2014/02/26

Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab


Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho. (Numbers 22:1, NIV)

camped along the Jordan
across from Jericho


How the Israelites arranged their camps is described in another verse of Numbers. Jericho is an important city as a reference point for many place names in the Bible. The straight-line distance between Jericho and Jordan River is about 9 km. The route of the Israelites' journey in the desert is a very interesting subject. This post is my first attempt to take the advantage of the modern geo-coding techniques to study the geography of Bible.

2014/02/19

Who are these men with you

God came to Balaam, and said, "Who are these men with you?" (Numbers 22:9, WEB)

God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?” (Numbers 22:9, NIV)
 say, said, said
Mary said goodbye to John.
Mary left without saying goodbye.
I've said I'm sorry - what more do you want?
He looked as if he was going to say something.
How do you say your last name?

Notice that God said to, not asked, Balaam in WEB's translation. Please see the original Hebrew word (Strong's Hebrew 559). God already knew who they were that were staying at Balaam's home.  When God says to a person a question, it seemingly always occurs in the situation, in which this person already did something sinful. For example when Adam and his wife had sinned and tried to hide from God,
Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"  (Genesis 3:9, WEB)
Balaam had not done something against God's will yet. I guessed he intended to. Maybe he was thinking that God might allow him to accept the king's assignment and payment. According to Jesus intending to do a bad thing is the same as actually doing it. NIV used 'asked' in the translation of Numbers 22:9. Though it is more natural to English speakers, some important teaching is lost in this translation.

Later Balaam did do the king's assignment in a way according to God's will.
Self-centered desire is the seed for catastrophic butterfly effects.
 However after that he still found a way to bypass God's will and assisted the king to plot a bad thing against the king's enemy. That sowed the seed for the king's enemy to take revenge on Balaam and kill him in a war. Balaam is remembered as a wicked false prophet in New Testament.

2014/02/18

the answer the Lord gives me

“Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me.” So the Moabite officials stayed with him. (Numbers 22:8, NIV)
When Balaam faced the temptations and surely some pressure given by the king, he decided to ask God first what he should do.

There are a few useful phrases.
spend the night here
report back to you with the answer
stay with him
'So' is used as an adverb here. 'So' can also be used as a conjunction. For example, the weather is bad so I stay at home.

2014/02/17

taking with them the fee for divination

The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination. When they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak had said. (Numbers 22:7, NIV)

So the Moabite and Midianite leaders took with them the payment for the curse, went to Balaam, and gave him Balak's message. (Numbers 22:7, GNT)
divination: fortune-telling, using evil ways to look into the future. More will be said about this subject in another blog post.

Balaam was a famous prophet among idol worshipers. His blessing and cursing were believed to be effective. So a king named Balak sent some important persons to ask Balaam to curse his enemy (for the whole story, see Numbers 22).

Here I would try to explain Balaam's situation in the light of Proverbs 23:1-3, which I had discussed in several posts back. Balaam was facing great temptations.
1) A king sent important persons to ask him for help (temptation of vanity).
2) A payment, which was likely pretty good, would have been given for his help (temptation of money).
3) The task was to defeat an enemy of the nation (temptation of patriotism).

It's not easy to resist any one of those three temptations. When they are combined together, it would be impossible to refuse. Furthermore, king Balak actually did not give Balaam complete information about the enemy, which he wanted to put curse on. What would you do in that situation? What had Balaam done?

2014/02/14

"I am the bread of life."

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35, NIV)
believe in:  have faith in. I believe in Jesus Christ.
believe: think something is true. I believe that there was an earthquake yesterday.

The English of this verse is easy and yet it is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible.Even the Jews that heard Jesus saying that in person had difficulty of understanding and accepting it (for this story, see John 6 the whole chapter).

updated 2014/02/17

2014/02/13

When you sit to dine with a rule, ... (5)

Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. (NIV)
Don't be greedy for the fine food he serves; he may be trying to trick you. (GNT)
There are a few very useful verbs in this verse: crave, serve, try, and trick.
And a few very useful adjectives: deceptive, greedy, fine.
And one difficult noun: delicacy (fine, rare, and expensive food).

Exercise:
1. Make three sentences with each of the verbs: crave, serve, try, trick, and deceive.
2. Make three sentences with each of the adjectives: deceptive, greedy, and fine.
3. Make three sentences with 'delicacy'. 

Food is an extremely important topic in the Bible. There is food for the stomach and there is food for our souls.

At the time being, here is some food for thought:
1. What would come to your mind when you think of delicacy?
2. Why does a powerful person, like a king, your boss, or a government, want to treat others with good, rare, and expensive food?
3. Would you feel that you are also an important  person when you are invited to eat rare animals and drink exotic alcohol , sitting side by side with other important persons in the society?

Food has become an urgent issue for the world. The haves waste too much and the have nots are hungry every moment. Jesus of Nazareth faced a similar situation in his time. To be continued ...


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My English is not perfect. I wish to give other English learners the confidence that you don't have to be a perfect English writer to write your blog in English. Feel free to comment on any suggestion for English improvement and thought on Bible reading 

2014/02/12

When you sit to dine with a ruler ... (4)

and put a knife to your throat, if you are given to gluttony. (NIV)
If you have a big appetite, restrain yourself. (GNT) 

gluttony: eating like a big.  glutton: a person who eats like a pig.
restrain yourself: control yourself, control your greed and anger,  pull yourself back, hold your tongue, ...

'put a knife to your throat' is a Jewish idiom. In the situation of good food, it means to restrain oneself from overeating. Maybe it can also mean not to talk too much when you are eating and drinking a lot.

Why does the wise man of the proverb advise us to restrain ourselves in that situation? Did you eat, drink, and talk too much during the lunar new year holidays?  Did you cause any damage to yourself or other people?


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My English is not perfect. I wish to give other English learners the confidence that you don't have to be a perfect English writer to write your blog in English. Feel free to comment on any suggestion for English improvement and thought on Bible reading 

2014/02/11

When you sit to dine with a ruler, ... (3)

The original Hebrew sentence is a little ambiguous in this part of the verse. So there are different way to translate it. Compare these two translations:
When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, (NIV)
When you sit down to eat with someone important, keep in mind who he is. (GNT)

Can you find the major difference between them? The Chinese translation is as follows
你若與官長坐席,要留意在你面前的是誰 (和合本)
 Which English translation is the Chinese one closer to? 


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My English is not perfect. I wish to give other English learners the confidence that you don't have to be a perfect English writer to write your blog in English. Feel free to comment on any suggestion for English improvement and thought on Bible reading

2014/02/10

When you sit to dine with a ruler ... (2)

dine: eat dinner, eat food, eat at McDonald, ...

Why does the ruler invite you to dine with him? What are you going to eat in the party? Will you drink a lot? What does he want from you? What do you want from him? Do you feel honored when a king invite you to his party? Or should you feel dangerous?

ruler: boss, king, president, chairman, ...

Who is this ruler? How much do you know about him?
How does he treat the poor? Does he take jobs from the poor?
How does he handle the laws? Does he follow the laws?
How does he treat prisoners? Does he torture prisoners?
How does he handle information? Does he hide many secrets?
Is he honest or not? Is he fair or not? Is he kind or not? ....

We Christians have only one king, that is Jesus Christ. We eat and drink safely only at Christ's table but not at any other ruler's table.

2014/02/09

When you sit to dine with a ruler ...

When you sit to dine with a ruler,
note well what is before you,
and put a knife to your throat
if you are given to gluttony.
Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
(Proverbs 23:1-3, NIV)

Learning the wisdom about living in this world is one of the benefits that we can gain by reading the Bible. A good way to make bible reading interesting is to relate its verses with our real life. This principle will guide me when I select a biblical verse to read.

I will also try to write in English as much as possible not because my English is good. On the contrary, it is not. The point is that even though my English will be 'unnatural' from time to time, this does not prevent me from writing an understandable article. I struggle with English in every sentence I write but I enjoy it. The lesson for my fellow Taiwanese is that don't be so hard on yourself. Making mistakes in our English is a natural thing.

Today's verses are very useful for us to decide if we want to accept ECFA and 服貿協議 or not。China promises to give Taiwan fat contracts and Taiwan's KMT government has signed ECFA with them. Have the Taiwanese received the benefits from ECFA? Or has the unemployment rate actually increased? China invites (or say, coerce) us to sign 服貿協議 again. They promise it will be a huge banquet, even bigger than ECFA. However, today's proverb teaches us to be careful. It might be a trap.

A beginning small step

On June 17, 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that any Bible reciting or prayer, in public schools was unconstitutional. Since that day, the American lost their moral and spiritual compass. What the American lost will be picked up by the Taiwanese. I wish Bible reading and reciting and prayer will become part of curriculum in Taiwan's public schools one of the things that the Taiwanese would enjoy doing on a regular base. This blog is a small contribution I can make to achieve that goal. I will make many mistakes on the way. Those mistakes will help me to learn better about God's words and will. (updated 2014/2/15)