My back has been hurting for over a week now. It’s a heavy constant pain that restricts my movement and limits my ability to enjoy getting from one place to another. Nothing I do can get rid of it.
Perhaps, it’s because I’m carrying a burden on my back. An invisible burden that I want to be forgiven for. And even when this person forgives me — I don’t know if I’ll be able to receive it. Maybe this is fair retribution for all the pain I’ve caused with my mistakes. I guess it’s an appropriate burden to bear until things are right again.
I’ve been following a reading plan to take me through most of the Bible in a year, and boy it’s tough to stay on top of it. But at the same time, it is extremely rewarding. The Old Testament has always been neglected, but a quote from J. G. Millar mentions our need to know the Old Testament in order to know the gospel.
Much of the theological framework needed to understand the significance of Jesus’ coming, life and death was put in place by Moses in his writing, and perhaps above all in Deuteronomy. For it is here that the theology of blessing and curse which lies at the heart of Jesus’ sin-bearing work is first articulated. It is here that the hopelessness of humanity trapped in sin, even when chosen by God, is exposed. It is here that the prospect of a divine intervention so radical that it changes people at the very core of their being first appears. (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, pp. 164-165)