DAILY TAKEAWAYS

Sept 17, 2024

  • Every culture provides opportunity and obstacles for the spreading of the gospel.

    The presence of Judaism in various parts of the world, the order of the Roman Empire, and Hellenistic civilization provided avenues for the proclamation of the new faith; but they also provided obstacles and even dangers. In the next chapters, we shall see how the early Christians followed those avenues, attempted to overcome those obstacles, and responded to those dangers. Chapter 2, The Story of Christianity by Justo González

  • Peter & John in Acts 3 gave glory to Jesus and made sure that everyone knew it was by Jesus’ power no by their power.

    Peter and John are naturally in the spotlight as the newly healed and empowered man clings to them and the crowd runs to them. These men of God visibly empowered by the Spirit could have leveraged their success to maximize influence. The temptation to take credit for the lame man’s healing and garner adherents to themselves as leaders of the new Jesus movement must have been strong. This continues to be a very real temptation for disciples today. These are inherent dangers of ministries that highlight strong relational presence, hands-on action, healing, or any significant physical benefit or attention being drawn to human change agents or their beneficiaries rather than to Jesus. As we saw in the previous chapter, Peter takes the spotlight off himself and John, refocusing the crowd’s attention on their own guilt for having delivered over, denied, and killed Jesus. After such visible success they may have been tempted to downplay prophetic critique in order to minimize offense to stay in a positive flow. But instead Peter goes on to affirm that the strengthening of the man’s feet and ankles was not accomplished by them, but through the name of this crucified Jesus whom God consequently glorified and will continue to elevate. Peter demonstrates something critical for ministry activists today. The only way people could know the true subject of the hidden work of Jesus is for believers to publically give him the credit. This keeps them from looking like the saviors, making room for Jesus to be announced as Israel’s awaited Messiah, now resurrected and ascended.
    Chapter Six, The Beautiful Gate by Bob Ekblad

  • Samaria had a traumatic history and this interaction with the woman at the well had complex layers.

    Jesus stops at the outskirts of a town which is marked historically by trauma, injustice, and exclusion. Sychar, otherwise known as Shechem,45 was in the heart of Samaria—a region inhabited by the despised Samaritans, who were religious and social outcasts in Israel, as they were considered inferior and unclean. Even the name Sychar might have been mocking slang, meaning “drunken town” (shekar) or “lying town” (shaqar).46 Much earlier in the biblical narrative, Israel’s founding father, Abraham, passes through Sychar on his way to Egypt (Gn 12:6). Later, Jacob buys land, builds an altar, and settles in Sychar upon returning from twenty years of exile after fleeing his brother, Esau’s, wrath for stealing his birthright (33:19). While in Sychar (aka Shechem), Jacob neglects to protect his only daughter, Dinah, who is raped by Shechem, the son of the leader of the city and its namesake (34:2). Two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, are enraged over their sister’s defilement by an uncircumcised gentile.47 (Sadly, they are more upset by Shechem’s gentile status than the rape itself.) They retaliate by convincing the men of Shechem to be circumcised as a condition for future co-mingling (vv. 7–24). Three days after the circumcision, while the men are still painfully incapacitated, Levi and Simeon attack the city, massacring all the men, taking their flocks, children, and women as booty (vv. 25–29). Subsequently, Jacob calls for a purge of idols from his family and moves them to Bethel, giving this land to Joseph’s descendants (35:1–4). During Joshua’s leadership of the Hebrew people, the ancient Hivites of Shechem avoid death by concealing their identity as residents of the hill country of Lebanon and pretending to be worn out by their long sojourn from “a very far country because of the fame of the Lord your God. . . and all that He did in Egypt” (Jos 9:9). After the Hivites offer to be servants of the Israelites, Joshua makes a covenant of peace with them without asking for the counsel of the Lord (vv. 14–15). When the Hebrews learn that the Hivites have not come from afar, but have been living within their land, they honor their covenant of peace (vv. 16–21), possibly due to their ancestry to the circumcised Shechemites. But because of their trickery, Joshua curses them to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God (Jos 9:23). Shechem later served as a city of refuge for people guilty of manslaughter (Josh 21:21; 1 Chr 6:67), but was also the sight of some of Israel’s most horrific human rights abuses. Gideon’s son Abimelech killed his 70 brothers in Shechem (Judg 9:5), before he was made king there (Judg 9:6). Later the people of Shechem set ambushes, robbing everyone who passed by the road. Gaal turned the people of Shechem against Abimelech, calling them to “serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem” (Judg 9:28). Abimelech retaliated by invading, burning alive 1000 men and women in the tower of Shechem and destroying the city (Judg 9:49). A certain woman48 eventually killed Abimalech by throwing a millstone down from a tower he was attacking in the nearby village of Thebez (Judg 9:53).
    Chapter Three, Guerrilla Gospel by Bob Ekblad