depths

December 23, 2016

The fixed order and Israel (Jer 31:35-31:37)

“Thus says Yahweh.

‘Who gives the sun

For light by day?

Who has the fixed order

Of the moon

With the stars

For light by night?

Who stirs up the sea

So that its waves roar?

Yahweh of hosts

Is his name.

If this fixed order

Were ever to cease

From my presence,

Then also the descendants

Of Israel

Would cease

To be a nation

Before me forever.’

Says Yahweh.

Thus says Yahweh.

‘If the heavens above

Can be measured,

If the foundations

Of the earth below

Can be explored,

Then I will reject

All the offspring of Israel

Because of all

That they have done.’

Says Yahweh.”

Yahweh says that he makes sure that there is a sun for daylight with the moon and the stars for light at night. Yahweh stirs up the seas so that they roar. It is Yahweh who keeps all this in a fixed order. If these things ceased to exist, then the descendants of Israel would cease to be a nation forever before him. In other words, as long as there is a sun, a moon, stars, and a roaring sea, Israel will be a nation, according to Yahweh.  Yahweh then said that if they could measure the heights of the heavens or the depths of the earth’s foundations, then he would reject the offspring of Israel, because they must have done something wrong.

December 26, 2015

My time in the womb (Ps 139:13-139:18)

“You formed my inward parts.

You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you!

I am fearfully made.

I am wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works!

I know them very well.

My frame was not hidden from you.

I was being made in secret.

I was intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

All the days that was formed for me,

When none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts!

O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them,

They are more than the sand.

I come to the end.

I am still with you.”

In beautiful colorful language, David, the psalmist, describes his life in the womb, and how he came to be. He was knit together in the womb of his mother by Yahweh. Thus pregnancy is time of knitting. He was made in secret as Yahweh intricately wove him in the depths of the womb. Earth was like the womb. He praised Yahweh for the wonderful work he had become, even as an unformed substance in the womb of his mother. Yahweh had this book of life where he kept track of his future days here on earth. The thoughts of Yahweh are so vast and deep that they cannot be counted because they are like the sands of the seashore. Even now, that his life is now ending, he still was with Yahweh. This is a masterful section about the womb as a place where Yahweh was knitting and weaving the human before his birth. What a powerful argument against abortion.

November 11, 2015

Give thanks to Yahweh (Ps 86:12-86:13)

“I give thanks to you.

Yahweh my God!

With my whole heart,

I will glorify your name forever.

Great is your steadfast love toward me.

You have delivered my soul

From the depths of Sheol.”

David gave thanks to Yahweh, his God. With his whole heart he wanted to glorify his name forever. Yahweh’s steadfast love towards him had delivered his soul from the depths of Sheol. It sounds like Yahweh saved David from death at some point because he loved him so much.

July 31, 2015

Yahweh questions Job about darkness (Job 38:16-38:18)

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?

Have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare!

Do you know all this?”

The depths of the seas were considered dark. Some were not sure that there was a bottom to the sea. Did Job know anything about the gates to death? Did he know anything about how wide or deep the earth was? If Job did not know this, he should.