Thoughts for Wednesday 29th July 2020
Psalm 65:8-13; Genesis 46:2-47:12; Mark 4:30-34 Wednesday 29 July At 58 verses, our Old Testament reading today is an extremely long one. Don’t let that put you off. Often when we read these lists of names like this, we tend to gloss over them. However, like the whole of the rest of Scripture, careful readings can elicit nuggets, and this is something I was once shown on a visit to the Methodist Church’s Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield. The passage we were studying was Matthew 1:1-17 (The Ancestors of Jesus Christ), which I initially dismissed as a bit boring. But then, it’s not at all, because when you do look a bit more closely you can see that the women who are mentioned are: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and ‘the woman who had been Uriah’s wife’ i.e. Bathsheba. This is a very interesting group indeed, Matthew, it seems, making the point that Jesus’ descent was very much one of shades of grey in that it included a prostitute, a spy, a foreigner, and an adulteress. It seems reasonable to suggest that what Matthew has done is to base his genealogy on that here in Genesis. For, here, as well as all Jacob’s boys, we also have an unnamed Canaanite woman at verse 10, Dinah (who, all we really know about Dinah is that she was the victim of a rape) at verse 15, and a daughter of Potiphera, an Egyptian priest, at verse 20. At the end of chapter 46 we have, ‘shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians,’ and this is a puzzle. Is this maybe a warning by Joseph that, like elsewhere, there can be prejudice against travellers? Later on at Exodus 1:11, these same Israelites build cities instead, including Rameses, and its mention catches our attention today. While it’s impossible to completely marry the Biblical record with archaeological findings, underneath modern-day Qantir there is evidence of a city thought to have been the capital of Egypt in the days of Ramesses the Great, who has often been identified with the Biblical Pharoah of the Exodus. It may be that Jacob’s family settled at that site, and were then forced to build a city on it, before leaving from it too (see Exodus 12:37). Another name for Ramasses the Great is Ozymandias, and in light of that I think it’s worth having a look – not at Shelley’s famous poem of that name, but – at his friend and fellow poet, Horace Smith’s, poem, which has the exact same name. The two poems are the result of some friendly competition between them: In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Let us pray: A Mustard Seed It's impossible your head tells you. But still . . . Don't you have at least a little bit of faith? Inside there's a plan, Within a small seed of faith Plant the seed. Water it carefully,lovingly, In even just a shred of faith in God Of Christ's victory in your life, Life eternal begins today. Then join with others living in the Spirit, Amen. |
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