March 29

OT – Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32
One of the great Sages of Judaism is Maimonides.
This is from Wikipedia:
“Although his writings on Jewish law and ethics were met with acclaim and gratitude from most Jews even as far off as Spain, Iraq and Yemen, and he rose to be the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, there were also vociferous critics of some of his rulings and other writings particularly in Spain. Nevertheless, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, his copious work a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law. In the Yeshiva world he is known as "haNesher haGadol" (the great eagle) in recognition of his outstanding status as a bona fide exponent of the Oral Torah.”

My Stone Chumash refers to him as Ramban which is a conflagration of his true name: Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon. He frequently disagrees with Rashi, the other preeminent Medieval rabbi whose work is primarily collected in my Stone Chumash.
However, today’s scripture is all Ramban. He refers at length to his 13 principles of Judaism which I have never read (until today). Here is a link to a translated page. I found several points to be very illuminating.
But to our scripture today, Ramban explains that there is a basic difference between the goodness of an individual and that of a collective people. He says that service to God from the whole will result in God’s providence and miraculous intervention in human affairs. These interventions can only take place in the merit of multitudes of peoples but not for individuals of ordinary righteousness. There are exceptions, of course for people of ‘overarching’ greatness like Abraham , Moses or Joshua.
Forgive me for straying from the topic, but this may explain why righteous people have troubles as well. It also is a basic difference between Judaism and Christianity. We would do well to remember Ramban’s words as we walk through the pages of Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. It is hard for me, as a Christian to understand why the ‘badness’ of the king results in the oppression of the ordinary people. I suspect, like people following movie star trends today, that the kings and close-knit nobles set the tone for Israel and that if the king were Godly, then more people would emulate that. And if they were NOT, a lot of folks would emulate that.

Also, a comment about vs. 11:26-32. My NIV translates that the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord. My Stone translates it The blessing: that you hearken to the commandments of Hashem, your God. (Hashem is the transliteration that Rashi uses to denote God. Being a devout Jew, he would not use the name of the Lord or any letters YWH to denote God).
Hearken is an old word meaning to hear. But not just to passively hear, but to absorb into your very being. The ‘blessing’ is to hear what is truly essential and to pick out the Word of the Lord from the ‘welter of competing messages’ which the Children of Israel, just like us!, are inundated. For me, the word obey has something of a ‘blindness’ to it. My mother said it, I obeyed. (Only, I usually didn’t…) Hearken has the tone that you ‘choose’ because you understand the word, you believe them, and because you have a stake in making the right decisions, because you LISTENED. I am sure that I am picking on these two words because clearly, this is an area that I need to work in.

NT – Luke 8:22-39
Like so much in the Bible, there is a HUGE back story in this passage. When Jesus says “let’s go over to the other side of the lake,” that is code for let’s go to the Gentiles. We don’t understand that, but Luke’s audience would have known that in a flash since the people kept pigs. No, they would not have welcomed the Jewish rabble rousing rabbi even if he hadn’t destroyed their herd of swine. The clear enmity between Jews and Gentiles was immense. Jesus wants to go to the Gentiles? A clear slap to the Jews who don’t believe in him.
When Jesus is met by a naked man, a naked man, who knows immediately who he is, as opposed to the disciples who freak out when he CALMS the wind (that is such a big deal compared to raising dead people and fixing lepers and cripples????????), there is another slap. The naked man (and Jewish people do not like nakedness ) falls at Jesus’ feet. Identifying him. Then, when healed, Legion wants to leave and follow Jesus. Right away. When Jesus says no, his response is immediately to go praising Jesus. A healed, formerly naked Gentile. Fervently evangelizing. Big disciples slap. Luke telling this story is a show as to who the true believers are.

Proverbs 12:4
This one hurts.