Character in Context

Big thanks to our first podcast supporter! Thanks to ddrjqy! Just this last week I spent a bunch of money on new context books, so I appreciate the support.

This week we're going to explore the ancient Near Eastern world of polytheism and henotheism (the religion of pre-monotheistic Israel) in order to understand why the prophet Isaiah is having so much trouble convincing the exiled Jews that they really can trust God and that the idols of the nations are nothing. What were idols? Were they actually gods? What does it mean for a god to be jealous? Why didn't they believe that God could save them? What are cosmic functions and how did the concept of regional authority work?

This is all incredibly important foundational information for discussing the disputations and idol polemics that we find throughout Isaiah 40-55 and without this knowledge, it is very easy to make some wrong assumptions based on the faulty modern views of paganism put forth by the new age/Wiccan movement.

I admit it, I dun lied to you...I said we were going to start the Gospel of Mark this week, but I figured out a while back that so much of Mark depends on Isaiah that I would be having to do too much back and forth so we're going to lay these foundations now instead of haphazardly as we go along. We're going to spend the next few months going through Isaiah 40-56 verse by verse, paying careful attention to the historical, literary and textual context, as well as the Hebrew wording to unravel this beautiful and sometimes very confusing document, which is often used out of context to try to get people to deny faith in the Messiah. This is all in preparation for an intensive study into the Gospel of Mark next year!

We're going to take a hiatus from Mark for a few months in order to lay down some groundwork from Isaiah starting next week, but first I want to cover the very misunderstood and abused virtue of zealousness. Who in Scripture has it and who simply suffers from a profound lack of self-control or a lack of understanding of what God wants from us? And how does it all relate to how we are called to live boldly for God while still loving others?

Okay, so this was recorded completely unscripted. I just had a list in front of me with categories and did the whole thing off the cuff so there won't be a transcript anywhere, sorry. Men and women in the ancient Near East and First Century lived differently and thought differently than we do in modern times--our way of life would seem upside down and completely chaotic to them in more ways than one, and not all of them obvious. This means that a lot of our preconceived notions about how they felt about things are often dead wrong and that twists the meaning of many Bible stories. FAIR WARNING: Knowing this stuff will make you feel like pulling out your hair when you hear a lot of sermons. More in-depth information on this subject is available in my book Context for Adults: Sexuality, Social Identity, and Kinship Relations in the Bible available through this link: www.amazon.com/dp/1973751003

When someone says something like, "John the Baptist's father was the Zechariah who was slaughtered between the altar and the porch in the Temple" it is important to ask where they got that information because folks who use sketchy (or nonexistent) sources aren't quick to pony up without prompting and when people hear something new and seemingly cool from someone who sounds convincing, they generally just get lost in the moment. So, about a month ago I pre-recorded a teaching where I read the Protoevangelium of James, a second-century pseudepigraphic (false name) fake Gospel that sometimes gets used as a legitimate source but absolutely is not. I'm going to read through it and point out all the glaring errors and reasons why we know it wasn't written by someone in the first century and certainly not by James, and why whoever wrote it had obviously never set foot in the Temple complex in his life.

link to a pdf of this fake Gospel account https://tinyurl.com/yy5pm9g7

Every year, we seem to see a falling away from the faith of people who once claimed Yeshua to be the Messiah of Israel--during the Fall Feasts and during the month before Passover. Prompted by a couple on my facebook friend list denying Yeshua/Jesus on Yom Kippur (of all days), I am sharing my experience with an antimissionary posing as a friend back in December of 2013 and how, even though I slapped him down hard at the time, it led to me almost denying my Savior. Most importantly, I want to share how God personally intervened to save me and how what He told me can protect you too.

Yom Kippur as joyful? You betcha! It is very much a day for rejoicing and happiness as it is the day when God gives us the directive to afflict ourselves through fasting and introspection as a Body so that He can wipe the slate of our corporate sins clean. Unlike Passover, where followers of Yeshua/Jesus rejoice over past deliverance from Egypt and the greater deliverance at the Cross from sin and death, Yom Kippur is all about "us." And so we are going to search through Scripture for stories of true and false repentance, and explore why Yom Kippur has always been a great day of joy for the people of God.

This one will be somewhat controversial, possibly, maybe not. Hopefully not. There is somewhat of a movement to classify fasting on Yom Kippur as traditional instead of commanded, but we are going to look at the original Hebrew and a whole lot of verses to analyze whether or not this is true. We are also going to explore some themes related to the sin of Israel with Ba'al of Peor, which we find in Numbers 25, and relate that to refusing to afflict ourselves on this day when we are medically able to do so, and worse, encouraging others to do the same.

Rosh HaShanah/Yom Teruah/the Feast of Trumpets is upon us and so are the memes and stories making claims that this Biblical celebration has its roots in the pagan Akitu Festival of ancient Babylon. So, this week we are going to study (1) how can we celebrate the renewal of the year in the Fall when the months begin in the Spring and look at what the Bible and archaeology show us, (2) what are "German Higher Criticism" hypotheses and how have their inclusion in various publications led to confusion within the Hebrew Roots Movement in a number of areas, (3) What is the Akitu festival, what does akitu mean, what did they do during the festival, and how long did it last as compared to Rosh HaShanah?

This is the last of a four-part teaching series on the "readiness" parables of Matthew Chapter 24/25 concerning what we are and are not to do in order to be ready for our Master's return. In this installment, we are going to explore the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and I will be focusing quite a bit on our service to the "least of these" in the form of special needs parenting, caregiving for the elderly, and foster parenting.