September 30

The last day of September. October in Atlanta is the most beautiful month of the year. Well, some would say April but I am a fall girl, through and through. For me this year, entering into October means the final quarter in this Bible study. I am not sure about you, but I have a bad tendency to loaf to the finish line and I really don't want to do that with this study. So I am rededicating myself to this work, to finish as strong as I can. If you have been slacking with the reading, I urge you to jump right back in where you are. We are in a fascinating section of the OT with the prophets, most of whom we read very little of, if ever. And yes, we are trudging through Paul but it is doable. Definitely doable.
So join me. Rededicate yourself to the study and let's jump into the Word.

OT -- Isaiah 60:1-62:5
The opening words of this section "Rise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you." made me think of that children's song "Rise, Shine and Give God the Glory." Off to google the song and I realize that song goes with Noah, not Isaiah. But in case you want to have that song in your head all day like me, watch this video.



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But the rest of this chapter is pure, unadulterated Jesus talk. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." There is even parts about camel riders bringing gold, silver and incense. Matthew and Luke clearly knew their Isaiah.
And that led me to ponder why. Why is Isaiah the touchstone in 1st century AD? Part of it had to do with the Roman occupation of Israel. Our history teaches us that the Romans did great things -- built amazing aqueducts and roads, conquered huge swaths of land in Europe, Asia Minor and Africa. But we don't spend a lot of time on the 'conquered' part. As in, the crushing taxation that was required for the emperor to keep up the Praetorian Guard who kept him in power. We gloss over the whole 'one law for the Romans, another for everyone else'. The brutality of the occupying soldiers. And we also have to remember that Israel is not a coveted spot in the empire. It really has nothing to offer. Except rebellion and they are champions of that.
But another part of the obsession with Isaiah has to do with 1st century AD preoccupation with the end times. And Isaiah promises that there will be an end time and The Lord will be in control and in glory. It is almost apocalyptic in that tone and we know how 1st century folks love their apocalypse. Does that make us with our zombie craze in the same situation? Worth pondering. We certainly have our share of doomsayers and prophets of collapse. When you read Isaiah, you hear plenty of that. And the collapse is dreadful.
But the renaissance that occurs when The Lord returns is astounding. There is light, glory, honor and ... a double portion. Of what? All the inheritance. And here, Isaiah is talking about the inheritance of Abraham -- the Holy Land -- and all the riches from the surrounding areas.

NT -- Philippians 1:27-2:18
My commentary on the Philippians says that chapter 2 vs. 6-11 is an ancient hymn or affirmation of faith that the church probably would have known. If Philippians is the first of Paul's epistles that we have as many think, then this is the earliest theology we have of Jesus as the Christ. This is worth taking a very close look at.
'being in the very nature God' -- Jesus is God.
'being made in human likeness' -- Jesus took human form
'became obedient to death' -- Jesus died
'God exalted him' -- God raised him from the dead to the highest point in creation
Paul is totally unconcerned with how you can be God but also human. Apparently, that struggle came later in church, although we see some of it in his letter to the Galatians. At this point, it was enough that Jesus was God, took human form, died, was raised and raised to the top. And maybe, when we are doing all that worrying and struggling that we do -- like the stuff this week with the fragment that may or may not help the Jesus was married brigade -- we should just go back to the recitation of "Jesus is God, Jesus took human form, Jesus died, God raised Jesus from the dead to the highest point in creation" and leave it at that.