The Path of the Righteous through the Haze

International The News reports: "Indonesia stepped up aerial operations on Monday to extinguish forest fires raging on Sumatra island as Malaysia remained smothered by smog and Singapore enjoyed sunny skies thanks to favourable winds." Just the night before I was due to return to Singapore (Saturday morning), the headline news were that Singapore's PSI reading has reached a record high of 401 late Friday afternoon. So I prayed to the Lord that the Lord would drive the haze away from Singapore and it would be clear when I reached the island-state.

Yahweh is One

I have had a wonderful Sunday, preaching at my homechurch. The Spirit moved powerfully throughout the service and as there were a number of events scheduled for Fathers' Day, I did not get to preach until 9:12am after an 8am start. I preached for 42 minutes until just before 9:55am and we sang a song of response from Hillsong's "Hosanna" (Hosanna Termulia) in the Malay version. The Spirit moved powerfully in the midst of the congregation and as I asked people to come forward for prayers, about 30 people came forward and we spent about 10-15 minutes praying for each one of them. The two church pastors and a few elders whom I called upon assisted me in praying. A number of them fell to the ground with wailing and tears and the deaconesses came forward and prayed for the women concerned.

Malay versions, Hebrew MT, LXX (OG), Daniel Theodotion

I have had two weeks' break from work, though one is never far away from preparing for new lectures on Romans and my forthcoming Seminar on the book of Daniel in KL. Further, at the last minute my home-church asked me to preach this Sunday. I have been praying for the last 3 days and even this morning I still had my doubts over my sermon topic and what I wanted to say in the Lord's Name.

But whatever it will be, it will be a sermon of gaining knowledge in the Word of God especially among the Malay speaking churches. I read Isaiah 28-29 for the past 3 days and I had 3 Malay versions on hand. All very different in their translations, Terjemahan Baru, the classic Indonesian version, Berita Baik, the Malaysian version and Bahasa Indonesia sehari-hari. Then I read several English versions. But nothing beats looking up the Hebrew and the LXX (Old Greek) of the Old Testament. And the Hebrew MT is not always translated as such by the LXX which means LXX could be a translation of an earlier Hebrew vorlage than the one which the MT relied upon. Further, the Qumran Hebrew texts are another and more ancient of Hebrew biblical manuscripts.