God sometimes gets a bad rap for his actions in the Old Testament. If you want to see this in practice, just go on over to Yahoo! Answers and search “Old Testament.” You can bet that many of the results will be questions like “Why is God so great and wonderful in the New Testament and so horrifically evil in the Old Testament?” For those who study the Old Testament, these types of questions can get a bit wearisome (SEE THIS POST).

First, the questions assume there is nothing difficult about God in the New Testament. I can only assume that those who ask these questions have never read the Book of Revelation or thought deeply about the concept of an eternal hell. Second, these questions miss a great deal in the Old Testament about the love of God. Don’t get me wrong. There are some verses/passages in the Old Testament that absolutely make me want to vomit (like 1 Sam. 15.3). And, this is not to say that the depiction of the love of God in the Old Testament is not in some ways difficult (he delivers his people from Egypt [a good thing] by killing Egyptian babies [a bad thing]?) But, to make it out like God is completely and thoroughly wicked in the Old Testament is a serious misreading. Sometimes there are different voices in the Old Testament that are saying different things. With that said, today I am providing a list of seven verses from the Old Testament that pertain to the love of God. If you have any other favorites feel free to comment below.

1. For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power... (Deut 4.37 - from today’s lectionary reading).
2. When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son (Hos 11.1 - God depicted as father. Sound familiar?)
3. As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort (Is 66.13 - God depicted as a mother comforting her child).
4. I will heal their defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them (Hos 14.5 - God depicted as a healer who loves freely).
5. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations (Deut 7.7 God’s reasoning for choosing Israel).
6. ...the LORD appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you (Jer 31.3).
7. The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; He will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, He will sing joyfully because of you,... (Zeph 3.17).

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Tags: Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study, Deuteronomy

I have previously posted on henotheism in the Old Testament and explained what this is. Today's Psalm contains another statement that reflects henotheism. It reads as follows: "For you, LORD, are most high over all the earth; You are very highly exalted over all gods" (emphasis added). Here again the existence of other deities is not denied (though this does happen later). Yet there is only one deity who is deemed worthy of worship.

Tags: Psalms, Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

Today's response was from Psalm 51. Here is part of Psalm 51 in Hebrew if you want to check it out. (Videos like this are great for your learning of Hebrew if you are studying).

Tags: Psalms, Lectionary Readings

Today's lectionary reading contains one of the more popular statements in the Old Testament, namely that Moses was the meekest/most humble (or however it is translated in your version of choice) person among all people. I have always found this very interesting because Moses' actions do not really line up with modern conceptions of what it means to be meek or humble. Growing up I always thought a person who was humble or meek was reserved and showed a bit of weakness. But, this really in no way depicts Moses. Take for example Numbers 25.4, which reads as follows:

4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the Lord, in order that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.”

Those do not really sound like the words of someone who is reserved or who displays any weakness whatsoever. I am not sure what it would take for me to tell someone to impale another human being "in the sun before the Lord." In fact, I in no way condone the statement here in Numbers 25.4. However, I think the passage can help us to redefine in our minds what the Bible means when it speaks about meekness.

What does Jesus mean when he says that the meek will inherit the earth? Taking into consideration the meekness of Moses, he certainly does not mean that those who are mild mannered and do not display fierce anger will inherit the earth. In fact, if we hold a proper kind of righteous indignation back, it is probable that we are not really being meek at all. We are being something else altogether. Read More...

Tags: Numbers, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

There is a very concentrated concern in the Book of Exodus that acts are being performed "so that you/he/they will know that I am the Lord," sometimes "the Lord your God." This goes both for pharaoh and for the Israelites. It seems strange that no one knows who the Lord is at this point in the Biblical story, at least with regard to the Israelites. Apparently there is some disconnect. The years of servitude must have made them forget. But, I think this is one of the lessons that the later generations learned (at least in principle, though it may not have made it into common practice) and that we find in the responsive reading for today. Psalm 78.3-4 reads as follows: Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Do you get confused about the festivals and offerings in Leviticus? Lauren Stouffer has put together a "Leviticus Primer" for download in pdf format. In it, she has several charts that can be helpful for keeping the festivals and offerings straight. To get this download click HERE.

Tags: Leviticus, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

In one of the e-mails that I send out to my e-mail list, I note some of the other websites that I like for studying the Old Testament. One of those is Ralph Klein's website, and today I am going to point there once again. Today's lectionary reading is on the Tabernacle. Since this section of the Old Testament is one of the...okay I'll just come right and say it, more boring ones to read, many people are unfamiliar with the Tabernacle. So, this topic requires a bit more than a brief blog post for those who want to understand it. Fortunately, Ralph Klein has written a good little introduction to the Tabernacle. You can find it HERE. Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

Posted earlier on the issue of Moses potentially having horns. Here is a picture of Michelangelo's depiction of Moses with horns: Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Lectionary Readings

The lectionary reading for today presents probably one of the more interesting issues I have encountered. The word translated something like "had become radiant" or "shone" (vs. 29) also has a tradition of being translated "grew horns." Both translations seem possible, and some have tried to find a way of combining the meanings. I would go into this issue in more detail; however, John Hobbins over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has already done a very good job of dealing with this issue. Check out his post HERE. Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

Today's lectionary reading presents an interesting issue. Did Moses see God face to face? For some there are two streams of thought in the Old Testament with regard to seeing God face to face. According to one, no person can see God face to face and live (Ex. 33.20-23). And according to the other, people can see God face to face with examples being Moses (Ex. 33.11) and (perhaps) Jacob. For others the use of the terminology face to face is an idiom that attempts to relate the intimacy of the relationship between God and Moses. These words are not to be taken literally and thus are not evidence that different sources are being used or that there are different streams of thought.

What do you think? Do you think there are two different streams of thought here? Or, do you think the "face to face" language is idiomatic? Or, is it some other option? Feel free to comment below. Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

Can you guess what is wrong with this picture? Scroll down to see the answer.

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Tags: Exodus, Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

I have been away from blogging on the lectionary readings for a couple of days (busy week at work). I sat down to look at the Old Testament reading for today and bam - The Decalogue. Impossible not to post on that. Then, I started thinking ... "The" Decalogue. Is this a proper name for this passage in Exodus 20?

One of the important exercises that I had students do when teaching the Pentateuch was to have them compare versions of the commandments side-by-side. Many beginning readers of the Old Testament do not realize that there are at least three versions of these commandments. The first set is here in Exodus 20 from which we get today's reading. The second version is in Exodus 34 and the third in Deuteronomy 5. The two sets in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are very close to one another, but not exactly the same. For instance, the Sabbath has a different motivation in each and the last commandments have a slightly different structure. However, the version in Exodus 34, often referred to as the Cultic Decalogue (or something like that), is very different. Yet there are enough connections to think that this is another version of the Decalogue (see vv. 14, 17, 21).

Why not try this exercise for yourself? Read the passages in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, and Exodus 34 and see what you think? What are the similarities? What are the differences? What do these say about the different authors? Read More...

Tags: Lectionary Readings, Old Testament Study

In today's responsive reading (which comes from Exodus 15 rather than Psalms), the Exodus is presented as a Type of creation. This is suggested by verse 5 of the chapter, which reads "The floods/deeps covered them." The word "deeps" is the same word from Genesis 1 where darkness is over the "deep." In both scenarios, something important happens in relation to a watery chaos. WIth this link back to creation, it is beneficial to think of the Exodus as the creation of something new. Scholars have noted that this is the creation of a nation. Whereas Israel goes down into Egypt as a family, they come out as a nation. Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Last night I stayed up reading and thinking for a little while, and I decided to look ahead at today's Old Testament readings (Ex 14:21-15:1). I am not sure why exactly I was struck by this again last night, but for whatever reason I was struck by just how matter-of-factly Biblical stories are told sometimes. I am thinking here particularly of verse 23: "The Egyptians followed in pursuit..." No deliberation, no anything, just followed in pursuit. There is no Egyptian perspective whatsoever. So, I tried to think of some funny things that some of the Egyptians could have thought or said to one another if some Hollywood style comic relief were added to the story. And, here is what I came up with for some dialogue between one Egyptian soldier and another as they looked on at the sea that had been parted (please forgive my brutally terrible sense of humor): Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Personal, Lectionary Readings

In today's reading (Ex. 14.5-18) we find a potential example of what is referred to as redaction, which is basically another word for editing. It looks like there may have been two sources for this particular story that were combined together by an editor. This can be seen in an abrupt shift that takes place. I will briefly trace out the story line: Read More...

Tags: Exodus, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Form critical scholars who have studied the prophetic books have identified a number of common forms of prophetic speech. Today's reading from Jeremiah 23.1-6 is an example of a prophetic "Woe Oracle." These oracles begin with the Hebrew word that is translated "woe," and there are strings of these types of oracles in places like Isaiah 5 (or in the NT Matthew 23). However, this is not the most interesting aspect of the woe oracle. Read More...

Tags: Prophets, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

I wanted to post this earlier but was unable. I hope that it will still prove useful for some. This is an excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI's Introduction to Christianity in which he deals with today's Old Testament lectionary reading from Exodus 3. It is one of my favorite passages in the book: Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

In todays' reading, Moses encounters the Lord in a burning bush that is not consumed. The Lord identifies himself by saying "I am the God of your father..." In the phrase "God of your father," we find what Albrecht Alt identified as one of the distinctive elements of the faith of Ancient Israel. There is a certain level of complexity to this issue that I do not want to go into here, but to get a good summary you might check out this link to a limited preview of the text In Search of God in Google Books (scroll down a little). What I mainly wanted to point out in relation to Alt's work is that having a "God of the fathers (i.e. ancestors)" was a distinctive element of Israel's faith because many of the deities in surrounding areas of the Ancient Near East were gods of "places." In other words, these gods were tied to particular sites, such as Assyria, Babylon, Persia, etc. Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Today's Old Testament lectionary reading provides one of my favorite parallels between the Old Testament and other writings from the Ancient Near East. I am not sure why this one stands out to me in particular when there are a lot of other interesting parallels out there. I think that maybe it has to do with the fact that it is one of the more transparent parallels. The lectionary reading is the story of the Egyptian pharaoh seeking to kill the male children of the Israelites, particularly about how Moses escapes this fate by being placed in a basket/ark, which is then placed in a river. For this story, there is an Ancient Near Eastern parallel in the Legend of Sargon. For those unfamiliar with this text, you would do very well to read it. There is a free online translation of the text here. Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Parallels, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

The lectionary reading for today comes from Exodus 1. In this passage, a "new pharaoh" reigns over Egypt who does not know Joseph. To say that there has been a significant amount of debate over the years about who this pharaoh was and about the historicity of the Exodus would be perhaps the understatement of the century. With that said, the purpose of this post is to introduce the my readers to this debate, and as such the primary link in this post will present information that may be "old hat" to some professional academics (though depending on one's area of specialization it could also be very helpful for academics like myself as well). For an introduction to the debate about the identity of the "new pharaoh" as well as the broader issues related to the historicity and dating of the Exodus, I would suggest that you begin with this set of posts on Higgaion, the blog of Dr. Chris Heard (begin reading from the bottom and see explicitly Part 2 of the Extended Review for the issue of the Pharaoh of the Exodus). Read More...

Tags: Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Today's lectionary reading from the Old Testament is Amos 7.12-15. It is one of the more revealing passages in the book bearing his name because it shows several obstacles to the people listening to his message. I will look briefly at three: Read More...

Tags: Prophets, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

Today's responsorial Psalm is Psalm 33 of which only parts are given in the readings. As I read the Psalm, as well as the reading from Genesis 42-43 this morning, I could not help but feel an inner tension. The common element in both the Genesis reading and Psalm 33 is famine. In Genesis 42-43, Joseph's brothers have gone down into Egypt to get grain in order to escape famine. Psalm 33.18-19 (NRSV, note the end of verse 19) reads as follow: Read More...

Tags: Lectionary Readings, Psalms

Today's lectionary reading is one of the most enigmatic in the entire Hebrew Bible. It is the story in which the patriarch's name is changed from Jacob to Israel. There are all sorts of questions that remain after reading the passage. Who is the man with whom Jacob wrestles? How should the name Israel be translated? How does one punctuate the explanation of Jacob's name change? What was the original purpose of the story? Read More...

Tags: Genesis, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

If you read lectionary readings for today, you may have recognized Psalm 91, which has inspired a significant amount of music over the years. So, I have embedded a YouTube video with some accompanying music if you would like to listen to it today. Honestly, I am not much on the video, but the song is nice. It is Eagle's Wings, which has become a staple of Christian worship music (in North America at least). Enjoy. Read More...

Tags: Psalms, Personal, Lectionary Readings

Today's lectionary reading from the Old Testament comes from Ezekiel 2. In it we find the most common title applied to Ezekiel by the Lord. This title is "Son of Man," which is a complex phrase in the Old Testament especially when one takes into consideration the usage in Daniel 7.13. However, the usage in Ezekiel is a bit more straightforward. It means something along the lines of "human being," or if you want to go a bit further, "mere mortal." The phrase is used in the early chapters of Ezekiel to contrast the majestic deity from the lowly prophet. Read More...

Tags: Prophets, Old Testament Study, Lectionary Readings

I have recently decided to make comments on some weekly lectionary readings in my blog posts, though I will continue to post on other matters as well. Today's responsorial Psalm is Psalm 135, which gives a good illustration of the presence of henotheism in the Bible. Henotheism is a big word, but it basically means that if a group of people worships one God while not denying the existence of other deities. Read More...

Tags: Psalms, Lectionary Readings