Monthly Archives: September 2017

We must read carefully and often.  I am often exasperated by the average person’s lack of interest in the portion of the Bible that Jesus and Paul knew and loved.

Notice where this story occurs.  Some folks in Seminary who should know better are annoyed that it was included “by mistake” in the middle of the Joseph story.  The Bible does not make mistakes!

There is a contrast between the behavior of Joseph and the behavior of Judah.  The loving of Joseph towards others and the rather unpleasant behavior of Judah.  The last verses in the previous chapter tell about the anguished sadness of his father at losing his son and a sneeze later Judah leaves his father and leaves the land given to Abraham by God and goes to the Philistines.  He went to a land where the God’s were feared, not loved, and the motivation to go to the temple was that the priestesses were prostitutes.  Worship was not an spiritually uplifting experience.

An interesting sidelight is that today in India, many girls serve the Gods by providing similar services in exchange for some money in the collection plate.  Satan seems to have found a way of destroying a soul with the crude desires of the body.

He marries a Canaanite as you point out, but notice his rather abrupt behavior, no love or courtship is recorded in the Bible the way it does in so many other storiesHe marries her and sleeps with her in one breath.  He saw her, marries her, and sleeps with her.  A hint of what will happen with Tamar. No grief seems to be recorded at the death of his wife and sons.  His sons are wicked and he seems to value the last because he is his heir.

He leaves off mourning and on the way to care for his sheep, spots Tamar and skips the small talk.  He is blunt about what he wants.  He is rough enough to give her some things that he should have been more cautious about.  His staff, his staff, and his cord.  With a sort of impatient need to make love to her, he ignores the fact that these are his credit card and the deed to his property.  In the suddenness of his encounter, there is no mention of house or bed.  Just grab and run.  Sorry if I seem a little annoyed, but this is not how anything that has the label of love on it should happen.

I am both amused and annoyed that he doesn’t look at her veiled face which would have alerted him to who she was.  No kissing and quiet conversation here.

Later when he discovers that SHE has misbehaved, his words in the Hebrew text are “Take. Burn.”  When he sees that staff, the cord, and the seat, he says,  “She is legally more correct than I am.”  Sort of a dubious.  “I’m sorry.”  What a rascal!”

I have been working on the story of Jacob. He is an absolute failure in almost every verse. I think that if God could love Jacob, and oddly enough Jacob is the only one that God says, “Jacob have I loved,” then God certainly should be able to love me. Of all the heroes of the Old Testament, Jacob seems to be especially a part of God’s affections.

But what a mess he is. His mother talks him into deceiving his father. His uncle takes shameless advantage of him. His wives boss him around. His children commit murders and other evil acts that are beyond his control to control. Finally, in desperation he gives a coat, the correct translation is an embroidered coat, to Joseph as a sign that he is passing on the power of the family to Joseph. The brothers who are older to Joseph are appalled that this little kid is going to get in their way. It is an interesting passage when they finally decide to do him in. They are supposed to be feeding and grazing the sheep and instead they have gone to a town called the Canaan Las Vegas. It was a town full of wine women and song. When they see him coming they know they’re in trouble. They decide to do him in. It isn’t just a chance decision, they are in trouble and they know it.

I’m always a bit frustrated when people think that the cut that Joseph gets is sort of a fashion statement. This is the same coat he loses when part of his wife tries to get him in trouble. A coat or cloak in the ancient world was a sign of authority.

Notice the fuss they make over Jesus’ robe. They mock him they dress them up in a Herod’s robe. It is difficult to read the Bible because of our world and their world being so different. When the woman wishes to be healed, she touches the tip of his robe and he feels the power flow out of him.

Three men were in a line on the road pushing small carts filled with stones.  The king came by and asked them what they were doing.  The first said that he was carrying stones.  The second said that he was earning a living.  The third said that he was building a palace.  The king placed the third man in authority over the rest of his workers.

Why this website?

Why spend time searching out the details and dusty corners of the Bible?  To know God better.  We learn a lot about a person from the art, the books, and the music that they produce.  We can learn a lot about God from the things He created.  The Bible is among those things He created and it reveals a lot about Him.  Although we cannot comprehend him completely, we can comprehend Him much more than we do.

Do we have to do all this searching to be saved, to be brought into a living, loving relationship with Him?  God himself tells us what we need to do to be brought into that passionate embrace and relationship that will bind us together forever.

Luke 10: 25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying Master, what shall I do to be saved? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the Torah? How do you read it? 27 And he as his answer said, You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. 28 And he said unto him, You have answered correctly: this do, and you will be saved.

This comes from the mouth of God himself.  The words erase all the complexity of human theology. We must love the God who made us and who made the world for us to love. We are called to love God and the likeness of God that is stamped on each of His beloved creatures.

The sin of Adam and Eve was their need to seek to know good and evil when they were created to seek the knowledge of the glory of God.

God created a woman for the man because it was not good to be alone. One wonders if that was the reason for the creation of it all.

He is a sociable God, fascinated and curious about his creatures. God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New ask a bundle of questions. Our purpose also is to question, to find and to understand as much about him as we can find in His Word and in his world. We search not because we wish to be saved but because we want to know all we can about Him whom we love.

I hope that this will be a living website.  I hope that over time, I will revise, expand, and correct the material here.  I want readers to suggest and expand and correct the ideas recorded here.

I also plan to explore other websites and summarize the best here while posting links that will allow readers to explore and correct what we discover.

Thoughts On the Last Supper based on some readings by Bruce Chilton. And this was published in a booklet issued by The Bible Archaeology Society Called Jesus: the Last Day

Chilton finds the whole ritual of the supper is important to the foundation of the church. Jesus actually ate with them and invited folks to eat with him. The low feasts of biblical times were the middle eastern ceremony of community. For that open-hearted extravagant expression of community, we have substituted a rather minimalistic and brief ceremony.

Chilton also feels that when Jesus says this is my blood and body, he is not referring to his own blood and his own body but to the blood and flesh that one brought to the temple to offer on the altar. He is saying in effect this is my offering.

Chilton’s explanation of the cleansing of the temple is also rather unusual. He points out that when you came to the temple you did not bring an offering of your own but instead you purchased one. This was offensive to some of the rabbis of the time. What you brought to the temple was supposed to have belonged to you and not a substitute bought by cash. He points out that one of the rabbis of the time drove herds of sheep into the temple to disrupt the transactions and to allow folks to bring in unpurchased offering to the altar.

I suppose they would see our offering plate and the money in it as a substitute for any spiritual dedication of ourselves. Perhaps, they would be happier if we placed in the offering plate a card on which we would explain how we intended to give of ourselves to kingdom work during that week. Chilton sees that his statement duplicates Exodus 24:6 – 8.

Exodus 24:6-8          New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Jesus is the new Moses.