Modern Names of Places Mentioned in the Bible

 

Acts 11:26     Antioch (Antakya, Turkiye)

Hosea 10:14   Beth Arbel (Irbid, Jordan)

1 Chronicles 5:26   Gozan (Tell Halaf, Syria)

Acts 14:8   Lystra (Klistra, Turkiye)

Revelation 2:18  Thyatira (Akhisar, Turkiye)

Female Images of God: Hosea 13:4-8

Loving mothers are known to be fierce in protecting their children.  Imagine facing an angry mother bear. 

“Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.” Hosea 13:4-8

Definitions: Chastity

Chassity, Chassidy, Chassitee, Chessity, Chessidy, Chasadee.  These and a great many more are variants of a very popular English language female personal name.  They all are apparently attempts to represent the word “chastity.”

One wonders how much people understand about the word if they cannot even be bothered to spell it correctly.  The English language word is derived ultimately from the Latin word “castus,” meaning “pure”.

Aldous Huxley humorously (I think) called chastity “the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.”

An internet Google search brings up numerous attempts at a definition, most centering on the avoidance of sex.  The Christian understanding of the word can include that meaning but it is much more meaningful than that.  Remember that God viewed the Israelite’s attraction to other cultures and other gods as adultery against Himself. (Hosea 4; Ezekiel 16:35-42; Jeremiah 3:1, 13-14, and, in the New Testament, James 4:4)

The Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said of the virtue, “The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one’s life towards a goal.”

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:23

"By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," 2 Corinthians 6:6

"One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;" 1 Timothy 3:4

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

"For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2

"That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience." Titus 2:2

"Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;" 1 Timothy 3:8

"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." 1 Timothy 3:11

“Sex in the Body of Christ” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/may/34.28.html

Names in the Bible: Hosea

The name of the Hebrew prophet Hosea (8^th Century BC/BCE, ca. 780-725) is derived from the Hebrew word for “salvation.”  Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer, are seen by biblical interpreters as symbolic of Yahweh and Israel.  Just as Gomer ran away to another man, God declared that Israel was chasing after other gods.  The gods were affluence, Canaanite religions, sexual immorality, drunkenness, and magical practices.

Hosea named his daughter Lo-ruhama, meaning “not pitied.”  His son he named Lo-ammi, meaning “not my people.”  Both names expressed God’s displeasure. With Israel.

What happened next is also symbolic of God and Israel.  Hosea brought Gomer back and with love and patience, restored her to her proper place.  He remained true to her in spite of her unfaithfulness.  His love was redemptive.

Christians believe that what is taught of God and Israel speaks also to them, those grafted into the tree.  The relationship between redeemed man and God is seen as an ideal marriage.  Because of our limited ability to understand, God speaks to us in powerful symbols we can understand.

The names Joshua (Hebrew: Yehoshua) and Jesus (Hebrew: Yeshua) are derived from the same word as Hosea/Hoshea and ultimately mean “Yahweh is salvation.” 

Are You Willing to Be Viewed As Strange?

The other day as I was going to work, I saw a clown walking into the Children’s Hospital.  She had on a garishly frilly red, white, blue, and green patchwork quilt dress and a straw hat topped with a large plastic flower.   In her right hand was a small children’s metal Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox.  It was obvious that everyone was noticing her.  How could they not?

The clown was one of the many volunteers who visit the ailing children at Children’s Hospital.  She, like the other clowns, had to overcome her discomfort at drawing attention to herself by appearing in public in ludicrous clothing.  She, at least, would have the comfort of knowing that the people who were looking at her understood why she was doing this.

Christians who strictly adhere to the biblical understanding (worldview) will often be thought to be odd, backward, or unsophisticated when they do not conform to the prevailing customs of their surrounding culture. Sometimes they will be accused of being fools, or worse, “haters.”  As I have stated before, we really are different and they really do not understand.  

Some believers, such as Isaiah, Hosea, John the Baptist, Francis of Assisi, Procopius, Basil Fool for Christ, John the Hairy, Grisha, and many others have carried out seemingly ridiculous actions to draw attention to the faith.  Some, like the Yurodivy (Holy Fools) of Eastern Orthodoxy, have intentionally carried the idea to what many would consider to be extreme.  All of these people have been aware that they are perceived as “strange.”  They value the opinion of the Lord more than they value the opinions of man.

Are you willing to be viewed as strange?  Are you willing to be a Fool for Christ?

“We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.” 1 Corinthians 4:10

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” 1 Corinthians 3:19

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”  1 Corinthians 1:21

Translation

"Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light, that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most Holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water."  Miles Smith  (1554-1624)

MIles Smith was a strict Calvinist and in 1612 became the Bishop of Gloucester.  He was what we in America would call a "library rat,"always found around the books, described as "covetous of nothing but books."

Smith was a member of the First Oxford Company of translators of the KIng James Version of the BIble.  The First Oxford Company translated Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi.  The quotation above comes from the Preface, which Smith wrote.