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Tag: Scripture

Scripture is the word commonly used for the Written Word of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

TalkofJESUS.com would like to hear from you via your comments and questions on a NEW Series of brief posts in A.D. 2022.

Short Takes on Scripture – Tell us your thoughts about this brief quote from the Bible.

ONLY Scripture

σκληροτράχηλος – a stiff-necked people
I must confess that one of my favorite phrases of conviction today comes from one of several sermons which was not well-received by its audience: Stiff-necked!

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
Acts 7:51 ESV – from Stephen preaching to the jews

σκληροτράχηλος – stiff-necked

Strong’s G4644 – sklērotrachēlos –

Pronunciation
sklay-rot-rakh’-ay-los

(Has a rather guttural insulting tone to it, don’t you think?)

We might easily dismiss this insulting word from Stephen in the New Testament of Jesus Christ.

But not so fast; for Luke tells us in Acts that Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit.

(If you or I were to say that to someone they might think us full of something other than the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t they?)

To accuse another of being ‘stiff-necked,’ while making our ‘religion‘ an idol, may look like hypocrisy.

Stephen: Witness and Martyr

“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel,
‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
- σκληροτράχηλος, σκληροτράχηλόν (σκληρός and τράχηλος), properly, stiff-necked;
  - tropically, stubborn, headstrong, obstinate:
  - Acts 7:51; the Sept. for עֹרֶף קְשֵׁה, Exodus 33:3, 5; Exodus 34:9; (etc.)
Stephen’s single use of ‘stiffnecked‘ people in the New Testament points to those who CLAIM the Old Covenant of the LAW of Moses.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM

Looking back to Moses – Stiff-necked Hebrews

קָשֶׁה

אֶל־אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ כִּי לֹא אֶעֱלֶה בְּקִרְבְּךָ כִּי עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף אַתָּה פֶּן־אֲכֶלְךָ בַּדָּרֶךְ׃
Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way,
for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Exodus 33:3 WLC, ESV
- Strong’s H7186 – qāšê
  - KJV Translation Count — Total: 36x from the LAW, History and the Prophets
קָשֶׁה adjective hard, severe; — absolute ק׳ Exodus 18:26 +; construct Exodus 32:9 +; feminine singular קָשָׁה Deuteronomy 26:6 +; construct קְשַׁת 1 Samuel 1:15; masculine plural קָשִׁים 2 Samuel 3:39; construct קְשֵׁי Ezekiel 2:4; Ezekiel 3:7; feminine plural קָשׁוֺת Genesis 42:7, 30; —
1. hard, difficult, of a legal question (דָּבָר) Exodus 18:26
Stephen has proposed a legal question to you. Are YOU also a stiff-neck worshiper who will NOT listen to any, even the LORD your God?
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

Stiff-necked?

Now that I’ve shared MY Short Take on these Scriptures, WHAT’S YOUR SHORT TAKE on them?
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Hammurabi praying - source article from cover photo
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January 25, 2022
Wailing in all the Public Squares (Social Media?)
Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says:

“There will be wailing in all the public squares
and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.
Amos 5:16a – Berean Study Bible

and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets.

The Public Square and our Platforms of Wailing

WE THE PEOPLE do NOT like to be told what WE have done wrong.

You may claim in the public square that your ‘ONE NATION’ is ‘under god,’ but what if its leaders never listen to the Lord God, let alone obey?

Prophets, false prophets, anti-Christs and demagogues all deliberate in the public square. Yet like nations before, WE THE PEOPLE will wail at our destruction while stopping up our ears to Truth.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM

WE tend to avoid the PROPHETIC BOOKS of the #Bible, God’s Holy Word.

The prophets were extremely nationalistic. They rebuked sin in high as well as low places. They warned the nation. They pleaded with a proud people to humble themselves and return to God.
J. Vernon McGee

Amos
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Amos’ name means “burden” or “burden-bearer.” 
A “sheepbreeder” (1:1; cf. 2 Kin. 3:4) and a “tender of sycamore fruit” .. Politically, it was a time of prosperity
Amos addresses Israel’s two primary sins: 1) an absence of true worship, and 2) a lack of justice.
Source: Commentary of John Macarthur
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Amos – Not immune from judgment

(As you can see, I shared a brief series from Amos as recently as March 2020.) Did you Comment on it in the ‘public square’ of your Social Media?

Stephen commented on Amos in the public square of his trial in Jerusalem eight centuries later!

ACTS of a first century Martyr (who also quotes Amos)

Did you have any thoughts to SHARE your witness for the Lord in the public square of #twitter or Facebook for any Scripture from this series in ACTS of the Apostles?

The Testimony of Christ by Stephen

Today’s Short Take from Amos 5:
- A Lamentation against Israel
- A Call to Repentance
  - “Seek Me and live!
There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
Amos 5:10 BSB
- Woe to Rebellious Israel
  - Also from Stephen’s speech in (Acts 7:39–43)
The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

There will be wailing in all the vineyards,

for I will pass through your midst,”

5:23 הָסֵר מֵעָלַי הֲמוֹן שִׁרֶיךָ וְזִמְרַת נְבָלֶיךָ לֹא אֶשְׁמָֽע׃

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

From the footstool of one shot on 15 April, 1865, to the steps of a Nation yet divided seven score and sixteen years hence, WE neither remember nor proclaim the Lord WE claim.
Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24 BSB

What’s your Short Take in the ‘public square?’
January 20, 2022
Understand today the discipline of the LORD your God
- Do YOU, (children) claiming God as your Father and Jesus Christ as YOUR Lord know this one?
11:1 וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְשָׁמַרְתָּ מִשְׁמַרְתּוֹ וְחֻקֹּתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו וּמִצְוֺתָיו כָּל־הַיָּמִֽים׃
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the LORD your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11:2

What is the difference between Discipline of the LORD & the Punishment of God?

Water covers the earth!

The LORD GOD wipes the slate clean! No more creatures on earth EXCEPT Noah.

And that was not even punishment, but pure judgment of the created men and women, fallen deeply into sin.

God’s created world may have had a flood or two in this past year of our Lord, BUT not like the first flood.

Covenant of our Forefathers

After the LORD cleanses creation, He makes a covenant with Abraham and gives His LAW through Moses.

Moses also makes a covenant with the LORD on behalf of Israel:

24:3 וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה וַיְסַפֵּר לָעָם אֵת כָּל־דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה וְאֵת כָּל־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים וַיַּעַן כָּל־הָעָם קוֹל אֶחָד וַיֹּאמְרוּ כָּל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר יְהוָה נַעֲשֶֽׂה׃
Exodus 24:3b KJV – .. and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.’.

פָּקַד pâqad, paw-kad’; a primitive root; to visit (with friendly or hostile intent)
- to attend to, muster, number, reckon, visit, punish, appoint, look after, care for
“But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless on the day when I punish^H6485, I will punish^H6485 them for their sin.”
Then the LORD struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.
Exodus 32:34-35 NASB20 – Strong’s H6485 = number (119x), visit (59x), punish (31x),

This is punishment: that the Lord attends to His own and that our reckoning will be by the hand of our Creator and Heavenly Father, who must punish His children who break our promises and violate our covenant.

Discipline of the LORD – יָסַר
- to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish
“Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline^H3256 you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. – Deuteronomy 4:36

“So you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining^H3256 you just as a man disciplines^H3256 his son. – Deuteronomy 8:5

“.. but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.

“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today..
Deuteronomy 11:8a

Punishment of God – פָּקַד
- visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children..
  - עָוֹן — ʿāôn – perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity
‘You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting H6485 the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them.

“Otherwise, the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then you will quickly perish from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
Deuteronomy 11:17 [11:16 quoted above]

‘You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me..
Deuteronomy 5:9

Will you receive the Discipline of the LORD our Father OR Punishment for your Sins?

דברים 11

מוּסָר:: From יָסַר (H3256)

“Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline^H4148 of the LORD your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm.. but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.
Deuteronomy 11:2,7 on the discipline of the LORD. – NASB
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What is your Short Take on these Scriptures about Discipline and Punishment?

Please add your COMMENT at the bottom of this post. - RH
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January 11, 2022