melodious stories

I'm reading a book by Peter Leithart called Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture. Great book so far!  Leithart wants us to get to the place where we are experiencing Scripture the way it is written, rather than rushing to get to the 'timeless moral truth' that is being taught. 

He likens reading to music.  Music is impossible to appreciate in one moment, and there is no fair way to summarize it.  Instead we must take the time to listen to the whole thing, appreciating the beauty of each note in relation to the others.  The more times we hear the entire piece, the more we will know it and the more that music will shape the way we think and feel. 

Here's what Leithart says about the Bible:  "God in his infinite wisdom decided to give us a book, a very long book, and not a portrait or an aphorism.  God reveals himself in his image, Jesus, but we come to know that image by reading, and that takes time.  God wants to transform us into the image of his image, and one of the key ways he does that is by leading us through the text.  If we short-circuit that process by getting to the practical application, we are not going to be transformed in the ways God wants us to be transformed.  'Get to the point' will not do because part of the point is to lead us through the labyrinth of the text itself.  There is treasure at the center of the labyrinth, but with texts, the journey really is as important as the destination." (55, emphasis mine)

Perhaps this is why I so often have trouble distilling what I'm learning from Scripture into a blog post.  Short cuts are never as beautiful as the scenic route, and a photograph is a poor substitute for a journey.  Hopefully the snippets I share here will spur you on to take a few trips yourself.  Take your time, and enjoy the ride!

a (heel-) grabbing story

This summer I've been immersed in the Jacob Narratives (Genesis 25-35), translating them from Hebrew to English and reading them over and over again.  Each time I read them more things stand out to me.  The author did such a beautiful job of arranging and telling these stories!  There is so much that could be said about Jacob, but here are some big things that stood out to me:

Jacob's name means 'heel-grabber', a designation which applies to him both literally and figuratively.  Not only did he grab his twin brother Esau's heel as he was born, but he continued to claw his way to the top into adulthood.  We're told he deceived his brother twice, once for his birthright (Hebrew: 'becorah') and once for his blessing (Hebrew: 'beracah').  Jacob's deception was so well-known that 'heel-grabbing' became another word for deception.

But being a heel-grabber is not all it's cracked up to be.  Jacob reaps what he sows. Fleeing for his life from his angry brother, Esau, Jacob ends up in Haran, at the home of his future father-in-law, who arguably beats Jacob at his own game.  After working for Laban for 7 years to win the hand of Rachel, Laban's younger daughter, Jacob wakes up the morning after his wedding to find he has been duped.  Just as Jacob tricked his blind father out of his older brother's blessing, so Jacob has been tricked under cover of darkness by his intended bride's older sister.  The chickens have come home to roost.  In a scene dripping with irony, Jacob asks Laban, "'What is this you have done to me?  Was it not for Rachel that I served with you?  Why then have you deceived me?'  But Laban said [using the same words to describe his daughters that have been used to describe Jacob and Esau], 'It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.'"  Jacob is stuck.  How can he argue against this?  It is also not an acceptable practice to give the birthright and the blessing to the younger son!

Fourteen years later, his relationship with Laban is so strained that again he flees, this time homeward.  As he nears home, again under the cover of darkness, he wrestles all night with a man whose identity is unknown to him.  As the dawn breaks Jacob grabs the man (he's good at this!) and begs for a blessing (have we read this before?).  The stranger asks Jacob, "What is your name?"  This question we have also heard before, in the darkened tent of Isaac, who suspected that someone was impersonating his firstborn, Esau.  This time Jacob passes the test and owns up to his own identity: "Jacob."  In this moment of truth the man declares a new name for Jacob; he will now be called Israel.  In his weakness and admission of the truth he finds his greatest blessing.  Jacob has now heard enough to know who this man is, and he calls that place Peniel, which means 'Face of God'.  Jacob has encountered God himself and been changed.

All through his story two threads are woven together.  The first is Jacob's own striving, his heel-grabbing.  He is constantly trying to get things to work out in his favor.  But quietly beneath this another theme shows itself consistently: God's purpose to bless Jacob, the heel-grabber.  Jacob doesn't deserve it.  He's difficult to live with and too often relies on his own strength.  In spite of this God continues to reaffirm his promise to be with Jacob, to bless him and make him the father of many nations.

During the night of his wrestling match Jacob had finally hit bottom.  He is terrified of meeting his brother Esau again, afraid of the hatred and revenge he expects to find.  He prays fervently for God's favor.  Then he prepares an enormous gift, 550 animals, for his brother, hoping to appease his anger.  He bows down to him and treats him like a king (exactly the opposite of what had been prophesied of them!), begging Esau to accept back the blessing that was rightfully his.  Esau accepts, and they are reconciled. 

As a reader it's exhausting to follow Jacob's life of striving, deception, and anxiety.  He is always trying to get things to work out right for himself, trying to cover his own back, when all along God is there, ready to bless him if he will just own his sin and admit his need.  Are we any different today?

If you've never read Jacob's story before, or if it's been awhile, I encourage you to do it.  It will take less than an hour, and you will be struck by what a remarkable story it is.  True stories are the most inspiring of all.  If God can bless and use Jacob, then he can use anybody!

gone "fish"ing

This summer may be the fullest one yet for us.  Between schoolwork (lots!), summer day camp, swimming lessons (x2), and a major project under the house, there just hasn't been much time to write new posts.  You may have wondered if I was gone fishing ... and in a sense, I was! 

Emma graduated from swimming lessons today and went from being pretty nervous in the water to swimming like a fish!  Yeah, Emma!

This week was vacation Bible school at church.  The theme was 'Backstage with the Bible' and worship was led by the 'Go Fish! Guys'.  The girls loved the music and had a lot of fun.

Another summer project has been getting ready for my grandma's 90th birthday.  We made her a photo book on Snapfish that turned out great.  There's something really cool about retelling the family story.  God has been so faithful through the years!

For school, I just finished a major read, Michael Fishbane's Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel.  The kids cheered me on through all 543 pages of it. :)  It's about the ways biblical authors quote each other.  While intertextuality (the fancy name for it) is one of my all-time favorite topics, this will not make it into my top 10 book list (though I suspect I'll be consulting it for years to come).  I did learn a whole lot, but Fishbane and I do not exactly see eye to eye!  He finds evidence here, there, and everywhere for occasions where a later author supposedly changed the text, and he sees lots of contradictions in the Bible.  Identifying those 'changes' is a rather subjective enterprise, though.  Here's one example:  Prophecy, according to Fishbane, is by definition vague and open-ended.  Therefore, any time there is something specific in a prophecy (such as a name of a person or place), it can be attributed to somebody else, years later, who added it in.  Laws, on the other hand, usually start very specific.  So if you come across a law that is based on a general principle, then it must have been added later.  In one case specificity is evidence of originality, in the other case it proves editorial activity.  Hmmm.... does this sound fishy?

I don't argue with his idea that the Bible was 'edited' or 'compiled' by later authors, but he takes it all much farther than I'm willing to go.  Thankfully, I don't have to fully agree with him to benefit from all his hard work.  I'm ready to head back to the Bible and read more carefully than ever before.

text and canon for 4-year-olds

I've spent nearly a year teaching the young four-year-old Sunday School class at our church.  They are a precious group of kids.  It's such a privilege to help lay a biblical foundation in these little ones.  I love to tell Bible stories in such a way that they are alive and interesting to the kids.  One idea has gone over particularly well.  It wasn't premeditated, I just realized when I saw blank looks that they needed more info!

Whenever I tell the story I have a Bible in front of me, even though I'm telling the story without reading it.  I like to tell them where in the Bible the story comes from.  Here's an example of the kind of thing I've been telling them throughout the year:

"Today I'm going to tell you a true story from the Bible.  It's found in the book of the Bible called John.  Why do you think it's called John? (this is a rhetorical question, by the way, and I don't wait for an answer!)  Because a man named John wrote it!  John was one of Jesus' disciples.  He followed Jesus around and watched what he did.  John listened to what Jesus said.  And it was really amazing stuff!  After Jesus died and rose again and went to heaven John thought to himself, 'People really need to hear about Jesus!'  So God helped him remember all those things that he heard Jesus say and saw Jesus do so that we could read about it and know Jesus, too!"

The kids seem to really get it.  And I hope it's sinking in for the long haul.  Because even more than the specific lesson I have to teach in a given week, I want them to know that the Bible is living and true, and the only reliable way to find out who God is!

when I run...

It's been years since I've seen the movie Chariots of Fire. But one scene sticks with me. Eric Liddell is explaining why he wants to keep running. "God made me fast," he said. "And when I run I feel God's pleasure."

Why study when I could have a less intense hobby? It's simple. When I study, I feel God's pleasure.

What has God made you to do? What do you do that makes him smile?

verbatim

Well, we made it through tree pollen season, had a short respite, and now its time for grass pollen.  I don't think it's affected me at all, but poor little Emma (age 4-3/4) is sneezing her head off.  Here's what she said to me the other day:

"Mom, I am not feeling well today.  My consequence is going to be to have no sugar for a whole week!"

Gotta love this girl!

And later she came to ask me, "Mom, am I unique?"

Yes, I would say so!

do we live in a Christian nation?

On this most patriotic of holidays, it's worth asking the question, "What should the relationship between church and state look like?"  Consider this quote from German scholar, Theo Sorg,

"The New Testament knows nothing of a Christian state, but it knows of Christians who profess their Lord in public life and in their political responsibility, and who make every effort to realize symbolically something of his good rule.  It is not they themselves who create the coming reign of peace; God alone will bring it about.  But they have this goal before them and can therefore seek to bring about peace wherever and however that is possible, in every weakness and fallibility, but nevertheless with the breath of Christian patience."

From Theo Sorg, "Die Bibel zum Thema Frieden," Theologische Beitrage (1982): 264-265. Quoted by Helmut W. Ziefle in Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997), 243.  My translation.