{"id":132,"date":"2009-09-03T15:49:27","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T15:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/?p=132"},"modified":"2024-05-05T23:14:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T04:14:48","slug":"september-4-september-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/2009\/09\/03\/september-4-september-11\/","title":{"rendered":"September 4 – September 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, September 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 31: The correct sense of Psalm 31 (Greek and Latin 30) is indicated in verse 5: \u201cInto Your hand I commend my spirit.\u201d This verse, according to Luke 23:46, was the final prayer of our Lord from the Cross, and I take it to indicate the proper \u201cvoice\u201d of this whole psalm. It is the prayer of \u201cJesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame\u201d (Heb. 12:2), speaking to His Father in the context of His sufferings and death. This psalm is part of His prayer of faith.<\/p>\n

In making this psalm our own, we Christians are subsumed into the voice and prayer of Christ. We partake of His own relationship to the Father. No one, after all, knows the Father except the Son and the one \u201cto whom the Son wills to reveal Him\u201d (Matt. 11:27). Our only access to God is through Christ and the mediation of His atoning blood. Our incorporation into Christ is the foundation of all our prayer. Only in Christ do we call God our Father. The only prayer that passes beyond the veil, to His very throne, is prayer saturated with the redeeming blood of Christ. This is the prayer that cries out more eloquently than the blood of Abel.<\/p>\n

In this psalm, then, the voice of Christ becomes our own voice: \u201cIn You, O Lord, I put my trust, let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in Your righteousness. . . . You have redeemed me, Lord God of truth. . . . But I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy. . . . But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say \u2018You are my God.\u2019 . . . Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You.\u201d The righteousness of God is our salvation in Christ, \u201cwhom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness\u201d (Rom. 3:25). Likewise, this trust in God is the source of our sanctification, as in the words of the standard Orthodox prayer: \u201cO God . . . who sanctify those who put their trust in You.\u201d<\/p>\n

This committing of our souls to God in loving trust is not just one of the various things we do as Christians; it is the essential feature of our life in Christ: \u201cTherefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator\u201d (1 Pet. 4:19).<\/p>\n

In this psalm we enter into the sentiments and thoughts of Jesus in His sufferings. We see the Passion \u201cfrom the inside,\u201d as it were. There is the plot, recorded in the Gospels, to take His life (cf. Mark 3:6; 14:1): \u201cPull me out of the net that they have secretly laid for me. . . . Fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.\u201d There are the false witnesses rising against Him (cf. Mark 14:55\u201359): \u201cLet the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.\u201d We learn of the flight of His friends and the mockery of His enemies (cf. Mark 14:50; 15:29\u201332): \u201cI am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; those who see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind.\u201d There is, moreover, that awesome mystery by which God \u201cmade Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him\u201d (2 Cor. 5:21), \u201cso the Scripture was fulfilled which says, \u2018And He was numbered with the transgressors\u2019\u201d (Mark 15:28): \u201cFor my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.\u201d <\/p>\n

The reason that the voice of Christ in His Passion must become our own voice is that His Passion itself provides the pattern for our own lives: \u201cBut beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues\u201d (Matt. 10:17). \u201cThen they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name\u2019s sake\u201d (24:9). We are to be baptized with His baptism; the bitter cup that He drinks we too are to taste in our own souls. The prayer of His Passion becomes our own, because \u201call who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution\u201d (2 Tim. 3:12).<\/p>\n

Throughout this psalm there is also an ongoing changing of tenses, back and forth between past and future. We have been redeemed, but we still pray for our final deliverance. Even as we taste the coming enjoyment of God\u2019s eternal presence, hope\u2019s struggle in this world goes on: \u201cFor we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope\u201d (Rom. 8:24).<\/p>\n

Saturday, September 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 30: This psalm (Greek and Latin 29) bears a curious title that tells us something interesting of this psalm\u2019s use in ancient Judaism: \u201cA Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the House of David.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, it is ascribed to King David, nor is it difficult to think of him praying this psalm of thanksgiving for the Lord\u2019s deliverance. After all, David came to the throne of Israel after years of oppression and exile under Saul, and these are the sentiments we would expect on his being delivered from those hard times. <\/p>\n

Second, however, besides its individual and personal use in the case of David, this psalm was later sung as part of a communal, liturgical festival celebrated every year\u2014the Dedication (Hanukkah<\/em>) of the temple. This was a winter feast (cf. John 10:22) dating from 165 B.C., and Jews around the world continue to celebrate it even today, long after their temple has disappeared from history.<\/p>\n

This twofold historical use of our psalm already suggests more than one layer of meaning. First, there is the remembrance of David\u2019s years of oppression and exile, followed by a final deliverance: \u201cI will extol you, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the second half of the title, which tells us of its use at the feast of Hanukkah, indicates its communal use. David\u2019s personal sentiments of gratitude and praise to the redeeming God became incorporated into Israel\u2019s restoration to her temple after years of oppression and strife. This history is narrated in chapters 1\u20144 of 1 Maccabees. When Antiochus Epiphanes IV came to the throne of Syria in September of 175 B.C., it was the beginning of very hard times for the Chosen People. Their oppression by this ruthless overlord included even the desecration of the temple. At the end of this decade of terror (175\u2013165), when Judas Maccabaeus rededicated the temple at Jerusalem, Israel felt it could now, with unburdened heart, make its own the ancient sentiments of David: \u201cI will extol you, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both David and the temple were \u201ctypes\u201d of Him who was to come, and the deeper, truer voice in this psalm is Christ our Lord on the day of the Resurrection: \u201cO Lord, you have brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down into the abyss.\u201d The time of suffering was followed by the morning of the paschal deliverance: \u201cFor His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life.\u201d The dark hour of the Passion (cf. John 13:30) gave way to the dawn of victory.<\/p>\n

In the Garden, on the night in which He was betrayed, the Lord had prayed for this deliverance: \u201cYou hid Your face, and I was troubled. . . . I cried to You, O Lord; and to the Lord I made supplication: \u2018What profit is there in my blood, when I go down into the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Testament describes that Garden prayer of the Lord \u201cwho, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear\u201d (Heb. 5:7). And on the dawning of the day of Easter victor
\ny, our psalm refers back to God\u2019s hearing of that vehement prayer of tears: \u201cWeeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. . . . You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ is the true David, the new Israel\u2019s sweet Psalmist, our song-master in the eternal praise of God: \u201cSing praises to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks to the remembrance of His holy name. . . . To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old Israel\u2019s winter Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah<\/em>) is now the new Israel\u2019s spring feast of Pascha, for Christ is the true Temple, of which St. John wrote: \u201cBut I saw no temple in [heaven], for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple\u201d (Rev. 21:22). When the Lord told His enemies: \u201cDestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,\u201d they misunderstood him, not aware that \u201cHe was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them\u201d (John 2:19\u201322).<\/p>\n

Sunday, September 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 98: The latter part of Isaiah, in which the dominant theme is Israel\u2019s return from the Babylonian Captivity, speaks several times of God\u2019s \u201carm,\u201d a metaphor especially used in conjunction with the noun \u201csalvation\u201d and the adjective \u201choly\u201d (Is. 40:10; 51:9; 52:10; 53:1; 59:16; 63:5). This robust image of God\u2019s arm, which had first appeared in the Bible in the context of the people\u2019s deliverance from Egypt (cf. Ex. 6:6; 15:16), was thus applied to their return from exile in Babylon. In each case, the redemption of the oppressed was ascribed to the holy flexing of God\u2019s muscle, as it were, on their behalf.<\/p>\n

It is significant that the Mother of God summoned this same metaphor to describe God\u2019s definitive historical intervention on behalf of His people: \u201cHoly is His name, \/ And His mercy is on those who fear Him, \/ From generation to generation. \/ He has shown strength with His arm\u201d (Luke 1:49\u201351). God\u2019s arm in these contexts is an image of His \u201cpower according to the Spirit of holiness\u201d (Rom. 1:4), \u201cthe power of God to salvation\u201d (1:16).<\/p>\n

The same reference to God\u2019s holy, salvific arm appears several times in Psalms, one example being the opening of Psalm 98 (Greek and Latin 97): \u201cSing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done wondrous things; His right hand and His holy arm have wrought salvation.\u201d <\/p>\n

God\u2019s salvation is not simply a thing announced, but a \u201cwrought\u201d reality. In saving us, God truly does<\/em> certain deeds, \u201cwondrous things,\u201d by which we are redeemed. God saves man by the forceful intrusion of His holiness into man\u2019s history. God\u2019s arm is a metaphor of this irrupting redemptive holiness. In the \u201cwondrous things\u201d of the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, God\u2019s arm invades the processes of human destiny with the outpouring of His own life. Man\u2019s life is thereby given access to the incorruptible life of God.<\/p>\n

This, says our psalm, is the substance of the Gospel proclaimed to the nations and peoples of the earth: \u201cThe Lord has made known His salvation; unto the nations has He revealed His righteousness. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The substance of the Gospel, then, is not some theory about God or even some set of norms by which man is to live. At root, the Gospel has absolutely nothing in common with even the highest religious speculations, such as those of the Upanishads, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Lao Tzi, or the Buddha. In the strictest possible sense, beyond all human reckoning or expectation, the Gospel is a \u201cnew song,\u201d a radically different voice on the human scene. It is the revelation of God\u2019s holy arm taking charge of man\u2019s history. It is that redemptive, holy activity by which \u201cHe has shown strength with His arm.\u201d It is \u201cthe power of God and the wisdom of God\u201d (1 Cor. 1:24). <\/p>\n

Such is the meaning of Theophany, literally \u201cthe appearing of God\u201d in man\u2019s history. This appearing of God is not a general and pervasive luminosity to which the human race has a ready and easy access. It is, on the contrary, most particular, very specified with respect to time and place. God has become incarnate only once. Only once has the price of our sins been paid. Only once has He \u201cappointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has ordained.\u201d Moreover, \u201cHe has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead\u201d (Acts 17:31). Only once has God done all of these \u201cwondrous things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our psalm speaks likewise of this latter judgment of the world by one Man whom He has ordained. \u201cFor He comes to judge the earth,\u201d it says, \u201cHe will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with uprightness.\u201d All of human history will, at the last, be summoned before the same Judge whom God has ordained, giving \u201cassurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.\u201d This single, unique standard of the final judgment is likewise a component of the Gospel itself: \u201cWhen the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations<\/em> will be gathered before Him\u201d (Matt. 25:31, 32).<\/p>\n

Particular in the time and place of its appearance, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is nonetheless universal as the canon and measure of man\u2019s destiny, being solely the source of the \u201cknowledge of salvation\u201d (Luke 1:77). <\/p>\n

Monday, September 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 44: Second Chronicles 20:1\u201319 describes a special liturgical service at the Jerusalem temple, in which King Jehoshaphat (873\u2013849) led the people in a prayer of lamentation and intercession during a time of great crisis. He also proclaimed a period of fasting, for the plight of the people seemed desperate; their enemies were upon them, and \u201cJudah gathered together to ask help from the Lord\u201d (20:4).<\/p>\n

There were many such occasions in biblical times, and many more since then, for the enemies of God\u2019s people are both numerous (\u201cMy name is Legion; for we are many,\u201d Mark 5:9) and powerful (\u201cFor we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,\u201d Eph. 6:12). Indeed, we are continually at war, we children of God, and we sometimes feel simply overwhelmed, almost empty of hope.<\/p>\n

Psalm 44 (Hebrew 44) was obviously written for such times: \u201cYou have given us as sheep to the slaughter and scattered us among the nations. You have bartered Your people for a pittance and made no profit on the sale.\u201d A useful prayer, this psalm of despondency, because the life of faith is not a sustained, uninterrupted series of triumphs.<\/p>\n

The prayer begins, however, with an appeal to Tradition: \u201cWe have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us.\u201d Such an appeal to the lessons of history is, of course, standard in the Bible, for the biblical God is, first and last, \u201cthe God of our fathers.\u201d Thus, the message of Genesis has to do with God\u2019s fidelity to Israel\u2019s patriarchs, while Exodus tells of Israel\u2019s redemption by that same patriarchal God. Other historical books of the Bible narrate the continued faithfulness of His promises to an unfaithful people. The prophetic literature, likewise, constantly looks back to God\u2019s redemptive work throughout Israel\u2019s history, as both paradigm and prophecy of what He will do for His people in the future.<\/p>\n

A similar note is sounded strongly in the Wisdom literature of the Bible. The Book of Proverbs, for instance, is forever appealing to the moral lessons of history, that complex of disciplines and standards learned by experience, prescribed by the authority of Tradition and handed down through succeeding generations. In this case too, biblical religi
\non is essentially an inherited religion, and its Lord is \u201cthe God of our fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tradition is also the note on which our psalm begins, then, almost its entire first half being taken up with a review of past experience. But God is not only the God of the patriarchs in the past; He is also our own God, one and the same: \u201cYou are my king and my God, You who command victories for Jacob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then suddenly the psalm\u2019s tone changes, for the reassuring lessons from the past are now being put sternly to the test: \u201cBut You have cast us off and put us to shame. You no longer march forth with our armies; You have turned us back from the foe, and our enemies plunder us at will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation here may be likened to that of Job. He too had ever endeavored to be pleasing to the God of the fathers, steadfastly following the high moral precepts handed down from authorities of old. If one reads carefully what is said of Job in the first chapter of the book that bears his name, it is clear that he is a perfect embodiment of the traditional prescriptive norms treated in Proverbs and Israel\u2019s other wisdom literature. <\/p>\n

Thus, when Job is undeservedly afflicted, his sentiments are very much what we find here in our psalm\u2014shock, surprise, and disappointment. He complains to God, very much as this psalm complains: \u201cYou have made us the taunt of our neighbors, a derision and scorn to those about us.\u201d Such is the prayer of those who, like Job, feel overwhelmed by the sense that, in spite of His salvific deeds in the past and His promises for the future, God has simply forgotten. There are days when, if we are believers at all, we can only be described as \u201cmen of little faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psalm 44 is the prayer of an individual, or a people, being sorely tried with respect to faith. Were it not for such experiences of being abandoned by God, there would be no test for the important proposition that the just man lives by faith. Whatever the trial (and its possible forms are manifold), it is finally the voice of faith\u2014albeit, little faith\u2014that prevails in this psalm. We pray to the Lord with those other men that our Lord describes as \u201cof little faith,\u201d the frightened disciples on the stormy lake: \u201cAwake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Rise up, and do not cast us off forever. . . . Arise and come to our help; deliver us for the sake of Your name.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Romans 8:35, 36 we know how the Apostle Paul prayed this psalm, seeing in its lament a reflection of the sufferings in his own soul by reason of his fidelity to Christ: \u201cWho shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: \/\u2018For Your sake we are killed all day long; \/ We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n

Tuesday, September 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke 5:17-26: In all three Synoptic Gospels, the healing of the paralytic (Matthew 9:1\u20138; Mark 2:1\u201312; Luke 5:17\u201326) is followed immediately by the calling of the tax collector and the Lord\u2019s eating with sinners (Matthew 9:9\u201313; Mark 2:13\u201317; Luke 5:27\u201332). This common sequence of the two narratives probably reflects an early preaching pattern, explained by the fact that both stories deal with the same theme: Jesus\u2019 relationship to sin and sinners. The paralytic was healed, after all, \u201cthat you may know that the Son of Man has power [authority] on earth to forgive sins,\u201d and the point of the second story is that \u201cI did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thus, the most significant thing about the paralytic is not his paralysis, but his \u201csins,\u201d so this is what Jesus addresses first. Indeed, even when He heals the paralysis, Jesus does so in order to demonstrate His authority over the man\u2019s sins. In what He does in this scene, then, Jesus inserts Himself between God and the man, speaking to the man with God\u2019s authority. It is not without significance that all three versions of the story also include the detail that Jesus could, like God, read His accusers\u2019 inner thoughts. <\/p>\n

In each of the three Synoptic Gospels, moreover, the Lord\u2019s claim to authority over sin here becomes the first occasion on which His enemies accuse Him of blasphemy. This is significant too, because at His judicial process before the Sanhedrin, blasphemy will be the crime of which He is accused. In a sense, then, Jesus\u2019 trial begins with His healing of the paralytic, because even His enemies recognize this scene as the occasion on which He forcefully claims divine authority. <\/p>\n

This more dramatic aspect of the account is perhaps clearest in the versions of Mark and Luke, where it is the first of five conflict stories that cast an ominous cloud over Jesus\u2019 activity through the rest of those Gospels (Mark 2:1\u20143:5; Luke 5:17\u20146:11). In Mark\u2019s rendering, furthermore, the resolve to \u201cdestroy\u201d Jesus is explicitly taken at the end of this sequence (3:5). <\/p>\n

In all three Synoptic Gospels, the paralytic becomes the \u201ctype\u201d of the sinner. He is helpless, carried by others because he cannot carry himself. He is utterly in need of mercy above all things. Indeed, even his forgiveness and his cure are not credited to his own faith. All three accounts mention that the Lord sees the faith, not of the paralytic, but of the men who support him. <\/p>\n

Even functioning as a literary and theological type, however, this paralytic is certainly not reduced to an abstraction. Indeed, because of the detail of the removal of the roof (in Mark and Luke) in order to lower the paralytic down into Jesus\u2019 presence, still dangling between earth and heaven, this is one of the more colorful and unforgettable scenes in the Gospels.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, September 9<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges 12: Jephthe is not the first Judge to have trouble with the Ephraemites (verses 1-7). We recall Gideon\u2019s earlier difficulties with them.<\/p>\n

Here they threaten to burn down Jephthe\u2019s house, the very house from which he recently saw exit his now mourned daughter. This is the house that the Ephraemites threaten to burn down. This threat was not a proposition crafted to bring out the gentleman in Jephthe. It showed bad judgment.<\/p>\n

It was also bad timing. Not having gone to battle before; the Ephraemites are ready to fight after the fight is over. The Lord had given victory anyway, and the Ephraemites had not been part of the victory. Now they threaten the very man through whom the Lord gave the victory. They are the classical troublemakers, itching for a fight after the fighting is done.<\/p>\n

Ever the man of peace, by preference, Jephthe endeavored to reason with these fools, as he had earlier attempted with the Ammonites. The Ephraemites, however, under the impulse of an irrational jealousy, refuse to act moderately or listen to reason.<\/p>\n

The Jordan River, which divides the Ephraemites from most of Israel, is also the place of a linguistic divide, which will prove to make it, in the present context, a place of judgment. It is as a place of judgment that the Jordan River will later be the site of the preaching of John the Baptist.<\/p>\n

Ephraem never learned its lesson. Never. Having resisted Gideon and Jephthe, it would resist David and rebel against Solomon. The Lord would later use the Assyrian army, under Sargon II, to take care of the problem.<\/p>\n

And then Jephthe dies (verses 8-15). Why does Holy Scripture tell us that he died? Obviously it is not something that we doubt, so why mention it? Indeed, of some of the Judges we know precious little more than the fact that they died, so why bother with saying so?<\/p>\n

The reason is theological. Each of these men was a deliverer of his people. Yet each of them died. Their deliverance, therefore, was temporary. In each case, death got the last word. That is to say, death still ruled. The mortality brought into the world by Adam\u2019s offense still prevailed. Of not a single one of these men was it said that they rose again. In every instance, death was finally victorious over life. That is the real difference between the New Testam
\nent and the Old.<\/p>\n

It is also the reason why burial sites are mentioned. Tombs are memorials. Men look upon them and are reminded of that supreme humiliation called death. This is why tombs are prominent in the Bible. They stand in eloquent testimony that something is very wrong in human life. Tombstones are the standing reminders of, the perpetual witnesses to, the fall of Adam. This is why, like the Ten Commandments, they are normally made of stone. They are stone because they testify to a hard fact, a fact you can lean on, and it will not give way. <\/p>\n

But tombstones are also witnesses to man\u2019s hope. Besides the past to which they refer, they point to the future and the Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Thursday, September 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges 13: We now come to Samson, whose great physical strength made him one of the most memorable characters in Holy Scripture. If (as I have argued elsewhere) Jacob is the Semitic equivalent of the classical Odysseus, we may think of Samson as the Semitic parallel to the classical Hercules. In both cases, their stories form a series of \u201cfeats.\u201d Indeed, St. Augustine testifies how easy it was for his contemporaries to confuse the two: \u201c. . . there was also the Judge of the Hebrews, Samson, who, because he was so marvelously strong, has been thought to be Hercules\u201d— erat et Hebraeorum judex Samson, qui cum mirabiliter fortis esset, putatus est Hercules<\/em> (The City of God<\/em>, 18:19). <\/p>\n

Up till now, whenever the Book of Judges spoke of the political oppression of the Israelites, the text invariably went on to say that Israel repented and turned to the Lord. Not here, however. There is no mention of repenting or turning to the Lord. Israel no longer has the ability even to repent. Israel has hit rock bottom, and all human hope is gone verse 1). <\/p>\n

In this chapter we observe that God speaks to the woman first, not Manoah (verses 2-7). Earlier, we recall, God spoke first to Rebekah, not Isaac (Genesis 25).<\/p>\n

The message of the angel to Manoah\u2019s wife touches on the biblical theme of the barren woman (cf. Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, et aliae<\/em>. The introduction of this theme continues the note of despair with which the chapter began. <\/p>\n

We bear in mind that all three of the \u201cpermanent Nazirites\u201d in the Bible (Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist) were born of seemingly barren women. Each of these mothers is a kind of new Eve, receiving God\u2019s promise in the midst of her own sense of inadequacy.<\/p>\n

The second visitation (verses 9-10) reinforces the fact that the message was for the woman. The angel \u2018deliberately\u2019 appears when Manoah is absent. When questioned by Manoah (verse 12), the angel responds that he has already said all he has to say\u2014to the woman! (verse 13) Manoah is the nervous questioner, but all the needful information had already been conveyed in the first apparition. There is nothing to add. The angel simply repeats what he had said before, and this time with less detail (verse 14).<\/p>\n

The angel is not going to explain himself. He was sent to earth to convey a promise and a command, not to give a news flash. He was proclaiming God\u2019s plan of redemption and man\u2019s place in that plan. The salvific initiative is God\u2019s. The proper response to the message is obedience, not curiosity for more details. <\/p>\n

Manoah, that is to say, is like the rest of the Israelites. None of them have been serving God and seeking His will. But now that God proposes a plan for deliverance, Manoah is full of questions and curiosity. He wants a more active role in the plan. There isn\u2019t one. God does not need Manoah. God is not interested in Manoah\u2019s questions and curiosities.<\/p>\n

Manoah is a curious combination of audacious, inquisitive, controlling, and superstitious. Only such a man will get out of line with an archangel. (Compare Zachary in Luke 1)<\/p>\n

Manoah is also not a quick learner (verses 15-23). Having heard the Lord\u2019s message, he now wants to deal with the Lord\u2019s messenger. Manoah is spiritually insensitive. Indeed, given how dangerous it can be to deal with the biblical God, Manoah is let off pretty easy. He is not struck dead like Uzzah!<\/p>\n

But what does Manoah accomplish? At the end of the scene he knows no more than he did at the beginning. God had given as much information as was required. This second apparition of the angel served only to point out Manoah\u2019s limitations more clearly. <\/p>\n

Manoah\u2019s attitude was not unique. On the contrary, he was typical of his own culture, which was shallow, audacious, recklessly inquisitive, and deeply superstitious.<\/p>\n

In these respects, Manoah\u2019s inherited religious culture was a great deal like our own. Our own culture too knows very little of the biblical God. It is highly subjective, pretentious, and insensitive to the presence of holiness. It craves quick and easy answers to deep and impossibly complex questions. It is a generation disposed to wear its shoes at the Burning Bush. And what does God do with such a generation? He sends someone like Samson to knock some heads together.<\/p>\n

The name Samson (verse 24) is a derivative of shemesh<\/em>, meaning \u201csun.\u201d Indeed, Samson resembles the sun as described in Psalm 19: \u201cas a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; he rejoices as a giant to run his course.\u201d The very next chapter will describe Samson as a bridegroom. In fact, after strong man, bridegroom is the description of Samson most easily remembered.<\/p>\n

Friday, September 11<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges 14: It is significant, surely, that all three stories about Samson have to do with women. His addiction to women is Samson\u2019s tragic flaw. It would be easy enough to blame the women, I suppose, but that would be missing the point. The problem is Samson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This first story about Samson (verses 1-4) concerns his projected marriage to a Philistine woman, and we recall that the previous chapter began by describing Israel\u2019s bondage to the Philistines. Samson\u2019s fascination with this Philistine woman, then, symbolizes Israel\u2019s fascination with the surrounding paganism, a fascination that in each case leads to blindness and death.<\/p>\n

As a consecrated Nazirite, Samson represents Israel\u2019s higher calling and dedication to the true God in true worship. His failure to live according to that higher calling is symbolic of Israel\u2019s failure. <\/p>\n

Samson\u2019s parents mention that Israelites are not supposed to marry pagans, but the inspired author speaks of God\u2019s own plan, even in this deviation from the Law. All of Samson\u2019s career, including his sins, will be under the influence of Divine Providence. Through all of it, God will bring good out of evil.<\/p>\n

A strong man, but also a very weak man, Samson is an ironical figure. Ultimately his victory over the Philistines will involve both his weakness and his strength.<\/p>\n

The blindness of Samson, however, begins very early in the story. In a sense, indeed, Samson starts out blind, long before the Philistines gouge out his eyes. Through this whole account Samson seems to be walking in the darkness. No matter. God knows where the story is going.<\/p>\n

The story of the lion (verses -9) invites a comparison between Samson and David., both of whom fought against Philistines. The latter are symbolized in the lion. David, before he killed the Philistine Goliath, first killed the lion. Samson, before he takes on the Philistines, kills a lion with his bare hands. <\/p>\n

This is why the Spirit of the Lord came down on Samson, as the Spirit of the Lord will descend on him in the next chapter. The roaring of the lion will be matched by the shouting of the Philistines. Samson will tear the binding cords apart, just as he tore the lion apart.<\/p>\n

The killing of the lion, then, symbolizes Samson\u2019s vocation. Indeed, Samson\u2019s own tribe, Dan, was liked to a lion: \u201cDan is a lion\u2019s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan\u201d (Deuteronomy 33:22). <\/p>\n

Once the lion is dead, the bees build their hive in its carcass. This symbolizes the Holy Land itself, flowing with milk and honey. What is this honey? It is th
\ne tasting of God\u2019s Law, which the Psalter describes a sweeter than honey. This honey is the fruit of Samson\u2019s victory over the lion. It is the result of his combat with the lion.<\/p>\n

Samson will use this incident to stump the Philistines. That is to say, he perceives the incident to involve a riddle, or mystery. There is a mystery in the lion and the honey that lies beyond the comprehension of his enemies.<\/p>\n

The honey in the carcass is symbolic also of Samson himself, who will be victorious in his defeat. Sweetness will come from his death.<\/p>\n

Samson\u2019s first contest with the Philistines (verses 12-14) will not be a test of muscles but of brains. He will attempt to outwit them, as Moses had done with the Philistines.<\/p>\n

Alas, Samson the riddler does something not very bright. He is deceived by the woman, and this is Samson\u2019s first experience of betrayal. The real treachery, on the other hand, comes from Samson\u2019s own emotions. He loses control. He is betrayed by his feelings. Had he maintained control over his emotions, the woman would never have deceived him. The man who cannot control himself can hope to control nothing else.<\/p>\n

The wedding feast ends badly.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, September 4 Psalm 31: The correct sense of Psalm 31 (Greek and Latin 30) is indicated in verse 5: \u201cInto Your hand I commend my spirit.\u201d This verse, according to Luke 23:46, was the final prayer of our Lord from the Cross, and I take it to indicate the proper \u201cvoice\u201d of this whole … Continue reading September 4 – September 11<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2359,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}