God the Word is still speaking at the top of 54--vs 1-5 speak of an increase in the descendants of Israel. Israel will not be left without heir because God Himself is the "husband" and "God of all the earth." 6-8 talk about God's relatively short forsaking of Israel in relation to His everlasting lovingkindness, but it's still hard to see. Considering the act of God's forsaking Israel (7) and an "outburst of anger" (8) is hard when we are tempted to only acknowledge the love of God and ignore what real love looks like in different situations; especially when you're talking about the great God of all the earth who is our Redeemer. We don't like to think of God doing something like having His servant die for the sins of others, but that's exactly what God the Word is saying will happen. Verses 9 & 10, like in all texts, cannot be removed from their context here. God's confession of His anger and forsaking of Israel just now is not here contradicted so much as it is related to the flood of Noah's time. The end is not annihilation, God's lovingkindness still continues and His compassion both prompts and tempers His anger toward sin. Israel's city will be established with precious stones and righteousness (11-12, 14), receive instruction from the Lord (13), and be protected from enemies because it's actually God who orders destruction and protection (15-16). No weapon is going to prosper against Israel and God will be the vindicator of His servants (17).

Following the affliction of God's people and the death of God's servant, 55:1-3 proclaims a life of abundance, an everlasting covenant that is predicated on listening to God, which brings life. The reigning line of King David, a promise God made to him, is here talked about being continued, the Davidic dynasty that the servant is a part of. This servant is a witness/leader/commander to/for the peoples (again, plural, more than just Israel) and Israel will call to, and receive, an unknown nation because of this servant and because the Lord Israel's God has glorified her (5). In vs. 6-7 God the Word encourages the reader/hearer to seek the Lord, call on Him, and turn from unrighteous ways to return to the Lord. God's compassion will cover those that do and God will not just pardon, but abundantly pardon! The rest of the chapter beautifully tells us how great the mind of God is (with thoughts and ways far above our own), how indefatigable His Word is, and how all of creation will be transformed by the Word. Again, keeping it in context, the Word that is speaking is the God that will one day be the servant of God, as the Word has always gone out to accomplish what God wills.

                "Seek the Lord while He may be found;
                Call upon Him while He is near.
                Let the wicked forsake his way
                    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
                And let him return to the Lord,
                And He will have compassion on him,
                And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
                                                                                                             Isaiah 55:6-7

I only stop here for space's sake, but would love to carry it out until verse 11. God is now, as then, calling all people to repentance, to turn to Him and receive His offer of pardon. The language brings to mind the penal system, that of crime followed by just punishment. God is not, as Bruce Almighty might say in a moment of impassioned pain, up there waiting for the opportunity to "burn our feelers off." He wrote the book on truth and could easily let the truth damn us all, but our great God provides pardon. He wants to provide pardon, and so He calls to us and tells us that we need to seek for, and call on, Him. As verse 11 states, His word doesn't return to Him without first accomplishing what He desires, the reason for which it was sent.

So we, then, have possibly only one of two options for interpreting this clear statement: we can believe that God purposes for all to be enveloped in His compassion, no matter their response to the commands of verses 6 & 7, on the one hand, or that there are only certain ones whom God has deemed worthy to receive His compassionate pardon on the other; or that the purpose of God's word is to welcome all who would respond to verses 6 & 7, and it will accomplish just that. Option 1 has two parts that are different in their essence: Part 1 seems a beautiful possibility that leaves no one out of God's blessing, everyone is included, and we might say that this is what you would expect from a loving God; Part 2 seems restrictive, almost malevolent, in the sense that some are removed from the blessing right out of the "birthing gate," and is not what you would expect of a loving God.

What both parts have in common, however, is that they invalidate the commands of 6-7, to seek, call, forsake, and return. These are not things to say to those who have no say in the matter. Is God saying, "You who have no choice, choose anyway, as though it mattered, which it doesn't" to us? And we should consider whether it is loving at all to have humankind rolling around in the quagmire of earth's pain and evil right now if God's coming compassion to all or some is preordained. This might be a level of meaningless not even Solomon imagined. But most importantly, we will find ourselves in the awkward position where we ask of the text, "which of these verses are true, and which are not?" We do not see in this text that God wants us to turn from our wicked ways and live (specifically) but the repetition of this refrain in scripture is true, nonetheless. So Option 1 causes us to "play God," determining which verse is authoritative, and which isn't.

Though some struggle with the term "free will," verses 6-7 hold the term implicitly. So Option 2 alone allows both of these texts to be true, both to be authoritative. God's Word accomplishes what He has purposed, namely that it sets before people life and death and they respond to it, and in some cases the Word stands as a testimony to those uniquely purposed to serve as the instrument of God's will, made for holy or common purposes. The choice is not either/or but both/and. God's purpose is to draw all to Himself, not by force or without the will to choose life or death. I do not get, from the full scope of scripture, a God who dangles a carrot, content to take it away as He pleases. Rather, He holds it out to us imploringly, begging us to eat and drink without cost (55:1). God's greatest gift of salvation is great only if we are allowed the choice to hunger and thirst after righteousness. If some are not hungry, we cannot force them to eat.

So the speaker from the previous chapter is the disciple, a servant of God who is, at least up to this point, unnamed. Assuming, like I mentioned last time, the continuation of the previous action and discussion about what a disciple is (despite the chapter division), the same speaker is still "speaking" at the beginning of Ch. 51. Vs. 1-3 is addressed to the ones who "pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord" and is an admonition to remember the heritage of faith from which they came. The exile and humiliation of the previous chapters will be turned to "joy and gladness." Vs. 4-8 (and 2 as well) clarify a couple things, then, about the previous post I made, where there was confusion over whether or not the speaker was Isaiah, the Servant who was foretold, or someone else. Well, the vocabulary the speaker uses--"I called... blessed... and multiplied [Abraham]" (2); "a law will go forth from Me... My justice for a light of the peoples" (4); "My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples" (5); "Listen to me... people in whose heart is My law" (7); everlasting righteousness and salvation, to all generations (6, 8)--is presumptuous at best, if it's Isaiah or another human, and blasphemous at worst. It appears that what we're dealing with here is the speaker from 48:16, whom we have already deduced is one with God and acts as God's mouthpiece. So in Ch. 50, vs. 4-11, this same mouthpiece of God, one with God, is given personified characteristics and here in Ch. 51, vs. 4-8, speaks of His law, righteousness, and salvation. These chapters are much more reading than can be done in a short lesson but what I see here is a Hebrew Bible reference to the word of God becoming flesh, occupying the judges seat in righteousness, possessing salvation, and lasting long after the creation goes away (6). And far from being exclusive, as some might like to paint it, this truth is a light to all "peoples," a crucial -s at the end that signifies the speaker is not just speaking about Israel, even as 50:10-11 makes clear that neither is this salvation and righteousness universal and outside human choice.

In vs. 9-11 the speaker is 1) calling for God to act (9), 2) recounting the wondrous works of God in the past (9-10), and 3) proclaiming the coming joy (11). The "dragon" could refer to Babylon, and I had to do a little searching but "Rahab" (which my Bible's margin note for Isaiah 30:7 says means 'arrogance') is not the faithful harlot from Joshua 2 but is a name for Egypt, likely derogatorily used and, as here, mentioned in the context of "her" defeat at the hands of the Lord. What makes this section interesting and/or confusing is that it reads like the cheerful bravado of a human calling God to act and then celebrating before the game's even been played, so to speak. But then vs. 12 picks right back up with the pronouns of deity, the confessions of being "the Lord your God" (15). So vs. 9-11 could be Isaiah with his input or it could still be God the Word giving us the distinction between persons within the One God; either way, I don't have much of a dog in this fight. Moving on, God the Word is the One who comforts and asks why Israel should fear a mere flesh-and-blood man (12) and so forget "The Lord your Maker" (13). In vs. 14-23 God the Word goes back and forth between God's great provision and God's anger that has brought about these difficult times for Israel. Nevertheless, Israel is still the people of God (16) and He will contend for them (22).

I would gather that God the Word is still speaking in 52:1 and following, proclaiming deliverance by God's hand, a redemption without money (3). God is concerned for His people, but this concern is inextricably tied to His concern for His name, which is being slighted by those who rule over Israel (5). Verses 6-10 is a beautifully poetic narrative of how God will deliver Israel and His fame will spread to other nations, carrying His salvation to the "ends of the earth" (10). God calls His people to be ritually pure (11) when they leave their captivity, not running like fugitives but under the direction of the God of Israel (12). In 52:13-15 through 53:12 we see a few of the qualities of God's servant. He [will/has/was]:

• be high and lifted up, greatly exalted (52:13)
• have his appearance and form will marred more than any other (52:14)
• sprinkle many nations (could be a reference to the sacrificial practice of sprinkling the blood to make atonement for sin) and shut the mouths of kings by his marring (52:15)
• no attractive appearance or majesty (53:2)
• despised, forsaken, acquainted with grief, not esteemed (53:3)
• bore our griefs and sorrows and we thought him cursed by God (53:4)
• pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well-being, heals us by his scourging [i.e. whipping] (53:5)
• had the iniquity "of us all" fall on him by God's design and cause, even though we've all gone astray and our own way (53:6)
• oppressed and afflicted without opening his mouth, like a lamb led to slaughter (53:7)
• taken away by oppression and judgment -- a rhetorical question closes the verse with the implication that no one is his generation would have considered that he was "cut off out of the land of the living" (i.e. killed) for the transgressions of God's people, much less BY them (53:8)
• grouped with wicked men but "with" a rich man in death because he wasn't violent or deceitful (53:9)
• crushed by the pleasure of the Lord and put to grief; if he willingly became a guilt offering he'd see his offspring, prolong his days, and see the Lord's good pleasure prosper in his hand (53:10)
• see the many justified by the servant's knowledge and anguish of his soul, because he "will bear their iniquities, as is the Lord's pleasure from the previous verse (53:11)
• be allotted a portion with the great and strong because he died among transgressors; he bore the sin of many and interceded for transgressors (53:12)
  

As I read the end of Ch. 52 and all of 53, I cannot help but understand it through the lens of Jesus. What He endured, and why, has become so central to everything in my life, and the reason I continue to study the Bible. I want to understand the greatness of God as much as I can, and the past 5+ chapters have been painting a picture of God the personified Word who proclaims the will of God as much as God's judgment against those who ignore His will, and then later takes flesh and is called the Servant who bears sin on our behalf and intercedes for us. Whether John has this passage in mind or not when he writes John 1 in his gospel account, I don't know, but it would make sense. Both of these texts talk about the people who love darkness more than light, and how the light of God came in the flesh, and that light was the word of God, was in fact God. I certainly don't claim to know everything about this text or to have full knowledge, but based on what I see thus far I am struck by the depth of God's desire to redeem His people. He upholds the standard of His righteousness while holding them accountable for their sin and gives the unfathomable provision a sure-fire escape from its consequences. This isn't hitting me new right now, or even new just with regard to Isaiah, but it's hitting me afresh that this redemptive act of God is nothing new to God, not a "New Testament" invention that makes the so-called "Old Testament" worthless. What is "New" for us is not new at all, but the denouement [i.e. the outcome of a complex sequence of events] of the story that has been unfolding since the beginning of time.

As I read and try to make sense of the strangeness of a God that is One and will not share His glory with another, and yet refers to Himself as though three, the theological understanding of the "Trinity" makes a lot more sense to me. I mean, of course, it's still confusing as heck how both--One and three--are true and yet I find myself not trying to push God into my more understandable concepts but following where the Word is leading me, even if that means the journey is more uncomfortable than I'd like. The result, for me, isn't a God I've figured out yet, but it's certainly a God I'm in awe of!

We all come at life with a lens affixed and I'm not doing this blog to enforce my lens but to see if the lens is right in the first place. I'm more familiar with the New Testament but, over the past year and a half or so, I've fallen in love with the rich history revealed in the Hebrew Bible. There is so much there, and Christians only do themselves a disservice by only sticking to the texts that talk about Jesus. If we do believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then we must also believe, even if only subconsciously, that Jesus the Christ didn't just drop into the Divine story somewhere around 5 or 4 B.C. I am looking for the clues that hint to that truth, and it's exciting to see!

Chapter 49 starts with a change in voice clearly indicated in vs. 3--if you recall from the end of Ch. 48 God "the Word" was still speaking and told His people Israel to say, "The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob" (and possibly 21 too), to proclaim His powerful deliverance as they left the exile from Babylon. Then we see, from 49:3, that the "Me" doing the speaking in vs. 1-2 is the personified servant of the Lord, Israel. What Israel is saying in vs. 1-2 is a confirmation of the Lord choosing her as a nation, a name given by the Lord before it came to be, a voice to give words like a sharp sword (the meaning of which comes shortly), being protected and selected for the purpose that begins in vs. 3. The people of Israel are to be, collectively, God's servant "in whom I will show my glory." In vs. 4 the strange statement by Israel would seem to convey that Israel has completed what the Lord gave them to do as a nation, that they've been a nation through whom God's glory has become evident, but the other nations didn't take the hint. Nevertheless, the surety of their reward is in the Lord, not in what they've seen thus far. Verses 5-6 would indicate that, in context, perhaps vs. 4 is in reference to the exile in Babylon, that God will bring "Jacob back to Him" (5) and restore Israel (6) despite their temporary displacement punishment. It seems that the sword of the word they were to bring to the nations is strong enough to cut them as well. The end of vs. 6 is another statement of the purpose of Israel that we've already gone over:

            "I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

In vs. 7 the Lord speaks to punished Israel of the honor foreign kings and princes would give, presumably to the Lord, but the thrust of the passage could also/instead be talking about Israel receiving honor among the nations because of God's mention of His own faithfulness to the nation He has chosen to bear His name. Verses 8-13 is God speaking about the coming blessings to the nations through His people on "a day of salvation" (8), where the people will prosper precisely because "He [God] who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water" (10). God's afflicted people are not merely comforted for their own benefit (13) but for the benefit of all people; being led by the Lord is that benefit. 14-16 is a beautiful picture of how suffering draws the Israelites (Zion, the city of God, Jerusalem) to foolishly blame God for forsaking them, to which God replies that a mother can't forget her child--but even if she does, God will not forget His people. 17-21 is God's assurance that He will restore His people, to the extent that they are confused by such a magnificent turn-around of events. God says in vs. 22-23 that the exiles will return when He shows His hand to the nations, and even the royalty of the nations will be caring for the sons and daughters of Israel as servants. The purpose of God's acting? So Israel "will know that I am the Lord; those who hopefully [i.e. with hope] wait for Me will not be put to shame." 24-26 shows God saying how difficult it is to be freed from the strong, but it's not too difficult for Him. God will stand up for the Israelites against those who come against them, and the bloody fray will make clear that the Lord is Israel's Savior.

50:1-3 starts with God saying, rather poetically, that he has not divorced his people, nor has He sold them because He owes something to another nation or people. God is faithful and self-sustaining, not like an unfaithful husband or person in need of something! Israel was exiled because of their sins [iniquities and transgressions], because they avoided the Lord and didn't listen to His call. God asks them, rhetorically, if they think God is strong enough to save them? Starting in vs. 4 through the end of the chapter, the "voice" changes to one of two (or greater, I guess) possibilities: Isaiah himself or the Servant [Messiah], the one prophesied about. The latter might be the position of the NASB translators, as they capitalize the speaker's pronouns, but since I'm not sure I've opted to avoid the capitalization in the text below, mainly to avoid stacking the deck before I'm sure. Either [any] way, the speaker is a disciple (4), humiliated and opposed (6, 8-9), who is able to stand by the help and vindication of the Lord God (4, 7-9). This speaker calls his opponents to choose whose side they're on, even as he warns them that those who choose the wrong side--against the Lord God--will find nothing but torment (10-11).

This is the call of the Lord God, to turn to Him and follow as a disciple. This is the suffering of a disciple, to be humiliated and opposed for your faithfulness. This is the reward of a disciple, to be helped and vindicated by God. There can be no greater acknowledgement for faithful, steadfast service. May we all be about the work of looking like the servant who may say what the servant of 50:4-5 says:

            The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one
            with a word. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The
            Lord God has opened my ear; and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back.

Even though Isaiah 48 was such a jam-packed chapter and I didn't have time to go on after that, I wanted to and, it became obvious quickly, that I wouldn't have had to do the flipping back and forth in the text to re-figure out where I was and what was going on with the different voices. I've frequently mentioned to my youth that the authors of the biblical books and letters did not write their accounts with thoughts of chapters and verses splitting them up. They were writing much more fluidly than all that (with the exception, perhaps, of the prophets, who would've written individual prophesies fluidly but not necessarily flowing naturally, even chronologically, from one prophesy to another) so trivia questions like "What's the shortest chapter/verse in the Bible?" or "Which book of the Bible has the fewest chapters?" are not questions that allow us to better understand the word of God, per se, but the later-added structure given to it. The chapters and verses, therefore, are not "inspired by God" but designed by men for easier navigation of the text. Of course, continued study reveals that some divisions are not helpful in that sense (a good example would be Colossians 4:1 being separated from the rest of the "household code" of 3:18-25).

Along the lines of this same kind of thing is the way we imbue the text with our own ideas. As I addressed above, the capitalization of a speaker's pronouns [i.e. Me, My, You, Your] in the Bible differentiates between the voice of God (Me) and the voice of a human being (me). It could be that the capitalization in today's text is correct, and the speaker is the Messiah to come, but as this project is my own, and is a journey, since I am unsure I choose not to defraud myself or others into signing off on opinion. This is where the input of others could benefit my study greatly, because you may have input that informs my study. However, if it becomes clear in the coming chapters, I would ask that you bear with me in the search and let the discovery be my own, led by the Spirit in faithfulness to the word. Of course, if I happen to miss it when I get there then, by all means, set me straight! Thanks for joining me, and God bless you in your own study!

In Isaiah 48:1 God scolds the people of Israel, the house of Jacob, for their religious dumb-show. They may call on God and give the appearance of devotion, but "not in truth nor in righteousness." They lean on God, the Lord of Hosts (2), in this manner. But vs. 3-5 say how God was clear in telling the Israelites what was to come, long in advance, so they couldn't turn to themselves and assure themselves that their idols, which they'd been unfaithful with, had done it. What God is here speaking of, specifically, is not clearly articulated. It could be that He's referring to the Persians, Babylonians, Cyrus, etc. specifically, or generally to these kinds of events that were to be the results of the Israelites' unfaithfulness. Either way, they were told in advance by God that this would happen.

In vs. 6-7 God intros to a fresh proclamation, something He hadn't told them before. He says He's doing it like this so the Israelites can't say they knew these things already. He verbally spanks them in vs. 8, saying they haven't heard, they haven't known, they've been treacherous rebels since birth (i.e. since He chose them). And in 9-11 God reminds them why they won't be wiped out completely even in their affliction, and it's a microcosm of the whole of scripture: so He will receive praise/glory, so His name won't be profaned, for the sake of His own name. Dang! God isn't acting, preserving them, because they deserve it, but for His own sake! He calls His people to listen to Him (12) and recounts His greatness that stands alone in creation (13), declares the unknown, and accomplishes His good pleasure through King Cyrus (14-15; also, 45:1). This is interesting here because God is speaking and I think it's best to just let the text speak:

            15 "I, even I, have spoken ; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his
            ways successful. 16 " Come near to Me, listen to this : From the first I have not spoken in secret,
            From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."

Now, I'm not paying too much attention to capitalization here, but to the words and the follow through of what's being said. IF the text is still talking about Cyrus being God's instrument, as in Ch. 45, then Cyrus is "him" whose ways will be successful, and there may not be a reason to capitalize the "He" in that verse. And since I don't see any reason within the text for the speaking voice to have changed to Isaiah, especially since Isaiah most certainly did not call Cyrus, that means it's likely still God speaking. So I'm going to try to make my train of thought lucid for all of you here: God has spoken, has called and brought him [Cyrus?], calls Israel near to listen to Him, hasn't spoken in secret, was there when it took place, and has sent His Spirit and been sent by the Lord GOD. So since 45:18, the last "thus says the Lord," God has been speaking. And here God says that God has sent God and God's Spirit.

This sounds to me like God, and God's mouthpiece, and God's Spirit. This mouthpiece of God is the same that says "I am the Lord, and there is no one else" (45:18); "there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except me" (45:21); "there is no other" (45:22); that "the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance" (45:23); "I will be the same... bear you... carry you... deliver you" (46:4); that is without equal (46:5); "I am God, and there is no other" (46:9); "for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another" (48:11); "I am He, I am the first, I am also the last" (48:12); and finally, return to the passage and read it again.

When I do that, I see the God that stands alone in power and reality as God, the One who is like no other, and no other is like the One. And that One God speaks as though He is the One true God, sent by the One true God just as that One true God sends His Spirit.

God. One. God's words. One. God's Spirit. One. Together? One God. BOOM! My mind just blew up, but I've got to at least finish this chapter...

In vs. 17-19 God labels Himself as Israel's Redeemer, the one who leads them in the way they should go (i.e. it's the way God goes, hence the leading), and would have prospered them exponentially if they had obeyed. Yet he tells them in vs. 20-22 that their exile will end and they should use it as an occasion to make God's name great by proclaiming His mighty deeds in removing them from the land of Egypt, and quite possibly connecting that earlier provision to what will happen when this exile ends too. The final line in vs. 22 is a condemnation not just to Babylon of the Chaldeans, or the Israelites then and now, but to us as well so I will end there for today, after this amazing chapter:

                "There is no peace for the wicked," says the Lord.

Something I found striking in today's reading is the phrase "they call themselves after the holy city" in vs. 2. There are some ideas rolling around in the Christian Church that go like this: "The Jews used to be the people of God, but now it's the Church," or "those who follow Jesus have replaced the Jews as the people of God." I can be diplomatic sometimes so there's a part of me that understands where they get these ideas, but I can't quite wrap my head around them enough to say the statements are true. Rather, they tend to be simplistic and divisive statements that come from a kind of attitude that the Israelites themselves were chastised for.

The Jews argued that they were the people of God and all those Gentiles and <gasp> Samaritans were icky. And though there was truth to that, the attitude behind the truth derailed them from carrying out the will of God among the nations. They were to serve as witnesses of God's greatness among the nations so that all the nations would come to acknowledge God's greatness and serve Him as well! It wasn't something inherent in their goodness or sparkling behavior that made them the people of God, but God's fashioning. John the Baptist told the religious stuck-ups--I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from--leaders that God could turn stones into true "sons of Abraham." And God has. God has done so with Jews and Gentiles alike who follow and obey and love Jesus. These are the people of God spiritually.

But we cannot throw out the rest of the Bible concerning the Jews as the culturally significant people of God either. He's not done with them yet, even as He is patient with their tendency to ignore and turn from His leading. Just like us. Today, those who follow Jesus call themselves Christians (et. al) and say they're part of the Church--they "call themselves after the holy body" of Christ. Do you see where I'm going here? God rebukes the Israelites because they claim an association without adhering to the truth or righteousness of God. But this is not what saves, not association, but God alone. God saves, and He's told us again and again to rely on that, tell others about that, and do not consider ourselves righteous or "in" apart from that.

Let us not lose sight of the full breadth and depth of God's plan for humanity: namely, to come to Him in faith through repentance. That's means that we align ourselves with GOD'S ways, not configure our own ways and hope that He will bless them in the end, as long as we still say we love Jesus. If we lose sight of the centrality of this message, then we cannot hope to understand how important Jesus is, much less where the Jews and those who follow Jesus fit into the picture.

Picking up where I am now in my personal study, in vs. 1-2 the Babylonian idols to Bel and Nebo are mocked as the lifeless chunks they are, in need of animals to carry their forms from place to place. This is contrasted with the Israelites (house of Jacob) in vs 3-4 where it is God who has both given them life (i.e. from birth) and carries them. They do not carry God (7), they do not provide for God (6), but God provides for and carries them--He is without equal (5). He will also deliver them. This language supposes there is something from which the Israelites need to be delivered.

In vs. 8-13, Isaiah records God covering a lot of ground, which might be better as bullet points:

• Israelites are stubborn and "far from righteousness" (13), transgressors of God's law and ways (8) and are called to remember His uniqueness (9).
  
• God knows the end from the beginning and will accomplish what He's set out to do (10). In this case it's using the Babylonian's (and/or Persian King Cyrus [Ch 45:1]), to accomplish His purposes, what He has planned. This is huge, because we see that God is using someone who is not of His people to accomplish what He wants, so that others will see the greatness of God (45:5-6, 14). Whether it's Israel or not, God's purpose is for people to come to know His greatness and follow Him (45:20-23)! But back to Ch. 46...
• God reminds the Israelites of the availability of His righteousness, and HE is the one who imparts both salvation and the presence of His glory to Israel (13).
  

The beginning of Ch. 47 seems to indicate that God is still talking about Babylon, having moved on from King Cyrus for the time being. Vs. 1-7 speak of Babylon's coming humiliation also being purposed by God not just because God is Israel's redeemer but because the Babylonians were unmerciful to God's people. But in vs. 8-11 God proclaims that their wickedness will be their downfall, even though they claim to be without rival and no one will hold them accountable for what they've done. Interestingly, amongst talk of sorcery and spells, God says, "Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you" (10), which implies that their sorceries were not really wisdom or knowledge, but delusions. In fact, their predictions cannot save the Babylonian people from what will befall them (12-15) because astrology has no substantive value.

Dropping into full commentary mode, I think we see here in this passage an example of how there is really nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10). God intones throughout His word that He is the One true God, not in the sense that there are others as well, but that He alone is God and there is no other--and yet the difficulty of humanity is that we will continue to run after what we please and ignore the advances of the only God that can save us from the unavoidable consequences of our actions, redeem what we've turned to ashes, and provide what we most desperately need. We will turn to anything else, even horoscopes, before finally turning over control in acknowledgement that maybe we don't have all the answers in life. The depths of our depravity are that we would rather 1) profess the alignment of sun, moon, and stars has something to do with the outcome of our behavior (or life's trajectory) and 2) aliens seeded life on this planet in the first place than admit to the greater sense behind an intelligent and loving Creator-God and release control to that loving God who has proven Himself faithful time and time again.

How many times will God have to make Himself known to us, confirming His lovingkindness toward us, before we concede our wills and follow Him into the now-available abundant life that precedes eternal life? Let our answer not be the enigmatic, and never satisfied, response, "One more."

I've found that the past several months have involved me asking various people to weigh in on the thoughts they have (or have had) on passages that I've been studying. I like to search out the truth. It's been a long time since I've simply listened to something another believer has said, whether they're a pastor or not, and failed to examine the text for myself. I think that's important; otherwise, why would Luke state that the Berean's were noble to receive the message of Jesus with excitement and examine the things Paul said to see if they were true (Acts 17)?

This post begins a new chapter in my faith walk, where I will endeavor to read through the Bible and "blog" my thoughts and revelations from the Word. I'm hoping this forum is a place for others to not only read along with me but to chime in with what the Spirit has revealed to them. That's the short answer. If you're interested in joining me, I'm thrilled to have you!

Each blog post will be titled with the text I'm using and will continue through to the book's end. I'm not going from start to finish, Genesis to Revelation, either. But I will be going through complete books. As you might expect, much of what you read here are my personal thoughts on a passage (i.e. commentary) and are therefore not a substitute for reading the Word yourself. I will be using the NASB translation unless otherwise noted.

If you're not interested in the longer story of why I'm doing this, you can stop here and join me for the first blog post. But if you want to read why I'm doing this, read on!

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So what did the Jews of Thessalonica do in Acts 17? They stirred up trouble because they were jealous. We could argue that this is only what Luke thought, but let's assume for a second that he was right. These Jews argued in front of the city officials that Paul and his entourage were causing problems, defying Caesar, and talking about some other king (5-8). If you know even a little history, the Jews were not on nice-nice terms with the Romans. They were an occupied people suffering at Roman hands, and yet here they're using an argument that makes them sound like they're in bed with Rome, like they actually care whether or not Caesar is defied. If for any reason, they would want Caesar appeased so they don't suffer more under his cruel hand. So if they were, in fact, jealous of Paul et. al (and here I'm having to draw on the rest of scripture to make the point), it was because they stood to lose their influence among the people.

In much the same way in our culture, it can be all-too-tempting for leaders to seek recognition or honor, or for Christians to fall into some kind of hero worship of a pastor, priest, prominent Christian figurehead, and get all the "Bible" they think they need from them. Some might even say you don't have the right to question a pastor, much less in an accountability fashion, because they've been instituted above you as a leader for your protection. Now, some may think that sounds godly and full of wisdom, but the problem is it's not biblical. There's no pastor for pastors spoken of in the Bible, so who has the role of holding them accountable to the Word? If the answer is no one, then they are answerable to God alone and our role, as members of their flock, is to follow their leadership. The problem is if they stop listening to the counsel of God, walk headlong into sin, and (God forbid) take some sheep with them.

Jesus spoke harshly to the Jewish leaders of His time, of their desire for notice, for honor, for special treatment. If the Jesus we see is only from one person (and that person is not Jesus) there are too many avenues for error to erode away right thinking. There is no room for jealousy in the teaching of God's word. When we are so certain of our right thinking regarding the Word of God that we're not open to listening to others, harsh treatment of those who differ from us is close at hand. My inclination is to think that a subtle shift, in those instances, has pulled us away from a search for truth -- and in some cases helping another in their search for the same truth -- and drawn us to a debate on who's right and who's wrong. When this happens we can all but ignore the journey of learning and discovery we ourselves have been on and demand that another "get" where we are. If they don't, well... in all likelihood they don't truly believe in God, the Bible, or Jesus. Ipso facto, they are not saved.

But according to Acts 17, Paul didn't offer to lead everyone in a prayer of decision on his right hand and sell sunscreen to fight the flames of hell on his left hand. There, as elsewhere, he was faithful to preach, faithful to teach, and the inevitable conclusion of choice resulted in some who believed and others who didn't. The choice to study was, then, up to the individual. So it is today. We can study for ourselves, or flit from one opinion to another as something someone says strikes our fancy. I see this as problematic for two reasons:

1. There is a greater likelihood that we are accepting another's interpretations that have been seamlessly tacked on to scripture, to the point where they don't even see the difference between the two. Of course they will defend it as being scriptural, and of course they will be able to show you how they got there from scripture, but these things do not automatically make them right.
2. We can develop the habit of reading scripture as through a personal lens, whether our own or someone else's. It's, of course, impossible to read the Bible completely objectively, but we should not seek out only those passages that support our viewpoints either. This is, quite honestly, a manipulation of the Word of God to suit individual purposes.
   

I don't want to be that kind of person, that looks for only the ideas that support my current stance or waits for someone else to tell me what I should believe. Doesn't it seem strange to read theology books to get to the heart of what we should believe when it is the Bible that the authors of these books went to to find the material for these books? At least, we assume this in giving these authors the benefit of the doubt. Surely they would not mislead us. Surely they would not willfully teach error in their writings. And yet many people write about the same issue and reach very different results.

There may not be deceit in mind, but there is difference in opinion. I surmise there are far fewer differences that affect our ultimate salvation than those differences that result from continued study of the Word and the personal leading of the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is right and wrong interpretation (our study should not be done in a vacuum) but there is also right and wrong counsel. But I don't believe it's even that white and black. There is even unprofitable interpretation and counsel. They may not be right or wrong, but they are void of the full understanding God has of a person's history and path and damages that need healing.

Sometimes, through no malicious design of our own, we can inadvertently cause damage instead of help. We forget the process of growth in the faith that we went through to get to where we are now, and we try to fast-track others, "catch them up to speed." Again, best of intentions, but ultimately short-sighted. Not only do I not want to do this to others, I don't want it done to me.

I'm not sprinting my faith; this is a marathon.
I'm not expecting failure or something better; I'm in this for life.
I'm not collecting facts and figures; I'm struggling with the God who is my life.
I'm not seeking ways to win debates with others; this search will empower me to know more of God.

That's my goal, and that's why I'm doing this. I may not get to it every day (though I hope to), but when I do I hope you'll join me.

Here's to a new beginning in God's Word!