Category: Bible (Page 345 of 419)

Perhaps the strangest marriage in the Bible involved Hosea and Gomer.

Hosea, told by the Lord to marry a promiscuous woman, asked around and found Gomer, who fit the necessary criteria. They married, produced children, and gave them odd names, including a daughter named Lo-Ruhamah (which means not loved), and their son Lo-Ammi (not my people). Hopefully, the kids discovered therapy in adulthood.

Later, Gomer left Hosea for another man. He found her and swapped her back for 15 shekels of silver ($140 today) and 430 pounds of barley ($3,000 in today’s organic barley prices, assuming Hosea trafficked in organic barley).

This absurd marriage demonstrated the relationship between the Lord and the people of Judah and Israel. In the midst of their promiscuity with other gods, the Lord stayed faithful. Despite wandering hearts, reconciliation beckoned.

As Hosea returned for Gomer, the Lord returned for his people. In a vision for the future, Hosea purchased Gomer back for himself, just as the Lord purchased each one of us for himself through Jesus Christ.

The life of an Old Testament prophet? No thank you. But the language of promise spoken by such a prophet? Yes, please (note the Lord’s message of hope for Israel, including those kids with unfortunate names):

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’

Hosea 1-3 in week thirty-two of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Edwin Andrade

If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

While one might apply this truth to any number of bad ideas, and to those who pursue them (filling the internet with videos capturing their fascinating lack of sight), Jesus referred to an older group of influencers.

These blind advisors were religious leaders—Pharisees—who lived piously, specifically following the straight and narrow as it appeared to them.

Somewhere, however, their path angled downhill toward legalities and the thin-slicing of truth, leaving behind the uphill issues of compassion and concern for others.

As a religious leader myself, I pause and wonder—where might I be unseeing as I try to influence those around me?

The issue Jesus referenced involved caring for parents, which some Pharisees avoided using a bit of religious chicanery. Jesus saw through their clever arguments and into their hearts, curled black on the edges.

One lesson jumps from the page—my internal attitudes count more than my outward piety. But it’s so much easier to look like a good person than to allow a good heart to grow.

I relate to those Pharisees. Just give me a few rules to follow, and I shine. Ask me to develop into a person who considers others before myself, and well, I need Jesus.

Matthew 15 in week thirty-one of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Ashley Jurius

In what looked like a slap to good oral hygiene, Amos pronounced a curse against the people of Israel:

I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities…

My grandmother, my mother, my wife, and scores of dental hygienists preached the value of clean teeth to me over the years. The sermons continue on a rigid, twice a year schedule. Happily converted, I now brush—and floss—daily, but I apparently still lack good technique. Always room to improve.

In the case of Amos’s audience, teeth stayed clean because they chewed on nothing. Amos, a shepherd and fig-picker, pronounced these devastating words during the reign of king Jeroboam. Israel refused to return to the Lord, and so God cut off both rain and harvest. But disaster after disaster failed to turn hearts away from their worship of devils and back to the Lord.

How to I respond to lousy circumstances? When I hear bad news at the dentist, I’m pretty sure I have no one to blame but myself. But when I face challenges due to circumstances beyond my control, like the ongoing hassles of the covid infestation, do I listen for the Lord, or just mutter my complaints and move on?

Amos speaks the antidote for Israel’s dire situation: For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel—Seek me and live.

Good advice. Whatever my circumstances, whatever my challenges, whatever my attitude toward them, the Lord’s message remains—Seek me and live.

Amos 4 & 5 in week thirty-one of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Diana Polekhina

Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven in surprising ways. The kingdom animates lives, it unearths treasures, and on a somber note, the kingdom of heaven divides.

Not everyone who hears of the kingdom understands. Some eagerly embrace the kingdom, but allow the issues of life to choke out growth. Sinisterly, a few actively revile the kingdom’s work on this earth. Twice, Jesus points out that those opposed to the kingdom of heaven face a fiery furnace, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Thankfully, Jesus reveals a wonderful alternative to gnashing, one starting in this world and extending into the next. When the kingdom roots in good soil, bountiful growth results. Like leaven in dough, only a sprinkle of the kingdom swells to consume your entire life. The kingdom grows into a lush garden, blessing all around.

The kingdom of heaven carries value beyond our calculations. In fact, its worth exceeds everything even the most wealthy might possess. Twice Jesus describes men gleefully selling all they have in order to possess such a treasure.

Jesus asked his disciples, Have you understood all these things? Yes, they answered. Then he said, Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

The scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven sounds like those of us who claim to follow Jesus. If that’s the case, then I’m commissioned to help others discover the value of this kingdom, to hold it in their hands and gauge its heft.

Picture acres and acres of botanical gardens filled with the most beautiful flowers and magnificent creatures, criss-crossed with pathways of gold and silver and lustrous pearls. Then, just for fun, add kiosks of freshly baking bread (with butter, of course) to enjoy while strolling the grounds.

Jesus used such metaphors to point our eyes toward the kingdom of heaven, an unsurpassed garden free and open to the public.

Matthew 13 in week thirty-one of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Maria Hada