William Penn signed a treaty with the Delaware Indians this day, June 23, 1683, under an elm tree in what was to become the city of Philadelphia. A Quaker who took his faith seriously, Penn insisted on dealing fairly with the Indians, buying the land rather than taking it by force. As a result his colony was never attacked. William Penn addressed the tribe: “My Friends: There is one great God… that hath made the world and all things therein, to whom you and I and all people owe their being… This great God hath written… in our hearts… to love and help… one another and not to doe harm.”

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

The framers of our Constitution
meant we were to have freedom of religion,
not freedom from religion.
--- Billy Graham

... from here, there and everywhere

28 A worthless witness mocks at justice,
and the mouth of the wicked swallows wrongdoing.

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.

                         Acquaintance with grief

     A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. --- Isaiah 53:3.

     We are not acquainted with grief in the way in which Our Lord was acquainted with it; we endure it, we get through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of life we do not reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin. We take a rational view of life and say that a man by controlling his instincts, and by educating himself, can produce a life which will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we go on, we find the presence of something which we have not taken into consideration, viz., sin, and it upsets all our calculations. Sin has made the basis of things wild and not rational. We have to recognize that sin is a fact, not a defect; sin is red-handed mutiny against God. Either God or sin must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue. If sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will be true in your history and in mine. In our mental outlook we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin as the only explanation as to why Jesus Christ came, and the explanation of the grief and sorrow in life.

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

It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
Breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.
What God was there made himself felt,
Not listened to, in clean colours
That brought a moistening of the eye,
In movement of the wind over grass.

There were no prayers said. But stillness
Of the heart's passions -- that was praise
Enough; and the mind's cession
Of its kingdom. I walked on,
Simple and poor, while the air crumbled

And broke on me generously as bread.

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

     BIBLE TEXT / Genesis 7:1–2 / The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, with all your household, for you alone have I seen as righteous before Me in this generation. (authors’ translation)

     MIDRASH TEXT / Genesis Rabbah 32, 2 / “Go …” “For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face” (Psalm 11:7). Rabbi Tanḥuma in the name of Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon and Rabbi Menaḥama in the name of Rabbi Eliezer bar Yosé said, “No one loves his fellow craftsman, but a sage loves his fellow craftsman, like Rabbi Ḥiyya of Rabbi Hoshaya and Rabbi Hoshaya of Rabbi Ḥiyya. And the Holy One, praised is He, loves His fellow craftsman, as it says, ‘For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face.’ ” This is Noah, as it says, “The Lord said to Noah, ‘Go …’ ”

     CONTEXT / This Midrash bases itself on the fact that the biblical text says that God told Noah that he was “seen” as righteous. Using the verse from Psalms—“the upright shall behold His face”—Rabbi Tanḥuma understood that Noah was the righteous one who actually saw God. Therefore, when God says to Noah “for you alone have I seen as righteous before Me,” God means “I have seen you, a righteous man, standing before Me.”

     This leads Rabbi Tanḥuma to question how righteous people should behave, and he proposes—by implication—that the righteous should imitate not other people but God. Humans are naturally filled with jealousy toward those with similar talents and traits. “No one loves his fellow craftsman” means that there is an instinctive rivalry between two people who are in the same field. God, however, does not have this jealousy. God, who is—according to the verse from Psalm 11—tzaddik, “righteous,” does not have any rivalry toward Noah, who is similarly described in Genesis 6:9 as tzaddik, “righteous.” Scholars who attempt to imitate God’s ways should not be jealous of each other. The example given is of Rabbi Ḥiyya and Rabbi Hoshaya, two third-century masters of the Midrash in Israel. It is interesting to note that this Midrash begins with Rabbi Ḥiyya and Rabbi Hoshaya and ends with God and Noah, almost as if God imitates the scholar, rather than vice versa. This may be a case of Rabbinic hubris, or it may simply be a literary tool: the Midrash has to end with God and Noah, so that the verse “The Lord said to Noah, ‘Go …’ ” is the final quote of the section.

     D’RASH / Long ago and far away: A craftsman sits in his workshop, turning the potter’s wheel with his foot, shaping the wet clay with his hands. One eye is on the work before him, the other on the oven that is baking the clay vessels into pottery.

     Business has been good—until now. For the past ten years, there had been a steady stream of customers who came for all their household utensils. The potter had been kept busy and managed to do well enough to provide food, clothing, and shelter for his large family.

     But all that is now in jeopardy. Just last week a new family, from another village, came to town. One could quickly see from the tools and wares carried by their donkeys that the head of the household was—a potter.

     As the newcomers trekked into the neighborhood, the resident craftsman was filled with anger and fear. “Curse him, that wretched foreigner! Why does he have to come here, of all places? We already have a potter; we don’t need another one.”

     “Do not be upset, my husband. Your customers are loyal, decent people. They will not abandon an old and talented friend!”

     “Oh? You don’t think so? And what if the competition starts charging a copper-piece less than I do? Do you think the fickle housewives will still come to me, to pay more? This stranger is taking the food out of your tender children’s mouths, woman! And beyond the price there is a deeper worry: What if the potter is better than I am? Suppose he has better tools, or a steadier hand, or a more creative imagination? What if his pottery is more durable, what if his handiwork is more beautiful than mine? People have gotten used to me and to what I produce, but for ten years they haven’t had a choice. Now they do. Who knows what the future holds for us? I curse that man, and I curse the day he set foot in our town!”

     Technology may be vastly different, but human nature hasn’t changed much in three thousand years. We are still fearful—and resentful—of competition, in whatever shape it comes. But with God, things are different. While humans have a hard time making peace with those who do the same work, God seems to welcome all those who do godlike things. God is in the business of doing righteousness, and when a new man or woman comes to town looking to do the business of righteousness, God is not at all threatened. God is pleased. That’s why God was able to welcome Noah with open arms. (In other Near Eastern versions of the flood story, the gods want to destroy all humanity; in the Torah’s version, the person saved is the one who is called righteous.) There may be a limit to how much pottery can be sold in one town, but there is no limit to the amount of righteousness that can be spread around.

     The same, apparently, is true of Torah. Rabbis are not to see each other as the “competition.” Instead, they are to be חֲבֵרִים/ḥaverim, not only colleagues, but friends who teach and support one another. Rabbi Ḥiyya was the main student of Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi, the compiler of the Mishnah. Later, when Rabbi Ḥiyya established his own beit midrash, Rabbi Hoshaya was one of Ḥiyya’s main students. At the beginning of the third century, Hoshaya moved on to establish his own beit midrash. These two rabbis were responsible for collecting many baraitot, tannaitic teachings not included in the Mishnah. Apparently, Ḥiyya was not jealous of his former pupil’s success, and Hoshaya no doubt continued to show respect to his former teacher. The two worked together toward the same goal: teaching and disseminating Torah to the Jewish people. Ḥiyya and Hoshaya serve us as wonderful role models of how “craftsmen” can rise above petty concerns and, in doing so, become very much like God.

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

     Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.--- Matthew 26:56

      Judged by any human standard, the life of Christ had proved a misadventure and a mistake. Sermons Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral Amid the Hosannas of an admiring throng, he entered the Holy City, the acknowledged King of Israel. Then came the end. The populace turned against him. His own disciples deserted him. He was left alone—amidst the insults of the judgment hall, in the agonies of the Cross. Could any failure be more complete?

     Failure is inevitable. Success is not the rule of human life. It is the rare exception. The path of life is strewn with the corpses of magnificent projects and brilliant hopes crushed and trampled under foot.

     If failure is inevitable, how can we turn it to account? What are its special uses?

     Failure is a discipline. As a test of strength and as a test of faith alike it is without a rival.

     [Have you] felt enthusiasm burning in your heart? You tried and failed, and your faith deserted you. You felt that you were left alone; you did not feel that the Father was with you. You appropriated the one-half of Christ’s experience, the sense of failure; you did not appropriate the other and the essential half, the persistence of faith. There was in you then, there is in you now, if you will only believe it, a power that can defy failure, a power that must be victorious, because it is a power of God and not of your own.

     The life of Christ was the most stunning failure, followed by the most stunning triumph that the world has ever seen.

     This is the example of all examples. God’s purpose cannot fail. Whatever is honest, whatever is lovely, whatever is pure, whatever is truthful has vitality that no time can obliterate and no antagonism can subdue. Believe this and no failure will be a failure to you. It will only be a triumph deferred. The pains that you have spent in reclaiming that poor outcast are not thrown away, though you see no immediate fruits. The seeds of morality and goodness that you have sown in that wayward child are not lost, though the soil seems hard and barren now. You may not live to see it. Your life may be pronounced a failure. Dare to face this possibility. But your work cannot die. Think of Christ, your Master. Trust God, who is one, and not the world because it is many. “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).
--- J.B. Lightfoot

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

     From an experience of rebellion and discipline, Jonah turns to an experience of repentance and dedication, and God graciously gives him a new beginning. Jonah no doubt expected to die in the waters of the sea, (Some expositors believe that Jonah actually died and was resurrected, and base their interpretation on statements in his prayer like “From the depths of the grave [Sheol-the realm of the dead] I called for help” (2:2, NIV) and “But You brought my life up from the pit” (v.6, NIV). But Jonah’s prayer is composed of quotations from at least fifteen different psalms, and while some of these psalms describe near-death experiences, none describes a resurrection miracle. The reference to Sheol in verse 2 comes from Psalm 30:3 (and see 16:10 and 18:4–6), and the reference to “the pit” comes from 49:15, both of which were written by David. If these two psalms describe Jonah’s resurrection, then they must also describe David’s resurrection, but we have no evidence that David ever died and was raised to life. Instead, these psalms describe frightening experiences when God delivered His servants from the very gates of death. That seems to be what Jonah is describing as he quotes them in his prayer. Furthermore, if Jonah died and was resurrected, he could not be an accurate type of Christ (Matt. 12:39; 16:4; Luke 11:29); for types picture the antitype but don’t duplicate it, for the antitype is always greater. It’s a dangerous thing to build an interpretation on the poetic language of Scripture when we don’t have a clear New Testament interpretation to lean on.) but when he woke up inside the fish, he realized that God had graciously spared him. As with the Prodigal Son, whom Jonah in his rebellion greatly resembles (Luke 15:11–24), it was the goodness of God that brought him to repentance (Rom. 2:4). Notice the stages in Jonah’s spiritual experience as described in his prayer.

     He prayed for God’s help (Jonah 2:1–2). “Then Jonah prayed” (2:1) suggests that it was at the end of the three days and three nights when Jonah turned to the Lord for help, but we probably shouldn’t press the word “then” too far. The Hebrew text simply reads, “And Jonah prayed.” Surely Jonah prayed as he went down into the depths of the sea, certain that he would drown. That would be the normal thing for any person to do, and that’s the picture we get from verses 5 and 7.

     His prayer was born out of affliction, not affection. He cried out to God because he was in danger, not because he delighted in the Lord. But better that he should pray compelled by any motive than not to pray at all. It’s doubtful whether any believer always prays with pure and holy motives, for our desires and God’s directions sometimes conflict.

     However, in spite of the fact that he prayed, Jonah still wasn’t happy with the will of God. In chapter 1, he was afraid of the will of God and rebelled against it, but now he wants God’s will simply because it’s the only way out of his dangerous plight. Like too many people today, Jonah saw the will of God as something to turn to in an emergency, not something to live by every day of one’s life.

     Jonah was now experiencing what the sailors experienced during the storm: he felt he was perishing (1:6, 14). It’s good for God’s people, and especially preachers, to remember what it’s like to be lost and without hope. How easy it is for us to grow hardened toward sinners and lose our compassion for the lost. As He dropped Jonah into the depths, God was reminding him of what the people of Nineveh were going through in their sinful condition: they were helpless and hopeless.

     God heard Jonah’s cries for help. Prayer is one of the constant miracles of the Christian life. To think that our God is so great He can hear the cries of millions of people at the same time and deal with their needs personally! A parent with two or three children often finds it impossible to meet all their needs all the time, but God is able to provide for all His children, no matter where they are or what their needs may be. “He who has learned to pray,” said William Law, “has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.”

     He accepted God’s discipline (Jonah 2:3). The sailors didn’t cast Jonah into the stormy sea; God did. “You hurled me into the deep … all your waves and breakers swept over me” (v.3, NIV, italics mine). When Jonah said those words, he was acknowledging that God was disciplining him and that he deserved it.

     How we respond to discipline determines how much benefit we receive from it. According to Hebrews 12:5–11, we have several options: we can despise God’s discipline and fight (v. 5); we can be discouraged and faint (v. 5); we can resist discipline and invite stronger discipline, possibly even death (v. 9) (“There is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:17, KJV). “The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30–31). Professed believers who play with sin and trifle with God’s loving discipline are asking for trouble. Better that we should die than that we should resist His will and bring disgrace to the name of Christ.); or we can submit to the Father and mature in faith and love (v. 7). Discipline is to the believer what exercise and training are to the athlete (v. 11); it enables us to run the race with endurance and reach the assigned goal (vv. 1–2).

     The fact that God chastened His servant is proof that Jonah was truly a child of God, for God disciplines only His own children. “But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (v. 8). And the father chastens us in love so that “afterward” we might enjoy “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (v.11).

     He trusted God’s promises (Jonah 2:4–7). Jonah was going in one direction only—down. In fact, he had been going in that direction since the hour he rebelled against God’s plan for his life. He went “down to Joppa” and “down into the sides of the ship” (1:3, 5). Now he was going “down to the bottoms of the mountains” (2:6); and at some point, the great fish met him, and he went down into the fish’s belly (1:17). When you turn your back on God, the only direction you can go is down.

     What saved Jonah? His faith in God’s promise. Which promise? The promise that involves “looking toward God’s holy temple” (2:4, 7). When King Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, he asked God for this special favor (1 Kings 8:38–40, NKJV):

     Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know … that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

     Jonah claimed that promise. By faith, he looked toward God’s temple (the only way to look was up!) and asked God to deliver him; and God kept His promise and answered his call. “I remembered [the] Lord” (Jonah 2:7) means, “I acted on the basis of His commitment to me.” Jonah knew God’s covenant promises and he claimed them.

     He yielded to God’s will (Jonah 2:8–9). Now Jonah admits that there were idols in his life that robbed him of the blessing of God. An idol is anything that takes away from God the affection and obedience that rightfully belongs only to Him. One such idol was Jonah’s intense patriotism. He was so concerned for the safety and prosperity of his own nation that he refused to be God’s messenger to their enemies the Assyrians. We shall learn from chapter 4 that Jonah was also protecting his own reputation (4:2), for if God spared Nineveh, then Jonah would be branded a false prophet whose words of warning weren’t fulfilled. For somebody who was famous for his prophecies (2 Kings 14:25), this would be devastating.

     Jonah closes his prayer by uttering some solemn vows to the Lord, vows that he really intended to keep. Like the psalmist, he said: “I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble” (Ps. 66:13–14, NKJV). Jonah promised to worship God in the temple with sacrifices and songs of thanksgiving. He doesn’t tell us what other promises he made to the Lord, but one of them surely was, “I will go to Nineveh and declare Your message if You give me another chance.”

     Jonah couldn’t save himself, and nobody on earth could save him, but the Lord could do it, for “salvation is of the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9b, NKJV) This is a quotation from Psalms 3:8 and 37:39 and it is the central declaration in the book. It is also the central theme of the Bible. How wise of Jonah to memorize the Word of God; because being able to quote the Scriptures, especially the Book of Psalms, gave him light in the darkness and hope in his seemingly hopeless situation.

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