Thurs 100401 pm Lk 21-22

Luke 21
21.4  out of her poverty...  The Lord seems to be more concerned about what we have left than how much we give.
21.15  I will give you a mouth and wisdom...  There are a lot of mouths, but not as much wisdom.  I suspect that too much fret about what will happen could cause anxiousness.  This may be similar to why God took the Israelites around the long way to the promised land.
21.28  redemption is drawing near...  conversion, sanctification, and finally glorification, the third part of our redemption.
21.31  the kingdom of God...  as still future here, or an important aspect of it anyway.
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Luke 22
22.2  chief priests and the scribes were...   The would have been better served by focusing on the Paschal season and cleansing out the malice and evil and preparing their hearts to celebrate the Seder with sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5.7-8)
22.22  but woe to that man by whom...  Evil may be inevitable, but it should be in spite of me not because of me.
22.45  sleeping for sorrow...  Interesting to contemplate the connection between the physical and emotional.  I wonder why the disciples were so sorrowful.  I guess that Jesus must have set a pretty serious tone as the Seder.

Wed 100331 am Luke 19-20

Luke 19
19. 8  fourfold...  Similar to the OT law.
19.13  engage in business...  Somehow I don't remember this ever standing out to me like it did today.  The word "business" has has some thought provoking implications.
19.44  the time of your visitation...  I want to maintain a watchful heart that does not miss my time.
19.48  the people were hanging on his words... The sweet spot for any preacher.
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Luke 20
20. 16  surely not...   I just love the way the esv translates this response.  But, yes, surely.
20.26  marveling...they became silent...  This is a heart attitude that most of us could use more.  It reminds me of Job in chapter 40.
20.35  who are considered worthy...  Col 1.12

Monday 100329 pm Luke 13-18

Luke 13
13.2  think these Galileans were worse sinners...   Some ask if victims of natural disasters deserved it.  I tend to reply, "Yes, just like we do."
13.11  a disabling spirit...  This is a curious description.  I wonder if there were physical deformities, or if this was an otherwise unexplained thing.
13.24  will seek to enter and will not be able...  This seems to contradict the notion that anybody can come to Jesus at anytime if they will just meet him halfway.  This is a thought provoking verse.
13.34  you would not... This is sad and tragic.
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Luke 14
14.10  sit in the lowest place...  This sounds like something out of Proverbs--just good sense.
14.14  be repaid at the resurrection of the just...  This seems to suggest dong thing with the intentional design for maximum heavenly reward. That is an interesting perspective and twist on doing things.
14.23  Go out to the highways and hedges and compel...
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Luke 15
15.7  more joy in heaven...  What makes heaven "happy"?
15.10  there is joy before the angels...  It doesn't really say that the angels will experience joy, only that there will be joy in their presence.  It seems like an odd way to say it.
15.16 longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate...  I like the sound of pig pods.  :o) This does vividly describe just how desperate he was.
15.17  came to himself...
15.18 & 23  Two parts of coming back to God-- awareness of our sin and our unworthiness before God.
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Luke 16
16.8  for his shrewness...  Jesus can commend one trait while not approving of others.
16.13  God and money...  This is a choice that most Americans make on a daily or weekly basis.
16.23  being in torment... 
16.31  if they did not hear Moses...  The Word is enough, if a person is ready.
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Luke 17
17.1  but woe to the one through whom they come!  This is a thought that we see many times in the Old Testament (ex. Babylon as a tool of God that was guilty for its cruelty, etc.)
17.19  your faith has made you whole...
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Luke 18
18.1  pray and not loose heart...  Prayer and heart go together.
18.34  This saying was hidden...  We criticize the apostle's for how spiritually dense they were, but this seems to indicate that it was not all their falt.
18.40  What do you want me to do for you?  This is fruitful question to contemplate.

Sun 100328 pm Ez 32-35

Ezekiel 32
32.5  your carcass...  Not a lion, but a sea creature on dry land.  That is a good picture of us.  We think that we are a pretty big deal in the water, but won't be so big and tough when God throws us up on the bank.
32.224  My sword in his [Babylon] hand...  This is an interesting thing to ponder.  Babylon swinging "God's" sword, but later held accountable for its sin in doing so.  The synergy between God's sovereignty and free moral choices blows my mind.
32,19  Who do you surpass in beauty?...  This a sobering question in the context of this verse.
32.22  Assyria...
32.24 Elam...
32.26  Meshech-Tubal...
32.29  Edom...
32.30  Sidonians...


Ezekiel 33
33.3  the trumpet... interesting imagery 
33.13  yet if he [the righteous] trusts in his righteousness...
33.31  they hear what you say but they will not do it for...  The reason given is a good warning.


Ezekiel 34
43.4  weak, sick, injured, strayed, lost...  are the special responsibility of the shepherds.
34.10  the shepherds feed themselves...
34.26  they shall be showers of blessing... So here is the source for that favorite hymn.

     Daniel W. Whittle wrote the words to “There Shall be Showers of Blessing.”  The hymn appeared first in Gospel Hymns, No. 4.  Named after the famous Daniel Webster, the American politician and famous for the dictionary, Daniel Webster Whittle made an impact on American society on his own.  He lost his right arm during the American Civil war and spent time in a prisoner of war camp.  It was here that he found a New Testament to read and came to know Christ personally.  But he didn’t accept Christ until after someone at the hospital had asked him to say a prayer over a dying prisoner.  Afterward, he worked in Chicago at the Elgin Watch Company.  It was in Chicago that he met and worked with Phillip Bliss and James McGranahan—both musical evangelists who worked with Dwight L. Moody.  
     James McGranahan wrote the melody to “There Shall be Showers of Blessing.”  McGranahan had been gifted with a lovely and rare tenor voice that promised to lift him into a great career in opera.  He had become a Christian several years earlier and was very good friends with Phillip Bliss, who at the time was singing as part of the Daniel Webster Whittle  musical evangelists team.   During the Christmas season in 1876, Phillip had written to James before he boarded a train.  In his letter, Phillip had urged James to reconsider using his voice for the Lord rather than to continue training for the opera and pursuing that career.  Phillip’s own experiences in music had been similar to McGranahan’s, and they were very close friends.  Phillip had explained in the letter what a joy it was to see people come to know the Lord while he was singing.  He wanted his friend to know that kind of joy.  Not long after James received the letter, he also received news that his friend had died in a train wreck.  When he went to the train wreck to help recover any belongings and identify bodies, he met Daniel W. Whittle.  On the ride home from that tragic scene, James McGranahan gave talents to the Lord and began to serve as a singing evangelist with “Major Whittle’s” evangelism team.   --http://www.gospelpiano.com/articles/there-shall-be-showers-of-blessing-77.htm


There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.


Refrain
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.


There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.
Refrain


There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come, and now honor Thy Word.
Refrain


There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!
Refrain


There shall be showers of blessing,
If we but trust and obey;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
If we let God have His way.
Refrain


Ezekiel 35
35.6  because you did not hate bloodshed...  
35.11  according to the anger and envy that you showed...  Both of these statements indicate that they got or wanted.  
They will know that I am the Lord...  Five times.  This is a common phrase in this part of Ezekiel, but this is more than usual.

Sat 100327 am Ex 25 Ez 30-31

Exodus 25
25.2  whose heart moves him...  
25.10 ark...  "You shall" six times in the ESV.
25.23  table...  "You shall" eight times in the ESV
25.31  lampstand...  Most of this section is in the third person neuter.  I wonder why.
Are the 2nd person verbs singular referring to Moses or plural to the "nation"?


Ezekiel 30
30.13 Memphis...  In Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; 46:14, 19; Ezek. 30:13, 16, it is mentioned under the name Noph. It was the capital of Lower, i.e., of Northern Egypt. From certain remains found half buried in the sand, the site of this ancient city has been discovered near the modern village of Minyet Rahinch, or Mitraheny, about 16 miles above the ancient head of the Delta, and 9 miles south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. It is said to have been founded by Menes, the first king of Egypt, and to have been in circumference about 19 miles.
30.14  All the towns mentioned in these verses were important religious centers as well as large cities.  ---http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/ezekiel.pdf
Patheros...
the name generally given to Upper Egypt (the Thebaid of the Greeks), as distinguished from Matsor, or Lower Egypt (Isa. 11:11; Jer. 44:1, 15; Ezek. 30:14), the two forming Mizraim

After the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, colonies of Jews settled “in the country of Pathros” and other parts of Egypt.

Zoan...
(Old Egyptian: Sant= “stronghold,” the modern San). A city on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It was built seven years after Hebron in Palestine (Num. 13:22). This great and important city was the capital of the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who ruled Egypt for more than 500 years. It was the frontier town of Goshen. Here Pharaoh was holding his court at the time of his various interviews with Moses and Aaron. "No trace of Zoan exists; Tanis was built over it, and city after city has been built over the ruins of that" (Harper, Bible and Modern Discovery). Extensive mounds of ruins, the wreck of the ancient city, now mark its site (Isa. 19:11, 13; 30:4; Ezek. 30:14). "The whole constitutes one of the grandest and oldest ruins in the world."
thebes...
Thebes (Θῆβαι, Thēbai, Arabic: طيبة‎, Ṭībah) is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile (25.7°N 32.645°E). It was inhabited beginning in around 3200 BC
The name Thebai is the Greek designation of the ancient Egyptian opet "The Karnak Temple" (from coptic ta-pe, Ta-opet became Thebai). At the seat of the Theban triad of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, Thebes was known in the Egyptian language from the end of the New Kingdom as niwt-imn, "The City of Amun." This found its way into the Hebrew Bible as נא אמון nōˀ ˀāmôn (Nahum 3:8),"no" in Hebrew meaning city with "no amon" or "City of Amon" referring to the Egyptian deity Amon-Ra, most likely it is also the same as נא ("No") (Ezekiel 30:14)   --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebes,_Egypt
30.15  
Pelusium...
Sin, a city in Egypt, called by the Greeks Pelusium, which means, as does also the Hebrew name, “clayey” or “muddy,” so called from the abundance of clay found there. It is called by Ezekiel (Ezek. 30:15) "the strength of Egypt, "thus denoting its importance as a fortified city. It has been identified with the modern Tineh, “a miry place,” where its ruins are to be found. Of its boasted magnificence, only four red granite columns remain, and some few fragments of others.
On...
(Gen. 41:45, 50), the great seat of sun-worship, called also Bethshemesh (Jer. 43:13) and Aven (Ezek. 30:17), stood on the east bank of the Nile, a few miles north of Memphis, and near Cairo, in the northeast.

In ancient times this city was full of obelisks dedicated to the sun. Of these only one now remains standing. “Cleopatra's Needle” was one of those which stood in this city in front of the Temple of Tum, i.e., “the sun.” It is now erected on the Thames Embankment, London.

Pi-besth...

supposed to mean. “a cat,” or a deity in the form of a cat, worshipped by the Egyptians (Ezek. 30:17)

It was called by the Greeks: Bubastis. The hieroglyphic name is “Pe-bast”, i.e., the house of Bast, the Artemis of the Egyptians.

The town of Bubasts was situated on the Pelusian branch, i.e., the easternmost branch, of the Delta. It was the seat of one of the chief annual festivals of the Egyptians. Its ruins bear the modern name of Tel-Basta.

Telaphnehes...
Tahpanhes = Tehaphnehes, (called “Daphne” by the Greeks, now Tell Defenneh), an ancient Egyptian city, on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, about 16 miles from Pelusium. The Jews fromJerusalem fled to this place after the death of Gedaliah (q.v.), and settled there for a time (Jer. 2:16;43:7; 44:1; 46:14). A platform of brick-work, which there is every reason to believe was the pavementat the entry of Pharaoh's palace, has been discovered at this place. “Here,” says the discoverer, Mr. Petrie, "the ceremony described by Jeremiah [43:8-10; “brick-kiln”, i.e., pavement of brick] took place before the chiefs of the fugitives assembled on the platform, and here Nebuchadnezzar spread his royal pavilion" (R.V., “brickwork”).   ---http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/ 
When I see all these names it makes me kinda sad that I don't know enough to appreciate why these cities in particular were picked and what the significance it.  It there wordplay?  Were they particularly greivious for some reason?  What did the Israelites think as they read the list?  What would the Egyptians think?


Ezekiel 31
31.18  You shall lie among the uncircumcized...  The picture of Pharaoh being just another of the dead, must have been an insult.  Death a great equalizer.