Category: One Year Skeptic

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Old Testament

Today, we continue the second of the 8 visions of Zechariah. I think. It’s not completely clear yet whether the visions will be clearly demarcated.

Zechariah sees a man going to measure Jerusalem. This acts as a reason to reveal the fact that someday Jerusalem will grow populous enough that people will live outside the city walls. Then, the Lord will protect the city with a wall of fire.

This was probably a significant statement to people in a city that a disappointingly small number of exiles had returned to. This same sentiment probably motivated the next part of the vision where the Lord calls the exiles to return from Babylon. But someday, the Lord will live among the people of Jerusalem and many other nations will join the Israelites in worshiping their chosen god. A hopeful message.

Based on chapter breaks, we next start what may be the third vision. Or it may be part of the second still. In any case, this vision shows the high priest, Jeshua, standing accused by Satan. The Lord rejects Satan’s accusations, but not, it seems, because they are wrong. Jeshua’s dirty clothes and the comparison of Jeshua to a burning stick pulled from the fire imply that Jeshua is guilty as accused. However, in this vision God chooses to forgive that sin and purify Jeshua, promising that if Jeshua lives as he ought, he will gain authority over the Temple and its courtyards.

After that, God starts talking about how he is eventually going to bring his servant and remove all of the sins of the land in a single day. Of interest is that this promise is symbolized by a stone with seven facets. As we are seeing in Revelation, 7 is a very significant number, right up there with 12.

That’s all for today!

New Testament

Remember from yesterday: a dragon (Satan) is attacking the people. Today the dragon gives his power to a beast from the sea with 7 heads and 10 horns and 10 crowns on the horns and on the heads were written names of those who blasphemed God.

The beast was wounded and then healed. This, apparently, was enough to get the world to pledge allegiance to it. The dragon and the beast were worshiped. The beast went on to blaspheme God and torture the faithful for 42 months. Those who worship the beast were those who were rejected by God.

Then another beast came from the earth. This beast required everyone to worship the first beast (weren’t they doing so already?). The second beast impresses everyone with some miracles and then requires everyone to get a mark on their right hand or forehead. This became required to participate in commerce.

And that ends today’s reading. A bit less coherent than yesterday’s reading and, as such, not quite as entertaining.

Psalms and Proverbs

The author gives four random things he does not understand and then throws out a statement about adulterous women and their lack of guilt.

An adulterous woman consumes a man,
then wipes her mouth and says, “What’s wrong with that?”

Which leads to the obvious question: is consume meant canibalistically or euphemistically? The context implies the later, but our recent fantastical readings in Revelation bring the former to mind.

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Old Testament

We’ll be sticking with Zechariah for nearly the rest of the year which is, admittedly, not that long at this point. Harris says,

A contemporary of Haggai, Zechariah employs a series of eight visions to encourage his fellow returned exiles to rely on Yahweh, restore Jerusalem and the Temple, and await the reestablishment of the Davidic line. The second half of the book contains increasingly obscure oracles from a later prophet, known as Second Zechariah. 

Today’s reading is very optimistic. The Lord was angry with the Israelites, but he hopes that the returned exiled can turn from evil and live as they should. Israel will be restored and the nations who punished them will be punished in turn.

We then see some imagery that should seem familiar: 4 horsemen patrolling the earth (although not bringing any destruction) and four horns representing nations that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. This imagery has been repeated elsewhere, often in apocalyptic settings.

Zechariah also mentions four blacksmiths coming to destroy the four horns/nations. This is to punish them for the excessive punishment they have shown to God’s people.

During all this, we read the following statement:

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong. But I am very angry with the other nations that are now enjoying peace and security. I was only a little angry with my people, but the nations inflicted harm on them far beyond my intentions.

Only a little angry? Some of the language used by the other prophets was pretty strong. They must have been exaggerating or wrong. Or God is misremembering or misrepresenting himself. Either way, it certainly does not seem reasonable to call God’s pre-exilic anger little. Time softens all memories, I suppose.

New Testament

Today’s reading would make a great anime. A pregnant woman,

clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head

Almost has her baby snatched away by a dragon (Satan). God saves the baby (who was destined to rule all nations with an iron rod; sounds lovely). The woman flees.

Then there is a war in heaven between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. The dragon loses and is hurled to earth. There he hunts down the woman, but she is saved, so he decides to pursue the rest of her children: the faithful.

Confounding but exciting!

Psalms and Proverbs

Eyes that mock their parents will be plucked out and eaten by vultures. Symbolically, I hope.

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Old Testament

After Zephaniah’s pessimism, Haggai sounds positively cheery:

Anticipating renewed prosperity and a restoration of the Davidic kings, Haggai urges the apathetic community of returned exiles to rebuild Jerusalem’s temple.

The minor prophets sure do whip us around in history, don’t they? Yesterday’s reading was composed in the reign of Josiah and today’s is post-exilic.

Harris adds these additional details:

Although a remnant of devout Jews had returned from Babylon around 538 BCE and laid the foundations of a new sanctuary on the site of Solomon’s Temple, they had since become discouraged … Haggai, who prophesied in the year 520 BCE, urges the governor and the High Priest to persuade the people to return to the project, which they do enthusiastically. 

Haggai also expresses hope that the governor, Zerubbabel, will someday be established as the Davidic monarch, but Zerubbabel disappears from history without fulfilling that hope.

Haggai starts by pointing out that although the returned exiles have achieved some measure of prosperity, they are not yet content. Although they have enough to live, they are not reaping in proportion to what they sew.

Haggai believes this comes from the lack of a temple for worship. Because there is no temple, God is holding back the waters which would yield rich harvests. The governor, high priest, and all the people respond to this call, and they enthusiastically begin work on a new house for their God.

The Lord gives encouragement to those who remember the glory of the old temple. This new temple will not match the splendor of the old, but the people should not worry because, the Lord says, someday:

I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Well that’s kind of a let down. Here was this great opportunity for God to talk about the inner rewards of worship and being good or the importance of community or any of the other things that moderns tend to claim is at the core of worship. Instead, the Lord says, “Don’t worry about the new temple starting out plain, I will embellish it later.”

On the day the temple foundation was laid, Haggai uses an analogy with food to indicate that sin and defilement spread much more readily than goodness and holiness. However, now that the temple is being rebuilt, the people can expect prosperity to come once again.

On the same day, Haggai tells Zerubbabel that Zerubbabel has been chosen by the Lord and will be honored. On that optimistic and ultimately futile note of hope, we end the book of Haggai.

New Testament

Today, the author is told to measure the Temple and the altar but not the outer courtyard. He is also to count the number of worshipers there. From there, we disjointedly transition to a declaration that the holy city will be run over for 42 months and a couple of folks will wear burlap and give prophecies during that time.

These prophets will be protected from harm and have great power; they can bring drought and plague and turn waters to blood. In short, they are not going to be using the power God gave them for good in any recognizable sense of the word.

After they finish their prophecies, a beast will kill them. But then they’ll come back to life after a few days and rise to heaven (hmmm, where have I heard something like that before…). This event will be accompanied by natural disasters.

And then, finally, we get to the seventh and final trumpet. At this point, the world becomes the kingdom of the Lord and Christ, and there is much worship. The forbidding natural disasters which follow and the fact that we have 11 days of reading left imply that all is not going to be well and cheery from here on out.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverbs share the theme of things which cannot be satisfied.

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Old Testament

Our second to last one day book is Zephaniah. In summary,

Expanding on Amos’ theme, the fearful day of Yahweh’s coming judgment, Zephaniah predicts universal catastrophe, cursing Gentiles as well as unfaithful Jerusalemites. The assurances of forgiveness and restoration probably belong to a later compiler.

Zephaniah, predicts the universal destruction of life on the day of judgment. He also regards that day as near. Harris also gives some guesses as to the reason for Zephaniah’s pessimism:

The Jerusalem whose sins Zephaniah denounces was thus a prereform city [because Josiah had not instituted his reforms yet] that may have been contaminated by the pro-Assyrian idolatries of Manasseh’s administration. It seems, then, that Zephaniah was the first prophet to speak out after the long silence that Manasseh and his immediate successor, Amon, had imposed on the proponents of exclusive Yahwism.

The book starts with Zephaniah’s lineage. He is the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah. Thus, he may have been descended from King Hezekiah. I looked around briefly to see if I could find any confirmation that Hezekiah had a son named Amariah, and I couldn’t. On the other hand, I found no listing of his children, so we don’t know that he didn’t. In any case, that was many generations ago, so at this point he is just a dude. Possibly a dude with slightly higher status, but mostly just a dude.

Beyond that, there’s not worth commenting on. The bulk of the book is a presentation of all the different people and nations that will be destroyed. Since there are mentions of remnants and survivors, it seems that the opening lines of complete destruction are hyperbole:

I will sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.
“I will sweep away people and animals alike.
I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish in the sea.
I will reduce the wicked to heaps of rubble,
and I will wipe humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

However, Zephaniah does make it clear that the destruction will be universal even if it is not complete.

The last chapter certainly does represent a change in tone, although it is not clear whether it’s part of the original, a later addition by the same author (perhaps after Josiah’s reforms), or an insertion by a different author. I lean toward the second or third just because it is such a turn around in tone. To go from “I will sweep away everything” (even if it is hyperbole) to “Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together” without some changes in the external world seems like a bit of a jump.

And that’s Zephaniah.

New Testament

In yesterday’s reading, we read about the blowing of the fifth and sixth trumpets. Before we get around to the blowing of the seventh trumpet, an angel appears with a small scroll. The angel spoke and seven thunders responded. Thankfully, the author is told to keep the words of those thunders secret so we don’t have to go through yet another series of revelations… yet. The angel with the scroll praises God and then the author fetches the scroll and eats it. This scroll represents God’s charge to the author to give prophecies.

That’s all for today. Kind of a slow day compared to what we have been seeing.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverbs form a continuous though which describes evil people who curse their parents.

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Old Testament

Habakkuk is fun to say. Try it: Habakkuk! Here is the description from Understanding The Bible:

Composed when Babylon was about to devastate Judah, Habakkuk contains a miniature theodicy, reflecting the prophets effort to find a worthy purpose in Yahweh’s permitting the destruction of his people by unbelieving foreigners.

Like Micah, it is believed that Habakkuk was modified by later editors. In this case, the modifications may include the whole third chapter.

Habakkuk’s vision consists of two questions to God each followed by an answer. The second answer is followed by a prayer.

The first question can be summarized as: Why does God not seem to listen when his people are surrounded by violence and wickedness and cry out for help?

To this, the Lord replies that he is raising up the Babylonians to conquer other people even though the Babylonians are guilty of pride and cruelty. In conjunction with Habakkuk’s answer, it seems as if God is saying that his answer to the wickedness of his chosen people is destruction by the hands of the cruel and proud Babylonians.

Habakkuk’s section question is: Will the Lord really let the evil Babylonians get away with killing off God’s chosen people? Will he let them get away with killing everyone, even those who are more righteous than the Babylonians?

The Lord’s reply to this question is no. The Babylonians will not remain in power forever. The proud, the wealthy, the greedy, the corrupted will have the tide turn on them, while the righteous will live. Yet this response is general enough that it seems to apply not only to the Babylonians but to the Israelites too: the righteous will live, but those who oppress others will be turned upon by those they oppress.

The book ends with a prayer from Habakkuk. The prayer praises God’s power and splendor, sometimes in rather violent terms (pestilence, plagues, earthquakes). Habukkuk then goes on to imply that when God destroys, it aids in the bringing of eventual salvation:

Was it in anger, Lord, that you struck the rivers
and parted the sea?
Were you displeased with them?
No, you were sending your chariots of salvation!

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Old Testament

Harris‘ description of the book of Nahum is short and sweet:

The prophet rejoices over Nineveh’s deserved fall.

Further commentary gives a bit more detail:

Of Nahum’s personal life or theological beliefs,w e know nothing except that his message was unlike that of any other known Hebrew prophet. He neither decried his people’s sins nor prophesied their retribution; instead, his entire book is composed of three poems rejoicing over the ruin of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. His gloating, unmitigated by compassion, contrasts markedly with the merciful attitude found in Jonah.

Nahum probably wrote about 612 BCE, either while the combined Medes and Babylonians were besieging Nineveh or shortly after the city’s capture.  

On to the reading! The reading starts with a general overview of Nahum’s version of God. Nahum’s God is jealous, powerful, vengeful, and angry (although slow to anger). He is an absolutist who never lets guilt go unpunished. He is also good and a refuge to those who trust him.

After this, Nahum gets more specific and starts discussing the Assyrians. The Lord will rescue his people from their oppression (and will not punish them again apparently; that part is not so accurate a prediction). The Assyrians in Nineveh will be punished and fall; Nahum spends a fair amount of time on the details of their defeat and punishment. Those descriptions, the details of which are not particularly interesting, make up the rest of the book.

Not much to say about that one except that Nahum’s version of God is not particularly attractive or worthy of worship for anything other than his shear power.
New Testament

The seventh and last seal is broken. At which point,

here was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour.

Psalms and Proverbs

These proverbs are much less fragmented than earlier proverbs and, therefore, much more annoying to read a few verses at a time. In any case, Agur asks two favors of God: he wants to never tell a lie and he wants to be neither too rich nor too poor. If he is too rich, he may become self reliant, and if he is too poor, he may resort to crime.

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Old Testament

Today we finish Micah. We learn that a ruler of Israel will come from Bethlehem. This verse is popular among Christians for the obvious reasons.

After that, I am not quite sure how the various declarations, but my guess is that the statements about being rescued from Assyria and the purification of the remaining Israelites apply to the time during which the new ruler is ruling. In this time, the restored Israel will be a powerful nation and wipe out their enemies. So it most certainly won’t be a time of peace.

This description of the future is followed by the Lord’s declaration of his case against Israel. Because the case still stands that however much prosperity will come to a restored Israel, they still need to be destroyed in the first place. The Lord lays out the good things he has done for Israel and then states that all he wants is for them to do what is good and right. But the people have not done this, and so they must be destroyed.

We then move back to what appears to be Micah’s voice. He describes the despair that arises from everyone being evil. He declares the day of judgment is near and tells people not to trust anyone, not even friends or spouses.

Micah then reiterates the larger theme of the prophecy more personally and talks about how he will trust in the Lord, be punished for his sins, and then be restored.

The book ends with Micah asking the Lord to protect his people (using rather rural imagery), the Lord responding that he will, and Micah praising the Lord.

New Testament

To recap, yesterday, a lot of seals were unsealed. Today, four angels are waiting to destroy the earth and everything in it (these are, I believe, the disasters caused by the breaking of the sixth seal). Before they do so, the followers of God have a seal placed on their forehead. 12,000 people from each of the tribes of Israel are sealed. 12,000 people from 12 tribes is obviously symbolic, and the author probably didn’t actually mean the twelve tribes given that this is an apocalypse of the New Testament. I am sure the details have some relevance, but I’ll just take away the high level point that the author thinks the faithful will be somewhat shielded from the disasters.

After that, some people appear, and everyone starts praising God. The people who appeared are apparently those who died in tribulation. Revelation sure seems to imply that those who died in tribulation are better than those who didn’t. It is those who die in tribulation that get to serve God and live a life death free from physical discomfort. But given that dying in tribulation is at least partially an accident of history, that seems rather arbitrary.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverb declares that

Every word of God proves true

From that and the obviously factually false statements in the Bible, we can conclude, therefore, that either not all of the Bible is the word of God or factual truth is not what the author is getting at. Although I wonder how one can get away with calling something factually false that was presented as fact as true. (Presented as fact as opposed to symbol or story.)

I also wonder if the various redactors of the Bible paid attention to this one:

Do not add to his words,
or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.

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Old Testament

As we zoom through all of these minor prophets, I am kind of annoyed that Understanding The Bible orders its OT commentary by (approximately) the order of the books in the Hebrew scripture. Such an order is educational but somewhat annoying from a practical perspective.

In any case, let’s see what the book of Micah is all about:

Sharply critical of Jerusalem’s ruling classes, including Davidic monarchs and priests, the rural prophet Micah prophesies doom upon Israel and Judah. Expanded by later interpolations, Micah’s oracles are edited to include predictions of Yahweh’s future universal reign, additional denunciations of social abuses, and hopes for restoration.

… Micah, fourth and last of the eight-century BCE prophets, was a younger contemporary of Isaiah of Jerusalem. Active between 740 and 700 BCE, he directed his earliest prophecies against Israel’s idolatries, predicting the fall of the northern kingdom. 

In today’s reading, Micah spreads the message of guilt and judgment to both Samaria and Jerusalem, Israel and Judah.

I find this part of Samaria’s punishment to be noteworthy:

Her streets will be plowed up
for planting vineyards.

Generally, Biblical judgment against cities seems to come in the form of complete destruction. However, it makes sense that a rural prophet would see turning the city back into the countryside as fitting punishment. A similar passage is mentioned later in reference to Jerusalem:

Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field;
Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins!
A thicket will grow on the heights
where the Temple now stands.

Continuing on, the people of various cities are told to prepare for punishment. The powerful people who oppress others will be marked out for punishment because of their evil. A similar theme is picked up later when Micah declares the guilt of the oppressive leaders (using cannibalistic imagery).
Micah then goes on to rant a bit about how the people do not listen to true prophets like himself. Instead, they only listen to comforting false prophets. Later, there is another rant against false prophets which ends with Micah’s declaration of his own power as a prophet. I wonder if the author of Jonah had Micah in mind when thinking about the prophets who were a bit too full of themselves.

Micah also includes the standard message that Israel will someday be restored in the days when the Lord will rule all the world’s people from his mountain and weapons of war will be repurposed. But until then, there will be suffering and exile.

New Testament

Today, the lamb starts breaking the seals. This brings forth a white horse with an armed and crowned rider; the rider wins many battles. The breaking of the second seal brings a red horse with an armed rider; the rider takes peace from the earth. The third seal brings a black horse whose rider holds scales; he will make food scarce and expensive. The forth reveals a pale green horse whose rider was Death; he is given authority to kill 1/4 of the earth’s population.

These are the famous horsemen of the apocalypse, although they appear to be conquest, war, famine, and death rather than the more familiar war, famine, pestilence, and death. In this telling, Death gets to take charge of pestilence.

But more to the point, if you have read Terry Pratchett’s discworld novels, you are probably giggling. Death is a pretty prominent character in some of those such as Thief of Time, and a very amusing one at best. The Bible’s version, not so cheery.

Continuing on to the fifth seal. This seal reveals the martyred faithful souls. They are waiting to judge the world and avenge their blood. No loving judgment from that crowd. They get white roles and are told that their time is near, but they have to wait for some other martyrs. Now, given that the whole history of Christian and Jewish martyrdom could not have lasted much longer than history since Revelation is written, we once again see how wrong the Biblical authors were with there conception of soon.

The breaking of the sixth seal causes an earthquake and darkness. Various other disasters occur (many of which would be downright impossible if you took them literally). These disasters cause everyone on earth to hide and ask to be saved from the coming wrath.

That ends today’s reading.

Psalms and Proverbs

Apparently we start the sayings of Agur today. All I know about Agur is that is the son of Jakeh. In the first three verses of Agur’s saying, he declares himself to be lacking wisdom and worthiness. The forth praises the superiority of God. In short, classic techniques for trying to impress people. Set the bar low, bring to mind the higher standard, and then implicitly be compared favorably to that higher standard when you exceed the expectations you set.

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Old Testament

Today’s book, Jonah, should ring a bell. It contains the famous story about Jonah getting trapped in the belly of a sea creature. Understanding The Bible has this to say about the book:

A narrative about the vast difference between a God of infinite compassion and a prophet of painfully limited understanding, Jonah provides both a critique of some Israelite prophecy and an illustration of God’s universality. Utilizing folklore, humor, and hyperbole to make his point, an unknown postexilic author sets his fictional tale in the eight century BCE, when Assyria dominated the ancient Near east. 

Jonah is chosen as a prophet to tell the city of Nineveh of their sin and their doom. He did not want this assignment and fled. The ship he ended up on was caught in a storm. By drawing lots, the passengers identified Jonah as the cause. Jonah tells them to cast him into the sea. They try to avoid doing so, but it becomes their only choice. Throwing Jonah overboard immediately stops the storm, and so the sailors decide to worship his god.

In the meantime, Jonah is swallowed by a fish and spends three days and nights there. Johan prays to God and is released. And that’s the whole fish incident.

Jonah is commanded, once again, to go to Nineveh, and this time he goes. He delivers his message of destruction and the people repent (which is how you can tell this is fiction; the Israelites never repented because of the words of a prophet =P ).

Because of this change of ways, God changed his mind and did not destroy them. This makes Jonah angry. Jonah, like many a modern religious fundamentalist, does not actually want people to be good. He  would rather be right than see people saved.

God teaches Jonah a lesson by providing a shade tree and then taking it away. When Jonah feels anger over the loss of that tree, God tells him that even more sorrow should be filled for a city living in spiritual darkness.

And that ends the book. It’s a good story. I also think that the lesson of not taking prophets too seriously is a good one. Someone doing God’s will, this story tells us, does not necessarily understand God’s ways. When the prophets show anger and hatred, that anger and hatred should be seen as theirs, not their God’s. I think that can certainly be applied to some of the angry rants of the prophets we have read.

New Testament

A scroll is sealed with seven seals. No one is worthy of unsealing it except

the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne

This being is also described as

Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered

Most of the imagery in Revelation is pretty dense, but the surface imagery of this one is pretty clear. The lamb/lion == Jesus.

Today’s reading ends with the 24 elders, the four winged beings, and all the angels praising the lamb.

Psalms and Proverbs

One proverb about justice and another which tries to simplistically divide the world into the righteous and the wicked.

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Old Testament

Today we read Obadiah, the shortest of the prophetic OT books, which Harris describes it as a book where

The prophet blasts Edom for benefiting from Judah’s destruction.

Given that this theme seems to be covered in other places (e.g., in the beginning of Amos), there does not seem to be much point to including this book.

On to the content. Actually, there’s not much more to add. Edom sucks. They did wrong by Israel and did not come to help when Israel needed it. They then plundered the land and killed the survivors. For this, they will be wiped out by their enemies. They will suffer as Israel suffered. And, to add insult to injury, Israel will be restored and come to occupy Edom. The end.

New Testament

More glowy people! Today the author sees another vision of a a being who is brilliant like jasper and carnelian. This being is surrounded by 24 thrones with 24 elders seated on them. In front of them were seven burning torches representing the sevenfold spirit of God. In front of all that is a sea of glass, and there were four eye covered, winged, animal inspired beings praising the Lord.

When did God’s spirit become sevenfold? Why are there 24 elders? What does it all mean? I don’t know. But it’s late, and I don’t actually care enough to look it up. Unlike other books, where I felt I might get some value out of understanding them, I am choosing to read Revelation as one long drug induced vision.

So in that spirit… jasper and carnelian and fire. Pretty!

Moving right along now… the four winged beings and the 24 elders spend their days praising the Lord. I suppose this is one of those passages that makes people think that all one does in heaven is sit around praising God all day.

And that ends today’s reading.

Psalms and Proverbs

Assisting thieves will lead you into uncomfortable situations and fearing people is bad.