Generalizations

It seems that concrete descriptions of god’s saving acts were favored much more than general statements, not only in Israelite family religion, but also in the family religions of the greater Northwest Semitic region.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 304

<idle musing>
Would that it were so in our testimonies now! We settle for generalities instead of specific examples of how God intervenes. Could it be because we don't really believe God still performs saving acts? The Israelites believed!
</idle musing>

Thought for today

Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky. Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.” God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:20-28 NIV)

Thought for today

“Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh, he will inhabit ruined towns and houses where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble. He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land. He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away. Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return. Before his time he will wither, and his branches will not flourish. He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms. For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.” (Job 15:27-35 NIV)

Emmanuel, part 2

Whoever will believe this fact [God with us] with all their hearts will find in it the solution of every difficulty of their lives.—Hannah Whitall Smith

Thanksgiving

Epigraphic records attest 164 names of thanksgiving to date, which is evidence of an astonishingly rich treasury of familial beliefs. All of these names allude to divine acts of salvation, assistance, or protection as experienced by members of a family, with a large diversity of emphases. No less than 58 different verbs are used in the epigraphic names (11 more than are found in the entire Hebrew Bible), and only 6 of the verbs found in biblical names have not yet been found in epigraphic names. Thus a total of 64 different roots are used in the names of thanksgiving found so far.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 298

<idle musing>
That's amazing. I don't think we even have 58 different verbs for thanksgiving in English! Maybe that's why we have a hard time being thankful? Or, more likely, we don't have that many verbs because we aren't very thankful : (
</idle musing>

Emmanuel!

Very few of us understand the full meaning of the words in Matt. 1:23, “They shall call His name Emmanuel; which being interpreted is, God with us.” In this short sentence is revealed to us the grandest fact the world can ever know; that God, the Almighty God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, is not a far-off Deity, dwelling in a Heaven of unapproachable glory, but is living with us right here in this world, in the midst of our poor, ignorant, helpless lives, as close to us as we are to ourselves.—Hannah Whitall Smith

Infant mortality and worship

We know from the Hebrew Bible (2 Sam 12:15–25; 2 Kgs 4:18–24; Isa 65:20) that infant mortality was a heavy burden for families, especially for women who were confronted with the ultimate futility of their pain and labor (Isa 65:23). However, the high rates of infant death and the incalculable sorrow of grieving mothers and their families did not fundamentally alter their belief that god was the magnificent creator of all and the generous provider of children, and it was he who desired and was capable of ensuring their survival.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 296

<idle musing>
Amen! In our highly medicated society, we tend to give the glory to medical science—yet babies still die. Do we then stop believing in medical science? If the percentage of people on prescription medications is any indication, then no. Why then should people "give up on God" when something "bad" happens?

Seems to me our view of God is wrong—and our worship of medical science is misplaced, as well...did you know the third leading cause of death now is from incorrect medical treatment (see here)? And yet God gets the blame. Something's not right here, folks.
</idle musing>

Omnipresence

If our religion is really our life, and not merely something extraneous tacked on to our life, it must necessarily go into everything in which we live; and no act, however human or natural it may be, can be taken out of its control and guidance. If God is with us always, then He is just as much with us in our business times and our social times as in our religious times, and one moment is as solemn with His presence as another.—Hannah Whitall Smith

Infant mortality

The apparent scale of the celebrations that marked the weaning of a child may reflect the communal joy when a child passed the age of the greatest risk of infant mortality—a risk that would have been considerably higher than in modern industrial societies. Scholars estimate that more than one-third of all infants died during the first few months or years of life, and as many as half of all children did not survive to adulthood. [Footnote: See C. Meyers 1988: 112–13 with reference to ancient Palestinian burials in Jericho, Lachish, and Meiron; in one tomb group, 35% of individuals had died before the age of five; see J. D. Schloen 2001: 122–25; C. Meyers 2005: 16. For Egypt in Late Antiquity, R. S. Bagnall (1993: 182) calculated that ‘nearly one-third of all children died before their first birthday and more than two fifths by the age of five’. According to E. A. R. Willett (2008: 2), “on average, 35 percent of all individuals died before age 5” in Iron Age Cis- and Transjordan.]—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 294

<idle musing>
That's a frighteningly high number. No wonder they celebrated whenever a baby reached 2-3 years of age.
</idle musing>

I can do it myself, thank you

We have all realized, more or less, that without Him we cannot live our religious life, but when it comes to living our so-called temporal life, to keeping house or transacting business, or making calls, or darning stockings, or sweeping a room, or trimming a bonnet, or entertaining company, who is there that even theoretically thinks such things as these are to be done for Christ, and can only be rightly done as we abide in Him and do them in His strength?—Hannah Whitall Smith

<idle musing>
That dichotomy again. All of our life is God's—yes, even cleaning toilets! Good thing, too, because around here in the summer, there's a lot of them to clean! : )
</idle musing>

The divine touch

...the number and variety of creation names now known from epigraphic material clearly reveal that the divine creation of every human being constituted a primary tenet of family religion. The religious significance of birth also was emphasized to a much greater extent than we previously supposed. It was not only the elites who transcribed and collated the Hebrew Bible but also the masses of ordinary people, especially women, who considered birth a direct creative act of god rather than a generic, natural event.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 280

<idle musing>
And why not? For me, the greatest miracle I've ever witnessed was the birth of my kids. I considered it a direct creative act of God, even though I know the science behind it. More importantly, though, I know the creator behind the science!
</idle musing>

When we get mad at God

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen ? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people...In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. (2 Chronicles 16:7-10, 12 NIV)

<idle musing>
Do you think maybe Asa was offended? Rather than repenting, he strikes out—not that any of us would ever do that!

But, to me the interesting thing is that later, when he gets sick, he turns to—wait for it—medical science! He ignores God, even when he's in pain, because God offended him once. Before we cast a stone at him, though, take a look at our own medicine cabinet. What's in there? How often do we turn to it in our pain and diseases? Maybe, just maybe, we are as guilty as Asa?

Just an
</idle musing>

Thought for the day

They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side. (2 Chronicles 15:14, 15 NIV)

Riding on the emotions?

For if I do nothing, literally nothing, apart from Christ, I am of course united to Him in a continual oneness that cannot be questioned or gainsaid; while if I live a large part of my daily life and perform a large part of my daily work apart from Him, I have no real union, no matter how exalted and delightful my emotions concerning it may be.—Hannah Whitall Smith

The night of conception

Equal in importance to the day of birth for the emergence of new human life was the time of conception (Job 3:1). For Job, the two dates played equal roles in forming his existence (3:1–10). In the Hebrew Bible, every conception and pregnancy is viewed as the work of god, especially following a period of infertility (Gen 20:17–18; 21:1–2; 29:31–32; 30:17, 22; 1 Sam 1:19–20) but also in more typical cases (Ruth 4:13). Thus, during the night of conception, god draws very near the couple and is especially engaged with the female partner by healing her infertility (אפר; Gen 20:17) and opening her womb (חתפ םחר; Gen 29:31; 30:22).—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 275

<idle musing>
We've lost that concept, haven't we? For us, sex is all about enjoyment, not about conception. It has become totally secular; we've abandoned it to the pornographers and exploiters. We need to recover a sense of the holy—in every area of our life!
</idle musing>

The holy dichotomy

I verily believe a large part of the difficulty lies in the unscriptural and unnatural divorce that has been brought about between our so-called religious life and our so called temporal life; as if our religion were something apart from ourselves, a sort of outside garment that was to be put on and off according to our circumstances and purposes. On Sundays, for instance, and in church, our purpose is to seek God, and worship and serve Him, and therefore on Sundays we bring out our religious life and put it on in a suitably solemn manner, and live it with a strained gravity and decorum which deprives it of half its power. But on Mondays our purpose is to seek our own interests and serve them, and so we bring out our temporal life and put it on with a sense of relief, as from an unnatural bondage, and live it with ease and naturalness, and consequently with far more power.—Hannah Whitall Smith

<idle musing>
With an attitude like that about life, how can we do otherwise than fail?!
</idle musing>

Infertility

In the distress of their infertility, women were accustomed to praying to god. If they wanted to provide their prayers with more urgency, they could make a vow. So Hannah made a vow to YHWH at the regional sanctuary of Shiloh in order to conceive a son (1 Sam 1:11). Furthermore, the fact that the mother of Lemuel called him “son of my vow” (Prov 31:2) demonstrates that women’s vows designed to conceive a son were very common. We also know from Jer 44:25 that women in particular liked to make vows to their family goddess at home, although childbirth is not explicitly mentioned in this case. These vows made by women seem to have occurred so frequently and to have been so expensive that they could become a threat to a family’s property, and thus required male control. According to Numbers 30, a father or husband was allowed to invalidate the vow of a daughter or wife on the day that he first heard of it. The custom of poor women working as harlots in order to be able to pay their vows apparently was so common that it had to be strictly forbidden (Deut 23:18). Gen 25:21 also reports a case in which a husband formally interceded on behalf of his barren wife. Thus, private prayers and vows, especially those made by women, were important rituals of Israelite family religion.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 271

Thought for today

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. (1 Chronicles 29:14-17 NIV)

Food for thought

Comparing the distribution of names in the Syro-Levantine cultures with those in ancient Israel reveals a very similar pattern. Names of thanksgiving and confession are again most prominent, especially when considered together. Birth names are also prominent. These prominent groups are again accompanied by the same three minor groups of praise names, equating names, and secular names. Most astonishingly, the rankings of the six groups in the Ammonite onomasticon were identical to the rankings of the Israelite names. This would be expected to happen only once every 720 times (= 6×5×4×3×2). This agreement in rankings is not accidental, therefore, but reflects genuine cultural similarities.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 259

<idle musing>
Of course, we don't know what that means...but it is interesting : )
</idle musing>

God and...

We have to be brought to the place where all other refuges fail us, before we can say, “He only.” We say, “He and—something else.” “He, and my experience,” or “He, and my church relationships,” or “He, and my Christian work”; and all that comes after the “and” must be taken away from us, or must be proved useless before we can come to the “He only."—Hannah Whitall Smith

<idle musing>
Tozer said that to say "God and" anything else was the same as saying God wasn't enough...
</idle musing>