on the Glory of God

“And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”
—Exodus 32:7-14

When I was in London I had some very good older brothers who taught me about the Bible. One of them was called Sam, and his catchphrase was the word glory. He’d go into this super deep dive on how the Ten Commandments could actually tell us about God’s character, or how the building plans of the big temple could tell us about God’s relationship with his people, and after he was done, he’d look us in the eye and say – glory.

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11/20/2024 0

Herodotus’ Persian Infantry

The Persian infantry – we have a pretty good idea of what they looked like and how they fought, or at least we think we do. They were big fans of Smurf hats, basically unarmoured and no match for Greek hoplites, arrows that could blot out the sun – or some of our popular depictions might even show them as slaves being driven forward with whips, or dehumanised, incompetent, orc-like goons.

What does Herodotus, one of our best literary sources for the Persian infantry, have to say about them? Surprisingly, a lot of what we said just now is based loosely on Herodotus. But with a more careful reading, supported by other literary and artistic sources, we might come away with a different picture.

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08/21/2024 0

History Essay Workshop

06/01/2024 0

on waiting for the day of the Lord

““For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act,” says the LORD of hosts. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.””
—Malachi 4:1-6

When was the last time you heard someone’s parting words before a long wait? Maybe it was when you were little, maybe something like Mom and dad will be out tonight, so listen to your sister and eat your dinner and do your homework. Or maybe something less boring, like in the second Lord of the Rings movie when Gandalf tells his friends, Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, before riding away on a white stallion, leaving his friends to fight ten thousand monster men.

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04/01/2024 0

Being a History Student

What is your job as a History student?

If you’re anything like me when I was your age, you might start thinking that History is all about memorising lots of useless facts and dates, and then vomiting them onto the page during your quizzes and exams. Why? Because the teacher says so, that’s why. And the teacher is the one who writes your report cards!

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03/27/2024 0

on Jesus’s kingship and its complications

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
Matthew 4:1-11

We like our ideas to be simple, don’t we? Black and white is easier than shades of grey. We like the news to be about good guys vs bad guys, not bad guys vs worse guys. We like our Instagram Stories to be mostly pictures, not text. And then there’s that design principle called KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

But the problem is most things aren’t actually simple. People aren’t simple. And sometimes packaging complicated things to look simple is not truthful or helpful. Christians often like to do this — the Bible is all about this, or being a Christian means doing that. We like to talk about a Jesus who’s nice and cuddly, always ready to forgive, a nice teacher, meek and mild, basically Santa Claus but skinny and not just available during Christmas.

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01/10/2024 0

on the preciousness of the Church

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
—1 Corinthians 3:16-23

When I say the word church, I think I’ll get many different responses from you. For some of you, it might stir up memories of Sunday School and having a nice time with your friends; for some church might be a necessary but tiring burden every Sunday morning; for others it might be something negative, something that has caused a lot of pain in the past, and even today; and for others maybe at least it’ll make you think of the Renaissance and Martin Luther.

One Indian philosopher called Bara Dada was not so enthusiastic about the Church; he said “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but Christians are not like him.” Most people would probably agree that there are a lot of serious problems with the Church, this community of Christians, these people who say they follow Jesus but often do the exact opposite of what Jesus did.

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12/27/2023 0

on Psalm 23

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
—Psalm 23

I think I first heard this psalm when I was a kid in Sunday school. Which makes sense — it’s full of soothing, nice things, there’s kindly shepherds and fluffy sheep, and green grass and peaceful lakes.

Nowadays I usually hear this psalm at funerals. And often it just seemed like a mismatch to me, talking about grass and lakes when someone has just passed away. If I knew the deceased person well, it was almost like a cruel joke. Can kind, soothing words bring someone back to life? In the face of death, is this all we have — nice words and fluffy sheep and overflowing cups?

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09/30/2023 0

on preaching to the choir

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.””
Romans 4:1-8

There’s an old-fashioned phrase called preaching to the choir. It means you’re saying something that your audience already knows, and already agrees with. Generally when you’re preaching to the choir you’re just kind of wasting your time, since you’re not saying anything new, or changing anyone’s mind.

In this passage Paul is kind of preaching to the choir: he’s addressing Christians living in Rome, explaining to them what it means to be God’s people. But here’s where things get complicated: among those Christians are Jewish believers who think Paul is preaching to the choir, they think they know it all already. But in today’s passage Paul — who is Jewish himself — is trying to show them that they actually don’t know what it means to be God’s people, to be acceptable to God; Paul is trying to show them what that really means.

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09/28/2023 0

on giving and motivation

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
—2 Cor 8:1-9

There’s a silly Christian joke out there that goes something like this: if Adam and Eve had been from Hong Kong, we’d all still be living in the Garden of Eden — because neither of them would’ve eaten the fruit, they would’ve eaten the snake instead.

The whole what if the Bible was a Hong Kong thing routine runs pretty thin from there, but maybe we could stretch it just a bit more for today’s passage: If Paul had been a typical Hong Konger, this passage might’ve ended up quite differently.

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06/21/2023 1