A Walk At Sunset

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The cooler air arrived, and I wanted to go for an evening stroll.

I put in my earbuds and hit the 'Makers and Mystics' podcast, picking up in the middle of a roundtable discussion and started down the hill.

Then I noticed the sky.

And I turned around and went all the way back to the front porch to get a picture.

The textures in the sky were glorious.  I took the pic and then headed back down the street with every intention of doing the Usual Route...maybe a bit shortened, since it was getting on for dark.

I took another picture as I started down the hill again.

The lighting was already changing when I got to the curve at the bottom of the hill

I went around the corner and, coming up on the intersection where I typically would go straight, a couple with a little dog came  up from the main road and turned that way.

Suddenly, I decided I wanted to head to the main road and follow the sunset.

There's just one house between the neighborhood street and the main road through the valley; one little bit of road heading west.  I planned to turn south at the main road and look for open sky.

But just a bit south I decided to cross the road and walk through the park as the light was still changing.

There's a creek that runs along the back of the park, with a foot bridge to the greenway on the other side.  

I got a bit of the reflection in the water.

The athletic fields at the middle school on the other side let me get underneath the power lines and get an unobstructed view.

It's amazing how much the color intensifies when zoomed in a bit.

But the power lines do, after all, add a bit of context/ texture.

I turned around and started back home.  The sky off to the southeast was lit up as well.

I looked back over my shoulder and couldn't resist another shot zoomed in on the fabulousness.

There's something rather metaphorical about looking at the sunset through chain links.

The last look back before I left the park:

Heading back up from the main road the streetlight was just barely strong enough to cast a shadow in the twilight

And finally, took one last picture from the end of the porch...where I took the first one.

Had I taken the normal walk, I'd've been mostly on tree-lined streets where I would barely get a glimpse of the sky now and then.

I'm so glad I followed the sunset.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  - Ps. 19:1 - 3, NIV84

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Deuteronomy, The First Discourse

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So our little  tour of the Bible, looking at references to 'Heart/ hearts' has brought us to Deuteronomy.

There are a LOT of references to check in Deuteronomy.

But, Deuteronomy is actually a collection of five discourses that Moses gave to the people before God walked him up the mountain so I think that's going to be a rather natural way to break up the listings into manageable chunks.

The First Discourse is recorded in chapters 1-4, according to Mr. Scofield's notes, so that's what we're considering today.  Incidentally, all the references to 'heart' today are  same word we looked at last week, Strong's H3824 - lebab,.  

In his discussion of their history at Kadesh Barnea, Moses recalled the report returned by the twelve scouts sent to have a look around, and the reaction of the people:

You grumbled in your tents and said, "The LORD hates us; so he brought us up out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go?  Our brothers have made us lose heart.  They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky.  We even saw the Anakites there.'" -- Deut. 1: 27 -28, NIV84

There is so much twisted stuff in that passage...it really shows the level of deception folks can allow themselves to accept.  "The LORD hates us.".  No.  The Lord loved his people; he was concerned and he delivered them from slavery and oppression in Egypt.  Sure, they were going to have to fight and take risks in order to claim the promise, but it was a real promise, not a fake one to lure them to destruction.  God doesn't work that way.  In fact, everything that they accused God of doing is the OPPOSITE of what God was actually doing. Why?  Because 'Our brothers have made us lose heart',' and H 3824 also has the connotation of 'courage'.

They lost all their courage because ten of those scouts were afraid of the effort, completely forgetting that God had promised to deliver everything over to them.  And because they forgot what God had promised, they only perceived the threat and decided God was against them.  

The next reference is in chapter 2, and it's a generation later and the Israelites are moving to the east, headed for the plains of Moab on the east side of the Jordan.  They had asked for permission to cross the territory of one of the Amorite kings...

But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has done now. - Deut. 2:30

This concept is not a new one; this is the same sort of thing that happened in Exodus, when Pharoah's heart was hardened.  

The other references are all in chapter four...in which Moses looks to the future:

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.  - Deut 4:9 -10

And, if they should ever fall away from worshiping God:

The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.  There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. - Deut 4:27-29

In summation of the First Discourse:

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on earth below.  There is no other. - Deut  4:39

I see a real contrast between the verses in chapter 4 and the passage in chapter 1. They forgot all the things they had seen prior to the events at Kadesh Barnea (4:9),  they accused God of treachery instead of seeking him (4:29) and they failed utterly to acknowledge that God is over everything (4:39).

That generation was destroyed.  They never saw the promise.  They chose to believe a narrative that upended everything they had known about God to that point.   He had brought them out of oppression and completely cut off their oppressors.  He had given them food, water, and guidance in the desert. He had given them victory over the Amalekites.  He had given them guidance, which also provided warmth at night (pillar of fire) and shade in the day (pillar of cloud).  They had themselves heard his voice at Sinai.  But, because a handful of dudes forgot all this and were afraid that they, in themselves, could not defeat any enemies and said so to the people, all of those things God had done for them in the last year and half or so didn't matter (pause for a moment to consider how truly recent all those events were at that point; it wasn't ancient history).  They decided to believe that God was going to abandon them to be annihilated.

I have been in situations where people told me what I thought or why I did something...and what they said had nothing whatever to do with what was going on in my head.  But there was no convincing them that their assessments were incorrect.  If I felt completely frustrated in those cases, I can only imagine how God felt when the people not only didn't acknowledge what he had done for them but declared that his thoughts and intentions for the people were the exact opposite of what they really were, despite all the evidence.  So, yeah, they literally got what they expected...it wasn't his plan, but he gave it to them anyway.  Because they declared it to be true.

So...wow.  Be careful...be very, very careful...if you find yourself inclined to assign motives or intentions to God's heart.  Because you could be wrong.  But he could just let you have what you expect instead of what he intended. 

Don't assume on God's behalf.  Seek him and find him and you'll know.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Numbers

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Believe it or not, there is only one passage in the entire book of Numbers that mentions heart/ hearts...

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.' "  -- Numbers 15:38-40, NIV84

I wrote about this incident nearly nine years ago; click through here to read all the deets I'm not going to go into now.  

Suffice it to say here that God had expectations of his people and they were having a difficult time remembering that they now needed to live according to God's instructions.  The tassels with a blue cord were to be a visual reminder for them to stop and consider their actions so they could follow God's commandments and decrees.

But I had a bit of an eye-opener when I looked it up the Hebrew in Blue Letter Bible...the default translation is KJV, which renders verse 39 a little more, um, emphatically:

" 'And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.'"   

Whoa.

So I checked the NASB...to get the literal translation in a bit more conventional language:

"'And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot,"'

The Hebrew word translated as 'go a whoring' or 'played the harlot' or even the NIV 'prostitute yourselves' is zanah - a primitive root that means, on the most basic level,  'highly fed and therefore wanton', which is an interesting concept in and of itself, and is usually used to indicate committing adultery.

But notice this passage is to indicate a shift...ie, something that USED to happen, that should now no longer happen.  The eyes and the heart led them astray, but now...they know better.

What happened in the middle?  They were given The Law.  They had entered into a covenant relationship with God.  

The word for 'your own hearts' here is lebab (Strong's H3824) - " לֵבָב lêbâb, lay-bawb'; from H3823; used also like H3820 the heart (as the most interior organ);:— bethink themselves, breast, comfortably, courage, (faint), (tender-) heart(-ed), midst, mind, × unawares, understanding." 

The covenant and commands of God had absolutely no regard for the norms of the society or cultures around them, nor did God's law leave room for indulgence in or pursuit of  Power - Possessions-  Pleasure...that ol' Triple-P Trap.  

But we see that the unregenerate heart, the default setting, so to speak, is inclined to lust/play the harlot/prostitute oneself/ go a whoring right after that Triple-P deal.

The Hebrews were instructed to use the tassels to remind themselves they were called to live by a higher standard.  But, you know what history shows...they added the tassels but eventually ignored the meaning of them and lived as they pleased...and suffered for it.  Just as we today will wear cross jewelry or put a fish bumper sticker on the car or sport a 'Chosen' t-shirt...and ignore the change in lifestyle/ attitude/ worldview that those things are supposed to signify.

If we are in covenant with God, it should make a difference. We should not be following the default settings of the heart, which will always go off into...harlotry.  The difference is...now, we have the Spirit to help us; we don't need to be constantly reminding ourselves.  We just need to listen to the right voice.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Leviticus part 2

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So...I have kind of been pondering the next post for a bit and, well, it's just time to start typing and see how it develops.

See, the two remaining times 'heart' is mentioned in Leviticus are both in chapter 26...a chapter describing first the blessings that will come to the people if they walk in obedience to God's decrees, which constitutes verses 3 - 13.  

Verses 14 and 15, however, change the tone, basically saying...if you don't listen and you reject the laws and decrees and violate the covenant, then this is what's going to happen...

And the description of the 'what's going to happen' goes from verse 16 all the way through verse 39.

There's an interesting bit of math in there....in verse 18, God says 'I will punish you seven times over'.  In verse 21, he says if they don't repent, then he will punish them another seven times over...and another seven times in verse 24, and another seven times in verse 28.  The language seems to indicate... 7 times, multiplied by 7 times, multiplied by 7 times, multiplied by 7 times.   That's 7 raised to the 4th power...or punishment ultimately multiplied 4501 times.

 It was going to get very, very bad, ultimately ending up with the land laid to waste and the people scattered and pursued and hauled off to servitude and captivity.

In verse 36 we read,

" 'As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lads of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight.  They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one pursues them.' "

Talk about PTSD. That is a miserable level of fear, my friends.  To run in panic from...nothing.  Because the heart is plagued with fear from all the awful things that have happened...the judgment that has fallen.

We may see an echo of that when we get to Revelation.

But the judgment is not the end for the wayward nation.  The rest of the chapter holds out the hope of God's mercy and HIS commitment to the covenant.

Verses 40 - 42 included for full context here:

' " But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers -- their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies -- then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land."' 

The phrase 'pay for their sin' is interesting; that's a concept that doesn't come up often, but I kinda suspect the payment is due the land; the forgotten sabbaths are mentioned in the chapter, and the term of the exile is set at the completion of the overdue sabbath years (verses 34-35 and 43).  The Law stated that the Israelites were to let the land lie fallow every seventh year...and one of the first indications that they were not fully obeying the Law is that they did not give the land the sabbath. This is actually an important thing in caring for productive soil; it has to have a break from cultivation in order to rejuvenate.  Without those fallow seasons, the land will become depleted and lose its fertility.  God wasn't just testing them on how much they trusted him...he was giving them instructions for stewarding the resource he was giving them.  

Of course, all this did come to pass in the course of history; and the 70 years of Babylonian captivity was indeed tied to the sabbath of the land. (2 Chron. 26:31)

For the restoration, two things were required: that they pay for their sins, and that their 'uncircumcised hearts' would be humbled.  When those things come about, then, God says, he will remember the covenant (verse 45).

A pastor friend of mine described circumcision as 'the removal of excess flesh that hinders reproduction'.  I might add, that flesh is  a barrier to intimacy.  Physical circumcision is one thing, but a circumcised heart (a concept we will also encounter in the New Testament) is something else altogether. 

It's interesting that the folks who have the uncircumcised hearts are also the ones whose hearts are so incredibly fearful.

I think I will be watching to see if that connection develops further as we progress.  Watch for that connection between a fearful heart and an uncircumcised heart.

 

One down, one to go...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The day started off with a bang...a howling wind-and-rainstorm.  But things settled down by the time the appointed hour arrived.

Photo creds to his sister, The Princess.

It was a very sweet wedding.  They were married in the church she grew up in, with her dad officiating.

The ladies of the church put together a fantastic reception in the basement.  One commented to me that the bride was 'the church baby'...born shortly after her parents came to pastor; everyone watched her grow into the lovely young lady she is now.  Love was very evident all around.

I commented to My Sweet Babboo that The Actor's Little Red Haired Girl is an actual princess.

I confess, I had kinda leaky eyes through the ceremony.  I didn't when the girls were married, much to my surprise.  But I think it was her dad who moved me to tears.  He held it together really well, a barely discernable effort only threatening once.  But I know of some...difficulties...they are walking through, and to hear him speak of the wonderful adventure in front of the kids, knowing full well that life is hard but the work is worthwhile, really touched me.

Fortunately there was a box of kleenex on the front pew, lol.

They went away for the weekend, but will head home tomorrow. Their actual 'wedding trip' will be to Colorado in October to see the eclipse.  So totally in character for them.

I still have laundry to catch up and decor to store.  But there's another event on the horizon, so...well, I'll get it caught up eventually.