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“for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast” Lev 23:6
Ex. 12:17-20 Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.
Unleavened bread is bread that is made without yeast. Yeast is a raising agent, that is used to make bread rise, scientifically known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it’s from the fungi family. If yeast makes bread rise when it’s being bread, then unleavened bread is flat bread. It was commanded to be used as part of the original Passover meal and then subsequently became a week-long feast closely connected to Passover. Continue reading
Take a day a week off. That’s essentially the heart of the fourth commandment. Work hard for six days and take a breather. Enjoy it! Relax. Rest. How did this gift of God become such a hard-sticking point?
After liberating his chosen people from centuries of Egyptian abuse, God re-established the identity of this former-slave people. The Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) was given to cultivate that through what they did , what they ate, and how they lived. It was deliberately distinctive, unique and designed to establish an understanding of life as defined and marked by God. One of the gifts God gave them was a set of annual breaks, pauses from the normal rhythm of life – something slaves never enjoyed. He would give them seven holy days (or holidays), the Feasts of the Lord. These would serve to reveal and remind his people of who God is and who they are. The feastdays were immersive learning opportunities to be passed on, generation by generation, looking back to where they came from, and looking forward to what God would ultimately do. We’re going to spend some time between now and the summer looking and experiencing some of what they would have done. Continue reading
Augustine’s second book in his Confessions is titled Adolescence, spanning his escapades as a teenager. It’s odd to think of this great Church Father as a teenaged boy up to no good; but by his own hand we know what he got up to. Much of what he writes isn’t unusual teenage behaviour. It rings true today as it did 1700 years ago. Augustine reflects back on the same troubling conundrums teenagers (& many adults) find themselves in today. The draw and grip of peer pressure was as real to Augustine as it is today. Augustine knows what it is to fall in with the crowd and to desire to belong and fit in.
What do you think of when you think of the church? Maybe you think of our salmon and custard coloured buildings with the bell tower and the halls. Maybe you think of a Sunday morning, of people gathered to sing and listen.
John finishes his crazy vision of Jesus’ message to the church with a picture of the church. It’s the Lamb’s folk. It’s the faithful, the martyrs, the witnesses, the 144,000. But he sees it as a city, a Holy City, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven. It’s a massive, unearthly city. But it’s also a bride. It’s the Lamb’s bride. Why has the Lamb enacted vengeance against those who martyr the church, why did he send out the four horsemen, why did he gear up an army on horseback? Someone was messing with his fiancee. His bride. Jesus loves his church. She’s a bride, ornate and beautiful. Think bride as we talk about the church. The organ has started, the wedding march has begun, all heads are turned and strained backwards to catch a glimpse of the blushing bride. Think bride. Continue reading
We’re into the final act now of Revelation. From the introduction of the great antagonist that is the Dragon as he tried (& failed) to snatch the new-born baby, then tried (& failed) to destroy the woman – representing the Old Testament covenant people of God – and tired to crush the woman’s other children (that is, the church) we have been waiting for his eventual downfall. Along the narrative he’s added to his company other sub-antagonists, there was the Beast from the sea with his seemingly overwhelming power, the beast from the land, the False Prophet who deceives the world’s people into worshipping the beast and the Babylon the whore, luring and enticing the world and sometimes even the church. Last time we saw the rise and fall of Babylon. This marked the beginning of the end as we see these villainous foes exit the narrative and receive what they’re due in reverse order. The woman of Babylon, as we saw last time, was judged and received the wrath which had filled up her cup. Continue reading
[This month we have Mark McKillen writing some thoughts on Book One of Augustine’s Confessions, join the conversation in the comments below.]
Augustine begins his famous autobiography with a rather dramatic first paragraph; and indeed first few pages. However, it is the first paragraph I wish to pay particular attention to. If we take the whole book to be Augustine’s ‘full testimony’ it is fair to call the first paragraph Augustine’s ‘shortened testimony’; a very much summarised testimony hitting the one overarching message of the ‘Confessions’: “our heart is restless until it rests in you”, [1.i.1] as it is eloquently put. Continue reading
[This post is taken from Ryan’s blog. Read more of what he’s written here: ryanurquhartsite.wordpress.com.]
One of the seven angels with one of the seven bowls, approaches John next in Revelation. He invites John to come see something/someone whom we’ve only had a (very) brief introduction to. The woman of the Beast, the Great Prostitute: Babylon!
Disclaimer: John uses deliberately provocative and unsettling imagery to describe what he sees. Some translations call this woman, ‘the Whore of Babylon’ others, ‘Babylon: the Great Prostitute’ – regardless, the imagery is quite clear: the sexual immorality of this woman alludes to the sinful idolatry of those she represents. Continue reading
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