Back to us. We will live, because we have not been led astray but a false god. We will endure, because the God who gives life is the one we trust in.
Wisdom started off by talking about deceiving appearances - the ungodly appear to flourish whereas the righteous don’t. Now it’s worked back round to that theme and is able to say with a new confidence that we who are righteous will be rewarded.
Those who think life is just a game, a market in which to make profit, they are the ones who are deluding themselves.
And then there’s some rude words for the Egyptians, and all God’s enemies. So ends chapter 15.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
Day 50: Wisdom Chapter 14
Continuing with the theme of worthless idols, the writer develops in an interesting way. He has been talking about pieces of wood, fashioned into a shape that then is worshipped, that people put their trust in, and he goes on to talk about another piece of wood that people put their trust in - a boat.
This is a good and worthy use of skill, enabling human endeavour and exploration, and God is kind to seafarers and brings them safe to port. But those who make their wood into idols are under a curse.
He has an interesting take on the origins of idolatry. Sometimes it is love gone astray. If a father loses a child, he might carve a likeness of his child, and adore it, and end up worshipping it. A king might command an image of himself to be made, for people to venerate, but the craftsman’s skill might be such that the image is more beautiful than the man it represents, and it ends up being worshipped. Love of one’s family, honour for one’s ruler - these are good things, but if twisted and stretched they become evil idolatry.
This is sophisticated thinking - I like this. The last few chapters of Wisdom have been deep.
Finally in this chapter, the writer goes on to think about the effects of idolatry. If good instincts have been twisted and stretched into unnatural shapes, then people will lose their grip on goodness completely. They will call war, peace; they will call lies, truth; they will abandon faithfulness, goodness and kindness and all manner of evil will prevail. Society will decay and collapse, and this is God’s punishment on them for their sin.
This is a good and worthy use of skill, enabling human endeavour and exploration, and God is kind to seafarers and brings them safe to port. But those who make their wood into idols are under a curse.
He has an interesting take on the origins of idolatry. Sometimes it is love gone astray. If a father loses a child, he might carve a likeness of his child, and adore it, and end up worshipping it. A king might command an image of himself to be made, for people to venerate, but the craftsman’s skill might be such that the image is more beautiful than the man it represents, and it ends up being worshipped. Love of one’s family, honour for one’s ruler - these are good things, but if twisted and stretched they become evil idolatry.
This is sophisticated thinking - I like this. The last few chapters of Wisdom have been deep.
Finally in this chapter, the writer goes on to think about the effects of idolatry. If good instincts have been twisted and stretched into unnatural shapes, then people will lose their grip on goodness completely. They will call war, peace; they will call lies, truth; they will abandon faithfulness, goodness and kindness and all manner of evil will prevail. Society will decay and collapse, and this is God’s punishment on them for their sin.
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Day 49: Wisdom Chapter 13
Warming to his theme, the writer of Wisdom tackles the folly of idolatry. As far as he is concerned, the existence of almighty God is obvious. You have to be foolish not to notice that there is a creator God who has set up the universe and who loves and cares for it still.
But people get so obsessed with the wonder and beauty of created things, they conclude that these themselves are worthy of worship, and don’t look beyond them to the one who made them. However, he is not too condemning of such people. They are halfway there, he concludes.
Worse than that though, are the people who choose to worship things that they have made themselves. Where’s the sense in making a statue and bowing down to it? How can a thing be greater than the one who made it?
But people get so obsessed with the wonder and beauty of created things, they conclude that these themselves are worthy of worship, and don’t look beyond them to the one who made them. However, he is not too condemning of such people. They are halfway there, he concludes.
Worse than that though, are the people who choose to worship things that they have made themselves. Where’s the sense in making a statue and bowing down to it? How can a thing be greater than the one who made it?
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Day 48: Wisdom Chapter 12
Ah, interesting. Wisdom reaches the thorny topic of driving the Canaanites out of their land, so that the Israelites could have it. People who’ve been following me through the Bible will know that this has been a bone of contention in my journey for a long time.
This book has a particular take on it. the Canaanites, apparently, were uniquely evil as a race, and deserved what was coming to them. God was in fact merciful, he could have wiped them out in a blink of an eye, as their sins deserved, but he allowed them to be eradicated gradually, giving them time to repent.
Whatever you may think of the rights and wrongs of one nation dispossessing another, it is interesting that Wisdom here tries to find a justification for it. It suggests that there is some guilt in the Israelite psyche for what they did.
I suppose I’d better tell you what I think.
I don’t condone colonial dispossession of people from their lands, but I acknowledge that it’s always happened. Western Europeans did it to native Americans, to Australian aborigines, to Africans and Indians and many others. The Canaanites themselves displaced others who had lived in the fertile land before them, and that part of the world has been fought over constantly throughout history. Competition over good land is a fact of life. Where it gets difficult is where one group asserts a divine right to own the land, and uses that to justify their occupation and oppression of others. Modern day Israel, I’m talking to you!
This book has a particular take on it. the Canaanites, apparently, were uniquely evil as a race, and deserved what was coming to them. God was in fact merciful, he could have wiped them out in a blink of an eye, as their sins deserved, but he allowed them to be eradicated gradually, giving them time to repent.
Whatever you may think of the rights and wrongs of one nation dispossessing another, it is interesting that Wisdom here tries to find a justification for it. It suggests that there is some guilt in the Israelite psyche for what they did.
I suppose I’d better tell you what I think.
I don’t condone colonial dispossession of people from their lands, but I acknowledge that it’s always happened. Western Europeans did it to native Americans, to Australian aborigines, to Africans and Indians and many others. The Canaanites themselves displaced others who had lived in the fertile land before them, and that part of the world has been fought over constantly throughout history. Competition over good land is a fact of life. Where it gets difficult is where one group asserts a divine right to own the land, and uses that to justify their occupation and oppression of others. Modern day Israel, I’m talking to you!
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Day 47: Wisdom Chapter 11
The journey continues, with the emphasis on how Wisdom taught the people of God through the wilderness experience of the exile. They learned that God provided for them, while their enemies learned that he had power to punish and judge. Wisdom was their teacher, as they made their way through the desert. When they slipped up, by worshipping creatures like snakes, God punished them. But his punishment of his own people was light compared to the horrors he unleashed on the Egyptians, the enemies of his chosen race. The righteous never suffered thirst like theirs, writes Solomon.
So all this proves that God loves the world, and his own chosen people. If God did not love the world, it would not still be here, because God in his great power could burn it up in a moment.
If you believe that your God is so powerful, then you believe you are blessed indeed.
So all this proves that God loves the world, and his own chosen people. If God did not love the world, it would not still be here, because God in his great power could burn it up in a moment.
If you believe that your God is so powerful, then you believe you are blessed indeed.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Day 46: Wisdom Chapter 10
The career of Wisdom in human history is traced.
Wisdom was there, helping Adam in the beginning, She helped him recover from his sinful act, and helped him resume of control of the wild earth. She guided Noah in his frail boat over the furious floods. She watched over Abraham in his travails, and kept him faithful to God. She rescued Lot, kept Jacob and Joseph safe, and led the Israelites out of Egypt.
In all these things, What is attributed to Wisdom here is more commonly attributed to God elsewhere in the Bible.
Wisdom was there, helping Adam in the beginning, She helped him recover from his sinful act, and helped him resume of control of the wild earth. She guided Noah in his frail boat over the furious floods. She watched over Abraham in his travails, and kept him faithful to God. She rescued Lot, kept Jacob and Joseph safe, and led the Israelites out of Egypt.
In all these things, What is attributed to Wisdom here is more commonly attributed to God elsewhere in the Bible.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Day 45: Wisdom Chapter 9
In chapter 9, we hear Solomon’s prayer as he asks for Wisdom. All this is an expansion and reflection on 1 Kings 3, when Solomon had a dream in which God appeared and asked him what he would like. There, he was humbler and asked for wisdom, saying he didn’t know how to rule. God was pleased that he didn’t ask for wealth or victory over his enemies, or long life for himself, so promised to give him those other things too.
In this prayer, again, Solomon is humble. “ I am only human. I am not strong, and my life will be short. I have little understanding of the Law or of how to apply it.”
But in this prayer Wisdom is much more strongly personified, with Solomon asking God to send her down from heaven, from the side of his glorious throne, to show Solomon what to do in life. How else will I know anything? All humans can do is make guesses about what they see, they can never truly know. Solomon is being scathing about scientific knowledge, which can actually amount to a lot as we know, but always in the end is accurately described as guesses about things that we can’t know for certain. These guesses have to be changed and refined as our knowledge grows and changes, and Solomon wants more than that.
In this prayer, again, Solomon is humble. “ I am only human. I am not strong, and my life will be short. I have little understanding of the Law or of how to apply it.”
But in this prayer Wisdom is much more strongly personified, with Solomon asking God to send her down from heaven, from the side of his glorious throne, to show Solomon what to do in life. How else will I know anything? All humans can do is make guesses about what they see, they can never truly know. Solomon is being scathing about scientific knowledge, which can actually amount to a lot as we know, but always in the end is accurately described as guesses about things that we can’t know for certain. These guesses have to be changed and refined as our knowledge grows and changes, and Solomon wants more than that.
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