Book Three - Internal Consolation

     The Thirty-First Chapter / To Find The Creator, Forsake All Creatures

     The Disciple

     O LORD, I am in sore need still of greater grace if I am to arrive at the point where no man and no created thing can be an obstacle to me. For as long as anything holds me back, I cannot freely fly to You. He that said “Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest!”35 desired to fly freely to You. Who is more at rest than he who aims at nothing but God? And who more free than the man who desires nothing on earth?

     It is well, then, to pass over all creation, perfectly to abandon self, and to see in ecstasy of mind that You, the Creator of all, have no likeness among all Your creatures, and that unless a man be freed from all creatures, he cannot attend freely to the Divine. The reason why so few contemplative persons are found, is that so few know how to separate themselves entirely from what is transitory and created.

     For this, indeed, great grace is needed, grace that will raise the soul and lift it up above itself. Unless a man be elevated in spirit, free from all creatures, and completely united to God, all his knowledge and possessions are of little moment. He who considers anything great except the one, immense, eternal good will long be little and lie groveling on the earth. Whatever is not God is nothing and must be accounted as nothing.

     There is great difference between the wisdom of an enlightened and devout man and the learning of a well-read and brilliant scholar, for the knowledge which flows down from divine sources is much nobler than that laboriously acquired by human industry.

     Many there are who desire contemplation, but who do not care to do the things which contemplation requires. It is also a great obstacle to be satisfied with externals and sensible things, and to have so little of perfect mortification. I know not what it is, or by what spirit we are led, or to what we pretend—we who wish to be called spiritual—that we spend so much labor and even more anxiety on things that are transitory and mean, while we seldom or never advert with full consciousness to our interior concerns.

     Alas, after very little recollection we falter, not weighing our deeds by strict examination. We pay no attention to where our affections lie, nor do we deplore the fact that our actions are impure.

     Remember that because all flesh had corrupted its course, the great deluge followed. Since, then, our interior affection is corrupt, it must be that the action which follows from it, the index as it were of our lack of inward strength, is also corrupt. Out of a pure heart come the fruits of a good life.

     People are wont to ask how much a man has done, but they think little of the virtue with which he acts. They ask: Is he strong? rich? handsome? a good writer? a good singer? or a good worker? They say little, however, about how poor he is in spirit, how patient and meek, how devout and spiritual. Nature looks to his outward appearance; grace turns to his inward being. The one often errs, the other trusts in God and is not deceived.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

     The Civil War ended this day, April 9, 1865, as General Robert E. Lee surrendered at the courthouse of Appomattox, Virginia. Lee took off his sword and handed it to General Grant, and Grant handed it back. The next day, General Lee issued his final order: “After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude…. I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes.” Robert E. Lee concluded: “I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection.”

William J. Federer. American Minute

A life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing.
Every day we ought to renew our purpose,
saying to ourselves:
This day let us make a sound beginning,
for what we have hitherto done is nought.
--- Thomas A Kempis


When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life., Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again.,
--- Warren W. Wiersbe

... from here, there and everywhere

18     Thoughtless people inherit folly,
but the cautious are crowned with knowledge.

19     The evil bow down before the good,
and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                Have I seen Him?

     After that He appeared in another form unto two of them. --- Mark 16:12.

     Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many are partakers of God’s grace who have never seen Jesus. When once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to do:

     Always distinguish between what you see Jesus to be, and what He has done for you. If you only know what He has done for you, you have not a big enough God; but if you have had a vision of Jesus as He is, experiences can come and go, you will endure, “as seeing Him Who is invisible.” The man blind from his birth did not know Who Jesus was until He appeared and revealed Himself to him. Jesus appears to those for whom he has done something; but we cannot dictate when He will come. Suddenly at any turn He may come—‘Now I see Him!’

     Jesus must appear to your friend as well as to you; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. Severance takes place where one and not the other has seen Jesus. You cannot bring your friend unless God brings him. Have you seen Jesus? Then you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.” You must tell, although they do not believe.

  ‘O could I tell, ye surely would believe it!
  O could I only say what I have seen!
  How should I tell or how can ye receive it,
  How, till He bringeth you where I have been?’

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

She is young. Have I the right
Even to name her? Child,
It is not love I offer
Your quick limbs, your eyes;
Only the barren homage
Of an old man whom time
Crucifies. Take my hand
A moment in the dance,
Ignoring its sly pressure,
The dry rut of age,
And lead me under the boughs
Of innocence. Let me smell
My youth again in your hair.

R.S. Thomas

     D’RASH

     Our story highlights the paradox that weakness and strength are not always what we expect them to be: The teacher, it turns out, is the one who needs to learn the lesson; the one presumed least worthy of instructing us is the one who has the most to teach. The mighty, tall cedar tree is the first to be toppled by the wind, while the small, meager reed is able to survive almost any assault.

     Strength is often not defined in the conventional terms of size, might, power, resolve, or immutability. The classic Jewish story to show this is, of course, that of David and Goliath. The Israelite shepherd boy is too young, he is too small, he comes without armor, and with no battle experience—and yet he walks away the victor. His courage, his agility, his resourcefulness, and his faith in God are enough to enable him to defeat the giant warrior. In many ways, that has also been a recurrent theme of Jewish history: Time and time again, the Jewish people were outnumbered by a more powerful enemy, yet they managed to survive and prevail, while the enemy was ultimately vanquished and disappeared. The nation of Israel was able to outlast the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, and the Syrian-Greeks; the Rabbis of the Talmud believed, correctly so, that the Romans, too, would eventually go the same way.

     Our tale reminds us that what was true on a national scale is also true on a personal level, as well. Real strength is not measured by how big someone’s muscles are and not by how many people one has beaten up or killed. Ben Zoma asks the question: “Who is mighty?” and gives an unexpected answer: “One who controls his own impulses” (Avot 4:1). A man has been insulted to his face, but instead of striking the offender, he chooses to teach him the meaning of dignity and Godliness. The Rabbi has had a lapse of moral judgement. Instead of trying to make excuses or look for someone else to blame, he steps forward and says: “I did a terrible thing to you. Please forgive me.” These are examples of strength, at least as the Rabbis defined it. Often, we try to resist, to stand up to pressure, to remain steadfast. At times, those are admirable qualities. However, if we became inflexible in the hope that we can remain unmovable, we may find ourselves knocked down and even uprooted. From a law of nature, the Rabbis derive a law of human relations: Learn when to bend, or you will break.

     If a person says to you: “I have labored but did not find,” do not believe it!

     Text / Rabbi Yitzḥak said: If a person says to you: “I have labored but did not find,” do not believe it! “I did not labor and I found,” do not believe it! “I labored and found,” believe it! These words refer to matters of Torah. But in matters of business, help is from Heaven! And in matters of Torah, this refers only to acumen, but for maintaining learning, help is from Heaven!

     Context / The Rabbis of the Talmud, Rabbi Yitzḥak among them, were well aware that good things happen to bad people and that the righteous sometimes struggle while the wicked not only avoid suffering but even thrive. There are numerous discussions and debates in the Gemara on how to deal with wickedness and the wicked, both from a philosophical viewpoint (Why does it even exist in God’s world?) to very practical concerns (How should we respond to the wicked?). Elsewhere in the Talmud (Berakhot 7b), Rabbi Yitzḥak is involved in one such debate. Rabbi Yoḥanan, his teacher, quotes a verse from Proverbs as proof that we should fight the wicked: “Those who forsake instruction [Torah] praise the wicked, but those who heed instruction [Torah] fight them” (Proverbs 28:4). However, Rabbi Yitzḥak takes a different approach, teaching: “If you see the wicked having his hour, do not argue with him, as it says: ‘His ways prosper at all times’ (Psalms 10:5); and even more so, he may win in court, as it says: ‘Your judgments are far beyond him’ (ibid); and even more so, he may see his enemies’ defeat, as it says: ‘He snorts at all his foes’ (ibid).” The Talmud solves the contradiction between the view of Rabbi Yitzḥak (to leave the wicked alone) and that of Rabbi Yoḥanan (to fight the wicked): One (the view of Rabbi Yitzḥak) refers to personal matters like commerce, while the other (the view of Rabbi Yoḥanan) refers to “matters of Heaven,” that is, religious issues. Jews have been arguing over such questions ever since.

     Rabbi Yitzḥak’s words are a straightforward attempt on the part of one Talmudic sage to define the rabbinic approach to success. In the eyes of Rabbi Yitzḥak, success in life is, plain and simple, the result of hard work. One who claims to have succeeded effortlessly should not be believed. And one who claims to have worked diligently without achieving is probably not telling the truth either. All this, of course, is the view of one sage, Rabbi Yitzḥak. He seems to be teaching about life in general, since the Hebrew word matzati, “I found,” can refer to many different realms and have various different meanings.

     As is usually the case in the Gemara, when a generalized statement like this is made, a clarification is necessary. Can this really be saying that hard work always produces success? Is life as black-and-white as Rabbi Yitzḥak would paint it to be? The later discussion will limit and qualify the earlier generalization (earlier both in the order of the text and chronologically). Thus, the Gemara says that Rabbi Yitzḥak is correct that work produces results but (and this is the limitation) only in the area of study. In other areas of our lives, it is, in rabbinic terms, “in the hands of Heaven,” beyond our control. And in matters of Torah, effort pays off only relative to comprehension. One who studies hard will ultimately understand. However, that person may soon forget what was learned, for memory is beyond our control and is from Heaven.

     Some later commentators ask: Are there not times when we do not see results, even if we work hard in studying and trying to understand? They answer that even partial results in study have a reinforcing effect; it sharpens our minds. Just trying to understand text is worthwhile, even if we think we are not successful. We are laying the foundation to build on later. Despite this, the simple explanation of Rabbi Yitzḥak’s view is a very general rule that hard work is the key to success.

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving . Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     In Deuteronomy 4, Moses explained God’s deliverance of this generation’s parents from Egypt this way: “Because He loved your forefathers [referring to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] and chose their descendants after them, He brought you out of Egypt by His presence, and His great strength”
(4:37). The love God had for these men, who lived on in their descendants, led to a deep commitment on God’s part that extended across the centuries.

     But in chapter 5 we see a new and striking emphasis. Moses moved from history to Israel’s now. He insisted that God sought relationship “not with our fathers” with whom the Law covenant was made, “but with us, with all of us who are alive here today” (v. 3). It is this relationship that these next chapters of Scripture help us understand.

     The nature of the relationship (Deut. 5). Several elements of relationship with God are defined.

     (1) Love is personal (5:1–3). The relationship is between “us, who are … alive here,” and Yahweh, who is also here and living. Often a person grows up in a home where the Lord is God of his parents. His relationship with God is through Mom and Dad; he goes to church because they do. This falls short of a love relationship. One who cares for us wants to reach out and touch us personally, not through others. God wants to know and to love us personally, warmly, intimately—with nothing and no one between.

     (2) Love is urgent (5:4–14). The urgency of the relationship is emphasized in the first four of the Ten Commandments, all of which are repeated here from Exodus 20. God wants our eyes fixed on Him. As any lover, God is unwilling to share our affection with competitors.

     It’s hard to imagine a husband who truly loves his wife unaffected by her unfaithfulness, or encouraging her to date around. Truly intimate love is to be exclusive. God wants and helps us to love other people (even as a good husband/wife relationship enriches the context of the home for their children). But God will not share us with other gods—whether they be idols of the ancient world or the financial success of the modern.

     (3) Love is demonstrated (5:15). Love that lets us feel our belongingness must be demonstrated. How clearly God had demonstrated to this generation His personal and practical involvement with them: “God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”

     Christ is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for us. But each of us can find many other special ways in which God has acted in our lives to show His love.

     (4) Love is expressive (5:16–20). It is hard to feel loved when we don’t really know what is going on inside a person who claims to love us. In this restatement of the Ten Commandments, we see God’s willingness to communicate His expectations. This communication was first heard at Sinai with fear, but also with a certain responsiveness that pleased the Lord. “All that the Lord our God will speak to you,” the people told Moses, “we will hear and do” (Deut. 5:27).

     Love communicates and expresses; love desires a response. What is even more significant for us in our relationship with God is this: God wants to help us grow in our own capacity to love. As we saw earlier, these manward commandments are rooted in God’s own concern for men. As we listen to Him and respond to His Law, we grow in our ability to love others.

     This is an important thing to see. A person who loves another desires to see him grow. We can be utterly sure that God loves us because His every word to us is designed to help us grow to our full potentials.

     (5) Love is unselfish (5:21–33). This last element of real love is affirmed in these verses. God enters into relationship with us, and speaks to us “that it might go well with” us. As verse 33 summarizes, you shall “walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”

     People who come into personal relationship with God are not pawns in some cosmic game. We are not His playthings. No, God’s love for us is unselfish. He honestly has our best interests at heart.

     All this helped Israel realize that it did have a personal relationship with the Lord, and that God truly did care. This people was loved. And so are we.

     Perhaps your parents, or your spouse, have never let you know how deeply you are loved. Perhaps they haven’t truly cared. But through Christ you can have a personal relationship with God Himself, in which you are loved and do belong. Personally, urgently, practically, expressively, unselfishly, God Himself says to you and to me today: “You are loved.”

     The communication of relationship (Deut. 6). The people of Israel who stood on the plains across the Jordan and heard Moses’ words knew they were true. They knew from personal experience.

     Many of them had as children seen God’s acts of judgment on Egypt. They had all eaten the manna, all followed the fiery cloud, all participated in the victory over Moab. Every one had evidence of God’s presence and of His concern.

     But when this generation crossed the River Jordan, many things would change. The manna would cease, and they would begin to eat the corn of that land. The cloud that guided them would be gone. There would be victories, but the daily evidence of God’s supernatural presence would be removed. This generation knew from direct, personal experience, that they truly were special to God. But how could they communicate to the generation to come the specialness of their relationship with God? How do we, who know God now, share His reality with others, and help them to experience Him as real?

Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The Teacher's Commentary (323). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

     Vers. 2–9.—The voice of God in passing events to be heeded, interpreted, and obeyed. As in former paragraphs, we have here much repetition of the same teachings which had been already given. We therefore select for homiletic treatment the one distinctive feature which marks it. The people of God are now on the verge of Canaan. Multitudes of them had been born since the march through the wilderness had begun forty years before. They could not have seen the wonders in Egypt, nor could they know, except by report, of the manifestations of the Divine displeasure at the rebellious spirit manifested by the people during the first years of their course. But there are still some seniors left who had seen all. To these Moses makes his appeal, ere the discourse in which he exhorts to obedience is brought to a close. And he urges them anew, from a consideration of the deep meaning of the events which their own eyes have seen, to learn to be faithful and obedient. We by no means understand Moses as intending to say that the children are not before him to hear his words, but rather that the argument he is now using is specially for the sires rather than the sons. It is in effect this: “You, the seniors among the people now, have seen all these things. God has spoken in them directly to you; therefore, it is incumbent upon you to assign to these events their true meaning, and to give them their rightful power over you.” Whence we get the topic named above for our Homily: “The voice of God in passing events to be needed, understood, and obeyed.”

     I. HERE ARE STIRRING EVENTS WHICH HAD OCCURRED UNDER ISRAEL’S OWN EYES. Three of them are specially named. 1. The plagues brought on Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. 2. The overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. 3. The overthrow of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

     II. HERE IS A SPECIFIC MEANING GIVEN TO THESE EVENTS. They are all called “chastisement” (ver. 2). They are not only referred to as works of greatness, deeds of power and of terror, but their moral meaning (which is infinitely more important) is given in the word “chastisement.” It is of very much more consequence to understand the meaning of an event, than to merely have the event stored up in memory as a piece of history. In fact, it may fairly be questioned whether the latter is of any value at all. Of what value is it to a student to know that King John signed Magna Charts, unless he knows the meaning thereof, as related to the rise and growth of the British Constitution? Even so it is not of the slightest service to know of Red Sea wonders, nor of the plagues in Egypt, unless their place and meaning in history are known. This is the case likewise with events of much greater moment. Not even the wonders of Gethsemane and Calvary are exempted. If regarded only as incidents in history, apart from their spiritual, redemptive meaning, they will serve us nothing. “As the body without the spirit is dead,” so facts without their significance are dead also. Hence it is that the attention of Israel is recalled to these olden wonders as “chastisements” from the Lord their God.

     III. THESE EVENTS MAY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO CLASSES; In each class a like principle is illustrated, though in a different form. 1. The first two were the chastisement of Egypt on behalf of God’s oppressed people, showing them the strength of his arm and the value of his convenant love. 2. The third was the chastisement of the chosen people themselves, when they rebelled against the divinely appointed order with reference to the priesthood. In the former cases, God’s jealous love on behalf of his people was proven; in the latter case, God’s jealousy for his own honour, in maintaining his appointed order and ordinances unimpaired. In the former, that jealousy chastised Egypt for Israel’s sake; in the latter, Israel for Jehovah’s sake. Thus Israel would have before them the lesson that, as God in his love would snap the fetters that bound them, so in his purity he would remove the stains that disfigured them; that as they rejoiced in the love of God which was round them as a mighty guard, so they might also cherish a holy fear of that purity which would mark its displeasure at their waywardness and sins.

     IV. SUCH EVENTS, SO FULL OF MEANING, SHOULD HAVE A CONSTANT EFFECT IN IMPELLING TO OBEDIENCE, AND IN QUICKENING AND SUSTAINING A REVERENT FEAR AND LOVE. God meant much in bringing them to pass, and they should mean much in the use they made of them (vers. 8, 9). If they laid them to heart, and acted out the lessons they were designed to teach, they would continue in the land which God had assigned to them. The reference in the phrase, “that ye may prolong your days in the land,” is rather to Israel’s continuance as a nation, than to the long life of the individual. National continuance dependent on national obedience, is the one truth most frequently named in the exhortations of Israel’s lawgiver.

     V. ALL THIS HAS A PRESENT-DAY APPLICATION TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD NOW. Forms change; but principles never. There are few passages, even in the grand old Book, that open up a wider scope or a sublimer field for the preacher’s efforts than the one before us. The following enumeration of the successive links of thought may be helpful. Our pages give no space for more. 1. At the background of the Christian dispensation there are solid and substantial historical facts on which we can ever fall back. 2. Though the facts, comprised in the birth, cross-bearing, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, did not occur in our times, yet the evidence thereof has come down to us in unbroken line, and with unimpaired force. 3. The meaning of these facts is even better known now than it was at the moment of their occurrence; for their significance has been recorded for us in books which have survived fire and flood, and have reached us in all their integrity. 4. There are other sets of facts connected therewith of which we are witnesses, viz. that the gospel of Christ has been the power of God unto salvation to those who believe it, and that believers therein are the guardians of it, holding it in trust for others. 5. Those thus guarding the faith, of Christ are the present “commonwealth of Israel;” taking the place in this economy of the Israel of old. They are not indeed visible one now as in ancient days. But they form a host a hundredfold more numerous, ranged under differing names, yet guarding the ancient faith. 6. Those Churches which are faithful to their acknowledged mission, prolong their days in the land; while those which, either in faith or life, are less loyal and true to their God, die out, and “the candlestick is removed out of its place.” 7. This law of Church life is a perpetual declaration of God’s jealousy for his honour. “In proportion to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness,” says a modern writer, “particular Chruches overcome the world, or are overcome by the Chruches, “Thus God shows his care for these supreme facts of our faith, by saying to Churches, “If you guard them, you live; if you guard them not, you die.” In the great redemption which is in Christ Jesus, God has broken the fetters which bound man. In his watchful jealousy, he will bring honour to the Church which holds forth and acts out his redemption, and will bring shame to one which represses it, weakens it, or turns the grace of God into lasciviousness. Just as our God cared not for Israel to remain a nation unless they preserved his honour unimpaired, so he cares not for the continued existence of any Church, unless it is “earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.” 8. While, however, the claim and demand of God upon the fidelity of his Israel now is as strong as ever, yea stronger, the mode in which that claim is presented is vastly more tender than in ancient days. In the Epistles to the seven Chruches we have a kind of appeal to the Christian Israel, analogous to this of Moses to the Hebrew Israel. But, in lieu of the thunder, trembling, and flame of Sinai, we have the pathos and love of Gethsemane and Calvary. Can we resist such appeals as those which Christ presents? Can we consent to keep back from man the cross, with all its fullness of meaning; or fail to respond to it by interest love and closest obedience? May our once suffering and now glorified Lord make us faithful, and keep us so till death!

The Pulpit Commentary : St. Luke The Pulpit Commentary (23 Volume Set)

     Biblical scholars have been diligent in uncovering little spots of interpretation such as these within the Hebrew Bible itself: later versions of earlier laws sometimes modify their wording or reconfigure their application; original biblical prophecies are sometimes supplemented or rearranged to stress the new interpretation now given to them; later editors sometimes inserted phrases that glossed earlier texts whose wording was no longer understood. But considered as a whole, these inner-biblical interpretations pale before the great body of ancient interpretation that has been preserved outside of the Jewish Bible, in works composed from about the third century B.C.E. to the second century C.E. and beyond. This was the golden age of biblical interpretation, the period in which various groups of (largely anonymous) interpreters put their stamp on the Hebrew Bible and determined the basic way in which the Bible would be interpreted for the next 2,000 years.

     The writings in which their interpretations are attested are quite varied. Some of them are originally Jewish compositions included in Christian Bibles—identified there as “Deuterocanonical Books” or “Old Testament Apocrypha”—works such as the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira (second century B.C.E.) and the Wisdom of Solomon (first century B.C.E. or C.E.). Others are categorized as “pseudepigrapha,” compositions falsely ascribed to ancient figures from the Bible but actually written in a later period—works such as the book of Jubilees (early second century B.C.E.) or the Testament of Abraham (first century B.C.E. or C.E.). Much ancient biblical interpretation is also preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls; some of these texts go back to the third century B.C.E. or earlier. Ancient translations, such as the Old Greek (Septuagint) translation of the Pentateuch (third century B.C.E.) or various targums, translations of the Bible into Aramaic (probably originating in the first century C.E. or earlier, though later material was often added in the process of transmission), also contain reflections of ancient biblical interpretation. Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.E.–ca. 50 C.E.) or Josephus (ca. 37 C.E.–100 C.E.) also present a great deal of biblical interpretation—part of it entirely of their own fashioning, but much else gathered from or influenced by the work of earlier interpreters. Christian writings of the first two centuries C.E., including the New Testament and other early compositions, also contain a good deal of biblical interpretation—much of it rooted in the pre-Christian exegesis. Finally, later Jewish writings such as the Mishnah (put in its final form around 200 C.E.), along with the Tosefta and the tannaitic midrashim (both from roughly the same period), contain a great deal of exegetical material, much of it continuing the line of earlier biblical interpretation. Considered together, this is a vast body of writings, many times greater than the Hebrew Bible itself. In studying it, scholars are able to piece together a developmental history of how the Bible was understood starting early in the second B.C.E. or so and continuing through the next three or four hundred years—a crucial period in the Bible’s history.

     A note about the form of biblical interpretation: relatively few of the above-mentioned texts are written in the form of actual commentaries, that is, writings that cite a biblical verse and then explain what the interpreter thinks the verse means. Such commentaries did exist—they were the preferred genre of Philo of Alexandria, and commentary-like texts have been found as well among the Dead Sea Scrolls. But the favorite form for transmitting biblical interpretation in writing was the retelling. Most writers simply assumed that their readers would be familiar with the biblical text, indeed, familiar with the exegetical problems associated with this or that verse. So he or she would retell the text with little interpretive insertions: a word no longer understood would be glossed or replaced with a word whose meaning everyone knew; an apparent contradiction would be resolved through the insertion of an explicative detail; the retelling would take the trouble to explain why A or B had done what they did, or how they did it, thereby answering a question left open in the laconic biblical version of the same story. Such retellings are a common phenomenon in ancient interpretation: the book of Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran, and Pseudo-Philo’s Book of Biblical Antiquities are good examples of compositions that are, from start to finish, interpretive retellings. So, in a sense, are Aramaic targums such as that of Pseudo-Jonathan or Neofiti; they “translate” the Pentateuch into Aramaic, but with so many interpolations that they are actually more like retellings than real translations.

Kugel, J. L. (2010). Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation.The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism

     A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
--- Proverbs 18:14.

     This is the kind of crushed spirit I mean. (Twelve sermons for the troubled and tried: Delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle ) When a soul is under a deep and terrible sense of sin—when the notion of what guilt is first comes clearly home, and the soul sees that God must be as certainly just as he is good, then discovers that it has angered infinite love, has provoked almighty grace, and has made its best Friend to be, necessarily, its most terrible foe. A person in such a condition will have a crushed spirit such as none can bear.

     Sometimes the spirit is crushed by the fierce temptations of Satan. I hope that you do not at all understand what this means, but there are some who do. Satan tempts them to doubt, tempts them to sin, to blasphemy, even to curse God and die. That temptation brings a crushed spirit. God save you from it, if you have fallen under its terrible power!

     A crushed spirit may also come through desertion by God. The believer has not walked carefully and has fallen into sin, and God has hidden his face. A true child of God has played with sin and has been brought back to the Lord but goes on with an aching heart and limping limbs. Some who were once very bright stars who have been for a while eclipsed will never be able to escape from a certain sense of darkness that is still on them. Therefore, beloved, be very careful that you do not backslide, for if you do, you will have a crushed spirit that you will not know how to bear.

     I believe that some of God’s children have crushed spirits entirely through mistake. I am always afraid of those who get certain wild notions into their heads, ideas that are not true, I mean. They are very happy while they hold those high notions, and they look down on others who do not go kite-flying or balloon-sailing as they do. I think to myself, sometimes, How will they come down when their precious balloon bursts? I have seen them believe this and believe that, which they were not warranted by the Scriptures to believe. But when you come down again, you will begin to condemn yourself for things that you need not condemn, and you will be distressed and miserable in your spirit because of a disappointment that you need never have had if you had walked humbly with your God. For my own part, I am content to abide in the old way, myself ever a poor, needy, helpless sinner, finding everything I need in Christ.
--- C. H. Spurgeon

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     “Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk,” warns Ephesians 5:18, “but let the Spirit fill your life.” That’s a divine command, but just how do we let the Spirit fill us? That question has occasioned a century of debate.

     From rural Iowa, Rev. Charles Fox Parham brought a message of holiness to midwestern towns at the close of the 1800s. In October of 1900, spurred by his success as a preacher and healer, Parham opened a small Bible school in Topeka. He was intrigued by the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” In December he left for meetings in Kansas City, instructing his students to investigate the subject in his absence. Upon his return, December 31, his 40 pupils had unanimously concluded from their studies that speaking in tongues was the “indisputable proof” of spiritual baptism.

     That night as they gathered for New Year’s Eve services, the students began to pray. The next day, January 1, 1901, student Agnes Ozman began speaking in tongues, and a sense of revival swept through the group.

     The school soon closed as its professor and students fanned out as evangelists of their new discovery. In Texas, Parham’s message reached a Baptist Holiness minister named William Seymour, a one-eyed descendant of African slaves. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles and set up shop at 312 Azusa Street in an abandoned livery stable. There he began preaching. On April 9, 1906 Seymour and several others had an experience they claimed as the “baptism of the Spirit.” Excitement spread, and a Los Angeles Times reporter visited their meeting, writing, “The night is made hideous … by the howlings of the worshipers.”

     Large crowds came from across the nation and around the world, and three years of nonstop prayer meetings followed. Seymour usually sat at the front of the room behind two empty boxes, one on top of the other. During meetings, he kept his head inside the boxes, earnestly praying.

     The Azusa Street Revival is commonly regarded as the beginning of modern Pentecostalism, which has mushroomed into one of the largest Christian movements of the twentieth century.

     Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life. When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart. Always use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to thank God the Father for everything.
--- Ephesians 5:18-20.

     Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

MONDAY IN EASTER WEEK
YEAR 2

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 93, 98
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 66
Old Testament Exodus 12:14–27
New Testament 1 Corinthians 15:1–11
Gospel Mark 16:1–8

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 93, 98

1 The LORD is king, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength.
He has established the world; it shall never be moved;
2 your throne is established from of old;
you are from everlasting.

3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their roaring.
4 More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
more majestic than the waves of the sea,
majestic on high is the LORD!

5 Your decrees are very sure;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, forevermore.

A Psalm.

1 O sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him victory.
2 The LORD has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD.

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.
8 Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy
9 at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

PSALMS (EVENING)
Psalm 66

To the leader. A Song. A Psalm.

1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you;
they sing praises to you,
sing praises to your name.” Selah

5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah

8 Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay you my vows,
14 those that my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me.

OLD TESTAMENT
Exodus 12:14–27

14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and on the seventh day a solemn assembly; no work shall be done on those days; only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. 18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you shall eat unleavened bread. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23 For the LORD will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 25 When you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshiped.

NEW TESTAMENT
1 Corinthians 15:1–11

15 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

GOSPEL
Mark 16:1–8

16 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

THE SHORTER ENDING OF MARK

[[And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]]

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary