Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fiddler on the roof - Tradition ( with subtitles )

The Slave

I began reading The Slave a couple days ago, and I see why it is so intriguing. I'm amazed by Jacob's pious religiosity and his love for the commandments. The battle of spirit against flesh is portrayed so well. It reminds me of the verse that Professor Sexson quoted in class: "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41) Jesus says this to his disciples when he asks them to stay awake and pray, while he goes and prays to the father in the garden before he is arrested. I was thinking about how in the history of the church, persecution has actually made believers stronger and the church has grown exponentially during these times. We'll see if the same is true for Jacob. Here are some words I looked up.

Gemara: The second part of the Talmud, mostly Rabbinical commentary on the Mishna
Mishnah: The first part of the Talmud that contains early interpretations of the scriptures
Cabala: A Jewish mystical movement based on a symbolic interpretation of the Scriptures; it flourished from the end of the 12th century
Eulogize: to praise highly in speech or writing

Researching Judaism and reading The Slave, I can't help think about Fiddler on the Roof. Here's a clip just for fun.

Monday, October 25, 2010

JOB

Why do bad things happen to good people? Certainly this is one of the most common questions that keep people from believing in God. How can a “good” God allow his children to suffer? Job gets bombarded with one thing after another. Ha if you think your life is hard, try being Job for a day. He is innocent! His “friends” try to tell him that God is punishing him for sin, but they are wrong. But if God is not punishing Job, what is the purpose of this suffering? God’s purpose is always to bring glory to himself. That may sound pompous, but think about it. He is GOD. THE ONE AND ONLY. THE I AM. The God of the Bible is a jealous God who is in both created the world and controls it. So it would make sense for him to bring glory to himself because there is no one and nothing greater. I wouldn’t want to follow a humble or docile God. I want to follow an all-powerful God.

God often brings glory to himself by bringing the proud down and delighting in the humble. I can’t think of anyone more humble than Job. Yes, he questions God in the midst of his suffering. He cannot understand it. But God essentially says, “Job, what do you know about the world and how it works? Look at the world beneath you and the world above you. Look at the animals. What do you understand about the world I created? Nothing! Who are you to question my ways?” Is God on a power trip? He definitely wants his glory and majesty to be seen, but I think he also wants to show that his might is purposeful (Job 40:14). He has a plan that we cannot understand… and it is for our good. Psalm 84:11 says, For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. He is asking Job to cling to this promise, and at the end of it all Job’s response is this:

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

His submissive response is hard for us to swallow in our individualistic society, but for me personally, the joy of knowing God comes from submitting to his will and recognizing how small I am compared to his greatness.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Apocrypha???


When I bought the KJV Bible from the MSU bookstore and opened it up, I was surprised to see books that I had never heard of. Wisdom? Sirach? Susanna? In my church background, I have never see these books. I soon discovered these books are part of the Apocrypha, the non-Canonical texts. After reading Susanna, I decided to do some research on the Canon of Scripture. Why do most churches today disregard the Apocrypha? I couldn't find anything unbiblical in the story of Susanna. What I found was that this is a debate that exists even today, but I think I now have a basic understanding of why the books we call the Old Testament are regarded as sacred while the Apocrypha is not. It is safe to assume that the Old Testament that we have now is the same as the Hebrew Bible. These are the sacred texts of the Israelites. The confusion began after Jesus went back to Heaven and the Jews began to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. The Gentiles didn't understand Hebrew, so they began to use the Septuagint, which was a translation that had been made for Greek-speaking Alexandrian Jews. This meant that the first Latin manuscript came from the Septuagint instead of the original Hebrew, and thus began the confusion.
I'll write more about the Canon later as I research more, but one other interesting thing I read had to do with the chronological arrangement of the Old Testament. It has a definite symmetrical shape. The three sections (Law, Prophets, and Writings) each has a narrative and literary part. The narrative part always follows chronological order while the literary part is arranged in descending order by their size. The diagram shows the shape of the Old Testament.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Woman, Female, Feminine


Does the God of the Bible value women? I think that is the question that was raised in my mind from Thursday’s lecture. Certainly the women of the Bible experience injustice and hardship, but from what I see, God is never condoning the injustice. Just because something is in the Bible does not mean that God approves of it. Women are definitely not powerless or weak to God in the Old or New Testament. Women like Tamar, Ruth, and Esther show incredible strength and greatly influence those around them. I love how God displays and values women and their femininity in the Bible because it is obvious to me that he values them deeply. The heart of the woman is in many ways a reflection of God’s heart. God said that He created man and woman in his own image, so it would make sense that the feminine would carry some attributes of God. When I think of God in this way, I think of tenderness and love for adventure and nurturing qualities, all qualities of women. One of my favorite stories about a woman comes from the New Testament. It is Mary Magdalene. Over and over it is obvious that Mary and Jesus have a deep relationship. Jesus LOVES her, and she pours out her heart before him. In the Mary and Martha story, we see Mary so captured with Jesus that all she can do is sit at his feet and take in his words. Another time, we see her again at his feet anointing him with her tears and wiping his feet with her hair. Jesus was her master, Lord, Teacher, and Friend, and it makes sense that when Jesus is resurrected, he first reveals himself to her. In the garden, she does not recognize him, but then HE SAYS HER NAME. He says, “Mary,” and she recognizes his voice, as he had said she would earlier in John 10. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” God loves women. That’s all.