2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors' graves, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors' graves, so that I may rebuild it." 6 The king said to me (the queen also was sitting beside him), "How long will you be gone, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a date. 7 Then I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah; 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy." And the king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me.

9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent officers of the army and cavalry with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. 12 Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon's Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. 15 So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work.

17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace." 18 I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, "Let us start building!" So they committed themselves to the common good. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, "What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" 20 Then I replied to them, "The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem." (Nehemiah 2:1-20, NRSV)

The following comments are based on comments from October 28, 2005 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year One), with editing and supplement:

While we are in the world (cf. Matthew’s parable, the Weeds among the Wheat, below), we would do well to emulate Nehemiah’s courage and determination, not to mention his faith, “God . . . will give us success” (Neh. 2:20). As noted yesterday, the date given here, “in the month of Nissan, in the twentieth year” (2:1a), 445/444 B.C., correlates with the date given in 1:1 “if Nehemiah’s reckoning begins the year in the fall, as in subsequent Judaism” (Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Neh. 2:1). Nehemiah reports that when wine was served to King Artaxerxes, “I carried the wine and gave it to the king” (v. 1b), and, in view of his experience, hearing of troubles in Jerusalem and his prayer of repentance (chap. 1, yesterday’s reading), he says, “Now, I had never been sad in his [i.e., the king’s] presence before” (Neh. 2:1c). The king takes notice of this, asking, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart” (v. 2a), which leaves Nehemiah fearful (v. 2b), but he replies, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” (v. 3). Eskenazi says, “depicting Jerusalem as graveyard dramatizes the importance of honoring ancestors and minimizes the threat that rebuilding Jerusalem might otherwise suggest. Ezra 4:21 suggest that this king had prohibited rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls until further notice” (on v. 3)..

When the king asks, “What do you request?” Nehemiah prays silently before answering. “So I prayed to the God of heaven,” he says (v. 4). And he addresses the king: “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors' graves, so that I may rebuild it” (v. 5). When the king asked how long Nehemiah would be gone and when he would return (v. 6b), a date was set and the king sent him (v. 6c). Nehemiah requests letters “to be given to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may grant me passage until I arrive in Judah; and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, directing him to give me timber to make beams for the gates of the temple fortress, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy” (vv. 7-8a). “This,” says David J. A. Clines, “is the first we hear of the temple fortress; cf. also 7:2. It may be the Tower of Hananel (3:1), and it may have been the predecessor of the Antonia tower built by Herod” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Neh. 2:8). These requests were granted, “for,” as Nehemiah says, “the gracious hand of my God was upon me” (v. 8b).

So Nehemiah comes “to the governors of the province Beyond the River,” accompanied by “officers of the army and cavalry,” and gives them “the king’s letters” (v. 9). This turn of events was not pleasing to “Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official,” for “it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel” (v. 10). “Sanballat,” says Eskenazi, “is mentioned in the fifth-century BCE Elephantine papyri from Egypt as a governor of Samaria, Judah’s northern neighbor; see Ezra 4:10). Tobiah, a high official, probably Jewish (his name means, ‘the LORD is good’; see also 6:18), is in the service of the Ammonites, Judah’s eastern neighbor” (on v. 10).

Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem (v. 11) and, with a few men, privately surveys the city at night (v. 12). His inspection includes “the valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate,” and “the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire” (v. 13). He goes on to “the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool” (v. 14), and, by foot, inspects the wall and returns “by the Valley Gate” (v. 15). So far, he has told neither “the Jews [nor] the priests, the nobles, the officials [or] the rest that were to do the work” (v. 16).

But then Nehemiah informs the people of his plans. “You see the trouble we are in,” he says, “how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace” (v. 17). “I told them,” he says, “that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me” (v. 18a). According to Eskenazi, “Nehemiah now galvanizes the Jews of Yehud [Judah] to rebuild by appealing to communal pride and disclosing divine and royal support” (on v. 18). “So,” we are told, “they committed themselves to the common good” (v. 18b). However, news of this development did not sit well in Samaria. “But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, ‘What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’ ” (v. 19). “Geshem the Arab,” says Clines, was “king of Qedar, the ruler, under nominal Persian control, of a large territory in northern Arabia, Edom, and the Negev of Judah” (on v. 19). There is apparently no basis for the charge here of “rebelling.” Nehemiah replies, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem” (v. 20). According to Eskenazi, “independence from neighbors’ control explains Nehemiah’s achievement and the opposition it meets. Like Zerubbabel, earlier (Ezra 4), Nehemiah limits participation in rebuilding, insisting on the superiority of God to any human power” (on v. 20).

or Lamentations 4:1-22 (alternative reading, Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions)

The following comments are repeated with editing and supplement from October 28, 2005 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year One)

The first sixteen verses of Lamentations, chapter 4, continuing the acrostic pattern, describe the suffering of Jerusalem and her people. “How (Hk!yxe, ’êkāh) the gold has grown dim, / how the pure gold is changed! / The sacred stones lie scattered / at the head of every street” (Lam. 4:1). Gold and sacred stones have no value, “emphasizing the severity of the suffering” (F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Lam. 4:1). “Even (-mg1, gam-) the jackals offer the breast / and nurse their young, / but my people has become cruel, / like the ostriches in the wilderness” (v. 3). “The personified city’s actions are less humane,” says F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, “even than that of the cruelest of animals, jackals (commonly associated with deserted ruins; see Isa. 13:22; Mic. 1:8) and ostriches (cf. Job 39:13-18)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Lam. 4:3).

Because verse 3 implies the cruelty of withholding food from children, verse 4 continues: “The tongue of the infant sticks (qb1d!, dāvaq) / to the roof of its mouth for thirst; / the children beg for food, / but no one gives them anything” (v. 4). The children remain hungry. The contrast between “then” and “now” is graphic. “Those who feasted (myl9k4xoh!, hā’ōk^elîm) on delicacies / perish in the streets; / those who were brought up in purple / cling to ash heaps” (v. 5).

Jerusalem’s chastisement “has been greater / than the punishment of Sodom” (v. 6a, b); her princes, once healthy and vigorous (v. 7) are emaciated by famine. “Happier were those pierced by the sword / than those pierced by hunger” (v. 9a, b). This suffering is due to the LORD’s “wrath . . . his hot anger” (v. 11). The narration changes to first person in verse 17, “a transition into the ‘we’ of the community whose horrible plight has just been graphically depicted” (Dobbs-Allsopp, on vv. 17-22). “Our eyes failed, ever watching / vainly for help” (v. 17).

As noted earlier, the first four chapters of Lamentations are in the form of alphabetic acrostics. With the line, “The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter Zion, is accomplished” (Lam. 4:22), beginning with a taw word (mt1, tam, ‘accomplished’), the verse “signals the conclusion or completion of the alphabetic acrostic portion of the sequence. Moreover 4:22a forms the mirror image of 1:3a, underscoring the strong sense of closure” (Dobbs-Allsopp, on v. 22). On the acrostic form as used in Lamentations, Dobbs-Allsopp says,

The alphabetic acrostic functions as the material, physical container of this poetry, literally holding each poem’s component verses together and conveying a strong sense of closure through its clear structure and fixed length. Yet the acrostic conveys meaning symbolically as well. The poet’s whole attempt to render the chaos of his world into language, to contain his fragmented lyrics within the frame of the alphabetic acrostic, thus becomes an attempt to control and contain, and ultimately transform, the suffering and hurt that engulfed Jerusalem and its inhabitants” (from the Introduction to Lamentations, NOAB, 3^rd ed.)

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, 3 saying, "Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads."

4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel: (Revelation 6:12-7:4, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated with editing and supplement from October 28, 2005 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year One)

John sees the sixth seal opened (Rev. 6:12-17), which leads to “a great earthquake” and various cosmic catastrophes, for “the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale” (vv. 12-13). As John watches, “The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (v. 14). These visions are perhaps meant symbolically to “represent social upheavals and divine judgment on the Day of the Lord” (B. M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on vv. 12-14). In consequence of these upheavals, “Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains” (v. 15). All of these were “calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?: “vv. 16-17). Jean-Pierre Ruiz says, “All classes of society seek to escape from the wrath of God (Isa. 2:10, 19)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Rev. 6:15-17).

The visions of judgment unleashed by the opening of the seals pause temporarily; the seventh seal is opened in chapter 8. In the meantime, John sees “four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree” (7:1). “The four winds,” says Ruiz, “are destructive forces to be unleashed by God (Jer. 49:36). They correspond to the four horsemen in 6:1-8 (see Zech. 6:5)” (on 7:1). “I saw another angel,” says John, “ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea” (v. 2). This angel was saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads” (v. 3). According to David E. Aune, “Those with a seal on their foreheads (see Ezek. 9:4-6; Psalms of Solomon 15:6-9) are divinely protected from the plagues, as the Israelites were in Egypt (Ex. 8:22; 9:4-7, 26; 10:23). “Seals,” says Ruiz, “were used to signify ownership or authorship” (on v. 3). John hears “the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel” (v. 4). The number given here does not limit the number of the redeemed, but “symbolizes completeness; not one of the redeemed is missing” (Metzger, on 7:4). “The symbolic number 144,000, which is the square of 12 multiplied by 1000, has been interpreted variously,” says Ruiz, “as a reference to the faithful remnant of Israel; the church; the martyrs; the remnant of Christians who survive the eschatological turmoil; all the redeemed (14:1, 3)” (on v. 4).

24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' " (Matthew 13:24-30, NRSV)

On May 13, 2007 (the Sixth Sunday of Easter), comments relevant to this reading were repeated from October 28, 2005 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year One). The comments are repeated here with some editing and adjustment.

Weeds among the Wheat

Matthew 13:24-30 (cf. Mark 4:26-29)

Cf. the interpretation in Mt. 13:36-43.

Gospel of Thomas 57, trans. B.M. Metzger

24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’“

Jesus said: The kingdom of the Father is like a man who had [good] seed. His enemy came by night (and) sowed a weed (zizanion) among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weed (zizanion). He said to them, Lest (mēpōs) you go to pull up (lit. that we may pull up) the weed, (zizanion), and you pull up the wheat along with it. For (gar) on the day of the harvest the weeds (zizanion) will appear; they will be pulled up and burned.

Neither Mark nor Luke have a parallel to this parable, but Mark has a parable of a Growing Seed:

26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29, NRSV)

Matthew’s parable and the one in the Gospel of Thomas are very similar, but the eschatological interpretation of it (Mt. 13:36-43, the reading for next Monday, Nov. 5, 2007) has no parallel in the Gospel of Thomas, though both refer to separation of the weeds from the wheat and burning the weeds. Mark’s parable of the Growing Seed focuses on surprising growth. “The kingdom of God will surely come to full fruition, just as the seed inevitably sprouts, grows, and produces a harvest (cf. Joel 3:13)” (Richard A. Horsley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Mk. 4:26-29).

I grew up in the wheat country of western Kansas, where farmers sometimes hired boys to walk through the wheat fields and pull up the rye–usually taller than the wheat–and throw the stalks out of the field. :Perhaps something like that was done in the country that Jesus knew, but the timing is different in his parable. The modern wheat farmer’s harvesting machine (the combine) could not separate the rye from the wheat at the time of harvest, so the separation is done prior to the harvest. But Jesus says, “Let both of them grow together” (Mt. 13:30). Some have seen the parable as reflecting “concern over the character of some members of Matthew’s church” and as teaching tolerance,

but vv. 24-30 do not clearly address a situation in the Christian community. Augustine used this parable to argue against the Donatists, who wanted to exclude the lapsed from the church. 13:36-43, however, quite plainly identifies the field with the world, not the church. (Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Oxford Bible Commentary, 862)

Given the larger context in the Book of Matthew, the parable clearly pictures judgment and separation. The good news is that God does not lightly cast away his people, but does all that he can to redeem them.

Daily Scripture Readings
Friday (November 2, 2007)*
Daily Office Lectionary, The Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., 1979	Daily Lectionary, Book of Common Worship, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1993	Daily Lectionary, Book of Worship Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, c. 1978 (2002 printing) ‡
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
‡ Daily Lectionary, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, ELCA, 2006. In the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book of 2006, the Daily Lectionary (pp. 1121-1153) is revised to correlate with the Sunday Lectionary (the Revised Common Lectionary) on the three year cycle: Year A, Year B, Year C (now current). “The readings are chosen so that the days leading up to Sunday (Thursday through Saturday) prepare for the Sunday readings. The days flowing out from Sunday (Monday through Wednesday) reflect upon the Sunday readings” (p. 1121).
Unless otherwise indicated, the scripture texts quoted are from The New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers), 1989.
Friday AM Psalm 40, 54 PM Psalm 51 Neh. 2:1-20 Rev. 6:12-7:4 Matt. 13:24-30 All Faithful Departed (All Souls'): http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/AllSouls.htm Psalm 130 or 116:10-17 Wisdom 3:1-9 or Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 or 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 5:24-27	Morning: Psalm 84:1-12 Nehemiah 2:1-20 or Lamentations 4:1-22 Revelation 6:12-7:4 Matthew 13:24-30 Evening: Psalm 25:1-22	Morning Pss.: 84, 148 Neh. 2:1-20 or Lam. 4:1-22 Rev. 6:12-7:4 Matt. 13:24-30 Evening Pss.: 25, 40
		Year C Daily Readings Psalm 32:1-7 Job 22:21-23:17 2 Peter 1:1-11
* Friday in the week of the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, references for the week of the Sunday closest to October 26