Mark Byron

Edifier du Jour: Philippians 4 10-13(NIV)

¹⁰ I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Paul went through all kinds of crud. Beatings, shipwrecks, jail. However, Paul says that he learned to be content, period. Full stop.

Where does he get that peace? Not the shoes. Gotta be the Messiah.

Edifier du Jour: Romans 10:1-4(NASB)

Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. ² For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. ³ For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

I recall one scene from Love at First Bite where Dracula and Renfield are flying over to the US; Drac's down in the cargo bay while Renfield is in first class. Renfield sees the menu and exclaims "All those things are dead. Don't you have something that's alive and keeking?"

Paul's talking about the Jews of his era, who were following the defunct Mosaic law. They were following the rules God laid down rather than following a living God. That's not to say that those rules were bad, but they aren't going to save anyone. It's believing in and following Jesus and the rest of the Trinity that is salvific. 

Knowing the rules is nice, but if one focuses on the letter of the law, you can easily miss the Spirit of the law. The Holy Spirit is the one that's alive and keeking, not the rules that Moses wrote down eons ago.

Edifier du Jour: Numbers 5:1-4(NASB)

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. ³ You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.” ⁴ The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the Lord had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.

This is an interesting read in the COVID era. When faced with an invisible and often-deadly virus, we wind up having to treat everybody as unclean. Everyone's a potential leper. For a time, everyone in Michigan and other states lived "outside the camp" (stay-at-home-save-for-necessities) to avoid spreading the disease.

The better analogy from this is the uncleanness from touching a dead person. In a pre-microscope era, they didn't have the knowledge of bacteria and viruses, but they were given instruction to quarantine folks who dealt with the dead; since there's a good chance that invisible "bugs" are at play with a corpse, that ritual uncleanness "superstition" might well have been a low-tech way to protect God's people. A number of the non-kosher foods like shellfish and pork products also tend to be toxin and disease-prone, so those superstitions might well have been put there as a protective measure by God.

Keep that in mind when you're tempted to look askance at some of God's commands. He's not a party-pooper unless the "party" is a lousy idea in the long run. 

  

 

 

Edifier du Jour: 1 Thessalonians 2:5-7(NASB)

⁵ For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— ⁶ nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. ⁷ But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

I'm reminded of a line from Smokey and the Bandit-"...for the glory, for the money, and for the fun . . . mostly for the money." Paul and the Bandit aren't exactly on the same page.

Paul wasn't looking for glory (although he got it by being well-read by millions two millennia on), nor was he looking for money (he made tents for a living so he wasn't hitting up new converts for money) and getting beat up and run out of town wasn't exactly fun. 

What made Paul do it? Well, Jesus hitting you over the head with a 2-by-4 on the road to Damascus is a decent motivator. A face-to-face encounter with God incarnate (along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit) gave him the strength to  face goon squads from both Jews and pagans on a regular basis.

Paul was far from a shrinking violet, but he didn't pull rank or brow-beat the folks in Thessalonica into following him. Instead, he used the metaphor of gently treating them as a mom would a baby; try running that by an alt-right denizen. 

Edifier du Jour: Zechariah 3:6-10(NIV)

⁶ The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: ⁷ “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

⁸ “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. ⁹ See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

¹⁰ “‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

This seems to be a rather messianic passage. In verse 8, God wipes out sin in one day; that's Good Friday. Interestingly, the high priest in Zechariah's vision is named Joshua. Yeshua in Hebrew, which the lead character in the Gospels was called as well.

The first paragraph here draws question to the messianic take, for the angel cites God's charge to Joshua with a "If you will walk in obedience..." If this is the Messiah who will follow God's orders, then no "if" is needed; it's a "when" rather than an "if".

Edifier du Jour: James 3:13-18(NIV)

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Jealousy and strife (the NASB goes with the former in lieu of envy and footnotes the latter as a swap-out for selfish ambition) versus wisdom and humility. Doesn't seem like much of a tag-team match.

It reminds me of a Star Trek episode where some aliens set up a good-versus-evil match with Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak (the founder of the Vulcan logical ethic) match up with Genghis Khan and three villains of Federation lore. The bad guys were doing rather well; the Surak-sim's peace-making cost him his life and Lincoln fell pray to an ambush.

However, in the Star Trek universe, God's not in the mix. Nor is the "soft power" of righteous living factored into the 4-on-4 war game. 

We've got a lot of bad influences abroad today, where envy and division are prized. Being considerate and merciful sounds wimpy. However, it wins more friends than being divisive and works better in the long run. It also has the power of the Holy Spirit behind it behind it, something Gene Roddenberry didn't want to include a half-century ago in that G-vs-E episode. Certain Cretans of our current political scene don't seem to have it in their mix, either.

Edifier du Jour: 2 Corinthians 9:6-9(NASB)

⁶ Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; ⁹ as it is written,

“He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever.”

This passage is in the context of Paul prepping the Corinthians to have ready a promised gift to the Macedonian church. Thus, this passage is often cited to coax donations out of the congregation.

The footnote for "bountifully" in the NASB was "lit. 'with blessings' ". That changes the application a bit. Paul's asking the Corinthians to sow blessings. Not all blessings are financial in nature. One can bless people with love, attention, a kind word, et cetera, without getting out your wallet or checkbook.

Yesterday's passage had Solomon advocating for kind words to cheer other people's hearts. A kind word might mean more than a $5 bill. In a contentious era where money is tight, we must not be miserly with our affections towards our family or our fellow man.

We also need to be ready to give financially when the Spirit asks us to, but we're not to forget those other acts of kindness. "Random acts of kindness" was a cliché phrase a while back, but we need to be deliberate in those "random acts" and to do so in large quantities.

 

Edifier du Jour: Proberbs 12:25(NIV)

25 Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.

When I was at the doctor's office for my allergy shot just now, a gal coming off the elevator gave an unsolicited "Have a nice day" or something to that effect. Then, I came home and this passage showed up on radar.

We've got more anxiety than we know what to do with right now. "Common" niceties make it easier to deal with; I put that in quotes, because being nice is not all that common when folks are in rat-race mode. Keep that in mind.

 

Edifier du Jour: Mark 10:17-22(NIV)

¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Relax, your bank account's safe this morning...probably.

What I take away from this is to be aware of sins of omissions, not doing the things that God wants you to do. 

If you look at the Ten Commandments cut-and-paste Jesus did, all but honoring your parents are thou-shall-nots, and everything but dissing your folks are crimes (adultery is illegal in Michigan but it's legal in 31 states and not all that enforced in the rest). It would be hard to be seen as a living an honorable life and do the things Jesus listed. 

Since you'd get arrested if you did any of the thou-shall-nots, most people without a rap sheet can make a loose case for being a good person...kinda, sorta. However, God looks at the heart and the mind, calling us on the bad things we don't do but think about doing (lusting in ones heart comes to mind as a classic admonition) and calling us on the good things we don't do but should do (be generous with excessive wealth).

Following God means more than avoiding the state pen. It's following the living Word as well as the written law in your locale. That can mean more than keeping the nice officer at bay.

Edifier du Jour:1 Timothy 5:1-2(NIV)

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, ² older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

One restaurant has the tag line "When you're here, you're family." Yet another has "We treat strangers like friends and friends like family." However, it's easy to treat someone like family when they're paying you $10-$15/head (maybe more where you go out, but I'm frugal) for a meal. You're being paid to be nice when you run a restaurant.

What if you're not getting paid to be nice? Do it anyway.

We're being told to treat older folks as parents and younger folks as siblings. Other than people that share our birthday, that covers everyone. Youngsters, lay off the "OK, Boomer." Oldsters, lay off the incessant griping about Millennials.

As one of those Boomers once said, the kids are alright... or at least they're family. The parents are alright, too. Give them their props and the love of one's fellow man that we're commanded to do.

Edifier du Jour: Romans 14:19-23(NIV)

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

We don't have too many fights over food in the church these days; in broader culture, we have folks who are skittish about modern food tech and prefer organic and non-GMO stuff, and a few of those folks are in the Church. However, one can believe in the whole Gospel and go to Whole Foods Market without any issue except for your pocketbook.

There are a lot of other things that believers are temped to fight over that don't affect one's salvation. Hymns versus modern praise music, hymnals versus Power Point, adult Sunday School versus weeknight small groups, avoiding theaters at all cost, et cetera, ad tedium.

I'd add who to vote for (or not vote for, since abstaining is an option) in November. For example, one would be hard pressed to deny the devoutness of Black evangelicals, yet they are traditionally reliably Democratic. They feel that the tin ear that Republicans have towards helping the needy and not wanting to work on ridding the system of racist stereotypes being acted on overweighs the tin ear Democrats have on issues like abortion and traditional sexual mores.

Church honkeys can disagree about whether the president's amoralities make him a no-go zone as well and not have their faith questioned. I didn't vote for him last time (I wrote in Evan McMullen) and don't plan to vote for him again. I've yet to figure out who I am voting for, if anyone, but I'll be doing so with a lot of prayer.

The Republicans are the GOP, not the GOD. Not that I'm a fan of the Democrats, but both have their flaws, and we Americans have to pick between the two (or a protest vote or not voting at all), hopefully with prayer.

Edifier du Jour:Genesis 23:1-20(NIV)

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. ² She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

³ Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, ⁴ “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”

⁵ The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶ “Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”

⁷ Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. ⁸ He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf ⁹ so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”

¹⁰ Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. ¹¹ “No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”

¹² Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land ¹³ and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”

¹⁴ Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵ “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”

¹⁶ Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

¹⁷ So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded ¹⁸ to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. ¹⁹ Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

I call this a martyrdom contest, where both sides are trying to out-generous the other. Abraham is willing to pay full retail for the land but the Canaanite wants to give it to the rich foreigner out of respect.

A similar story happened to David, where he had a similar back-and-forth in 1 Chronicles 21 with the land owner that the plague stopped at when David wanted to build a memorial. David said- "I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”

Abraham likely had the same attitude, to give his beloved wife a burial site that he paid for rather than merely given to him.

Edifier du Jour: Revelation 14:17-20(NIV)

¹⁷ Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹ The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. ²⁰ They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

This hits a number of historical notes. The Battle Hymn of the Republic's "grapes of wrath" springs quickly to mind, which has Civil War overtones, where God's wrath was done by the Union army in the popular mythos. The Grapes of Wrath book has the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl as the avenging angel afflicting the Joads. 

Today isn't nearly as traumatic as the Civil War or the 1930s, even with COVID, Black lives matter stuff, a trade war and a looming political war over both the election and the confirmation for the Notorious RBG's replacement. It's a nervous-making year.

There will come a day when God will unleash his wrath on the world, with the things that I mentioned being mere warm-up acts. The world has it coming, as yesterday's Edifier from Romans 1 would testify to. However, it's somewhat comforting to remember that we've been through far worse traumas without the Second Coming kicking in.

Edifier du Jour: Romans 1:28-32(NASB)

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

The coarseness of modern culture isn't new. It's baked into human nature in the absence of a relationship with God. When I saw insolent in the laundry list of worldly traits, I was reminded of the hard-left French party La France Insoumise who insolently rebel against the corporate-friendly globalizing status quo. Tres French but also tres human.

If we take another look at the list, it's not just the left who are in the mix. Ruthless folks across the political spectrum (I'll leave shout-outs to the Peanut Gallery as an homework exercise) and even apolitical folks will look to do unto others before they do unto them.

That's why the Fruit of the Spirit is so counter-cultural; it's not human nature to be loving, peaceful, patient, kind, gentle and self-controlled. The above laundry list (and the lust-laden paragraph that proceeds it) is the default in the absence of God's presence. 

Edifier du Jour: Proverbs 2:1-11(NIV)

My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
² turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
³ indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He holds success in store for the upright,
    he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸ for he guards the course of the just
    and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom, knowledge and discretion. Those aren't uniformly prized. Human nature is often at cross-purposes with wisdom, as the desires of the moment can shove the wise move aside. Discretion is often mocked by culture as a do-gooder angel on your shoulder keeping you from having any fun; I have Dana Carvey's mock of the elder George Bush going as an earwig-"Can't do that, wouldn't be prudent."

Even knowledge is scorned if it stops you from doing what you want to do. Knowledge that would alter your actions to the detriment of your inner id gets written off as a killjoy or a plot of your ideological enemies.

Seeking after God's wisdom is job one for the believer. It will show a better path than what your inner Taz would have you do.

 

Edifier du Jour: Hebrews 5:5-10(NIV)

⁵ In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”^[a]

⁶ And he says in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”^[b]

⁷ During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

This is an odd passage if you haven't read Genesis past the first few chapters.  Melchizedek was a high priest and king of Salem to whom Abraham gave a tithe to in Genesis 14. The Aaronic priesthood didn't get established until Exodus, so Melchizedek wasn't a Levite since Levi hadn't been born.

Jesus didn't look for the job; He had the job of the world's high priest given to him. Unlike Aaron and his successors, Jesus didn't need to raise an offering for Him sins since He didn't have any. He also was able to sacrifice Himself rather than yearly offings of a farm animal since He was a perfect offering.

One and done. His own special case outside the line of Levi, an outlier like Melchizedek.

Edifier du Jour: Mark 11:7-11(NIV)

When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!^[a]”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[b]

¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The last verse struck me this morning, for I've always envisioned Palm Sunday's entry happening in the morning, since we go to church in the morning. This has Jesus and the Undirty Dozen hitting town in the late afternoon.

It was Monday when he occupied Wall Street and kicked out the money-changers and overpriced merchants from the temple, not Palm Sunday. That would give the gentiles a spot to hear about God rather than having the outer temple be a place for Jews to get sacrifice supplies. It was time for that show of affection (many of which were hoping for a conquistador messiah rather than the atoning one they were about to see) from the crowd on Sunday, but not for the cleansing work that was to be done the next day.

Why did He wait a day? That I'm not sure about, but the idea that comes to mind is that separating the two put some punctuation between the two. People had time to digest the triumphal entry before Jesus flipped the script and separated church and commerce. 

Edifier du Jour: Isaiah 33:2-6(NIV)

² Lord, be gracious to us;
    we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of distress.
³ At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;
    when you rise up, the nations scatter.
⁴ Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;
    like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

⁵ The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Graciousness, justice and righteousness. That's the mark of a place that God has set up shop. If we're not exhibiting those things, it's not a good sign.

Edifier du Jour: Matthew 10:17-20(NIV)

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. ¹⁸ On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, ²⁰ for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Innocent doesn't always mean naive. The world will often assume that a person who is "too" nice and polite as being ignorant, for a smart person would know better than to be nice without getting anything out of it for themselves.

However, if we're in sync with God's heart, doing good does our heart good, even if it doesn't add to our bank account or earn a favor to cash in later.

Doing good can also get you into "good trouble" for the powers-that-be might not want God's kingdom expanded if it's bad for business. The idol-makers didn't like Paul much, for he took away customers who didn't have a market for their stuff anymore, since they now had a superior living God to worship rather than a wood or bronze figurine.

The Holy Spirit is there to help you through such situations. Police brutality was the norm in those days, but we're to exhibit the grace of God under such pressure. Far easier said than done, but gentleness in the face of ugliness is a powerful witness.

Jesus had the inner twelve disciples witnessing to the Jewish community, but the court appearances had the disciples dealing with Gentile leaders as well. Showing what seems to be an irrational inner strength will be a powerful witness to both, and a well-placed explanation of the source of that strength will be provided even if the speaker isn't a great orator on his own.

Edifier du Jour: Luke 4:9-12(NIV)

⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
¹¹ they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

This is a good reminder that the devil knows Scripture, too. Not that he likes it, but he knows it.

I wound up invoking this passage early in the COVID era when our church was considering cancelling service a couple of weeks before we were required to per state lock-down in March. With an mostly-elderly membership, the church was a walking, singing at-risk group.

A more word-of-faith take on things would have the believer claim the healing power of God and divine protection to ignore worldly health threats. However, doing so to just show off without much tangible gain to the Kingdom is doing a disservice to God.

Jesus didn't need to prove his divinity and didn't take the bait. Our church didn't take the bait, either, as the pastors took this passage to heart at the time. Praise the Lord and pass the ammo mask.

Edifier du Jour: Exodus 36:1-6(NIV)

¹ So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.”

² Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. ³ They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. ⁴ So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing ⁵ and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”

⁶ Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, ⁷ because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

This strikes me as instructive of our current predicament. Israel was in the wilderness getting their daily manna delivery from God and God had just instructed Moses on how He was to be worships, including details on how to built the Tent of Meeting.

In chapter 36, they're getting to work on it. People were bringing in supplies for the task, but they brought in more than was needed; Moses had to tell them to back off their giving.

" 'That's too big of an offering!' said no church ever." However, that was the case here. 

The analogy that comes to mind is unemployment. We have a lot of people who would like to work, but have no place to receive what they have to offer, especially in this COVID era where a lot of businesses have had to either shut down or scale back due to safety issues. It's unnatural to not be giving of yourself, but just as the Tent of Meeting craftsmen didn't need any more supplies, the system has more available labor than they know what to do with.

The folks on the outside looking in are in a tough spot, both emotionally and economically; American culture that expects people to be doers rather than sitters treats the folks who didn't find a musical chair as losers. However, the "game" has a limited amount of "winners", so folks who's offering was turned away shouldn't be made to feel guilty.

Edifier du Jour: 1 Samuel 25:18-25(NIV)

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. ²² May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one ^[k]male of any who belong to him.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground. ²⁴ She fell at his feet and said, “On me ^[l]alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak ^[m]to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. ²⁵ Please do not let my lord ^[n]pay attention to this ^[o]worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. ^[p]Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

The setup to this passage has David and Nabal's sheep and shepherds coexisting peacefully, until David asked for help in shearing his sheep, at which point Nabal blew off and insulted David. David was POed and was looking to wipe out Nabal's family.

However, unlike the carnage that David would unleash on the gentile southwestern neighbors of Israel in chapter 27, his wrath was headed off by Nabal's wife Abigail. She took a peace offering to him and apologized for Nabal's unkindness. Later in the chapter, Nabal dies of a heart attack after Abigail tells him what she did to save his keister and David marries her shortly thereafter.

The takeaway here is that peaceful approaches to angry people can defuse a situation. Angry approaches to angry people tend to lead to confrontation and combat and death assuming neither side is in the mood to back down.

Edifier du Jour: Matthew 24:3-14(NIV)

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

This is oddly reassuring. We're nowhere near the end game here, although it seems that concern for one's fellow man is rather low in the face of tribalism rearing its ugly head. Christians aren't getting the death sentence in Western countries quite yet and there are still some areas of the world where the Gospel has a hard time getting in due either anti-theistic or false religions holding sway.

We've have wars, famines and earthquakes on a regular basis since Jesus spoke this. He will come eventually, but it doesn't quite seem eminent.  

Edifier du Jour: Habakkuk 2:4-8(NIV)

⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up;
    his desires are not upright—
    but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—
⁵ indeed, wine betrays him;
    he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
    and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
    and takes captive all the peoples.

⁶ “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,

“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
    and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
    How long must this go on?’
⁷ Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
    Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
    Then you will become their prey.
⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
    the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
    you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

"Payback is a [she-dog]", the saying goes. It's better to live blamelessly, for you'll have very little to have people take revenge for your misdeeds. You may still get blamed for doing the right things if a corrupt person was hoping you'd go along with his corruption, but you'll have God's backing in that case.

The person who does evil will "get his", either at the hands of people or at the hands of God. It may take time, but justice will be served one way or the other.

Edifier du Jour: Revelation 2:1-6(NIV)

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

In the book of Ephesians, love and humility are stressed along with proper doctrine. Thus, John winds up praising the folks in Ephesus for solid doctrine and being able to stand up for it, but he sees them having slid away from the closeness they had with God as young believers.

There seems to have been some debate as to what exactly the Nicolaitans were preaching; some form of antinomianism seems to be the leader in the clubhouse. "If it feels good, do it" didn't show up in the 1960s on its own; the Greeks and Romans had that attitude well before the hippies.

However, railing against the variety of sexual sins and spending more time on fighting pr0-trans thought in your church statement of faith than you do on describing the work of the Holy Spirit can leave you focused on what you're against rather than what you're for. Likewise, the Florida pastor who loved to burn Korans showed how much he hated Islam, but he didn't seem to do a great job of showing off a loving God who's more than a lightning-launcher.

Show folks what you're for and Who you are for; that starts by knowing God and knowing what He wants for us and our fellow man.

 

Edifier du Jour: 2 Peter 2:1-3(NIV)

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³ In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

False teachers are nothing new. Given that Peter is credited by Catholics as the first pope, this could be the first papal bull railing against bull-bleep teaching.

The Gospel is not that complex. We're not perfect, God is, and Jesus died to bridge that gap. Accept that and Him as Lord and Savior and try your best to follow Him is the marching orders for the believer.

If you need to understand a multi-layered theory to buy into a teaching, it's probably not a godly one. That's not to say there aren't deeper truths to be found, but the more complex things become, the more errors can creep in. Also, if a false teacher presents eight solid biblical truths, then slides in a dubious one, you're less likely to say "Whoa, mule!" if he's lulled you to sleep with valid points. I recall Eileen describing an end-times conspiracy theory she ran into that went through a standard dispensationalist escatology crawl, only to throw in the conspiracy that could pass as decent Left Behind fan-fiction at the end.

Given that we're in anxious times, with COVID, racial unrest, and nastier-than-normal politics, people are often grasping at straws and looking to buy into something that ties all these things together in one neat package. Life isn't usually neat. It's messy as all get out. But leaning on God and embracing the suck is usually safer than buying into a Rube Goldberg theory.

Edifier du Jour: Genesis 48:1-6(NIV)

Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ² When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.

³ Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty^[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me ⁴ and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’

⁵ “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. ⁶ Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 

Monday's Edifier had Joshua settling in Ephraim's territory and I found that he was one of Joseph's sons born of an Egyptian mom. This helps explain why Joseph's two sons get tribes named after them on a par with their uncles; Jacob opted to promote his grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim on par with his sons. Good job, Random (with the Holy Spirit's help, methinks) Bible Book spreadsheet.

That factoid had escaped me; I knew they were given tribe status along with ten of Joseph's eleven brothers, giving twelve tribes with territory with the Levites being a floating priesthood without their own territory, but I never quite understood why. 

There is a knowledge given to Jacob that the clan (cue Ahnold) "will be back". It'll take a few centuries and a lot of drama along the way, not to mention creating the details of a new religious infrastructure, but they did come back...three times, after Egypt, after Babylon and after WWII. When Israel (which is Jacob's second name) loses it, they've gotten it back since God has their back. 

 

Edifier du Jour: 1 Samuel 27:6-12(NIV)

⁶ So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. ⁷ David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.

⁸ Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) ⁹ Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.

¹⁰ When Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would say, “Against the Negev of Judah” or “Against the Negev of Jerahmeel” or “Against the Negev of the Kenites.” ¹¹ He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. ¹² Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”

I'm struggling to see how the "man after's God's own heart" is majoring in murder, theft and habitual lying. He's raiding the non-Israeli territory southwest of the Philistines and saying he's raiding Hebrew tribes to the southeast of the Philistine king.

True, it gave Israel and strategic advantage to wipe out any corrupting influence to their SW and to keep the Philistines misinformed of the facts on the ground. It's ruthless and deceptive and seemingly effective.

However, it's application in the New Covenant era seems rather limited. We're supposed to make disciples of all nations these days, and it's hard to make disciples of dead people.

It's also hard to tell folks God's truth with the same mouth that you lie through your teeth with about your sources of income. I'm reminded of the Muslim custom allowing for lies to infidels to gain strategic advantage; Muhammad was from Arabia a notch south of Israel, so that tradition seemed to be well entrenched in that neighborhood a couple of millennia before the self-styled last prophet. 

Is it OK to be ruthless and deceptive for a "good cause"? The New Testament leans towards a "no." The Old Testament had plenty of moments of parking-lotting of enemies and deceit by Israel, but the moral focus was on defending Israel at all costs and killing corrupting influences when called for. There was also an ethic of kindness to aliens in their midst if they weren't following false gods, but a ruthlessness otherwise.

The NT ethic includes Gentiles in God's kingdom, whereas the OT had Israel as an essentially closed loop with the very occasional outsider marrying in. We've created a worldwide "we" rather than a merely national "we." That's a counter-cultural stand, as it's now trendy to retreat to that smaller we that is national or even sub-national when the "we" includes just one's preferred demographic or ideological group.

That makes David's actions here bracing. It was from a different era than the one Jesus set up about 1990 years ago.

Edifier du Jour: Joshua 19:49-50(NIV)

⁴⁹ When they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them, ⁵⁰ as the Lord had commanded. They gave him the town he asked for—Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there.

Joshua's reward for taking over for Moses and leading Israel into the promised land was a small town in the hills in his clan's territory, which he got after everyone else had gotten their turf. However, he just didn't claim the town that had been their before the Israelites got there, he built it up and set up shop there, leaving the place better because of him.

The other interesting thing I found digging into the background is that Ephraim, the son of Joseph that the tribe was named after, had an Egyptian mom; Joseph had become the Egyptian prime minister and married the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Since her dad served the god On, he must have coined the phrase "It's On!"

That would mean that Joshua would have some Egyptian in him, yet he lead Israel to its post-Egyptian foundation. Joshua's namesake had Moabite blood in Him (via Ruth), and He leads and saves the whole world.

Edifier du Jour: 2 Peter 1:2-9(NASB)

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; ³ seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ⁴ For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. ⁵ Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, ⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, ⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

The "moral excellence" in verse 5 strikes me this morning. The NIV has it down as "goodness" but that seems a bit watered-down in comparison to moral excellence; it flows better, but doesn't get the message quite across. The NASB tends to be clunkier but tries to get the nuance of the Greek and Hebrew a bit more precisely.

In everyday language, a "good person" is often good in comparison to a "bad person." However, we're not being asked to be better than bad people, we're called to be doing the things God wants us to do, which might be far more than what a mere "good person" in a good-bad two-bucket category would do.

However, we're also called to be smart about our excellent goodness. Knowledge is the second virtue out of the gate here. One can be "well-intentioned" and get things wrong if we don't know the details of what would help a situation.

Those two are prerequisites to the higher virtues. Unselfish, unconditional love (agape in the Greek) of the kind that God has for us is the pinnacle of those virtues. Mere philios, or brotherly love (hence Philadelphia and philanthropy) is a mere set up for what we're shooting for.

If we have those and work to have those more and more, we're on the right track in God's eyes, even if we're not bearing a lot of tangible "fruit" at present.