Category: As You Read Living in The Story

Years listed are B.C. Dates are approximate; scholars best guess
Information summarized from The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VII

805	Assyria defeats Damascus opening the way for a growing luxury class with economic and religious excesses	Jonah Amos
745	Political unrest in Israel	Hosea
735	Syro-Ephraimite War	Isaiah of Jerusalem
732	Damascus destroyed by Assyria; Israel becomes a vassal state	Micah
689	Babylon destroyed by Assyria
626	Babylon gains freedom from Assyria; Josiah’s ‘deuteronomic reform’	Jeremiah
604	Babylon controls Syria and Palestine	Nahum Habakkuk
598/597	Babylonians besiege Jerusalem; first deportation	Ezekiel
587	Jerusalem falls; second deportation	Obadiah
582/581	King of Judah assassinated; third deportation
550	Cyrus of Persia threatens Babylon
538	Babylon surrenders to Persia; Edict of Cyrus allows first return of exiles led by Sheshbazzar. Temple rebuilding begins and then halted	Second Isaiah
522	King Darius of Persia Temple rebuilding resumes	Haggai Zechariah
516/515	Temple completed and rededicated
458	Ezra travels to Jerusalem	Malachi
445	Nehemiah travels to Jerusalem	Joel
333	Conquests of Alexander the Great
175/164	Rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanies and the Maccabean revolt	Daniel

“Bizarre” is a pretty good word to describe the book of Revelation.

In this vision, we see images of four horsemen of the apocalypse, seven bowls of wrath, tormented sinners crying out from the lake of fire, the satan bound for a thousand years and then the final battle of Armageddon.

“Bizarre” is also a good word to describe many of the interpretations of the book of Revelation that have been offered over the years. There is some deeply flawed theology out there – I’m sure you’ve noticed.

For one entire semester in seminary, I dug into the Revelation with my favorite professor, Dr. Gene Boring. His commentary is one of the gems of recent scholarship and he is well known for his wise, thoughtful approach to this odd but important last book of the Bible.

Ask good questions

Always, whenever we study the Bible, we must be asking two fundamental questions: “What DID it mean?” and “What DOES it mean?”

What did this pastoral letter mean to the seven churches of Asia who first received it at the end of the first century? And what can it mean for us now in the twenty-first century? Finding that bridge of appropriate interpretation across time and culture is no simple task.

Continue reading “As You Read The Revelation of John”

The Book of Isaiah is a tremendous work. It is long and meaty, full of fascinating prose and brilliant poetry.

Isaiah shaped the entire theology of Israel during a critical turning point of their history. As they looked back at their experience of Exile, Jewish theologians sought to understand what had gone wrong within their covenant relationship with Israel’s God; they sought to learn from their mistakes and forge a new future with hope and faithfulness.

Isaiah also is quoted or referenced over and over again throughout the New Testament. Within the pages of Isaiah, New Testament theologians discovered profound insights helping them make sense and understand this one, Jesus, whom they proclaimed to be Christ, God’s Messiah.

1st, 2nd and 3rd Isaiah

Scholars note three major and distinctive writings within the one book that carries the name Isaiah.

Continue reading “As You Read Isaiah”

I have a friend who just about lost faith in the Bible when he first heard the tale of Elisha being taunted by a gang of disrespectful boys.

“In the name of the Lord,” (2 Kings tells us) Elisha cursed them and two she-bears came from the forest and ate up those rude and foolish boys. The Sunday School teacher insisted this story was literally true and demonstrated God’s will.

“They should have watched their words and been kind, shouldn’t they?” a popular children’s Bible lesson plan states. “There were consequences for being disrespectful.”

My friend nearly lost his temper. Almost lost his faith. “I just don’t believe that,” he insisted back to his teacher.

What on earth is this weird story doing in our Holy Scriptures anyway!?

Weird stories of scripture

Here is just one of many examples why it’s important to understand the genres of Scripture, the different kinds of parables and fables and history-like stories that make up our Scriptures. This is one of the reasons I took on this read-and-blog-through-the-Bible project in the first place: to try to help us all make theological sense of the stories we find within The Story. (Yes, even the nonsensical ones!)

This friend’s confusion (and his teacher’s) reminds us why it’s critical to understand what kind of book the Bible is.

And what kind of book the Bible is not.

Continue reading “As you read about Elisha and Other Weird Stories of Scripture”

David gives us some of our best children’s stories.

• the shepherd boy who used his slingshot to kill a lion and a bear when they attacked his flock;
• the pure hearted youth singing songs of praise and worship with his harp; 
• the bold young man facing down a giant and taking him out with a single stone shot from his sling;
• the ignored youngest child who was honored above his seven handsome brothers and anointed to be king of Israel.

Remember the song we sang as children?

One little boy named David. One little babbling brook.

One little boy named David. Five little stones he took.

One little stone went into his sling and sling went round and round.

Round and round and round and round and round

and the giant came tumbling down.

The stories about David in the Hebrew Scriptures sometimes sound like tall tales and there is good reason for that.

Continue reading “As you read about David”

In James Michener’s wonderful book, The Source, a Jewish archeologist on a dig in Israel explained to his colleague: “If you want to understand the Jewish people, read Deuteronomy. Read it five times.”

“It’s the great central book of the Jews,” the character Eliav said. “If you master it, you will understand us.”

The people of Israel seem to have a strong sense of God’s faithful presence with them. They have seen God’s hand bringing them out of Egypt and into a sacred covenant relationship in a new land. They have recognized God’s amazing grace preserving them as a people and rescuing them from Exile in Babylon.

The Moses of Deuteronomy asks:

Ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened …?!

Deuteronomy is set on the far side of the Jordan River, looking across into The Promised Land.

From this perspective, Moses recounts the story of rescue from Egypt. He retells YHWH’s presence at Sinai. He reminds of the 10 Commandments and the Law. He prepares them for the years ahead, when Moses will have passed on the baton of leadership to Joshua.

When we read Deuteronomy, we remember how the people of Israel were  a motley crew of slaves in Egypt. They went from being no people to being God’s own people.

But please remember, the story the Old Testament tells is The Story of Israel. It doesn’t pretend to tell any other people’s story in the vast sweep of human history.

There is no mention whatsoever about what the God of all creation and the Lord of nations might have been doing in Mongolia or Ethiopia or Machu Picchu during those ancient days.

I am confident God has been on the move throughout all time, in all places, creating relationship and writing the divine story in the human heart in ways we cannot even begin to fathom. However, none of those stories are the stories of the Bible.

The Old Testament is Israel’s story – and it is shot through with amazement.

Continue reading “As You Read. Weeks 18 and 19. Deuteronomy.”