1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17
Didn’t read any of that - as I said before, I find genealogies pretty tedious. Maybe when I reach the higher echelons of the faith I may find some nuggets in them but I think that for now I’ve got enough to be getting along with in the main body of the narrative.
Romans 9:22-:10:4
What does Paul mean when he says Israel pursued righteousness not by faith but by works? What is righteousness? I think righteousness is best understood as faithfulness to the conditions of the covenant between Yahweh and his people. So pursuing righteousness is to strip all the “I am the LORD your God” statements out of the Torah and to turn it into a dry instruction manual for how to offer sacrifices. All through the history books of Samuel and Kings and in both Amos and Hosea we have seen that Israel did not remain faithful to the covenant. Israel went off all over the place setting up shrines to idols and seeking to live like the people around them. And yet they thought that their identity as Israel was safe - that the covenant between them and God was safe - as long as there was a temple that offered some kind of sacrifice and the words “we acknowledge Yahweh” were regularly being spoken. But this was not right. The covenant was never about carrying out temple sacrifices. They were just the trimmings. The core was the deep love-bond between Eternal God and broken people. The covenant was meant to be about relationship. The relationship was meant to be about faith. Israel’s problem was not thinking that they could earn their salvation. Israel’s problem was being complacent about their identity. In their pride they thought they could stick two fingers up at God and he wouldn’t mind as long their other hand was slaying an ox. We can’t just go through the motions. This thing is all about relationship.
Psalm 89:14-18
I can’t believe it. Someone’s got and taken my shield - my favourite, precious piece of armour and they have written some other blokes name on it.
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