Guided reading plans to help you read and understand the Bible.
Our first chapter of Jeremiah includes Jeremiah’s visit to the house of a potter where he learns a lesson about God.
Jeremiah 18:6b
Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
I am reminded of this great song by Caedmon’s Call called Hand’s of the Potter, to take a listen and enjoy:
This is a site about reading the Bible and given that the news has been talking about ancient texts concerning Jesus, I thought I’d offer a few resources on this talk of Jesus having a wife based on an old coptic manuscript:
A bit of overview from Christianity Today
An academic response to it from Near Emmaus
Harvard’s own site on the finding
One quick point I’ll make. Don’t let talk of authenticity fool you. Authenticity in this sense means that this fragment is believed to be an ancient text. It’s not a hoax written in contemporary times. This does not mean that the content is necessarily true.
I could grab a piece of paper and write on it that I have a unicorn. In a thousand years, if that paper were to survive and someone found it, it would be an authentic ancient writing. They could say that it was truly written in the early 21st century. But does that mean that I have a unicorn? Of course not.
There were many different schools of thought and religions that wanted to associate Jesus or a follower of Jesus with their beliefs. But just because scholars call something a gospel does not mean it truly is.
This fits with last week’s readings, but I thought it’d be worth writing about.
Hosea is a startling story. It is unique in what the prophet is called to do, not just say. He is to marry a whore, and his relationship of faithfulness to an adulterous spouse parallels that of God’s love for his adulterous people. And that still applies to us now, to his church. It reminds me of a song by Derek Webb called “Wedding Dress.” He writes about the church’s tendency to look for something more than Christ, to find satisfaction outside of him. But this is a propesterous idea given that Christ has given us all we need. He even gave his very life.
Listen to the song below:
If you want to hear his explanation for the song, you can find it here. I’d mention this as some context–he doesn’t write and sing about the church and its sin as some third party observer. He acknowledges that he is a part of it and he is sinful, too. He doesn’t speak in condemnation of the church, but in rebuke that comes from love. We must still love the things that God loves, including the church, but that then leads us not to accept such faults, but to work for its restoration.
That is what the prophets do, as well. They love God’s people and because of such love they desire greatly for their repentence.*
*Jonah is a bit odd here since he is a prophet to a people he doesn’t love, but that’s a problem that we’ll talk about next week.
We begin a whole new genre this week with our first Minor Prophet. We read Hosea, which is tied for most chapters along with Zechariah at 14. I find refreshing my memory with some brief introductions is always helpful with these books of the Bible, which brings me to why I like study Bibles.
Being a pastor it is my job to keep Christian publishers in work by buying lots of Bibles. I have a great number in my possession that have either been bought by or for me over the years. I have several translations, sizes, and even languages. When I was a student I really valued portability because I lived out of my bag and always wanted to have a Bible with me without having to carry around so many extra pounds. I mentioned earlier in the year that the Bible I’m mainly using for our Year in the Bible is one that has sizable borders for taking notes. Beyond that I’ve really enjoyed my old, trusty NIV Study Bible. If you don’t have some version of a study Bible, I highly recommend it.
These are the ones that include all sorts of notes on the text with cross references and commentary, they provide cultural and contextual notes, and they even include pictures and diagrams. And as I mentioned earlier, they give introductions to each book of the Bible.
So take this as a plug for getting your own study Bible. Here is an introduction taken from the NIV Study Bible, published on Biblica.com, to give you A) helpful information as we start Hosea and B) a preview of what you get with study Bibles:
If you’re looking for a genie in a bottle, you will be disappointed. The Bible isn’t a magic book of ancient wisdom; it’s a book about life and about God’s love for you.
This is from the beginning of a post at the website Biblegateway, which is a great site for reading and searching through the Bible, and it goes on to say what the Bible is and how we should find our nourishment there. The author, Brian Hardin, writes about how we seek fulfillment and satisfaction in all sorts of worldly pleasures, but they will ultimately fail. Only the Bible shows us what truly satisfies.
Read it in its entirety here:Â The Benefits and Blessings of Reading Scripture (Biblegateway.com)
Having been through two books that follow much of David’s life, I wanted to find a resource that helped to take all the information and organize it. So I found this brief chronology of his life, and I think it should help. It’ll also come in handy once we get to 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles next quarter.*
*We go through Kings and Chronicles in what I’ll be calling the History Blitz… It’ll be a bit crazy.
This week’s reading for Year in the Bible goes through four chapters of Romans, which cover some difficult territory. We read passages about God’s absolute sovereignty and his election, and Paul struggles with the fate of his own people, Israel. In reading other materials this week I came across a discussion on these texts.
Over at the site Near Emmaus the author, Brian LePort, cites the book The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness in referring to two essential arguments from Romans. One is that it is the same God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel, that is now calling Gentiles to himself. Secondly, this does not mean God has been unfaithful to Israel.
This is certainly in the mind of Paul. If God is not faithful to Israel, how can we then trust that he’ll remain faithful to us? With this concern he writes defending God’s ways and I think you can see the way he aches for fellow Jews who do not confess Jesus Christ.
How have you dealt with these difficult passages of Romans? What has stood out to you? What have been your reactions in regards to Israel? When you come across hard passages, how do you proceed?
I’d love to hear your thoughts–comments, questions, anything.
In chapter six of 2 Samuel David celebrates “with all his might” as he dances before God. There is plenty to say about this passage, such as the energy we should devote to the worship of God or the importance of spouses to share certain commitments and priorities, which is not the case in David’s wife, who criticizes her husband for such an act.
But instead of that, I’ll take it mainly as an excuse to post another video from David Crowder – Undignified. It’s taken from 2 Samuel 6:22. David’s wife, Michal, communicates her displeasure that her husband is dancing around in his underwear looking foolish. Michal actually despises David in her heart for doing so. In response David doesn’t apologize for such an action instead says that he “will become even more undignified than this” (2 Sam 6:22a NIV).
We don’t worship God because it looks good. David finds joy in God and cannot rejoice reservedly. He has to worship with all his might as he dances before God. If that means he finds himself contemptible, so be it. He’ll become even more undignified if that’s what it takes to worship God.
Year in the Bible 