Category Archives: Study Helps

Here I Am

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The iconic words “Here I am. Send Me!” I do believe that many Christians have said these words and truly meant them. Isaiah was not the only one to have said the phrase “Here I am.” As I studied those words, I saw something that was not really a surprise, but it does show just how loving our God is.

In the chart are all of the times that “here I am” is used in the NIV. The Hebrew word for “here I am” is hinneh and is used to call attention to something or to enliven a narrative. The Greek word is idou and means basically the same thing as the Hebrew word. (Note: Some of these references are different words/phrases but those also are for calling attention to something.) The words hinneh and idou are actually translated many different ways and they are used many times in Scripture. The verses in blue are people just getting someone’s attention. The rest, however, are God calling to someone first and the people are answering to God’s call or God is just trying to get our attention by saying “here I am.” You will notice God does/did a lot of calling to people.

Some of these calls were very specific for the moment and person but in Isaiah 58 and Revelation 3:20, the Father and Jesus called and are calling so we can find them. Sometimes we have to remember that God is not the one who is lost but the One who is leading.

Here I am

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

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What is Pelagianism? That is ok I didn’t know either until I started reading a book about saints. In the early 400’s saints of God were having to battle teachings and teachers who were trying to put great sounding ideas into the church of God. The only problem they were not biblical ideas.

Nuremberg_chronicles_f_135r_2Pelagianism basically says all mankind is good and unaffected by Adam’s fall and that “original sin” has no affect on us. It goes further to say that we can obey God without His “help” and earn our own salvation. St. Augustine of Hippo and others battled to stop that heresy and several councils of the Church agreed. But just to show that the devil likes to recycle ideas. Rousseau, the author of Emilie, incorporated the idea of the basic goodness of mankind (children) into his book and teachings.  His liberalism has been a foundational stone for many educational philosophies since then and has made it way into modernism and post-modern thought.

www.theopedia.com/Pelagianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagianism {{PD-1923}} – published before 1923 and public domain in the US.   For picture

A Name Is Important

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I recently had a comment that said I was not calling the children of Abraham by the correct terms. Basically I was misusing the words Israelite, Hebrew, and Jew. The reference source was the 1980 Jewish Almanac and it said, “Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew.” The commenter, I feel, had another reason for informing me of my error (enough said).

In Sid Roth’s book They Thought For Themselves one testimony quoted a rabbis as saying, “You cannot understand the Bible without the Jewish Commentaries” (p 102). So staying in that line of thinking I found in http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_hebrews.htm that in the Book of Exodus they were called Israelites (1:1) and Hebrews (1:15). While in Jeremiah 32:12 they were referred to as Jews. Israelite comes from the words Bnei Yisroel or Children of Israel, Hebrew is from Ivri, and Jew is Yehudim because the kings of Israel were from the Tribe of Judah.

A Look at the Biblical Calendar

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A Look at the Biblical Calendar

In Mark 14: 5 some disciples were complaining about Jesus being anointed with a “bottle” of pure nard.  The complaint was it could be sold for a year’s wage or three hundred denarii.  According to Matthew 20, a denarius was a day’s wage.  The year in the Bible was twelve months or lunar cycles (29 ½ days). (Some years had thirteen months to make up the eleven-day difference and that would keep the season in line with the calendar.)  So why only 300 denarii?

They were to rest on the Sabbath, so there are forty-eight days (four weeks times 12 months).  For the missing days, we need to look to the feast days, I will use Leviticus 23.  These had a “no work” or “no regular work” day associated with them, which means they would not be paid on these days.

  • Unleavened Bread – one at the beginning and the end
  • Pentecost – one day
  • Feast of Trumpets – one day
  • Day of Atonement – one day
  • Feast of Tabernacles – one at the beginning and the end
  • This is seven no work days.

That totals to 299 days – I guess we can round off one day or it is more than a year’s worth of wages.

Jesus Walks on the Water

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While reading the Gospel of Mark I got to the phrase in 6:48  where Jesus was walking on water it says, “He was about to pass them by.”  That phrase bothered me as it does not “fit” the mental image of Jesus and what I thought He would/should do.  More on that phrase later because I am starting with Mark and his version of the Gospel and the Sea of Galilee.

In the Holman Study Bible the introduction to Mark makes the point that most all of the Gospel of Mark happens around the Sea of Galilee.  It seems that Jesus would go to the “other side” to get away from a crowd or to get rest and usually the “other side” Galilee - Sunrise - Sept. 09, 2012offered its own version of busy.  If you read much about the New Testament Mark’s Gospel was the first gospel to be written.  Mark and Matthew are structured and worded the same and some scholars think both writers used another source that has been labeled Q for their inspiration.  Peter is frequently mentioned as helping Mark with the details and some even say that Mark just wrote Peter’s gospel and it was mentioned in some literature that Matthew just copied Mark’s writing while adding his own details.

The Sea of Galilee is a harp-shaped lake that is 13 miles by 7miles and is roughly 150 to 200 feet deep.  The mountains that surround the lake run east-west an can create extreme winds and waves (bibleplaces.com).  Waves in the middle of a lake are not usually breakers like you see along the shore but given the size of the boats that they had a strong wind and 3 or 4 foot waves would have been a serious problem.  It is feasible that on a clear night from up on a mountain that Jesus could have seen the boat since they were only three to four miles out from the shore.

Joyce Meyer made an observation about the two seas in Israel that are connected to the same river.  The Sea of Galilee has water that comes in and goes out while the Dead Sea only has in coming water and no channel for any to leave.  The point was to check your life and see how you are using the talents and gifts you have.

Story Comparison

Mark, Matthew, and John are the three gospels that have the story of Jesus’ walk on the water.  The basic story is the same but there are variations in the accounts.  I think each writer recorded what affected him the most.  To say that for Matthew and John is no big deal because they should have been on the boat but I would like to make the case that Mark may also have been on the boat that night.  In fact I would like to think that Mark was an eye witness to every thing in his gospel and that is why it is centered around Galilee and the Sea, he was allowed to go with Peter, Andrew, James, and John when they were in the “neighborhood.”  I say that because he was probably their nephew – see Acts 12:12.  So the phrase “He was about to pass them by” would be something a young teenager might think instead of a man who was about to try water walking (Peter).

This story really starts with Jesus sending out the Twelve to do ministry.  When they came back Jesus knew they would need time to reflect and rest so He got them into the boat and set off for some quite time.  But since the Sea of Galilee is only seven miles wide the crowd that followed them would have been able to see the sail on the boat from shore (Mark 6:32).  The feeding of the 5000 men, which means it was probably a larger crowd than that, is recorded in three Gospels.  Jesus felt they needed to feed them and wanted the “successful” ministers to continue using the anointing they had just been walking in.  (I will add to the story again and say that the five loaves and two fish were Mark’s lunch that had been packed by a doting mother or aunt; what an impact on the second generation of leadership.  No, that cannot be proved but it makes a nice twist to the story.)

In John the feeding of the 5000 is considered one of the Seven Miracles that confirmed Jesus as Messiah and it was probably the most public one as far as people who saw it firsthand.  After this miracle Jesus had concerns that the crowd may try forcing Him to be king (John 6: 14,15).  Jesus walking on the water is also considered one of the Seven Miracles and it would have been the most private of those miracles and was only intended for the disciples in the boat to witness.  This story does not end once Jesus is in the boat; each of the three Gospels has a slightly different version to finish the story.  They all end up on the other side but it seems they are different places.  Mark and Matthew put them at Gennesaret while John ends the story in a synagogue at Capernaum (Jn. 6:59).  The people at Gennesaret wanted healing, the crowd that was fed wanted more bread and a better sign (miracle) than feeding them.  I think the crowd is why Jesus got the Disciples in the boat he did not want them caught up in the hysteria about a physical kingdom. (see the Problem with the Miraculous)

The word “immediately” jumped out of the stories while I was studying this out (in the NIV).  There really are four uses of the word as Mark and Matthew duplicate two – Jesus getting them in the boat and Him speaking to them while He was on the water.  The other two are in Matthew and John – Matthew, Jesus immediately grabs Peter and in John the boat was immediately at the shore.  The reference in John is the only mention of this and in it self would be a great miracle.  For some reason I really had to separate “immediately” from the thought of “suddenly” in this story.  “Suddenly” would be a surprise while “immediately” shows thought with a quick action.

A Sinking Peter

Peter was possibly older than most of the other disciples and certainly could run a business so him being a “leader” within the group may have come naturally.  So if he had continued to walk on the water, instead of sinking, my guess is that everyone on the boat that night would have been out walking on the water.  Faith is contagious and if Peter could do it all of them would have braved it up and asked but since fear is also contagious when he sunk no one else dared to ask!

Why a Ghost

Mark and Matthew both use the term for ghost when describing how the disciples saw Jesus as He was walking. That word phantasma (Strong’s 5326) is only used twice in the New Testament, here in this story.  You have to wonder why a ghost and not an angel?  They had just been living in the miraculous on their mission trip and had just seen a great miracle with the loaves and fish.  Did they slip back to superstitions because of the storm and being tired?  Why not an angel coming to help them?  Maybe this was a problem that Jesus had to work out of them and get them to start thinking Heavenly minded. Pastor Joel Osteen noted in a sermon how they were used to seeing Jesus in the day walking on dry land but could not recognize Him in a storm at night walking on water.  I just wonder if Jesus was in a “transformed” state allowing Him to walk on the water so He may have actually been shining while He came to them.

Walk on By

Back to the phrase that started this study, “He was about to pass them by.”  Even if this was a boy’s impression it was recorded but with no explanation as to why.  We know Jesus saw them having trouble and purposely walked to them.  He did not have to go that close if He really just intended to meet them on the other side.  So why would He get close but not that close to His men as they were having troubles?  I have no clue!  Maybe He wanted them to call out or it could have been a lesson in believing for the miraculous.  How about He wanted them all to get out and follow Him on the water.  Since it was just for the disciples it may have just been a display of power so they would shift their thinking back to “God matters” instead of physical kingdoms.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/seagalilee.htm

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Galilee.html

The picture is courtesy of  http://ferrelljenkins.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/galilee_sunrise_fjenkins090712_301t.jpg  If you like photos of the Holy Land and other places that connect with the Christian/Bible story you need to see his blog.