Midnight Quills

So, first of all, Happy Easter, ANZAC Day and all of that.

Second, things have been quiet on this front of late. To be honest, I’ve been struggling with a few things and not in the best frame of mind to be trying to read the bible much, let alone try and study it. Those trials are still ongoing, and not getting any easier, but it’s time to suck it up and stop letting my life get dicated by my problems. Our victory is in Christ, and while coming to know him doesn’t take away the problems that we experience, it gives us that much more hope, strength and resource to overcome them.

Therefore, I’m going to commit to getting back into the word and giving myself back to God, not letting my problems come between us.

But enough of me – I know, I said I was going to stop doing these little preambles.

Deuteronomy 25

Again, we find a whole heap of regulations and rules. First, bringing disputes before the court so that the judges can decide who’s guilty and who’s not, and mete out punishment if it’s so required. Then a short thought on working oxen – don’t muzzle them. From here, we have two brothers living together and the requirement that if one dies without a son, then his brother should take the wife as his own and give her a son so that he can carry on the dead brother’s name – and if the surviving brother refuses this, he will be given a title of “The Family of the Unsandaled.”

And so on…

There’s a theme here, though. One of honour.

First of all – in a dispute, take it to someone else and let them determine what the actual facts are. Not only that, but if you are guilty, man up and take the punishment allotted for what you’ve done – and in turn, the punishment is not to go beyond a level that is degrading. This man’s own honour in accepting his punishment is to be returned by not going further than what is classed as degradation – forty lashes.

And on that – I’ve just discovered something else. Throughout my life I’ve been taught that Jesus (back on the topic of Easter) received 39 lashes; but the gospels don’t actually say this – I’ve just tried to look it up and nowhere does it actually say how many lashings Jesus received, just that he was flogged and beaten among other things. Apparently the 39 comes from this verse, and other references to the fact that this was the maximum allowed by Jewish law.

It’s interesting, as I go through the scriptures in this blog, to discover just how much has been put in my head without having, necessarily, a scriptural basis.

Therefore, in closing tonight – whilst there’s more to say about honour, I’d like to finish up with an encouragement.

Always go back to the source. Don’t take something that’s said by man for granted and in blind faith, if it sounds dubious or there’s even a seed of doubt, then go back to God with it. Bring it back to scripture – because God is the ultimate source of information and wisdom.