As of this date, June 22, 1970, eighteen-year-olds could begin voting in elections, thanks to President Richard M. Nixon signing the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court limited this right, so the following year the 26th Amendment was passed to confirm it. This was spurred by the protests during the Vietnam War, where students declared “If we’re old enough to fight, we’re old enough to vote.” In his Inaugural Address, President Nixon stated: “The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is… to insure… that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

Availability is better
than ability
--- Author Unknown

... from here, there and everywhere

26 One who mistreats his father and evicts his mother
is a son who brings them shame and disgrace.

27 My son, if you stop heeding discipline,
you will stray from the principles of knowledge.

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.

     Jesus’ own people did not recognize what was happening; they knew that rabbis in distress sometimes looked to Elijah for help, and they assumed that Jesus was doing likewise. Clearly they expected no supernatural intervention—expectations seemingly confirmed because Elijah would not come. The narrative again bristles with irony: far from being able to help Jesus, Elijah was his forerunner in martyrdom. The wine vinegar (27:48) was probably an attempt to revive him, perhaps to prolong the torment in mocking pretense that Elijah had come to relieve him. But Jesus had come to drink the cup of suffering (26:39), the cup of God’s wrath (Jer 25:15–29). Our Lord is both our model, obedient and uncomplaining as he serves the Father no matter what the cost, and our Savior, who offers himself for the sins of the world.

Craig S. Keener and InterVarsity Press The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (See all New Testament Bibles)

     This was the thick and gorgeously wrought veil which was hung between the “holy place” and the “holiest of all,” shutting out all access to the presence of God as manifested “from above the mercy seat and from between the cherubim”—“the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest” (Heb 9:8). Into this holiest of all none might enter, not even the high priest, save once a year, on the great day of atonement, and then only with the blood of atonement in his hands, which he sprinkled “upon and before the mercy seat seven times” (Lev 16:14)—to signify that access for sinners to a holy God is only through atoning blood. But as they had only the blood of bulls and of goats, which could not take away sins (Heb 10:4), during all the long ages that preceded the death of Christ the thick veil remained; the blood of bulls and of goats continued to be shed and sprinkled; and once a year access to God through an atoning sacrifice was vouchsafed—in a picture, or rather, was dramatically represented, in those symbolical actions—nothing more. But now, the one atoning Sacrifice being provided in the precious blood of Christ, access to this holy God could no longer be denied; and so the moment the Victim expired on the altar, that thick veil which for so many ages had been the dread symbol of separation between God and guilty men was, without a hand touching it, mysteriously “rent in twain from top to bottom”—“the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was now made manifest!” How emphatic the statement, from top to bottom; as if to say, Come boldly now to the Throne of Grace; the veil is clean gone; the mercy seat stands open to the gaze of sinners, and the way to it is sprinkled with the blood of Him—“who through the eternal Spirit hath offered Himself without spot to God!” Before, it was death to go in, now it is death to stay out. (Heb 10:19–22)

Robert; Fausset, A. R.;Brown, David Jamieson A Commentary Critical, Experimental and Practical on the Old and New Testaments in 6 volumes (complete)

     That the Sanhedrin included pious members like Joseph, and not just the sort who appeared in the trial narrative (as pious as even they may have supposed themselves), fits the known diversity within even the Jewish aristocracy of the period. Because he awaited the future kingdom, (This term means “rule,” “reign” or “authority” (not a king’s people or land, as connotations of the English term could imply). Jewish people recognized that God rules the universe now, but they prayed for the day when he would rule the world unchallenged by idolatry and disobedience. The coming of this future aspect of God’s reign was generally associated with the Messiah and the resurrection of the dead. Because Jesus came and will come again, Christians believe that the kingdom has been inaugurated but awaits consummation or completion. “Kingdom of heaven” is another way (Matthew’s usual way) of saying “kingdom of God.” “Heaven” was a standard Jewish way of saying “God” (as in Lk 15:21).) Joseph was probably not a Sadducee, (Most belonged to the priestly aristocracy that had prospered due to its good relationship with the Romans; they pacified the people for the Romans and the Romans for the people. They controlled the prosperous temple cult, were skeptical of Pharisaic traditions and super-naturalistic emphasis on angels and other spirits, and most of all were disturbed by talk of the resurrection of the dead and other end-time beliefs. (Sounds like some post-moderns I know; very liberal, don't accept the Biblical meta-narrative (or any meta-narrative) and are skeptical of miracles) Messianic beliefs about the end time could—and ultimately did—challenge the stability of their own position in Palestine.) unlike many of his colleagues.

Craig S. Keener and InterVarsity Press The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (See all New Testament Bibles)

                         The undeviating test

     For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. --- Matthew 7:2.

     This statement is not a haphazard guess, it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give, it is measured to you again. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus says that the basis of life is retribution—“with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the defects in others, remember that will be exactly the measure given to you. Life serves back in the coin you pay. This law works from God’s throne downwards (cf. Psalm 18:25–26).

     Romans 2 applies it in a still more definite way, and says that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing. God looks not only at the act, He looks at the possibility. We do not believe the statements of the Bible to begin with. For instance, do we believe this statement, that the things we criticize in others we are guilty of ourselves? The reason we see hypocrisy and fraud and unreality in others is because they are all in our own hearts. The great characteristic of a saint is humility—‘Yes, all those things and other evils would have been manifested in me but for the grace of God; therefore I have no right to judge.’

     Jesus says—“Judge not, that ye be not judged”; if you do judge, it will be measured to you exactly as you have judged. Who of us would dare to stand before God and say—‘My God, judge me as I have judged my fellow men’? We have judged our fellow men as sinners; if God should judge us like that we would be in hell. God judges us through the marvellous Atonement of Jesus Christ.

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

Cars pass him by; he'll never own one.
Men won't believe in him for this.
Let them come into the hills
And meet him wandering a road,
Fenced with rain, as I have now;
The wind feathering his hair;
The sky's ruins, gutted with fire
Of the late sun, smouldering still.

Nothing is his, neither the land
Nor the land's flocks. Hired to live
On hills too lonely, sharing his hearth
With cats and hens, he has lost all
Property but the grey ice
Of a face splintered by life's stone.

R.S. Thomas. Selected poems, 1946-1968

     Two women meet for coffee. “So how did your date go?” the first asks.

     “Not so good,” her friend answers. “He wore a fancy tie with a tie tack. A tie tack?! I haven’t seen one of those since I was in high school.”

     “So he wore a tie tack. Big deal! Tell me something else about him, something good about him. Bobby, the guy at work who told me about him, says that he’s good looking. So when you looked past the tie tack, was he cute?”

     “I don’t know. There just wasn’t any chemistry there. We just didn’t hit it off. There was just something about him. I don’t know …”

     “What is it with you? Every guy you go out with, there’s something wrong with him. That guy you met at the Federation singles weekend, he had bad dandruff.”

     “He did.”

     “Come on. I met him. He was terrific. And I didn’t see any dandruff. And how about that guy from your health club?”

     “He’s a mama’s boy.”

     “Just because he went home for the Passover seder, he’s a mama’s boy? I bet if you had invited him to your seder he would’ve dumped his mama in a second.”

     “I don’t know. It’s so hard to find the right guy.”

     “Maybe it’s because you’re looking for Mr. Perfect?”

     “I’m not looking for Mr. Perfect, but I do have very high standards. How could I spend the rest of my life with a man who wears a tie tack with his initials on it?”

     “Look, sweetie, maybe this is gonna hurt, but you’re my friend, so you might as well hear it from me: If you’re waiting for Mr. Perfect, then you’re going to be a pretty lonely person. No one is perfect. There is no one absolute person, no Mr. Right. Every person has flaws, idiosyncrasies, quirks. That’s human nature. Unless you’re willing to fall in love with someone who’s flawed, you’re going to be very lonely. You know, ‘A sealed jar of perfume still smells good in a graveyard. Imagine how good it would smell if it were opened in your house.’ ”

     “What the heck does that mean?”

     “I don’t know what it means. But it sure sounds romantic. I heard it from the guy who took me out Saturday night. He told me that his rabbi used it in his sermon last Saturday. And by the way, he asked me out again—this Saturday night!”

     “I guess that compared to a lot of the other guys out there, ‘Mr. Tie Tack’ isn’t so bad.”

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. --- Romans 8:37

     God is in it with you, and you are in it with God—that is the message of the Cross on the mystery of suffering. Classic Sermons on Suffering (Kregel Classic Sermons Series)

And that message means victory. The crucified figure of Christ looks, at first glance, pathetically like defeat. It looks like the climax of all the pathos of the world. But you do not see the Cross aright at first glance. You have to gaze and gaze again. And those who do that make a marvelous discovery. They see, not Christ the pain-drenched sufferer, but Christ the mighty victor. They see the blackest tragedy of this earth becoming earth’s most dazzling triumph.

      Isn’t there a wonderful sense of mastery right through the passion narrative? “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). Isn’t there royalty in that? See him marching to Jerusalem. Mark well his serenity through the last terrible days. Watch his bearing before Pilate. See him on the cross refusing the drug they offered. Hear the shout that broke on the darkness: “It is finished!” Is that defeat? Yes, it is, but not Christ’s defeat—certainly not that! But the defeat of suffering. The defeat of the mystery of evil and of all the dark tragic powers of life—and Christ’s victory! You are King of glory, O Christ—Conqueror renowned!

     “But what has all this to do with me?” you ask.

     Surely the answer is clear. If evil at its worst has already been met and mastered, if God has turned suffering’s most awful triumph into uttermost defeat—if that in fact has happened, and on that scale, are you to say it cannot happen on the infinitely lesser scale of your own life, by union with Christ through faith? If you will only open your nature to the invasion of Christ’s Spirit, you will do as he did. “In all these things”—these desolating, heartbreaking things that happen to us, these physical pains, these mental agonies, these spiritual midnights of the soul—“we are more than conquerors,” not through our own valor or stoic resolution, not through a creed or code or philosophy, but “through him who loved us.”

     That is the only answer to the mystery of suffering, and the answer is a question: Will you let God reign? The answer is not a theory. It is a life. It is a dedicated spirit, a fully surrendered soul. May that answer be ours!
--- James S. Stewart

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

     Most people are so familiar with the story of Jonah that nothing in it surprises them anymore, including the fact that it begins with the word “and.” (The KJV translates the Hebrew connective “now,” while the NIV and NASB ignore it completely.) If I opened one of my books with the word “and,” the editor would probably wonder if something had been lost, including my ability to use the English language.

     Jonah is one of fourteen Old Testament books that open with the little word “and.” These books remind us of God’s “continued story” of grace and mercy. Though the Bible is comprised of sixty-six different books, it tells only one story; and God keeps communicating that message to us, even though we don’t always listen too attentively. How long-suffering He is toward us!

     What is the Book of Jonah about? Well, it’s not simply about a great fish (mentioned only four times), or a great city (named nine times), or even a disobedient prophet (mentioned eighteen times). It’s about God! God is mentioned thirty-eight times in these four short chapters, and if you eliminated Him from the book, the story wouldn’t make sense. The Book of Jonah is about the will of God and how we respond to it. It’s also about the love of God and how we share it with others.

     In these first two chapters, Jonah has three experiences.

     1. Rebellion (Jonah 1:1–17)

     Jonah must have been a popular man in Israel, because his prediction had been fulfilled that the nation would regain her lost territory from her enemies (2 Kings 14:25). Those were days of peace and prosperity for Israel, but they were autumn days just before the terrible winter of judgment.

     Jonah the prophet disobeys God’s call (Jonah 1:1–3). Jonah got into trouble because his attitudes were wrong. To begin with, he had a wrong attitude toward the will of God. Obeying the will of God is as important to God’s servant as it is to the people His servants minister to. It’s in obeying the will of God that we find our spiritual nourishment (John 4:34), enlightenment (7:17), and enablement (Heb. 13:21). To Jesus, the will of God was food that satisfied Him; to Jonah, the will of God was medicine that choked him.

     Jonah’s wrong attitude toward God’s will stemmed from a feeling that the Lord was asking him to do an impossible thing. God commanded the prophet to go to Israel’s enemy, Assyria, and give the city of Nineveh opportunity to repent, and Jonah would much rather see the city destroyed. The Assyrians were a cruel people who had often abused Israel and Jonah’s narrow patriotism took precedence over his theology. (Jonah’s hometown of Gath Hepher was on the border of Zebulun, one of the northernmost tribes, and therefore extremely vulnerable to the attacks of invaders. Perhaps he had seen what the Assyrians could do.) Jonah forgot that the will of God is the expression of the love of God (Ps. 33:11), and that God called him to Nineveh because He loved both Jonah and the Ninevites.

     Jonah also had a wrong attitude toward the Word of God. When the Word of the Lord came to him, Jonah thought he could “take it or leave it.” However, when God’s Word commands us, we must listen and obey. Disobedience isn’t an option. “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46, (NKJV).

     Jonah forgot that it was a great privilege to be a prophet, to hear God’s Word, and know God’s will. That’s why he resigned his prophetic office and fled in the opposite direction from Nineveh. (Tarshish was probably in Spain, over 1,000 miles west of Joppa. Jonah was supposed to travel east to Nineveh. The Jews weren’t seafarers, but Jonah forgot his prejudices and fears in his attempt to escape doing God’s will.) Jonah knew that he couldn’t run away from God’s presence (Ps. 139:7–12), but he felt he had the right to turn in his resignation. He forgot that “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29, NIV). At one time or another during their ministries, Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah felt like giving up, but God wouldn’t let them. Jonah needed Nineveh as much as Nineveh needed Jonah. It’s in doing the will of God that we grow in grace and become more like Christ.

     Jonah had a wrong attitude toward circumstances; he thought they were working for him when they were really working against him. He fled to Joppa (It was at Joppa that Peter got his divine call to go the Gentiles with the message of the Gospel (Acts 10). Though he protested somewhat at first, unlike Jonah, he obeyed God’s call and opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. What a privilege!) and found just the right ship waiting for him! He had enough money to pay the fare for his long trip, and he was even able to go down into the ship and fall into a sleep so deep that the storm didn’t wake him up. It’s possible to be out of the will of God and still have circumstances appear to be working on your behalf. You can be rebelling against God and still have a false sense of security that includes a good night’s sleep. God in His providence was preparing Jonah for a great fall.

     Finally, Jonah had a wrong attitude toward the Gentiles. Instead of wanting to help them find the true and living God, he wanted to abandon them to their darkness and spiritual death. He not only hated their sins—and the Assyrians were ruthless enemies—but he hated the sinners who committed the sins. Better that Nineveh should be destroyed than that the Assyrians live and attack Israel.

     Jonah the Jew becomes a curse instead of a blessing (Jonah 1:4–10). God called the Jews to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12:1–3), but whenever the Jews were out of the will of God, they brought trouble instead of blessing. (One exception is when the fall of the Jews brought salvation to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:11ff). Israel was out of God’s will when they rejected Christ and opposed the Gospel, but this opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles.) Twice Abraham brought trouble to people because he lied (vv. 10–20; 20:1–18); Achan brought trouble to Israel’s army because he robbed God (Josh. 7); and Jonah brought trouble to a boatload of pagan sailors because he fled. Consider all that Jonah lost because he wasn’t a blessing to others.

     First of all, he lost the voice of God (Jonah 1:4). We don’t read that “the word of the Lord came to Jonah,” but that a great storm broke loose over the waters. God was no longer speaking to Jonah through His word; He was speaking to him through His works: the sea, the wind, the rain, the thunder, and even the great fish. Everything in nature obeyed God except His servant! God even spoke to Jonah through the heathen sailors (vv. 6, 8, 10) who didn’t know Jehovah. It’s a sad thing when a servant of God is rebuked by pagans.

     Jonah also lost his spiritual energy (v. 5b). He went to sleep during a fierce storm and was totally unconcerned about the safety of others. The sailors were throwing the ship’s wares and cargo overboard, and Jonah was about to lose everything, but he still slept on. “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (Prov. 24:33, NIV).

     He lost his power in prayer (Jonah 1:5a, 6). The heathen sailors were calling on their gods for help while Jonah slept through the prayer meeting, the one man on board who knew the true God and could pray to Him. Of course, Jonah would first have had to confess his sins and determine to obey God, something he wasn’t willing to do. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps. 66:18). (The word translated “regard” means “to look upon with knowledge and approval.” It isn’t only knowing that we’ve sinned that hinders prayer, but holding onto that sin, approving of it, and protecting it. (See 1 John 1:5–10.) ) If Jonah did pray, his prayer wasn’t answered. Loss of power in prayer is one of the first indications that we’re far from the Lord and need to get right with Him.

     Sad to say, Jonah lost his testimony (Jonah 1:7–10). He certainly wasn’t living up to his name, (It appears that the sailors gave Jonah a nickname: “he who is responsible for causing all this trouble” (Jonah 1:8, NIV). Since the lot had already fallen on Jonah, the crew didn’t need to ask him who was to blame. He was to blame, and they knew it; and that’s why they gave him that embarrassing nickname. The KJV, NASB, and NIV all make the nickname into an unnecessary question.) for Jonah means “dove,” and the dove is a symbol of peace. Jonah’s father’s name was Ammitai, which means “faithful, truthful,” something that Jonah was not. We’ve already seen that he wasn’t living up to his high calling as a Jew, for he had brought everybody trouble instead of blessing, nor was he living up to his calling as a prophet, for he had no message for them from God. When the lot pointed to Jonah as the culprit, he could no longer avoid making a decision.

     Jonah had already told the crew that he was running away from God, but now he told them he was God’s prophet, the God who created the heaven, the earth, and the sea. This announcement made the sailors even more frightened. The God who created the sea was punishing His servant and that’s why they were in danger!

     Jonah the rebel suffers for his sins (Jonah 1:11–17). Charles Spurgeon said that God never allows His children to sin successfully, and Jonah is proof of the truth of that statement. “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6, NKJV).

     We must not make the mistake of calling Jonah a martyr, for the title would be undeserved. Martyrs die for the glory of God, but Jonah offered to die because selfishly he would rather die than obey the will of God!8 He shouldn’t be classified with people like Moses (Ex. 32:30–35), Esther (Es. 4:13–17), and Paul (Rom. 9:1–3) who were willing to give their lives to God in order to rescue others. Jonah is to be commended for telling the truth but not for taking his life in his own hands. He should have surrendered his life to the Lord and let Him give the orders. Had he fallen to his knees and confessed his sins to God, Jonah might have seen the storm cease and the door open to a great opportunity for witness on the ship.

     It’s significant that the heathen sailors at first rejected Jonah’s offer and began to work harder to save the ship. They did more for Jonah than Jonah had been willing to do for them. When they saw that the cause was hopeless, they asked Jonah’s God for His forgiveness for throwing Jonah into the stormy sea. Sometimes unsaved people put believers to shame by their honesty, sympathy, and sacrifice.

     However, these pagan sailors knew some basic theology: the existence of Jonah’s God, His judgment of sin, their own guilt before Him, and His sovereignty over creation. They confessed, “For you, O Lord, have done as You pleased” (Jonah 1:14, NIV). However, there’s no evidence that they abandoned their old gods; they merely added Jehovah to their “god shelf.” They threw themselves on God’s mercy and then threw Jonah into the raging sea, and God stopped the storm.

     When the storm ceased, the men feared God even more and made vows to Him. How they could offer an animal sacrifice to God on board ship is a puzzle to us, especially since the cargo had been jettisoned, but then we don’t know what the sacrifice was or how it was offered. Perhaps the sense of verse 16 is that they offered the animal to Jehovah and vowed to sacrifice it to Him once they were safe on shore.

     The seventeenth-century English preacher Jeremy Taylor said, “God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.” He was referring, of course, to being happy with God’s will for our lives. For us to rebel against God’s will, as Jonah did, is to invite the chastening hand of God. That’s why the Westminster Catechism states that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We glorify God by enjoying His will and doing it from our hearts (Eph. 6:6), and that’s where Jonah failed.

     Jonah could say with the psalmist, “The Lord has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death” (Ps. 118:18, NKJV). God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah and protect his life for three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 in the English versions is Jonah 2:1 in the Hebrew text.) We’ll consider the significance of this later in this study.

W. W. Wiersbe, (1996) Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship (The BE Series Commentary)