Bible

This is a “just noticed this parallel” post.

I’ve just noticed that Luke 19:37-39 reminds me of 2 Samuel 6:16.

As he was drawing near- already on the way down the Mount of Olives- the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” (Luke 19:37-39)

The first half of the book of Leviticus describes many different kinds of sacrifices and offerings that the people were to make in Old Testament times. It describes circumstances under which they were to be offered. Who was to offer them. Exactly how it had to be done. And so on.

Here are a few quotations.

Before you read this post, see my post yesterday about a funny coffee shop you could imagine me running…

“What conclusions would you draw, if you saw such a price label, about my intentions in selling this particular coffee?”

Let me suggest a few.

Imagine, if you will, that I start to run a coffee shop. Not one that sells cups of brewed coffee. One that sells packs of freshly roasted coffee beans, to be ground at home and turned into a cup of the very best.

Here’s the price label on a 250g bag of single-origin, know-the-farmer-personally, roasted-yesterday Guatemala.

“Price: £5.
For those who cannot afford £5, the price is £2.
Those who cannot afford £2 may pay £0.50.”

What a funny kind of shop I would be running.

Hmm. Not sure.

It’s often been said that the golden calf is a breach of the 2nd commandment, rather than the 1st. That is: It’s not worshipping another God. It’s worshipping the right God in the wrong way – by use of images. In support of this is Aaron’s declaration: Behold, your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.

But I wonder.

The contrast between Moses up the mountain and what goes on as the people below get bored is striking.

What does we conclude from this?

Exodus 7-15, there is a pattern.

Egypt asserts her might as the enemy of God and his people (7-11)
God defeats Egypt (12-13)
God destroys his defeated enemy (14-15)

That’s a pattern that recurs.

Linking my two previous posts. That is:

Environmentalism as religion

Romans 1: A Fair Exchange

Really we shouldn’t be surprised by the way we treat the environment. Here is the heart of human sin

Romans 1:18-32: We, the human race, have suppressed the knowledge of God that we all have. We all have it because God has made his existence, deity and power known in his creation. The creation is his conscious handwriting intended to communicate to us. We have done so effectively, such that Paul can say we all knew God. The problem is not ignorance, it is culpable suppression of what we know.

God’s temporal judgement for this is to hand us over to self-harming sin. The human-race is constantly attempting to self-destruct; Romans 1 interprets this as God taking off the reins.

I find Genesis 19:14 one of the most sobering, and scary, verses in the whole Bible.

“So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.’ But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”

Tragic

But surely that’s just the Old Testament, right?