Bible Diary - Hebrews 1:5-12
April 27, 2008
I have since learned to value the book of Hebrews highly, but at first the opening passage about the heavenly hierarchy put me off. I think the angels and the Trinity were the cause of my confusion.
The Son Is Superior to Angels
1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? And in another place he says, “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 1:6 But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” 1:7 And he says of the angels, “He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” 1:8 but of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.
1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.”
1:10 And,
“You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord,
and the heavens are the works of your hands.
1:11 They will perish, but you continue.
And they will all grow old like a garment,
1:12 and like a robe you will fold them up
and like a garment they will be changed,
but you are the same and your years will never run out.”
The pecking order according to the author of Hebrews was God the Father, then Jesus the Son, followed by the angels and then you and me. Or that is what I assumed. But God and Jesus are co-existent. The angels and humanity are created beings at a lower level. The case for angels being higher than man is clouded by the fact that man was created in the image of God, which seems to leave the angels out in the cold.
Then, the new Christians were worshipping the angels instead of God through the Son. Today, many Christians tend to to ignore the angels and worship themselves. We don’t think of it that way, but that is what we are doing when we worship science and its claim to be the source of all truth. Think about that.
This passage points out what should be obvious from the whole of Scripture. God reigns, with the Son and the Holy Spirit over all of their creation. As a member of the Reformed franchise of the Church, this is the starting point for my thinking about God and me. The angels are created beings. I am a created being. The angels were not created to carry the image of God. I was. At this point my understanding falters, but at least the essential facts seem clear.
Dave, whose mind is still a work in progress.
-sdg-
Bible Diary - Hebrews 1:1-4
April 20, 2008
The Apostle Paul may or may not have written the Epistle to the Hebrews, but tradition says he did. Have you ever wondered what Paul looked like? Here is how Rembrandt imagined him.
The letter was probably written to Jewish Christians living in a city of that time, and It made it into the Bible partly on the strength of Paul’s presumed authorship, and partly because it is a beautifully written letter exalting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Hebrews is considered an important book in the New Testament, and good old Wikipedia seems to be a reliable source for more information.
Introduction: God Has Spoken Fully and Finally in His Son
1:1 After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, 1:2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 1:4 Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs.
The author dives right in without identifying himself or his credentials, unlike Paul, thus fueling the idea that Paul may not have been the author. The opening words picture Jesus completing the work of the prophets and angels in preparing us for the company of God in glory through the cleansing of our sins. The letter suggests that it is directed to Christians who were drifting away from the church and failing to grow toward Christian maturity, perhaps even to the point of worshiping angels instead of the Lord Jesus.
Does this remind you of anyone you know? I know that I constantly fight the tendency to drift away from the body of saints who help hold me accountable for living a consistent and growing Christian life.
Dave, trying to keep his eye on the ball.
-sdg-
Bible Diary - Philemon 8-25
April 13, 2008
The runaway slave of Philemon, Onesimus, has become a Christian and is now with Paul. Here is how Paul deals with the situation
Paul’s Request for Onesimus
1:8 So, although I have quite a lot of confidence in Christ and could command you to do what is proper, 1:9 I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love – I, Paul, an old man and even now a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus – 1:10 I am appealing to you concerning my child, whose spiritual father I have become during my imprisonment, that is, Onesimus, 1:11 who was formerly useless to you, but is now useful to you and me. 1:12 I have sent him (who is my very heart) back to you. 1:13 I wanted to keep him so that he could serve me in your place during my imprisonment for the sake of the gospel. 1:14 However, without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your good deed would not be out of compulsion, but from your own willingness. 1:15 For perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated from you for a little while, so that you would have him back eternally, 1:16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a dear brother. He is especially so to me, and even more so to you now, both humanly speaking and in the Lord. 1:17 Therefore if you regard me as a partner, accept him as you would me. 1:18 Now if he has defrauded you of anything or owes you anything, charge what he owes to me. 1:19 I, Paul, have written this letter with my own hand: I will repay it. I could also mention that you owe me your very self. 1:20 Yes, brother, let me have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. 1:21 Since I was confident that you would obey, I wrote to you, because I knew that you would do even more than what I am asking you to do. 1:22 At the same time also, prepare a place for me to stay, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given back to you.
Concluding Greetings
1:23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. 1:24 Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my colaborers, greet you too. 1:25 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Philemon the slaveholder is a Christian. His slave, Onesimus, ran away and then became a Christian, but he is still accountable before God for his rebellion against Philemon. They are now Christian brothers, and reconciliation is necessary, so Paul boldly sends Onesiums home and pleads with Philemon to receive him as a brother, even as he would receive Paul himself. What a tall order! As far as I know, no one knows how this all worked out.
The message I see here for me is that changed lives means changed relationships. There can be no enmity between Christian brothers and sisters. In some cases, supernatural intervention is the only solution, but this cannot happen unless both hearts are touched and are made willing. In the case of Philemon and Onesimus, perhaps this is what happened.
Dave
-sdg-
Techno-Bedouins
April 12, 2008
According to Nomads at last in the latest on-line Economist, a new generation of techno-Bedouins is emerging in the culture. Is this a Good Thing? You’ll have to decide that for yourselves. The generation gap is too wide for me to even think about it.
As a word, vision and goal, modern urban nomadism has had the mixed blessing of a premature debut. In the 1960s and 70s Herbert Marshall McLuhan, the most influential media and communications theorist ever, pictured nomads zipping around at great speed, using facilities on the road and all but dispensing with their homes. In the 1980s Jacques Attali, a French economist who was advising president François Mitterrand at the time, used the term to predict an age when rich and uprooted elites would jet around the world in search of fun and opportunity, and poor but equally uprooted workers would migrate in search of a living. In the 1990s Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners jointly wrote the first book with “digital nomad” in the title, adding the bewildering possibilities of the latest gadgets to the vision.
I commend the article for your reading. It provides a lot to think about when we consider the way various technologies have impacted our lives. Did you know that there are almost 3.5 million mobile-phone users worldwide, compared to essentially zip in 1996? Or that almost all of those users are in the 18-29 demographic?
Dave, not sure what to make of all this.
Resolutions
April 10, 2008
I’m not much on making resolutions, probably because my track record on keeping them is pretty spotty. An 18th Century theologian named Jonathan Edwards, yes that one (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God), had a go at it on August 17, 1723, and couldn’t stop until he listed 70 resolutions that he vowed to review once a week.
My blogging friend Toby Brown suggests that some of these resolutions would be quite appropriate for bloggers of all stripes.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
What Jonathan Edwards might say to those who blog
In my devotional reading I ran across these selected resolutions of the young Jonathan Edwards. I think they have much to teach those of us who live in the digital age:
8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.
21. Resolved, never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
(Resolutions 1 through 21 written in one setting in New Haven in 1722)
All bloggers will take these resolutions to heart when pigs fly, says I, but that doesn’t mean that I should not take them to heart. And not only while blogging.
Dave, who tends to be a tad cynical about some things.
Bible Diary - Philemon 1-7
April 6, 2008
According to my study Bible, Paul sent the little letter to Philemon together with the letter to the Colossians from prison around 60 AD. Philemon was a Christian brother and slaveholder in Colosse. His slave, Onesimus, had run away and had somehow met Paul in Rome. Through Paul’s teaching, Onesimus had become a Christian, which posed an interesting practical problem for Paul. Onesimus may have become a Christian, but he was still accountable to God for going AWOL and, perhaps, for stealing.
Salutation
1:1 From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and colaborer, 1:2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house. 1:3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Thanks for Philemon’s Love and Faith
1:4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 1:5 because I hear of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 1:6 I pray that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing that belongs to you in Christ. 1:7 I have had great joy and encouragement because of your love, for the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
We’ll read how Paul dealt with Onesimus’s past in the next passage, but here Paul, as he usually does, prays for Philemon and thanks God for the way his faith refreshes and encourages not only Paul but many other Christians who knew Philemon. Genuine Christian love is a powerful force among believers and nonbelievers alike.
Dave
-sdg-
A diesel in your next car?
April 5, 2008
Every time I see the posted fuel pump prices, I wonder about the premium price of diesel over gasoline. Obviously the premium still makes economic sense, but I certainly didn’t have a clue. Today’s Economist helps clear the air, so to speak, since my impression of diesel vehicles is cluttered up with inappropriate images of dark smoke and stink. I know that none of you have such ill-informed prejudices, but you might find the article interesting nevertheless.
Meanwhile, back at the pump in America, diesel currently costs 20% more per gallon than regular petrol. When that premium reaches 35%, the difference in fuel efficiency will equal the difference in price—and there will be no economic reason to make the switch. Some reckon that day is only a few years away.
All of this is pretty academic for some of us. First, there are yet no efficient family diesel vehicles available. Second, I likely will not need another car at all unless I’m still driving at age 90. I’m marginally dangerous to my fellow drivers now.
Dave, driving very carefully these days.
