Slackers Unite!

[Rob McNair]

Alright people, I know with the busy summer schedule we all have, most of us have fallen behind. I have been trying to keep up and just finished Isaiah last night, which means I am about 6 days behind. I must confess that this has been a long, hard stretch for me from Psalms through Isaiah. It is hard for me not to just start glossing over and skimming. I have really tried to stay focused and read with understanding, but without stories and people it is hard to do. I loved Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, etc. because you have all those people and stories which make it interesting and easier to follow. The wisdom books are cool but after awhile you can only handle so much wisdom! Isaiah has been interesting to see the prophesy of the coming of Jesus, but man it's a lot to get through. Anyway, just checking in to see where people are with their reading.

[Steven & Candace Dahl]

Steve is almost up to date in Jeremiah. Candace is closing in on the end of Isaiah.

[Abby Kalina]

i'm at isaiah 10? a long ways away...

[Amber Kalina]

Uh, I just started Isaiah yesterday... So yeah... I'm a long way behind. Mabey 20 days??? I know, I'm bad...

It's really hard to read in an open minded sense... Like, trying to retain this stuff is tough. Like, I can look at what I know I read yesterday and find out new things that I glossed over the night before. Rough, huh?

[Rob McNair]

So here's the thing...you can read pages and pages and you start to gloss over and all of a sudden you realize that while your eyes followed the words, your brain was off thinking about something else...like cheesecake. But then you hit a whopper like Jeremiah 25:15-16 which reads:

For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.

Immediate two things came to mind:

(1) when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane praying and asks "My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39). I never fully understood why Jesus would use that word "cup" to describe God taking a burden from him. Well Jeremiah makes clear that the cup is the cup of God's wrath that Jesus is going to take on for the sins of the world. Go back to Matthew 26:27 and Jesus presents the cup of wine to the disciples and says: "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." So once again we have Jesus reversing the old way...Jesus changes the cup of God's wrath into the cup of God's forgiveness.

(2) This idea of God sending a sword into the world immediately made me think of Matthew 10:34 where Jesus says: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." Again, very confusing as we often think this validates violence but when connected to Jeremiah it is clear that Jesus himself is the sword God sends into the world. Meaningful too when you consider Pastor Phil's sermon on Sunday about the spiritual armor we wear.

Anyway, just some ideas that came to mind. Good thing I happened to be paying attention at that particular point in Jeremiah!

[Amber Kalina]

Honestly, James, where does one purchase a mind like yours?

I read Isaiah today, and I couldn't help but feel the words. I read verses 10-12, and I made sure to pay extra close attention and try to put the words into perspective.

At first in verse 10, it tells us how it is despicable to take from the poor, and I couldn't help but think if I've ever done that in any of my deeds... I still don't have an answer. Then it talks about how God is going to destroy Assyria (?) because the king thinks he did everything by himself. But do we (or can we) ever do anything truely by ourselves? God is the driving force behind all things. We wouldn't even exist if it weren't for him. Just like a volleyball team can't function if one person doesn't do their job, the world (and us) would cease to be if God decided to leave us.

Which brings up another thing for me: We are called to follow Jesus, but how many times in our days do we find ourselves thinking of God as the guy behind who's just there and not the leader? Well, at least that's true for me. I know that I haven't been looking for God out there, but I've been thinking about ways that I can fit God into my life the way I want. I can do everything I want, cause God will always be there, right? No, not right. It's like I want to be the leader, but that can't be. Because we should always follow God, no matter what.

Then, in 11 and 12, it starts to talk of Jesus coming. And, in 11, it paints a beautiful world where enemies are at peace with each other (lions eating with lambs, cows hanging with bears, etc). What an awesome world it would be to have peace like that all the time. :0 Mind bottling! Have I necessarily been kind to my "enemies"? No...

Uh... I'll wirte more if I get the inspiration...

[Rob McNair]

Yeah that's what I was trying to say in my sermon, that none of us truly follow Jesus. But really we can't since sin is engrained within us. We are sinners and just as the ancient Israelites did, we turn our back on God. So we live in this constant cycle of sin --> seek forgiveness --> repent --> sin --> seek forgiveness --> repent. It is our human condition. So again, if we know this, then I have a hard time understanding how God can hold it against people who reject Jesus, because while we all may say we accept him, through our actions it is clear none of us truly can. And also Luther clarified that it is not about what we do, but about what Jesus did...for the world.

With this in mind I finished Jeremiah today (so I am officially caught up!) and man, oh, man my head was spinning. It is like God is bipolar. His wrath and rage is directed at the Israelites because they are so disobedient and he is going to use the Babylonians to enact his wrath and the Babylonians will crush the Israelites and take them into captivity. In Jeremiah 25:9 God even calls King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon his "servant." But then by the end of Jeremiah God is going to bring his wrath down on the Babylonians as He states, "I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land" (Jeremiah 50:18). And God starts saying how he is going to resue his people Israel. I am having a hard time figuring out all this wrath and rage and first God is going to crush the Israelites and empower the Babylonians and then he is going to rescue the Israelites and crush the Babylonians. All I know is that I would hate to be a Jew. I am glad we are under a new covenant. Maybe part of it is to illustrate that God was at his wits end. That the time had come for the new covenant, Jesus, to enter the scene. God sent the law with Moses, he sent the prophets, he tried punishing bad behavior, but none of it worked. None of it helped us to be obedient. The new plan was to use love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion in the form of Jesus to help us change our ways.

[Amber Kalina]

Yeah, in Isaiah, he tells how God is going to totally wipe out all these places and leave them in such utter chaos that the animals will come and use it as a home. Maybe not even that. But then, it tells how he gave them chances to repent, but they never did... It does show God's compassion in that way, that he is even willing to not destroy them all. I don't think it ever mentions if any of these places are actually brought down, though...?? Any insite on that?

[Rob McNair]

The Babylonians ransack Jerusalem and they take all the valuables from the temple. That is stated in Jeremiah and is historically considered to be about 500 BC or so. Not sure if they destroyed Jerusalem or if they just take the poeple captive. One question I had was about the arc of the covenant (which held the stone tablets inscribed with the 10 commandments), where is it during this time? This may be the point in history where it goes missing. I saw a TV program one time where some church in Egypt claimed to have possession of the arc of the covenant, but they wouldn't show anybody (which to me means they don't have it). Seems like the Babylonians would have taken it, but then I think the Egyptians later conquer the Babylonians so maybe they did have a chance to possess it. I just looked it up on wikipedia and apparently there are 101 theories on the whereabouts of the arc. I guess there is a reference in other scripture that says God warned Jeremiah and he took it before the Babylonians captured the Israelites and he hid it. I know after Jesus, around 70 AD the Romans destroy Jerusalem and literally crush every building to the ground including the temple.

[Amber Kalina]

Huh. Anything about Assyria?