5-5-33 (Week 5, day 5, year 33)

PSALM 105 The Psalm recounts the acts of the LORD God to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt which the author intends to remind the LORD God of the covenant made and call the Hebrews to obedience. “The Psalm was originally used in the festival cult of the Yahweh community (The Psalms, Weiser, p. 673).”

PSALM 105 PRAISE OF THE LORD WHO HAS ACTED WONDERFULLY TOWARD ISRAEL.  The Psalm gives us the reason for God’s steadfast love, faithfulness and righteousness-“so they might obey his rules and follow his laws.”

PSALM 105: 1-6 INVITATION TO PRAISE

PSALM 105:7-11 REMEMBER THE COVENANT. The Covenant is mentioned three times and it is made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

PSALM 105: 12-15 WANDERINGS

PSALM 105: 16-22 JOSEPH

PSALM 105: 23-25 ISRAEL IN EGYPT

PSALM 105: 26-36 MOSES AND THE PLAGUES

PSALM 105: 37-42 ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS.  The LORD God “remembers the promise (covenant).”

PSALM 105: 43-45 THE LAND IS RECLAIMED.

GOD’ FAITHFULNESS TO ISRAEL

45 VERSES “V” “HE STRUCK THEIR VINES”

“Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually.” (v.4)

MARK 5: These healings by Jesus operate on two levels. First, they show the compassion Jesus had upon the sick and mental illness caused by the demon possession.  Second, they sow how Jesus is attempting to redeem Israel.

MARK 5: 1-20 EXORCISM OF THE DEMON WHOSE NAME IS “LEGION.”   THE GERASEN DEMONIAC.  THE MADMAN-JESUS HEALS A MAN CONTROLLED BY DEMONS-Clarence Jordan connected the story of the Prodigal son with the this story of the healing of the demoniac

This healing miracle is the longest in Mark.  It witnesses to the power of Jesus over the demon world.  The healing occurs in Gentile country and demotes Jesus’ ministry extending to the Greeks.  Jesus takes the initiative to heal the demoniac.  The message of the story centers around three issues. First, the demons are numbered in the thousands as a legion of Roman soldiers included around 5000 troops.  Second, the demoniac enter a herd of pigs which is also a key that Jesus is in Gentile country.  The value of the pigs is more important to the people than the healing of the demoniac.  The people want Jesus gone.  They reject him.  The third issue is the response of Jesus to the healed man.  He wants to join the disciples and Jesus.  Jesus calls him but to his own people: “God home to your friends, and tell them how much to Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you (Mark 5:19).”  This is a record of the first missionary.  This command is a challenge to all disciples to tell what the Lord has done in one’s life.

MARK 5: 21-43 HEALINGS OF JAIRUS’S DAUGHTER AND THE HEMORRHAGING WOMAN

A RISK OF FAITH-A DYING GIRL AND A SUFFERING WOMAN-This is a story of a miracle inside a miracle.  Jesus is able to heal two people at once.

The structure of the healings is characteristic of Mark.  It is a sandwich story.  The passage is full of suspense and irony.  The leader of a Synagogue, Jairus, approaches Jesus to bring him to heal Jairus’ daughter.  Jesus has returned to the Jewish side of the Sea.  On the way a woman touches Jesus’ robe and is healed of a twelve year hemorrhage.  The reader may ask: “Will Jesus get to Jairus’ house too late?  It appears so as the daughter has died.  No one expects Jesus to have authority over death.  It is significant that both healed are women, one an older adult and the other a young woman entering adulthood.  The importance of faith is included with both healings.  The woman is fearful but Jesus concludes by saying: “Daughter your faith has made you well, go in peace, and be healed of your disease (Mark 5:34).”  The connection between salvation, healing, and peace is definitely explored here by Mark.  The child’s father is told “Do not fear, only believe (Mark5:36).”  Jesus’ authority is made clear in this passage, as Jesus overcomes the fear of both the woman and ruler to bring wholeness and life out of hopelessness and death.

EXODUS 15-16 The LORD delivers the Israelites from the Egyptians and provides for them in the desert.

EXODUS 15: 1-21 THE SONG OF THE SEA

THE STORY AND SONG OF SALVATION

TRAVELING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS

THE SONG OF MOSES AND MIRIAM

EXODUS 15: 22-27 FIRST CRISIS: LACK OF WATER

AT THE WATERS OF MARAH AND ELIM

EXODUS 16: 1-36 SECOND CRISIS, LACK OF FOOD

THE LORD GIVES ISRAEL FOOD EVERY DAY-Note verse 35. This would prove Exodus was edited after the settling of the land.

ROMANS 4:23-8:39 GOD’S LORDSHIP AND THE PROBLEM OF THE PRESENT: GRACE AND LAW. The second half of the Letter to the Romans.

ROMANS 5 Paul acknowledges our sufferings: that life is full of sufferings just like through Jesus’ sufferings, we receive the free gift of justification now our suffering produces hope and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  The comparison of Adam and Jesus reverses the sin of Adam into the eternal life in Jesus.

ROMANS 4:23-5:11 PRESENT GRACE AND RECONCILIATION

Sometimes the question arises of what does Jesus’ death and resurrection mean in the present?  Paul seeks to answer the question for his readers in Rome.  He has established that Abraham is justified by faith because Go reckoned (credited) it to him.  Romans 4:23-24a introduces Paul’s movement from Abraham to his readers.  “Now the words, it was reckoned to him, were written not for his sake alones, but for ours also.”  The three themes of Romans 4:23-25 are elaborated in Romans 5:1-11.  These three themes are righteousness, the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ.  Because we receive righteousness as a gift we now have peace, grace, and share the glory of God.  A word only used by Paul brackets this passage.  The word is kauchma, which can be translated boast, to be proud of or to have confidence in.  I would chose “to have confidence in” as we as Christ’s followers can be confident in our salvation and future with Jesus.  There is a progression used by Paul to lead to the hope that salvation brings.  This progression moves from tribulation (suffering used in some translation but the force of the word means trouble brought upon us we did not cause) to endurance (I would choose a translation into English of patience) to character (an attitude of surviving tests or adverse circumstance) to hope (I believe Paul uses this to speak of human hope in God’s covenant and faithfulness).  The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of God’s covenant.  Romans 5:6-11 states the central idea of why Jesus died by crucifixion.  Jesus died for sinners because humanity could not approach God and create reconciliation from God.  What humanity could not do Jesus was able to do.  It is the mystery of the relationship between God and Jesus.  Jesus represents humanity to God.  The work has been done for humanity.  A human being now accepts the mystery of being reconciled to God.

ROMANS 5:12-21 ADAM AND CHRIST: DISOBEDIENCE AND OBEDIENCE

Paul in Romans 5:12-21 compares Adam and Jesus Christ.  I understand Adam to be the symbol of the sinful human race and Jesus Christ as the one human who restores humanity to the Creator God.  In ROMANS, Paul Achtemeier states:”Adam, the one in whom all humans find their common ancestor, and who, individual or not, represents for Paul the whole of humanity, fallen under the power of sin (ROMANS, P. 96).”  This is the universal and original sin.  Only God through Christ can bring a release from sin.  We humans have two choices, one is to choose to obey ourselves and practice idolatry under the power of sin.  The other choice is to obey God by accepting Christ as the one to restore humanity to God.  The way to obey God is given in the teachings of Jesus as he interprets the law.  We are free to obey by interpreting the Gospel and the law.  The law, as Paul understands it, is the boundaries set by God upon humanity.  The sin of Adam has condemned humanity to death.  God reverses the universal death of humanity by giving eternal life to Jesus through resurrection.  Adam represents sin and death.  Christ represents grace and life.  Adam represents all the poor decisions the Hebrew nation have made in the history of Israel.  Christ’s resurrection is a promise of new life for all who trust in the faithfulness of God. 

For Paul, then Adam represents all of humankind.  Adam disobeyed, therefore all of humanity has disobeyed.  All humans live in a state of sin.  The human predicament is that every human lives with a selfishness which cause others to suffer as humans reject the guidelines God provides.  These guidelines are from the law that identifies what is right and wrong.  By sending Jesus to earth, humans are forgiven from living in disobedience.  Paul connects sinto death.  Death is the result of sin in humanity.  It is the proof that there is something wrong with humans.  This is the human predicament.  Humanity cannot obtain salvation alone.  Humanity cannot overcome death.  Because all humans die, sin is universal.  Paul Achtemeier states the effect of Christ upon humanity (Adam): “by undoing, through obedience, what Adam did by disobedience, Christ turns humanity in a new direction, toward a new goal (Romans p. 99).  This is a major connection between the Old Testament and the New.  By dying, Jesus saves humanity from choosing to replace God with themselves (idolatry).  This idolatry leads to death.  Christ’s obedience by dying leads to overcoming death through resurrection. “What Adam (read human beings) could not accomplish, God in Christ has accomplished.  He can save us even from ourselves and our proneness to serve Satan rather than God (ROMANS, Achtemeier, p. 101).”  It is through grace that Jesus overcomes the power of sin.  There is no evil that the LORD God does not overcome by giving Jesus Christ to the world.  Grace is given in an extraordinary amount to overcome evil.  This is the meaning of the Gospel.