Old Testament

Re-reading Exodus 1:1-7:7 a few times in preparation for next Sunday's sermon, I have been struck again by just how well-crafted the book of Exodus is.

Here are a handful of details that I observed in those chapters, that are reproduced here in the hope that they might intrigue a few people to read the book of Exodus again. What, I think, we need is to read the whole book (because it functions and speaks to us as a whole), but to combine that with close attention to the details.

Peter Leithart makes a wonderful observation about Jacob, Esau and Joseph.

He says this:

Esau is a “hairy man” (sa’iyr), something we learn only when Jacob dresses himself in goat hair to approach his father (Genesis 27:11, 23). Jacob becomes a hairy one, subbing in for his brother. The only other use of the word in Genesis is in 37:31, where it describes the “kid” killed to fool into thinking that Joseph has died. Both passages involve substitution, and both involve deception of a father.

I think this has struck me before. Re-reading 1 Samuel, we find that:

• Saul is rebuked by Samuel (1 Samuel 15)
  • David has to flee to the Philistines (1 Samuel 21)
    • The Ziphites betray David to Saul, then David spares Saul's life (1 Samuel 23-24)
      • Samuel dies (1 Samuel 25:1)
      • David accepts Abigail's gift, and marries her after God kills her fool of a husband (1 Samuel 25:2ff)
    • The Ziphites betray David to Saul, then David spares Saul's life (1 Samuel 26)
  • David lives among the Philistine (1 Samuel 27)
• Saul is rebuked by Samuel (1 Samuel 28)

I thought the reference in Mark 6:23 to "up to half my kingdom" sounded familiar. Sure enough, the phrase also occurs in Esther 5:3 and Esther 7:2.

That got me thinking.

In the book of Esther we have a king with an extravagant party who makes an oath to depose his queen, which would be (for her) a kind of death. He promises a girl up to half of his kingdom, and then executes somebody because it is effectively what that girl asked for. We have someone (Haman), who has the king's ear, asking for the people of God to be put to death. Sound familiar?

Anyone wanting to learn how Anglican Chant works as a musical style for the Psalms could look at a couple of introductory webpages.

There is a helpful one on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A15716595.

There is a helpful one on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_chant, where I particularly like the example given - with a colour-coded musical stave that can be matched up to the text of part of the Magnificat printed in the same colours. Nice.

They are not uncommon metaphors in the Psalms, but one after the other they offer a wonderful barrage of imagery portraying the security, shelter, help and support that God's people can find in their God. This was the shelter that Jesus availed himself of, first and foremost, and by extension is available to all who are in Christ.

• Rock
• Refuge
• Tower
• Tent
• Wings

Psalm 61:2-4:…
2. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
3. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
4. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

Actually, I think all of those images are Exodus metaphors. I'm not sure about refuge, but the others are certainly images that God used of his protective relationship with his people in the wilderness. So these are not abstract, but concrete pictures, and they are pictures that are rooted in salvation history.

Anyway: Read. Chew on. Enjoy. … Oh - and take refuge!

It's Good Friday the day after tomorrow.

If, like me, you enjoy finding snippets to read to help you reflect on the events of Good Friday, may I recommend you take a visit to Steve Jeffery's blog, and read his post entitled The Deliverance of the Cross, where he reflects on Psalm 22, and why Jesus appropriates it in the way he does.

Maybe one day Steve will write a book of such thoughts.

We've been having a most enjoyable, instructive and edifying Lent Course here in Kemsing. John Goulding, a retired Anglican clergyman, has been taking the sessions, leading us through some of the Psalms. The feel of the evenings has been pleasantly relaxed, and as we've wandered together through the Psalter we've noticed all manner of things that has brought those Psalms to life in new ways. Many, many thanks to John for taking this course so well for us all.

I've just read Palmer Robertson's treatment of the book of Jeremiah in his The Christ of the Prophets. (It comes on pages 267-282). What a treat!

Robertson shows how, "as with Hosea, Amos and Isaiah, the principal message of the prophet finds its summation at the time of his call to the prophetic office." (268). In Jeremiah's case this means, amongst other things, 6 key verbs (4 negative and 2 positive ones).

John Mackay is very helpful in his commentary on Jeremiah (volume 2) in his attempt to explain Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant (31:31-34).

Mackay's concern is to be true to Jeremiah's message. This requires recognising that Jeremiah spoke a message to a particular group of people in a particular setting (even though chapter 31 is one of the more debated chapters in Jeremiah when it comes to working out what that setting is). But (no less important) it also recognises that Jeremiah's message contributed to the final canon of Scripture and so has something far wider to say. The challenge is to hear the message as a single message that has both a historical context and a canonical one.