BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 18:1-20 [PCUSA: the same]
Evening Psalm(s): PM Psalm 18:21-50 [PCUSA: 126]
Old Testament: Isa. 2:12-22 [PCUSA: Isaiah 2:5-22]
Epistle: 1 Thess. 3:1-13
Gospel: Luke 20:27-40
Channing Moore Williams -- See the index (link given above) for special readings.
Presbyterian Readings with Biblical Text for the Current Day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
If Isaiah 2:5-22 is addressed to the northern Israelite kingdom (“house of Jacob,” vv. 5, 6; cf. 9:8-9 and 8:17?), then the connection with the promise of peace for Jerusalem is remarkable.
Many peoples [including the “house of Jacob,” the northern neighbor] shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob [sic],
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.” (Isa. 2:3)
"Since the nations are going to come to God in Jerusalem, Jacob, who has forsaken his people. is also invited to return and once more walk with God" (J. J. M. Roberts, HarperCollins Study Bible).
But in what follows, for Jacob in the remainder of chapter 2, and Judah in chapter 3, severe judgments are pronounced for sins, including the use of diviners and soothsayers (v. 6), idols (v. 8) and pride (v. 11), but resources for war, horses and chariots, stand in sharp contrast to the earlier vision of peace (as noted yesterday). The chapter continues rebuking the sin of pride (v. 12), and perhaps alliances with Syria and Phoenicia to the north (vv. 12-13), symbolized by "the cedars of Lebanon" and "the oaks of Bashan." The LORD's judgment will humble the pride (v. 17), destroy the idols (v. 18), and cause the people to hide in holes, caverns and clefts (vv. 19-21). When confronted with God's judgment, what good are human alliances?
Turn away from mortals,
who have only breath in their nostrils,
for of what account are they? (v. 22).
Paul had to leave Thessalonica soon after his first arrival there because of opposition (Acts 17:5-10), and when they followed him to Beroea (v. 13), he was taken to Athens, where he was left alone (15). The instruction "to have Silas and Timothy joint him as soon as possible" seems to have been fulfilled in part. Paul himself takes up the story: "Therefore when we could bear it no longer we decided to be left alone in Athens; and we sent Timothy, our brother and co-worker for God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith, so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions" (1 Thess. 3:1-3). Paul blames his continued separation from them on activity of the tempter (i.e. Satan, 3:5; cf. 2:18). But Timothy arrives with "good news of your faith and love" (v. 6) brings encouragement to Paul (v. 7). Paul rejoices in the news of their continued faith. "For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord" (v. 8). After expressing his desire, even prayer, to see them "face to face" (10) he prayes for that (v. 11) and for increase in their love (v. 12). "And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints" (v. 13).
It's the turn of some Sadducees to test Jesus. Not believing in resurrection, they pose a question meant to lead to absurdity for those who do: In a case of levirate (brother-in-law) marriage in which a woman is married successively to seven brothers, one-at-a-time, as each one dies, "In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her?" (Lk. 20:33). Jesus first reminds them that marriage is not a part of life after resurrection "in that age" (v. 35. "Sadducees recognized only the authority of the books of Moses (the written Torah), which contain no explicit references to the resurrection. Jesus finds an implicit reference in Ex. 3:6)" (David L. Tiede, HarperCollins Study Bible): "And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (v. 37, citing Ex. 3:6). "Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living, for to him all of them are alive" (v. 38). "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is" (1 Jn. 3:2).
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.
rdworden@hgst.edu