Beth Moore

So what can my readers  tell me about Beth Moore?  I have heard of her books and seminars being very popular.  Is anyone there who is familiar with her theological presuppositions, training, philosophy, and commitments?

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

Re-focus

The past week was a difficult one on the long voyage.  Some hurdles need to be cleared before I can move along with any plans to attend seminary.  One of the prime difficulties is the requirement of a vicarage year.  During a vicarage year I would serve essentially as an intern in a church congregation somewhere - anywhere they send me.  Unfortunately this vicarage year is typically the third of four seminary years.  That means I would have to leave my teaching post to attend a vicarage and then would have a year back in the classroom without the teaching job I'm used to.  The seminary catalog does talk about exceptions being made occasionally, but only for those who have been in the LCMS for at least four years prior to registering for the seminary.  This may push plans back by a couple of years.  I think I have a relatively compelling case for an adjustment to the vicarage year.  But I need to make sure I've qualified in every way so they will consider my case.

This could be a blessing in disguise.  It would force me to exercise patience.  It would mean we would be significantly closer to doing away with our mortgage prior to spending a whole lot of money on seminary courses.

I was personally feeling kind of discouraged until I heard Pastor Bentrup's sermon on Sunday - see the post a couple of posts down.  Odd, how the timing of things we see and hear seems to work out as if it is orchestrated in a way we don't understand.  It's almost like the readings in the lectionary from Job.  Job doesn't understand what's going on.  Yet he waits and eventually finds out.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

An Introduction to the Old Testament - Esther

Esther is a very odd book of the Old Testament.  God is not mentioned.  There is no mention of worshiping God through prayer or sacrifice.  It appears to be a secular story.  Yet we see God's presence and hand in every part of the narrative.  The Jews are threatened and survive by God's providence.

The author is anonymous.  The events are set during the reign of Xerxes, 486-465 B.C.  The author seems to be very familiar with Persian court life.  The absence of any Greek vocabulary suggests a time before Alexander's conquest.  The book seems to be read most simply as a historical narrative, though in recent history scholars have often considered the book a bit of prose historical fiction.  The identity of Esther and Vashti is only possible by supposition, though Xerxes seems to have had many different wives who may not have been listed in detail.  Yet it is unlikely that Xerxes would have married a Jew unless he did not know she was a Jew.

The author uses sophisticated literary device to refer back to former Jewish heroes, to make allusions to important events in Jewish history, and to use "irony, satire, and recurring motifs" (p. 194) in his narrative.

Clearly the author wishes to account for the origin of the feast of Purim.  He does it against a backdrop of divine sovereignty in all things.  He also points to the importance of resolving unfinished business.  No doubt this points both to the importance of the resumption of Jewish life and culture in a faithful community after the Exile.  It also points to the New Testament concept of Jesus as the one who has come to fulfill the Law and complete the redemptive will of God the Father.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

Luke 5.1-11

In yesterday's divine service we enjoyed a sermon on Luke 5.1-11 by Pastor Bentrup.  Since I'm trying to use my handy-dandy notebook and take notes about things I thought I should report on a few important reflections.

As we see from Luke chapter 4, Jesus had previously met Simon.  He had healed Simon's mother-in-law.  Simon and possibly his co-workers had been witnesses to Jesus' healing and preaching.  They had seen Jesus' authority.  This would give them some reason to believe now, when Jesus tells them to drop their nets.

Jesus' actions were out of character for a powerful man.  He raised up a groveling lower-class person.  By the way, there's no mention of them being out of the boat when Simon prostrates himself before Jesus, so he was lying down in a pile of fish, more than likely.  Jesus lifts Peter up.  He respects him.  He takes a hard working man from one noble occupation to another.

God's work is to take our eyes off ourselves and our sin.  He points us to what he desires to do through us.  He raises us out of ourselves.  All we do is whatever our Lord has placed in front of us to do.

Have I not heard people tell me this innumerable times?  Of course I have.  We all have.  But I needed to hear it yesterday.

For what it's worth, Pastor Bentrup is one of the characters who makes me think I'm not too old of a dog to learn new tricks and work in pastoral ministry.  I forget how old he is.  He told me once.  I'm thinking it's somewhere in the early eighties.  Quite an elderly man.  We appreciate him coming out of retirement a little way to fill our pulpit some of the time while our regular pastor is recovering from a hip replacement operation.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

An Introduction to the Old Testament - Ezra-Nehemiah

Dillard, Raymond B. & Longman, Tremper III. "Ezra-Nehemiah."  An Introduction to the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994.  179-187.

In antiquity Ezra and Nehemiah were always considered together.  They cover the period from approximately 539 B.C. through the end of the 5th century B.C., leading us to the end of the chronological period of the Old Testament.  There is some tradition that Ezra is the author, though the actual picture seems to be a little more complex.  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah clearly have been considered together, not being separated in Hebrew Bibles until the Middle Ages.  The books are also closely related to the text of Chronicles.  Yet it appears in recent years that Ezra-Nehemiah is not actually part of Chronicles.  There are also clear shifts between first and third person speech which may indicate either use of different sources or multiple authorship.  Dating of the text is also difficult, as there is some lack of agreement about the date of Ezra's mission.  Nehemiah appears clearly to have gone on his mission in 445 B.C.  However, Ezra's date is difficult.  Scholars place him alternatively at 428 or 398 B.C.  The decree of Cyrus seems clearly dated at about 539 B.C. 

Initially there is an attempt to rebuild the temple and establish worship.  This construction halted in the reign of Artaxerxes and was resumed in the time of Darius, around 515 B.C.  Other revitalization of Jerusalem seems to happen during the period 458-433 B.C.  After the revitalization, the temple restoration is resumed.

This literary works seems to gather material from numerous different sources, such as letters, royal proclamations, supply lists, and some first person narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah.  It is probably most profitable to consider the text as a collation of various types of literature.  While the style differs, the overall point of view and plot is very cohesive.  God is interested in gathering his people and enabling their worship, despite detractors.  Over the course of the book we see a shift from leaders guiding restoration to the community taking it on.  Holiness is also progressively less restricted to particular places and expanded to the entire city.  We also see a move from oral to written authority, culminating with the reading of the Scripture at the end of the book.

As we consider the New Testament we see that perfection has not been reached even in the reconstructed Jerusalem.  We wait for the coming of Christ who is the culmination of our worship, purifying a people for himself.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

An Introduction to the Old Testament - Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is one of the portions of Scripture that has been hotly debated.  Who is the author?  What is it about?  Does it tell us that we are to depend on our own ability and throw off all wisdom and restraint?

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Historically Ecclesiastes has been associated with Solomon.  The author refers to himself only as the "teacher."  Yet many of the attributes of the author seem to parallel attributes of Solomon.  There are various views that have tried to identify the author with someone else, but none has been able to suggest a very good alternative.  It is probably best to leave the author more or less anonymous but to suggest it was someone of wealth and power such as Solomon.

LITERARY ANALYSIS

Ecclesiastes divides into three parts.  There's a brief prologue, a long monologue, then a brief epilogue.  The prologue and epilogue contain third person references to the "teacher" while the monologue is in the first person.  The genre seems to fit into general wisdom literature, musings about the nature of the world.

THEOLOGICAL MESSAGE

Counter to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes seems to indicate that we are to throw off wisdom, or at least throw off the striving after wisdom.  We are to avoid trying too hard at spirituality.  On one level we are clearly told that all our attempts are good for nothing so we may as well not try.  This kind of skeptical view has led people to debate whether we should take Ecclesiastes as spiritual instruction or possibly as a negative example.  Like the book of Job, we see some dubious teaching.  It's got a grain of truth and it is surrounded by possible bad interpretation.  Then at the end we see a positive interpretation.  What is a good final outcome?  Trust God, not your own wisdom.

APPROACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT

We see that life without God is futile.  On p. 255 we read, "Quohelet sounds modern because he so vividly captures the despair of a world without God.  The difference, though is that the modern world believes God does not exist; Qohelet believed that God existed but questioned his love and concern.  As a result, nothing had meaning for Qohelet - not wealth or wisdom or charity.  After all, death brought everything to an end.  Qohelet is preoccupied with death throughout the book because he sees nothing beyond that point."

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com

An Introduction to the Old Testament - Chronicles

Dillard, Raymond B. & Longman, Tremper III. "Chronicles."  An Introduction to the Old Testament.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994.  169-177.

The Hebrew Bible puts Chronicles as one book, the last one in the canon, at the end of the Writings.  The Septuagint divided the book into two segments and classified them at the end of the historic segment.  As with many of the Old Testament books, Chronicles is anonymous.  The author clearly lives in the postexilic period, having reported the decree of Cyrus.  The text mentions a "daric" which was not minted before 515 B.C.  It appears he book was written by a single author, but he does refer to a number of different sources.  It appears that Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah probably were originally a single work.  Yet there are significant differences in the foci of hte books, so the information is not conclusive.

The chronicler takes on many tasks, including explaining the exile, showing it as a confirmation of God's power, and encouraging the reader that God has not forsaken his people.  The first nine chapters, consisting of genealogies, serve to remind people of the ongoing care of God for his people and resolve questions of legitimacy and legality to the post-exilic community.  The material from 1 Chronicles 10 through 2 Chronicles 9 point to the kings of the united monarchy as people with strong and consistent leadership abilities, downplaying divisiveness within the Davidic line.  This is consistent with the author encouraging readers that God's promised Davidic line will not be broken.  After the schism the author points to the wrongdoing that leads to the Exile, though not to God's forsaking his people.

As we look toward the New Testament we see that the Davidic line is continued to its culmination in the person of Jesus, the Son of David.

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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com