Midnight Hour

“And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.”

(Nehemiah 13:25 ESV)

I was surprised when I heard this today as I was listening to the Bible trying to catch up on my M'Cheyne Reading plan. This is an instance of a man using anger rightly. How do I do this rightly?

bheathr: A tourist could bomb the plane. - Gage

See original: A tourist could bomb the plane. - Gage

bheathr: If I had learned it(the piano-forte), I should have become a proficient. - Lady Catherine (Pride and Prejudice)

See original: If I had learned it(the piano-forte), I should have become a proficient. - Lady Catherine (Pride and Prejudice)

Ok. So maybe this is a bit of a rant, but I just listened to a song by a CCM band that Courtney and I kind of liked on JC TV the other day. I recently scanned the airwaves to see if we picked up any new broadcast HDTV channels. We did. One is TBN. Woo hoo. Another is JC TV. It is like a Christian MTV. Wow, Christians are really with-it. MTV started in, what, 1981?

Anyway, the song by Tal and Acacia, who in fact do perform decent music, is called Garbage In, Garbage out. This rant has been coming for a while. Courtney smiled when I mentioned it. Christian's are disposed to think that evil is "out there," instead of "in here." Legalistic Christians, and frankly parents with children, seem to have particularly poor judgement in this respect. It is as if they have an interest in locating the evil outside themselves. I suppose that is because their sin is not covered by the blood of Christ or at least they have forgotten.

Jesus says,

“it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.””

(Matthew 15:11 ESV)

This makes me think that the saying, "Garbage in, garbage out," is not really a Christian saying. A better Christian saying regarding the subject is something like, "Bad fruit can't come from a good tree." Oh wait, Jesus said that too.

bheathr: Garbage in, garbage out…garbage. http://midnighthour.org/mh/node/884

See original: Garbage in, garbage out…garbage. http://midnighthour.org/mh/node/884

Well, I am trying out a new way of taking notes. I am writing them as "user notes" in my Accordance Bible Software. This means I can access them easily in the future.

It also means I make notes for a verse rather than a summary for the entire chapter. I am then copying them into my the blogging app. I may hone the format as I go.

Gen 8

God remembers Noah. Had he forgotten? No, but God's remembrance of his covenant is a sign that he will act on their behalf.

ESVSB points out that God making the "wind" to blow seems to purposely parallel Gen 1:2 when God makes the "spirit" to hover. Spirit and wind are the same word. This points in a direction of seeing Noah as a new creation.

I find it interesting that in v. 21 God reasons that he will never again curse the ground and destroy the animals because of man. His basis is that "the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth." God's change of heart is not a result of a change in man because of Noah's relative righteousness. Instead, it is the sacrifice that Noah offers. One might also get the indea that "the earth has suffered enough because of man"

Ezra 8

Ezra's determination to bring back a full representation of the house of Israel is seen in the recording of the geneology. You can also see his faithfulness in desiring that true sons of Levi be priests.

I suppose there is such a thing as holy shame as Ezra has in v22.



Matt 8

Why did Jesus tell the leper not to tell anyone? At this stage in his ministry he was trying to stay "under the radar" and not draw messianic attention to himself.

You have to love the faith of the centurion. His faith is an occasion to mention us. We are some of those that weill recline at the table with the patriarchs while Jews who reject him will be cast out of the kingdom.

bheathr: Finished up meeting info for Dad to do the weekly R2 meeting so I could meet with guys about Tanzania tomorrow. Thanks Dad.

See original: Finished up meeting info for Dad to do the weekly R2 meeting so I could meet with guys about Tanzania tomorrow. Thanks Dad.

Gen 7

I remember in my Penteteuch class in college being told that because of v3 saying that Noah took seven pairs of clean animals and verses nine and fifteen saying they went in two by two there were two "flood accounts." I now realize that verses nine and fifteen are describing how they went in and not how many were taken. Now I can take this off the passages that make me nervous list. Looking back, it seems silly to have thought otherwise. I suppose the stature of the teacher weighed upon me in my reading.

That fact that every living thing on the "earth" was "blotted out" makes me think of the curse and the curse of the ground. Apparently the sea creature survived.



Ezra 7

It is interesting that v. 10 makes explicit that Ezra not only wants to study and teach God's law, but he also wants to DO IT. Many get two out of three. It is me too often.

The reverence with which Artaxerxes speaks of "the God of Israel" is surprising. It is highly unlikely that he had become a Jew, yet he understood the idea of being respectful and deferential to one greater than himself. It seems he did not doubt that the "God that is in Jerusalem" existed and that he was worthy of worship. While this is not the end of religion, it is refreshing compared to the lack of respect paid anything in our day.

bheathr: Thanks for Christmas and Grandma. Please help them to find a cure for grandma getting fat. Thanks for the food. Amen - Friend of son

See original: Thanks for Christmas and Grandma. Please help them to find a cure for grandma getting fat. Thanks for the food. Amen - Friend of son