Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

I have to laugh sometimes when reading stories in the bible. Genesis 34 is one of those stories.

I grew up poor. So poor that we were actually po, because we could not afford the extra “r” and “o”. We used to go get the free immunizations offered by the state, where everyone would show up on a certain day and stand in line to get their children shots. I remember the terror that was present as you watched the kid in front of you get the shot and scream his head off. You knew you were next and it was a fearful experience. Then I read how Hamor and his father talked the men of the city into being circumcised. They all lined up for this, and I can only imagine the thought of the guy who watched the man in front go through that “procedure”. That would be a line I might not go in as a grown adult man.

No wonder why two men were able to take out an entire city, the other guys weren’t in the fighting mood. It was probably welcomed relief.

In two of my undergrad classes and in one course at Truett I have had professors assign the task of pretending that something historically noteworthy did not happen or that someone did not exist as it is traditionally understood.  For example, I was asked to imagine in research format what the future of the church would have been if Benedict had not been born.  This often requires more intense investigation and reflection than direct study.  This was an interesting experiment for me as a class discussion direction when I taught Baptist history for Howard Payne as my internship experience.

As I reread Genesis, some of the most familiar and some of my favorite passages, I am using this technique to look at the narratives in a different light.    What if Cain had simply turned away from God and the family instead of killing his brother?  What if Abram had not acknowledged God’s sovereignty and had refused to “sacrifice” his son?   What if Isaac had resisted fought his father and turned away from God in anger?

This can be enlightening and frustrating but it allows me to consider God’s timing, creativity and force me to look at more difficult issues such as election and the preordained sovereign presence of a God I do not completely understand.

While I understand the principle which led those Jews who had married outside of their faith to divorce their wives and leave their children, I cannot help but wonder if that was truly what God wanted them to do. I realize that it is dangerous to try and look back on actions taken in Biblical times from a modern perspective, but in reading it several times, I simply can’t find where God told them to do this. It just seems like an idea that they came up with as a way of making ammends to God for their sinful decisions, but not necessarily something that God endorsed. I could be offbase with these thoughts, but it just doesn’t seem like the right or Godly thing to do in that circumstance was to send away their wives and children. Perhaps they made some plan for their well being and decided not to include it in the Scriptures, but as it is, it just seems wrong.

Scriptures 1 reads the articles on marriage in Bible dictionaries as part of their information literacy project. As part of the class a small group will lead us through a marriage simulation. Scriptures 1 develops an understanding of marriage in the pre-exilic period. Scriptures 2 examines in some detail marriage and inter-marriage. The language of endogamy and exogamy seem to become even more politicized in the Persian period.

What I would like to see is folk from Scriptures 1 who have recently read the articles on marriage share their insights with the Scriptures 2 group. Likewise how would the persons in Scriptures 2 provide suggestions for the group leading the marriage simulation?

If I had my preference in ministry, I would prefer to live in peace with all humanity. Yet as Nehemiah 2:10 painfully points out, when one is focused on doing the will of God there will always exist opposition. During these times of conflict, we may find ourselves taking personal inventory of what we said or did wrong. Yet there will be times when it is not the wrong you have done, but rather the right you have done that brings about your adversary. So perhaps here is a nugget to take with all of us who serve in ministry. If you are serving God in ministry and there are no haters to oppose you, are you really serving God? Perhaps we should make a personal declaration to set an appropriate expectation in the beginning. “Calling all haters, I’ve come to do what thus says the Lord.” In doing so, may we maintain the resolve of Nehemiah and finish our own God given assignment of rebuilding the wall.

Ezra comes back to the city of Jerusalem as an expert in the Law of Moses.  This little tidbit of information seems to be a foregone conclusion for a scribe, BUT it is makes the following event come to light even more.  Ezra recognized that the people in Jerusalem had broken faith with God, AGAIN, over the issue of intermarriage.  These marriages were the initial reason for the people walking away from God.  As the law of Moses states, if the people married outside the Israelite faith they would be inticed to follow other gods.  Ezra sees this happening, and begins to point out the sin of the people, because he know where it will lead. 

We as humans are so prone to our sin, that even knowing the consequences of it, perhaps even living through the consequences, we continually go back to our sin.

He was credited with leading the first group of Israel exiles back to Jerusalem. Who was Zerubbabel.

How did Nehemiah hear about the condition of the wall of Jerusalem and its gates?

From Hanani and some men of Judah (1:1-3)

If it please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may ___________it.

Build (2:4-5)

How long did it take to complete the walls?

52 days (6:15-16)

Read Genesis 1-11 and Social World pg. 1-66