Sometimes, a kiss just means more

When we see the word "kiss," we often think of a romantic kiss between lovers, a platonic kiss between friends, or the kisses between a parent and a child.  The Bible, however, lists six different types of kisses. 

The first type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of blessing. In the Old Testament, the father kisses the firstborn son, or the son kisses the father, to receive the blessing before the father dies. Genesis 48:10 tells how Jacob (disguised as Esau) kissed Isaac to receive his father's blessing before he died.  In 2 Samuel 19:39, King David kissed Barzillai and blessed him because Barzillai had provided David with supplies when he stayed at Mahanaim after David had escaped from his son Absalom, who had taken over David's throne.

The second type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of anointing. In 1 Samuel 10:1, the prophet Samuel poured oil over Saul to anoint him as the first king of Israel and kissed him. 

The third type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of greeting. This kind of kiss is found in ten locations in the Bible. In Genesis 29:13, after Rebecca told Laban that his nephew Jacob was at the well,  Laban ran to meet him and greeted him with a kiss. In the New Testament, in one of the most beloved parables, which is found in Luke 15, the father of the Prodigal Son ran to meet his son upon his return and kissed him. In Romans 16:16, Paul instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. In 1 Peter 5:14, Peter also instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. 

The fourth type of kiss is the kiss of betrayal. In 2 Samuel 20, Joab grabs Amasa by the beard to kiss him, but while doing so, Joab plunged his sword through Amasa's stomach and killed him. This was in revenge for Absalom appointing Amasa as commander of the army instead of Joab, who was loyal to David. The most well-known kiss of betrayal is when Judas kisses Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can read about this in Matthew 26:48 and in Mark 14:45. That kiss was the signal for the Pharisees to seize Jesus, and you know the rest of the story.

The fifth and final type of kiss is the kiss of farewell. The kiss of farewell can be found in six different locations in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 20:41, David and Jonathan kissed each other farewell before David ran away from Saul. In Ruth 1:14, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi goodbye before returning to her people.   In Acts 20:37, the believers in Ephesus fell on Paul's neck and kissed him goodbye because Paul told them in verse 20 that they would never see him again. 

Neither the kiss of greeting, the kiss of anointing, nor the kiss of farewell is practiced in today's church, at least not that I've seen. We live in a different world today, where we are worried about propriety and/or lawsuits.  The COVID pandemic also put the kibosh on non-romantic or friendly kisses. When we all get to heaven (what a day that will be!), we will be able to greet each other with kisses for all eternity without fear. Won't that be nice? 

In case you didn't know, I have an author page on Amazon.com, where you can purchase books of my blog posts, and you can purchase a book of my Advent/Lenten monologues. The link to my author page is in the right-hand column. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

And thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

It's a family affair

I'm not sure if it's my age, but I'm getting interested in genealogy.  I think I'm going to put an Ancestry DNA test on my Christmas list.  I'm especially interested in the finger length DNA trait - I have short fingers (the fingers on mittens are way too long) and my pinky fingers are extremely short - they only come halfway up the second joint on my ring finger.  I wonder if that's a birth defect of some sort, especially since I had problems with small motor skills as a child. 

The Hebrews in the Old Testament were also extremely interested in genealogy.  In modern days, we have first names and surnames. For example, I'm Diane (my first name) Schultz (my surname). But in Old Testament times, a man was referred to as "the son of ____," and sometimes, a second "the son of _____" was added.  Occasionally, the tribe of which the man belonged was added - for example, Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  

2 Chronicles 1-9 lists all of the generations of Jewish men up until Saul. A listing of all the people who returned to Israel from Babylon is found in Ezra 2.  Evidently, the genealogies were kept up during the exile in Babylon, because in Ezra 2:62, it states that some of the men who thought they were priests were not found in the genealogies and therefore, they were defiled.  Ezra outlines his own genealogy in Ezra 7, and it shows that he is a descendant of Aaron, the chief priest.  Therefore, he was extremely qualified to teach the law.  

Ezra 8 lists all the names of the families that returned to Israel with him.  Interestingly, there is a Daniel listed.  But is it the Daniel from the book of Daniel? The "son of _____" designation is not used for Daniel in the book of Daniel. Since Daniel was in Babylon by this point, who his father was is not important, and he may have been dead by that time. In Daniel 1:4, Daniel and his companions are listed as "young men." If Daniel was 18 years old at the time of the captivity and Israel was in exile for 70 years, that means he would have been 88 years old at the time of the first trip back to Israel.  The Daniel listed in the book of Ezra is listed as one of the sons of Ithamar, who was one of Aaron's sons. These Daniels may be one and the same, but I couldn't find any corroborating evidence in my brief research.  I will add this to the list of questions I will ask the Lord once I get to heaven.

You may wonder why the Hebrews were so interested in genealogy.  As noted above, the genealogies showed which people were real Hebrews and which people were not. The main reason, however, that the Hebrews were interested in genealogy is that the Messiah would come through one of the Hebrews' family lines.  This was predicted in Genesis 3:15 after the serpent (Satan) tempted Eve to eat the apple from the Tree of Life:  "And I will put enmity, Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” The Seed, of course, is Jesus.  Jesus was to come through the line of Adam and Eve and later, through the line of David.  Jesus is referred to as the Son of David in the Bible.  Jesus confounded the Pharisees in Matthew 22 by asking them who they thought whose son the Christ was. They replied that that Christ was the son of David, but Jesus said in verse 45, "“If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”  The genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, His earthly father, can be found in Matthew 1, and the genealogy of Jesus through His mother Mary can be found in Luke 3.  Mary's genealogy listing goes all the way back to Adam, while Joseph's genealogy listing only goes back to Abraham.  Both Joseph and Mary were from David's family line, although they were from different branches of David's family tree.  

Throughout the Gospels, the "son of _____" wording is still used when men are introduced into the story. But starting in the book of Acts, the "son of _____" designation is no longer used.  Why? you may ask.  I think there are two reasons.  First, Jesus the Messiah had already come (and returned to Heaven), and the Hebrew genealogies didn't matter anymore as far as the Messiah was concerned.  Second, the members of the Christian church were not only Jews but people from all over the known world, thanks to Peter's sermon at Pentecost and Paul's missionary journeys. The "son of _______" designation was no longer necessary.  As church members, we are members of the family of God and the only father that is important (besides our biological fathers) is our heavenly Father.  So dear reader, you are my brother or sister in Christ and God is our heavenly Father! 

I have traced my family line on Ancestry.com and other genealogy websites back two generations.  I would like to know a little bit more about my great grandparents.  I would also like to know what countr(ies) my ancestors emigrated from.  The results of the DNA testing will be very interesting.

Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Ruth, the humble

This blog post is about Ruth, one of the many ladies in Scripture.  Before I start discussing her, however, I'd like you to actually read the book of Ruth, if you haven't lately.  Don't worry, it's only 4 chapters long. It's an engrossing story, so you should be able to get through it quickly.  If you don't have your Bible handy, you can right-click on the word here and select "open in new tab."  Click on the arrow at the right to move to the next chapter.  Or you can switch tabs back and forth between this blog post and the book of Ruth if you prefer.

Ruth is an important person in the Bible.  She is one of only two women to have a book of the Bible named after her (the other woman is Esther).  She is also only one of the two women listed in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1.  Ruth is listed in the genealogy because she is the great-grandmother of King David, and you can read about that in Ruth 4:17. 

Not only is Ruth an important person in Jesus's family line, but she also has character traits that we would do well to emulate.  I'll discuss them here.

Ruth was loyal.  You will recall that Ruth's husband died, as well as both of her sons.  Naomi told her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah to go home to their mother's houses.  But Ruth would not go home to her mother's house.  She wanted to stay with Naomi. In Ruth 1:16-17, Ruth says some of the most beautiful words of loyalty in all of Scripture.  She tells Naomi that Naomi's God will be her God and wherever Naomi would go, she would go too.  

Ruth was resourceful.  She knew that she and Naomi would need food if they were to survive since they did not have a man to support them.  So Ruth asked Naomi if she could go to the field and glean heads of grain to provide for them.  

Ruth was obedient.  Ruth followed directions and didn't ask questions.  When Boaz told Ruth not to glean in another field, to stay close to his young women, and to get water to drink when she was thirsty, she listened and obeyed.  When Naomi told Ruth how to make it known to Boaz that she was interested in him, Ruth followed Naomi's instructions exactly, although to our modern way of thinking, uncovering a guy's feet and laying next to them is a really strange way to let a guy know you're interested in him. 

Ruth was respectful. When Boaz spoke to her, she bowed down to the ground and spoke to him respectfully.  Ruth also spoke respectfully to Naomi. Ruth didn't have a bad attitude nor was she ungrateful.  

Ruth should be an inspiration to us. If we take Ruth's character traits and apply them to our own lives, it will help us in our relationships with others.  

Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane