by Kathy Brasby | Sep 13, 2013 | Bible
Biblical authors sometimes use connections between the Old Testament and New Testament to help pry open deeper meaning than at first reading.
An example is found at the end of John 1 where Jesus talked to some new disciples. They were impressed because he told one of them when he was sitting under a fig tree, before he came to to Jesus.
Jesus almost pooh-poohed their awe and said, “ “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
He was referring to Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28. Jacob, over 2000 years earlier, was on the run from his angry brother when he had a dream that a ladder extended to earth from heaven. Angels were going up and down the ladder.
God spoke to Jacob in the dream, making several promises to him including the pledge to stay with him.
Jacob awoke and set up a stone as a symbol of God’s presence, naming the place Bethel. Bethel means house of God.
Jacob’s Bethel was the place where heaven and earth met.
Jesus chose that event to declare that heaven and earth again met. This time, the presence of God wasn’t limited to a stone pillar. This time, Jesus was preparing his disciples for this connection of heaven and earth – which would be seen in him. Jesus was the new Bethel, the new Temple.
By connecting to an ancient story, John the author provided a deeper meaning.
by Kathy Brasby | Sep 10, 2013 | Hope
I had one of those coughs that made your toenails rattle and, after a morning of listening to my hacking, a co-worker gave me the evil eye. “That sounds like a smoker’s cough,” he said.
“I’ve never smoked in my life,” I said.
But I had to take it back. There was this once.
My father was a smoker for many years and, at age 6, I approached him after supper one evening. He was sitting at the dining room table with a cigarette in one hand, white smoke drifting like a lazy river toward the ceiling, and a glass ashtray before him.
He must have noticed my fascination because he gestured to me to come. “Would you like a puff?”
Yes, I would. I scooted up to him, excited to share this special moment. I lifted the white tube to my lips and took a long pull on the cigarette.
I’ll never forget what happened next. Dragon’s breath first roasted my tonsils before descending with white heat down my throat. My lungs were instantly seared and my stomach rolled with burning coals.
The scalding smoke slammed into my eyes and my nose filled with a smell of dead mice and scorched banana peels.
Even my toenails curled with the heat.
I panicked at that point, certain that my life was about to end. I spun and ran as fast as toasted legs could carry me into the kitchen. I stuck my head under the cold water faucet and tried to drown myself.
What else can you do when a dragon has unleashed its flames?
I survived, undoubtedly due to my quick thinking in rushing to the kitchen sink.
And, as the rushing water sluiced into my mouth dousing the fire, I had a single thought, which I’m sure my father had intended: one swallow of the dragon’s breath was more than enough for me.
by Kathy Brasby | Sep 6, 2013 | Bible
Vivid imagery able to carry several layers of meaning allows a writer to add depth to their work. The Bible illustrates that principle well.
For example, water is a powerful term in the Bible both literally and figuratively. Biblical stories were set in the Middle East, where water was scarce and drought often threatened life. Water, whether from rain or wells or springs, was vital.
Including water in a narrative added a life-giving element. In Genesis 2, four rivers ran through the Garden of Eden, producing a lush garden of trees and life-sustaining plants which revealed God’s abundance.
Water was also used as a cleansing agent. Israelites were taught to do ceremonial cleanings of themselves and various elements of worship to present themselves clean before God. The idea of such cleansing is carried forward in Christian baptism. Baptism also carries the idea of death and re-birth, as explained by Peter in his first letter. Water showed God’s righteousness and how we fall short.
In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God hovered over the water and it was clear that God was not birthed from the water, as some ancient myths stated, but that he created and controlled it.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they miraculously crossed the Red Sea to escape the approaching Egyptian army. When they entered the land, the waters of the Jordan River were also held back so they could cross. In both cases, the water revealed that, if God could hold back rivers and seas, he could keep his promises.
In the time of Kings, when both the king and the people had abandoned God, God asked the prophet Elijah to pray for a drought. Three years later, God brought water from a fist-sized cloud. Water imagery carried the message of God’s power and also his ability to capture the attention of his people.
Jesus walked on water and turned water into wine. He was the Creator commanding creation. The use of water illustrated his lordship over creation.
The ancient Israelites depended on springs or wells to provide much of their water. They welcomed rain and saw both the water from wells and the water from the skies as showing God’s provision to them. That imagery appeared in Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well. He offered her living water there, a powerful image of eternal life and the provisions of God.
For many ancients in the MIddle East, water represented chaos, sea monsters, and forces opposed to God. Psalm 74:13-14 recounts a story about God defeating the monsters of the water, demonstrating his power.
Imagine the story of Jonah from this perspective. Jonah was thrown into the sea to appease God’s wrath and experienced a type of death before God saved him. The water imagery provides a vivid image depicting such themes as retribution and redemption.
One image – water – carried powerful meaning for the original reader and for us as well. Narratives that include water reveal the nature of God. He is the Provider, the Creator, the Protector, the Conqueror – seen through the use of water imagery.
That’s a lot to get from one image but rich imagery makes writing deeper and more powerful.
by Kathy Brasby | Sep 3, 2013 | Family, Hope, Humor
I’m always amazed at how common life experiences translate into metaphors of meaning.
When my daughter and son-in-law moved from one apartment to another, they were forced to leave their beloved goldfish behind.
They’ll probably read this account so I’ll try to be as accurate as I can remember. That’s code that means I’m making up most of it.
Goldie was a beloved fish who would follow them from corner to corner within his little aquarium and never needed walking or rabies shots. He was the perfect pet.
But poor Goldie couldn’t live in their new apartment.
After great discussion, they decided the kindest thing for Goldie would be to give him his freedom. So my son-in-law, as compassionate a guy as you’ll ever meet, drove Goldie and his fish bowl to the edge of the river.
Kneeling at the edge of the water, he met Goldie’s eyes. “You’ve been a great goldfish. Go and have a good life.”
And he gently poured Goldie into the river water.
The little fish took three brave swishes of his tail into his new freedom when a big fish came out of the murk and swallowed him whole.
The number of metaphors in that story are staggering.
Do we learn that little fish have no chance at the good life?
Do we learn that big fish can be counted on to spoil the day?
Or that well-intentioned plans for good don’t always work out?
Those are pretty deep for me. What I learned was when you set your goldfish free, don’t watch afterwards.
by Kathy Brasby | Aug 30, 2013 | Bible
We talked about the use of a motif a few weeks ago, looking at the motif of the barren woman.
Today we’ll look at a bigger motif that affected not only imagery in the Old Testament but in the New Testament as well. And this motif is commonly used in Christian terminology today.
The exodus of the people of Israel, as described in the book of Exodus through Deuteronomy, involved a people in slavery to the Egyptian empire. God sent Moses to rescue the people and, after a series of miracles, the Egyptian pharaoh allowed the Israelites to go free.
Included in the story was the passover, the final event that finally secured the people’s freedom. In that story, God sent the angel of death to kill the first-born of each household. However, the Israelites were instructed to select a lamb and sacrifice it, painting the doorposts with the lamb’s blood so that the angel of death would pass over those houses.
That Exodus motif affected many Old Testament narratives, including the Exile when the Israelites were taken from their land to another empire and placed in bondage there. Would those people in exile – in bondage – experience another rescue to be brought out of slavery and back to their promised land?
The gospel narratives of Jesus’ life also reference the Exodus motif. For example, Jesus died at the time the lamb was slain in the Passover observation. Passover, of course, reminded the people of the original passover during the Exodus from Egypt.
In Jesus’ day, the empire was Rome and the people were in bondage again. The same questions as came during Exodus and Exile times would have been asked: would God send someone to rescue them from bondage and restore them to their promised land?
The Exodus motif features people in bondage to a great empire who are then rescued and restored to what God had planned for them. It’s a motif referred to many times throughout the Bible, a powerful overarching theme that offers hope to those in bondage.
