- Abraham J. Heschel The Prophets

Ting towel. :)

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

~ Albert Einstein

Every week I’ve been able to learn how to step back and view the week’s portion as a window, through which I can begin to see the story of God and His people Israel playing out. This helps take a somewhat small portion of scripture and turn it into a sandbox to play in and experience the grandeur of the story of scripture.

Here’s a little bit of that from this week’s portion in Genesis 49, where Jacob is blessing his sons. Let’s focus on Judah’s blessing. (49.10)

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

There is an interesting word in the hebrew that only occurs here in the text. The word is ‘shiloh’ and it derrives from the hebrew shai (tribute) and loh (him). Rabbis have played with this word and related it to shalom, making this statement also mean ‘until the time of peace comes.’ Rashi specifically has turned this into a statement about the messianic era, when peace will reign and all will worship a ruler from the people of Judah.

A few thousand years later, we have someone born from the people of Judah.

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
- Matt. 1

Matthew links Jesus’ geneology to the tribe of Judah. Here we have the peacemaking ruler from the tribe of Judah.

Seeing these threads weave through out scripture excite my soul very much.

As followers of the Master, may we participate in the blessing of Judah and continue to be peacemakers, obeying His commands, bringing shalom with us everywhere we go.

Have a blessed day!

“I’m interested in most phases of data processing…”

Classy.

I love The Black Keys. And this video.

To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: ‘You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust yourself.’ We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacites for life, the light that is shining in them.

~ Jean Vanier founder of L’Arche communities

I wish I was a slave to an age-old trade
Like ridin’ around on railcars and workin’ long days

Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways
Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways

The lines above are an excerpt of one of my favorite songs right now. Currently, I feel like I deeply identify with the words.

Since leaving an internship at a mega-church a little over a year ago, my vision of “work” and what I want to do has been ‘rough and rowdy’ to say the least. I become bored with something only after a couple of months and become distracted and start brainstorming the next big idea, usually overwhelming Dana and her precious heart without fail. As petty as it may seem, this ordeal hangs over me like a dark storm cloud on somedays, sending me into an ocean of discontentedness and longing for something more. It’s rough. It’s rowdy.

Fortunately, I have an amazing wife, and wise friends to walk along side me through all this. And maybe what I’m most thankful for is the Lord’s mercy that He pours out on my rough and rowdy ways.

I pray, “Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways.”