Book of Matthew Quiz

Click here to take the Book of Matthew Quiz. While I did not author the quiz, I found it to be comprehensive. See how well you score!

February 14

OT – The reference to ‘lampstands’ rang a bell from last year’s PW study on Revelation. I got my book and sure enough, look at Rev 1:12, golden lampstands – 7 of them! They represent the 7 churches that John is writing to – some good news, some chiding. How cool is that!! But there are 7 lamps on the Tabernacle lampstand. I have this incredible feeling that by the time we get to Revelation in December, so much of that book will be – well, okay, of course he is speaking about -- whatever. And I want you to know that I MADE myself read this section.
I also should admit that I was not able to picture the lampstand. It was only after I went searching for an image for this post that I realized the lampstand was a Menorah. Yes, sometimes I am obtuse. The reason Jews light the Menorah at Hanukkah is because that was what was lit in the Temple that lasted 7 days instead of one with the remaining oil!! And why was it in the Temple? Well, because God told Moses to put one there!
Friends, do not give up. Don’t glaze your eyes over. Read half a chapter and ask yourself some questions to make sure you are really absorbing it. You never know where this stuff may pop up again or in what context. Could win you some money on Jeopardy!

NT -- This is our last day in Matthew. Tomorrow, I will have a short quiz for you to take to see how much you have retained. I had forgotten how abruptly this gospel ended. I always like stories that show you the ‘after’ of the crisis. This does not give us that. We will have to wait for Luke and John for those stories. But I did want to reflect for a moment on what is called The Great Commission (vs. 19-20).
One of the purposes of doing this blog was to do that for me. I had envisioned that unschooled in the Bible, maybe even not Christians, might stumble into this and decide to read the Word alongside of me and the others. I don’t do evangelism very well. But I do like to study and I thought this might be a way to combine.
Every day, this blog gets 3 hits from Russia and 1 from Germany. I don’t know anyone in Russia or Germany, currently. I also am not sure of who the 30-40 hits I get from the USA are. Maybe you could comment and introduce yourself? Or feel free to lurk. I hope that what I am writing is encouraging you in your faith journey. I know that this study is pushing me along in mine. And I am thrilled that Jesus is with me, to the very end of the age!

Psalm 34 is a sensory poem. Yesterday, the author was praising with his lips, seeking and finding the Lord, tasting and finding the Lord was good. Today, he is with the children, listening, speaking, and having the eyes and the ears of the Lord upon him. The mood of this psalm is definitely upbeat. It is filled with gratitude and delight of the saved.
While I have heard bits of this psalm, (for sure, the taste and see that the Lord is good), I don’t think I have ever read the whole thing. I find it slightly disjointed as if several were put together that had roughly the same slant. It makes me wish I could read Hebrew and see if it was just the way it was translated.
I went to Biblegateway.com and looked it up. This is the heading of the Psalm!! It is not in my Bible in a Year book!!
Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.
All I have to say is OK.

This is from St Augustine:
Watch, O Lord, with those who wake,
or watch, or weep tonight,
and give Your Angels and Saints charge over those who
sleep.
Tend Your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest Your weary ones,
Bless Your dying ones,
Soothe Your suffering ones,
pity Your afflicted ones,
Shield Your joyous ones,
And all for Your love's sake.

Amen.

February 13

Proverbs – When I was in high school, I spent several weeks in England, much of it in London. While I loved the British Museum and all its incredible mummies, statues and art, my absolute favorite place was Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. We went almost every afternoon that we were in London. It was 1980 and Jimmy Carter had just sent in the ill-fated helicopter mission to rescue the hostages in the Iranian Embassy. It fascinated us that ANYONE could bring their produce box, step up on it, and start yakking their heads off without waiting for someone else to finish, have a script, heck, even bathe before showing up. At one point, one of the speakers was thoroughly trashing the US. I couldn’t retype the names he was calling us. Blogger would ditch me. I stepped up and started yelling back.
Of course, I made no impact. He easily shot me down and kept going.
But when I read today’s proverbs, that man is who I thought of.
We try so hard to turn the thoughts and words of fools. The proverb says this is wasted energy. Only someone who is wise (who probably doesn’t need us anyway!) will listen and continue in relationship. I also think this applies to advice. The only people who will listen to advice are those who don’t need it.

OT – Acacia wood is featured prominently in the construction of the Tabernacle. This plant is thought to be the ‘burning bush’ that Moses encountered when he fled Egypt. It is a desert plant but where there is water, it does grow into a tree-like form. It is usually very fragrant. Probably a good thing since the animal blood and animal sacrifice is not the most pleasant smell.
I was also struck by 36:4-7. When has a church ever said “enough offering”?

NT – Please be warned that this video is extremely graphic. It is a medical doctor explaining the physiological effects of Jesus’ treatment after the arrest and during the crucifixion. I have to admit, I could not watch it all in one fell swoop. But I find it compelling for the simple reason that I don’t like to think about the suffering that Jesus went through for me.


Friends, we are 3/26th of the way through the Bible. I know we are in a hard place with some of our readings. Please keep going and keep praying. There are messages for us here.
Peace to you and yours.

February 12

NT – the whole Pilate drama is one of the 7 stories that are common to all 4 Gospels. Wikipedia has an incredibly interesting article about Pilate, much of which I did not know. Click here if you would like to read it.
By far, the most interesting part of the arrest and trial scene to me is the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. Pilate is the Prefect of Judea. That means, in essence, that he is the Roman ruler of Judea. There is a “Jewish” king, Herod, but he is merely a puppet of the Romans. The real power was Pilate.
There are 3 extra-Biblical references to Pilate. One is Josephus, one is Philo, and the other is a stone with an inscription that references Pilate as Prefect of Jerusalem. Both Josephus and Philo have extremely unkind words to say about Pilate and his methods of maintaining order. And he was in Jerusalem that day because he needed to maintain order.
The Old City of Jerusalem is very small – less than .35 of a square mile. Put a couple of thousand extra people in the city to celebrate – having drunk all those glasses of Passover wine – and you get a mob.
Pilate’s job was to keep the people, not at ‘peace’ but not in rebellion.
This makes the exchange between Pilate and Jesus all the more compelling. Both Philo and Josephus mention other rebellions that Pilate brutally put down. Not Jesus. Pilate was willing to let him go. Even Pilate recognized someone startlingly different from your ordinary rabble-rouser.

Psalm – My son, Cole, and I went to see Red Tail this evening. I highly recommend the movie. It is about the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII. They embody this Psalm.

May your Sunday be filled with worship and rejoicing

February 11

The readings today were something they normally are not – jarring in their dissonance. I have been amazed at how the readings from the different sections track either by subject or by mood. Today was different. I went from depressed after Moses had the priests kill 3000 of their fellow Israelites for disobedience to the wrenching stories of Peter and Judas to the almost giddy Psalm. Even the Proverb felt lightweight compared with some we have read.
I wanted to explore that feeling of dissonance and unease that I have with how Moses treated the ‘stiff-necked’ Israelites. This isn’t the first time they have acted this way with him but his response seems really harsh. And he didn’t kill Aaron nor did he single people out and let them explain, he just sent the Levites through with drawn swords. My Stone Chumash gives an explanation for it but I am not buying it. Here is what Rashi and his fellow rabbis said.
1. Golden Calf was not an idol to replace Hashem (God). It was a stand-in for Moses who was late.
2. Aaron knew better but in order to protect his life (the other man Hur left with him having been killed), he agreed.
3. Aaron did his best to delay the proceedings. He asked for the gold from the women and children expecting them to put up a fight for what they had been given upon leaving Egypt. But because of the mob, everyone ponied up.
4. Aaron didn’t fashion the calf, Egyptian sorceresses did. This is based on Exodus 22:19. Apparently, there were about 3000 hanger-on-ers who left Egypt with the Israelites. They included a bunch of thieves and sorceresses. Aaron bound up the gold and tossed it into the fire, it came out a calf. Only magic could have done that so it must have been the work of the above.
5. Aaron tried again to delay. He asked them to wait until the following day and to have a festival, not to the calf but to Hashem (God).
6. These 3000 hanger-on-ers were the real rabble-rousers. The faithful Jews just didn’t stop them. That is why Aaron and the Levites could kill with abandon.
When I read commentaries like this, what I see is that people need to EXPLAIN why they are uncomfortable with God and Moses’ behavior. Why do we need to do that?
It also happens with Peter in the courtyard. Why was he even there? Why was he chatting up those folks so that they could recognize his accent? Why didn’t he pull a Tolkien Strider and lurk in the shadows? Keep his mouth shut and wear a cloak? But he needs to defend or explain or at least be some sort of participant.
When I was younger, it used to drive me crazy that I couldn’t make my religion fit neatly with my beliefs. Now, it just makes me crazy that I am still, 30 years after starting an intensive study of the Bible, learning new and ENORMOUS facts, figures, ideas, back stories and revelations.
May all our studies jar us a little so we are awake to God’s revelations.
.

February 10

OT – Per my Stone Chumash, “The Torah teaches that it is forbidden to count Jews in the ordinary manner, and that when it is necessary to conduct a census, it should be done by having the people contribute items, which would then be counted.” The Stone Edition of the The Chumash p.484.
Click here to read the scriptural notes.
Okay, I have heard the Christmas story ALL MY LIFE. I think at one point, I memorized the Christmas section in Luke for a Sunday School prize. Never, never, never have I heard that it was forbidden to take a ‘normal’ census. Think about what that statement in Luke 2:1-3 means knowing that a census is forbidden.
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.”
Think what this must have been like to have been an inheritor of the Moses tradition to be oppressed. To have to deny your religious teaching and conform.
To come from this incredible, elaborate, super Tabernacle with its coverings of gold, special smelling incense, oil that is only usable by the priests to being counted like a cow. We put tags in cows’ ears these days. Hitler branded the Jews with numbers in his day.
We cannot read the story of Moses without the background of oppression. Oppressed in Egypt. Freed for a little while, then a series of oppressions by the Philistines, Amorites, Hittites, and Jebusittes. If I have forgotten someone, sorry. A brief period of freedom under Saul, David and Solomon and then a series of really bad kings that gave away the glorious pieces and parts of The Temple. Oppression and deportation by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians and Persians. Another brief period of relative freedom then oppression by the Greeks and ultimately the Romans.
Is it any wonder that we have these elaborate, detailed descriptions of all the goodness and glories that Moses concocts for the worship of the Lord? Or that Moses, with all his impediments, arrogance, murder one history, and problems is the uber leader of the Israelites and every generation afterwards. Moses LED THE ISRAELITES TO FREEDOM.
Knowing that, peek back at Matthew 17 and tell me who Peter, James and John saw when they went up on the ‘high mountain’.
They saw Moses, the ultimate leader, and Elijah, the ultimate prophet.
I have reread today’s OT scripture with new eyes, thanks to Kim and her comment and thanks to Rashi and his illumination.


NT -



Psalm -- If you despair in your reading, post this on a notecard on your desk:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you. (32:8)
The instruction that the Psalm is referring to is our scriptures.
Read, question, research, take counsel, pray.
Blessings to you and yours.

February 9

OT -- The OT rabbi/scholar Rashi says that not one word in the Torah is there by mistake or should be considered irrelevant. If this is true, what must we make of the elaborate dressing rituals that described in our current spate of readings? Some observations, random though they may seem:
Why did Moses have to dress them? Why did they need Aaron and his sons at all? Moses is clearly sufficient to speak with the Lord and communicate his messages. Why Aaron and his sons? Where are Moses’ sons? By sprinkling the garments with blood every time a new person was invested, wouldn’t there be a lot of blood on the garments? That seems like an awful lot of rams to sacrifice – 2 each day no matter what. Where do these rams come from and why is this meat, from people who are waiting for the bread to drop from the sky and birds to flap down, allowed to be burnt up? Doesn’t this seem a bit elaborate and chic-chic poo-poo for a nomadic people? They have to haul this stuff around with them. And set it up and take it down. Seems like a ton of work?
What do you take away when you read this section of Exodus?

Proverbs -- I had to go back to yesterday’s readings to realize who was speaking. Wisdom is speaking and she has glorious words for those who follow her. Her yields surpass silver. Wisdom comes straight from the Lord and she was ‘appointed’ (present) before He did anything else. In high school English, this is called Personification. (Giving human traits – actions, characteristics, feelings – to inanimate objects, places or ideas.) I think this is a literary device but others have interpreted these types of statements as coming from a Being. If you are interested in knowing more, here is a Sophia (Greek for wisdom) website that gives greater detail.

If you are struggling with trying to keep up with the readings, you are not alone. I received an email today from one reader who wailed (in writing) that she was ‘slogging’ through the OT readings and felt like the Psalms weren’t speaking to her. Every night was an ordeal. I don’t have an answer for that – my feelings for the Psalms range all over the book. We ended up agreeing to pray for each other and for her reading. If you feel this way, please comment. She was so sure that no one else was trudging along. And as for me, I am just grateful that you are along for at least this part of the journey. Walk a little bit farther with me and open your hearts to our Lord.