I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for over a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Ben-hadad, the king of Samaria, besieged Samaria. He sent a demand to King Ahab for all of his silver, gold ,wives and children. King Ahab agreed to the demand. Ben-hadad then demanded the right to search the city for anything they might consider valuable. This demand was too much for King Ahab and the elders of Samaria so they repeated their willingness to meet Ben-hadad’s first demand but refused the second. Ben-hadad responded that he would completely destroy Samaria. King Ahab replied to this that a warrior preparing for battle should not boast like a warrior who had already won. Ben-hadad received this reply as he and his commanders were drinking their tents. Ben-hadad immediately ordered the attack.
Here we have a lesson in arrogance. Ben-hadad had brought an overwhelming force to attack Samaria. However, he was so sure of his ability that he demanded more than the people of Samaria were willing to give, even with their lives on the line. Then to compound this problem he launched his attack while he and his commanders were drunk. The passage goes on to tell us the results of Ben-hadad’s decisions. As Ben-hadad gathered his forces to attack a prophet of God came to Ahab and told him that God was going to give Ben-hadad’s forces into his hands. The prophet further told Ahab that the key to his victory was to attack fist using his auxiliary forces. When Ben-hadad’s scouts reported that forces were coming out of Samaria, he ordered his troops to capture them alive, whether they had come out in peace or to battle (yet another sign of his arrogance). Israel’s auxiliary troops defeated the front lines of Ben-hadad’s force. This spread fear throughout his entire army and the Israelites defeated them decisively. Ben-hadad and some of his elite commanders managed to escape.
The prophet who had predicted victory to Ahab told him to start preparing because Ben-hadad would attack again the following spring. When Ben-hadad got back to Damascus, his officials told him that his army had lost because Israel’s gods were gods of the hills. They said that if Ben-hadad did battle on the plains, Israel’s gods would be unable to help them and he would be victorious. Ben-hadad took their advice and built another army like the one he had just lost. The following year he launched an invasion of Israel, being careful to stay on the plains. The man of God came to Ahab and told him that because Ben-hadad and his people thought that God would have no power on the plains, God was going to once more hand them over to Ahab and his army. When battle was joined, the Israelites once more were overwhelmingly victorious. This time Ben-hadad was unable to escape. He threw himself on Ahab’s mercy and offered Ahab a treaty. Ahab accepted the treaty and allowed Ben-hadad to go free. The man of God who had predicted Ahab’s victory confronted him over allowing Ben-hadad to go free.
At another time, King Ahab attempted to buy a vineyard from a man named Naboth. Naboth refused to sell the vineyard because it had been passed down from his ancestors. When King Ahab got home, he threw a temper tantrum by refusing to eat and turning his face to the wall. When Jezebel asked him what was wrong and he told her she reassured him that she would get Naboth’s vineyard for him. After all, he was the king of Israel. Jezebel then used Ahab’s authority to arrange with the elders of Jezreel (the city in which Naboth lived) to have Naboth accused of blasphemy and stoned to death. When Jezebel received word that Naboth was dead, she told Ahab and told him to go claim the vineyard. Ahab did so.
God sent Elijah to confront Ahab. God told Elijah to prophecy to Ahab that he and his family would all meet disaster. Through Elijah, God told Ahab that he would destroy his family just as He had destroyed the families of Jeroboam and Baasha. In response to this message from God, Ahab began dressing in sackcloth and behaving meekly. God sent another message to Elijah saying that He would hold off on His judgment until the end of Ahab’s lifetime.
When Barnabas and Saul finished their mission to Jerusalem they returned to Antioch with John Mark. One day as Barnabas and Saul were fasting and worshiping the Lord with other leaders of the Church in Antioch the Holy Spirit led the other leaders to dedicate Barnabas and Saul to a special work to which God had called them. The leaders did some more fasting and praying, then they laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them on their way.
Barnabas and Saul sailed to Cyprus accompanied by John Mark. They traveled across the island preaching the word of God in Jewish synagogues until they came to Paphos. In Paphos they met a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Jesus (or Elymas), who was an attendant to the proconsul, who was named Sergius Paulus. The proconsul wanted to hear what Barnabas and Saul had to say, so he sent for them. Elymas argued against the teaching of Barnabas and Saul attempting to keep the proconsul from accepting their teaching. Saul confronted Elymas. This passage reads to me as if Saul did what we would call today “getting in Elymas’ face.” It is in this context that Luke tells us for the first time that Saul is also called Paul. Paul told Elymas that he was full of deceit and the he perverted the ways of the Lord. Because of this, Paul told Elymas that he was going to be blind for a time. When the proconsul saw Paul’s prediction come true there in front of him, he became a believer.
Last year, when I read this passage I touched on the fact that the name Paul means “little”. The fact that Luke first uses that name for Saul/Paul in this setting gives me the image of Elymas as a towering, dominating figure of a man (although there is not really anything to tell us that he was) and Paul as a short, physically unimpressive person. I imagine Elymas using his height to intimidate others and get his way. Then in this situation, Paul, the little wimpy-looking guy, becomes filled with righteous indignation and, all of a sudden, takes over the room by the force of his personality.
There is one thing that really struck me as I read this passage today. It is something that I have heard other people talk about, but it is something that we often overlook when we read the Bible. As we go through this passage, Luke included lots of detail that can be (and has been) checked. Barnabas and Saul went from Antioch in Syria to Seleucia from where they sailed to Salamis on the island of Cyprus. They crossed the island to Paphos, where they met the proconsul named Sergius Paulus. These are identifiable locations and the proconsul is somebody who was likely to be known, by reputation at least, to Luke’s readers. This passage concerns the sorts of details that the website snopes.com tells us to look for to see if a story is true or urban legend. If it lacks the kind of details which Luke included, it is probably an urban legend, myth, or just plain old folklore. Rather than reading like a myth, the book of Acts reads like a story that was intended to be verified. Luke is telling his readers, “Here are the details, go ask the people who were there. They will confirm what I am saying.”
Today’s psalm speaks of the anguish experienced by the Jews when they were in exile in Babylon. In some ways, we are in a similar situation today. We are in exile from our home while we are here in this world. Just as the psalmist writes of the importance of remembering Jerusalem and the desire to return, so we must remember that heaven is our home and desire to be there rather than here.
However, there is a shortcoming to applying this psalm to our situation. Because even while we are in this world, we are in the Kingdom of God. While in some respects we are in exile from our home, in other respects our home is where God has placed us to do His work.
Fools spend money to obtain wise advice that they fail to heed. As I read this, I thought of those who pay for a college education and then do not go to class.