Whilst waiting for the rugby to start yesterday I caught the end of Autumnwatch and a story about a tree that is approximately 5000 years old. For some reason I was reminded of what Luther was supposed to have said, something along the lines of “if I knew the world would end tomorrow I would plant a tree today”. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of his book (pun intended) and plant a tree on Saturday the 5th of December!

I picked up a copy of T. F. Torrance’s Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ which looks incredibly interesting.

“Read all about it” here.

The church is first of all created by the gospel and then led back into the world as justified and renewed people to love and serve their neighbors [sic] and offer witness to Jesus Christ. Therefore the church is both a place where God acts in judgement and grace and a people who are judged and justified, living out their callings in the world. It is both an historical organization, [sic] founded by Christ, where Christ gives himself to sinners in baptism, preaching, and the Lord’s Supper, and a spiritual organism that is united through faith to its living Head.

Horton, M. (2008) Christless Christianity. Baker. pp. 233

We are not called to live the gospel but to believe the gospel and to follow the law in view of God’s mercies…Any form of doing the gospel is a confusion of categories. The law tells us what to do; the gospel tells us what God has done for us in Christ. When it comes to the question about how we relate to God, doing is the wrong answer.

Horton, M. (2008) Christless Christianity. Baker. pp. 124

This phrase is predominantly Deuteronomistic and its existence in the Tetrateuch implies a Dtr redaction of the Tetrateuch. Would you agree with this?

This phrase appears in Deuteronomy six times: 6:3; 11:9; 26:9, 15; 27:3; 31:20.

Within the Tetrateuch it’s found in:

• Exodus 3:8; 17; 13:5; 33:3.
• Leviticus 20:24.
• Numbers 13:27; 14:8; 16:13, 14.

Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”

I have been reading through Exodus 1-19 ready for my course tomorrow and in reading chapter 4 I saw that Exodus 4:19 is somewhat problematic for a surface reading of the narrative. To put it simply, it does not belong where it is:

Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt Moses also took the staff of God in his hand.

Notice how in removing it the narrative flows far more naturally:

Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt Moses also took the staff of God in his hand.

Notice also that verse 19 refers to God as YHWH however the surrounding verses refer to him as Elohim:

“Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God [Elohim] to him. “You shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.” Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” Now the LORD [YHWH] said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt Moses also took the staff of God [Elohim] in his hand.

This seems to imply that a Yahwistic text has been inserted into the Elohistic source. I find this alone quite interesting in that J should preceed E so this interpolation was probably not the work of J. This implies one of two things; either (1) the editor was rather sloppy or (2) there is a reason for this interpolation. Can you think of what that reason would be?

(HT: Tony)

This is a great post by Jason.

Our sacred activity, such as hearing God’s Word and receiving the Lord’s Supper, therefore, is about as unique and countercultural as we can get, while our secular activity is just the opposite—it is thoroughly common. It is primarily on Sunday, therefore, rather than on Monday through Saturday, that believers display their peculiarity and distinc­tiveness from the world.

This means that the church’s main task, as simplistic as it may sound, is to be the church, to be, in the words of Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, “a new people, an alternative polis, a countercultural social structure.” They con­tinue: “The church does not exist to ask what needs doing to keep the world running smoothly and then to motivate our people to go do it . . . The church has its own reason for being, hid within its own mandate and not found in the world. We are not chartered by the Emperor.” This does not mean that the church ceases to be influential, but that the church’s influence is of an altogether different—and often unwanted—variety. “[We] seek to influence the world by being the church, that is, by being something the world is not and never can be.”

Thanks guys for these wise words!