after only two years as king. After that Josiah, the wonder boy of the book of Kings, is crowned king.

But before we get there, I want to point out that Amon apparently was 16 years old when he fathered Josiah. Amon became king at age 22 and was only king for 2 years. Josiah was 8 when he became king. (22 + 2) - 8 = 16.

Josiah's reign sounds pretty much like it did in the books of Kings; if you go back and compare them, they are fundamentally the same. Josiah starts out good and becomes even better once Hilkiah discovers the book of the law while the temple is being restored. You can read what I wrote before to see what I think about this episode itself.

What I want to comment on this time is how much more the version of this story in Chronicles sucks as literature. Our reading from only two days ago implied very strongly that the law had not yet been lost. Furthermore, the kings do not seem nearly as corrupt in the chronicler's version of history as they did in the books of Kings. Thus, Josiah's reaction to all of this and God's promised punishment seem way out of proportion to what we have actually been shown.

The books of Chronicles have failed to motivate Judah's downfall. Overall, I have to say that they have distinctly less literary merit than the books of Kings (and they were not always that great either).

New Testament

We finish reading Romans today. It mostly consists of the sending of greetings and an appeal to the recipients to be faithful to the Lord.

Psalms and Proverbs

Good practical advice:

A gossip goes around telling secrets,
so don’t hang around with chatterers.

Aug 2

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13 Romans 15:23-16:7 Psalm 25:16-22 Proverbs 20:16-18

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Hezekiah is threatened by Sennacherib of Assyria but the Lord intervenes and the Assyrians are defeated. It probably didn't hurt that Hezekiah reinforced defenses and prepared for the siege. I suppose the lesson is trust but don't forget to prepare as much as you can.

After this, Hezekiah falls ill, is healed by the Lord, becomes proud (we are not told what he becomes proud of), encounters the Lords anger, repents, receives honor, and makes an unspecified mistake with the Babylonians (showing off his wealth? was that Hezekiah? I'm too tired to look it up).

After that, we read about the reign of Manasseh. The author of Chronicles quickly lets us know how terrible Manasseh was. More interesting to the author is Manasseh's repentance, which we heard nary a peep about in the books of Kings.

This conversion does not pass the sniff test in a couple ways. It was never mentioned in the books of Kings. Maybe that is because the books of Kings had a simplified view of history where good kings were successful and bad kings were failure, and Manasseh was supposed to be a bad king. But then, you would think the author of the books of King would be more than happy to have something they could use to explain the fact that Manasseh, the terrible king, had a reign longer than any other king of Judah.

The second part that does not pass the sniff test is the circumstances surrounding Manasseh's repentance:

So the Lord sent the commanders of the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.

Why would the Assyrians take Manasseh to Babylon? As far as I can tell, Babylon was constantly in revolt and would not, I think, be a place where prisoners were taken.

Those things together lead me to think this episode was made up, either by the author of the books of Chronicles or by the author of some earlier tradition that this author was drawing from.

New Testament

We're winding down on Romans. Paul describes his travel plans and then sends his regards to a number of people. According to Harris's Understanding the Bible, many scholars believe that chapter 16, where the greetings begin, was actually from a different letter.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing strikes me as particularly interesting today.

Aug 1

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 30:1-31:21 Romans 15:1-22 Psalm 25:1-15 Proverbs 20:13-15

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

The author of Chronicles seems to be trying to set things up so that the reforms of Josiah are much less impressive. In this version of Judah's history, it seems as if the law has not yet been lost. But at this point there are only two more kings  between Hezekiah and Josiah. Now, they are (or were in Chronicles, at least) pretty terrible kings, but still, 57 years is short enough that the law would have at just barely fallen out of living memory, if it even had.

Plus, one of the big things that was supposed to make Josiah awesome was his reinstitution of the Passover celebration. 2 Kings 23:21-22:

King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

But if we try to reconcile that with today's reading where Hezekiah celebrates an impressive, then the impact of the passage above becomes "Josiah celebrated an even bigger Passover than Hezekiah".

Also, it seems surprising that the author of the books of Kings did not even mention Hezekiah's Passover when mentioning the rest of Hezekiah's reforms and accomplishments. Hezekiah's reign received a pretty thorough going over in Kings, but such an important Passover was not, apparently, worth mentioning.

I look forward to seeing how the author of Chronicles treats Josiah.

New Testament

I have nothing interesting to say about today's reading. For no particular reason that I can pinpoint, I found it incredibly dull.

Psalms and Proverbs

The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It’s worthless,”
then brags about getting a bargain!

This is another one of those proverbs where I am uncertain if the author is giving advice, expressing disapproval, or just stating how things are.

Jul 31

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 29:1-36 Romans 14:1-23 Psalm 24:1-10 Proverbs 20:12

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we read about Hezekiah. Hezekiah instituted reforms to undo some of the damage done by Ahaz. This time around, Hezekiah's reforms do not seem as impressive. Maybe this is because we know from reading the books of Kings that they will not stick. Maybe it is because from the way the chronicler relates things, my impression is that Judah had a bunch of okay kings scattered amongst a couple bad ones, and having to undo the effects of one of the bad ones seems par for the course.

In any case, Hezekiah reopens and restores the temple (and the chronicler limited himself to only one short list of the people working on that. What restraint!). After the temple is restored, Hezekiah hosts a huge rededication ceremony.

The way this section is written makes it sound like the temple had been abandoned for years and years rather than for the reign of one king. In particular, consider this speech (emphasis added):

“Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary. Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned the Lord and his dwelling place; they turned their backs on him. They also shut the doors to the Temple’s entry room, and they snuffed out the lamps. They stopped burning incense and presenting burnt offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel. 

“That is why the Lord’s anger has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them an object of dread, horror, and ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. Because of this, our fathers have been killed in battle, and our sons and daughters and wives have been captured. But now I will make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer! The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to him.”

This passage, especially the parts I emphasize, seem very targeted at a post-exile community. Remember that the books of Chronicles were probably written after the exiled Jews had been allowed to return to Jerusalem. My guess is that part of the purpose of the author(s) of Chronicles, especially this passage, was to try to inspire the people to reinstitute temple based worship, which had necessarily fallen aside while the people of Judah were in exile.

New Testament

Paul discusses how not all the believers have to have exactly the same beliefs about what is right or wrong. Not everything is a core belief. Paul's specific examples focus on diet, but I think he means to make a more general point. In particular, he hints at a more general message in a couple places:

Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is right and will receive his approval.

and

Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

I am going to break my own rule about not talking about current events today.

There are churches and individuals today that conflate religion and politics. Many believers are made to feel that if they want to be religious in the "right way" then they have to vote Republican, even if they only agree with the Republicans on a couple issues that the Republicans have managed to portray as vital to whether or not one is a "real Christian".

There are churches and individuals today that not only teach hatred of homosexuals and subjugation of women, they also teach that those who do not agree with them on these issues are not "real Christians". They teach that those people should be condemned and pushed away not just from their church, but from any church.

There are churches and individuals today that try to convince others that science cannot be trusted. That the only valid way to interpret the creation story is literally. They harm science education and they harm their own cause by causing many scientifically literate believers to distance themselves from religion.

Today's reading condemns all of those people. By conflating religion with particular non-core beliefs, these individuals and institutions are causing others to stumble and fall away from religion. They are not willing to let the Lord judge right and wrong. They feel the need to do it themselves.

Furthermore, and this is why I, an atheist, care, they push all of this into the public arena. Instead of aiming for living "a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit", they sow strife, and that strife affects my life. Perhaps they should think about this passage more often.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Jul 30

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27 Romans 13:1-14 Psalm 23:1-6 Proverbs 20:11

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Mostly dull history.

Uzziah: Somewhat pleasing to God. Reigned 52 years. Seems to have been effective at building and improving defenses. Eventually tries to take on the role of the high priest which causes God to afflict him with leprosy.

Jotham: Pretty pleasing to God. Ruled 16 years. Conquered some people and extracted tribute out of them. Nothing else of note.

Ahaz: Evil, evil, evil. Ruled 16 years.  Followed foreign practices and sacrificed his own children. Turned to other Gods. Defeated in battle by Aram and then Israel. Shut up the temple.

New Testament

Paul makes a statement about obeying authorities and paying taxes. Of course, most people probably read this and try to figure out how it applies to their own attitude toward the government.

However, I am more interested in Paul in his historical context. It seems, from this passage and from what we read in Acts (such as Paul's appeals to the government authorities), that Paul and the early church very much did not want to be seen as troublesome by the Romans. Now, that doesn't mean they weren't seen as troublesome, but avoiding that impression seems to have been important.

That is consistent with what we read today. Paul's words implies that authorities and governments, even pagan governments such as that of the Romans, are legitimate and should be listened to. He even paints them as God's servants, despite not being part of the church community. Obviously, Paul wanted his communities to avoid trouble, at least when the trouble was not necessary.

As for the meaning of this passage with respect to modern life, I think it's pretty obvious that at least the simple reading of this must be wrong:

For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.

And I'm guessing Paul knew it too, and was really just trying to warn the church in Rome to not hunt down trouble.

Today's reading also hearkens back to some sayings of Jesus from the gospels. First, the above reminds one of the idea of giving to Caesar what is Caesar's. The next part discusses the idea that loving one's neighbor as oneself is fundamental to fulfilling God's law. The last part discusses the imminent coming of the time of salvation.

This is interesting because sayings of Jesus which also appear in Paul's letter lend strong support to the idea that these ideas were associated with the historical Jesus rather than developed by later communities. Because Paul's letters came before the gospels and because the gospel writers do not seem to use Paul's letters as a source, this double tradition vouches for these concepts.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Jul 29

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28 Romans 12:1-21 Psalm 22:19-31 Proverbs 20:8-10

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

So at 40 years, Joash had a pretty long reign, especially compared to what we have been seeing lately. However, he was still murdered in bed before he was 50. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Joash performed acceptably as king as long as Jehoiada was alive. After Jehoiada dies, Joash starts listening to the people who want to worship idols and abandon the Lord. Now, the chronicler wants us to think this reflects badly on Joash, but I think Jehoiada also deserves some of the blame.

Joash became king at age 7; obviously, Jehoiada was doing most of the ruling at that point. Furthermore, Jehoiada had a lot of control over Joash personally; this can be seen in the fact that the priest chose two wives for the king. Thus, it seems likely that Joash never actually learned how to rule. He only learned how to follow. Once Jehoiada died, Joash just followed the next people who were willing to take charge.

After Joash, his son Amaziah rules. Amaziah is another decent but not great king, according to the chronicler, but based on everything we see, he seems rather bad. Violence and war characterize Amaziah's reign. He shows some success and some trust of the Lord in his defeat of Edom (throwing 10,000 prisoners off a cliff in the process), but then he turns to idols and earns God's anger.

God uses Israel to teach Amaziah a lesson. Israel defeats Judah in battle and ransacks Jerusalem. However, Amaziah lives for a good while longer until he is eventually assassinated like his father.

New Testament

Today Paul conveys a number of moral lessons to the community of believers in Rome. Lots of good generic advice such as: evaluate yourself truthfully, take advantage of your natural talents, love each other, work hard, be hospitable, live in harmony, don't be proud. Good advice that applies even to those outside of Paul's target audience.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today's third proverb is pretty good:

False weights and unequal measures—
the Lord detests double standards of every kind.

Jul 28

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21 Romans 11:13-36 Psalm 22:1-19 Proverbs 20:7

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament


Jehoshaphat dies and his son Jehoram becomes king. That means that we have once again reached the series of names all of which start with 'J' or 'A'. Sigh.

Jehoram's reign only merits brief discussion in Kings. It does not even contain what sure seems like a rather important tidbit if it were true:

But when Jehoram had become solidly established as king, he killed all his brothers and some of the other leaders of Judah.

Both the author of Kings and the author of Chronicles find it worth mentioning that Jehoram married a daughter of Ahab (who was totally a bad influence). But apparently the author of Kings did not find these murders worth mentioning... unless they were made up by the author of Chronicles.

Jehoram comes to no good end. His kingdom is attacked, causing him to lose some territory and most of his family, and he dies of what my translation describes as a severe intestinal disease that caused his bowels to come out. Ewww.

After that the young Ahaziah briefly reigns as king. He is also evil and gets killed. His mother, Athaliah, kills the royal family and becomes ruler. Fortunately, Ahaziah's nameless sister, saves Ahaziah's infant son, Joash. Eventually, the priests hiding him declare him to be king and kill Athaliah.

Jehoiada the priest is pretty much running the show at this point and enacts a bunch of religious reforms. But the people are happy because it was an improvement over life under Athaliah.

New Testament

• Paul declares himself apostle to the gentiles. 
• Extended analogy about grafting branches onto olive trees; point being that God can choose to use the rebellion of the descendants of Abraham to save the gentiles.
•  All Israel will be saved, but their rebellion is what allows the gentiles to be saved. 
• "God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone." Unclear whether this means everyone as individuals or everyone in the sense of people from all nations or something like that. Consistency with the potter analogy implies the later.
• Paul once again strings together verses from different parts of the Old Testament in a way which implies that were not separate. This seems especially deceptive when you realize he is writing for a largely gentile audience (i.e., not schooled in the Jewish scriptures).

Psalms and Proverbs


Nothing of particular note.

Jul 27

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37 Romans 10:13-11:12 Psalm 21:1-13 Proverbs 20:4-6

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

After yesterday's retelling of King Jehoshaphat's alliance with King Ahab, we get what seems to be, as far as I can tell looking back at the books of Kings, material unique to the books of Chronicles (ahh, I love search, best thing since sliced bread).

As part of his actions to try to turn the people of Judah to God, Jehoshapat appoints judges over matters both religious and civil. In particular, he gives the high priest ultimate decision power over all things religious.

Now, this is another one of those passages which is interesting in the historical context. At the time Chronicles was likely written, the exiled people of Judah were trying to understand their religion now that it was no longer a national religion. Passages like this one try to show that the Judaism has value (e.g., for settling disputes in this case) independent of political power. Thus, the religion of the exiles takes on new meaning even without the nation of Judah and the temple.

We also read about Judah's war with a bunch of surrounding nations. Long story short: they trust God. God saves them.

New Testament

Paul seems to think that he can pull a bunch of random verses from all over the Old Testament, string them together out of context, and put together a convincing argument. Now, I am fully aware that there have been schools of thought that consider this a valid form of exegesis. Each word and sentence of the scripture is imbued with meaning from God, independent of the original author's original intent.

I also realize that it is nearly necessary in Christian tradition to engage in some weaker version of this sort of exegesis. Without reading the Old Testament as pointing unambiguously toward Jesus, the New Testament case for his status as the Messiah becomes even less convincing.

That said, Paul is taking things a bit far here. The only thing that links these verses is that Paul thinks that they (in isolation) support his message. If we take this as our standard, then we can use the Bible to justify anything, including bad things like slavery or murder.

Oh yeah, and Paul's point, in short: The Jews were totally given their chance, so don't blame God if he abandoned them.

Psalms and Proverbs

Our third proverb today is kind of depressing:

Many will say they are loyal friends,
but who can find one who is truly reliable?

Although I cannot quite figure out what is meant by our second proverb, I think I like it anyway:

Though good advice lies deep within the heart,
a person with understanding will draw it out.

What I get from this is that it sometimes take a good amount of work to figure out the valuable core of an idea, whether in yourself or someone else. Yet, despite that, it is worth the effort to dig down and expose the gems.

Jul 26

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34 Romans 9:22-10:12 Psalm 20:1-9 Proverbs 20:2-3

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Nothing particularly insightful to say. More rehashing of the books of Kings. Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, was a pretty good king of Judah. He had great military and financial success, and he followed the ways of the Lord. However, he felt the need to get all buddy buddy with King Ahab, allying with Ahab in war and marrying one of his sons to one of Ahab's daughters.

The story of Jehoshaphat and Ahab's alliance is, as before, a rather amusing one. Ahab's prophets all prophecy the success of a war against Ramoth-gilead. However, Micaiah predicts failure. Micaiah is quite the character, fearless and sarcastic, he knows that Ahab will not listen to him and doesn't care.

Ahab decides to go to battle, but dresses as a common soldier to escape the notice of the armies of Ramoth-gilead. Yet, for all that, he is killed by a stray arrow, thus showing Micaiah's prophecy to be true.

New Testament

Paul expounds upon the idea that God will shower glory upon his select who come from both the Jews and Gentiles. Also, more about how keeping the law is not the way to go about being saved.

Reading Paul's writing, I am reminded of the story of Rabbi Hillel's explanation of the Torah. Paul says,

Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

and

For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands

Yet a story about Hillel,  a very influential Rabbi who lived before Jesus shows that even by the time that Paul was writing, this sort of understanding of the law is misleading (I won't say wrong since Paul was a Pharisee, but certainly misleading). In this story, a Gentile asks Hillel to explain the Torah while he stands on one foot. Hillel says, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanations; go and learn."

From this point of view, the law is not meant to be kept for its own sake, but is seen as a way learn about and internalize compassion for others.

Now, I am not claiming all of the Jews of Paul's time felt this way, but it does bring an interesting perspective to Paul's analysis of the law.

Psalms and Proverbs

Good proverb!

Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor;
only fools insist on quarreling.

Jul 25

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14 Romans 9:1-21 Psalm 19:1-14 Proverbs 20:1

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we read about Abijah's son, Asa. Asa is, for most of his reign, considered a pretty good king. He trusts the Lord for his military successes and enacts religious reforms (until he doesn't, then he's considered bad).

For a supposedly good king, we get hints of some pretty terrible actions. We read about a battle where the Lord help's Asa defeat some invading Ethiopians/Cushites (translation oddity). God defeats the invading army and Asa and his men kill and plunder the retreating army. Then:

While they were at Gerar, they attacked all the towns in that area, and terror from the Lord came upon the people there. As a result, a vast amount of plunder was taken from these towns, too. They also attacked the camps of herdsmen and captured many sheep, goats, and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.

So while they were pursuing a retreating enemy, they also attacked and pillaged the towns and herdsman in the area? I try not to apply my modern moral standards to ancient societies too often, but really, this is completely unacceptable.

Another questionable decision made in Asa's range occurred during the religious reforms:

They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death—whether young or old, man or woman.

Again, blech! Not acceptable to me. But I do understand what the author of Chronicles is trying to do here. In the books of Kings, the blame for the fall of Judah to Babylon is placed squarely on the shoulders of a single person, King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah.

In Chronicles, the author is trying to spread the blame over the whole community. Under this model, the community cannot be blamed unless the whole community is seen as making a covenant with the Lord. Of course, this has happened before (with Moses, Joshua, Solomon...). However, reiterating the point and making the community have some of the responsibility for enforcing the covenant just makes it that must easier to later blame the community as a whole.

Asa eventually loses the favor of the Lord because he appeals to human help in a battle. He is then plagued by war for the rest of his reign. He died because he relied on his physicians rather than God to kill his foot disease.

New Testament

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

Well then, I'm convinced. If you really really feel like something is true, it must be true right? People would never ever believe that they were getting religious revelation if it wasn't true, right? That's why all of the world's religions are so consistent!

Oh wait, sorry, back to reality. Paul needs to learn that believing that you speak the truth does not necessarily make your belief true. But then again, I suppose that attitude is consistent with Paul's general attitude that those who do not agree with him are willfully rejecting God (as I have mentioned in the past).

Paul goes on to reinterpret God's promise to Israel to show how God has not actually broken his promise to Israel. He then talks about how it's perfectly okay for God to make arbitrary decisions because he's God. We then get an annoyingly bad apologetic argument for God's arbitrariness.

Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay,  doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

This is the same sort of garbage that people try to pass off today. First, Paul resorts to the "God is mysterious" argument. I might be more inclined to see that as a legitimate argument if it weren't for the fact that it is only ever applied when theists are faced with something unpleasant. E.g., the problem of evil, God's arbitrary nature, bad things happening to good people, etc.

Paul then pulls out the argument that those who are made have no right to question those who made them, using the analogy of a potter having the right to make both decorative jars and garbage jars. However, this ignores the rather obvious fact that a clay pot is not conscious. It's not just that the potter is more wise and knowledgeable than the clay pot. The clay pot is inanimate.

Now, if a potter started making pots that were conscious, that were able to feel pain and have memories and judge and analyze then yes, the potter would have some obligation to take their feelings into account or at least justify his decisions to them. If God created humanity with the ability to suffer from the consequences of being a "garbage pail" rather a than a "decorative jar" then he has given them the right to question.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Jul 24

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22 Romans 8:22-39 Psalm 18:37-50 Proverbs 19:27-29

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we read about Rehoboam's reign and some of his son Abijah's reign.

We start by reading how Shemaiah tells Rehoboam not to fight the people of Israel because they are their relatives. This advice seems to stick for the duration of Rehoboam's reign.

We also read about how, supposedly, all of the priests and Levites and people who wanted to worship the Lord left Israel for Judah. This is interesting for two reasons. First, we know that it is likely that many people did flee Israel for Judah after the fall of Judah to Assyria. This is how the traditions from the northern kingdom got incorporated into documents which were generally composed in the southern kingdom or by exiles from the southern kingdom.

This is also interesting because it seems like an attempt to write off the people of Israel as not much of a loss. It does not matter than 10 of the 12 tribes were lost by the time this work was written because all of the good people had left any way.

Two of Rehoboam's wives were cousins. In particular, Mahalath was the daughter of David's son Jerimoth and Jerimoth's cousin Abihal. I note this mainly because, as far as I can tell, we have never heard of Jerimoth before.

Both Rehoboam and his son Abijah have lots of wives and children. Family tradition, I suppose. Despite all the bad things said about Rehoboam, he does seem to have some wisdom:

Rehoboam also wisely gave responsibilities to his other sons and stationed some of them in the fortified towns throughout the land of Judah and Benjamin. He provided them with generous provisions, and he found many wives for them.

Smart man. Keep the sons out of trouble from the start.

Then, quickly: Rehoboam abandons the way of the Lord, gets defeated in battle but not completely, is declared evil because he did not seek the Lord with all of his heart, and dies what seems to be a natural death. His son Abijah becomes king and with the help of the Lord, defeats Jeroboam of Israel in battle.

New Testament

Okay, Paul back peddles a little today from the implication that believers should already be without sin:

And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

Although it's not explicit, I certainly see how one could draw from this the conclusion that since the old bodies are still bound to sin, then the full promise of the Holy Spirit is not realized. Glad to see Paul is not completely ignoring reality.

I know I stopped keeping points awhile ago, but today we have another easy point for the predestination crowd.

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

We then see Paul make a leap of logic which could very easily be taken another direction:

Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

Another way this could be taken: Since he did not spare even his own son but let him be murdered, why would he bother to save anyone else?

I mean really, if I believed that someone had let his child be murdered for some supposedly greater good, I would not be particularly inclined to trust them.

Psalms and Proverbs

I was going to say that there was nothing in today's proverbs that we haven't seen before, until I got to the third one:

Punishment is made for mockers,
and the backs of fools are made to be beaten.

We may have seen this sentiment before, but this particular phrasing is particularly repugnant to one raised in a society which values free speech and generally finds corporal punishment inappropriate.

Jul 23

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19 Romans 8:9-21 Psalm 18:16-36 Proverbs 19:26

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

The chronicler manages to justify Solomon's decision to build himself a glorious palace even though David had already built a palace. You see, the Ark had been in David's palace, therefore, Solomon's wife, a foreigner, could not live there. It sounds to me like yet another excuse.

We then read about the vast extent of Solomon's wealth and wisdom. I don't know if this is the same in detail as in Kings, but it is certainly the same in idea: Solomon is rich and wise and all around awesome.

However, there is a dark side to all of this, which does not come to light until after Solomon's death. After Solomon's son, Rehoboam, becomes king, the Jeroboam (who will later become king of the split kingdom of Israel) asks to have the load on the people lightened:

Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.

Notice that it was Solomon who was imposing harsh labor demands and heavy taxes. All of the wondrous and magnificent buildings were the result of abusing the people. The chronicler seems to want to smooth over Solomon's role in this, but he clearly bears the bulk of the blame for the state of things.

Today's passage also lends some support to Paul's implication that the Lord does not make his promises in good faith. Referring to Rehoboam's refusal to lighten the load on the people we read,

So the king paid no attention to the people. This turn of events was the will of God, for it fulfilled the Lord’s message to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh.

So it was God's will that Israel would start falling apart after only one generation of God's promise being kept? Yeah, a descendant of David will be on the throne for quite awhile yet, but the spirit of the original promise has already been broken.

Now, a justification of this could have been pulled off if the chronicler had not tried so hard to minimize Solomon's blame in the oppression of the people, but he didn't, and so we are left with some rather problematic implications for the nature of God.

New Testament

Today's reading pretty much mirrors yesterday, this time talking about how the Holy Spirit inside of one produces a force for good.

I still do not agree with the portrayal of human nature as a struggle between abstract forces of good and evil. For if evil comes from a sinful nature that is not truly part of self and good comes from the influence of the Holy Spirit, what is left for self? What is left when you strip away all desires and attribute them to abstract forces?

Although maybe that's the point and Paul is trying to make almost Buddhist like point about how self can only be found in loss of self. I kind of doubt that's what he's getting at right here though.

Psalms and Proverbs

Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

I know this proverb has a legitimate point, but my brain still decided that the best image to bring up for a child chasing away their mother was a toddler brandishing a stuffed animal as their mother runs away in terror. And that amused me.

Jul 22

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10 Romans 7:14-8:8 Psalm 18:1-15 Proverbs 19:24-25

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Solomon is pretty much taking on the role of the high priest here. He is praying in front of the whole community and leading the giving of sacrifices. The priests seem like little more than assistants. Now, the dedication of the temple is a special event, but it still does not seem quite right for Solomon to be taking on these roles.

Solomon's dedication prayer (which is very similar to the one in Kings) has a couple points in it which make it fairly clear that this was composed after the destruction of Judah. In particular, there are references to exile (emphasis mine):

If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors.

and

If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’

It is also very interesting how central the Temple is in these prayers. To earn forgiveness, the people must pray in the direction of the Temple.

God then answers Solomon in a very direct way, telling him that the Israelites will be forgiven as long as they follow God's commands.

The rest of the reading briefly describes Solomon's achievements and emphasizes that he only made the non-Israelites living in the land do forced labor. Well then, that makes it all okay, now doesn't it? I mean, these are only the people who were living in the land before the Israelites conquered it. In fact, we ought to be enslaving Native Americans. I mean really, someone who was a native in a land taken over by someone else doesn't deserve to be treated humanely, right?

New Testament

Paul makes the good point that human beings are contradictory creatures. They want to do right but often end up doing wrong instead. He then promptly loses any ground he may have gained by implying that this sinfulness is something separate from self. Individuals are invaded by sin, but sin is wholly other and can, therefore, be eradicated.

This, to me, seems like a harmful way of dealing with the capacity of humans to do wrong and act in ways that are inconsistent with their conscious desires. By making sin wholly other, we lose the insight to be gained by seeing it as coming from the same source as other human passions and desires which are labeled good. Paul, as perhaps should be expected by now, tries to separate the world into two neat parts: that in the self which is sin and that which is not. As usual, such stark division loses out on the complexity of human nature.

Paul also, in today's reading, makes it seem pretty absolute that accepting Jesus frees one from one's sinful nature ("He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit."). Clearly, human behavior shows that either this is not the case or pretty much no one actually has followed Jesus. The issue may well be addressed later, but for now Paul seems to be making claims about the power of accepting Jesus that do not hold up under scrutiny.

Psalms and Proverbs

Lazy people take food in their hand
but don’t even lift it to their mouth.

I know this is meant symbolically, but I want to point out that if this were literally true, then we would not have to worry about lazy people because they would quickly die.

Jul 21

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11 Romans 7:1-13 Psalm 17:1-15 Proverbs 19:22-23

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

More details on the fittings of the temple. This section of the reading makes a lot more sense once you realize that the books of Chronicles were written after the temple was destroyed. Writing this was one of the ways the exiled people of Judah tried to preserve their memories and this important cultural and religious site.

We also read about the bringing of the ark to the temple and Solomon's words on this occasion. This stresses that the main point of the king, from the point of view of the authors in exile, was to provide religious leadership (which is different from being a priest). Stressing the religious rather than the military and political importance of the king probably helped the exiles to reinterpret their religious world view, which had always rested on a basic of the political and military success of the Jewish people, in a world where it was obvious that the political and military might of Israel and Judah had ended.

New Testament

Paul argues that the followers of Jesus are not subject to the law, because the law is meant to apply to the living, not the dead, and the followers of Jesus died with him. Now, I know this is meant to be a metaphorical argument, not a formal one, but it still seems pretty obvious to me that we would rethink the relationship between the dead and the law if the dead were still active in the world like these Christians are. Just sayin'.

Paul then goes on to make a rather ridiculous argument that it is only because of the law that we know what is and is not sinful. If we did not have the law, then we would not be tempted to sin. Now, if by the law Paul means moral intuitions, then his point is almost coherent, but even in that case, it still seems that Paul is conflating cause and effect. Do we desire to sin because the law (or moral intuition) says it is wrong? Or do we just mark certain behaviors and desires as sinful because of the negative effects they have been perceived to have? The later does a much better job of explaining the cultural diversity of the concepts of right and wrong.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Jul 20

Reference links:

2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17 Romans 6:1-23 Psalm 16:1-11 Proverbs 19:20-21

Overview of the Books of Chronicles Overview of the Epistle to the Romans Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

The content of today's reading is pretty much what we have seen before with details added to make Solomon seem better and even more dedicated to God.

Solomon son of David took firm control of his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him very powerful.

That's the nice way of saying that he killed a bunch of people to consolidate his power. Now, these may have been necessary killings, but we lose something from this story if we forget that it was not just a joyous and peaceful transition from one powerful king to another.

There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it.

That must have taken awhile. If we estimate at least half an hour of non-parallelizable time per sacrifice, that's 500 hours of sacrifice (about 21 days, 24 hours a day). That's a lot of time spent sacrificing.

After reading about how Solomon asks for and gets wisdom, we start reading about the building of the temple.

Solomon decided to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord, and also a royal palace for himself.

Solomon decided to build a temple? I thought David had already told him he had to do it. It is also worth noting that this passage does not seem to mention the fact that David had already done lots of preparation and gathered lots of the materials. Also, Solomon's letter to King Hiram of Tyre was much more extensive than the first time we saw it.

We then read,

Solomon took a census of all foreigners in the land of Israel, like the census his father had taken, and he counted 153,600. He assigned 70,000 of them as common laborers, 80,000 as quarry workers in the hill country, and 3,600 as foremen.

"Like the census his father had taken"? So it caused a plague on the land? Was prompted by God and/or Satan to cause punishment? Or was it just like David's census in so far as it counted people (which, you know, is what censuses do).

I also find it somewhat appalling that simply being a foreigner in the land of Israel was considered sufficient reason to conscript you as a laborer. Maybe the chronicler meant foreign slaves? Foreign prisoners of war? If it includes foreigners who voluntarily moved into the land of Israel, then the idea of forcing them to work on the Temple is pretty despicable.

And then, architectural details.

New Testament

Most of the actual content of today's reading is, once again, targeted at the believer and like unicorn grooming to the non-believer.

But I will pull out one detail which I think is interesting independent of the believing in Jesus thing:

Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?

I think there is some truth to this idea, although I would not choose to express it in terms of slavery and obedience. But it is true that those things you consider most important profoundly influence how you live your life. If you consider service to others most important, you will notice and act on opportunities to serve others. If you consider influencing others most important, you will live your life in such a way as to make that happen.

Overall I think this focus is good because it can act as a guiding filter through the many directions your life can take. However, it can also be harmful.

First, if you are unaware of what is driving you or if what drives you is considered inappropriate by the norms of your community, you may experience conflict or guilt, either internal or external.

Second, if you are shaping your life due to a particular set of concerns, you may, like Paul, come to believe that your way is right and all other ways are wrong. This can lead to all sorts of bad things, not the least of which is the development of an "us verses them" attitude.

Psalms and Proverbs

Two proverbs that are good with a little substitution.

[Always continue to] get all the advice and instruction you can,
so you will be wise the rest of your life.

You can make many plans,
but the Lord’s purpose [the rest of your life] will prevail.