Day 5
Genesis 9:18-11:9
(9:18-29 | 10 | 11:1-9)
I must admit I'm struggling to understand the latter part of chapter 9. So Noah has three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. One day, Noah was drinking wine he'd made in his own vineyard, got drunk and fell asleep naked in his tent. Ham saw this, so he told his two brothers. They responded by getting an item of clothing and laying it across their naked father. They walked into the tent backwards, so they wouldn't see his nakedness. When Noah woke up and found out what Ham had done, he cursed Ham's youngest son, Canaan, and declared that Canaan would be the lowest of slaves to his brothers, and to his uncles. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit harsh to me. I can understand Noah being annoyed with Ham for gossiping instead of trying to preserve his father's dignity. So surely you'd curse him. Or maybe his eldest son. But he cursed his youngest son. It just doesn't make sense to me. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to hear it.
Chapter 10 is a list of some of the descendants and clans of Noah's sons and their various locations. There's not an awful lot to say about it other than the fact that verse 25 is a perfect example of something that always makes me laugh about the Bible; "Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided". Well of course. I assume it makes sense in the source language, but in a translation, it makes no sense.
I love foreign languages, so I love the story of the Tower of Babel. Without it, and what happened there, my language skills would be pretty redundant. I find it interesting that when the people had a common language, they chose to try to build a monument to give themselves fame, and to attract others to them. They put themselves first instead of God. So God made them speak different languages so they were unable to understand each other. Had they been able to cooperate further, who knows what else they could have managed for their own glory. It's a very interesting solution to an odd problem. On the face of it, it's difficult to see what the people did wrong. When you see that God didn't want them cooperating, you wonder why. As I said before, they put themselves ahead of God. If they'd continued, they might have reached a point of wanting to challenge God himself. Which would have been bad. This is another one of those situations were you're not sure if it actually happened or if it's just a story explaining an aspect of life with a hidden lesson. Again, it doesn't really matter.
Matthew 4:23-5:20
(4:23-25 | 5:1-20)
In the first part of Matthew 4, Jesus went through and overcame a period of temptation before starting his ministry and calling his first disciples. At the end of the chapter, Jesus was roaming the streets of Galilee, preaching that the kingdom of God was near and healing the sick. His actions earned him a large following. It was so large that, at the start of chapter 5, Jesus and his disciples retreated to a mountainside so that he could teach them. The beatitudes are some of the most famous pieces of teaching. Verses 11-12 say that any persecution suffered because of Jesus is a good thing, and that we should be glad when it happens. In the West, we don't suffer anywhere near as much persecution as other Christians the world over. We're very blessed in that we have the freedom to worship and attend churches without fear of reprisal. Any persecution that we do suffer (e.g. ridicule from work colleagues/course mates/friends) is going to be minor in comparison. There may be isolated cases of people being harassed for their faith in more major and damaging ways. But it doesn't matter how big or how small the persecution - it's all good, and we'll be blessed because of it!
The salt and light metaphors are hugely important for us today. If you add the right amount of salt to a dish, it can vastly improve it. Too little salt and you won't notice. Too much, and you'll ruin it. We need to be like salt, adding just enough of Jesus and the gospel into the lives of others. If we don't do enough, people probably won't notice. If we do too much, they might be put off. At the same time, we need to be light. We need to be talking about Jesus, showing what he has done for us, and being his people on the earth. Our faith needs to visible, shining for the whole world to see. So much has been written about this topic already that I'm not sure I actually offered a fresh perspective, but I wrote it anyway.
Finally, Jesus said that he hadn't come to abolish the Law or the things the prophets wrote about, rather he'd come to fulfil them. Which we'll come to later. Jesus went on to say that "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven". This seems like a massive ask at first. The Pharisees were very good at knowing the Law, but they weren't so good at understanding it or putting it into practice. Jesus said "whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Later on, when Jesus was asked which of the commandments was greatest, he responded with something along the lines of "love the LORD your God with all your heart" and "love your neighbour as yourself". I think if we can manage that, we'll be off to a good start.
Psalm 4
(4)
Psalm 4 is about being able to call on God. It says the LORD will hear when the godly call to him. It urges us not to seek after false gods, and to put our trust in the LORD. This seems like sound advice to me.
Genesis 9:18-11:9
(9:18-29 | 10 | 11:1-9)
I must admit I'm struggling to understand the latter part of chapter 9. So Noah has three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. One day, Noah was drinking wine he'd made in his own vineyard, got drunk and fell asleep naked in his tent. Ham saw this, so he told his two brothers. They responded by getting an item of clothing and laying it across their naked father. They walked into the tent backwards, so they wouldn't see his nakedness. When Noah woke up and found out what Ham had done, he cursed Ham's youngest son, Canaan, and declared that Canaan would be the lowest of slaves to his brothers, and to his uncles. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit harsh to me. I can understand Noah being annoyed with Ham for gossiping instead of trying to preserve his father's dignity. So surely you'd curse him. Or maybe his eldest son. But he cursed his youngest son. It just doesn't make sense to me. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to hear it.
Chapter 10 is a list of some of the descendants and clans of Noah's sons and their various locations. There's not an awful lot to say about it other than the fact that verse 25 is a perfect example of something that always makes me laugh about the Bible; "Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided". Well of course. I assume it makes sense in the source language, but in a translation, it makes no sense.
I love foreign languages, so I love the story of the Tower of Babel. Without it, and what happened there, my language skills would be pretty redundant. I find it interesting that when the people had a common language, they chose to try to build a monument to give themselves fame, and to attract others to them. They put themselves first instead of God. So God made them speak different languages so they were unable to understand each other. Had they been able to cooperate further, who knows what else they could have managed for their own glory. It's a very interesting solution to an odd problem. On the face of it, it's difficult to see what the people did wrong. When you see that God didn't want them cooperating, you wonder why. As I said before, they put themselves ahead of God. If they'd continued, they might have reached a point of wanting to challenge God himself. Which would have been bad. This is another one of those situations were you're not sure if it actually happened or if it's just a story explaining an aspect of life with a hidden lesson. Again, it doesn't really matter.
Matthew 4:23-5:20
(4:23-25 | 5:1-20)
In the first part of Matthew 4, Jesus went through and overcame a period of temptation before starting his ministry and calling his first disciples. At the end of the chapter, Jesus was roaming the streets of Galilee, preaching that the kingdom of God was near and healing the sick. His actions earned him a large following. It was so large that, at the start of chapter 5, Jesus and his disciples retreated to a mountainside so that he could teach them. The beatitudes are some of the most famous pieces of teaching. Verses 11-12 say that any persecution suffered because of Jesus is a good thing, and that we should be glad when it happens. In the West, we don't suffer anywhere near as much persecution as other Christians the world over. We're very blessed in that we have the freedom to worship and attend churches without fear of reprisal. Any persecution that we do suffer (e.g. ridicule from work colleagues/course mates/friends) is going to be minor in comparison. There may be isolated cases of people being harassed for their faith in more major and damaging ways. But it doesn't matter how big or how small the persecution - it's all good, and we'll be blessed because of it!
The salt and light metaphors are hugely important for us today. If you add the right amount of salt to a dish, it can vastly improve it. Too little salt and you won't notice. Too much, and you'll ruin it. We need to be like salt, adding just enough of Jesus and the gospel into the lives of others. If we don't do enough, people probably won't notice. If we do too much, they might be put off. At the same time, we need to be light. We need to be talking about Jesus, showing what he has done for us, and being his people on the earth. Our faith needs to visible, shining for the whole world to see. So much has been written about this topic already that I'm not sure I actually offered a fresh perspective, but I wrote it anyway.
Finally, Jesus said that he hadn't come to abolish the Law or the things the prophets wrote about, rather he'd come to fulfil them. Which we'll come to later. Jesus went on to say that "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven". This seems like a massive ask at first. The Pharisees were very good at knowing the Law, but they weren't so good at understanding it or putting it into practice. Jesus said "whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Later on, when Jesus was asked which of the commandments was greatest, he responded with something along the lines of "love the LORD your God with all your heart" and "love your neighbour as yourself". I think if we can manage that, we'll be off to a good start.
Psalm 4
(4)
Psalm 4 is about being able to call on God. It says the LORD will hear when the godly call to him. It urges us not to seek after false gods, and to put our trust in the LORD. This seems like sound advice to me.
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