Jeremiah 12
At the beginning of this chapter, it looks like Jeremiah’s ready to throw in the towel. He’s taken a good look around and seen that he is somewhat (actually very much!) at odds with popular culture. His message is falling on deaf ears. His mission is going to fail. And he’s pretty discouraged by it.
Proverbs 31
Beauty, beauty, beauty. We live in a culture obsessed with beauty, and it is getting more obsessed all the time. Author Regina Franklin wrote about that in her book Who Calls Me Beautiful? In 1951, Miss Sweden weighed 151 pounds and was 5′7″. By 1983, Miss Sweden measured in two inches taller at 5′9″, but 45 pounds lighter at 106. Clearly, the standards of “beauty” change from generation to generation!
Psalm 118
My oldest daughter is almost nine years old, and these days, you really can’t have “the talk” too soon. Our culture has become so sexualized that, in some ways, it seems like we’ve been having bits of “the talk” for a long time already, but her father and I are going to have to start doing some more formal educating very soon. So all the related issues are weighing on my mind—sex, birth control, abstinence, abortion, etc. There are so many warped ideas advanced by society that it’s hard to know where to begin. I mean, to even talk about abstinence until marriage nowadays makes you seem backward and ridiculous. Sometimes, it seems a lot of people would rather find ways to mitigate consequences so our young people can just do “what feels good.”
Photo © Unsplash/Anton Darius | @theSollers
How is it
that in our
overworked
underpaid
hyperstressed
neverhushed
go go go go
culture
we aren't
running full tilt
to the God
whose covenant sign
is rest
the God
whose binding contract
stipulates that
we were
first and foremost
created to know
peace?
JUDGES 4
This chapter bears an example of something I really love about God. Because of their idolatry, the people of Israel had been under the cruel oppression of Jabin (king of Canaan) and his commander, Sisera, for twenty years. They were worn out. They were beaten down. Verse three says they cried out to God for help.
LEVITICUS 15
I must admit that, as I began to read Leviticus 15, it all seemed a bit ridiculous to me. I mean, really, if the rule is that "when a man has an emission of semen... he will be unclean till evening" (vs 16), an Israelite man must not have spent many days being "clean." Furthermore, in addition to the rule for men was the law that said menstruating women were also unclean. After this type of ceremonial uncleanness, the men and women were required to bring a sacrifice to the sanctuary in order to "make atonement before the Lord." (vs 15)
GENESIS 48
So, we come to the story of Jacob blessing the sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. And as he goes to bless the grandkids, Joseph gets upset because his right hand (apparently the hand of "greatest blessings") is on the wrong boy’s head. He is getting ready to give Ephraim (the younger and, consequently, the lesser) the better blessing.
