I wanted to comment on something you said to Russ. It is an
observation related to the meta-discussion you are having with him.
> If only the Lord would have sent a Holy Spirit
> inspired commentary for us along with His Word!!!
He did (e.g. Deut 8:2-6, Ezek 20:5-48, Ps 78, 105, 106 on Exodus,
Romans/Hebrews on the Law).
But as Ezekiel observed in 20:49
Then I said, "Ah Lord God! They are saying of me,
'Is he not {just} speaking parables?'"
we don't always understand what the commentary means either.
I think the problem is that we start with assumptions that keep us from
asking the right questions. The Bible is full of answers to questions
we didn't figure out to ask (yet). It doesn't seem to answer a lot of
the questions that *we* think are important (such as some that Russ is
asking -- sorry Russ).
An interesting study is to go through the Scriptures and identify
the questions that get asked (e.g. Luke 13). Then consider *why*
they are being asked, and why they were important enough to be
recorded.
I started to understand Paul better when I tried to figure out
what questions he was answering in his epistles. Without an idea
of the questions, his answers just seem to flit from topic to topic,
like they were some kind of ecstatic utterance.
It seems to me that most communication can be understood as having
two flavors. Records of observations and answers to (sometimes
implicit) questions. Or both.
[Miriam in Exo 15:21, James 1:5-8, John 3:16]
--Dave