The Bible in a Year – 5 May

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

5 May. Isaiah chapters 28-31.

Isaiah’s prophecies in chapter 28 condemn not only the political leaders of Israel and Judah but also their priests, who all alike are pictured as being drunk and out of control.  The priests teach the law by rote, as if that is what matters in itself, rather than striving for the ‘rest’ (fellowship with God) to which to law is meant to lead us. Because of this, and the lies and falsehoods that the leaders resort to in an effort to preserve at least themselves from danger in a time of war, God’s judgement will come.

 

The parable of the farmer at the end of the chapter compares those who continually beat others down with religious rules to someone who ploughs the field constantly without ever actually sowing crops, and uses heavy equipment to crush the most delicate herbs. This temptations to resort to legalism (applying rules rather than compassion and common sense) and to make tradition more important that relevance, is ever present in any religion. Rules are to lead us to love of God and neighbour, never ends in themselves, and tradition should be a living thing, not a fixed way of doing things that can never change.  When Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30) he may have had passages like this in mind, as well as the many uses in the Old Testament of a yoke as the symbol of oppression.

 

In chapter 29 the focus turns to Jerusalem itself, whose eventual destruction is again prophesied.  But throughout these passages are hints of the “remnant” of which Isaiah writes elsewhere, the faithful few believers who will carry on the true faith following the devastation of cities and peoples.  As with the story of the destruction of Sodom, it only takes a few people who hang on to faith in bad times in order for it to flourish again in better times.

 

Chapters 30 and 31 are a polemic aimed at the leaders in Jerusalem who thought that a military alliance with Egypt would enable them to resist the Assyrian empire.  But Isaiah’s consistent message is that God had appointed the Assyrians to carry out his judgement, and resistance was futile. It was too late now for the nation as a whole to turn back to God, although some individuals might.  But as so often in the prophets, images of judgement and destruction are interspersed with reminders that God is still the merciful parent (the leaders of Judah are his ‘rebellious children’) who will always, eventually, have compassion and bring his people back.  But it will only be when they cast away all their idols that the Assyrians themselves will be defeated, and then by God and not by swords.

 

The Bible in a Year – 1 May

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1 May. Isaiah chapters 9-12

At least two passages here have been much used in Christian thought as prophecies of Jesus Christ: the beginning of chapter 9 (“The people who walked in darkness…”) with its reference to the child from Galilee who will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”; and the start of chapter 11, the “shoot of the stock of Jesse” (i.e. a descendant of King David) who would rule Israel in peace for ever.  These certainly tie in with what we know or believe about Jesus.

 

The danger, of course, lies in quoting isolated verses: these short passages are set within larger passages of verse that clearly relate to the politics of Isaiah’s time.  More objective commentators consider that the prophecies of a saviour or messiah in this book are really pointing to King Cyrus of Persia under whose rule the Jews eventually returned to Jerusalem.

 

This, however, is no reason why these prophecies could not have had a deeper meaning as well.   And the opening verse of chapter 9 – “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who lived in a land of deep darkness, light has shined” – is true whenever anyone turns to God in faith.

The Bible in a Year – 22 April

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22 April. 2 Kings chapters 5-8

These chapters cover mainly further stories about the signs and miracles of the prophet Elisha during the wars between Israel and Aram (Syria). We read how he healed the Aramean commander Naaman, prevented attacks by the Arameans but saved the lives of some of their men, thus achieving a lengthy truce, and saves the people of the Israelite capital Samaria from total starvation by causing the Arameans to think they were being attacked. Eventually he visits the Aramean king Ben-Hadad, and prophesies to Hazael that he will become king, knowing that he will do so by murdering his master.

 

Clearly Elisha had considerable powers of telepathy or clairvoyance, as many of these miracles rely on him reading people’s minds, knowing what was happening elsewhere or would shortly come to pass. There have always been people with such gifts, still inexplicable to science, and which are therefore generally understood as “spiritual”. The exercise of these powers other than in the name of God is frequently condemned as sinful in the Bible, and is still regarded with suspicion by many people of faith today, as ‘occult’ powers that some people think come from the Devil.  But when used in God’s name, such people are called prophets, and Elisha is one of them, who seems to have been the head of a “company of prophets” although their gifts may not have been so spectacular.

 

The other thing that strikes me about these chapters is the role played by servants and other ‘unimportant’ people in the stories. It is an unnamed slave girl who tells Naaman’s wife that there is a prophet in her own country who could heal him; Elisha’s servant Gehazi who goes out to tell Naaman Elisha’s words (which angers Naaman) and Naaman’s own servant who persuades him to act on them.  When Samaria is besieged, it is four men with skin diseases, ritually unclean and forced to live outside the city wall, who take the initiative and discover the enemy camp empty, thus saving the whole city from starvation.  Sometimes it is those with the least official authority who, acting in faith and with courage, make the most difference.

The Bible in a Year – 19 April

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19 April. 1 Kings chapters 18-20

I have been looking forward to these chapters, for they contain some of my favourite Old Testament stories: the defeat of the prophets of Baal, and Elijah’s subsequent encounter with God in the cave, from which we get the line of a well-known hymn: “speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still small voice of calm!”  I have read this many times, and preached on it at least once.

 

But as is so often the case with the Bible, however often you have read a passage, something new strikes you each time.  This time it is chapter 18, verses 33-35. On the top of Mount Carmel, when Elijah builds his altar, he orders twelve jars of water to be poured into the earthen trench around it.  Now, this was the third year of a drought, so severe that the King went out into the countryside personally to look for any remaining bits of grass to feed his animals (18:5).  How, on top of a mountain in a drought, did they find twelve jars full of water? And even if they did, would it not have seemed a terrible waste of a precious resource?

 

It reminds me of one of the stories we have heard read in Holy Week as we do each year, of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany, when a vast amount of costly perfume is poured out.  Judas objects to the waste of money, but Jesus says that the woman (sometimes assumed to be Mary Magdalene) has done the right thing. Likewise, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only, irreplaceable son when God asked him to do so (bt at the end of the day God provided a ram instead).

 

What these three stories have in common is that sometimes God calls us to lay down in faith what is most valuable to us, even to the point of folly (the water of life in a drought; a lifetime’s savings in liquid form; the only son).  And God will reward that act of faith by providing what is needed:   the ram instead of Isaac, everlasting life instead of worldly goods, and for Elijah an all the people of Israel, abundant rain that started falling within hours of the sacrifice.  The divine fire that fell to consume the sacrificial bull was only a sideshow: the true miracle was Elijah’s obedience and God’s provision of water for his people.

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 26 March

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26 March. 1 Samuel chapters 1-3

Hannah is one of the several women in the Bible who are described as barren but are granted a special child by God’s grace.  She has been compared to Mary the mother of Jesus, for a similar song of praise is attributed to them both. Also, both of them were told that their special son had to be dedicated to God. Whereas Mary at least had Jesus with her until he was 30 (although she had been warned she would face the agony of his suffering) Hannah has to give up her child as soon as Samuel is weaned – maybe 1 or 2 years old. Although she had further children, she did not know that at the time she left him in the care of the elderly high priest.  When God calls people to a special task, he often tests their faith.

 

Samuel himself faced a test of faith at the start of his ministry as a prophet.    Although still only a boy – and no doubt having to show deference to the priest whom he served – the first prophecy he is given is a very unpleasant one for Eli, namely that because of the sins of his own sons, the right to be priests is being taken away from his family.  But Samuel passes the test of a prophet of “speaking truth to power” and passes on the prophecy rather than hiding or sweetening its message, as many people would be tempted to do.

 

Whether each of us is called to be a prophet, or a parent making sacrifices for their children, God honours those who put his truth and others before their own needs.