Status Updates From The Parables of Jesus

The book of Job contains a passage in which one of Job’s comforters says, “Affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.“ The image is highly poetic. It tells us that each generation can be compared to a stack of cordwood that is placed on the burning embers of the past.

Fire insurance!

“Sin traps people in indifference so that they often become more foolish about their self-preservation than animals. Geese and other birds will fly south as winter approaches. Rodents will store up for winter. Some animals hibernate. But human beings proceed in a manner they know is foolish and characteristically fail to make adequate provision for their future.“

“That is the message of this parable. I break it down into three parts: 1. there’s only one door, and it is a narrow one; 2. that door is now open, though it will one day close; and 3. our duty is to enter it.”

Well, that chapter blew my mind.

“If you are lost, apart from God, this is the first application of these parables to you: you are valuable to God even in your lost condition. You may be worthless in your own sight because you can only see what you have made of yourself, but you should learn that you are valuable to God because (unlike yourself) He is able to see what you were created to be and what He can yet make of you.“

Noting that Isaiah is referred to on first reference as Isaiah “the great prophet of Israel.” Good way to introduce a major biblical figure in short form to people unfamiliar with the Bible.

“…in the Mediterranean world…”

Noting this is how he refers to the region at the time rather than using potentially Eurocentric or geographically ambiguous terms.