His Burden is Light

MORE THAN COMMANDMENTS Have you ever wondered why the Ten Commandments repeatedly say, "Thou Shalt Not"? Not, "Thou should not," or "Thou must not," but, "Thou shalt not." The difference in meaning is plain although we tend to gloss over it as if it were merely a rhetorical flourish.  The difference is that "shall" is a word that indicates what will be in the future. The Hebrew uses the imperfect tense, which expresses a continuous action, so that the words might be translated, "you do not kill, you do not steal, you do not covet", which sounds like the description of a person. The Greek Septuagint simply uses the future tense, which also makes the commandment sound like the description of a person yet to be born. Something that "shall be," as the Greek, or is a continuous reality as the Hebrew, cannot be disobeyed or avoided: it is a statement of fact. "Should", on the other hand, speaks of what is righ

"And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day."  Deut 6:24 Notice that the children of Israel were commanded to fear God for their good always, and that the fear of the LORD is linked to obedience to all His statutes.  In other words, the fear of the LORD makes us obedient to God and this obedience results in our good. "T hou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD ."  Lev 19:14 The deaf man cannot hear what you are saying, and the blind man cannot see who made him trip and fall, but the LORD sees and hears and is displeased by this cruel and mocking behaviour, as He is kind, even to the unthankful and the evil. So this behaviour is tempting God to reward the one doing it with what he deserves, and someone who fears God does not tempt God to punish them. So again we see that the fear of God

What does this mean? It is one of the most alarming statements made by John the Baptist in his call to repentance, as it obviously contains threat of imminent danger. But beyond that general message that repentance is required by God now  in order to avert disaster, what precisely is meant by this saying? For a long time I had this vague sense of the meaning of the saying but only this morning did the refined question arise in my heart, and with the correct question, the answer almost instantly. I had always asked, Who is wielding this axe? Since we know that the call is repentance unto God, surely it is God who will punish the refusal. Ultimately, He is the One who wields the axe. As when the king of Assyria (the antichrist) shall glory in himself but God's rebuke is that he is simply a tool commanded by God. "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against

     Wonder Woman (2017) has been highly regarded as an excellent example of the superhero movie. Updated international box office receipts totaled $821.74 million (US), making it the highest-grossing superhero origin film ever made. Indeed, I found it to be an enjoyable movie. It has a certain subtlety when it comes to its themes, most notably feminism, and because of this subtlety it was easy to accept, and at times, tempting to agree. Men were not always cardboard-cutouts suited to a feminist narrative and Wonder Woman was occasionally depicted as feminine, even traditionally so. I laughed along with the humorous sections and I appreciated the action sequences. The only troubling aspect that I perceived on my first time watching the film is the reason I chose to review it for this blog: it puts Wonder Woman in the place of Jesus Christ! Frequently, the film maps itself onto the Gospel account by applying key elements of the life of Christ to the character of Wonder Woman. I couldn&#