Waiting In Ephraim 100511

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Psalm 119:49-56

Song of Solomon 8:5-14

John 11:45-57

 

Waiting In Ephraim 100511

 

Each time I read a section of scripture, it opens anew to me. In today’s selection from John I noticed that when Jesus became aware that Caiaphas that Jesus was to be executed, Jesus went to Ephraim and waited for the Passover festival.

 

I can’t help but wonder if modern Christians, or is it post-modern Christians are like Jesus, waiting in Ephraim for the right time.

 

But what are we waiting for? Are we waiting to feed the poor, to sell fancy churches and give farmland to the poor instead, and housing for the poor and homeless? We might recall that the number of people in America with second and third houses is equal to the number of homeless people.

 

What are we waiting for? Is it time for the Kingdom of God to come to humanity and earth?

 

Pray for us all, we need the help of God and each other!

(brother) Bill

 

 

 

 

Psalm 119:49-56

⁴⁹Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

⁵⁰This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.

⁵¹The arrogant utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.

⁵²When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.

⁵³Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, those who forsake your law.

⁵⁴Your statutes have been my songs wherever I make my home.

⁵⁵I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.

⁵⁶This blessing has fallen to me, for I have kept your precepts.

Song of Solomon 8:5-14

⁵Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor. ⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. ⁷Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.

⁸We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for? ⁹If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. ¹⁰I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace. ¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he entrusted the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. ¹²My vineyard, my very own, is for myself; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it. ¹⁴Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices!

John 11:45-57

⁴⁵Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. ⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” ⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” ⁵¹He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, ⁵²and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. ⁵³So from that day on they planned to put him to death. ⁵⁴Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” ⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

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