aily Bible Reading: Sirach [Ecclesiasticus] 40 and Acts 19

Sirach 40 – On Fear of Death: A “heavy yoke lies on the sons of Adam from the day they come out of their mother’s womb, till the day they return to the mother of them all. What fills them with brooding and their hearts with fear is dread of the day of death” (40:1-2).

Life is all “fury and jealousy, turmoil and unrest, fear of death, rivalry [and] strife” (40:4). 

Despite this pessimism, the writer believes in the end “all bribery and injustice will be blotted out” (40:12).  

Acts 19 – While Apollos is in Corinth, Paul goes back to Ephesus by land. The issue there is the one introduced with Apollos – whether believers there have just received the baptism of John or if they also have received the Holy Spirit. The baptism of repentance that John administered is not enough; there must also be a spirit-given faith in the one who came after John – Jesus Christ. Whether there is another water-baptism in Jesus’ name is not clear. It may just have been a laying on of hands to impart the Holy Spirit. The sign of it is the 12 or so believers speaking in tongues and prophesying.

In what may be from a different source, the next verses talk about Paul’s return to Ephesus and his preaching about the Kingdom of God [this may be connected with belief in the messianic purpose of Jesus].  After three months or so, there begins to be a division in the church there. Paul ends up taking his followers to another location. He lectured daily from 11 to 4 over a period of two or three years. It is from Ephesus that he writes the Letters to the Corinthians, Galatians and Philippians. Miracles are reported to have occurred from contact with Paul and even from things touched by him. Even exorcists start using Jesus’ name in their magic – a number of infamous incidents came from the group and people were “impressed” [it’s all pretty unclear].  In the end, though, use of magic is rejected and all the magic books are burned by those who once used them [not by their opponents].

Paul decided to return to Jerusalem through Macedonia and Achaia and then plans to go to Rome He stays for a while, though, sending Timothy and Erastus ahead to Macedonia. A serious conflict arises “in connection with the Way” (19:23). A silversmith with a big business in making shrines to Diana stirs up those dependent on the trade against Paul. Two of Paul’s friends – Aristarchus and Gaius – are taken by a mob. He wants to appeal to people but believers are afraid of the response if he goes to the “theatre” [the lecture room of Tyrannus, where he taught]. It apparently is an argument between the Jews and Christians. Alexander speaks for the Jews. The crowd starts chanting support for Diana. The Temple of Diana (associated in Ephesus with Artemis) was one of the wonders of the ancient world, opened in 550 BC. Diana was Apollo’s twin sister. The crowd is finally convinced to leave and take their objections to the “regular assembly” of the town (19:41).

 

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 4 and 1 Corinthians 9

Jeremiah 4 – If Israel wants to return to the Lord, she has but to do it.  But they must “remove the foreskins of [their] hearts [take the tough cover off their hearts” (4:4). Today’s English Version, which I like for the simplicity of its language, has nothing like this in its translation – I don’t understand why. It says, “Keep your covenant with my, your Lord, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem.”

The Lord is going to bring disaster on the people of Judah from the north; a “lion . . . a destroyer of nations has set out. He is coming to destroy Judah. The cities of Judah will be left in ruins, and no one will live in them” (4:7). Jeremiah engages in some Mosaic arm-twisting with God, accusing Him of having deceived the people with His promises of peace (4:10), but this is not what is going to happen.

The drama of this section lies in the coexistence of two simultaneous realities—the destruction, which is coming on Judah because of the hardness of their hearts and their years of unfaithfulness.  But the other is just as real; it is the terrible angst that fills the heart of the prophet, who must convey the harsh message of God to his people but at the same time feels somewhere in his heart that God has been unfaithful to the promise of peace made over and over again to the people. The prophet is an intermediary, the voice of God to His people AND the voice of the people to God. The excruciating tension these two jobs bring to the prophet are captured well in this chapter:

           

“The pain! I can’t bear the pain! My heart! My heart is beating wildly! I can’t keep quiet; I hear the trumpets and the shouts of battle. . . . How long must I see the battle raging and hear the blasts of trumpets? The Lord says, ‘My people are stupid; they don’t know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good” (4:19-22).

1 Corinthians 9 – Paul insists that he is “an apostle.” He has seen the risen Lord; this church in Corinth is his work “in the Lord.”  People who work for the gospel have a right to be supported, but Paul does not claim it.  In an exercise of the same “communitarian” ideal mentioned previously, he does not exercise this right because he thinks it might create obstacles to some he is attempting to reach. He is also still dealing with the boasting question—the boasting or self-inflation of those in the community who think their grasp of the gospel gives them a certain status or aura—grasping the gospel, embodying the gospel, representing it in any way puts a burden on you to serve it, not boast about it. His “freedom” in the gospel makes him want to be its slave, and that means he must try to be all things to all men—he must try to communicate the truth of the gospel to all manner of men so as to “win” them.  We are after an imperishable crown, not an earthly one.