November 6

OT: Ezekiel 14:12-16:42

O-kaaay. I see the reason for the thirty year old thing.

The bulk of today's reading consisted of an extended metaphor involving a bloody baby girl being thrown out in the desert only to be "adopted" by God. The girl grows into a beautiful woman and then promptly becomes a prostitute, one who pays her customers, instead of vice versa. Because of her sin, she is stoned to death.

There is more to that story, but I think you have to be over thirty to discuss it, and I'm not quite there:). So all I have to say is, geez.

As vivid as the story was, though, the takeaway was the same as for most of the prophecies: Judah has sinned and will be punished. The whole process was just conveyed a bit more...graphically today.

NT: Hebrews 7:18-26

The high priest discussion continues. Unlike other high priests, Jesus became priest with an oath that said that he would be the high priest forever (21). In keeping with the Hebrew writer's unique approach to the OT, the proof text for this declaration was found in a psalm that, on its face, is not explicitly about the Christ. However, I went and read the psalm (which the Hebrew writer has quoted before, btw), and I do see how most of it can easily be read as a Messianic psalm. The end of the psalm, however, is interesting in light of the writer's interpretation:

"⁵ The Lord is at your right hand^c]">[c];
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
⁷ He will drink from a brook along the way,^d]">[d]
and so he will lift his head high."

Now, if "the Lord" is God, it does kind of fit into the idea of God's wrath. But the text is ambiguous on this point. Check it out on biblegateway. That 'c' footnote says: " Or My lord is at your right hand, LORD." If the footnote's translation is right, then that means that the guy killing everyone is Christ. And maybe that fits in with some pictures of Revelation. I don't know; I know very little about Revelation. Anyway, I just thought the psalm as a whole was interesting.

This section concludes by affirming that not only is Christ our priest forever, but he is our perfect priest (28).

Psalm 106:1-12

Depending on your viewpoint, this psalm's perspective is either perplexing or neat. While the last psalm highlighted only good things about Israel's history, this psalm recounts the bad. And they are both praise psalms. I think it's kind of cool that two competing narratives regarding Israel's history can both elicit the same response in the psalmist(s): praise to God. It reminds me of the different ways we see our own history. One Christian can view their history (whether on a family, church, or national level) one way, and another can view the same history totally differently, but as long as the end result is a strong faith and praise to God, I think both viewpoints are okay. Now, b/c I'm a history nerd, I love to argue with those who disagree with me, but in the end, I'm not sure how important it is that we all see history the same way.

Prov. 27:4-6

Verse 5 says, "Better is an open rebuke than hidden love." I'm not sure what that means. I guess it is just praising honesty and frankness.