Summit of Mt. Sinai, photo by Mohammed Moussa, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Western thought patterns are highly abstract, compared with Eastern. There developed in the West, and only in the West, a group of innovations that constitute the basis of Western thought. These include (in addition to the alphabet) … Continue reading It all began on Mount Sinai
Moses
Moses learns to read and write
God had a message that was essential to the well-being of all people, throughout all time. The starting point was to take a group of people and teach them a phonetic alphabet, a set of characters where each character represents a specific sound and those characters can be put together to form words. Nothing like … Continue reading Moses learns to read and write
Stop staring at serpents!
Image by Ian Lindsay from Pixabay There is a mystery in the account of the fiery serpents in Numbers 21:4-9. What became of those fiery serpents after Moses made a serpent of brass and set it upon a pole? They had killed many people, but after Moses lifted up the serpent of brass we hear no more of … Continue reading Stop staring at serpents!
The story arc
Have you ever read a book which follows the life of a main character, yet there doesn't seem to be a story? This character does a variety of things, things good and bad happen to him or her, but they are just disconnected happenings without a point. Evidently, the writer had no idea how to … Continue reading The story arc
The enemy within
The Israelites were witnesses to miracle after miracle in Egypt and for a few hours believed that it was really God's plan to lead them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. The evening of the first day they came to a road block, the Red Sea was in front of them, with no … Continue reading The enemy within
Two tabernacles
When Moses was up in the mountain communing with God during the Exodus, God gave him detailed directions for the structure that should be the centre of the people’s worship. He was to build a long tent, or tabernacle. The inside was of gold and beautiful tapestry, the outside was a drab, waterproof covering. At … Continue reading Two tabernacles
Who is on the LORD’S side?
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. Exodus 32:26 Only a few weeks after being miraculously delivered from oppression in Egypt, the Israelites build themselves a golden bull, say … Continue reading Who is on the LORD’S side?
Oral history of God’s works
In the beginning, people’s memories were better than they are today. Somebody once asked Albert Einstein for his phone number. He went for the phone book to look it up. Incredulous, his colleague asked “You don’t remember your own phone number?” “No. Why should I memorize something I can look up in a book?” There … Continue reading Oral history of God’s works
Let my people go
During the course of my lifetime I have heard the Nativity story told in many different forms at Christmas concerts and read still others in children’s books. Some have stayed quite close to the Biblical narrative, others have veered off into the land of make-believe in ways that left me bewildered. Fear not, I’m not … Continue reading Let my people go
The name of God
LORD, in upper case letters, appears 6,510 times in the English Old Testament. This is not a translation of some Hebrew word meaning Lord, but of YHWH, the name of God. This name was first revealed to Moses in the account of the burning bush Exodus chapter 3. God tells Moses that His name is … Continue reading The name of God
Flatlander Faith 