Reading for Thursday, December 9

Hey guys. Merry Christmas. I hope you all had a good one - and even though the actual day has nothing to do with Christ's birth and the holiday has been commercialized to the point of the antithesis of the entire point of Jesus - I hope you keep his fascinating life and death in mind during this season.

Also, holy crap look outside. There's a million feet of snow out there.

Reading for December 9
Joel 1:1-3:21
Cool, I got two new books here. Joel is yet another short book with only three chapter. I tend to like these shorter books because you have a bunch of great ideas boiled down into a very concentrated message. Let's see what Joel has to say, I've never cracked a page of this book.

This is an incredibly difficult book to digest. I've had to restart like five times before I could fully comprehend what I was reading. The author basically calls the readers to repent and mourn for Israel's own downfall. But even then, as before, the author reminds us of God's good grace.

Return to the LORD your God,
   for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity.
¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent
   and leave behind a blessing

I particularly like the highlighted bit there. As much destruction as we are led to believe God is responsible for, there are several instances in the text that tell us it is not something he enjoys doing.

Also, for the scientifically minded folks out there, I realize that I could make just as strong an argument for God being a nasty, exclusive monster, and I'm only highlighting the good parts - but what can I say? I'm an optimist.

Revelation 1:1-20
Hoo. Here we go. This gon' be intense.

Wow. The number seven is repeated a whole bunch of times here. The first scene in Revelation is the author's vision/dream of Jesus. The description is similar to the dreams of kings and pharaohs in the Old Testament - super detailed, and freaking scary:

And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,^[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.

It's obvious that the author is making a point to point out idea of seven. A quick google search revealed that seven is the combination of four and three. Four representing earthly completeness (four winds, four corners of the earth, etc.) and Three representing holy completeness (holy trinity). So seven being the combo of three and four would represent TOTAL completeness - earth and heaven together. In other words "seven" represents the perfect paradise that God had intended from the beginning. Seven represents the new earth that is to come when Jesus returns to rule the place.

We have an explanation of the lampstands and stars at the end of this reading, too:

 ²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels^[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Doesn't really clear anything up, but thanks for the consideration, Jesus.


Psalm 128:1-6
I think I commented on the same thing the last time around, but I think it bears repeating. This psalm talks about the benefits of following God. Take a look at what these are

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
   within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
   around your table.
⁴ Yes, this will be the blessing
   for the man who fears the LORD.

My observation here is that you would probably want to write something tempting if you were trying to get people to follow God. These two verses show what was a strong desire of a lot of people - a strong family. It seems like today that people just want to get away from their families. Just sit in bubbles of isolation - watching football, playing video games, BLOGGING, shopping whatever - you are apart from your family. The author of this psalm tells us that in God you will have a faithful wife and fruitful children.

I would say that - as with any "goodness" promise in the Bible - you're not guaranteed a good family if you follow God. Just like you're not guaranteed money or cars. But you will be fulfilled.

Proverbs 29:18
This one is sort of one of those self-justification verses in the Bible, but still worth investigating.

 ¹⁸ Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;
   but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.