May 13, 2011 – Amos 5

One thing that you might not know how about Bethel, which is mentioned here in regards to Israel, is that in the divided kingdom where you that Israel to the north and Judah to the south, Bethel was seen as a very important city, a city of worship, basically on par with Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was in Judah, so the leaders of Israel to the north had to come up with different cities to focus their worship, to have people come to for religious ceremonies. And Bethel was one of the city's.

I think when I don't have too much to say I may try something new and talk about something I have learned either in the past or recently from somewhere else. Yesterday I was was listening to a podcast and one of the callers had a question about Jesus' saying he was going to be in the Earth three days and three nights. Obviously if Christ died on Friday and rose on a Sunday that is only two nights and so there seems to be some discrepancies in there, some contradictions. So I thought I would talk about the answer that was given to that caller. 

Matthew 12:40 - For as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

The first thing we have to understand is what an idiom is. An expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual means of its constituent elements such as kick the bucket or hanging one's head or from the general grammatical rules of language suggests, raining cats and dogs. The person yesterday was talking about that in the Jewish tradition if a person said 3 days and three nights, their meaning three days. Also in the Jewish traditions three days meant any part of the day. So Jesus said three days and three nights he would be in the ground, there is no contradiction with him dying on Friday and rising on Sunday. You have part of Friday all of Saturday part of Sunday, three days.

Another place where this idiom is used is in the book Esther.  We see that she called for a fast of three days and three nights.  But the next chapter says “on the third day”.  If it is the third day of the fast, there have only been two nights, not three.  We cannot read our understanding of days as 24 hour periods into the language.  We must read it as it was meant to be read. 

Esther 4:16 - Go, and gather together all the Jews whom thou shalt find in Susan, and pray ye for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days and three nights: and I with my handmaids will fast in like manner, and then I will go in to the king, against the law, not being called, and expose myself to death and to danger.

Esther 5:1 - On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, opposite the king's hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace;