Hebrews 9 begins with a brief overview of the tabernacle layout. The difference between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place and some of the furnishings are described. Verse 6 transitions into what the priests do in the Holy Place to what the High Priest does in the Most Holy Place. These accounts are brief. The instructions for making the tabernacle are given in great detail beginning in Exodus 25. The instructions for priests are the focus of the Book of Leviticus.
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Satur-deja Vu
There’s something you don’t see every day. We had a visitor at church Sunday morning. This girl stayed for the whole service. As a matter of fact she was still wandering around the front yard Monday evening. Back in the day it was not uncommon to give the preacher a chicken but I would not have expected it to still be alive.
Continue readingiMonk Radio Podcast #109
In this week’s episode, Michael talks about the new school year and the season change into fall. He mentions his Amazon Wish List; I was the recipient of an ESV Study Bible back when those first came out. Michael “wished” for 8 or 10 of those and gifted them to ministry leaders and lay preachers he worked with at OBI. The bulk of this broadcast deals with the spiritual aspects of Christians and depression. Dr. Andrew Lester’s book “Coping with Anger” is discussed.
Bible Study: Hebrews 8
Hebrews 8 continues the comparison of Jesus Christ to the Old Testament high priests. It’s a short chapter and there’s not a lot here to unpack, just a continuation of a line of reasoning we have been studying. In chapter 9 we are going to see more details about how the earthly tent – the tabernacle – was set up. In this chapter we are simply reminded that the earthly tent was patterned after the things in heaven. The earthly tent, set up in the Old Testament, made by the hands of men, was a copy, a duplicate of the real heavenly high places. Every priest must make an offering. If Christ were on the earth he would not be a priest at all (see v. 4) because there are priests that make offerings according to the Law. But the ministry of Jesus is greater, having entering the authentic holy places the earthly tent is patterned after. He offers a better sacrifice (which we will get to in Hebrews 9 as well).
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Let me first apologize for not getting an iMonk Radio podcast posted this week. Thursday and Friday were rough on me personally but I’m slowly coming around. The Master’s Table reached a milestone of 600 followers this week. The Internet Monk was a lot more popular online than I’ll ever be so there’s a good chance those podcasts are why some of y’all are here. We’ll get it right next week, please and thank you.
Did you catch the Harvest Moon Thursday night? It was still impressive last night and will probably look just about as full tonight. You may also see the planet Mars as a bright red spot at about the 10 o’clock position in relation to the moon when you look up. There will another full moon, known as a blue moon when occurring twice in a single month, on October 31st. There will be a full moon on Halloween night, which is on Saturday this year. The time change will take place overnight (the next day being the first Sunday of November) and we will all get an extra hour for either revelry or to recover from revelry, your choice.
Continue readingBible Study: Hebrews 7
The end of Hebrews 6 again mentions Jesus as “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 goes into the history that we previously linked to in Genesis 14. Abraham gave him a tenth of all he had, 400 years before the Law was given to Moses at Sinai. Hebrews 7 describes Melchizedek as without without father or mother, not having beginning or end. He has no genealogy which stands in contrast to the well established genealogies of Aaron, the first Levitical priest, and of Jesus. You may encounter speculation that goes in all sorts of directions, from Melchizedek actually being an appearance of Christ in the flesh in the Old Testament to the idea that he literally lived forever. Very little is said about him in Genesis but the writer of Hebrews devotes seven chapters to describing his priesthood. The important thing is this: that the ministry of Jesus Christ is greater. He is superior to Aaron and Melchizedek. He is the minister of a better covenant than any Old Testament priest because if the former were sufficient there would be no need for another. (Heb. 7:11)
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It’s gettin’ to be that time. Let me clarify my position on fall. I’m not just an old grouch that complains about everything and I do not hate fall. There are things I like about fall when it actually gets here but if you start talking about hoodies and pumpkin spice in the middle of July I will grouch a little because summer is my favorite. Maybe spring, then summer then fall in that order. Spring and fall are transition seasons. During the springtime the days get longer, the grass and trees come back to life, we start getting ready for baseball, grilling out and opening the pool. In the fall I enjoy hot cocoa, smores, bonfires, sunsets and colorful leaves as much as the next guy. Many of the most popular fall activities are centered around keeping warm. I don’t love hoodies as much as I don’t like being cold. Fall is the transition season from summer, which is the best, into winter. That season doesn’t make my list of top 3 favorites. I would rather mow grass than shovel snow, and wear shorts and sandals than sweaters and parkas. I do all of the autumn things and enjoy it while it lasts; big sucker for a hayride, seriously. But it saddens me to know what’s coming, which is basically an end of all things. At least until April.
Continue readingiMonk Radio Podcast #108
I took notes on the all the intro material but instead will cut straight to the chase. Michael Spencer spent a lot of time over a period of years defining post-evangelical. But he never suggested that we as Christians should stop evangelizing and he was was never more clear about that than in this podcast. There are a lot of discussions that we should have among believers but our call to share the gospel must remain at the front of who we are and what we do.
This episode has a new opening theme and some chit-chat about international students, teaching Bible and meeting blog friends in real life. Hang in there, the good stuff is after that.
Bible Study: Hebrews 6
It’s a corny joke and I apologize for repeating it but when we see the word “therefore” in the Bible we need to stop and consider what it’s there for. At the end of Hebrews 5, we find a warning against those that have failed to mature. The writer laments that believers who should be on solid food (of God’s Word) still need to be given milk like infants. So 6 begins with a call to move on to maturity, leaving the elementary things behind.
Continue readingSatur-deja Vu
Climate change, get it? So yes, that’s a single frame comic and this is not Happy Monday. But I wanted to write commentary. The first thing someone is going to say is that pennies falling from great heights, such as perhaps the top of the Empire State Building, would kill people standing on the ground. Here is just one article describing the science of falling pennies. In an airless environment pennies would reach a velocity of 200+ miles per hour. Pretty much any object would, and be lethal. But pennies fall more like sheets of paper, tumbling over and over, than like bullets which are aerodynamically designed to be stable in flight. A bowling ball might kill you because its weight gives it a higher terminal velocity even in an atmosphere. A ball point pen might be dangerous, even lethal, if it fell straight down like an arrow shot from a bow. Pennies from heaven would be safe. Since actual climate change is a political issue, I will move on without further comment.
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