Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out; and Samuel was lying down within the Temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called, "Samuel, Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am, and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."
But he said, "I did not call you; lie back down again."
So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, "Samuel, Samuel!"
And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."
But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel yet again the third time.
And he arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."
Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if He calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.'"
So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times, "Samuel, Samuel!"
And Samuel said, "Speak, for thy servant hears."
July 09, 2011
July 08, 2011
Luke 6.39-49
He also offered them a parable: "Can one blind man be guide to another? Will not they both fall into a ditch?
"A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone, when his training is complete, will reach his teacher's level."
"A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone, when his training is complete, will reach his teacher's level."
July 07, 2011
A First Example: 1 Samuel 2.27->
This is not an entirely coherent book, more of an example of how different sacred legends were later pasted together, leaving more than a few inconsistencies.
Anyway, we've just been given the story of Samuel's mother Hannah, long barren in the typical Bible birth tradition, who goes to the sanctuary at Shiloh to pray for a son. Eli, the priest in charge, adds his blessing to the prayer and she soon conceives, so that she carries out her promise and dedicates Samuel to service at the sanctuary when he is quite young. Eli's own sons, meanwhile, are misbehaving, scrounging the tasty bits of people's sacrifices & harassing the women participating in the services.
---
And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, "Thus the Lord has said, 'I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharoah.
'And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then look with greedy eyes at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel.'
Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: 'I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,' but now the Lord declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I shall honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
'Behold, the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this which shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: Both of them shall die on the same day.
'And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house; and he shall go in and out before My anointed forever.
'And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Put me, I pray you, in one of the priest's places, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"
---
3.1) Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
---------------
Who was that anonymous man? If the references to an 'anointed' and a new 'house' for God are anachronistic, the gist of what he's saying is quite plausible, and typical of what later prophets had to say, ie warnings that someone in power was misusing it, an implied cease-and-desist, a prediction of trouble to come if the abuse continued.
And while the man may well belong to one of the bands of prophets we find mentioned later, we're also told that such messages are not common at the time.
Anyway, we've just been given the story of Samuel's mother Hannah, long barren in the typical Bible birth tradition, who goes to the sanctuary at Shiloh to pray for a son. Eli, the priest in charge, adds his blessing to the prayer and she soon conceives, so that she carries out her promise and dedicates Samuel to service at the sanctuary when he is quite young. Eli's own sons, meanwhile, are misbehaving, scrounging the tasty bits of people's sacrifices & harassing the women participating in the services.
---
And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, "Thus the Lord has said, 'I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharoah.
'And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then look with greedy eyes at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel.'
Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: 'I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,' but now the Lord declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I shall honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
'Behold, the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this which shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: Both of them shall die on the same day.
'And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house; and he shall go in and out before My anointed forever.
'And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Put me, I pray you, in one of the priest's places, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"
---
3.1) Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
---------------
Who was that anonymous man? If the references to an 'anointed' and a new 'house' for God are anachronistic, the gist of what he's saying is quite plausible, and typical of what later prophets had to say, ie warnings that someone in power was misusing it, an implied cease-and-desist, a prediction of trouble to come if the abuse continued.
And while the man may well belong to one of the bands of prophets we find mentioned later, we're also told that such messages are not common at the time.
July 06, 2011
Judging Not, Why Not, Why & So On...
Partly this is folk wisdom, something we intuitively recognize as the kind of balance we expect in a properly run universe. It's being presented in that light: "for whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt to you in return."
One way this was explained to me: When Adam and Eve made that bad decision in the Garden... There was no criminal intent; they'd been incapable of knowing what they were doing or understanding the consequences. What the problem was, as Raymond Smullyan put it: "The fruit in question was poisonous and the effects last many generations."
We see the effect in operation right away; Adam and Eve discover that they're naked; and they try to hide. The next symptom, when God asks about it, is that Adam puts the blame on "The woman You gave me" (& shouldn't God have been more careful whom He introduced to him?), while Eve in turn blames the snake. It was simply not possible... for anyone to live in that state of mind, without eventually turning the same attitude towards themselves. Death is not a punishment, then; it has become as necessary for us as sleep.
And then Jesus comes along. He says "Judge not," and means it non-judgementally. He is proclaiming a no-fault, harm-reduction universe, for anyone willing to live in such a place.
And we fight the idea! It undermines everything human beings stand for! It's not fair! We've never lived that way; and we don't know how!
What was going on in the last show you watched, the last story you read? The last news you read or watched? Was somebody being bad? I can be pretty confident that someone was. It's hardly entertainment at all, without somebody milking our indignation somehow!
Could we give up judging, if we really wanted to? When anyone meets someone new-- They generally want to know, "Is this person likely to bite? Can I be sure it isn't?" Some people can't make that kind of evaluation: to recognize all the kinds of people who might do them serious harm, whether from malice, indifference or ineptitude-- and that's not a condition to envy.
But does trying to make those evaluations-- make anyone safer? A friend of mine, in jail for civil disobedience, started talking to the other prisoners-- and told me, afterwards, "I'd always been afraid of the wrong people."
Jesus was continually talking with those wrong people, but came to grief from all the "right" people.
Many suburban rattlesnakes in California... have degenerate, vestigial rattles. People have been disproportionally killing the ones whose rattles worked properly. So far, overall, the human success rate at assuring our own safety has not been good.
I'm leaving it up to God. Yeah, if I hear people outside sounding angry enough, like somebody could get hurt, I'll call the police. And pray, for everyone involved. It's not like I think it's a functional system I'm calling in...
One way this was explained to me: When Adam and Eve made that bad decision in the Garden... There was no criminal intent; they'd been incapable of knowing what they were doing or understanding the consequences. What the problem was, as Raymond Smullyan put it: "The fruit in question was poisonous and the effects last many generations."
We see the effect in operation right away; Adam and Eve discover that they're naked; and they try to hide. The next symptom, when God asks about it, is that Adam puts the blame on "The woman You gave me" (& shouldn't God have been more careful whom He introduced to him?), while Eve in turn blames the snake. It was simply not possible... for anyone to live in that state of mind, without eventually turning the same attitude towards themselves. Death is not a punishment, then; it has become as necessary for us as sleep.
And then Jesus comes along. He says "Judge not," and means it non-judgementally. He is proclaiming a no-fault, harm-reduction universe, for anyone willing to live in such a place.
And we fight the idea! It undermines everything human beings stand for! It's not fair! We've never lived that way; and we don't know how!
What was going on in the last show you watched, the last story you read? The last news you read or watched? Was somebody being bad? I can be pretty confident that someone was. It's hardly entertainment at all, without somebody milking our indignation somehow!
Could we give up judging, if we really wanted to? When anyone meets someone new-- They generally want to know, "Is this person likely to bite? Can I be sure it isn't?" Some people can't make that kind of evaluation: to recognize all the kinds of people who might do them serious harm, whether from malice, indifference or ineptitude-- and that's not a condition to envy.
But does trying to make those evaluations-- make anyone safer? A friend of mine, in jail for civil disobedience, started talking to the other prisoners-- and told me, afterwards, "I'd always been afraid of the wrong people."
Jesus was continually talking with those wrong people, but came to grief from all the "right" people.
Many suburban rattlesnakes in California... have degenerate, vestigial rattles. People have been disproportionally killing the ones whose rattles worked properly. So far, overall, the human success rate at assuring our own safety has not been good.
I'm leaving it up to God. Yeah, if I hear people outside sounding angry enough, like somebody could get hurt, I'll call the police. And pray, for everyone involved. It's not like I think it's a functional system I'm calling in...
July 05, 2011
Prophets
Cat here has proposed studying the Prophets for awhile. I want to continue with Luke meantime, but I hope we can combine both.
Where, how to begin?
The first really traditional prophet I thought of was Samuel, who is also featured in my favorite Biblical books (though not the most edifying.) & then I thought about Moses, who lives that role on a grand scale. In Deuteronomy he's quoted as saying: ~"When I'm gone, God will send a prophet like me to set you all straight [and you'd better pay attention!]" I'm not clear whether this is supposed to refer to one superlative prophet (Jesus)-- or whether it could be taken as a reference to the whole line of prophets, the Israelite institution of prophets striving to keep their rulers in line.
It is unusual, as far as I can gather, for any nation to have a truly independent religious opposition to royal and oligarchic power. Priests may get uppity, but a priesthood is normally content to have prominent, cushy seats at the royal table. Prophets are different. A kingdom can have a whole stable of approved prophets, assigned to produce optimistic prognoses for the king's favorite new project-- and one crazy geek will be out there yelling the truth at the top of his voice; it's bad luck to kill him; and he wouldn't dare take a bribe even if he wanted to.
Samuel is atypical, a prophet from before the monarchy, which he reluctantly helps to establish. In his day, there are apparently whole bands of prophets, traveling about in a contagious ecstatic frenzy. Saul, on his way home from visiting Samuel, falls in with such a band, takes off all his clothes, rolls about prophecizing with them.
One wonders about chemical aids... mushrooms, perhaps. Fasting, chanting, other practices. Later prophets were said to pray for a long time with "their heads between their knees" to get into the right kind of spiritual state. But we haven't been given the details, on how this should be done. Were they given unique gifts?-- or were they simply led to make the best use of a widespread human talent?
And what relevance do they have to our time? Messages addressed specifically to later readers? Announcements of God's long-term objectives? A way of interpreting their times-- and ours-- in terms of God's use of events for hidden divine purposes? Can we expect similar outcomes for similar conditions, read "the signs of" these times & extrapolate?
Where, how to begin?
The first really traditional prophet I thought of was Samuel, who is also featured in my favorite Biblical books (though not the most edifying.) & then I thought about Moses, who lives that role on a grand scale. In Deuteronomy he's quoted as saying: ~"When I'm gone, God will send a prophet like me to set you all straight [and you'd better pay attention!]" I'm not clear whether this is supposed to refer to one superlative prophet (Jesus)-- or whether it could be taken as a reference to the whole line of prophets, the Israelite institution of prophets striving to keep their rulers in line.
It is unusual, as far as I can gather, for any nation to have a truly independent religious opposition to royal and oligarchic power. Priests may get uppity, but a priesthood is normally content to have prominent, cushy seats at the royal table. Prophets are different. A kingdom can have a whole stable of approved prophets, assigned to produce optimistic prognoses for the king's favorite new project-- and one crazy geek will be out there yelling the truth at the top of his voice; it's bad luck to kill him; and he wouldn't dare take a bribe even if he wanted to.
Samuel is atypical, a prophet from before the monarchy, which he reluctantly helps to establish. In his day, there are apparently whole bands of prophets, traveling about in a contagious ecstatic frenzy. Saul, on his way home from visiting Samuel, falls in with such a band, takes off all his clothes, rolls about prophecizing with them.
One wonders about chemical aids... mushrooms, perhaps. Fasting, chanting, other practices. Later prophets were said to pray for a long time with "their heads between their knees" to get into the right kind of spiritual state. But we haven't been given the details, on how this should be done. Were they given unique gifts?-- or were they simply led to make the best use of a widespread human talent?
And what relevance do they have to our time? Messages addressed specifically to later readers? Announcements of God's long-term objectives? A way of interpreting their times-- and ours-- in terms of God's use of events for hidden divine purposes? Can we expect similar outcomes for similar conditions, read "the signs of" these times & extrapolate?
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