Exodus 31

All skill comes from God.

Sure, you can work to get better at things, but ultimately all ability comes from God.

The Watchtower on Jesus

I don't pretend to be an expert on Jehovah's Witnesses. I haven't studied their doctrines, and while I found .pdfs of books by Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford, I never got around to reading them.

I do know what they teach about Jesus, though.

JWs believe that Jesus Christ not divine, that he was a creature rather than Creator.. This is based largely on interpretations of a few verses. Unfortunately, this ignores everything else the Bible says about him.

This iis called Arianism, and it was declared a heresy and decisively refuted by Athanasius in the fourth century. The fact that it's still around and fooling people nearly 1700 years later is a sad statement on our own ignorance.

Exodus 30

What stands out in this chapter is how holy the incense altar was.

Even the incense burned there was holy.

Review: THERE'S A TIME FOR EVERYTHING by David Wayrick

Tthis is a commentary on Ecclesiastes, though not a verse-by-verse one. Rather, it's a book about a book.

It doesn't read like a scholarly or pastoral resource, but neither is it breezy or inconsequential. Wayrick has written a popular book on what is by far the most existential and modern part of the Bible. It deserves to be more widely read.

Exodus 29

notice that the consecration of Aaron and his sons took seven sin offerings.

They were decent people, but still people. They had done wrong. That's one reason our high priest tops those of Judaism.

Exodus 28

this chapter is devoted to a description of the pridtly garments. It also has the first mention of the Urim and Thummim.

A lot of ink has been spilled in trying to find the exact identity and purpose of the Urim and Thummim. The fact is the Bible says almost nothing about them, and anything we come up with is just speculation.

Kids

Listen to a group of kids sometime. At some point, one of them will yell, "Mom said" or "Dad said". It's the final word, the great argument-stopper. To a little kid, his parents' word is law. Isn't that how we Christians treat the word of God?

Sadly, no. We complain and ultimately ignore the parts we don't like. We act more like God's sullen adolescents than his children.

Can you honestly deny it?

Exodus 27

 the lamps were meant to be lit forever. Were they?

Who knows? During Solomon's reign the temple replaced the tabernacle, which wasn't always a center of holiness. Neither exists today.

So what does it mean that "this will be statutute forever"?

Exodus 26

God is specific.

If this chapter doesn't convivince you of that nothing will.

W

What I remember

Let me tell you what i  remember about the day of the stroke.

I went to work at five that morning, as I had for several weeks. They were adding on to the building, which meant a lot of extra work for Inventory Department, but also a lot of overtime.

I was alone on the Receiving side, getting ready to move some pallets, when I suddenly felt weak. I sat down, thinking it would pass. When it didn't I called my wife to come take me to the hospital and caled my boss on the radio and asked him to meet me in the breakroom.

I sat down, and my boss came in a few minutes later.  By  this time I was sweating profusely and barely able to hold my head up.

I told him I wasn't feeling well and Lora was coming to take me to the emergency room. I explained what I'd been doing and who could cover for me, and he got me a bottle of water and my things, and sat with me until Lora got there. By the time she did, some of the managers from the front office were there, and one of them helped me to her car.

I don't remember much after that. I said hello to the girls and Gruntley, and leaned the seat back, and talked to Lora. All I remember of the ride is telling her not to speed.

And that's it.

Exodus 25

Some pastors use the first part of this chapter to guilt people into giving. That's not why it was written.

One of the first things I was taught was, "The Bible can never mean what it never meant." Moses  wasn't trying to build a new sanctuary or hire a youth pastor. Stop reading into Scripture. There's plenty there already.

review: THE ROBERT SHECKLEY MEGAPACK by Robert Sheckley

I actually got this one by mistake. I confused Robert Sheckley with R. A. Lafferty, another science fiction writer and a very funny one. Regardless, I like old SF, and while I didn't check the copyright dates, these stories all seem to come from the 1950s and early 1960s.

There's not much else to add. If you like SF from this time, I recommend it.

Exodus 24

Twice in this chapter Israel promised to do everything The Lord said.

They didn't.

And neither would we.

Exodus 23

God makes a lot of promises in this chapter, and sets some conditions.

Israel disregarded all of them.

Not a couple, or a few. Every single one.

If you must put a label on me

I belong to the Southern Baptist Convention by circumstance and conviction.  Circumstance because the church my family joined, and which ordained me, was Southern  Baptist. Conviction because I believe very strongly in the autonomy of the local church, and that the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message is a very good statement of faith.

So I'm a Baptist. All "Baptist" really means, though, is that we don't baptize babies. There were two main streams of thought that came together to form modern Baptist theology: Calvinism and Anabaptism.

I'm not a Calvinist, nor an Armenian. I'm not an Anglican, a Roman Catholic,or any species of Eastern Orthodox. If I identify with anyone, it's the 16th century Anabaptistists.

Exodus 22

There are a lot of regulations in this chapter, but the one that stands out to me is the instruction not to talk bad about leaders.

Badmouthing our leader is an American tradition, and badmouthing Democratic leaders is a Christian tradition.

All based on something specifically forbidden by God.

Exodus 21

Some people try to read the Bible and hit the Leviticus Wall. I don't even make it that far. I hit the Exodus Wall.

Exodus divides exactly in two. The first 20 chapters are narrative that gets them to Sinai. The next20, starting with this chapter, is law.

"If you hate, you're going to Hell"

I don't usually talk about my dreams, for three reasons. First, I remember almost none of them, and second, the few I remember generally have nothing to do with this blog. Third, there's nothing more boring than listening  to someone  go on about a dream he had.

You're in luck. I can't go on and on, because I can't recall anything about this dream, aill I remember is waking up with a voice n my head saying , "if you hate, you're going to Hell.."

That was a while back. Since I don't trust dreams by themselves, I tested that statement against reason (which may be wrong) and Scripture (which never is).

The Bible tells me that I am to love everyone. If you believe as I do that  the Biblr  is God's word, then disobeying it is the same as disobeying him. To disown God is to rebel against him, which is the same crime Lucifer committed. If he deserves punishment, why doesn't anyone else?

After much study, thought, and prayer, I decked that what I heard in my dream was right.

"If you hate, you're going to Hell."

Exodus 20

this is the chapter that everyone has heard of, even if they don't know it. This is the one with the Ten Commandments.

Notice first the name. Not the Ten Suggestions. Not the Ten Good Ideas. They're called "commandments" because God expects  them to be obeyed.

A lot reject God because he seems unfair, based on passages where he promises to visit the sins of the father upon the children down to the fourth generation. And they're right. He isn't fair. Look  at the next verse in this chapter, He promises steadfast love to thousands.

I'm happy to serve such an unfair God.

Review: HOW To CONQUER A NATION by Matt Byrd

This is a good joke in need of a very good editor.

Written as a guide for would-be dictators, this short book is very funny, but so full of grammatical errors that it's hard sometimes to see the humor. I wanted very much to like it, and want very much to recommend it, but I couldn't and I can't.

Exodus 19

Why spend so much time at Sinai if the goal was Canaan?

Remember that the promise made to the Israelites was conditional. They would live in the land as long as they kept to the rules. How did they know the rules?  That's why they were at Sinai.

Exodus 17

this is the first time the Israelites fought anyone. Notice they didn't win. God did.

Throughout the Conquest, it wasn't force of arms that won the day, but faithfulness to God. He fought for thm, but there was always something for Israel to do.

Exodus 18

Fathers-in-law sometimes have good ideas. It's in the Bble.

In this chapter we learn that Jethro not only took care of Moses' wife and kids, but he also taught Moses to delegate. When you consider how many Israelites there were, Moses' ability to judge them all was amazing.

The Gospel

I've mentioned the Gospel, but never said exactly what I meant.

Here's what you need to believe. Everybody has sinned, which just means disobeying God. Since he loves us so much he came up with a way to save us from ourselves. Jesus Christ was both God and man, and lived a perfect life, died, and was resurrected to pay the price for sin. All you have to do is stop fighting and surrender.

Believing isn't just intellectual assent. It's trusting him to do what he says. It's not easy.

Everything else follows from that.

Exodus 16

Some people claim to have found the source of the manna first mentioned here.

That just proves they haven't. This same chapter says it ended when Israel's wandering did.

Pacifism

I'm a pacifist, because that's what God calls us to be. I believe that because a plain reading of the NewTestament tells me so.

This doesn't make me a coward. Some people feel safer with a gun in their hands. I depend on Almighty God instead. This is scary.

You might point out that God ordered his people to fight in the Old Testament. I would remind you of two things. First, war was severely circumscribed even then, and second, Christians today are by definition not Israelites of the time of the Exodus. You might also point out that the doctrine of just war, which allows Christians to wage war, was proposed by Augustine of Hippo, widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of all time. I would again mention two things: Augustine's writings aren't Scripture, and he was born about a hundred years into the church-state marriage.

You may think I'm arrogant, or that I don't write well. You may even think I'm completely wrong. That's fair. I'm just trying to to obey what I see.

exodus 15

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.

Moses was not a warrior. Aaron and Miriam weren't. 

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. 

Review: "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H. P. Lovecraft

This is the last and longest of Lovecraft's three novellas. It's also his excuse to write a fantasy story.

Of course, being Lovecraft, it's a very dark fantasy story. A follow-up of sorts to his "Pickman's Model", the scariest thing ii've ever read, it stars Randolph Carter, and while the plot is lacking, this novella features some of Lovecraft's best writing.

H. P. Lovecraft was a great writer, but it's unfortunate that his worldview was so often that of his stories.

Exodus14

To be completely honest, this chapter doesn't say  which sea the Israelites crossed on the way out of Egypt.

More conservative scholars generally say the Red Sea. More liberal ones usually say that's a mistranslation of "Sea of Reeds", a swampy area where the water was only a few Inches deep.

Personally I don't much care. Either God split an arm of the Indian Ocean or he drowned the cream of the Egyptian army in less than a foot of water. Either way, that's one bad mamma-jamma.

Exodus 13

God didn't lead the Israelitites by the easy path, because it turned out it would have been harder.

How often do we work harder trying to do things the easy way? God knew what he was doing.

Bumpin' the Jell-O

My friend Pratt has a saying about prayer. He calls it "bumpin' the Jell-O". It's a good description.

You never know how far a prayer might go, or who it might affect. You just never know. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, so the reach of each prayer is literally infinite. God can hear every prayer, and he answers them all, though not always like we expect.

Exodus 12

what did dabbing the doorframes with blood have to do with killing Egyptians? Not a lot, except that God told the Hebrews to do it.

God doesn't need great thinkers, writers, or speakers. He doesn't need great warriors or architects. He can do it all better himself. What he wants -- and has always asked -- is obedience.

The Hebrrews had their problems, but this time they listened.

Exodus 11

This chapter is one reason people give for hating God. How dare he threataten all those innnocent Egyptians?

That would be a valid question, if they were innocent. Unfortunately they, like  everyone else, had sinned, and so were guilty. They deservedt to die. So do you. So do I. Yet God made a way for people to be saved anyway.

The old elephant story

We've all heard the story of the blind men and the elephant. One blind man feels the elephant's tusk and says it must be like a spear. Others feel the ear,  side, and tail and declare an elephant to be like a fan, a wall, and a snake.

The point is that we all have part of the truth, but that no one has the whole thing. But the story presupposes an outside observer.

Someone has to know the whole truth. That's the position secular humanism has claimed for itself. All religions, it says, are equally wrong, so it's the only impartial judge.

That's true, if  all religions are wrong. If Chhristianity is right, though, then secular humanism is another false religion, another blind man around the elephant.

Exodus 10

Hell is described as darkness and fire. God already rained fire on Egypt. Now he covered it in darkness.

God brought Hell to Earth to free his people. He does no less today.

Review: HEAVEN by Randy Alcorn

In the words of Douglas Adams, "I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good."

If I can't preach I'll be a biblical theologian. I'm interested in what the Bible has to say. Alcorn has written a solid biblical theology about Heaven, a subject that's been neglected by evangelicals. there's a lot about Heaven, but little of it is remotely biblical. Most has nothing to do with  Christianity, no matter what it says.

Alcorn has achieved a difficult balance between scholarly and popular. I've never much cared for his fiction, but  I liked this book. I'd like to read more.