Month: August 2010

bookmark_borderAug 2

Posted on by ErikaRS

Reference links:

Old Testament

Hezekiah is threatened by Sennacherib of Assyria but the Lord intervenes and the Assyrians are defeated. It probably didn’t hurt that Hezekiah reinforced defenses and prepared for the siege. I suppose the lesson is trust but don’t forget to prepare as much as you can.

After this, Hezekiah falls ill, is healed by the Lord, becomes proud (we are not told what he becomes proud of), encounters the Lords anger, repents, receives honor, and makes an unspecified mistake with the Babylonians (showing off his wealth? was that Hezekiah? I’m too tired to look it up).

After that, we read about the reign of Manasseh. The author of Chronicles quickly lets us know how terrible Manasseh was. More interesting to the author is Manasseh’s repentance, which we heard nary a peep about in the books of Kings.

This conversion does not pass the sniff test in a couple ways. It was never mentioned in the books of Kings. Maybe that is because the books of Kings had a simplified view of history where good kings were successful and bad kings were failure, and Manasseh was supposed to be a bad king. But then, you would think the author of the books of King would be more than happy to have something they could use to explain the fact that Manasseh, the terrible king, had a reign longer than any other king of Judah.

The second part that does not pass the sniff test is the circumstances surrounding Manasseh’s repentance:

So the Lord sent the commanders of the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.

Why would the Assyrians take Manasseh to Babylon? As far as I can tell, Babylon was constantly in revolt and would not, I think, be a place where prisoners were taken.

Those things together lead me to think this episode was made up, either by the author of the books of Chronicles or by the author of some earlier tradition that this author was drawing from.

New Testament

We’re winding down on Romans. Paul describes his travel plans and then sends his regards to a number of people. According to Harris’s Understanding the Bible, many scholars believe that chapter 16, where the greetings begin, was actually from a different letter.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing strikes me as particularly interesting today.

bookmark_borderInspiration: Metal & Wood

Posted on by ErikaRS

Nearly all design styles feature wood as an element of living spaces. It is a soft, warm, organic material that feels welcoming and cozy. When sanded and polished with a simple stain, it can look and feel luxurious. Left a bit rougher and unfinished and it provides a more rustic, natural feel.

Because of its industrial and non-traditional associations, metal appears less often as a design element in homes. Stainless steel appliances are probably the most common use of metal. However, it can be used to great effect as an accent material, and often is used as such in modern design. It is a cold, hard, inorganic material, and large amounts can make a room feel clinical, sterile, and generally inhospitable. But just a little bit can draw the eye, provide a contrast in touch, and provide some extra interest to a room. Like wood, it can be polished to bring out the natural grain of the material and show off its natural beauty.

Together, metal and wood can be used to provide contrast: the coldness of metal versus the warmth of wood; hard versus soft; organic versus inorganic; and browns, tans, reds versus silver, white, gold. The best balance usually involves more wood and less metal; for example, a common application is to have open wooden stair treads (thick slabs of wood), with a metal banister and thin metal wires in the railing (thin threads of metal).

With judicious use, metal can provide elegant, modern style to a home. Just a bit of metal accent can both complement and contrast beautifully with the wood in a house.

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bookmark_borderAug 1

Posted on by ErikaRS

Reference links:

Old Testament

The author of Chronicles seems to be trying to set things up so that the reforms of Josiah are much less impressive. In this version of Judah’s history, it seems as if the law has not yet been lost. But at this point there are only two more kings  between Hezekiah and Josiah. Now, they are (or were in Chronicles, at least) pretty terrible kings, but still, 57 years is short enough that the law would have at just barely fallen out of living memory, if it even had.

Plus, one of the big things that was supposed to make Josiah awesome was his reinstitution of the Passover celebration. 2 Kings 23:21-22:

King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

But if we try to reconcile that with today’s reading where Hezekiah celebrates an impressive, then the impact of the passage above becomes “Josiah celebrated an even bigger Passover than Hezekiah”.

Also, it seems surprising that the author of the books of Kings did not even mention Hezekiah’s Passover when mentioning the rest of Hezekiah’s reforms and accomplishments. Hezekiah’s reign received a pretty thorough going over in Kings, but such an important Passover was not, apparently, worth mentioning.

I look forward to seeing how the author of Chronicles treats Josiah.

New Testament

I have nothing interesting to say about today’s reading. For no particular reason that I can pinpoint, I found it incredibly dull.

Psalms and Proverbs

The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It’s worthless,”
then brags about getting a bargain!

This is another one of those proverbs where I am uncertain if the author is giving advice, expressing disapproval, or just stating how things are.