Some of you know Josh Clutterham (my tribute here; totaled car here) and you may know that his mother’s struggle with cancer is nearly over. You may not know that Josh has just written about the situation and God’s mercies in hard times. I know that he and his family would appreciate your prayers.
UPDATE (3/24): Josh’s mother went to be in the Lord’s presence this afternoon.
UPDATE (3/26): The service is Saturday, 11 a.m., at Grace Community main sanctuary.
It’s probably not very common that Passover and Purim fall on the same night. Actually, according to the Jewish calendar, it is impossible (Purim is in the last month and Passover is in the first month). But since the Christian calendar many centuries ago separated the calculation of Easter from the Jewish reckoning of Passover, it often occurs that Passover and Easter are celebrated at different times, even though historically Jesus was crucified on Passover.
Tonight begins the celebration of Purim, the holiday that celebrates God’s deliverance of the Jewish people in the days of Esther. In synagogues all around the world tonight, the scroll of Esther is read with children booing (or rattling noisemakers) at the sound of Haman’s name.
But on the Christian calendar, tomorrow is Good Friday. At our house this week, with the help of 10 former IBEXers out from California, we’re reading through the events in the life of Christ during Passion Week. And so tonight we remember the events of the Last (Passover) Supper and Jesus’ arrest.
It certainly is an interesting conjunction of celebration of historical events. Purim is a time of great festivity (and often drunkenness), whereas the Last Supper was a time of great sobriety. Purim is a time when God’s deliverance of his people from physical destruction by Haman is celebrated. The Last Supper commemorates the time when Jesus set in irreversible motion God’s deliverance of his people from eternal destruction.
I’ve not been a good blogger of late, and I’m not optimistic that’s going to change significantly in the coming few weeks. Last week Kelli took a couple of days to “get away” and spend some time with the Lord. We figured that if I get a semester sabbatical after 7 years, she should get one night away after 15 years. So I got to be mom and dad. With the passing away of Kelli’s uncle, two days became nearly 5, and I either 1) got real good at it or 2) was really ready for Kelli to come home. I cannot imagine how single parents do it.
At the moment, a group of students are nearly finished with their 1484-mile trek from California to spend Spring Break with us. We are all excited about this week.
Below are a few things I’ve collected the last few weeks.
1. Some sports and activities glorify a single individual. Others reflect greatness because it’s performed by a team. This group of drummers is an example of the latter. Quite amazing.
2. This guy gets his glory alone, and it’s still impressive. If you’re wondering how long this speed climber lived, you can find out here.
3. Sovereign Grace has continued their $5 per CD sale through March. If you bought some and want to get some more as gifts, now you can.
4. If you’re worried about your car being stolen when parked in a seedy neighborhood, here’s your solution.
5. So where does all of your college tuition go?
6. Here’s a tip to save you money, if you use Amazon. Put an item of interest in your shopping cart (not your wishlist). Each time you check your cart, it’ll tell you if the price has gone up or down since you looked at your cart. I’ve had some items in there for months (ok, years), and some books go from $28 to $38 and back down about once a month it seems. It really helped me this week when I bought a $54 item. But knowing that it had gone up about $5 since the previous day when I checked, I put the item back in my cart after my purchase. The next day, the price went down to $37. Then I wrote to Amazon and they gave me a $17 refund (they have a 30-day price guarantee). I don’t have a lot of time to monitor prices, but that may be a simple trick that saves both time and money.
7. I finished a BIG project today, not related to my dissertation, and little of which I’ve done in the last 6 months. I’ll tell you more about it later (maybe a month from now?).
8. Possibly my new motto for the next four years, if indeed my dissertation idea is approved: Jesus is the greater Jehu.
While the killing of yeshiva students in Jerusalem got tons of news, the much bigger story is largely ignored. Hezbollah now has 30,000 rockets in Lebanon. They only had 13,000 before the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Some of their missiles now have the range to reach Tel Aviv.
I am not a science guru, and so, like many of you, I can only believe (or not) what I hear. With regards to global warming, some would have you think that there is no question: the earth is doomed in 5, 25, or 95 years. I agree with the conclusion, but am less convinced that it will be as a result of an increase in the earth’s temperature (though possibly of “God’s temperature”). This editorial seems intelligent and honest and questions whether the earth is warming up or not.
If you’re one of those who likes to slow down when driving past an accident, or better yet, see the accident happen, you might like this article which describes how one guy’s career was wrecked in less than a day. Well, that’s not completely true; the destruction was in the sin, not in the getting caught. But this aide to President Bush went from scot-free to job-free in only a few hours. And if you want to read a funny follow-up to that, read this Survival Guide to Writing a Fake Memoir.
A quote I liked from my study of 1 Samuel 1: “This passage also teaches that true power is to be found not in one’s position in society but in one’s posture before God. Accordingly, the motif of appearance versus reality is prominent in this passage. Eli, who possessed “spiritual competence” because of his office, was in fact a spiritual bumbler; the spiritual powerhouse in this narrative was a socially impotent woman from the rural regions of Ephraim. Hannah alone understood the true power of undivided faith in the Lord” (Bergen, 1,2 Samuel, NAC, p. 63).
I liked watching these water balloons in slow motion.
I’ve collected a few things to share. There are a variety of things that I’m learning but don’t share because either I don’t have the time or you don’t have the interest.
Fun: Here’s a prank done in Grand Central Station.
Cool: We sold our queen mattress to a silver medalist in track at the 1996 Olympics. Since he was buying it for $50, I’m guessing that he’s not rich and famous anymore.
Weird: Friday night we watched Bourne Ultimatum. Saturday morning a sale came through the website by David Webb. (So now I know what happened after he swam away; he got saved and now teaches Bible geography!)
New: I started teaching adult Sunday School class in America for the first time. If you’re not sure what’s new about that for me, try: 1) adult; 2) Sunday School; 3) America. I think it went well. We’re studying 1 Samuel. We made it through 10 verses (in 40 min.).
Didyaknow: A blog post is not a blog. (If you don’t write blogs posts, you don’t need to read this.
Monumental: Luke turned 10 today. I think that’s more significant than a 10th wedding anniversary or a 40th birthday or whatever. We’ve really been parents for 10 years now.
March 3, 1998
Ariel Berkowitz, teacher at IBEX, has had some very difficult situations in his family lately. I asked him if I could share the latest update here, knowing that most of my readers know him. He would appreciate your prayers. I’ll add to that that they could use financial support as well, as their family does not have medical insurance. I’ll put those details below his update.
Here was the situation:
D’vorah [Ariel’s wife] was in the Washington DC area. She and our son, Yo’el, went there to help our third daughter, Rivkah, give birth to a third granddaughter. We knew since October that this one was in danger, having been diagnosed as having hypoplastic left heart syndrome. So, Rivkah needed the extra help. However, the extra help came down with double pneumonia while she was trying to help! We almost lost D’vorah! She went to suburban VA (not far from Rivkah) to recoup at my sister’s house. The second string of help took over, Yo’el. That was going great until his appendix ruptured! We almost lost him, too! He was at my sister’s, too.
Here is the update (28 Feb.)
1. D’vorah is recovering slowly. In the process she took a spill on the steps at my sister’s house and bruised her rib. But the pain is manageable. She is now back with me in Israel and shows improvement everyday.
2. Yo’el is also recovering. His is a little slower because he still has toxins in his body that must be released. But he is young and strong and the prognosis is good.
3. Baby Eden is still fighting. They had to open her up this past week again because of an infection inside from the previous operation. She faces six more weeks in the hospital. Mom (Rivkah) is hanging in there. Her young faith is being challenged to the limit trying to juggle her time between her two young girls and hospital visits where she must see her new baby still open, hooked up to all kinds of machines, and suffering. The good part is that the baby continues to live! That is beyond all expectations! Our middle daughter (Rachel) just flew over to help Rivkah, which is a big relief. But she will not be able to be there for the entire time necessary. We will all cross that bridge when it comes. Naphtali (Rivkah’s husband) was able to take a month off of work, but he had to return. That is why Rivkah needs the help now.
I can tell you from experience that hypoplastic left heart syndrome is one of the most serious heart defects, and the surgeries and hospital stays to correct it are extraordinarily expensive.
You can make a tax-deductible contribution by sending a check made out to Torah Resources International, but only put “Berkowitz medical expenses” on a separate note and not on the check itself. You can mail this to: Berkowitz Family, c/o Palanza, 7 Carnoustie Dr., Falmouth, ME 04105. Even if you can’t contribute much, a small amount would demonstrate your care for him and his family. Ariel’s email address is torahrediscovered at mac dot com.
Ariel during Sukkot, 2002
I’m pretty sure that reading class notes is not what many readers of this blog want to do. But a few are interested and I don’t have time to come up with more edifying material at this point. Below are two sections from last week’s class in Torah and Former Prophets. I selected these sections from 11 pages of notes because I thought they would be of greatest interest. The first story is classic.
Subject #1: Scientist or Priest?
Third word is the big U – Ãœberlieferungsgeschichte – history of tradition. Von Rad describes this as peeling away the rings of an onion. He comes to the Bible, such as the Book of Exodus and he assumes that there have been centuries of accretions, embellishments, and it is the goal of the critical scholar to peel away layers of accretia like the rings of an onion to come to “a critically assured minimum” and they call that the kernel of historical truth. What that kernel is is going to be dependent on who is peeling away the rings, because there are no rules for this, it is just done as it is done. The peeling away of the rings is to come to the critically assured minimum and then it is the task of the critical scholar to rebuild those rings for the kerygmatic maximum. Now listen to what I just said. The critically assured minimum is what really happened. The kerygmatic maximum is what you proclaim. So one of Prof’s teachers when he was at DTS 40 years ago was Dr. George Peters and he was born in a German-speaking home, his church background was German Mennonite and he was very much at home in German-speaking families and one summer he spent the whole summer in Germany and he got there early and went to Tubingen(?) and he attended a lecture by von Rad and von Rad recognized this visitor and asked him to come to the podium after the lecture and had him introduce himself and he invited him to his home that night for dinner. That evening in von Rad’s home, Peters said that they had a marvelous meal, and it was very wealthy old-style European where the kids ate in a separate room and everyone dressed up in suit and tie for dinner, and then kids came running in after meal and then he had family devotions for little children. Peters was just amazed at the warmth and devotion that he instilled in young children and then they were sent to bed. Then out came the brandy and cigars. Peters said he was non-plussed at what has happened tonight. Von Rad has on a silk robe over his clothes. Peters said that this morning you were in the same passage that you shared with the children; this morning you were tearing that passage to shreds but tonight with your grandchildren you did what I would hope my best students would do in a Sunday school class. Von Rad laughed and said that this morning in class he was the scientist but this evening I am the priest. To the scientist I go to the critically assured minimum but to the priest I go to the kerygmatic maximum. Peters asked if that was hard to do, and von Rad said he just had to remember who he was. Francis Schaeffer went against this as the ‘divided field of knowledge.”
Subject #2: Are the Plagues Attacks on Egyptian Gods?
James Hoffmeier in a lecture about function of plagues says that conventional evangelical understanding is that each of the plagues is a frontal attack on an Egyptian deity. That works on a few, such as the Nile. It’s true of the sun. But after you’ve done Nile and sun, then you run into some problems. Attempting to find significant deities that represent frogs, flies, and lice may be. Boils, can’t do it (no boil god). And no hail god. And no locust god. So he said in this very powerful lecture that we should view the plagues as attacks on the gods of Egypt as an indirect or blanket matter and think as the Nile and sun as two principal deities under attack. More significant is maat. That is the word for order. That is one of the Egyptian deities. A major god. Every time since hearing his lecture when Prof has gone to an Egyptian archaeological display and he sees images of maat in all of the statue rooms. Not just the god but the function of pharaoh. Pharaoh’s position was to maintain maat, which means order. Moses standing before Pharaoh and the plagues sequentially an attack on pharaoh who is the representation of order in an ordered land. The sense of order is very important in Egypt. They have 365 days of sun; if there is rain it’s not needed; it is a nuisance. The sun and the water are representative of the order of Egyptian life. Each plague in a general sense is an attack on the gods of Egypt, but more pointedly on maat, the sense of order that Pharaoh should provide.
Follow-up on Judah and Joseph story (Gen 38)
See Exegetical study of Genesis 38, by Steven Matthewson. Fine paper; summary of his master’s thesis. Published in Bib Sac.
This blog usually stays away from politics, not because the blog writer doesn’t think about it quite a bit, but because, well, it just gives people one more reason to not like you and I have enough already. But you’ve caught me at a weak moment.
I’ve been leaning towards praying for Hillary to win for some time. There are two reasons for this: 1) I think she would be a better president than Obama; 2) I think a Republican has a better chance of beating her than Obama.
If I had to put money on the November winner, I’d put it on Obama. Unfortunately, I think that Krauthammer’s words are appropriate in his conclusion to his recent column:
Obama has an astonishingly empty paper trail. He’s going around issuing promissory notes on the future that he can’t possibly redeem. Promises to heal the world with negotiations with the likes of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Promises to transcend the conundrums of entitlement reform that require real and painful trade-offs and that have eluded solution for a generation. Promises to fund his other promises by a rapid withdrawal from an unpopular war — with the hope, I suppose, that the (presumed) resulting increase in American prestige would compensate for the chaos to follow.
Democrats are worried that the Obama spell will break between the time of his nomination and the time of the election, and deny them the White House. My guess is that he can maintain the spell just past Inauguration Day. After which will come the awakening. It will be rude.
Does George H. W. Bush think that he is doing McCain a favor by endorsing him? If I was running for president, I’d give my entire campaign account to #41 if he would say bad things about me.
Mike Huckabee will be speaking about 5 miles from my house tomorrow night. Should I go? I’ve never seen a former Arkansas governor in person before.
A major problem that I have with American politics is how horribly undemocratic it is. It is unbelievable. I have absolutely no vote in the presidential primary election. Everyone has already dropped out because some voters in Iowa or South Carolina decided for me. This is NOT DEMOCRACY. Texas should secede.
A friend writes:
I am looking for a guy (it pretty much has to be a guy since we travel all the time together) who is experienced in computer animation and graphics. When I say computer animation I don’t mean cartoons, I mean building a city of Jericho with walls and having them fall down and the city burn etc and/or you can fly the audience around and show them what the city may have looked like. In return for their work on upcoming projects I would give them an all expense paid 6 month trip to Israel. They would be leaving around the middle of March, although this can be somewhat flexible.
I can recommend the organization (and team) that is doing this. If you have the above qualifications, email me and I’ll pass it on. The last time I posted something like this, one of you responded and it went fabulously well, from all I heard. This is the same organization. I know it’s not much notice, but it gives you two weeks to tell your boss that no matter how much he’s willing to pay you, it isn’t as good as living in the Promised Land.
Anyone up for six months in the Holy Land?
If you’re one of the kinds of people that knows that you want the 2nd edition of Eugene Merrill’s Kingdom of Priests, then you might be glad to know that Amazon is giving an extra 5% off if you purchase it before it is released. That’s one dollar off. Which will buy you 20 postcards in Israel.
Of course I haven’t seen the book so I can’t tell you how different it is or isn’t. I am disappointed that it is only available in paperback.
