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Superstition
Hermeneutics
In all innocence
children have for
centuries sung a nursery rhyme that is in truth anything but an innocent verse:
Ring-a-ring
o’roses
A
pocket full of posies
A-tishoo!
A-tishoo!
We
all fall down!
The rhyme arose about
“Ring o’roses” is a reference to the
small
red rashlike areas that developed on people infected with the plague.
“Pocket full of posies” is a reference
to the ancient belief that evil smells were the poisonous breath of demons who
afflicted people with the disease. It was thought that sweet-smelling herbs and
flowers would drive them off.
“A-tishoo! A-tishoo!” is a reference to
the sneezing that was a symptom of the plague.
“We all fall down!” is a reference to
death.
Thus
a common children’s rhyme is in
fact a sinister parody of one of the most dreaded plagues ever to strike-the
Black Death.
The same loss of context and therefore
of meaning can affect those who study the Scriptures. And that is why when we
seek to interpret the word of God
we do so in part by studying its historical
grammatical context. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Hermeneutics
In 1728
potatoes were outlawed in
Scotland because they were not mentioned in the Bible. ── Michael
P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Idolatry is worshiping anything that
ought to be used
or using anything that ought to be worshiped.
Augustine.
Hideyoshi
a Japanese warlord who
ruled over Japan in the late 1500s
commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha
for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50
000 men five years to build
but the work had
scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the
shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a rage Hideyoshi shot an arrow
at the fallen colossus. "I put you here at great expense
" he
shouted
"and you can't even look after your own temple."
Today in the Word
MBI
August
1991
p. 23.
God often allows the ungodly to amass
great wealth--to their destruction. But if you are one with whom God is dealing
and if you put the pursuit of riches (or anything else) before service to
Christ
God may take away those riches (and other things) until you turn to
Him. Some years ago Donald Grey Barnhouse was counseling a young woman on the
sidewalk in front of Tenth Presbyterian Church following an evening service.
She said she was a Christian and that she wanted to follow Christ. But she
wanted to be famous too. She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York.
"After I have made it in the theater
I'll follow Christ completely
"
she said. Barnhouse took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a
postal box standing on the corner. "That is what God will let you
do
" he said. "God will let you scratch the surface of success. He
will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is
but He will never
let you have it
because He will never let one of His children have anything
rather than Himself."
Years later he met the girl again
and
she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the
stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never
quite made it. She told Barnhouse
"I can't tell you how many times in my
discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that postal box
with your key. God let me scratch the edges
but He gave me nothing in place of
Himself."
J.M. Boice
Christ's Call To
Discipleship
Moody
1986
p. 154.
In The Wounded Healer
Henri
Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to
master a special ability. Time went by
and the brothers met to reveal what
they had learned.
"I have mastered a science
"
said the first
"by which I can take but a bone of some creature and
create the flesh that goes with it."
"I
" said the second
"know how to grow that creature's skin and hair if there is flesh on its
bones."
The third said
"I am able to
create its limbs if I have flesh
the skin
and the hair."
"And I
" concluded the
fourth
"know how to give life to that creature if its form is
complete."
Thereupon the brothers went into the
jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialities. As fate
would have it
the bone they found was a lion's. One added flesh to the bone
the second grew hide and hair
the third completed it with matching limbs
and
the fourth gave the lion life. Shaking its mane
the ferocious beast arose and
jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the
jungle.
We too have the capacity to create
what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property
can turn and destroy us--unless we first seek God's kingdom and righteousness
and allow Him to breathe into what we make of life.
Nathan Castens.
Though we do not face a pantheon of
false gods like the Israelites did
we face pressures from a pantheon of false
values--materialism
love of leisure
sensuality
worship of self
security
and many others. The second commandment deals with idols. This may be something
that most of us can't relate to--unless we include life goals that revolve
around something other than God Himself. What is the object of our affections
our efforts
and our attention? Where does the majority of our time go? On what
do we spend the greatest amount of our resources?
Today in the Word
June 14
1989.
What other gods could we have besides
the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the Canaanite Baals
those jolly nature
gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony
drunkenness
and ritual
prostitution. For us there are still the great gods Sex
Shekels
and Stomach
(an unholy trinity constituting one god: self)
and the other enslaving trio
Pleasure
Possessions
and Position
whose worship is described as "The
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 John
2:16). Football
the Firm
and Family are also gods for some. Indeed the list
of other gods is endless
for anything that anyone allows to run his life
becomes his god and the claimants for this prerogative are legion. In the
matter of life's basic loyalty
temptation is a many-headed monster.
James Packer
Your Father Loves You
Harold Shaw Publishers
1986.
Today's idols are more in the self
than on the shelf.
Goudzwaard's three basic Biblical
rules:
1. Every person is serving god(s) in
his life.
2. Every person is transformed into an image of his god.
3. Mankind creates and forms a structure of society in its own image.
That for which I would give anything
and accept nothing in exchange is the most important thing in my life. Whatever
that is is my god (cf. Isa. 44:6-20).
J. McMath.