Year: 2013

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Bible

Three People Who Played the Blame Game

Once, when the Israelites were in the desert and thirsty, God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would pour forth. Instead, out of anger towards the people, Moses hit the rock with his walking stick. Water still gushed out, but God was displeased over Moses’ lack of following directions.

Moses’ punishment was that God would not let him go into the territory he promised to give the nation. After forty years of faithful service, one mistake cost Moses dearly.

When it came time for Israel to take the land – without Moses – Moses blamed the people for God’s anger with him and punishment.

Moses, however, wasn’t the first to play the blame game. Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate fruit from the one tree God told them not to. Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the serpent.

Even so, they still received punishment for their disobedience: God kicked them out of the garden.

It may be human nature for us to blame others for our mistakes. While doing so may deflect our faults onto others, it doesn’t remove the consequences. Just ask Moses, Adam, and Eve.

[Numbers 20:7-12, Deuteronomy 4:21-22, Deuteronomy 32:48-52, Genesis 3:12-13, and Genesis 3:23-24]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Don’t Add to or Subtract From the Bible

Most people who read the Bible are careful – or so they claim – not to add anything to God’s written word or to take anything away from it.

A commonly cited verse to support this practice is Revelation 22:18-19, which pronounces plagues for those who add and implies eternal death to those who subtract.

However, John isn’t referring to the entire Bible but only to the record of his dream. Applying John’s warning to all of scripture is taking these two verses out of context.

A similar warning against adding or removing words occurs in Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32. Again these passages only apply to laws God gave to Moses.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day would have done well to follow what Moses said in these two verses, because over centuries of time, religious leaders added thousands of rules and regulations beyond God’s original words.

Their efforts at clarification may have been well intended, but in doing so, they directly violated what God prohibited.

These verses, while narrow in scope, offer a principal applicable to the whole Bible: don’t add to it or take away from it. Yet people do this all the time, elevating personal practices and opinions to the authority of biblical mandate.

Earlier in my life, I spent time with people who, with godly fervor, decried drinking, smoking, dancing, and playing cards. Never mind that the Bible never said these were of the devil, yet our pastor proclaimed them to be so.

More recently, I visited a church with odd requirements for women to wear dresses and not cut or color their hair. Where did that come from? I could go on.

If we’re going to follow what the Bible says, let’s actually follow what it says and not interject our own ideas or delete our own biases.

[Revelation 22:18-19, Deuteronomy 4:2, and Deuteronomy 12:32]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Who Are Christian Pharisees?

Doctor Luke records a curious line when writing about the early church. He says “…some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees…” That means some Christians were also Pharisees. How strange. Isn’t that a contradiction?

Judaism at the time was comprised of two main groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had vastly different theologies about the same God and for that reason they didn’t get along too well, but they did manage to coexist within the same religious and societal context.

Most all of the original followers of Jesus (that is, early Christians) were Jewish. That implies some of them would have backgrounds as Pharisees and others, backgrounds as Sadducees.

They maintained much of their culture as they grew in their new faith. While some of their practices needed to be re-examined, they could sustain other aspects. Clearly, some retained their identity as Pharisees.

For them, becoming a Christian occurred within the context of Judaism; it was not so much a conversion, but a transformation. In fact, there’s the implication that, for a time, some considered the early Christian movement, also called “The Way,” as another sect of Judaism.

What if that continued, comingling Jewish tradition with Jesus faith? For some it has and the results are Messianic congregations (Messianic Judaism). It’s certainly something to contemplate, connecting – or perhaps reconnecting – Judaism with Christianity.

[Acts 15:5, Acts 24:14 and Acts 28:22]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

How Many Tribes Were There in Israel?

Just as we know that Jesus had twelve disciples, we know that Israel had twelve tribes, right?

Jacob (also known as Israel) had twelve sons and each son became a tribe, right? Well sort of.

Even though Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son, there is no tribe named Joseph. Instead Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, both became tribes. So that ups the number of tribes to thirteen.

To make things a tad more confusing, the tribe of Manasseh split into two groups, with half receiving territory on one side of the Jordan River and the rest on the other side. Effectively, each half of Manasseh became a tribe. So the number of tribes arguably becomes fourteen.

However, Levi, while a tribe, did not receive a territory (they were assigned cities to live in throughout the nation). So Levi is a tribe without territory. Should we count them or not?

We can go crazy trying to sort this out.

Just as with the question of “How many disciples did Jesus have?” we can best resolve this by understanding that “The Twelve Tribes” was a label, a generic reference, and not a quantifiable amount.

Jesus had “twelve” disciples, symbolically matching the “twelve” tribes of Israel.

The fact that the actual number of tribes and disciples may have been thirteen or even fourteen doesn’t matter; the parallelism of “twelve” connects the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and links the nation of Israel with the salvation of Jesus.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

How Many Disciples Did Jesus Have?

We all know that Jesus had twelve disciples, right? This number occurs repeatedly in all four gospels. And the first three list them by name. Unfortunately, the lists don’t match.

Matthew and Mark list Simon Peter, Andrew, James (son of Zebedee), John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.

Luke matches eleven of these names, but includes Judas (the son of James) and omits Thaddaeus.

John doesn’t provide a list but does mention some disciples by name: Andrew, Simon Peter, Phillip, Judas Iscariot, and Thomas. Indirectly included are John and James (“the sons of Zebedee”).

John, however, also implies Nathanael is a disciple, but he’s not even mentioned in the other three gospels.

So that ups the count of disciples to 14. How do we understand this?

Here are some possible explanations:

  • Nicknames Were Used: If we assume that Thaddaeus was also known as Judas (the son of James) as well as Nathanael, that explains everything, but this is quite a stretch.
  • Some Lists Are Wrong: Matthew and Mark completely agree, so their lists must be right while Luke and John must have each made a mistake.
  • The Group was Dynamic: Though Jesus only had twelve disciples, there was an ebb and flow over his three years of ministry as disciples came and went.
  • Twelve is not an Absolute Number: We live in a culture that assumes precision. If we say twelve, we mean twelve, no more or no less. We don’t mean about twelve or twelve give or take a couple; we mean twelve.

I dismiss the first explanation as being too farfetched and discount the second theory as being too convenient.

While Jesus’ disciples might have changed over time, it’s more likely that the label of “The Twelve” was a generic reference and not quantifiable.

So that makes Jesus’ twelve fourteen disciples as:

  • Andrew
  • Bartholomew
  • James (son of Alphaeus)
  • James (son of Zebedee)
  • John
  • Judas Iscariot
  • Judas (son of James)
  • Matthew
  • Nathanial
  • Philip
  • Simon Peter
  • Simon the Zealot
  • Thaddaeus
  • Thomas

[Matthew’s list, Mark’s list, Luke’s list, and Nathanael’s story]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Why It’s Important to Obey God

When the people of  Israel were in the desert, God provided manna for their daily sustenance. He gave them some basic instructions about collecting the manna, but some people didn’t listen – or at least they didn’t do what God said.

He warned them not to stockpile the manna and try to save some for the next day. Those who did, found their hoard had become smelly and infested. I think the lesson was to rely on God for their daily bread, in this case manna.

On the day before the Sabbath, God said to collect enough for two days, because the next day was a day of rest. Those who ignored his instruction found no manna on the Sabbath and presumably went hungry. The lesson was for them to rest as God commanded them to do.

God provided for the people, but only those who obeyed him completely realized his full provision.

I wonder how often God does the same with us, trying to provide what we need, only for us to miss out because we don’t do what he says.

[Exodus 16:16-31]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

What Can Ten Righteous People Do?

The Bible includes the account of Abraham discussing the future of Sodom with God. Abraham is torn, he knows the city is corrupt and warrants punishment, but he also carries concern for his nephew Lot who lives there.

In a series of bold moves, Abraham asks God if he’ll spare the town because of the righteous people who live there, each time wondering if a smaller and smaller number is sufficient.

Finally Abraham gets down to ten – and God agrees. If only ten righteous people live in Sodom, he’ll spare the city because of those ten.

How encouraging, a minority of good people allowing a majority of bad people to be spared. We may find ourselves in a minority situation, but what if we’re one of ten righteous people implicitly protecting everyone around us?

Being a righteous minority for God can make a difference.

[Genesis 18:32]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

How Many Times Should You Forgive Someone?

Jesus shared a story (parable) about forgiving others.

Jesus’ illustration was prompted by Peter, who asked if forgiving someone seven times was enough; Peter thought seven times was generous. Jesus upped the figure considerably, saying seventy-seven times.

But we don’t take this amount literally, instead understanding that Jesus really meant we need to forgive others “more times than we can count” or “without limit.”

Jesus’ story, however, takes the idea of forgiveness to another level. A man, who owed a huge debt he could never repay, begged for mercy, for more time to make payment. But instead of receiving additional time, the debt was forgiven.

But then the man threatened someone who owed him a tiny bit of money. No mercy was given; no forgiveness was offered. He withheld from others what had been given to him.

Because of the man’s selfishness and not treating others as he was treated, his debt was reinstated and he was thrown into prison and tortured. Our fate will be no different if we don’t forgive others.

We, who have been forgiven much by God, need to likewise forgive others. The risk of withholding forgiveness is too great.

[Matthew 18:21-35]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

How Far Do We Go To Protect Tradition?

Whether or not we realize it, all aspects of our lives include traditions: unexamined habits and mindless rituals. But perhaps traditions most often exist in our approach to God and our worship of him.

While some traditions had a positive origin, others were misguided from the start. With little thought we pass our traditions from one person to the next, one generation to another.

Churches often protect their traditions with adamant, unyielding passion – sometimes at the expense of obeying God and doing what the Bible says. This is not a new problem. Jesus addressed this two thousand years ago.

The religious leaders of the day (the Pharisees) were quick to point out that Jesus’ followers (disciples) broke from tradition. They didn’t bring this up to provide correction but to pronounce condemnation. They thought they could discredit Jesus and embarrass him in front of the people.

Their plan didn’t work. Jesus foiled them. He declared that what the Bible said took precedence over their traditions. Jesus put his detractors and their ideas of what was important in their place.

[Matthew 15:1-6]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

Categories
Bible

The Rise and Fall of Lot

When Abram went to the land God promised him, he took Lot with him even though he wasn’t supposed to. Abram had to deal with the consequences of his decision.

For Lot, there were consequences too. When he traveled with Abram, Lot prospered; he was a blessed man. However, once they separated, things turned bad for Lot.

Without his uncle’s influence, Lot made some poor choices, eventually holed up in a cave he was fearful, broke, and alone – except for his two daughters, but that’s another story.

Sometimes things may go good for us just because of who we hang out with. But once we leave their umbrella of favor our positive outcomes can evaporate.

That’s why the company we keep is so important.

[Genesis 19:16-17 and 30]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.