Category: General

Psalm 40:6-10 (NKJV)

6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”

9 I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.

So, I know verses 6-8 are Jesus.  In Luke 4:16-21, he opens the scroll and reading Isaiah 61, and announces, essentially, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written about me.”  Verse 8 has to apply to Jesus before it can apply to anybody else.  The law is written on our hearts because it was written on His.

But I’ve been trying to learn to read for context.  Somebody somewhere told me that, whenever a New Testament author quotes a passage of scripture, they aren’t pulling it out of context.  They are quoting a key element, but they’re expecting you to bring the whole passage to mind and apply all of it. Sneaky devils, we must forgive them.  They were short on paper.

Verses 9-10 are about Jesus also, but as Christians, since we are added to Him in verse 8, we must go along with him in verses 9-10 as well.  He proclaimed the gospel at his resurrection.  We must continue proclaiming it until He returns.

10b I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
from the great assembly….

16 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
17 But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

Unauthorized Twinkle

As  I was pronouncing on the awfulness of dessert to the kids at the dinner table, David was getting huffy.

Says Valerie: “David, I can see a twinkle in his eye from here.”

David says, “I can’t see it.”

And  I say, “You ain’t looking close enough.”

So David got right up in my face and looked deep into my eyes.  I crossed them.

“I see it,” he said.  “And it’s not supposed to be there.”

Conversions

In my ongoing effort to do anything but actually read my Bible, I notice in Leviticus 27 that the established temple price of an homer of barley is 50 shekels of silver.  And it really frustrates me when they do this: translate every word in the bible except the weights and measures.  Unless the number 50 is symbolic, I need to know some modern terminology to have any idea what they’re talking about.

So I did some research.  An homer is 59 gallons, 6.34 bushels for grain, or 1.87  barrels.  A shekel is .4 ounces. So the going rate for 6.34 bushels of barley at the time of Moses was 20 oz. silver.  An ounce of silver today is worth $19.04.  So roughly $400 for an homer of barley.

And for the record, $400 for 6.34 bushels of barley is a little high in today’s prices.  The wholesale price of barley is currently $174.82 for a metric ton.  That is to say $3.81 a bushel.  So an homer of barley today costs $24.13 – slightly less than $400.

This is to say that, in Moses’ time, either silver was much more plentiful than is now, or we have a lot more barley to go around than the Egyptians ever dreamed of.

Pet Peeve of the Day

I’ve been on a Textus Receptus kick lately, so I’ve been doing my Bible reading in the New King James, since it’s the only modern translation based on the TR.  I can’t quite make myself dig straight into thees and thous.  But today in my reading, I come across 2 Timothy 2:17:

And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort.

Really?  Cancer?  I’m having a hard time believing Paul knew much about the spreading of cancer.  Totally pulls me out of the text.  So now, I’m looking it up… KJV says, “canker,” which at least sounds more legit, and is possibly where the cancer thing came from.  My KJV has glosses from the Revised Standard Version for some reason, and the RSV says “gangrene”.

Now I’m on a mission.  New Living Translation says “cancer.” Wuest says “cancer.”  What is with these people? NIV says “gangrene,” a surprising relief.  New English Trans. says “gangrene”;  So does Young’s and Mounce’s. The Message says, “accumulate like poison,” because why not?

The Greek word is γάγγραινα, which means… gangrene.  Literally.  That’s all it means.  You can even make that out by looking at the shape of the Greek word. I have no idea what cankers or cancer has to do with it.  Gangrene spreads rapidly, has no incubation period, and isn’t limited to unsightly spots on your upper lip.  It has to be cut out immediately or the patient will die.  This is clearly the image that Paul was aiming at.  

And this is why I get frustrated with Bible translations and translators.  They need to just. translate. the text.  As much as possible, leave the interpretation to the reader.  If the original is vague, make your translation vague.  Because if you help me out, and I catch you, all it will do is undermine my confidence.

Cold!

We switched to Summer PTs (physical training clothes) this week, so I ran all my stuff through the laundry and was preparing to pack it all away for the year. Then I got up this morning, and it was cold!  I saw snowmen spontaneously forming out of the wellsprings of the earth.  And then those snowmen turned to each other and complained about how cold it was.

The President’s New Clothes

Listening to Danny Kaye’s song The Emperor’s New Clothes, I’m imagining a modern version of the story. Due to a shortage of Emperors in our time, the ruler will have to be a president, and to make things safe, we’ll say that he’s the leader of a small nation with a wealth of natural resources, but little development.

In this new story, the hucksters will come selling a suit that is invisible, not to fools, but to bigots, racists, and other intolerant troglodytes. Everyone, not wanting to be called intolerant, will exclaim how amazing the suit is, except for the one little boy. At this point, though, nobody laughs at the president. Instead, we all come to a consensus that it is a terrible thing to have a nation so enlightened, and yet with one remaining intolerant person. A law is passed, the child is brought to court, and his family is fined out of house and home, and denied the right to practice their customary business.

The hucksters, of course, get honorary degrees, and a contract providing armor to the military.

Am I A Soldier of the Cross

Thanks to Charles Ingalls, I have a new favorite hymn:

Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
And seize it with their eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thine armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.

All I wish now is that I had a proper recording of it.

Also, I want to be like this guy: