Bible Study Moment: Joshua 22

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Joshua 22 has a story that we might be able to learn from.

Two and a half of the twelve tribes had decided that they would settle in land east of the Jordan River, and received Moses’ approval before he died. They had the condition that the men of fighting age needed to help the other tribes get settled west of the Jordan. That has been deemed to have happened and the men are going back across the Jordan. Shortly after they erect an altar. The reaction of the other 9 ½ tribes is to go to war against them because they believe the ones east of the river have sinned against the Lord, worshipping some other god.

Before attacking, they send some leaders including the high priest, who recount recent history of others who have disobeyed God and the consequences for all of them.

The leaders of the 2 ½ tribes respond (and I am very loosely paraphrasing) No! No! No! You don’t understand. This isn’t an altar but a tower of witness reminding future generations that we are a part of Israel, in case your children say our children are not a part of them.

So war is averted. What strikes me about this is how quickly the one group is to think the worse of their fellow Israelites. And how much like them we can be, quick to assign the worse reasons for somebody’s actions and/or words that we disagree with. Like maybe the golden rule applies here, and we should judge other people’s motives the same way we would like them to judge ours.

 

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: God is Love

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God is love.

This phrase appears twice in 1 John 4:7-21. There is a lot more in these verses to make it very worthwhile to read.

I’ve come to understand this statement as being more than giving a characteristic or attribute of God but stating God’s essence. So if asked, “Where have I seen God?” I think of examples of love being expressed. And it doesn’t matter who is expressing the love. At times it is easier to see God in the actions of someone who says that they don’t believe in God than it is in some who not only say that they are a Christian but claim that what they are doing is God’s will.

What I mean by love is how the apostle Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13.

Love isn’t jealous or arrogant or rude or irritable. Love doesn’t brag or seek its own advantage or keep a record of wrongdoing. Love isn’t happy with injustice but is happy with the truth.

Love is patient, kind, puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

A question that comes up is “How can we love someone that we don’t like?” Here is where understanding that love defines God helps, and understanding that as we mature as Christians we are called to become more Christ-like. (See Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 11:1 and other verses.) So we love because our nature is becoming as one who loves regardless of the likeability of the recipient, as God has loved us, which brings me back to 1 John 4.

 

Mark Phillips

 

Bible Study Moment: 3 Questions

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Matthew 22 and Mark 12 record the same 3 questions asked of Jesus. Luke 20 has the first 2 questions, but the 3rd one (Which is the greatest commandment?) is in Luke 10 and serves as the introduction to the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The first question is about paying taxes to Caesar. The Pharisees get supporters of King Herod (who is king only because Caesar placed him there) to join them in asking this question. So it is obviously meant to trap Jesus, the supporters of Herod want a “yes” answer and the Pharisees want a “no” so it  really isn’t a sincere question seeking an answer.

The next question is asked by the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection. The question is about the resurrection, so it is also clearly not a sincere question seeking an answer.

Regarding the last question: What commandment is the greatest of all? Matthew states that the Pharisees are still testing Jesus, while the implication in Mark is that one of them might be sincerely asking the question. In any event, Jesus gives a direct answer, instead of the more indirect responses that he gives to the first two. In fact Jesus gives a bonus answer. Not only does he state that to love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength is the greatest commandment, but #2 is very similar, love your neighbor as yourself.

Since Jesus volunteers this additional answer, maybe our love for our neighbor should be somehow nearly as intently as our love for God; maybe love our neighbor not only in our religious life, but also our working (business) life, recreational time, and political positions as well as all other areas of our lives.

 

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment

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We saw Jesus Christ Superstar this past weekend. It is being promoted as a 50th anniversary tour while it is closer to 53 years old (dang Covid-19). This prompted me to realize that there are a lot of adults whose entire lives have included rock ‘n roll being a medium for biblically based stories. As one who remembers when that was not the case, allow me to share some memories of when Jesus Christ Superstar was first released.

I was a junior in high school when the original 2 disc LP was released (also available on 8-track and cassette). This was a time when many adults still viewed rock ‘n roll as “the devil’s music”. So Superstar was wrong in their eyes right off the bat.

Then Jesus is being called a superstar. This was different, therefore threatening.

There’s no resurrection! At least not of Jesus, although Judas sings “Superstar” after he has died, speaking for the “modern man”. Including the resurrection would have come from either a position of faith, or a desire not to offend. It’s rock ‘n roll, offending somebody was going to happen.

The story deviates a lot from what a cantata at Easter or Christmas would be in a worship service. There are characters that are much more prominent in Superstar; especially Judas and Mary Magdalene, but also Pilate and Caiaphas (the high priest). Therefore, threatening.

There’s the idea of a possible romantic connection between Jesus and Mary Magdalene! It shouldn’t be unusual to think that Mary might have wrestled with trying to understand her feelings toward Jesus. And if Jesus is tempted in every way yet without sin like it says in Hebrews 4:15, then the possibility that Jesus may have also had questions about his relationship with Mary or anyone else shouldn’t have been threatening, but it was seen that way by many.

My favorite song from Superstar is “Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)”. There’s the increasing intensity of the lashing due to the music, the mob chanting “Remember Caesar – you’ll be demoted, you’ll be deported” getting to Pilate, and at the end when Pilate is yelling, “DIE! IF YOU WANT TO, YOU INNOCENT PUPPET!” it captures what Pilate may have been thinking. Overall, I think Tim Rice did a good job with characters like Pilate, the priests, Judas, Mary, and Herod.

When the movie (1st movie) came out in 1973, I was involved with a student Christian group at KU that passed out tracts to those waiting in line. There were 2 of us, and my friend commented to one person as he handed him the tract, “the book is better”, using a classic comment about moves based on books. The person in line responded “Is it out in a book now?” and then immediately realized that the Bible was the book, so he then acknowledged that by saying something like, “Oh. You got me. Good one.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGdeywb-DYE

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: Deuteronomy 20:5-7

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Deuteronomy 20:5-7 gives three ways for a man of fighting age to not go to battle – The officials will also say to the troops: Is there anyone here who has just built a new house but hasn’t yet dedicated it? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the war and someone else would dedicate the house. Or is there anyone here who has planted a vineyard but hasn’t yet put it to good use? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would use the vineyard. Or is there anyone here who is engaged but not yet married? He may leave and go back to his house; otherwise, he might die in the battle and someone else would marry his fiancée.

These sounded familiar, not exactly the same but very close, excuses that Jesus didn’t accept in his parable in Luke 14:16-24.

“A certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people. When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The dinner is now ready.’ One by one, they all began to make excuses. The first one told him, ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I bought five teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ When he returned, the servant reported these excuses to his master. The master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ The servant said, ‘Master, your instructions have been followed and there is still room.’ The master said to the servant, ‘Go to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Sounds like Jesus may be saying that the old excuses won’t be good anymore; or that it is more important to attend the banquet then fight for one’s country; or maybe I’m seeing a relationship that isn’t there.

 

Mark Phillips

 

Bible Study Moment

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A few years Stephen Hawking had a TV special. One subject he talked about was about black holes, and how the closer one gets to a black hole time slows down, and when you pass the event horizon then there is no time. Then he said that that left no room for god. This is one occasion I spoke to the TV screen in a vain attempt to tell Hawking that his concept of god was too small, as it is for many people.

My understanding of God is that God’s nature (if that is the right way to say this) is so far beyond our understanding that applying our ideas of time, space, gender, and so much more is meaningless.

Passages, including Exodus 3 – Moses and the burning bush where God gives the name I Am; Revelation 4 – John’s vision of the heavenly throne where four creatures continually praise the Lord God Almighty, saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come; and even the first words “In the beginning” are attempts to communicate that God created time.

 

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: New Earth

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Isaiah 65:17-25 gives one vision of a new heaven and new earth, where people who die before the age of 100 will seem cursed, along with the wolf and lamb and lion.

 

Revelation 21:1-22:4 is another vision of a new heaven and earth, where death is no more, also that the Lord God dwells with humankind so there is no need for a temple, and a tree with 12 different crops of fruit, one each month, and the leaves are for the healing of the nations.

 

John 14:2-3 is a well-known passage where Jesus says, “My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too.”(CEB)

 

Since we regularly pray for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven: What specifics would be in your vision of a new heaven and a new earth?

 

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: Matthew 25

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Matthew 25:31-45 is probably a familiar scripture passage for many of you. It is “the sheep and the goats”. One thing that has always stuck out for me is verse 40 which reads “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.” Emphasis added because in verse 45 “brothers and sisters of mine” is not there.

Just a few years ago I read one person explain this by saying that Jesus is calling us to help the hungry, thirsty, stranger,
naked, sick, and those in prison only if they are already “in the household of faith”. This struck me as a way to interpret
scripture to justify what the person is doing, or willing to do. One problem with this interpretation that I see is that when addressing the “goats”, who have not helped those who may be outside the household of faith, the goats still “will go away into eternal punishment” in verse 45.

Instead I’m inclined to think Jesus is telling us to see others as brothers and sisters regardless of any religious faith, because he does.

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: Isaiah 11

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There’s the saying “The lion shall lie down with the lamb” that is quoted as being from the Bible. The closest that the Bible
gets to that is in Isaiah 11:6, which says “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them.”

Mark Phillips

Bible Study Moment: Galatians 2

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When the New American Standard version of the Bible was published around 1970, there was a physical problem with them. If the Bible was used regularly the spine would wear out. As a result several friends got a custom leather cover made,
usually including the reference to a favorite scripture. The scripture reference on Linda’s is Gal. 2:20. Also, one February 20 th there were some people getting baptized. Before baptizing them Bob commented that since it was 2/20 we should look at Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Mark Phillips