Picture of the Day, 11/28/07

Grounded.

Text of the Magnificat

Latin Vulgate
Magnificat anima mea Dominum
Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo.
Quia respexit humilitatem ancillæ suæ: ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius.
Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes,
Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiæ suæ,
Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in sæcula.

NRSV
My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, ⁴⁸
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; ⁴⁹
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. ⁵⁰
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. ⁵¹
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ⁵²
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; ⁵³
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, ⁵⁵
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.

This week, I'm preparing for Advent and the study of Luke's Gospel by listening to recordings of the Magnificat (Luke 1.46-55).

The Magnificat has long been used in liturgical worship to express praise to God for the Good News of Jesus that overturns the powers of this world, bringing in the Kingdom of God.

Here is a wonderful recording of three baroque settings: by Johann Kuhnau, Jan Zelenka and J.S. Bach.

Advent Blog coming...

This week, I'll be preparing a new blog for the Advent season. The first post will be next Sunday, the first day of Advent.

It will consist of daily thoughts related to passages from the Gospel of Luke. In my church, I will be preaching on Luke, and the posts will reflect what I'm learning in my studies for those messages.

I hope you will join me for a few moments each day, as we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

New Genesis Post—Gen 1.2

You can access the latest post on Genesis here.

Final Joshua Sermon Available

The final sermon in the series on Joshua 1-8 is available here in PDF format.

New Genesis Post—Gen 1.1

On my blog, THE MOST BASIC TRUTHS, there is a new post on Genesis 1.1.

A Thanksgiving Hymn

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

© Hope Publishing Company

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving...

PSALM 100

A Psalm of thanksgiving

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
² Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.

³Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;^*
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.

⁵For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Text from the NRSV

Heartbreak in the Heartland...

The Franklin College Grizzlies lost a heartbreaking game, 44-42, to North Central College today in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. NC scored a touchdown on the final play of the game for the victory.

Franklin had a dominating first half, taking a 35-24 lead into the break. However, in the second half, NC's defense stiffened, allowing only one touchdown, while their offense scored three times with sustained drives, including the final game-winner.

Thus a remarkable season ends on a disappointing note for Coach Leonard and the Grizzlies, who went farther than any FC team before them. Congratulations all and thanks for the pleasure you gave us this year.

Pictures of the Day, 11/16/07

More fall shots from beautiful Indiana...

Sermon 9: Restoration

Sermon on "Restoration" from Joshua 7-8 is ready. You can access it in PDF format here.

Picture of the Day, 11/14/07

We continue to have mostly October-like weather here in mid-November, with colors that have lasted long past their normal stay. Here's another shot from beautiful Franklin, Indiana.

Home Game

From the news release on the Franklin College football page:

"The Franklin College football team has a No. 4 seed and a home game assignment in the upcoming 2007 NCAA Division III playoffs. The NCAA Committee announced its bracket pairings for the 32-team tournament [Sunday] morning.

The Grizzlies (9-1 overall), making their first appearance in the NCAA playoffs since becoming affiliated with Division III in 1992, will host North Central College (8-2) at Stewart "Red" Faught Stadium at noon on Saturday, Nov. 17."

Picture of the Day, 11/11/07

Real November arrived today with a cold rain and chill wind.

Before it hit, Gail and I got to enjoy some October-like weather together on Friday and Saturday.

Here are a few shots from Clifty Falls State Park in southern Indiana, along the Ohio River.

CHAMPIONS!

Franklin defeats Hanover 55-14 in the regular season finale, taking home the Victory Bell for the third straight season, and clinching first place alone in the Heartland Conference. Congratulations, Grizzlies!

Tomorrow is selection Sunday, when Franklin finds out who its first opponent will be in the Div III playoffs that start next weekend. Stay tuned...

Genesis Studies at New Location

NOTICE...
I have moved the posts for the Genesis study. They are rather long, and having them in one location will enable readers to follow them better. From now on, posts on Genesis may be found at the new site.

The new blog for these studies is: THE MOST BASIC TRUTHS: Studies in the Early Chapters of Genesis.

Hope you will find your way there for my consideration of these foundational texts of Scripture.

Picture of the Day, 11/9/07

November. Elderly pumpkins.

The Most Basic Truths, part three

THE STRUCTURE OF GENESIS 1.1-2.3
As we will see, understanding how the author organized this text is a key to grasping its meaning. As we did with our previous study, let's start with the end of the passage and work our way back to the beginning. There is a basic style that the author follows with regard to each day, except for the seventh day. Though each day has its own variations, the overall pattern is the same:

1. Initiation: "And God said..."
2. Confirmation: "And it was so."
3. Evaluation: "And God saw that it was good."
4. Summation: "And there was evening and there was morning, the _______ day."

Here are the seven days...

• Gen 2.1-3—The seventh day, on which God rests. God blesses this day and calls it holy.
  

• Gen 1.24-31—The sixth day, on which God commands the land to bring forth living creatures, and on which he makes human beings in his image and blesses them.

• Gen 1.20-23—The fifth day, on which God created the water creatures and creatures of the sky and blessed them.

• Gen 1.14-19—The fourth day, on which he appointed the lights in the sky to be for signs and seasons and to rule day and night.

• Gen 1.9-13—The third day, on which God separated the land from the waters and called the land to bring forth vegetation.

• Gen 1.6-8—The second day, on which God separated the waters above from the waters below and called the expanse "sky." Note: this is the only day about which the text does not say, "And God saw that it was good."
  

• Gen 1.3-5—Day one, on which God called called light out of darkness and named them "day" and "night." Note: in the Hebrew text, this is not called the "first" day, but "one day." This may indicate that it was not the absolute first day of creation but day one of the seven described in this passage.
  

The first two verses of the text stand outside the pattern of the seven days. Verse 3 marks the beginning of day one, as seen in its first words, "And God said," which is the way every other day commences (except day seven). That means that Genesis 1.1-2 are not part of the "seven days of creation."

• Gen 1.2—This verse describes the condition of the land before the seven days. As we will see, it says the land was an uninhabitable wasteland because it was covered by darkness and deep water. However, it also says that God's Spirit was present, a hint that God is about to do something to change the condition of the land.

• Gen 1.1—This verse describes what God did "in the beginning," before the seven days. He "created the skies and the land," which should be understood as a merism, a figure of speech that describes a single thing by referring to its most contrasting parts. "The skies and the land" means "everything you see," or "all the world before you." It is written from the perspective of the human eye, of one scanning the landscape and pointing out the whole wide world to the reader.

The fact that these two verses stand outside the seven-day scheme is significant for our understanding of Genesis 1. It means that God created what we call "the universe" before the seven days recorded in this passage. Verse 1 is about the original CREATION. Verses 2 and following are about the PREPARATION of a land where people might dwell and the creation of human beings to live there.

Here is how it all fits together...

• God created all that is in the beginning. (Gen 1.1)
• Before God prepared it, the land was not yet ready for human habitation. (Gen 1.2)
• God prepared the land for humans, then created them and blessed them in the good land—in a period of six days. (Gen 1.3-31)
• God rested from his works on the seventh day and blessed the seventh day (Gen 2.1-3)

Next study...Genesis 1.1.

Sermon 8: JUDGMENT

The sermon from Sunday, Nov. 4, on God's judgment from Joshua 7, is available in PDF format. You may access it here.

Picture of the Day...11/7/07

Oak tree in our front yard, finally decked out in fall splendor. We are about 3 weeks behind in foliage color this year because of hot, dry weather early in the fall.

Books I want for Christmas...

Here's a list of some reading delights I'd love to find under my tree this Christmas (in no particular order)...

NON-FICTION

1. An Old Testament Theology: A Canonical and Thematic Approach, by Bruce Waltke
2. The New Testament and the People of God, N.T. Wright
3. The Language of God, by Francis Collins
   
4. How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman
5. Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis
6. Boom!: Voices of the Sixties, by Tom Brokaw
7. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright
   
8. Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans, by McCarver and Peary
   
9. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks
10. Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet
    

FICTION

1. The Complete Peanuts (box sets grouped by years), by Charles Schultz
2. The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
3. City of God, by E.L. Doctorow
   
4. Snow in August, by Pete Hamill
5. On the Road (50th Anniversary Ed.), by Jack Kerouac
6. Plain Truth, by Judi Picoult
   
7. The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen
8. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
9. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
10. Space Triology--Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet, That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis (preferably hardback copies of each!)
    

Honey, are you listening?

Dodger Joe

From one storied franchise to another. Joe Torre is introduced as new manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reports are that others from his coaching staff, including Don Mattingly, will join him in L.A.

The only regret I have is that we don't live in the days when this move would have occurred between the Bronx Bombers and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Wouldn't that have been wild!

The Most Basic Truths, part two

IDENTIFYING THE TEXT
Our first task is to observe and mark the extent of the text that the author has given us. On the front end there is no problem, since GENESIS 1.1 begins the Bible.

However, where the text ends is not so clear. In our Bibles with chapter and verse divisions, the true flow of an author's argument is not always evident, and Genesis 1 provides a good example of this. Most of us are aware that the story of beginnings is organized by a seven-day scheme. However, those who gave us chapters and verses separated the seventh day from the story and put it in chapter 2! Right away, we can see and agree that GENESIS 2.1-3 belongs with the material in chapter one.

What about GENESIS 2.4? Some have understood at least the first part of this verse as a summary of chapter 1, and have translated it something like this: "And so, this is the story of the heavens and the earth..." I am persuaded, however, that Genesis 2.4 begins a new section.

This conclusion grows out of observing the way the entire book of Genesis has been put together. In the book there are twelve statements that begin with words like this, "Now these are the generations of..." (2.4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 32, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 19, 36:1, 9 and 37:2). Each of these statements then refers to a main character who has already been introduced. What follows each statement is either a listing of family names that trace his descendants, or a series of stories that tell us what became of this character and his family.

If you step back and look at the structure of the book in a bird's eye view, you see how these statements organize the material and move its stories along.

The heavens and the earth are introduced (1.1-2.3)
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth (2.4-ch. 4)
...in which Adam and his family are introduced
These are the generations of Adam (5.1-6.8)
...in which Noah is introduced by a genealogy from Adam to Noah
These are the generations of Noah (6.9-ch. 9)

And so on. We might translate this phrase (Hebrew: toledot) as: "This is what became of ____________." The material before this heading introduces the main character and the material after it describes what happened in subsequent history to that character and his family.

Therefore, Genesis 2.4 belongs to the next section, and the text we will be examining in this study goes from GENESIS 1.1-2.3.

Next Study: The structure of Genesis 1.1-2.3

Unstoppable!

Way to go, Grizzlies!

Franklin College had an historic win today, overwhelming Defiance by a score of 55-22 at Faught Stadium in the final home game of the season. With the win, FC clinched at least a tie for first in the Heartland Conference and assured themselves a trip to the NCAA Div III playoffs.

Next week is conclusion of the regular season, the annual Bell game with Hanover College.

Congratulations to Coach Leonard and the amazing Grizzlies!

Joshua 6: Victory

The latest sermon from Joshua is available. It is on the battle of Jericho, Joshua 6, and is called, "Victory." You may access it in PDF format here.

The Most Basic Truths, part one

Here begins a series of brief studies on the first chapters of Genesis.

These texts have held a continual fascination for me since the days of seminary, when I studied Hebrew and OT under John Sailhamer at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL). Much of what you will read here will reflect the approach (though not necessarily the details) he takes in his stimulating commentary on Genesis (Expositor's Bible Commentary), his work on the Torah called The Pentateuch as Narrative, and in his specific study of Genesis 1-2, Genesis Unbound.

A word about the nature of this study...I am interested in the meaning of the text, not in its application to apologetics. Many modern studies of Genesis are undertaken in order to help Bible-believing people understand the relationship between Scripture and science. That is the realm of apologetics and it is not unimportant. However, it is secondary. My goal is different, and more foundational. I want to know what the text says and means in the context of the Bible, and what the author wanted his audience to gain from reading this text.

With this in mind, here are three essential positions I believe one must take to approach this part of the Bible correctly:

1. We must try to read this text through pre-scientific eyes. The author and original readers of this passage knew nothing of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Galileo, Newton or Einstein. They knew only the world they could observe. If you had spoken to one of them about something as basic to us as "planet Earth," he would have had no concept of what you were saying. When we as moderns read "heavens and earth" in our English-language Bibles, we have a much more sophisticated picture in mind than someone in Moses's day (c. 1200BC), who saw "the skies and the land."
   
2. We must try to read this text through an earthly observer's eyes. The perspective I think many of us have in our minds when we read Genesis 1 is that of the Apollo 8 astronauts, who gazed at the magnificent blue ball of planet Earth while orbiting the moon. In other words, we imagine that the author is taking us to some divine balcony seat where we can view the action from a cosmic point of view. However, the chapter is actually written from the vantage point of an ordinary human being on the ground, hearing and observing the words and works of God.
3. We must try to read this text as through the eyes of its first audience and as part of the entire book that was given to them. I take the traditional view of authorship and composition of Genesis and the Pentateuch. Genesis is part one of a five-part book, the Torah, put together by Moses and given to the generation of Israelites that was preparing to enter the Promised Land. If the early part of Genesis introduces this work that was written for them, how does it do that? What message, pertinent to those people, begins with Genesis 1?

Next Study: Identifying the text.