I used to dislike the Pauline epistles. As a Sunday School teacher, I would carefully study the words, sentences and paragraphs, and get pretty bogged down in their complexity. I'm not sure that studying them in Greek and actually diagramming the sentences was particularly helpful. (Although I must admit that I always kind of enjoyed diagramming sentences.)
At some point, fortunately, I became more comfortable with Paul's writings. Perhaps it was after I'd worked through them enough to understand them better. More likely, it was when I began to back off a bit and appreciate the personality that the letters reveal.
Galatians is great for that. I've always kind of liked the way Paul starts. Unlike most of his letters, his introduction is short and not all that sweet. Then he proceeds to jump on the Galatians by verse 6.
Much of the letter to the Galatians deals with the issue of the Judaizers. These were people in the early Christian church who were Jews that followed Jesus as Messiah. They viewed Christianity, or "The Way," as they may have called it, to be an extension of Judaism. They felt that people could only be "Christians" if they were practicing Jews. So they expected their fellow Jews to continue to carefully practice Jewish laws and traditions, and they weren't really open to Gentiles becoming Christians unless they agreed to convert to Judaism.
Paul was adamant that Christianity presented a whole new way to relate to God -- salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). As he wrote in Galatians 2:15, "...a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ." Further, Paul was adamant that Gentiles were welcome into the fold and that he had been specially commissioned to reach out to them. "...I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:7-8).
So his letter chastises the people who promote a different viewpoint. "As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned" (Gal1:9). He also takes on Saint Peter: "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong...I said to Peter in front of them all, 'You are Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?'" (Gal. 2:11, 14). Or how about his words for "agitators," those who insisted that Gentiles become circumcised before they can follow Christ: "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" (Gal. 5:12).
Paul gets pretty testy in this letter, but there are some wonderful, gentle passages as well. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Gal 5:14). "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control" (Gal 5:22-23a).
I'm always tantalized by what may be hints about Paul's personal health. In Gal. 4:15, he says, "I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me." At the end, he writes in Gal. 6:11, "See what large letters I use as I write with my own hand." Some scholars think this suggests the "thorn in his flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7) may have been a problem with his eyes or his eyesight.
But I guess if I had to pick a verse to stitch on a sampler, it would be Gal. 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." No doubt he was saying this to the believers in Galatia, but also to himself. It's something I have to tell myself over and over, especially when I get discouraged or frustrated.
What about you, dear reader? What is the good that you are doing for which you must not grow weary? It's okay to get testy now and then; even Paul did. Just keep up the good work and the good fight.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Ezra: A man of backbone
It's been so long since I wrote for my blog that the look and feel of the composing screen has completely changed. I guess I can take that as one more commentary on the speed of change in technology. And since I'm writing about books that were written some 2500 years ago, I wonder if the speed of technology change was even a concept in those ancient days.
A few thoughts about the book of Ezra.
The books in the Bible that deal with the period of the Exile are kind of neat because of the way they tie in with other documented history. That is, dates expressed by saying that something happened in the second year of so-and-so's reign can be cross-checked with detailed records maintained by the royal courts of the Babylonians or Persians. The earlier in Israel's history, the larger the margin for error in the exact dates; but by the time of the Exile, the dates can be tracked accurately within a matter of months or days.
And what's even more compelling is that with these verified dates and events, we have a sense of how God's people--primarily the Israelites or the Jews, but also other great nations--played out a part in God's plan for the world in a real geopolitical stage. Reading the biblical account gives the perspective of God's manifest destiny for His people.
Of course, I have a terrible time keeping track of the kings of Israel and Judah, and even more trouble keeping track of the kings of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and other nations that ruled over Israel. I always have to have a commentary with the names and dates of these kings' reigns.
The book of Ezra describes the return of the Israelites from Exile. The narrative is a little hard to follow. If you didn't have a good commentary, for example, you would probably miss the fact that the events in 4:6-23 actually predate the main story of the difficulties in rebuilding the temple.
To me, the most interesting drama in Ezra is the issue of foreign wives. Ezra the priest came back to Jerusalem in 458 BC. Jerusalem had been sacked in 586, and most of the population, including the intellectual and religious leaders, had been deported to Babylonia. Not everyone left Jerusalem, however, and some continued to live there during the Exile. Also, there were different waves of Jews who were allowed to return. In Ezra 9, some of the leaders report that "The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices....They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the people around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness."
Although today's world might approve of this "melting pot" and mixing of ethnicities, this was anathema to Ezra. God had been very clear to His people that they should keep themselves away from entanglements with non-Jews. Intermarriage was expressly forbidden because it was a surefire way for a Jew to start warming up to other religious practices, and abandoning Yahweh.
So Ezra, after duly agonizing over the situation, conferred with the elders and they all agreed the only thing to do would be to "put away" the foreign wives and their children. The text doesn't detail what was involved, but it does list the men who had taken foreign wives and were obliged to put them away. Presumably, they divorced their wives but somehow made provision for them and their children. One would hope so.
What's remarkable about this incident is the fortitude Ezra showed in leading the people to take such a breathtakingly bold move. We today can barely even imagine this: A religious leader taking a stand that dozens of community leaders, including religious leaders, had sinned grievously by taking foreign wives, and then insisting that they actually tear apart families to fix the problem.
Just try to translate that kind of a scenario into today.
Part of me wishes we had leaders with the backbone of Ezra. But I have to admit, I'm secretly glad that we don't have leaders that gutsy. I shudder to think of how a massive condemnation of compromised morality would play out.
A few thoughts about the book of Ezra.
The books in the Bible that deal with the period of the Exile are kind of neat because of the way they tie in with other documented history. That is, dates expressed by saying that something happened in the second year of so-and-so's reign can be cross-checked with detailed records maintained by the royal courts of the Babylonians or Persians. The earlier in Israel's history, the larger the margin for error in the exact dates; but by the time of the Exile, the dates can be tracked accurately within a matter of months or days.
And what's even more compelling is that with these verified dates and events, we have a sense of how God's people--primarily the Israelites or the Jews, but also other great nations--played out a part in God's plan for the world in a real geopolitical stage. Reading the biblical account gives the perspective of God's manifest destiny for His people.
Of course, I have a terrible time keeping track of the kings of Israel and Judah, and even more trouble keeping track of the kings of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and other nations that ruled over Israel. I always have to have a commentary with the names and dates of these kings' reigns.
The book of Ezra describes the return of the Israelites from Exile. The narrative is a little hard to follow. If you didn't have a good commentary, for example, you would probably miss the fact that the events in 4:6-23 actually predate the main story of the difficulties in rebuilding the temple.
To me, the most interesting drama in Ezra is the issue of foreign wives. Ezra the priest came back to Jerusalem in 458 BC. Jerusalem had been sacked in 586, and most of the population, including the intellectual and religious leaders, had been deported to Babylonia. Not everyone left Jerusalem, however, and some continued to live there during the Exile. Also, there were different waves of Jews who were allowed to return. In Ezra 9, some of the leaders report that "The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices....They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the people around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness."
Although today's world might approve of this "melting pot" and mixing of ethnicities, this was anathema to Ezra. God had been very clear to His people that they should keep themselves away from entanglements with non-Jews. Intermarriage was expressly forbidden because it was a surefire way for a Jew to start warming up to other religious practices, and abandoning Yahweh.
So Ezra, after duly agonizing over the situation, conferred with the elders and they all agreed the only thing to do would be to "put away" the foreign wives and their children. The text doesn't detail what was involved, but it does list the men who had taken foreign wives and were obliged to put them away. Presumably, they divorced their wives but somehow made provision for them and their children. One would hope so.
What's remarkable about this incident is the fortitude Ezra showed in leading the people to take such a breathtakingly bold move. We today can barely even imagine this: A religious leader taking a stand that dozens of community leaders, including religious leaders, had sinned grievously by taking foreign wives, and then insisting that they actually tear apart families to fix the problem.
Just try to translate that kind of a scenario into today.
Part of me wishes we had leaders with the backbone of Ezra. But I have to admit, I'm secretly glad that we don't have leaders that gutsy. I shudder to think of how a massive condemnation of compromised morality would play out.
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