Jonathan's blog

Today I watched Prime (2005,PG-13) (Screen It! Review). From the Wikipedia entry:

The film is a character comedy set in New York City. Rafi (Uma Thurman) is a recently divorced, 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan. David (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old Jewish painter from the Upper West Side, falls in love with her. Rafi shares all her secrets with her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep). Unbeknownst to Rafi, Lisa happens to be David's mother.

I'm a sucker from non-cheesy romantic films, especially if there is a healthy dose of angst and longings unfulfilled. This one didn't really fit the bill; it was just OK. I give it 3 out ot 5.

Who remembers the message of Obadiah? I've been studying it recently for our Sunday AM class. The message is the impending destruction of Edom (the descendants of Esau). What was Edom's transgression? One of the big ones was pride. In his commentary The Minor Prophets, James Montgomery Boice writes:

According to Obadiah, the pride of Edom deceived the people into trusting in their natural defenses, their numerous allies and their acknowledged wisdom, rather than in God. Obadiah says that their wisdom will fail, their allies will prove treacherous and their defenses will be overcome. This is quite general and may easily be applied to any nation at any time in history.

What was it about which Edom was proud? The first answer is: her defenses. Due to her unique geographical situation, Edom was almost impregnable.

Was God being particularly harsh with Edom? No, this is His way with all nations. God God exalts a nation. Those in power see it as a cause for personal pride. They boast that they are better than others and can even do without God. Then God brings the nation down. This has been the case with all the great kingdoms of the world. Historians tell us that the world has seen twenty-one great civilizations. But each has passed away in time to make room for the next. Once there was Egypt, but ancient was destroyed and that which is now Egypt is no world power. Once there was Babylon, but it too passed away. So with Greece and Rome. So it will be with the great powers of our own day: the Soviet Union and the United States. Is the United States destined for destruction? We cannot say. She may recover her godly heritage. She may last until the Lord returns. But we should be warned by God's judgment on Edom. Do we boast that we are strong? That we have the largest army, the most missiles, the more effective navy? Do we boast that our technology is superior to that of the rest of the world? If so, we must watch out! God says that He can bring even our nation down.

This got me thinking about the pride of our nation, the superiority we often feel relative to the rest of the world. As I mentioned recently, I have a new appreciation based on the minor prophets that there is precedent for God to use disasters (e.g. by an enemy attack or natural disaster) to punish a nation but that I'm also bothered when folks use the occasion disaster to point fingers at another group as the cause of disfavor rather than looking in the mirror. Maybe next time Falwell and Robertson pronounce judgment they should consider whether or not our national pride be an issue.

Some TV recommendations from The Week magazine:

• My Life as a Child, Mon 7 PM, The Learning Channel
• The Black Donnellys, Mon 10 PM, NBC
• Wild Strawberries, Thu 2:15 PM, Turner Classic Movies
• Robin Hood, Sat 9 PM, BBCAmerica

From an article titled "U.S. probing alleged rape of Sunni woman" by Oren Dorell in the USA Today:

Ahmed Abdullah, 29, a Sunni from Zaiona, had doubts [about whether or not a 20-year-old Iraqi was raped by members of the Iraqi police force]. "I don't believe that Iraqis will rape a woman. We don't have such a culture. We might kill, behead or do torture, but rape - I don't think so," he said.

We've been studying the minor prophets recently. One thing that was definitely on their minds was judgment from God and accompanying disaster. For example, this verse from Amos:

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? Amos 3:6

In his commentary on the minor prophets, James Montgomery Boice has this to say about Joel's prophecy of impending disaster:

The most important thing about Joel's handling of disaster is that he sees God as responsible for it. This does not mean that God is the author of sin, as if He were directly responsible for the rebellion of Satan or the original transgression of Adam and Eve. But it does mean that, given the sin-sick, evil world in which we live, God Himself does not hesitate to take responsibility for the occurrence of natural disasters and the resultant suffering.

This is something that has challenged me about the minor prophets. I'm the kind of guy who cringes, for example, when Christians try to draw a connection between disasters (e.g. 9/11 or Katrina) and their favorite example(s) of our moral decline, drawing for example from Old Testament texts and the disobedience-punishment-repentance dance that Yahweh and Israel performed in the OT. Typically, I would dismiss this, saying those OT texts don't apply because the US of A isn't God's chosen nation like Israel was. Problem is, the minor prophets don't reserve this kind of judgment for Israel alone. The other pagan nations get it too. And, generally I would have to agree with Boice...in the minor prophets Yahweh doesn't hesitate to use disasters (natural or from an enemy) as punishment. I don't think I'll be so quick to dismiss this sort of reasoning in the future. That said, I'll still have a bone to pick with anyone who:

1. Tries to make a specific disaster-punishment connection without sufficient "maybe"s and "I wonder"s thrown in...unless of course he/she is claiming to be a prophet
2. Tries to make a specific disaster-punishment connection by picking on someone else's sin. Take a look at yourself in the mirror first.