Tag Archives: Knowledge

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Zechariah13

2 Comments
A crowd of people in the main square of Copenh...
Image via Wikipedia

I’ll say, ‘That’s my people.’
   They’ll say, ‘God—my God!'” Zechariah 13:9b (MSG)

Walking through a crowd of people at a local event, I know a lot of people. Most of them are simply familir acquaintances. I smile. I wave. I greet the person by name and utter a non-chalant “How are you?” as both of us keep moving. They are a face in the crowd. A familiar face, perhaps, but still just a face with a name and little bit if of knowledge that makes the slight differentiation from a complete stranger.

Walking on through the crowd, I see someone I know. More than passing knowledge of their name and a few facts about them, I know this person intimately. We are good friends. I stop. He stops. We embrace warmly. My “How are you?” is now directed to the person with eye contact and intention. I want to know. I will stand and listen for the response. We have spent time together. We have shared the journey. The knowledge of one another is far more intimate. More than that, there is an affinity for one another. The crowd mills around in every direction, but attention is focused on this one person and this one conversation. When the conversation ends, I am quick to tell my fellow companions about the person to whom I was just having conversation. “That was my friend,” I’ll say as I describe him and our relationship. I want them to know my friend, as well.

I think about God’s Message to Zechariah and feel underneath the text His strong desire to be in relationship with us. Not just a casual, passing knowledge about one another but a deep relationship that comes from sharing time, conversation and experience. The kind of relationship that sources a desire to proclaim it, and share it with others. “That’s my people!” God says. “That’s my God,” I say to my companions.

I walk through the crowd. What about God? Is He a complete stranger. Would I know Him if I bumped into Him? Is he simply a familiar face for whom I have not problem smiling and waving with a passing nod. Or, is He someone I know and would gladly stop to talk and introduce to my companions?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Deuteronomy 22

2 Comments
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery.
Image via Wikipedia

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 22:22 (MSG)

One of the reasons that I love the journey through the Old Testament is that it helps bring important perspective on the familiar stories of the New. Take the law I pulled out of today’s chapter, for example. When I read it, I immediately thought of a familiar story from John’s biography of Jesus:

 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”

“No one, Master.”

“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

All of a sudden, there is greater complexity in the story of the woman caught in adultery and I have a greater appreciation for what Jesus did. Knowing that the law specifically called for both the man and woman caught in adultery to be killed, Jesus was wondering “where’s the dude?” But, Jesus didn’t make it a legal argument, he made it a personal argument. Rather than pointing them to the law, Jesus pointed them to their own sin and shortcomings.

God’s Message tells a story from beginning to end. I may have my favorite chapters, but I will never have the whole picture if I don’t know the whole story.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Numbers 31

1 Comment
via Flickr and nicocrisafulli

Moses addressed the people: “Recruit men for a campaign against Midian, to exact God’s vengeance on Midian, a thousand from each tribe of Israel to go to war.” Numbers 31:3-4 (MSG)

A week or so ago I sent my kids a compilation CD of music I was listening to 30 years ago when I was in my junior high and high school years. They loved the gift and thought that it was, to quote my youngest, “hilarious.”  Both my daughters and my wife shook their heads and raised an eyebrow at the music that was all the rage when I was young.

How quickly things change. That which was fashionable and common thirty years ago (remember Devo glasses and skinny ties?) is something today’s generation can’t comprehend. My children have a hard time grasping how I could possible listen to that kind of music a few decades ago. How can we possibly imagine what anything in daily life was like thousands of years ago in another part of the world? Despite our archaeological ability to learn things about historic cultures, I’m convinced that we can’t fathom what daily life was really like in other times. I’m equally convinced that if we were able to bring a person from the time of Moses to 21st century America and let them experience our culture they would completely freak out.

Human civilization has changed dramatically in every way, and the way God has interacted and intersected with human civilization has changed with it in the same way that a parent’s interaction changes as their children develop physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. My children perceive me differently than they did when they were five. My interactions with them are much different.

There’s a lot I don’t get about the culture of Moses day and the way God interacted with human civilization in those times and cultures. I don’t understand the cultural mores, the status of women, slavery, the brutality of justice, the economics, the idolatry, the religions of sex and human sacrifice, nor the prominence of war and plundering. I can accept, however, that my 21st century brain can’t fathom what life was like for Moses any more than Moses could fathom a smartphone.

In my journey through the Old Testament I’ve learned to accept that some of my questions about the minutiae of these ancient events may never be answered. Nevertheless, I’ve equally come to appreciate that my understanding of God’s story is incomplete without a knowledge and appreciation for these early chapters.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 8

2 Comments

Information overload. "If you're going to worry, worry about The Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies." Isaiah 8:13 (MSG)

I used to be a news junkie.  I couldn't get enough of it. The 24 hour news stations were always on my television. The car radio was always tuned to news and talk radio. I scoured the newspaper daily and religiously. Somewhere along the line I changed. It's not that I don't want to be informed, I just stopped feeling the need to be inundated with it.

My mind is finite. My time and energy are limited. In the same way I have to make choices about what I eat and how much food I will put into my body, I also have to make choices about what I think about and how much information I will try to cram into my brain. We live in the information age. What used to be contained in a Library the size of a city block can now fit in a microchip inside of a cell phone in our pocket. Yet, all of the information on all of the media sources on every channel of my satellite television will never make me wise.

I still watch the news. I still read the paper. I do want to be knowledgeable, but more than anything I want to be wise. You can't find wisdom in the newspapers, run across it on a Google search, or hear it from talking heads on a news channel. God is the source of wisdom. Increasingly, I find myself drawn to that source. 

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and dylanroscover

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Kings 10

1 Comment

Patterns emerge in the journey. King Solomon was wiser and richer than all the kings of the earth—he surpassed them all. People came from all over the world to be with Solomon and drink in the wisdom God had given him. And everyone who came brought gifts—artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, and horses and mules—parades of visitors, year after year. 1 Kings 10:23-25 (MSG)

One the most awesome things about journeying through God's message is the way the various pieces and themes fit together. Today as I read the chapter my synapses started sparking and I saw patterns emerge in the text!

A few chapters ago, we read that God gave Solomon a choice of wisdom or riches. Solomon chose to ask for wisdom, and as a result, God said he would grant Solomon's request and added: "As a bonus, I'm giving you both the wealth and glory you didn't ask for."

So, there's a principle and a pattern established: Make wisdom your priority and seeking understanding your goal. Prosperity follows wisdom.

In today's chapter, we see that pattern repeated in both a macro level and a micro level. Look how the chapter is contsructed on the whole. We see that Solomon's wisdom attracts the Queen of Sheba, who comes seeking Solomon's wisdom and understanding. Impressed, she plies him with gifts and the rest of the chapter describes Solomon's riches. Solomon had wisdom, which led to his success.

Then in verses 23-25 (above) the principle is summarized at a micro level. People came to Solomon for wisdom, and his wisdom led to his incredible propserity.

Now, consider Solomon's own words in the book of Proverbs where he writes:

You're blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom,
   when you make friends with Madame Insight.
She's worth far more than money in the bank;
   her friendship is better than a big salary.
Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth;
   nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
With one hand she gives long life,
   with the other she confers recognition.
Her manner is beautiful,
   her life wonderfully complete.
She's the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her.
   Hold her tight—and be blessed! Proverbs 3:13-18 (MSG)

If I seek wisdom, it may very well lead to prosperity and then I am doubly blessed. If I seek prosperity and have no wisdom, I actually profit nothing in God's eyes. That's the way Kingdom economics works.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and kh-67