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Notes For Meeting

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by David Brunton

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37 episodes

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Notes for our family's Meeting on Sunday night, for anyone who wasn't able to join us in person. <a href="https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">notesformeeting.substack.com</a>

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9/23/2023

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Recent Episodes

June 8, 2026

Old Testament: The Flood

It was really fun to start our discussions on the Old Testament when everyone was home, and now we’re moving back to being spread abroad. I posted our last few weeks of meetings on Substack, and we’re going back to recordings at least while Tom is abroad.This week’s reading was a little bit longer, four chapters, but all concerning one story, the story of The Flood, capital-t-capital-f, The Flood. I’m so interested to hear everyone’s take on it. I’m going to turn on comments in case anyone decides they want to comment on the Internet, and to remind everyone who’s following along but not here in person, the reading for this week was Genesis chapters 6, 7, and 8, and chapter 9 through verse 17. I reminded people to take particular note of how many animals were taken onto the ark, and how many days the flood covered. Everyone was also keeping an eye out for which parts of the story are interactions with God-slash-Elohim, and which are interactions with The-Lord-slash-Yahweh.But before we dive into that, just a quick review of the story.Right there at the start, we have the Nephilim, who are pretty enigmatic characters in some ways, but if we take the whole thing at face value, God has sons, those sons take human wives, and their sons are heroes. But there in verse five things take a turn and the Lord decides to destroy all the humans, so it goes.Then for the rest of chapter 6, God tells Noah to build an ark and load the animals by twosies, twosies, elephants, and kanga-roosies, roosies, children of the lord. Oh, but it’s not children of the Lord at this point, they’re God’s people in chapter six, and then the Lord actually gives slightly different instructions in chapter 7, which Noah also follows, and then there’s a flood.The numbers of days of things kind of vary throughout the story, it’s something like forty days of rain, plus 150 days of flood, plus forty more days on the top of Mt Ararat, plus a couple more weeks of waiting, but it’s also interesting to note that what we appear to have here is a couple distinct stories that were woven together into a whole, and some parts of the original stories were left as they were when whoever was weaving them together found them. So there are a couple different times that forty days, or fourteen days, or a hundred and fifty days get mentioned, but regardless there’s a long flood, then the flood is over, and then one of two things happens.At the end of chapter 8, Noah has a barbecue and the Lord really loves the barbecue. Then at the end of chapter nine, there’s an alternate ending where God makes a covenant and ties it up nice with a bow. You all please don’t murder each other, and I will also never murder all of you again.Okay, so that’s the sketch of the story, now I’d be interested in hearing what you all think of the story, and about how the story is woven together.I’ve read at least one translation of the Book of Genesis where they actually pull the two stories back apart, and just present them as two different, but loosely related stories. It’s fun to think that maybe there were two flood myths that had been passed along, and then someone took the time and care to merge them back into a single story.But it’s also fun to think about the fact that there are lots and lots of fun flood stories from all over the world.For everyone who’s following along on the podcast or on substack, we’ve been spending more of our meeting time in discussion, which partly accounts for the shorter podcast this week. Next week, we’re only reading a very short section of chapter 11, verses one through eight. It’s the account of the Tower of Babel, which is a fun story.For this week, let’s light our candles together or in our hearts, and consider what the flood story has to tell us. I love you all so much. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">notesformeeting.substack.com</a>

May 4, 2026

Old Testament: Ruth

Today we’re going to finish talking about the five scrolls, which are Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. You’ll remember that Esther is about Esther, our Jewish Heroine who saves her people from Xerxes the jerksy and his awful advisor Haman. Lamentations is a book of laments, in the form of acrostic poetry. Song of Songs is the other scroll besides Esther that doesn’t mention God. Song of Songs is mostly about kisses and things related to kisses. And Ecclesiastes is the wisdom of someone named Kohelot. The five scrolls are short and beautiful, and in a minute we’re going to start talking about my favorite of the five, Ruth.But first, before we do, a word on organization of the Bible overall, and of these books In particular. Ruth, the eponymous hero of Ruth, is the great grandmother of King David. So when Christians were sorting books, instead of putting it with the other writings, it was kind of organized chronologically. That is to say, it’s sandwiched between the book of Judges, which chronicles the period before Israel had Kings, and the book of I Samuel, in which we meet the first and kings of Israel, Saul, and David, and learn of their interactions with Samuel, who anoints both of them.So in terms of overall organization, we have the Torah or the Law, which is the period from Adam and Eve through Moses. Moses brings everyone out of Egypt, but never enters Canaan, he hands off the reins to Joshua, who takes the Hebrews into Canaan, don’t worry we’ll learn more about this later, but after they enter the land, there’s a period where there are judges but no kings, described in the book of Judges. So the Torah or the Law are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Then Joshua, Judges, Ruth, like Lyle Lovett’s fourth album. That makes Ruth the eighth book in the Bible as we typically count it. Chronologically, it puts Ruth right on the edge between the period when Israel is governed by Judges, and when it’s governed by Kings. Samuel is the final Judge, and Ruth’s great grandson David is the second king, who’s just a boy when he begins his journey. The point there being that Ruth and Samuel are probably about the same vintage.Does that all make sense? Thematically this scroll is part of the writings, but we put it chronologically sandwiched in with the prophets between the judges and the kings. Hopefully the way we’ve approached this doesn’t cause confusion, but I think it’s more fun to encounter the scrolls somewhat together even though they’re all different in chronology and style.So what kind of a scroll is Ruth? Well for starters the story is set hundreds of years before Esther, but they were probably actually written pretty close to one another. in her story, Esther is a Jewish woman in Persia. Ruth is also a foreigner, but the opposite kind - a non-Jew in ancient Israel, and at the beginning of her story, instead of having just ascended to be queen, she’s just become destitute.In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died,and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.Strong start, right? I told Dan’l earlier that it would be a feminist story, certainly all the main characters are women and most of the men in the story die in those first two paragraphs But it’s also a feminist story set in a culture where women don’t have a great deal of autonomy. Which I suppose is why the author would have killed off all the men.The story has a few elements that are interesting to consider. It features the marriage of a Jew and a non-Jew, which might have been controversial when it was written. Same as Esther, actually. But Ruth is also a beautiful story of friendship. The other sister-in-law is named Orpah and here’s her brief but lovely story:Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.Ruth clung to her. Here’s one brief side note about the story of Orpah, her name is spelled O-R-P-A-H, just like Oprah, except with the p and the r reversed. The funny thing is that Oprah Winfrey’s birth certificate actually says Orpah, but people just pronounced it the other way and eventually she settled on it. So Orpah goes back to Moab, and Ruth clings to Naomi.Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.We’re not going to read the rest of the story today, because that’s your homework for next week. It’s very short and very lovely, and it will be an introduction to the next thing we’re going to go through together, which is that we’re going to trace through a timeline of the events of the Old Testament, as narrated in the Old Testament, which is understandably somewhat different than the timeline of the same or closely related events from other sources.Before we head back, let’s review, though. We’ve lightly covered eight books so far. Three poetry books, which are smack in the middle, Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. And these scrolls, which are mostly arranged around the poetry books, so the order in the Christian bible is Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Lamentations, the acrostic lament poems, is attributed to Jeremiah and is usually placed right next to the book of Jeremiah, which we’ll get to when we start talking about prophets.And then today, we talked about Ruth, which as I explained earlier, is situated chronologically in the Christian Bible, right after Joshua and Judges, and right before we start talking about the last judge Samuel, and the first kings, Saul and David.There are three or four other books that the Hebrew Bible counts as writings, which we’re going to read in chronological order instead, even though we didn’t do that with Ruth.I love you all very much, and I’m really enjoying our tour of the Old Testament together. Read Ruth chapters 2, 3, and 4 this week, and next week, to quote Inigo Montoya, we’ll go back to the beginning. But for today let’s light our candles and consider the beautiful friendship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">notesformeeting.substack.com</a>

April 20, 2026

Old Testament Tour: Poetry, Continued

My darlings, I’m so enjoying our whirlwind tour through the Bible. As a reminder, we’re currently talking about the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, which we divide into three chunks: the law, the prophets, and the writings. We started our tour in the very middle, with three of the writing books that are written in poetry, Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. And this week, you all read Job chapters 1, 2, and 42 in preparation for diving into the characters a little bit.We’re not doing a quiz or anything, but you should all remember by now that Job, Psalms, and Proverbs are smack in the middle of the sixty-six books of the Bible that most Christians consider canon. Psalms is filled with psalms, Proverbs is filled with proverbs, but Job is not filled with jobs, instead it’s filled with the character Job, along with other characters who fill very different roles. From your pre-reading, you’ll all recall that Satan is one of the main characters, and due to some conversations between Satan and the Lord, Job is rather badly smitten at the outset of our story.By the very end of chapter two, the five main characters are introduced: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, of course Job, and the Lord. What follows is a back-and-forth between these five characters, and you already know how it ends, because you read chapter 42, but let’s dig in to some of the meaty bits of the poetry.After the introduction in the first two chapters, Job opens the poetry with a lament. It’s the saddest of sad poems, and it’s beautifully constructed. Job’s lament ends with these lines:What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”When I was in college, I took a class called Job and the Joban Tradition, it was taught by Peter Machinist, and one of the things we learned in that class is that Job is a theodicy. It grapples with the question of why do bad things happen to good people?This term, theodicy, incidentally, was coined by Gottfried von Leibniz, the inventor of calculus, who in addition to being interested in infinitesimals, was also interested in the problem of evil. How can there be evil if God is all powerful.The first response to Job is by Eliphaz the Temanite, whom I will remind you, sat on the ground without eating or speaking for a week, just to be with his friend Job. None of these characters are slouches as friends. The overall structure of Job is that Eliphaz speaks and then Job responds, then Bildad the Shuhite, then Job, then Zophar the Naamathite, then Job. This repeats three times, and for the most part the friends are pretty supportive, although Eliphaz does get a bit grumpy toward the end. Even though the whole plot is that Job never sins, Eliphaz feels the need to judge. Here’s a snippet of it:“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tentWe don’t have time to read all of the back and forth, but what we find is that everyone who starts out consoling Job eventually does the same thing as Eliphaz. Bildad and Zophar both get a bit accusatory, and then Job is forced to respond.“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.You get the point here. Job is like, nah bro, it’s not like that. There’s a somewhat strange interlude in chapter 28, which almost feels like a standalone song or poem, but that is also beautiful. It’s not attributed to any of the characters, and it’s asking a question:Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky.Following this is another long poem by Job, and then we get a surprise! A character who wasn’t introduced in the beginning steps out of the crowd, and he gives a rousing speech that begins like this:“I am young in years, and you are old;that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know.I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.He makes a good point, but he also brings it home in a way that’s like ten times more judgmental than the three friends, which is looking pretty grim for Job. But don’t worry, the Lord arrives on stage now, and I’m going to switch to the King James version, which you remember is an older translation, but this is some of the most beautiful poetry in the Bible, and it’s a more beautiful translation. It’s so beautiful it’s hard to know where to stop, and I’d encourage you all to read it all on your own if you like what you hear.Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?Gird up now thy loins like a man;for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?declare, if thou hast understanding.Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?or who hath stretched the line upon it?Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?or who laid the corner stone thereof;When the morning stars sang together,and all the sons of God shouted for joy?Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?Eep!Now you already know that in the end of the story, Job and the Lord are cool, but I do want to point out a couple quick little nuggets. The first is that only his daughters are mentioned by name, and Job gives his daughters an inheritance with their brothers. That’s pretty coolThe second is that the end of the story is one of my favorite endings: Job died, being old and full of days. I hope that’s how my story ends, although without the middle part, ideally, where Satan and the Lord collude against me.Okay, it’s been a slightly longer Meeting than usual, but one more quick piece of business. The three books of poetry are only part of the writings. There’s no assignment for pre-reading for next week, but we’re going to introduce five short books that are easy reading, and if you wanted to read ahead, the one we’re going to focus on is the book of Esther.The book of Esther is interesting for a bunch of reasons, but one of the reasons it’s most interesting to me is that it actually contains no mention of God, which is, you know, somewhat unusual for being in the Bible.I love you all so very much, and I can’t wait to continue our tour next week. For now let’s light our candles and think about what the Lord might say to each of us if he called us out of the whirlwind. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">notesformeeting.substack.com</a>

37 total episodes available

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What is Notes For Meeting?: Notes for our family's Meeting on Sunday night, for anyone who wasn't able to join us in person. <a href="https://notesformeeting.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">notesformeeting.substack.com</a>
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates monthly.
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