February 17

Still in Nineveh. But I am assuming that Jonah got his fanny up and went home and wrote the book so I must as well.

OT- Today’s reading brings up the whole “I didn’t know it was wrong” defense. I have been going to an Interfaith group every Thursday night for the past 6 weeks. It has been FABULOUS. One of the best things they did was assign us all tables and that is where we have sat for the last 6 weeks. When you study the Bible together, no matter what, if any, is your faith, you really get to know folks. One of the Jewish guys at my table is named Sandy and he, by his own definition, is an ambulance-chasing lawyer. We had a great conversation several weeks ago about the differences between the Jewish idea of sin and the Christian. (Biblically speaking.)
Sandy said that sin was sin was sin. Whether or not you knew something was wrong or unclean, if you did it or touched it, you were guilty. Once guilty, you had to atone (make recompense) for your sin. Thus the massive animal slaughter.
I thought that was really harsh. I felt like it was much more an intention issue. If you didn’t intend to do something or you didn’t know it, it wasn’t a sin. There might be consequences but sin was really doing something deliberate, something hurtful. Which is why I have a hard time with passages like this one in Exodus. I mean, if you don’t know that it is unclean but you touch it, is that really a sin and worthy of having to drop everything and go kill a goat?
Sandy said yes. It doesn’t matter. Even if you didn’t mean to kill someone, if they died because of what you did, they were still dead. But I thought that was overstating the point and when I said that, Sandy reminded me that the atonement, the recompense, was not going to the dead person or the dead person’s family (although that does come later – the consequence), no, the atonement is going to GOD.
And remember the definition of sin – anything that cuts you off from God. Therefore, in order to right your relationship with God, you must atone. In the ancient Biblical world, that was animal sacrifice. In 21st Protestant, it is already handled. The atonement part. Not the consequence nor the behavioral change. Just the intercession between us and God when we mess up whether it was intentional or not.

Psalm – I found today’s Psalm really beautiful and calming. I think it was the word ‘oracle’ in vs 1 which grabbed my attention and the rest of the piece never let it go.
If you remember your Greek mythology, you remember the Oracle at Delphi was where you went not just for prophesy but really for wisdom and clarity of decision. In the case of our psalm, it is really that the writer has thought about the differences between the wicked and the righteous. His ‘oracle’ is that he is able to discern the difference.
When I went to Biblegateway.com to look at the different translations, I was astounded. My ‘oracle’ is not present in anything except NIV.
Here is a few of vs. 1:
I know the sinful utterance
of the wicked:[a]
No fear of God
confronts their own eyes,

Sin speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts;
they reject God and do not have reverence for him

The God-rebel tunes in to sedition— all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.

That made me wonder if oracle was placed there, just for me. No other translation strikes me today like this one did.


Friends, if you are in Nineveh, come home and find refuge in the shadow of God’s wings. If you are feasting in Israel, welcome the pilgrims in. May God bless you wherever you are.