ISSL Reflections April 11, 2021, Ezra 10:1-12 Post 3

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Below is a link to this week’s focus passage in several translations –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+9%3A1-12&version=NRSV;NIV;ESV;KJV;NET

VI.
In ending my last post I asked – “How do you place this situation and these actions in the context of Scripture in its entirety and its essential thrust and call on our lives?”

What comes to your mind?

The people of the covenant are commanded to drive out the resident people as they enter their promised land (Numbers 33:51-53);

The people of the covenant are told to treat the alien and the stranger justly, by the same law as they, because they were once aliens in a strange land (Exodus 22:21);

Jesus reports that he will cause division even between a father and son, mother and daughter (Matthew 10:34-39);

Jesus freely talks with and interacts with Samaritans, Roman soldiers, tax collectors, and lepers, all of whom are folk the religious leaders would hold far off and tell their followers to avoid (John 4:9);

Paul of Tarsus tells Christians in Corinth to not be “unequally yoked” with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14);

Paul tells the folk in Galatia that there is neither Jew or Greek, neither male or female “in Christ” (Galatians 6:28);

How do you hold these thoughts and the situation in the book of Ezra together? Or maybe not?

VII.
In a note in the Life with God Bible (page 678) I read this,

“… the Bible must always be read with the big picture in mind. It is not a flat book with only one perspective of faith. The book of Ruth, for instance, celebrates the role of a foreign woman in Israel’s history. Malachi, who wrote shortly after Ezra, strongly objects to divorce (Mal 2:16). In Exodus 22:21 the Israelites are instructed to be kind to aliens because they were once outsiders in Egypt. Moreover, Ezra 1-6 has an inclusive theme regarding the foreigner. In listening to the Word of God, one must consider all the voices of faith.” (Italics have been added for emphasis)

VII.
What do you make of this week’s focus Scripture?

How do you hold it with other Scripture that informs you how to live as a disciple of Jesus?

What do you take from these words in Ezra that help you live a “Life with God” today and tomorrow?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections April 11, 2021, Ezra 10:1-12 Post 2

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Take time to refresh your reading of this week’s focus Scripture –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+10%3A1-12&version=NRSV

V.
Who or what should be at the center of our attention in Ezra 9 and 10?

Ezra?

When Ezra is first brought to our attention in this account he is described as a priest, a descendent of Aaron, “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses,” and as one who “set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.” (Ezra 7:5-6, 10)

And then Ezra is told of how the faithlessness of the people of Israel and especially their leaders has been demonstrated …


… the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.” When I heard this, I tore my garment and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.
At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God, and said,
“O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. (Ezra 9:1-6)


Should our attention be on these leaders who have not been faithful to the Covenant and the Torah, the law?

Or do we focus our attention on the people who have intermarried (and had children) with the people who are not followers of the covenant and the Torah?


Or the action proposed toward the women and their children …

Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it.” 5 Then Ezra stood up and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do as had been said. So they swore. (Ezra 10:2-5)

VI.
How do you place this situation and these actions in the context of Scripture in its entirety and its essential thrust and call on our lives?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections April 11, 2021, Ezra 10:1-12 Post 1

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I.
First, a short aside, please. When I started this project to offer suggestions for reflections on the Scripture passages that are part of the International Sunday School Lessons (also sometimes called the Uniform Series) I knew this would take me to Scripture passages that I would probably not select on my own. That is, I would not count the passages as among my “favorite” scriptures. I felt that was a good thing for me. And here we are this week with a passage that I would just as soon avoid dealing with because I find it troublesome. But, it is part of what we have come to call “Holy Scripture” and as such is put before us for our reading and our reflection in the context of the entirety of Scripture.

II.
Our focus this week will be on Ezra 10:1-12. But to best see the picture painted here it will be good to read the entirety of Ezra 9 and 10.

We will start with the focus passage below.

As you read it pay attention to not only the passage but how it impacts you. What do you feel about the situation? What draws your attention? What does it ask you to affirm? What makes you uncomfortable?

III.
Ezra 10:1-12

While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel; the people also wept bitterly. Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it.” Then Ezra stood up and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do as had been said. So they swore

Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God, and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night. He did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles. They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, and that if any did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all their property should be forfeited, and they themselves banned from the congregation of the exiles.

Then all the people of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now make confession to the Lord the God of your ancestors, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said.

IV.
What do you think of Ezra?

What is his passion?

What do you think motivates him to pray and act as he does?

Do you like the portrait of Ezra offered here? Would you want him as a friend? As an advisor? Do you think he is the kind of person you would “naturally” seek advice and counsel from?

And to go back to the questions I asked earlier – What do you feel about the situation. What draws your attention? What does it ask you to affirm? What makes you uncomfortable?

Please spend some time with this Scripture and notice what it presents and your reactions.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections April 4, 2021, Isaiah 53:4-11a Post 3

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IX.
This week’s Scripture passage seems especially fitting for today, Good Friday.

I invite you to first read the passage in light of today’s recollection of the trials and crucifixion of Jesus.

Isaiah 53:4-11

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.

They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

X.
This scripture speaks of, “The righteous one, my servant …”

While there is little doubt most who call themselves disciples of Jesus also are willing to call Jesus righteous and a servant of God.

Who else might be called righteous and a servant of God?

Do you think it proper to call Jesus’ disciples servants of God?

If that is the case what do you see in Isaiah’s description of the servant that can or should characterize those of us who claim to be Jesus’ disciples today?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections April 4, 2021, Isaiah 53:4-11a Post 2

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To refresh your reading of this Scripture passage you can follow this link to the passage in the New Revised Standard Version and The Message –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2053%3A4-11&version=NRSV;MSG

V.
I asked in the last post to consider Jesus’ years with his followers and the crowds and see if this passage calls anything to mind.

Have you noticed anything?

Try reading this passage in The Message translation and see if that opens anything to you.

VI.
Consider these words from The Message translation,

  • a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand
  • we looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us
  • even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true
  • my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,”
  • he took up the cause of all the black sheep

VII.
Jesus weeps for Jerusalem.

He sees the crowds who need a shepherd, who need a nurturing mother hen.

He heals a man bound in chains and the townspeople’s eyes are so much on the livestock they lose they demand Jesus leave.

He speaks the truth and the religious leaders accuse him of being Satan’s spokesman.

He heals many of pain and disfigurement and touches them as one of them, hurting and disfigured as they are.

He takes those excluded and looked down on as “black sheep”, tax collectors for instance, and brings them to righteousness.

VIII.
What do you think?

What else do you see?

By all means, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections April 4, 2021, Isaiah 53:4-11a Post 1

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I.
We approach Easter Sunday this week.

Yesterday, in many churches, the Gospel reading took us back to Palm Sunday when cheering people greeted Jesus. This week we move through the week with Jesus in Jerusalem maybe noting some of the events of the week, including his final meal with some of his disciples, his prayers, his fears, his condemnation by both military/political leaders and religious leaders, his death and the silence of the Saturday after his death. Sometimes it is a good thing to walk with Jesus through that week slowly enough to notice these things rather than to “run” too quickly to Easter Sunday.

Our Scripture focus for this week is a passage from Isaiah that is often counted as one of the “Servant Songs” in Isaiah.

Please, don’t rush over these few sentences. Spend time with them. Hear them. Visualize them. Let them settle into your consciousness until you can feel some of the passion with which Isaiah first spoke them.

II.
Isaiah 53:4-11

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.

They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

III.
I would like us this week to spend enough time with these words to begin to notice the many levels on which they might both instruct and inspire us.

First I invite you to turn for a few moments to an encounter recorded in Acts,

Acts 8:27-35

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus

IV.
The Ethiopian court official and the disciple Philip are sitting with some of the same words we are this week.

A natural question is asked, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

Philip’s response is to show the man how the prophet’s words describe aspects of Jesus’ life and words.

As you reread the passage from Isaiah, what do you notice that speaks of Jesus?

Don’t limit yourself to thinking only about Jesus’ last week. What might these words point to in the years of Jesus’ time with the disciples and the crowds that were drawn to him?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 28, 2021, 1 Kings 18:5-18 Post 3

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Here is a link to this week’s Scripture in both the New Revised Standard Version and The Message –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2018%3A5-18&version=NRSV;MSG

VII.
While the King or the Prophet could capture our attention in this passage, I have to admit Obadiah captures my interest.

What have we noticed about him?

  • He is in charge of the palace,
  • He accompanies the King on a “mission” to find water to keep the King’s livestock alive
  • While he is a high placed person in the palace, he “revered the Lord greatly…” and took followers of God, who were under threat of death from the Queen, hid them and feed them

And then…

  • while helping the King, he is confronted by Elijah who wants to send him on a “mission” to the King.

VIII.
And how does Obadiah respond?

Does he say, “Thanks for this opportunity Mr Prophet! I will run back to the King and take this up with him immediately!”

Not so much!

He is gripped by fear and it takes some persuasion by Elijah before he is able to take the message to the King.

IX.
It seems to me you could definitely say he is “caught in the middle.”

He has obligations by virtue of his role in King Ahab’s palace.

He worships God and finds means to protect God’s servants.

And now the prophet Elijah, no friend of the King, wants Obadiah to take part in arranging a meeting between Ahab and Elijah.

Do you think Obadiah is justified in his fears?

Do you think less of him for fearing for his life?

Should he have said, “Yes, Sir” to Elijah and ran back to Ahab with the message, without a second though?

Or, do you think he is not too far removed from how we need to be persuaded, at times, to accept a “mission” that comes our way?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 28, 2021, 1 Kings 18:5-18 Post 2

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This week’s focus passage can be found at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+18%3A5-18&version=NRSV

IV.
In the post from the other day, I asked you to pay attention to the three men called by name in this passage.

Who do you see and what do you notice about them?

V.
They are by name (in order of appearance) Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah.

Ahab, King of Israel; Elijah the Lord’s prophet; and Obadiah

If you are not familiar with Ahab, this might be a good summary of how he is presented in Scripture –

In the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri began to reign over Israel; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. (1 Kings 16:29 – 30)

… and Elijah – Beginning in 1 Kings 17 we encounter Elijah who goes to Ahab to tell him of a coming drough, and goes on to confront Ahab many times as he does here,

[Elijah] answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. (1 Kings 18:18)

Then there is Obediah. We are told,

Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah revered the Lord greatly; when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water.) (1 Kings 18:3-4)

So Obediah is in charge of the palace, and appears to be Ahab’s “right-hand man” when Ahab has Obediah help him find the means to keep the horses and mules alive when a drought goes through Ahab’s kingdom.

And then, “Obadiah revered the Lord greatly…”

VI.
Obadiah strikes me as a “man in the middle” or maybe “caught” in the middle.

Read again the conversation between Obadiah and Elijah.

What kind of person do you take Obadiah to be?

What (or who) does he fear?

What (or who) does he obey?

Do you think he is the kind of person a prophet of the “most high God” should send as a messenger to a King?

Spend some time with Obadiah and get to know him. What might he be able to show us?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 28, 2021, 1 Kings 18:5-18 Post 1

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I.
This week we look into an intriguing encounter of three men who come from different places/positions/roles in their society.

As you reread this passage pay attention to what you can learn about each of the three.

II.
1 Kings 18:5-18

Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” He answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.” And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would require an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. But now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.’ As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water? Yet now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here’; he will surely kill me.” Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.

III.
So who are the three?

What role does each play in their culture, their society, their nation?

What is the “work” of each?
And how are they “supposed” to relate to one another? That is how does their culture instruct them to behave toward the others?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 21,2021, 2 Kings 22:14-20 Post 3

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You can find this week’s focus Scripture at – 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+22%3A14-20&version=NRSV

And if you want read 2 Kings 23 here is a link – 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2023&version=NRSV

VII.

After Josiah had heard the book of the covenant read to him, and after he sent the delegation to the prophet Huldah, and after the delegation returned to him with the words of Huldah which to my reading praised Josiah, 

But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,  because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants… and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.”  (2 Kings 22:18-20)

… and spoke of the destruction awaiting Judah,

Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched…. this place, and … its inhabitants… they should become a desolation and a curse, (2 Kings 22:16-17, 19) 

… Josiah was left with decisions to make as to the course he would take.

VIII.

Will he resign himself to the wait for the destruction of the Judah? And his own death before the destruction comes?

Will he bargain with God and make promises in the hope that Judah will not be destroyed?

Or will he attempt to be faithful to the covenant regardless of what may come and do what lies in his power to return Judah to faithful covenant life regardless of what the future holds for them?

IX.

You and I may not be able to command a nation but it does lie within us to attempt to live faithfully into the Kingdom of God.

So … what will we do?

charles

{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}