May 12, 2016 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 10-12.

    I mentioned yesterday that one gets an idea of how the Old Testament was put together by reading this Book. As I read today’s passage it occurred to me that the person (or people) who put this Book together did not possess the complete copies of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. I would guess that they had fragments of those books, and either other written sources or oral traditions. In an attempt to keep alive a record of their faith for future generations they combined their various sources into this Book. It seems obvious to me that if the collator of this Book had access to complete copies of those other books he would not have included these stories. Later other groups of returning Exiles brought complete copies of those other books. Reading this reminds me of how hard people of faith have worked to preserve the history of how God has worked. I pray that I may show the same dedication to preserving the stories of God’s people for future generations.

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    I believe that the above insight provides sufficient reason to have read this passage. However, this morning, as I read this, I thought about the lesson we get from the story of David opining that he would like some water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem. The lesson is that leaders need to be careful about what they say. Some of their followers may take action based on the leader’s expressed desire that the leader would not want them to do.