Posts Tagged: Old Testament

“Old Testament, Old Friend”

On January 18, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

One of my earliest memories is of my mom and I sitting in an old overstuffed chair, with her reading to me.  Sometimes, I would ask for her to read the Bible.  She would then ask a counter-question: “The Old Bible, or the New Bible?”

“The Old Bible,” I would usually answer.  Mom was puzzled that a four-year-old would request a reading from the Old Testament.  She would sometimes ask, “Do you understand what I am reading to you?”  And I would answer, “Yes, momma.”

I was, of course, lying.  The truth is that I liked the pictures in her Bible.  I liked the picture of David slaying the lion and the giant.  And what’s not to like about Noah and his floating zoo, with the giraffes’ necks sticking out the window?!

I still don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament. Yes, I understand more than I did at age four for sure.  But not much.  Mainly, I understand that I don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament.  A Ph.D. has not dulled that insight into my own ignorance.  If anything, graduate studies has accentuated it. I now know more of what I don’t know.

I am currently teaching am Old Testament theology course online for my university.  One of the books I am requiring my students to read is by Matthew Richard Schlimm, This Strange and Sacred Scripture.  It is a strange book about the Strange Old Testament.

However, it is a good book and well worth reading.  I am speaking of Schlimm’s book here.  I am also talking about the Old Testament itself.

Schlimm uses an analogy for the Old Testament that I had never considered before.  The word picture that runs through his book from beginning to end is that the Old Testament is “an old friend.”

Here are some comments I made at the end of one of my Old Testament Theology student’s excellent paper.

Patrick,

Very good work!

I do not always (often?) agree with Schlimm either.  However, he does get my mental juices flowing for sure!

I think that it takes many analogies to get at a book as rich and difficult as the Bible.  One of the things that I like in particularly like about Schlimm’s analogy of the Old Testament as an old friend is that this analogy is literally (pun intentional) a more personal analogy.

Old friends have a different background and experience than I do.  That is one of the many reasons why I hang around with old friends that I don’t entirely understand.

While I don’t have a lot of old human friends, I do have a lot of old books that are my friends.  In particular—indeed in a class by itself—is the Old Testament.  How I love this old friend!  But love is one thing; understanding is another.

I hope that if I love well enough and deeply enough, I will come to a better and deeper understanding.  I see some evidence that this may be happening in my life.

Friends stick with friends through thick and thin. I hope to stick with the Old Testament until my Friend closes my eyes in death.

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“On Rooting for Cinderella”

On November 3, 2016 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

So, it was a good World Series, wasn’t it?  It was heart-breaking for the Indians and their fans.  It was exhilarating to “the lovable losers” (a.k.a. “the Cubs”).

And me?

Well, I live in Ohio, but my team is not the Indians.  (I won’t mention the name of “my” team, but I will tell you that their initials are “The Cincinnati Reds.”)

However, despite living in Ohio now, I lived in the Chicago area for three years, and fell in love with the Cubbies, a love that persists—except, of course, when they play the Reds.

Stir in another factor in order to bake this ambivalence pie: I like to root for whoever is down, whoever is the most “Cinderella-ish.”  Going into the World Series, the team that was most like Cinderella was Cleveland.

However, after four games, the Indians were up three to one, and were heading back to Cleveland.  “Well,” I said to myself, “my good friend John is from Cleveland, so it is okay if the Indians win.

And, if I were a betting man, then that is precisely the way I would have bet.  However, there would be several more HUGE “howevers.”

HOWEVER, the Cubs won the next two games in Cleveland, and in a back-and-forth wrestling match between the two Cinderellas, the Cubs won game seven.  It was one of the best baseball games I have never watched.  (I went to bed when the Cubs were up three to one, thinking that Chi Town had the matter well in hand.  Silly me!  Judge me not!  I was tired!)

Virtually everything makes me think of God, even cliff-hanger Cinderella baseball wrestling matches.

God loves Cinderellas!  This is true in the Old Testament, where God chose Cinderellas such as Abram and Sarah, Hannah, Gideon,  and David.  Indeed, Israel itself wasn’t much to look at.  (See Deuteronomy 7:1-8, for example.  Of course, no nation is much to look at.  Sometimes, we forget that.)

The New Testament is all about God’s very very HUGE “however.”  Jesus showed great love for Cinderella teams and Cinderella individuals.  Jesus’ actions as well as his teachings confirm this.  According to Luke 14:15-24, the Cinderellas of the world are the ones who get invited to the ball.  Others are too busy being busy (and too busy making excuses) to attend.

I had lunch recently with a good friend who feels like a Cinderella.  He thinks of all that he could have accomplished if only he had made better decisions in his life.  I know this man very well.  He has been exceedingly frank about his struggles and failings.  Still, he thinks of himself as a Cinderella.

And yet, I think of him as a very successful person.  He has accomplished a lot of really good things, including loving me.  And I am not the easiest person in the world to love!

I suspect that all of us feel like Cinderella.  Some of us feel that way some of the time, some most of the time, and some all of the time.  We are all waiting for a handsome prince (or princess) to come and place the right shoe on our foot.

Perhaps God has already put the slipper on our foot.  Perhaps the slipper is called “Grace!”  And God’s grace is the hugest “however” of them all.

DTEB

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