my burg

Bible reading for April 23.  Leviticus 27. "These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai." (27:34)  Congratulations on completing the book of Leviticus !   Redeeming service.  In Israel people might dedicate themselves for a time or give possessions in support of the Lord's service in the temple. See, for example, the story of Hannah, who pledged her son Samuel to assist in the temple ministry (1 Samuel 1:11).  Vows toward God were taken seriously.  If people wanted to rescind their vow, they would need to pay a redemption price as fair exchange for the value of their labor or property. Adjustments were made for gender (sex) and age.  Why was the value of a woman less than a man ?  The valuation here was the relative value of labor within that society . Men and women were both created in the image of God, and capital punishment was the penalty for any person who murdered ...

Bible reading for Feb 18:  Exodus 1; Luke 4. "But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them..." (Ex 1:17)  Pro-life midwives.   About two hundred years later, the book of Exodus opens with a much different situation than Genesis closed with. The tribes of Israel have grown in numbers and power. But the Egyptian authorities felt threatened and subjugated the Israelites as slaves .  The command went forth for the Hebrew midwives to destroy the male babies. The two women, Shiphrah and Puah, go down in sacred history along with Peter and the apostles, who believed, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).   So, before we meet Moses, we meet these two courageous women.   The fear of God.   It is possible to say that you love God (in some sense) without fearing him. But God, who is the only true and righteous God, is worthy of all reverence.  This is not the same thing as being afraid of God (1 Joh...

A new altar for Ahaz, the problem with people, and what it is that God wants... The fall of Samaria (722/21 BC). Chapter 17 of 2 Kings is a pause in the recounting of the history of Israel, and an evaluation, at the occasion of the d estruction of the city of Samaria by Shalmaneser IV, king of Assyria. Most of the citizens of the northern kingdom (Israel) are exiled and resettled  permanently into other areas of the Assyrian empire. ( Other people groups are also brought in and settled in Samaria, and through intermarriage  their descendants would become known as Samaritans, but that’s another story .) Chapter 17 tells us the reason why this disaster has come about. But first we must back up to chapter 16… “ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to  meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its  pattern, exact in all its details. And Uriah the priest built the altar; i...

"The real cause of failure, ultimately, in marriage is always  self, and the various manifestations of self.  Of course,  that is the cause of trouble everywhere and in every realm.   Self and selfishness are the greatest disrupting forces in  the world.  All the major problems confronting the world,  whether you look at the matter from the standpoint of  nations and statesmen or from the standpoint of industry and  social conditions, or from any other standpoint -- all these  troubles ultimately come back to self, to 'my rights', to  'what I want', and to 'who is he'? or 'who is she'?   "Self, with its horrid manifestations, always leads to trouble,  because if two 'selfs' come into opposition there is bound  to be a clash.  Self always wants everything for it-self.  That is true of my self, but it is equally true of your  self.  You at once have two autonomous powers, each deriving  from s...