"And
Moses said, This is what the Lord says: About the middle of the night I will go
out through Egypt: And death will come to every mother's first male child in
all the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power, to the
child of the servant-girl crushing the grain; and the first births of all the
cattle.
And there
will be a great cry through all the land
of Egypt, such as never
has been or will be again. But against the children of Israel, man or beast, not so much as the tongue
of a dog will be moved: so that you may see how the Lord makes a division
between Israel
and the Egyptians.
And all
these your servants will come to me, going down on their faces before me and
saying, Go out, and all your people with you: and after that I will go out. And
he went away from Pharaoh burning with wrath.
And the
Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not give ear to you, so that my wonders may be
increased in the land
of Egypt. All these
wonders Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh: but the Lord made Pharaoh's heart
hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land."
(Exodus 11:4-10)
The Big Questions -
It is sad
to say that if I think humanly, which I do most of the time, the above stories were orally carried over
generations by generations of Jewish traditions and then written by the ancient Jews - within a
Jewish centered history perspective.
It simply
indicated that the eyes and the mind of the Lord were with the Jewish people
and them alone.
No
attentions were paid to the innocent children of the Egyptians at all.
Ever!
The Small Answers -
That is why
I prefer the shorter story of Jonah who told a story of a city in modern northern
Iraq and how Jonah was hesitated to spread the good news of the Lord to the
people of the Nineveh which the culture, religion and language of the people
were completely different from the Jews.
Those gentiles!
They were simply not one of us! Why did I care about them!?
And Jonah
knew better that God might forgive them as well.
"And
am I not to have mercy on Nineveh, that great town, in
which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons without the
power of judging between right and left, as well as much cattle?"
(Jonah 4:11)
The big
questions are like the bad news occupied the evening news of most of the major TV
stations every day and night.
The small
answers are like the occasional good news reported right before the reporters
say good night to end the program.
p.s. The Bible quoted
here is from the Bible in Basic English
*** Readers Comments ***
就像你寫的,在舊約聖經所記載的那一些歷史事實上面加了一些聽眾想要聽的故事:有一個大有全能而且是獨屬於他們的神。
現代不同教派的教會也一樣、排他性很強，好像只有他們的信仰才是代表真理，其他大概脫離了真理就像安息日會、浸信會、五旬節教派、聚會所一樣---標榜他們特出的信仰。而這一些七大門派的教派也一樣固步自封、不懂得隨時代而有所改變，只是懂得坐享其成。嗚呼哀哉！
by Chong W Chen 4/3/2018
It has been more and more convincing to me that God,
understood by the Israelis as Jehovah in the Hebrew Bible was nothing more like
a tribal deity. As a result, this God was conceived as protector of Israel and
hostile to its enemies. This is why in the Hebrew Bible Jehovah seemed so cruel
in many instances to the point of genocide against the enemies, thus the “Big
Questions.” One sentence stuck with me to this day when I was reading the book
of Exodus in Sunday school decades ago (Exodus 9:12). That sentence is “But the
Lord made Pharoah’s heart hard.” And it was repeated four more times (10:1, 20,
27; 11:10). I still don’t know how to make out what kind of “God” would do
something like that.
Fortunately, there are different voices in the Hebrew Bible which are more
lenient to the “gentiles”. Book of Jonah is one of them, Ruth is another one.
Yet, among many Jewish prophets, Jonah was probably the only one who
successfully delivered God’s warning message to the recipient people/king and
they listened and repented. Ironically, the gentile people of Nineveh listened and believed the Jewish
prophet but the so called “God’s people and their kings” never did.
Stories like Jonah may be small answers to the big questions but they speak
loudly and, more often than not, they produce good results.
by Poshu Huang 4/4/2018
對當代的以色列人而言，出埃及記所記載的耶和華就是無所不能，
For the Israel at that time, Jehovah in the Exodus was
an omnipotent God who would rescue them out of slave bondage by Egyptian and led
them into the land of milk and honey.
However, in reality, how would Egyptian with great military might allow them to
leave so they would in turn lose such a great free labors. In order to
reveal the omnipotence of their God, there came the story of Exodus.
Jehovah at that time was merely God of their tribe who would take care of them
with great grace and gifts, lead them in the wars to victories against all
enemies. Although some of the Book started to post an idea that God was
not the God of Israel alone, but God of all nations (gentiles).
Theory and understanding of God have been improved a great deal with the development
of human being and so are better wisdom/knowledge. Thanks to so many
great theologians in helping us improve our understanding of Almighty God.
Of course, we human being with our limited brain cells can never completely
understand and know the essence of our God. This is the basic doctrine of Reform Church,
i.e. always reforming. God has always been there and never changed.
Only we, the human being, changed, hopefully with improvement, our
understanding of God. The One God we believe in and exalt today is
for sure far over passing what Israel believed and understood.
For me, I dare not and would not post a Big Question, nor do I have any Small
Answer.
by Bernard Tsai 4/8/2018
* 再讀一次、再想一次、再寫一次 *
我個人覺得這記載裡,有牽涉到三點,寫出來讓大家分享：
1.
在這個故事記載裡面至少有三次，講到耶和華使法老的心剛硬，
2.
在這裡，耶和華本身命令『
3.
這個故事記載，似乎耶和華也是重男輕女，殺埃及人頭生的兒子。
這記載對於人類的觀感：
1.
非基督徒一直在感嘆，基督教舊約聖經所表現上帝的殘忍。
2.
基督教的第一個異端，馬吉安主義，也因為這個原因，
3.
當基督徒強調【聖經沒有錯,聖經是神所默示的】就像1978年
by C W Chen 4/11/2018
--> Return to http://tan-tiong-kiat.blogspot.com/
Those gentiles!
(Jonah 4:11)
*** Readers Comments ***
就像你寫的,在舊約聖經所記載的那一些歷史事實上面加了一些聽眾想要聽的故事:有一個大有全能而且是獨屬於他們的神。
現代不同教派的教會也一樣、排他性很強，好像只有他們的信仰才是代表真理，其他大概脫離了真理就像安息日會、浸信會、五旬節教派、聚會所一樣---標榜他們特出的信仰。而這一些七大門派的教派也一樣固步自封、不懂得隨時代而有所改變，只是懂得坐享其成。嗚呼哀哉！
現代不同教派的教會也一樣、排他性很強，好像只有他們的信仰才是代表真理，其他大概脫離了真理就像安息日會、浸信會、五旬節教派、聚會所一樣---標榜他們特出的信仰。而這一些七大門派的教派也一樣固步自封、不懂得隨時代而有所改變，只是懂得坐享其成。嗚呼哀哉！
by Chong W Chen 4/3/2018
It has been more and more convincing to me that God,
understood by the Israelis as Jehovah in the Hebrew Bible was nothing more like
a tribal deity. As a result, this God was conceived as protector of Israel and
hostile to its enemies. This is why in the Hebrew Bible Jehovah seemed so cruel
in many instances to the point of genocide against the enemies, thus the “Big
Questions.” One sentence stuck with me to this day when I was reading the book
of Exodus in Sunday school decades ago (Exodus 9:12). That sentence is “But the
Lord made Pharoah’s heart hard.” And it was repeated four more times (10:1, 20,
27; 11:10). I still don’t know how to make out what kind of “God” would do
something like that.
Fortunately, there are different voices in the Hebrew Bible which are more lenient to the “gentiles”. Book of Jonah is one of them, Ruth is another one. Yet, among many Jewish prophets, Jonah was probably the only one who successfully delivered God’s warning message to the recipient people/king and they listened and repented. Ironically, the gentile people of Nineveh listened and believed the Jewish prophet but the so called “God’s people and their kings” never did.
Stories like Jonah may be small answers to the big questions but they speak loudly and, more often than not, they produce good results.
by Poshu Huang 4/4/2018
Fortunately, there are different voices in the Hebrew Bible which are more lenient to the “gentiles”. Book of Jonah is one of them, Ruth is another one. Yet, among many Jewish prophets, Jonah was probably the only one who successfully delivered God’s warning message to the recipient people/king and they listened and repented. Ironically, the gentile people of Nineveh listened and believed the Jewish prophet but the so called “God’s people and their kings” never did.
Stories like Jonah may be small answers to the big questions but they speak loudly and, more often than not, they produce good results.
by Poshu Huang 4/4/2018
對當代的以色列人而言，出埃及記所記載的耶和華就是無所不能，
埃及的勢力何其強大，
對現代基督徒而言，神既是全能，又是公義，滿懐慈悲，
舊約時代的耶和華只是以色列人的神，賜恩給以色列人，
隨著人智力的發展，思想的改善，
我不敢，也不會提出 Big Question, 也沒有 small answer.
For the Israel at that time, Jehovah in the Exodus was
an omnipotent God who would rescue them out of slave bondage by Egyptian and led
them into the land of milk and honey.
However, in reality, how would Egyptian with great military might allow them to leave so they would in turn lose such a great free labors. In order to reveal the omnipotence of their God, there came the story of Exodus. Jehovah at that time was merely God of their tribe who would take care of them with great grace and gifts, lead them in the wars to victories against all enemies. Although some of the Book started to post an idea that God was not the God of Israel alone, but God of all nations (gentiles).
Theory and understanding of God have been improved a great deal with the development of human being and so are better wisdom/knowledge. Thanks to so many great theologians in helping us improve our understanding of Almighty God.
Of course, we human being with our limited brain cells can never completely understand and know the essence of our God. This is the basic doctrine of Reform Church, i.e. always reforming. God has always been there and never changed. Only we, the human being, changed, hopefully with improvement, our understanding of God. The One God we believe in and exalt today is for sure far over passing what Israel believed and understood.
For me, I dare not and would not post a Big Question, nor do I have any Small Answer.
by Bernard Tsai 4/8/2018However, in reality, how would Egyptian with great military might allow them to leave so they would in turn lose such a great free labors. In order to reveal the omnipotence of their God, there came the story of Exodus. Jehovah at that time was merely God of their tribe who would take care of them with great grace and gifts, lead them in the wars to victories against all enemies. Although some of the Book started to post an idea that God was not the God of Israel alone, but God of all nations (gentiles).
Theory and understanding of God have been improved a great deal with the development of human being and so are better wisdom/knowledge. Thanks to so many great theologians in helping us improve our understanding of Almighty God.
Of course, we human being with our limited brain cells can never completely understand and know the essence of our God. This is the basic doctrine of Reform Church, i.e. always reforming. God has always been there and never changed. Only we, the human being, changed, hopefully with improvement, our understanding of God. The One God we believe in and exalt today is for sure far over passing what Israel believed and understood.
For me, I dare not and would not post a Big Question, nor do I have any Small Answer.
