The reflecting theologian

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  4 “ ‘Do not turn to idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I am the LORD your God. - Le 19:4 Idolatry, one of the ten commandments and it got repeated here in Leviticus. As I was reading this verse, the self-identification of God after the command struck me. We do not turn to idols or make metal gods for ourselves, He is the LORD our God Implicitly or explicitly, depending whether we catch the relationship, is that God established His relationship with the Israelites as their God and He even gave them His name so that they will not mistake or confuse Him with other gods. There is no excuse therefore for people who will be making metal gods or idols thinking that they are indeed worshiping Yahweh, the God who brought them out. It was similar to the incident of the golden calf. What does this teach u...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.  Lk 11:5–8 There are two accounts of Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer and one happens right before this parable in the book of Luke. Needless to say, the parable that follows right after the Lord's Prayer serves to elaborate on Jesus' point about p...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3 Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.  Le 24:1–4 The work of the OT priests in Israel is a daily routine stuff. There were sacrifices being done on a daily basis. And based on this passage, the duty of a priest is to keep the lamp in the tabernacle burning. It is a continual job. In fact, because the lamp may burn out anytime, it is more than merely a 9-5 job, it is a job/d...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.  Lk 14:34–35 This passage follows after two parables about counting cost. Before the parables, Jesus talked about carrying the cross while following Him. The parables of building the tower and going to war with another king demonstrates the seriousness of counting the cost when we choose to follow Jesus. The first parable of building the tower seems to imply that we need to count the cost so that we will be able to finish what we start out to do in the first place. The second parable of going to war with another king seems to mean that we need to count the cost so that we don't end up in failure. In the context of following Jesus, it is a cal...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 2 “The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family.” Nu 2:1–2 Today let's look at something more interesting. This passage talks about the encampment of the Israelites while they are in the wilderness. The arrangement of the tribes may not seem to have any significance, but this has to be seen visually: If one notices, the encampment of the Israelites revolves around the Tabernacle and at the end of Exodus, we know that God's presence descended down to the Tabernacle once it was built. This means that at any one point, any tribe of Israel will be facing the Tabernacle, or to be more specific, God's presence. As a nation, God's presence became the center ...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  “If, however, they are poor and cannot afford these, they must take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved to make atonement for them, together with a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, a log of oil... Le 14:21 We are still at the regulations that God instituted for Israel at Mount Sinai. My thoughts today dwell on something that I have noticed for a long time in the regulations and especially in the regulations pertaining to offerings. The thing is this - that God never makes it impossible for people to get their relationship right with Him. If the offerings are significant because they are the tools whereby the Israelites could make right their relationship with God despite their uncleanliness, then the different tiers of offerings within one cate...

This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections.  14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.  Le 16:14 Atonement is a bloody affair. The regulations for the sin offering as stipulated in Leviticus pretty much illustrates the bloodiness of the whole thing. Imagine slaughtering a bull or a lamb and needing to take its blood and sprinkle everywhere. Somemore with the strict regulations, it is unlikely that someone with a strong OCD for cleanliness will be able to just go into the Tabernacle and clean up the blood after the sacrifices. Considering that, on top of the sacrifice made on the Day of Atonement, there will be sacrifices made everyday, this means the whole altar area isn't exactly a...