Hut in a field on the Thai-Burma border (photo by Tim Bulkeley)

At last, I’m on the home straight, the first of the prophets The prophetic books are packed with humour. But right at the start we’ll need to get one thing clear. Humour is not just the comic, entertainment that promotes a giggle or a smile. There is humour also in tragedy, at times when “you either have to laugh or cry” and those when the sharp scalpel of cutting wit is needed to cut through defenses.

I’ll try to explain this idea of tragic (as well as comic) humour in exploring Isaiah 1, and will also argue that in this passage (at least in Isaiah 1:8ff) all but two of the “signs of humour” we have been working with are present. One that isn’t is “lighthearted mood” but you’d hardly expect that if there is such a thing as “tragic humour”, as I am claiming.

So, listen to the podcast and tell me if YOU think that tragic humour exists, and if I’ve rightly named it!

Humour in the Bible: book 23: Isaiah: tragic humour

Photo by PBoGS

We’ve just recorded the video for the new CareyMedia DVD, this year it is conversations between small groups of us, one I was involved in was about worship. So, here I want to suggest that Leviticus (esp. Lev 19:1-2) and Isaiah 6 can help us come back to the heart of worship (as the song puts it).

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Gathering at First Presbyterian Church Bing (Photo by citizenactionny)

The flat out contradictions in Scripture make Bible readers jumpy.Conservatives seek to defend the “integrity” of Scripture by denying that there is any (even the slightest) disagreement, those on the other side delight in the “proof” that the Bible is merely a collection of venerable ancient texts of no relevance today. Both responses are dead wrong!

Contradictions in Scripture are real guides to how we should read. In Proverbs they reminded us how proverbs work, and how we have to select when to apply which proverb. In other places they are often reminders of the humanity of Scripture, that we have the thoughts of particular authors, in particular times and places, who were inspired by God not the words of God taken down as dictation.

So Is 56:6-8 stands in contrast in its welcoming approach to foreigners to the harsher attitude of Ezra’s prayer 9:5ff.
The debate between the two passages shows us Scripture as incarnate word, rooted in particular times and places, but then that is how the God of the Bible works: choosing the Jews, coming to earth in Jesus…

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I have not focused these 5 Minutes on how Is 53 speaks so clearly about Jesus, it is the Old Testament passage that is most clearly, directly and simply fulfilled in Christ. But that status should not make it paradigmatic for undedrstanding how Jesus fulfills Scripture. For more on that (and there is nothing on that in this podcast see What DOES “fulfil” mean? And other podcasts on this topic here.

Instead in this audio talk I want to focus on reading the prophets. The prophets are problematic today, in part because  Christians sometimes make them seem more like Nostradamus than Nathan, but even more because these books do fit Yancey’s friend’s description: “weird, confusing and all sound alike”. In these five minutes I’ll mention two key tools background (“context“) and hearing the “voices”.

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Juxtaposition: putting things together to make something “more than the sum of the parts” is a common artistic skill, it is common (but often unrecognised) in the Bible. As my least favourite book of the Bible helps reveal!

]]> http://5minutebible.com/obadiah-and-jonah/feed/ 0 0:05:42 Juxtaposition: putting things together to make something “more than the sum of the parts” is a common artistic skill, it is common (but often unrecognised) in the Bible. As my least favourite book of the Bible helps reveal! Juxtaposition: putting things together to make something “more than the sum of the parts” is a common artistic skill, it is common (but often unrecognised) in the Bible. As my least favourite book of the Bible helps reveal! Isaiah, Jonah, Obadiah Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/isaiah-40-in-babylon/ http://5minutebible.com/isaiah-40-in-babylon/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:35:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=52

It is certainly one of my favourite Bible passages, indeed it is many people’s favourite Bible chapter. Isaiah 40 is just full of superb phrases and pictures. Whenever it was composed, this chapter really comes to life and sparkles when it is heard as the Judean exiles in Babylon heard, it just before Cyrus the Persian king captured the city. For a better idea of the background watch the Video “Babylon as background to hearing Isaiah 40” (4MB).

]]> http://5minutebible.com/isaiah-40-in-babylon/feed/ 1 0:06:48 It is certainly one of my favourite Bible passages, indeed it is many people’s favourite Bible chapter. Isaiah 40 is just full of superb phrases and pictures. Whenever it was composed, this chapter really comes to life and sparkles when it is [...] It is certainly one of my favourite Bible passages, indeed it is many people’s favourite Bible chapter. Isaiah 40 is just full of superb phrases and pictures. Whenever it was composed, this chapter really comes to life and sparkles when it is heard as the Judean exiles in Babylon heard, it just before Cyrus the Persian king captured the city. For a better idea of the background watch the Video “Babylon as background to hearing Isaiah 40” (4MB). History, Isaiah Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no