This summer for my chosen classic to read, I picked Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. I had seen that a new edition was out in a gorgeous binding, with notes, AND Gustave Dore’s illustrations (even better, lightly edited to cover nudity.) I was immediately thrilled, and I bought the book. It’s the Paradise Lost Legacy Edition by Lithos Kids, in a fabulous binding and cover. It’s so beautiful. Here is what it looks like: photos from Lithos Kids-
Author John Milton’s use of language is genius. He can describe the celestial realms movingly and with just enough detail so the imagination catches its edges but vague enough because no one knows what the heavenly throne room looks like apart from the few glimpses in scripture. Milton’s descriptions of Eden contain enough detail to ground us but vague enough to evoke a pleasant and relaxing lushness… It’s a wonder how he maintains this balance.
It’s the same with his descriptions of the parallel in hell with satan mounting his throne there and evilly plotting with his fallen cohorts how to regain heaven. Milton’s speeches between the angels holy and unholy, God’s pronouncement of His Son as heir, Adam’s comfort to Eve all use words and evoke images that are either thrilling to the spirit, or incite dread (the hellish realms…). I’m just amazed.
As I go through the book, and I’m halfway now, on Book 6, Milton uses extremely inventive names for satan. Here are two I saw just from yesterday’s reading,
Seditious Angel, Proud Aspirer.
I have noticed the names as I’ve read along in Books 1-5, but I didn’t note them. However, this blogger did–
Author of All Ill the Grisly King Infernal Serpent Arch Enemy Apostate Angel Arch Fiend Satan Lost Archangel Superior Fiend Author of All Ill Matchless Chief Antagonist of Heav’n Hell’s Dread Emperor Adversary of God and Man Flying Fiend Undaunted Fiend Traitor Angel False Fugitive Hellish Pest Subtle Fiend Wary Fiend Mighty Leading Angel Adversary Fiend Devil False Dissembler Fraudulent Imposter Foul Arch Felon First Grand Thief Grisly King Prince of Hell Sly Hypocrite Lucifer Grand Foe Tempter Prince of Darkness Antagonist of Heav’n’s Almighty King Adversary Serpent Prince of Air.
Milton’s favorite name to call satan is Fiend. I love that word. I don’t think we use it enough. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “devil, demon, “a person of great wickedness or maliciousness”.
Prior to buying the Lithos Kids edition of Paradise Lost I also happened to own Leland Ryken’s study guide. Ryken has studied Milton for decades and is quite familiar with the genre of Epic that Paradise Lost is. The study guide is helpful. It is part of the Christian Guides to the Classics. It’s just 96 pages.
So, that is my reading update for the moment. I hope summertime affords you some time to read anything or everything from magazines to beach reads to strenuous classics, and everything in between. The point is, to read! Your Bible of course but other texts too. Enjoy!
SYNOPSIS: Samuel’s speech upon the occasion of his retirement is beautiful, and beyond that, also holds lessons for us New Testament believers.
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Hannah presenting her son Samuel to the priest Eli. Source public domain
Samuel had been a faithful man of God since his mother Hannah had presented him to Eli in the temple when Samuel was three years old. You might remember Hannah’s prayer. The LORD had closed her womb, and desperately Hannah wanted a child. She prayed in the temple, promising to deliver a child that the LORD gives her, back to Him for His glorious service. The LORD was pleased with this. He opened Hannah’s womb, and the child born was Samuel.
Samuel served for many years as Priest, Prophet and Judge.
The day came when Samuel was going to retire as their Judge. The People had clamored for a King instead, and God acceded to this. So Samuel gathered the People, and spoke to them in farewell.
And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand.” And he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.” (1 Samuel 12:1-5)
I find this profoundly beautiful.
When the LORD called little Samuel into service, you’ll remember the scene. Sadly, old Priest Eli was dim of eyesight, and as we’ll see, dim of hearing also. The visions to Israel were rare in those days. The LORD called to Samuel.
Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. (1 Samuel 3:4-5)
Three times the LORD called and three times Samuel answered “Here I am!” It took three times for Eli to figure out that it was God who was calling Samuel. Samuel opened his service to the LORD with those powerful three words, ‘Here I am’. As a parallel, when the LORD called Isaiah, Isaiah also responded with, “Here I am!” (Isaiah 6:8).
Samuel ended his service as their Judge with the same phrase he began service, “Here I am.” We know that when we are before the people of the Lord, we are before the Lord. (Acts 5:4, Acts 9:4).
Before Samuel spoke last words to prompt them to remember the LORD and all He had done for them, Samuel did something first. He checked his relationship with the People. He asked them if there was any blight in his behavior to cause a stumbling, to cause an offense, to have come between them and him. He would make amends. The People answered, “No”. Samuel had not defrauded, had not oppressed, had not cheated, had not bribed.
Samuel went on with his message, bringing all the Lord had done to the Israelites’ mind. Samuel closed with this-
“Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.” (1 Samuel 12:24-25).
It is such a parallel to us today. Now, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant distinguishes us from the OT Israelites and the NT Christians. Further, there are not Priests, Kings, Judges, or Prophets of Israel anymore. However, the principles are the same. For example,
1. Samuel was a faithful servant of the LORD all his days. He was attuned to God’s will, he was diligent to follow His voice, and he was faithful to God’s people. Eli’s spiritual hearing had grown so dim, he failed to hear God calling to Samuel. Yet Samuel was attuned all his days. Are we attuned to the Lord? Are we available to perform service to Him? Do we diligently and actively comply when we do hear His voice (through the scriptures)?
2. Samuel lived a holy life before His people. We are called to do the same.
Living holy and blameless before the Lord means living holy and blameless lives before His people, too. I’d said a moment ago, ‘We know that when we are before the people of the Lord, we are before the Lord.’ (Acts 5:4, Acts 9:4). I’d used those two verses from Acts to show the truth of my axiom. When Ananias and Sapphira lied about the portion of money they had pledged to the church, they were not lying to Peter. They were lying to the Holy Spirit (who is IN Peter). When Saul/Paul was persecuting Christians, he was not just persecuting some people who happened to be living in the Middle East, he was persecuting the Messiah’s people. Our union with Jesus is so close it’s why Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
3. Samuel’s call to charge him so he could make amends, before he got to the business of reminding them of what God had done, is similar to today’s New Testament charge to cleanse ourselves before we approach the Lord’s Table for communion. We are not only charged to cleanse ourselves before the Lord but to clear things with any of the brethren. If there are any outstanding sins, we must rectify them first.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)
It is a call to be reverent, holy, and mindful of all Who God is and what He has done. Attempting to be reverent about what Jesus has done for us through a filter of unconfessed sin or through the muck of grudges and bitterness against one in the Body, is not behaving in worthy manner. If we have a grudge against one person then we have a grudge against Jesus. Samuel cleared the decks first. We must do the same.
Old Testament or New Testament, we are called to live holy lives.
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16, cf Leviticus 11:44, Leviticus 19:2)
Samuel’s call to the people to charge him with any wrong he had performed so as to make amends was not only holy but humble. In that way, it was a beautiful moment.
God, grant me the humility and ability to live a holy life as Samuel did and as You call us to do.
SYNOPSIS: Are you confused at the dizzying pace in which commonly understood words are being re-defined? Has someone used a weaponized word against you? What IS ‘linguistic theft’ anyway? All this and more in today’s essay about the new Newspeak and Thoughtcrimes.
SYNOPSIS: Struck by the similarities of living conditions described in a 1909 dystopian novella and the modern TV show Love Is Blind, I discuss the notion of the importance of physicality in relationships, as shown on the face, and if it’s true that ‘love is blind.’
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is a tremendous book. It’s an allegory of the Christian’s life from salvation to heaven (“The Celestial City”). In the book, there is a scene where Christian Pilgrim is attempting to climb the way to Porter’s Lodge. Up ahead he can see two lions crouching at the edge of the path. What Pilgrim doesn’t know is that the lions are chained, and if Pilgrim stays in the middle of the path, he will not be harmed by the lunging lions. Here is the excerpt:
Now before he had gone far, he entered into a very narrow passage, which was about a furlong off the Porter’s lodge, and looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the way. Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were driven back by. (The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.) Then he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after them; for he thought nothing but death was before him. But the Porter at the lodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt, as if he would go back, cried unto him, saying, Is thy strength so small? Mark 4:40. Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none: keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.
We ourselves are pilgrims in a strange land. Our way is clear because, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105). The way is lit by His word and it is made clear, but it is a narrow way. Take care to stay on the middle line of that Way, dear friend, as I strive to do myself.
It’s high summer here in the US, and where I live (in the South). It gets very hot in July. We are predicted to have a “heat dome” next week for the 4th of July, which won’t be fun for the poor marching bands participating in the parades. I am looking forward to the festivities that are planned for our country’s 250th birthday! It’s hard to think of how fast June flew by!
“I’ll meet you at the place near the thing where we went that time.”
That is one of my all-time favorite movie lines. It comes from the 1987 Rom-Com movie “Broadcast News”, starring Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks. The line was spoken by Albert Brooks as character Aaron Altman, to Holly Hunter’s character Jane Craig. The two were colleagues at a broadcast news station, she was the producer and he was the reporter. They were close friends, who not only worked together but went out platonically (though Aaron wanted more. That was the ‘Rom’).
People in my area have noticed that some new “Flock Cameras” have been installed. These are fixed, motion-activated automated license plate reader (ALPR) manufactured by Flock Safety, hence the name. Flock says that these are an aid to Law Enforcement, capturing information about a vehicle while it’s in public view. The company says the information gained, such as licence plate number, make, model, color, and details on the vehicle like toolboxes or fixed racks, aid in investigations.
Many citizens claim it’s intrusive, that they advance mass surveillance, that data can be shared inappropriately, and they oppose the Constitution’s promise that government must prove guilt rather than citizens must prove innocence.
the-end-time.org 