{"id":1631,"date":"2020-10-23T15:24:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T20:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/?p=1631"},"modified":"2024-05-05T23:13:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T04:13:26","slug":"october-23-october-30-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/2020\/10\/23\/october-23-october-30-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"October 23 – October 30, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr. Reardons’s Daily Reflections<\/em> can now also be found at our Daily Readings page, along with the Devotional Guide<\/em> readings\u00a0and Saints of the day. The Daily Readings<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, October 23<\/b><\/p>\n

Nehemiah 10: This chapter, which begins with a fragmentary archival record (verses 1-27), goes on to mention certain features of social and religious discipline that would serve to make Israel a clearly distinguishable people, distinctive by reason of its special customs and rituals—to be, in fact, a people very different from every other. These customs and rituals included a prohibition against marriage with outsiders (verses 28,30), strict adherence to the newly edited Torah (verse 29), observance of the Sabbath (verse 31), financial and other support of the prescribed worship (verses 32-34), sacrificial offering of first fruits (verses 35-37), strict tithing (verse 38), and other offerings (verse 39). We will find Nehemiah dealing with these very matters all the way to the last chapter of this book.<\/p>\n

Israel, now returned to the Holy Land, would strive to become what Israel in Babylon, if it wanted to survive, had been forced to be–namely, a people set apart, distinct, and very unlike its neighbors by reason of its special consecration to God. God\u2019s distinctive people, that is to say, really had to be distinctive. That adjective had to be a reality, and not just a word.<\/p>\n

This fact may be read as the guiding motif of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the very reason why both of these books go to such lengths to describe the building of walls, whether the walls of the temple in Ezra, or the walls of the city in Nehemiah. By their very nature, walls divide the world into inside and outside. Walls stand as a sturdy barrier between the two. This image of walls, therefore, as giving shape to an exclusive space, serves as an ongoing model for the great theological preoccupation of these two books: the holiness, the separation of the people of God.<\/p>\n

This emphasis was needed. Prior to its recent re-education during the Captivity, Israel had largely lost that sense of exclusive dedication. Its separation from the world had massively disintegrated over the centuries. Instead, by endeavoring to become just like the nations round about them, Israel\u2019s spiritual walls had been badly penetrated—by idolatry, by syncretism, by compromising political alliances. These last were sometimes sealed by marriages joining the people\u2019s leadership to the very worst qualities represented in the other nations.<\/p>\n

The building projects described in these two books, therefore, were the external manifestations of Israel\u2019s recently rediscovered self-understanding. The renewed Israel was determined to be ex<\/i>clusive, building walls, establishing clear lines of separation on top of firm and unshakable foundations, uncompromising and unbending about its own identity.<\/p>\n

Monday, October 23<\/i><\/p>\n

Nehemiah 11: We have already seen the theological significance of the sort of census data that we have in this chapter. The present list comprises the names of those within the walls that have been constructed. They are the separated people, the “insiders,” symbolic of the inner identity of the holy nation.<\/p>\n

All through these two books we have watched the outsiders<\/i> trying to get inside–or at least to have access to the inside–exercising a sustained harassment of those inside. We saw the response of Zerubbabel, for instance, to the suggestion, in Ezra 4:1-3, that there be no distinction between insider and outsider, because Israel\u2019s pre-captivity history had already taught him the dangers of not insisting on that distinction. The outsiders, thus rebuffed, have spent the rest of these two books trying to prevent the separating walls from being constructed. As the enemies of Jerusalem\u2019s walls, they were attempting to keep Israel from being Israel. They perceived that the walls symbolized exclusiveness, and they resented being outsiders.<\/p>\n

This is a curious phenomenon. Why, after all, should they care? If Israel wanted to be exclusive, why should that preference bother anybody else? In fact, nonetheless, Israel\u2019s exclusiveness was deeply resented. Israel\u2019s claim to be a special and holy people, a claim that laid special moral responsibilities on Israel, was simply more than other people could endure. Consequently, Israel\u2019s adversaries have spent much of these two books in a genuine and aggressive snit.<\/p>\n

The one place where Israel was truly threatened, however, was not in its building programs, but in the construction of its families, the formation of its homes. Thus, intermarriage with outsiders, which so incensed both Ezra and Nehemiah, was the single path by which Israel could be most effectively led astray.<\/p>\n

These lists of Jewish families, therefore, are very pertinent to the general preoccupation and theme of these two books. These genealogies are spiritual walls, designed to protect the identity of God\u2019s chosen people.<\/p>\n

The provision permitting one-tenth of its citizens (chosen by lot) to live in the Holy City established a kind of tithe, as it were, of the entire nation. Those who otherwise chose<\/i> to live there represented a corresponding \u201cfree will offering\u201d of the nation.<\/p>\n

Sunday, October 25<\/b><\/p>\n

James 2:1-13: The message of this section is straightforward and unsubtle. James points to a common trait of fallen man, the disposition to cultivate favor with the powerful over the weak, to prefer the approval of the rich to that of the poor. James begins by noting the easiest, most immediate way of distinguishing between the two\u2014their clothing. Because the wealthier man can afford better clothes, he is better able to honor his own body, prompting others to comply with that honor. As modern men sometimes say, \u201cClothing makes a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

For James, however, who has just mentioned that true religion consists in care for the poor and keeping oneself unspotted from the world (1:27), such deference towards the wealthy is only another form of worldliness. The New King James Version calls this vice \u201cpartiality.\u201d The King James\u2019 rendering \u201crespect of persons\u201d comes closer to the sense of the Greek prosopolempsia<\/i>, literally translated in the Vulgate as personarum acceptatio<\/i>, \u201cacceptance of persons.\u201d This word means that distinctions are made, according to which some people are treated with greater honor and respect than others.<\/p>\n

Nehemiah 12: This chapter, which begins with another genealogical list of priests and Levites (verses 1-26), indicates the importance that proper and verifiable “succession” enjoys in the biblical theology of institutional ministry (as distinct from prophetic ministry).<\/p>\n

Next comes an account of the solemn dedication of the wall (verses 27-47) and all that that wall represented by way of the symbolisms we have been discussing.<\/p>\n

It is reasonable to understand the narrative\u2019s return to first person singular in verse 31 as an indication that we are once again dealing with the memoir of Nehemiah, on which so much of this book is based.<\/p>\n

According to 2 Maccabees 1:18, the event narrated in this chapter took place, not in September, but in December, falling very close in the calendar, in fact, to the date of the Maccabees\u2019 own purification of the temple (recorded in 1 Maccabees 4:60). Both events—the dedication of the walls under Nehemiah in the fifth century and the purification of the temple under Judas Maccabaeus in the second century—are called “Hanukkah,” meaning inauguration or dedication (verse 27; John 4:22). (Only the latter event, however, was incorporated into the Jewish liturgical calendar and is celebrated by Jews each December even today.)<\/p>\n

Nehemiah saw to it that the city was ritually circled by two simultaneous processions conducted on top of the walls, complete with trumpets. The dedication of the walls is portrayed, therefore, as an event of worship. The simultaneous procession of the two groups, marching in opposite directions, constituted what one commentator calls \u201ca stereophonic presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday, October 26<\/b><\/p>\n

James 2:14-26: This section contains James\u2019 response to an erroneous interpretation of St. Paul. The latter apostle, in fact, seems often to have been misunderstood by some early Christians (1 Peter 3:15-16), a misfortune of which Paul himself complained (Romans 3:8). The problem of misinterpreting Paul continued, moreover, well into the next century (cf. Irenaeus, Against the Heresies<\/i> 3.13.1), and some believe it is still with us.<\/p>\n

Here in James it appears that Paul was misunderstood with respect to justification through faith. Paul had by this time written Galatians. Against the Judaizers, who taught that Christians must observe all or part of the Mosaic Law, Paul\u2019s letter to the Galatians insisted that the works of the Mosaic Law (circumcision, the dietary rules, and so forth) were not required of those who committed their lives to Christ in faith. Some of Paul\u2019s readers exaggerated this teaching to imply a theology of justification \u201cthrough faith alone\u201d—ek pisteos monon<\/i> (verse 24). According to this theory, no<\/i> works of a man are necessary for his justification. All<\/i> human works are superfluous for justification. James goes here into some detail to refute and condemn such a notion.<\/p>\n

Nehemiah 13: The dedication of the wall was the occasion for some more reading from the Torah, including the prescription found in Deuteronomy 23:4-5, which excluded the Ammonites and Moabites from the congregation of Israel (verse 1). As long as Nehemiah was on the local scene, such exclusions were taken seriously (verses 2-3). When he left to make a brief visit back to Babylon (verse 6), however, events turned for the worse. On his return to Jerusalem Nehemiah learned all sorts of unpleasant things.<\/p>\n

He learned, for instance, that a member of the priestly family had become the son-in-law of his old foe, Sanballat (verse 28). In former days, when Sanballat tried to impede the construction of the wall, Nehemiah had held him off. Now, nonetheless, Sanballat was suddenly inside<\/i> the walls! What he had been unable to do by force of arms, he managed to accomplish by the simple means of marrying his daughter to a priest! This serious breach in Jerusalem\u2019s spiritual wall once again put at peril Israel\u2019s very existence as a holy nation, a people set apart.<\/p>\n

In addition, Nehemiah discovered that the high priest himself had provided lodging within the temple for one of those who had opposed Nehemiah\u2019s very mission (verses 4-5). Other things had gotten out of hand, as well, such as the failure to observe the Sabbath, whether by Jews themselves or by pagans who came to sell their wares in the city (verses 15-22).<\/p>\n

Nehemiah set himself to put everything straight again (verses 7-13). The major problem, however, continued to be the disposition of the people to intermarry with non-Jews (verses 23-27), in contravention to the Torah (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3). Nehemiah found it a very tough job to maintain those walls!<\/p>\n

Recalling those great efforts, Nehemiah prayed that God would not forget<\/i> them, \u201cRemember me, O Lord\u201d became his refrain (verses 14,22,29,30).<\/p>\n

Tuesday, October 27<\/b><\/p>\n

James 3:1-12: James begins by warning of the more severe judgment that awaits teachers, who must answer, not only for their own offenses, but also for the conduct of those badly influenced by their teaching. This more severe judgment, warns James, will make a person cautious about becoming a teacher (verse 1; Matthew 5:19; 23:7-8).<\/p>\n

This attention to teaching\u2014since teaching involves speech\u2014prompts James to turn his concern to the moral life of the tongue. He had earlier introduced this theme by the exhortation, \u201clet every man be swift to hear, slow to speak\u201d (1:19).<\/p>\n

Although each of us fails in many ways, says, James, the description \u201cperfect man\u201d may be ascribed to someone who places adequate moral restraint on his tongue (verse 2). In elaborating this theme, of course, James is heir to the Bible\u2019s Wisdom literature (cf. Proverbs 15:1-4,7,23,26,28; Sirach 5:11\u20146:1; 28:13-26).<\/p>\n

To illustrate his point about the moral control of the tongue, James provides a series of analogies to the tongue\u2014small objects of either great import or capable of potentially massive harm: a horse\u2019s bit, a ship\u2019s rudder, the small flame that causes a great conflagration (verses 3-6). A seemingly small thing is capable of things vastly greater than itself. So is it with the tongue. By its proper mastery the entire moral life is brought under discipline.<\/p>\n

Left unrestrained, however, the tongue is able to create great spiritual harm, inflaming \u201cthe course of nature,\u201d becoming thereby \u201cthe sum total of evil\u201d (ho kosmos tes adikias<\/i>). Wild animals, James continues, are easier to tame than the tongue, which is an \u201cuncontrolled evil, full of death-bearing poison\u201d (verses 7-8).<\/p>\n

Isaiah 1: The book\u2019s first verse, as is usual in the prophetic books, simply provides the time frame: the second half of the eighty-century, beginning in the last year of King Uzziah, 742 B.C.<\/p>\n

The first five chapters of this book form a sort of preface, introducing the call of the prophet in chapter 6. We note the absence of historical indicators (except for 1:1, of course) in these chapters, in striking contrast with chapters 6 and 7. The purpose of this introductory material, which was surely composed after Isaiah was called, is to provide a critical analysis of the Kingdom of Judah, in order to set that calling in the proper historical context.<\/p>\n

The time of Isaiah, the second half of the eighth century before Christ, beginning in \u201cthe year that King Uzziah died\u201d (6:1), was a period of rebellion against God and infidelity to His covenant. This rebellious infidelity is illustrated in the first chapter by the collapse of national life (verses 6-9), religious apostasy (verses 10-15), and social disintegration (verses 21-23).<\/p>\n

Wednesday, October 28<\/b><\/p>\n

James 3:13—4:6: Perhaps following up his comment about the dangers of teaching (verse 1), James goes on to contrast two kinds of wisdom, one demonic and the other godly. These two kinds of wisdom are distinguishable in three ways.<\/p>\n

First, they may be distinguished by their immediate fruits. Like faith, says James, wisdom is manifest in its works. Demonic wisdom is marked by bitter envy (zelon pikron<\/i>) and contention in the heart (eritheian en te kardia<\/i>), boasting, and lying against the truth (verse 14). Godly wisdom, on the other hand, is manifest in \u201cgood conduct and works in the meekness of wisdom\u201d (verse 13). That is to say, a truly wise man is a humble man, readily distinguished from the arrogant, contentious blusterer who is full of himself. Both the Gospels (Matthew 5:5; 11:29) and the Epistles (2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:23) commend the spirit of meekness. Not all meek people are wise, but all wise people are meek.<\/p>\n

A second difference between the two kinds of wisdom is found in their differing origins. Evil wisdom is earthly, animal, and diabolical (verse 16). It is the wisdom of death. It comes from below, not from above. Godly wisdom is \u201cfrom above\u201d (anothen<\/i>—verses 15,17).<\/p>\n

Third, these two types of wisdom are distinguished by where they lead. The wisdom of envy and strife leads to confusion and \u201cevery evil work\u201d (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:20). Godly wisdom, however, leads to purity, peace, gentleness, deference, mercy, sincerity, and a reluctance to pass judgment (verse 17). We recognize here some of St. Paul\u2019s \u201cfruit of the Spirit\u201d (Galatians 5:22-23).<\/p>\n

James\u2019 teaching on wisdom, then, is of a piece with his teaching on faith. If a person claims to have faith, let him show his works. If someone claims to be wise, let us see his works. The truth is always in the deeds, not the talk.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 2: This chapter contains three oracles, none of which can be assigned with certainty to a particular date; they do seem to come, however, from early in Isaiah\u2019s ministry.<\/p>\n

The first of these oracles (verses 1-5) is concerned with the ideal Jerusalem, the Jerusalem to come\u2014\u201cit shall come to pass in the last days\u201d (verse 2). It speaks of the future glorification of God\u2019s holy city, that more blessed Jerusalem of promise, of which the ancient capital of David was a prefiguration and type (Galatians 4:26; Revelation 21:10).<\/p>\n

The second oracle (verses 6-9) moves from the ideal Jerusalem to the actual, unfaithful city known to Isaiah. This oracle is critical of the idolatrous pursuit of wealth in the Jerusalem of Isaiah\u2019s time. We remember that his prophetic calling came in the last year of King Uzziah (6:1), whose reign (783-742) had restored a great deal of Judah\u2019s prosperity. This prosperity, Isaiah saw, led to the worship of human achievement as a particularly virulent form of idolatry. It was the sin of pride, and it was Isaiah\u2019s task to threaten its punishment.<\/p>\n

Isaiah is exhorting the Jerusalem of the mid-eighth century, \u201cAnd do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind\u201d (Romans 12:2).<\/p>\n

This punishment of these evils is the theme of the third oracle (verses 10-22).<\/p>\n

Thursday, October 29<\/b><\/p>\n

Isaiah 3: The present chapter breaks thematically into two parts: verses 1-15 and verses 16-26.<\/p>\n

The first unit is enclosed by \u201cthe Lord, the Lord of hosts\u201d (\u2019Adon IHWH Savaoth<\/i>–verses 1 & 15). Once again this chapter begins with \u201cJerusalem and Judah\u201d (verses 1,8).<\/p>\n

The previous chapter ended with a warning about putting excessive trust in men (2:22). The present chapter continues this theme by listing the failures of Judah\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

The \u201cstaff and stay\u201d (KJV), found twice in this verse, are the masculine and feminine forms of the same noun (mash\u2018en<\/i> and mash\u2018enah<\/i>). This combination formed an idiom indicating totality, not unlike our English \u201ckit and boodle.\u201d Every form of support, says Isaiah, is coming apart. Can famine (also mentioned in verse 7) be far off?<\/p>\n

The prosperity attendant on the reign of King Uzziah was accompanied by grave social inequities and other evils. The present chapter of Isaiah speaks of two such: the lack of adequate leadership (verses 1-15) and the elaborate cultivation of female finery in clothing and adornment (verses 16-24).<\/p>\n

Two criticisms are rendered with respect to Judah\u2019s current leadership:<\/p>\n

First, Israel\u2019s leadership is in a state of collapse (verses 2-3), and with it all societal support and structure, including the basic technical crafts, such as carpentry. The leadership is immature (verse 4), so all of society disintegrates (verses 5,12). Indeed, this leadership is, itself, an expression of God\u2019s judgment: When the Lord wants to punish a nation, He permits them to have unwise and inexperienced men as its leaders: \u201cI will give children to be their princes, \/ And babies shall rule over them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, the mention of women in leadership leads to a sarcastic description of the arrogant clothing styles for women in vogue at the time (verses 16-26). Isaiah\u2019s description is bound to remind a modern reader of a contemporary fashion show, in which a line of pretentious young ladies come strutting across a walkway, walking in ridiculous gyrating strides that have no purpose except to draw meretricious and lascivious attention to themselves: “the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet” (verse 16). Isaiah goes on with an obvious relish for sarcasm, listing the various articles of clothing and jewelry, all the way to purses and hand mirrors.<\/p>\n

Friday, October 30<\/b><\/p>\n

James 5:1-6: His manifest familiarity with the Old Testament prophets prompts James to dwell on the causal relationship of greed to many and grievous social evils. Indeed at the pen of James the word \u201cwealthy\u201d becomes nearly a synonym for \u201cunjust,\u201d and those thus described are sternly warned and summoned to repentance.<\/p>\n

Since it is very difficult to believe that many wealthy people were among those who first heard read this epistle of James (2:6-7; 1 Corinthians 1:26-28), this section of the epistle is reasonably regarded as a warning to those who are not rich but would prefer to be. Perhaps the latter number for a majority of James\u2019 readers. It seems obvious that more people love wealth than have it. This preference for wealth over poverty, because it is nearly universal, prompted the Apostle Peter to ask, \u201cWho, then, can be saved?\u201d (Matthew 19:25)<\/p>\n

It is the love of wealth. after all, not the wealth itself, that is spiritually dangerous, and a preference for wealth opens the door to the love of wealth. The very thought of wealth, then, because it is an attractive thought, is already freighted with moral and spiritual peril.<\/p>\n

As we observed earlier, James fears that a preference for wealth over poverty is readily translated into a preference for the wealthy over the poor (2:1-4), and this fear is apparently what inspires the harshness with which James speaks here of the wealthy. From the very beginning of this epistle, in fact, James has emphasized the danger of riches (1:9-11). This danger is found everywhere, because a preference for wealth is widespread among men.<\/p>\n

So much is this the case that Christians have long regarded the voluntary renunciation of property a kind of \u201cperfection\u201d of the Gospel life (Matthew 19:21), a regard that gave rise to monastic life. Such a renunciation has at least the effect of rendering less likely the fearful judgments to which James refers in these verses.<\/p>\n

For James, as for most people, expensive clothing is the clearest sign of wealth and is worn for precisely that reason (verse 2; Isaiah 4:16-26; Acts 12:21; 20:33; Horace, Letters<\/i> 1.6.40-44). Alas, this interest has not diminished on the earth. Even today James would lament among Christians the same distressing preoccupation with sartorial extravagance, fashion clothing, designer labels, and similar vanity. All these things pertain to worldliness, which is the enemy of God (4:4).<\/p>\n

Resources spent on fashion clothing are better conferred on the poor, James indicates, because this conferral will clothe the believer himself against God\u2019s final judgment on man\u2019s social history (verses 4-6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr. Reardons’s Daily Reflections can now also be found at our Daily Readings page, along with the Devotional Guide readings\u00a0and Saints of the day. The Daily Readings Friday, October 23 Nehemiah 10: This chapter, which begins with a fragmentary archival record (verses 1-27), goes on to mention certain features of social and religious discipline that … Continue reading October 23 – October 30, 2020<\/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\/1631"}],"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=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1636,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions\/1636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}