Exegeting the Banana

Thoughts in Sweat

In regards to my prayer and reflection posted 3/27 and 3/28. I wrote that a few weeks after Dr. Bullock shared the following prayer in an OT Theology class. The prayer from that class reads as follows. Obviously, I liked the "disturb us" idea from that prayer.
Sir Francis Drake's Prayer (1577)

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

A person asked me if they can post/use one of my prayers. I don't mind at all. They're here for you, read them, and do with them what you like. I just wouldn't advise taking my academic thoughts and holding onto them with a grain of salt, cause they are first reflections, and most likely wrong wrong wrong. There's a reason why Ph.D is never going to be by my name, and that is probably the same reason why I have a Origen poster above my bed! (jk :-)

Now, onto other matters. In the early mornings I often wake up in a pool of my own exegetical sweat, with the only thing I dream about are the nightmares of graduate school and my deficiencies in Greek and Hebrew for the looming competency exam monster waiting in the wings to absolutely crush my brain. I am left with only one major paper left, the Torah theme across the canon. As I woke up yesterday morning, I was drifting in and out of some of the following thoughts related to the broader ideas surrounding Torah. Reading Torah stuff everyday obviously leads to dreaming Torah. Don't know if anything that goes on upstairs in the ol’ noodle is right thinking on Torah, but maybe in all my unhealthy weeds there is a beautiful flower somewhere.

Rather than pushing for Torah to be understood in terms of commandments, ordinances, requirements, instructions or anything else of the sort, perhaps it is necessary to look into other avenues and take a long way around. Torah as revelation. Pressed further perhaps it would work itself out as Torah is revelation of God's character that demands culturally appropriate actions from His people. Obviously Ancient Near Eastern backgrounds gives us the picture that anyone having revelation from a god was blessed, for then they knew not only what a god expected, but also about god himself, god's character. No more guessing what god they offended or what they did wrong, or how they now can appease that god. In sum, revelation is good, instructions about a certain god gives knowledge about that god and how to correspondingly act.

Revelation given on Sinai and other places reveals God's character, and reveals that God wants relationship, and wants His people to know who He is. Torah reveals something about God, God's character, and therefore logically taken to the next step can be accordingly applied to how this affects His people. God is holy, then His people are to be holy. We are to image our God. Revelation gives us insight into His character, which God in turn demands us to manifest in appropriate ways according to our historically situated society.

When Torah is revelation, rather than just narrowly or rigidly defined commandments, or culturally conditioned requirements it helps break out of a straightjacket of thinking. This thinking in turn helps us out when thinking in regards to the Mosaic Law. No longer does one need to ask questions about how the Mosaic Law has a one to one correspondence to the modern day. Such a question misses the mark of how the Mosaic Law functions and what is its intended purpose. Therefore, it is the wrong task to try to find a way to carry over the specific commandments from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and think that somehow Mosaic Law is being preserved the this noble endeavor. It is wrongheaded to try to fit the Mosaic Law alongside the Law of Christ or somehow limit its essence in any fashion to tame it so it rests now within the Law of Christ, as if they were ever meant to be competing systems, or if anything ever must be lost or downplayed. An attempt to make one to one commandment correspondence is a misguided task because it is based on the faulty premise that what is at issue is the continuing validity of the commandments of the Mosaic Law for our present age. However, the issue at hand is God’s revelation of Himself still being valid.

The primary purpose of the Mosaic Law is not to give us commandments. Rather the primary purpose of the Mosaic Law is to provide us with revelation in regards to God’s character and tell us who God is. Thus the primary concern of the Mosaic Law which is revelation of God’s character then has wisdom and logic applied to it, and the natural outgrowth is the applied Mosaic Law which put demands on people’s lives. Applied Mosaic Law revelation can then produce rigid commandments that societies are to follow.

The Mosaic Law first and foremost is revelation; revelation transcends time and should be understood in a different way than to think that in order for it to remain valid there requires a one to one commandment correlation into the modern day. The proper way that humans are to image God to the rest of the world changes over time. In one age, certain commandments are necessary to image God sufficiently and be a light to the rest of the world, but in a different time other requirements are necessary. The constant however is God’s revelation, it can never be revoked. Commandments however can and do indeed change to better image God’s revelation of Himself in different eras.

The point of law giving texts in the ANE is what it reveals about the character of the one giving it. This holds true for YHWH as well. Law texts were case studies and examples, but wisdom always had to be applied for the case studies to address a current situation. To say that the specific laws of the Mosaic Law are no longer authoritatively binding today misses the point of how law giving texts were understood to function in the ANE. Once again, it’s not about specific laws, it’s about case studies. Specific laws could of course be derived from law giving texts, but the texts themselves should not be thought to be lists of rigid laws ready to be enforced. It is the natural outworking of what the Mosaic Law says about the character of God that we then can talk in terms of a imaging God’s character by creating a set of rules we are to follow for our particular situation. Since Mosaic Law is revelation, the Mosaic Law’s intended purpose can never go out of vogue, because it is revelation, and revelation never goes out of vogue, because God does not change. God never retracts revelation, and therefore God never retracts Mosaic Law. Truths about God’s character will always remain truths about God.

Matthew 5:17-48 then is a revelation event just as Sinai was a revelation event. Rather then jumping into questions about if the Mosaic Law commandments are still valid, and if in v.21-48 the original intent or spirit is returned to, or if it is radicalized or intensified, or if it is no longer authoritatively binding but rather replaced with the “but I say” statements one should rather ask if God’s revelation of Himself at Sinai is still valid. Due to the emphasis on revelation at the Sinai event, and the insertion of new information into the revelatory system in v.21-48 the concern is not what happened to the commandments of the Mosaic Law. The concern rather is what happens to the revelation from the Mosaic Law event. Is this revelation abolished? No, it is fulfilled and expanded upon as Jesus inputs additional revelation onto the already laid foundation of the Mosaic Law. Sometimes Jesus comments on items the Mosaic Law already previous laid a preparatory foundation for, and sometimes Jesus adds completely new revelation all together.

To conclude this section then, I will sketch a possible way to move from revelation to commandment formation. Note that Jesus’ words already provide us with the necessary links and therefore they are directly applicable, and some case studies in the OT the principle are readily seen and therefore there is a direct carry over and correlation with a ready to use specific laws. At other times however revelation needs to work through the system to give us the proper way now to reveal God’s character. One must deduce the abstraction, principle, and revelation from the ancient law. Next, from the abstraction, principle, and revelation one contemplates what this says about the character and concept of God. Finally one uses this new information learned about God and puts this into modern practice. As one can see then, biblical authority rests not in the ancient law itself, (not the letter of the law) but rather in the principle and abstraction which gives revelation about God which is then put into modern day practice.

In an related note, but now waving my exegetical and hermeneutical magic wands, and foaming at my mouth like a mad dog, looking at the next step as just way too tempting, one then sees Jesus, the pinnacle of revelation, the fulfillment and embodiment of Torah, on top of the Mount (Matthew 5), realizing "Who will ascend into heaven to get it (Torah) and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? (Deut 30:12) and "'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) (Rom 10:6) that Jesus is the Torah incarnate brought down to earth to live among us, the living grace of God. Jesus is the ultimate Torah on top of the mountain. It was never first about commandments, it was always first about God's revelation of Himself. How blessed is God's revelation of Himself, as He brings down His only Son and breathes life into sinful man.

Thoughts welcomed and very much appreciated.

Thought of the Day

Continuing on in the same vein of my prayer and reflection I posted yesterday.

Continue to pursue and probe our inner being; draw us out of the caves, which we ourselves have built.

In your Holy Presence is a terrible thing, our clothes of sin and arrogant self-deception fall off, and we stand before you trembling, exposed, naked, and ashamed.

But thank you that this is not the end of the story, the story of the good news that every creature so desperately needs to hear.

In our woeful state, You sent your Son.

Thought of the Day

Welcome all. This is the first post on this bad boy, let's hope it something useful. Hoping that this isn't a waste of time for you or for me. We'll see how enriching my thoughts spewed out help to solidify life in my own mind and how helpful they are to speak to yours. If this is a success then credit the polite nudging of Darren and others at Wheaton Graduate School for getting me to start one of these. If this is rubbish, well, sorry to waste your time. Enough is enough, to the heart of the matters concerning sinful humankind, and our reflection on the Holy.

Since this is the first day, I figure what better way to start off than to remind myself of God's story through this reflection. The following is a prayer I wrote when I was delivering a talk on Luke 15, the first 2 pericopes. It reminds me of the picture God has painted through His Word, "God's relentless pursuit of humankind."

Disturb us with your powerful love, take our fragile humanity, and shake us to the core.
Awaken us, we are the sheep, put on your shoulders and brought home.
Awaken us, we are the lost coin, who you hold up and show to all your friends.
Awaken us, we were humanity lost, but you have come down in flesh and blood.
Awaken us, to your Holy Name, to our call, and to our responsibility.
Surround us with your grace, until we cannot help but weep.
Disturb us with your willingness to forgive, let that haunt us when we do not wish to forgive.
Disturb us Lord, come in, and make your home.
Help us to understand what it means to call you Master and Lord.
Break into the dark corners of our lives, for the glory of your name.
"Disturb us, Lord" - we know You will - You always do.
We may not always like it, but we will always need it.

Thank you for being the relentless pursuer of humanity throughout the ages of time. Thank you for your questions, which interrogate our paper-thin souls.
Often we confess that when your holiness comes close, we, like Adam, hide, because we are naked and afraid.
But please Lord, in spite of who we are, continue to come after us, because of who you are.
You are the Mighty Lover, the Powerful Redeemer of our dry and sterile souls.
Thank you for disturbing us with the powerful message of your love,
Transform our lives into living sacrifices, making us into your hands and feet to be carries of your good news, and sharing it with the lost coins and lambs, sinners you so deeply love………In the name of the Great Shepherd, amen.