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Isaiah 6-7, 2 Chronicles 26-27, Philemon

Isaiah 6:4-10

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:
” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes. ^[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

In the narrative here, God is speaking to Isaiah, seeking for someone who will do his work. Isaiah volunteers. What is God’s message for him to deliver to the people? It is this:

God has given up on you. God will harden your heart, dull your ears, and close your eyes. You will never understand and never perceive. Why will God do this? Because if he didn’t, the people might see, hear, understand, turn and be healed.

Pause and re-read that.

Why would God not want his people to repent, turn, and be healed?

Why would God in fact change his people so that they cannot repent and turn and be healed?

This must be a punishment - that God wants them to be destroyed in retribution for their years of unfaithfulness. And yet, it’s an interesting dynamic, isn’t it? If God wanted to destroy them, he could just do that. Who’s going to tell him not to? But there’s this whole thing here where God says he’s going to harden their hearts so that they cannot repent, and thus his punishment will be justified. I wonder if this plays a part in Paul’s “destined for destruction” thing that he delivers later on.

Isaiah 4-5, Psalm 115-116, Jude

Psalm 115:2-7

Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”

³ Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.

⁴ But their idols are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.

⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;

⁶ they have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but they cannot smell;

⁷ they have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

In the contest of rationality, what wins? The one who believes in a God who cannot be seen, but can be ascribed unlimited powers? Or the one who believes in a God made of stone or wood or gold, who cannot be ascribed any powers by any rational means?

Maybe that’s not quite how it works. Do people with idols believe that the god itself actually is the object of wood or stone, or that the object is just a representation of the god?

Isaiah 1-3, Titus 3

Titus 3:9-11

⁹ But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. ¹⁰ Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. ¹¹ You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Wow, this is a hard-hitting statement. How much time do we waste within the church by getting into pointless arguments over things like worship style, dress, decorations…. all of those things which don’t impact your salvation one bit. They are foolish controversies. While we can talk about them and attempt to accomodate everone, when they become devisive we need to step back and figure out what the church is really about.

Amos 7-9, Psalm 104, Titus 2

Titus 2:11-15

¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

¹⁵ These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

This is a pretty succinct summary of what the Christian life is all about: saying “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and living self-controlled, upright and godly lives as we wait for Jesus. We are to be his people, pure, holy, and eager to do what is good.

Paul’s advice to teaching people how to do this: encourage and rebuke with all authority. In my experience we do pretty good with the encouragement, but not so much with the rebuking. It’s rare that I’ve witnessed or heard of a rebuke which was done with love and sympathy and encouragement as well. That seems to be the thing we consistenly fail at- either by not doing it at all, or by doing it in a way which causes harm.

Amos 4-6, Psalm 86-87, Titus 1

Amos 5:18-20

¹⁸ Woe to you who long
for the day of the LORD!
Why do you long for the day of the LORD ?
That day will be darkness, not light.

¹⁹ It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.

²⁰ Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

Here’s an interesting perspective on the Day of the LORD: it may not be as pleasant as we think it will be. This is the great day of accountability. What have you done with what the LORD entrusted you with?

Amos 1-3, Psalm 80, 2 Timothy 4

2 Timothy 4:3

³ For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

I’ve seen this happen through the invisible hand of capitalism. Church leaders arise who say very inoffensive things, hi howarya doin, lets all pull together, Jesus loves you, heres what you can do to make your life better -that kind of message, and if they draw, that encourages them to continue with the bland messages. It’s market driven, if you weel. Let’s not talk about pain or sacrifice or carrying your cross. Instead, it’s what people want to hear, not what they need to hear.

2 Kings 13-14, 2 Chronicles 25, 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 2:6-9, 16-17

⁶ They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷ always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹ But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

“Their folly will be clear to everyone.” Except for the weak-willed women, apparently.

Paul does seem to have issues with women.

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So does this mean that the scripture is always true? Well, I guess I’d say that it depends on your interpretation of truth and the context of the passage. For example, in the passage above, it may be true that Paul wrote those words, but they are certainly context-dependent for their relevance. Are they useful to teaching? Yes. Absolutely. Part of teaching is discussion and even dissent. By wrestling with awkward scriptures like this, I am taught something about Paul, and something about myself, and something about how to live in this world and interact with others. But it doesn’t even make sense to read Paul’s lines in a “literally true” sense: Paul postulates a category of women who are “weak-willed… always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” Does such a category exist? How many women does it include? Words like “always” and “never” make me skeptical.

Jonah 1-4, 2 Timothy 2

Jonah 3:6-10

⁶ When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

The writer here doesn’t come right out and say it, but we can easily read into the last sentence here: God changed his actions based on what the people of Nineveh did. God planned to destroy the city. He sent Jonah to warn them. They turned from their evil ways. God saw that they responded to the message, so he had compassion and did not bring about the destruction he had threatened.

Was this an empty threat? Of couse we’ll never know. You can rationalize this out any way you want to: “Well, God knew that if he sent Jonah, then the people would repent, so he knew that he wasn’t going to destroy the city anyway.” Sure, maybe. That’s one way of arguing the point. But then we get to the philosopher’s points, such as this: if God knows what people are going to do at every turn, does He get bored? Is there nothing new under the sun? I think it is intriguing to postulate that God enjoys being surprised by humans and their choices. Perhaps that’s anthropomorphizing too much. But then again, we are made in the image of God and we like surprises (well, some of us do). What could possibly surprise God? I say that the action of a free will can be surprising.

Joel 1-3, 2 Timothy 1

Joel 2:12-13

¹² “Even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

¹³ Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

“Return to me with all your heart… rend your heart and not your garments.”

It’s easy to put on the outward appearance without changing your thoughts or motives or behavior. But that’s not what counts.

2 Kings 11-12, 2 Chronicles 24, 1 Timothy 6

1 Timothy 6:1-2

¹ All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. ² Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.

This is one of those head-scratching passages. I understand the part of the slave respecting his master and working even harder for him, but how do you explain the perspective of a “believing master” holding slaves. How can someone who subscribes to the teaching of Jesus keep another human as a slave?

Well, here’s my analysis, such as it is. I wonder if Paul is using “slavery” in the Old Testament context, where poor people essentially sold themselves into slavery with a rich person or a landowner for a period not exceeding six years - because in the seventh year all slaves were set free. The slave was essentially trading freedom for a steady job, housing, food, etc. So Paul may be referring in this passage to people who have voluntarily become slaves (as voluntary as economic conditions allow, anyway), and those who have agreed to care for the slave.

I may be way off, but that’s what I think it refers to anyway.