Let’s open to EXODUS 38-39.
Yesterday we heard of the building of the tabernacle, the Covenant Box, and the other furniture of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. Everything was done precisely as God had described before. The actor ‘he’ as we start this chapter is again Bezalel.
Translation note:
26 This amount equaled the total paid by all [the men//persons] enrolled in the census, each one paying the required amount, weighed according to the official standard. There were 603,550 men twenty years old or older enrolled in the census.
We turn to PSALM 8.
This psalm is quoted in Hebrews 1 and is frequently misunderstood. “Son of man” does not refer to Jesus in this Psalm or in Hebrews 1, and the NLT is correct in not using that term here. This is a psalm of praise for the awesomeness of God, expressing amazement at the place of _mankind_ in God's creation.
Translation notes:
1 O LORD , our Lord, [how your {greatness//majestic glory} is visible everywhere on earth!//O LORD, our Lord, your majestic _name_ fills the earth. (NLT)]
This is a metonymy on the name of the Lord. (Meaning that this is a figure of speech where ‘name’ stands for the whole person of God, like ‘white house’ can stand for the current USA government administration.) Most of the time such metonymy simply refers to the whole person of the Lord— not just his name. In some places the same metonymy can refer to the Lord’s reputation— as NET translates here. The ‘Lord’s name’ metonymy is everywhere in Scripture. Although English clearly uses metonymy, we don't so often use it for ‘name’. Now that I think of it, a good way to translate this line using a common English metonymy would be, “O Lord, our Lord, your glorious handwriting is visible everywhere on earth!” (Or ‘fingerprints’ would work nicely too.)
4 what are *human beings*, that you think [so much about us//of them];
mere mortals, that you care for [us//them]?
5 Yet you made [us//them] inferior only to yourself;
you crowned [us//them] with glory and honor.
6 You appointed [us as//them] rulers over everything you made;
you placed [us//them] over all creation:
We turn to LUKE 7.
In chapter 6 we read the Beatitudes, and Jesus taught about loving others and not judging them. Jesus taught using the figures of trees and their fruit, and building houses upon a rock foundation.
One of the most frequently misquoted verses in Scripture was included in yesterday’s portion of Luke 6, “Do not judge others and you will not be judged.” But if we take that to the extreme, we would not be able to recognize good and bad people, as Jesus talks about in verse 45. And there are many other places where Christians are called upon to make judgments— especially those of us in leadership. But the key would be not bringing judgment against others if we might be found to be guilty of the same sin.
Translation notes:
9 Jesus was surprised when he heard this; he turned around and said to the crowd following him, “I tell you, I have never found [a man who believes so fully as this//faith like this], not even in Israel!”
10 The messengers went back to the officer's house and found his servant [had been healed//well].
29 [PET: Most of the crowd who heard those words of Jesus— including the tax collectors, praised God by saying, “If that’s so, God truly sent John the Baptist, and what John taught was also true!” For they had obeyed God’s will when they were baptized by John.//GNT: All the people heard him; they and especially the tax collectors were the ones who had obeyed God's righteous demands and had been baptized by John.]
The key part that is hard to translate is literally “the people … made God (out to be) right.”
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