Anna

Women don't often get to make an appearance in the Bible. I can think of a few who are pretty famous- Ruth, Esther, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and a few others, but not many. So when I come across a woman I haven't heard of, my ear (eyes?) perk up. Today, I came across Anna. She's only given about three verses in Luke, but it's enough to get a small glimpse into who she is. She's a 84 year-old prophet (I didn't know women could be prophets). Sadly, her husband died after only seven years of marriage, so she decided to live as a widow and never leave the temple. Her devotion to God is poignantly clear in these few verses. She;s spent almost her entire life, day and night, fasting and praying. While Simeon is talking with Mary and Joseph about their son, Jesus, Mary comes up and starts praising God and talking about Jesus to all the people who had been waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. That's all it says about her. She doesn't do anything fantastic, and her presence doesn't really even move the story along, but she got to make an appearance in the Gospels! I don't know that I have anything profound to say about her, I just wanted to write a little something because she stood out to me while I was reading. I ilke to see women in the Bible.

So God Doesn't Change His Mind?

In Numbers, King Balak of Moab begs Balaam, a man known for his curses on people, to come curse the Israelites because he is afraid of them entering his land. Balaam, being faithful to the Lord, tells Balak that he can only say what the Lord allows him to say. So when Balaam blesses Israel instead of cursing them, Balak is outraged; he tells Balaam to take the blessing back. This is Balaam's response: 

   "He is not human, so he does not change his mind. 

Has he ever promised and not carried it through?" 23:19

While the Bible may have had a different story if God had cursed Israel here, but I don't know if what Balaam is saying is true. How many times did God promise to wipe out the Israelites because of either their idol worship or their constant complaining but Moses (sometimes with the help of Aaron) change God's mind? Over and over throughout Exodus and Numbers. If Moses wrote these books, how can there be such a discrepancy in God's character? Call me anal, but I like consistency. Inconsistencies make me question the whole thing, which is it- this or that? I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet, but come on, help me out here, Moses.

Here's what I wrote a few weeks ago on the same thing: Does God Change His Mind?

Rest

"Oh, that I had wings like a dove;

    then I would fly away and rest!

I would fly far away

    to the quiet of the wilderness."     Psalm 55:6-7

I'm not surrounded by enemies or caught up in a "while storm of hatred" or even close. I'm not really even overly exhausted, but I do look forward to summer, my chance to "fly away and rest" in the "quiet of the wilderness."

Signs of a Believer

My students used to always tell me crazy things, and when I believed them, they'd say, "Man, such a believer!" That's not the same kind of believe we're talking about here, though...

"These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed." Mark 16:17-18

Well, geez, if these are the signs, maybe I don't believe, maybe I've never believed. According to Mark, these are Jesus' words. Jesus says if we believe we'll be drinking poison unharmed, handling snakes, casting out demons, and healing the sick. When I've heard about big gatherings where this is done, it generally makes me pretty uncomfortable. I've tended to think those sorts of gathers were for strange fanatics. I don't know if my mind has changed about that, but if Jesus really said these are the signs of a believer, well, maybe I need a bit of a paradigm shift. 

Sharing Burdens

Numbers 11:17 God tells Moses that he will take the Spirit that is on him and spread it out to other elders so the burden of leading Israel to the promised land (which takes 40 long years of wandering) can be shared. Interesting notion. Later in verse 25, when the Spirit rests upon the other seventy elders, they prophesy, something, it is written, that will never happen again. Strange thing is, it doesn't say what they prophesied. Why does it matter that they prophesied if we don't know what they said? What am I missing? 

Excuse the analogy here, but I've no choice but to make it. I'm reminded of Harry Potter. Harry bears a great burden, to rid the world of Voldermort, the dark and powerful antagonist of the series. Throughout the pages of seven books he carries this burden. It is prophesied that he is the only one who can and will get rid of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Name. The connection I see here is the weight of the burden, granted I realize the disparity of the two.  Harry understands he must accomplish this task even if it costs him his life, and seems willing to do it. When Hermoine and Ron (and countless others) offer Harry their help and their advice, he refuses it on several occasions, feeling that this burden is his alone. Unlike Harry, Moses begs God to relieve him of his task, he'd rather die than continue to carry the weight of whining Israel. This is when God tells Moses to gather the elders and shares the Spirit of the burden with the group. We're not meant to struggle through things alone. That's why we have people around us. That, in my opinion, is what community is all about, sharing and caring for one another's burdens. God later calls Moses the most humble man on Earth. In contrast, Harry, in an attempt to "go it alone," fails and is only successful when his friends surround and support him.

Offerings

So many offerings were brought to the Tabernacle! Burnt offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings. Silver platters, gold bowls, incense, choice flour, olive oil, rams, goats, lambs. What did they do with all of these things? Did someone get to eat them?

Reading this reminds me of the tribute that the cities conquered by the Aztec empire had to pay. Each city was responsible for bringing cloth, firewood, food, feathers, and beads. I also suppose it's not unlike the tax we pay now. Since they didn't have a monetary system (right?) back then, this was perhaps they're version of that.

I realize that what the conquered cities paid in tribute and what we pay in taxes is given to governments and leaders, but I'd say the same is true of Israel's offerings: since they were a theocracy, they presented their offering to their leader- God.

The Greatest Commandment

When one of the teacher of religious law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, he replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-31). This is the God I worship. Again, so starkly different from what I read in the Old Testament. Jesus tells us to love God and love our neighbor; that is what is most important. He doesn't qualify who our neighbor is. I assume he's exactly that, our neighbor, the person on the street whom we may not know, or maybe only know by acquaintance. I'd say it's selfless, but it's more than that, because we're to love them as ourselves, so it's not exactly selfless. It puts us all on the same level, all deserving of the same treatment, care, and love. That's how I want to love people.

As for the first half of those verses- the part about loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength- that's a big charge. What does that look like? Mother Theresa? The pios hermit hidden in the mountains? To love God with all our heart... my heart so often feels divided between many different loves, how can those loves be reconciled with a heart completely devoted to God? To love God with all my soul... how is this different from the heart? To love God with all my mind... how, when I don't even understand who God is? To love God with all my strength... in order to love God with all those other things, I think it'll take all my strength. Maybe this is just a rhetorical device used by Jesus- the message is clear: we are to love God with everything in our being.

God of the Living

I'm not sure if anyone is reading these posts, and that's okay. It's helpful to write things out, and it forces me to read and be thoughtful. I do hope, though, that if you're reading and you've got thoughts, PLEASE share them!

I came across a pretty familiar passage in Mark today that made me think. The story is the one where the Sadducees are asking Jesus about the woman whose husband dies before they have children, so his brother marries her, then he dies and the next brother marries her and so on until she's married all seven brothers. They ask him whose wife will she be in the resurrection.

At the end of his answer (which is the part that made me think), Jesus says "Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, 'I am the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' So he is the God of the living, not the dead." (Mark 12:26-27)

So my question is- what does this mean? Those three guys rose from the dead already? Like we die and are resurrected soon after? Are they up in heaven, hanging out with the Most Holy? That what this seems to be saying, they are no longer dead because God is only the God of the Living.

Interesting to say the least...

Send out your light and your truth;
let them guide me.

Psalm 43:3

Annoyed in Psalms

In one breath David appeals to God, "Have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you" (Psalm 41:4) Then in the next breath he claims to be innocent (v. 12).  Perhaps David is not really sure about what he's praying. I've definitely heard people pray like that before, they go on and on, using lots of words but making little sense.  David does, however, say something that makes a lot of sense, "Lord, have mercy on me. Make me well again, so I can pay them back!" (v. 10). This is in response to his enemies who gossip and whisper about him. It makes sense because I can understand wanting revenge. But there's something gross about it. Have mercy on me so I can get revenge. Really? Is that a plea God would/should listen to?

I'm enjoying the Psalms a lot less than I thought I would. Almost all of them sound the same- have mercy on me, save me from my enemies, crush my enemies, raise me up, preserve my life, blah…blah…blah. I've begun to almost just skim them because I'm completely unimpressed with the psalmist's, usually David's, obsessive self-centeredness and feeling of self-importance.

That's not to say there are some spectacular Psalms, they're just few are far between.

Strange Healing

Jesus walks on water and calms the it with the wave of his hand, he heals people who simply touch his cloak, and with mere words he tells the lame to walk, the demons to leave, and dead to rise. So if he can perform miracles with such little effort, why does he have to stick a couple fingers in the ears of a deaf man with a speech impediment and another couple of spit-covered fingers on his tongue to heal him? It seems so convoluted compared to the rest of his miracles.  (Mark 7:32-35)

I suppose he may have just wanted to do something different that day. Or maybe this man didn't have the same faith as the others Jesus had performed miracles on. I don't know, but it was an interesting contrast.

Ouch

Imagine if Jesus compared you to a dog. I think I'd be pretty offended. I certainly wouldn't care to hear anything he had to say after that. When the Gentile woman in Tyre asked him to cast out the demon in his daughter, that's exactly what he said to her. "'First I should feed the children- my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs'" (Mark 7:27) Ouch!

The woman doesn't react as I would have. Instead she replies, "That's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children's plates."

It seems so harsh, to compare her to the dogs. Right? I forget who Mark was written for, who the original audience was. I wonder if that would have something to do with this degrading comment made to the woman. Or maybe I'm just taking this too personally…

The Scapegoat

I've heard this word before and maybe I knew it came from the Bible but I didn't know where until this morning. It's actually a very strange command that Moses and Aaron are given. They must first find two male goats. Then sacred lots are cast to determine which will be the sin offering and which will be the scapegoat. Once that is determined, the sin offering is slaughtered and its blood is used to purify the Tabernacle. The second goat, the scapegoat, is then brought into the Tabernacle, Aaron lays his hands on the goat's head, and he confesses all of Israel's wickedness, rebellion and sin. Then the goat is brought out into the wilderness and let go.

I'm not sure why this story stands out to me; perhaps it's because the last 20 chapters or so that I've read have been about sacrificing animals and people being unclean. There's something more profound in this story. The goat, walking around with all of Israel's sin, is left to wander alive in the wilderness. I wonder why this is. What's the significance of this goat? Why does one have to be slaughtered first?

Jesus- A Little More Like It

Mark 2:22 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the win and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins."  --in response to the Pharisee's question why the disciples don't fast like John's disciples and the Pharisees

Mark 3:5 "He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts."

Switching back and forth between the Old and the New Testament has highlighted things I might have missed otherwise. I've been spending the last week or so immersed in the rules and laws of Leviticus. It's exhausting (not to mention nauseating) reading all the laws regarding sin and sacrifice.  The law was incredibly rigid. So when we jump forward 8,000 (or so?) years to the time that Jesus walked and taught, how surprising is it that the teachers of the law have hardened hearts, they've been teaching and following these rigid laws for thousands of generations. 

I wrote a couple posts ago about the God of the Old Testament not being the God I thought I knew. The Jesus we see here in Mark, though, comes closed to who I thought God was. (I'd like to say, of course, that I don't claim to know exactly who God is, but what I've come to believe about God is what I am referring to.) He's taken the old law and thrown it out? He's come to replace it, right? He's the new wine. And though the hardened hearts of the Pharisees make him angry, it also saddens him. There's compassion in the sadness. This is the God I believe in.

Could they possibly be the same? How can there be such a rigid dichotomy between the two if they are one and the same?

The Lord merely spoke,
   and the heavens were created.
He breathed the word,
   and all the stars were born.
He assigned the sea its boundaries
   and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.

                                Psalm 33:6-7

Not the God I Know

The more I read in the Old Testament, the more sick I get.  I just don't understand how this is the God that I've come to know. He hardens Pharoh's heart when Moses tells him to let his people go. How is he held accountable for actions that it seems God forced upon him?  "But I will make Pharoh's heart stubborn so I can multiply miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt" Ex 7:3. Mother's first born boys were slaughtered for this. It wasn't Pharoh's fault, it was God's and all for "showing off" his power to Israel. I have a hard time understanding that.  That was a couple weeks ago's reading.

Then last week I was reading in Ex 23 about God's directions to Moses. He says they're to invade the land of the Amorite, Hittites, Perizzites, Cannanites, Hivites, and Jebusites to live there. God tells Moses to "utterly destroy them." Again, this sickens me. God created all people, right? So why would he favor only one nation of people (who, by the way, rebel against him over and over) and allow them to destroy all the other nations of people. Are not all people God's creation? I don't understand. Is the Old Testament really inspired of God? Or is it written by power hungry, land hungry, pride seeking men? 

Face to Face with Moses and Elijah

Imagine being the disciples.  If we're to believe the stories in the gospels are true, this one really gets me!  Matthew Chapter 17.  Jesus takes them up on a mountain.  Keeping in mind these guys were just regular guys going about their daily life when they met Jesus.  So now they're on the top of this mountain and Moses and Elijah show up!  Then God speaks from a cloud (with, I imagine, a thundering voice)!  That's crazy business!  I'd be on my face, too.  

Biblical times were so much more radical that what we have going on today.  Things like that never happen in our day.  Why is that? 

Does God change his mind?

It seems to me that he does, in several ways.

In Exodus 32, when Moses is up on the mountain with God, the people of Israel are down below, making and worshiping idols of gold and indulging in "pagan revelry." God, jealous and filled with fierce anger, tells Moses to leave him alone so that he can destroy the people. Moses, however, "pacifies the Lord" and essentially persuades God to change his mind.

I don't find an issue with God changing his mind (not that I should ever have issue really with what God decides to do); in fact, I think it highlights our ability to intercede for one another, which is a great gift. However, what I read in Psalms today contradicts this notion of a God who changes his mind.  Psalm 33:11 "But the Lord's plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken." Thanks, David (I think), but I believe Moses might disagree with you on that one. So what is it?

I know I can't have all the answers, and I'm okay with mystery, but sometimes it's nice to nail down some concrete beliefs. I don't know that this one piece is absolutely essential, but currently in my personal search, I just feel like everything I'm grabbing for has this fleeting existence, and I can't take hold of anything. I go from this small question to the bigger question, if God changes his mind, can we also lose salvation? What does that look like? What does salvation really mean? And on and on... so this is my attempt to begin searching for these answers and re-evaluate the foundation of my beliefs.

The Idea

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. We'll read through the Bible in a year
2. Post thoughts and questions as authors of the blog
3. Respond to each others' thoughts and questions in the comments section
4. The project can grow as others become interested- just email me and I can add you to the authors list-- deannajamison4@gmail.com
5. I'm certainly open to other suggestions if you have them