Sunday, February 19, 2017

GN-DBRP_051 EXO.40 PSA.9 LUK.7.20-50


EXODUS 40:
Yesterday we read about Bezalel making the outside articles for worship— like the altar for burnt offerings. There was a listing of materials used, and then we heard of the making of the priests' clothes— all according to how Moses was instructed by God. And Moses inspected everything and blessed the people. The stage is set for the start of worship according to God's instructions.

PSALM 9:
Psalm 9 is a song celebrating God sitting on his throne and judging justly.

LUKE 7b:
Yesterday we read about Jesus healing a favorite slave of a Roman officer and the raising of a widow's son from death. We start today’s rereading where Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist.

GNT Translation notes:
Ps. 9:7 But [You, Lord, are//the Lord is] king forever;
[You have set up your//he has set up his] throne for judgment.
8 [You rule//He rules] the world with righteousness;
[You judge//he judges] the nations with justice.
9 [You are//The Lord is] a refuge for the oppressed,
a place of safety in times of trouble.
11 [Listen up, everyone!] Sing praise to the Lord, who rules in Zion!
Tell every nation what he has done!
12 God remembers those who suffer;
he does not forget their cry,
and he punishes those who wrong them.
16 [But You, Oh my Lord, have revealed yourself by your//The Lord has revealed himself by his] righteous judgments,
and the wicked are trapped by their own deeds.
19 Come, Lord! Do not let anyone defy you!
Bring the [heathen nations//wicked peoples//heathen] before you
and pronounce judgment on them.
[I see that I need to undertake more study in a psalm like this to see if there is a differentiation between ‘nations’ (which are wicked people groups) and just plain ‘the wicked’. I am not sure that the word ‘heathen’ communicates well in this 21st century.]
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Luk. 7:25 What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that and live in luxury are found in palaces[— not deserts]!
29 [PET: Most of the crowd who heard those words— 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.”]
34 [I, the//The] Son of Man came, and [I eat and drink in a normal fashion//he ate and drank], and you said, ‘Look at this man! He is a glutton and wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and other outcasts!’
45 You did not welcome me with a kiss [of friendship], but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came.
46 You provided no [customary] olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume.
50 But Jesus said to the woman, “[PET: “It is because you believe in Me that you’ve been saved. Go with the feeling of calm under God’s protection.”//Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”]
[Note that in Indonesian, ‘peace’ is one of the words that we needed to translate with a phrase in order to get the concept of spiritual peace, as opposed to peace from war, etc.
I have written about how ‘faith’ has become very fuzzy in meaning in the Western world today, and people could twist v.50 to mean almost anything. Jesus did NOT use ‘faith’ to mean such things as inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, or many other meanings. In Greek, ‘faith’ is simply the noun form of ‘believe’.
I was interested that no less a famous guy as Greg Koukl (Christian apologist, who spoke at our church last weekend [January2016]) gave strong evidence for this. He even said to stop using that term! His favorite translation for Greek ‘pistis’ is ‘trust’.]

NLT Translation notes:
Luk. 7:2 At that time [a/the] highly valued slave of a Roman officer a was sick and near death.
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t [found someone fully believing//seen faith] like this in all Israel!”
15 Then the dead [young man//boy] sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
22 [He//Then he] told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and [0/the] Good News is being preached to the poor.
25 Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people who wear beautiful clothes and live in luxury are found [instead/0] in palaces.
26 Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 27 John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when [God said,//they say,]
‘ Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
and he will prepare your way before you.’
33 For John the Baptist didn’t [join with you in//spend his time] eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’
34 [I, the//The] Son of Man, on the other hand, [join you in//0] feasts and drinks, and you say, [I am// ‘He’s] a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner! [(And he would tell her to stop!)//0]
47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven [only a//0] little shows only little love.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “[What kind of man is this//Who is this man] , that he goes around forgiving sins?!”
[The answer to “Who is this man” is “Jesus.” It is more natural in English to make this rhetorical question as I have here.]
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “[You are saved because you fully believe in me.//Your faith has saved you] [. Go/; go] in peace.”
[In English, 'faith' has so many fuzzy meanings, that it makes a verse like this very unclear. Jesus did NOT use 'faith' to mean such things as 'inner fortitude', 'vague hope', 'blind trust', denominational faith, or many other meanings. In Greek, 'faith' is simply the noun form of 'believe'.]


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