Lee Harmon's Blog, page 60

Leviticus 25:13, The Jubilee Year

In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

//Maybe you’ve heard of the Jubilee, which comes every 50 years. After seven times seven years, the next year is a Jubilee year, where the land is to rest. No sowing and no reaping, just eat directly from the vines.

Moreover, on the Jubilee year, any land you once owned which was purchased by another returns to your possession. This seems like a strange law, preventing any type of permanent change in land ownership. It also seem...

Book review: Sunday Morning Stickup

by David Lee

★★★

It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. –Matthew 21:13

This book is a passionate plea to quit supporting a prosperity gospel. Tithing is no longer scriptural, and your tithes aren’t used in a scriptural manner anyway. David Lee wrote the book “out of obedience to a mandate from God on my life,” and I can’t emphasize the word “passionate” enough. David has had it with misuse of money. He misses the good old days of reviva...

Genesis 30:13, The Twelve Tribes of Israel, part II of II

Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

//Yesterday, I asked whether the twelve tribes of Israel preceded the story of the twelve sons of Jacob. This would mean the stories told in the Bible were allegorical, meant to unify existing tribes, rather than to present the true history of Israel’s origin.

The tribe of Dan, for example, appears to be somewhat of a late comer, as discussed yesterday. Yesterday’s verse may provide a hint that Dan came from...

Judges 5:17, The Twelve Tribes of Israel, part I of II

Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships? Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.

//As the story goes, Jacob (later named Israel) had twelve sons, and these twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. Here is a list of the twelve as we usually see them:

Reuben

Judah

Naphtali

Issachar

Zebulun

Simeon

Dan

Gad

Asher

Benjamin

Ephraim

Manasseh

But something is amiss with this list. What about the other tribes the Bible tells of? Where are the Gileadites, Calebites...

Book review: God or Godless?

by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser

★★★★★

Definitely a contender for The Dubious Disciple’s top-10 religion books of 2013. Even the cover is magnificent.

John, an atheist, goes head-to-head with Randal, a Christian, on twenty controversial topics. Each topic is covered in debate fashion, with the contestants presenting their arguments, counter-arguments, and closing statements. It’s friendly for the most part, but the gloves do come off in a couple places.

Two very different philosophies shine th...

Leviticus 22:11, Slavery in Israel

But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food.

//In this verse It appears that the Levitical law takes slavery for granted. Buying and selling slaves was a way of life.

Now, I’ve heard it argued that “owning” a slave in Bible days was a bit different than the slave ownership of America before the civil war. That a better comparison to Israelite slavery would be like the way the Denver Broncos now own superstar Peyton Manning. But I...

Daniel 12:7, Scattering the Jews

And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

//Many people today believe that the end of the world will be triggered by thereturnof Jews back to their homeland. This is a common theme in the Bible, the r...

Book review: Prodigal Christianity

by David E. Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw

★★★★★

While this book was more conservative than I expected, it was also more thought-provoking. Prodigal Christianity compares the journey of Jesus into our world to the prodigal son (obviously a little different take on that parable) and asks if our own Christianity is prodigal enough. The authors are talking about the missional frontier, and how we are spreading the Gospel. To become Christian is to learn to become prodigal.

One quote on page 69 helped set...

John 13:5, Washing Our Feet

After that [Jesus] poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

//In The Year of the Lord’s Favor, author Tom Arthur speculates that by the time John’s Gospel was written, the feast of the Lord’s Supper had already become a stale ritual, its wine probably served in sterile little glasses like many churches do today. If anyone did arrive hungry and needy, he was treated to a mere nibble. So, in John’s account, the Eu...

Numbers 12:10, Black and White

And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriambecameleprous, aswhite assnow.

//Maybe you’ve heard this story of how God strikes Miriam, the wife of Aaron, with leprosy. Ever pay attention to what she was being punished for? A few verses earlier, we read:

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman.–Numbers 12:1

The distinguishing mark of an Ethiopian, of course, is the color of their s...