Daily Bible Study

May 21, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 29-31:13

     This passage starts with the Philistines rejecting David from their order of battle as they prepare to go into battle against King Saul. What would David have done if the Philistines had allowed him to remain among their forces when they went to fight King Saul? Would he have done as they feared and betrayed them for the sake of King Saul and the army of Israel? Or would he have helped them defeat King Saul? We do not know. What we can know is that the hand of God was working here as well. If David had stayed and fought with the Philistines he and his men would have returned home too late to track down the Amalekite raiders who had raided their town and taken all of their goods and their families. When David’s men see what has happened to their town and realize what has happened to their families, some of them started to talk about stoning David. David acts quickly and calls the priest Abiathar to ask God what he should do. David and his men immediately begin chasing the raiders even though they had just completed from a three day march. At some point in the pursuit, one third of David’s men are too exhausted to cross a stream that is in their path. David leaves them and continues the pursuit. Shortly after that he comes upon a slave that was left behind by the Amalekites because he was too sick to keep up. David and his men give this man food and water. The man guides them to where the Amalekites are camped. When David and his men get there, the Amalekites are spread out celebrating their plunder of the Philistines and Judah, which makes them an easy target for David and his men. David and his men recover not only their own families and property but quite a bit more that the Amalekites had taken from others.
     When they return to the men who were too exhausted to continue, some of David’s men did not want to share the plunder with those men. The account tells us that these were evil troublemakers who only wanted to give those who stayed behind their wives and children. David rejects this counsel. David’s response to the troublemakers suggests that he had left some of his equipment behind for the men who were exhausted to guard. This is consistent with the fact that when he went to attack Nabal David had left a similar number behind to guard their equipment. Once they had returned to their town, David sent part of the plunder to those leaders of Judah who were his friends. These were men who had treated David and his men well when they were on the run from King Saul. With these two actions David demonstrates that he has a pragmatic streak similar to the one that got King Saul into trouble. The difference is illustrated by David’s actions on the two occasions where he had the opportunity to kill King Saul and chose not to, which can be compared to King Saul’s treatment of the priests of Nob and their families.
     Meanwhile the Philistines went into battle against King Saul and his army. The Philistines defeated King Saul in heavy fighting. Three of Saul’s sons were killed in that battle and King Saul was wounded. When Saul realized he was wounded, he asked his armor bearer to kill him to avoid capture by the Philistines, but his armor bearer was unwilling to do so. King Saul then took his own life. When the Philistines found King Saul’s body they took it and displayed it on the wall of one of their cities. The people of the city where King Saul had his first victory as king remembered what Saul had done for them and sent their warriors to recover the bodies of Saul and his sons. They took the bodies and gave them a proper burial. King Saul’s death reflects the lack of faith that had led to his downfall. King Saul saw that there was nothing he could do to save himself, so rather than rely on God to rescue him, he took his own life. You could ask what choice he had since God had told him on several occasions that he could expect no deliverance from God, but King Saul found himself in this situation because he had repeatedly relied on his own judgement of the best thing to do and his own ability to deal with the problems he faced rather than trusting God and following God’s commands. Even when he reached the end of his rope King Saul refused to turn to God. We can compare this with David who turned to God for direction, even when the answer seemed obvious (pursue the raiders who had captured their families).

John 11:55-12:19

     This passage begins with people in turmoil wondering if Jesus would come to the Passover celebration in Jerusalem and the religious and political leaders of the Jews plotting to arrest Him. Jesus comes to visit the home of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, Mary and Martha. Mary is so happy that Jesus has raised her brother from the dead that she washes Jesus feet with an expensive perfume in an act of worship and praise. Judas objects to this wasteful use of resources. He says that the perfume should have been sold and the money given to help the poor. The passage tells us that his real concern was that if the perfume had been sold and the money given to charity, it would most likely have passed through his hands and he would have been able to skim some of it for his own uses. This is something to be aware of. All too often, those who claim to be speaking on behalf of the poor and oppressed are only looking to line their own pockets. Jesus’ response is that there will always be an opportunity to help the poor, but sometimes there are opportunities to worship and praise God that are transient and that we must take advantage of while we have the chance.
     Next we have John’s account of the triumphal entry. John highlights something that the other Gospel writers mention but pass over lightly. Jesus chooses to ride in on a donkey’s colt. The people see Him as a king coming into his kingdom, but they miss the symbolism. A king riding in preparing to lead the people to war, would have ridden in on a war horse (probably a stallion). Jesus rides in on a donkey’s colt. This is a symbol that He is coming in peace, not in preparation for war. Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a victorious king who comes in peace, less than a week before his death and resurrection. He is already the victor, but His enemies don’t know it yet. We as Christians need to live our lives that way, as victors even when life’s troubles still loom ahead of us.

Christian Art

Psalm 118:1-18

     How appropriate that this psalm follows the previous passage. It talks about praising and worshiping God for the victories He has given us, when defeat seemed inevitable. This psalm tells us that we have nothing to fear from this world because:

“The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?”

God may punish us, but if we do our best to faithfully serve Him, He will rescue us from all threats. We must trust and rely on God, not on our own might and skill. We must, also, recognize that our victories and successes are a gift from God, not a product of our own abilities. We need to recognize that all we have in life is a product of God’s working and not a basis for self-praise.

Proverbs 15:24-26

     This passage tells us that those who seek God’s wisdom will find life in abundance. Further, it tells us that those who pride themselves on being able to take care of themselves no matter what life throws at them will suffer calamity, while those whom this world views as powerless will be protected by the Lord.

Daily Bible Study

May 20, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 26-28:25

     Once again King Saul is pursuing David. This time David, accompanied by one of his men, sneaks into Saul’s camp and steals Saul’s spear and water bottle. The man who accompanied David urges David to allow him to kill Saul, but David refuses. David expresses the opinion that it would be wrong to harm one who has been anointed as Israel’s king. David believed that God would remove King Saul in His own time and way. After this incident David became convinced that King Saul would not stop hunting him and that if he remained within Israelite territories Saul would eventually track him down and kill him. David therefore decided to go to live among the Philistines. After a short time among the Philistines David convinces their king to give him and his men a small town to use as a base of operations. From this new base of operations David and his men conduct raids on peoples who were considered enemies by the Israelites, killing the entire population of those towns that he raided. But he told the Philistine king that he was conducting raids against Judea. This convinced the Philistine king that David would be unable to return to live among the Israelites and that David would have no choice but to remain loyal to him. Finally, the Philistines go to war against Israel again and the Philistine king orders David to join him in going to war.
     When the Philistine army and the Israelite armies were drawn up against each other, King Saul was frightened by the size of the Philistine army. This leads him to frantically seek an augur of what to do in order to win. None of the priests or prophets of God among the Israelites was able to give him any answer. This leads Saul to seek out a medium, even though he had outlawed them on pain of death. Saul disguises himself and asks the medium to call up Samuel from the grave. The medium calls up Samuel who tells Saul that he and his sons will be killed the following day and that the army of Israel will be routed. This is the culmination of King Saul’s life. From the beginning he has ruled based on his own skills and abilities. His actions have been based on what he thought was the most politically and militarily expedient choice at any given time. Rather than base his rule in trust in God, King Saul has relied on his own judgement. Now, when he faces a situation where his own judgement tells him that he faces sure defeat, he seeks God’s guidance, after rejecting that guidance repeatedly when it conflicted with his judgement in earlier situations. If we reject God’s guidance until we are at the end of our ropes, it may be too late. If King Saul had chosen to follow God’s commands earlier, this situation would not have arisen, or it would have been different in such a way that his army would not have been sure to lose. But Saul had relied on his own judgement, this led him to drive David out from among his commanders and probably had diminished the strength of his army in other ways as well. When we trust in our own judgement rather than rely on God, we will have to face the consequences of our actions. We cannot always see how choosing our own will rather than God’s will bring us to this sort of defeat, but we can be assured that it will.

John 11:1-54

     This passage has been the subject of many sermons and Sunday School lessons. When Jesus receives word that Lazarus is sick, He does not immediately head for Bethany. Instead He tells His disciples that Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death and that it happened so that God might be glorified. This is the first of the lessons I see here. We should view sicknesses and other misfortunes as opportunities to bring glory to God. Our thoughts in those situations should be as to how we can glorify God through the circumstance that non-Christians would view as a tragedy. From a Christian perspective, we do not suffer tragedies, we receive opportunities to serve God.
     After waiting two days, Jesus tells His disciples that it is time to go to Judea. His disciples balk at the idea because it was only a short time since people there had tried to stone Jesus. When Jesus tells them that Lazarus has fallen asleep and He will go wake him, they think He means that Lazarus is getting better, the subtext being that there was no reason for Jesus to risk Himself by going there now if Lazarus was getting better. Jesus replies that no, Lazarus has died and that this means that the disciples will really believe. When the disciples see that Jesus is determined to go, they choose to accompany Him, believing that by doing so they will be facing death with Him. When Jesus gets to Bethany, both Martha and Mary express the belief that if Jesus had been there sooner Lazarus would not have died. When Jesus speaks with Martha and tells her that Lazarus will rise again, she expresses both a belief that Lazarus will rise at the last day and that Jesus is the Messiah. Here we see Martha, even in the face of the loss of her brother, affirming her faith in God and in Jesus.
     When Mary comes to Jesus accompanied by the other mourners, Jesus is upset and asks to see the tomb. The passage does not tell us why Jesus is upset, but it appears to me that He is upset with the other mourners. This is pure conjecture on my part, but I think He was upset because the other mourners were not comforting Mary and Martha. Instead they were affirming their grief and encouraging them to wallow in it. We should comfort those who have lost loved ones and encourage them to work through their grief, not belittling the grief but encouraging them to process the feelings of loss and deal with the issues involved.
     When Jesus gets to the tomb, He weeps. Some of the people who witness this are impressed by how much He loved Lazarus, but others wonder why He had not come sooner and kept Lazarus from dying. Jesus then asks them to roll the stone aside. Martha objects, saying that by now the stench will be overpowering. Jesus tells her that if she believes she will see God’s glory, so the stone is rolled aside. Jesus prays thanking God for hearing Him. He points out that He did not need to pray out loud to be heard and answered, but that He did so for the sake of the people around Him. This is an important lesson. We do not need to pray out loud, but sometimes we should do so for the benefit of those around us. When we pray out loud we provide witness to those around us. If they are unbelievers they may come to faith through the power of our prayers, either because they see the outcome that we prayed for come to pass or just because they witness our faith in that situation. If they are believers, our praying out loud may give them comfort or encouragement from the sentiments we express in our prayers. This does not mean that our out loud prayers should be composed for the people around us, I do not believe that they should be. I believe that our out loud prayers should be mostly the same as what they would be if we said them silently. We should remember that the Lord’s prayer should be the model we attempt to base our prayers on, whether silent or spoken.
     Jesus calls forth Lazarus from the grave and he comes out. The passage tells us that many of those present believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. The interesting thing is what it tells us some of the rest did. They went to the religious leaders, who were also the political leaders, and told them what had happened, knowing of the hostility that the religious leaders had for Jesus. The religious leaders did not see this miracle as a sign from God, but as a threat to their position. They were more afraid of the Romans than they were of God. They were afraid that if they did not put a stop to Jesus, everyone would believe in Him and this would lead the Romans to launch a punitive expedition against the Jews and that the Romans would be victorious. It never occurred to them that if God was on Jesus’ side, the Romans would be defeated. This reaction served God’s plan, since it was not in God’s plan to raise up a rebellion against the Romans. However, it also demonstrated the lack of faith in God on the part of the Jewish religious leaders. This is a trap that those who attempt to combine their faith with political action sooner or later fall into, being more concerned with the political consequences of something than with how it glorifies God.

Psalm 117:1-2

     I will praise the Lord because His love is unfailing and He is faithful to the end of time and beyond. The word unfailing is important for us to remember. It means that not only will God’s love continue for all of eternity but it will also not fail us in times of trouble. I know that my parents love me deeply, but there have been times in my life when their love failed me. Not because they stopped loving me, but because they are human and finite. Their were times in my life when I had needs that they, for all of their love, were unable to meet. With God that is never true, He is able to meet all of our needs and His love will never fail to do so…and it will always meet our deepest need first, even when we see it differently.

Proverbs 15:22-23

     Our first proverb tells us that making plans without getting advice is a sure way to have things go wrong and that having many advisers leads to success. This is very true because no one person can know all of the ways that a plan can go wrong. If you seek the advice of others, they can help you see the things you did not plan for. The more people who review your plans, the more perspective you will have on approaching the problem and the less likely the plan will go wrong because you overlooked something important. The second proverb is slightly related to the first. It tells us that saying the right thing at the right time brings joy to the one who says it and the one who hears it will benefit from it.

Daily Bible Study

May 19, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 24-25:44

     There are two parts to today’s Old Testament passage. The first of these is an episode of King Saul’s pursuit of David. The second is the story of David, Nabal and Abigail. In the first, King Saul returns from fighting the Philistines and takes up his pursuit of David once more. King Saul takes his army into the area where David and his men are hiding. King Saul goes aside from his men into a cave to relieve himself. David and his men are hiding deeper in that very cave. When David’s men realize that King Saul is so close to them, they urge David to sneak up and kill him. David sneaks up and then has an attack of conscience and merely cuts a corner off of King Saul’s robe. We can have little doubt that if their roles had been reversed, King Saul would have killed David. A lesson I take from this is that the evil behavior of others does not justify evil behavior on our part. Many people today would see David as perfectly justified in killing King Saul in that situation. After all, King Saul had been actively seeking David’s death for several years at this point. But David’s position was that God had chosen Saul as king over Israel and it would be wrong for David to act against that king. It was up to God to remove Saul from the kingship, not David. This lesson is that which Peter teaches in 1 Peter 3:9 “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.”
     The next passage is the story of Nabal and Abigail. Nabal was a wealthy man. David and his men had cleared the bandits out of the area where Nabal’s servants tended his flocks. At sheep shearing time, a traditional time of celebration and generosity, David sends some of his men to Nabal to request some provisions. Nabal not only refuses but insults both David and his men. When David hears Nabal’s response he is furious. When we read Nabal’s insult it is hard for us to understand why David was as angry as the passage tells us he was. However, the other actors in the story expected David to be furious and to react violently. At least one of Nabal’s servants who saw his treatment of David’s men thought it had crossed the line and would bring trouble. In addition, Abigail, Nabal’s wife, when she heard what he had told David’s men thought that it would bring trouble. Abigail quickly puts together a package of provisions and sent them out to David, following closely behind. When she sees David, she humbles herself and begs him to accept her gift and not take revenge on her husband and his men. The passage tells us that when, after a night of heavy drinking on his part, Abigail tells Nabal what she had done (and what would have happened if she had not) he suffers a serious health issue and dies after ten days. The passage tells us that his death was God’s judgement on his actions. After the death of Nabal, David takes Abigail as his wife. This might appear a little unseemly to us. However, in that society at that time, Abigail was in a very precarious situation. First, as a woman without a husband as a protector she would be viewed as a legitimate target for predatory behavior. In addition, it is probable from the story we have about Nabal that there were men who would be anxious to exact vengeance on him by attacking his estate (including his widow) now that he was no longer around to defend himself. So, by marrying Abigail, David extends his protection to her. Of course this is not a one sided arrangement, by marrying Abigail, David most probably came into possession of Nabal’s wealth. This story does not reflect well on David, but, on the other hand, it is not really all that negative either. It shows that David had a temper and that he was willing to take advantage of opportunities that came his way. The real lesson is in both Nabal’s and Abigail’s behavior. Nabal was selfish and gluttonous and suffered for this. By gluttonous I do not mean that he consumed excessive amounts of food, although the passage in no way contradicts that, but that he used his wealth to satisfy his pleasures in excessive ways. The passage tells us that Nabal was celebrating like a king when Abigail returned from pacifying David. This is a danger for us in America, that we might fail to give of our wealth to help those in need and instead use our wealth to live lavish, unhealthy lifestyles.

John 10:22-42

     In this passage people asked Jesus to tell them if He was the Messiah. Jesus answers by saying that He has already answered and they did not believe Him. He continues by telling them that they should judge Him by what He has done, but that they will not believe Him because they are not His sheep. He goes on to say that He and the Father are one. At hearing this the people take up stones to stone Him. He asks them for which of His good works they are stoning Him. They accuse Him of blasphemy for claiming to be God. He quotes scripture to them and tells them that if they will not believe His words, they should believe the miracles He has performed, do they reflect the work of the Father? There is a lesson here for us. It is not enough for us to preach the gospel, we must also live the gospel and do the works of God. There is a quote attributed to Francis of Assisi that is relevant here, “Preach the Gospel always: When necessary use words.” I found this great article on that quote. The author sums up what I believe this passage is telling us. People can judge our words by looking at our actions, but they need our words to understand what our actions mean. Those who emphasize preaching the Gospel over doing good works are wrong. Those who emphasize doing good works over preaching the Gospel are equally wrong. We should preach the Gospel while doing good works. We do not do good works in order to have the opportunity to preach the Gospel. We do good works because they are part of the Gospel, but we must preach the Gospel because it is the only way that people will understand why we are acting as we are.

Psalm 116:1-19

     I read this psalm and I see what our model should be and how prayer can bring us hope in the face of trouble and joy when all around us seems to be collapsing.

I love the Lord because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
Because he bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have breath!

God listens to us even when no one else will. The psalmist goes on to say that if we call on the God to save us, our outlook will improve.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Please, Lord, save me!”

The psalmist goes on to ask what he can offer to the Lord to repay for what the Lord has done for him. His answer is that he can do no more than praise the Lord and walk in His ways. That is all God asks of us.
O Lord, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household;
you have freed me from my chains.
I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.

I strive to make this my prayer daily.

Proverbs 15:20-21

     How true this passage is. If you look at the people you know, think about those who think poorly of their mother. How many of them would you consider wise? Even if you see the justice in their opinion of their mother, children who think poorly of their mothers are rarely, if ever wise. On the other hand, I have known people whose mothers were not very good mothers who praised their mothers for those things they got right and dismissed their failings as those of all mankind. The second proverb talks of how those with no sense revel in foolishness. I have known such people. People who know that something they are about to do will bring them discomfort and pain, yet do it any way for the joy of the moment. They have been a lesson to me to attempt to think through the consequences of my actions before taking them.

Daily Bible Study

May 18, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 22-23:29

     I had not noticed it before, but as I have been reading through the book of 1 Samuel this time it occurred to me that King Saul ruled much like modern totalitarians. He used fear as a tactic of control and he destroyed anyone who he perceived as having an independent power base. In today’s passage, King Saul accuses the men around him from his own tribe of taking bribes from David to hide things from Saul. He further accuses Jonathan, his own son, of encouraging David to kill him. This is followed by King Saul discovering that the priest Ahimelech had helped David when David first fled from King Saul. Saul summons Ahimelech and his family to him. Saul then accuses Ahimelech of plotting with David against Saul. Ahimelech responds that he only helped David because he was captain of Saul’s bodyguard and a trusted member of Saul’s household, that he knew nothing of any plot against King Saul. Saul does not believe him and orders his bodyguards to kill Ahimelech and his family. Saul’s men refuse the order to kill the “Lord’s priests”. Saul then turns to someone who was not an Israelite, Doeg the Edomite, to kill the priest and his family. Saul then sends Doeg to kill all of the remaining priests and their families. One priest escapes and flees to David.
     Meanwhile, David has been hiding in the territory of Judah, which is his own tribe. David hears that the Philistines are raiding a city slightly outside of Judah’s territory. He feels compelled to go and aid the city. David asks God’s guidance and receives confirmation of his impulse. However, his men are afraid to go up against the Philistines with Saul chasing them. David asks God for a second confirmation of whether they should go to the aid of this city and receives it. David goes and defeats the Philistines decisively. When Saul learns that David is in that city, he mobilizes his army and marches to besiege David in that city. David, upon learning that Saul is marching against him, seeks guidance from God as to what to do. When God confirms to David that Saul is coming and that the leaders of the city will betray him, David leads his men from the city into an uninhabited area (or at least only lightly inhabited). Saul continues to pursue David. Some of the locals agree to help Saul track David down. David is crafty and eludes Saul for awhile. Just as Saul is about to close on David, the Philistines begin raiding and Saul needs to withdraw to protect his power base.
     There are two ways to look at what happened here and I happen to think that both are correct. The first way is that God acts to protect those who serve Him. David is just about to be caught by Saul, when the Philistines attack and Saul must withdraw from pursuing David. This shows the hand of God in the timing. David is saved through God’s divine intervention. The second way to look at it is that Saul by driving David from his court and then taking his army to pursue David, weakened Israel enough that the Philistines were able to attack Israel again.

John 10:1-21

     Here Jesus makes a claim to be the Messiah and addresses the issue that others have made similar claims. When we look at the others who claimed to be the Messiah from that time, they fell into two groups. Those who ran away and hid, allowing their followers to suffer the consequences. Those who stayed and fought, leading to many of their followers being executed alongside of them. Jesus, on the other hand, when the authorities came after Him, surrendered Himself and was arrested and executed with none of His followers. Further, we see after His death that the continued persecution of His followers did not lead to them being scattered and destroyed. People often say that if someone who is stirring up trouble is killed they will become a martyr for their movement and be more trouble than if they are left alone. There is some truth to this, but what people fail to realize is that the only people whose death at the hands of the authorities leads to strengthening their movements are those who are leading a movement that is serving God. Christianity is the only movement in the history of the world where the wholesale slaughter of its adherents has led to its rapid expansion. When the Romans persecuted the Druids, they wiped out the entire religion. When the Romans persecuted the Christians, the faith expanded exponentially.

Psalm 115:1-18

     This psalm talks of how the things that others worship have no ability to act. It is interesting that among the western nations today so many openly admit that the source for meaning in their life has no ability to act. There are many atheists who give to science the kind of veneration that Christians are supposed to reserve for God. They will readily admit that science is shaped by human hands and minds. They claim there is no more than that. But our God is real.

“Our God is in the heavens,
and he does as he wishes.”

     We should trust the Lord because He will help us and shield us. Of those who choose to believe that this world is all there is the psalmist says,
“The dead cannot sing praises to the Lord,
for they have gone into the silence of the grave.”

But of those who faithfully follow God’s teachings he says,
“But we can praise the Lord
both now and forever!”

We will be able to praise the Lord forever because He will give us eternal life. Let us be faithful in serving God and praise Him daily for the wonderful things He has done.

Proverbs 15:18-19

     This proverb is so very true. Those who are easily angered find themselves in fights even with people they agree with or over issues they do not think of as important, while those who remain calm are often able to help those who are fighting to find a basis for ending the conflict, even when the disagreement remains. While the second one echoes something that I have tried to live by, although I have succeeded imperfectly. When I am called a hard worker I tell people I am too lazy to do a job to less than the best of my ability. All too often when I do something in a lazy way, I end up having to do more work than if I had just put out the effort to do it right the first time around. I always tell people that I am too lazy to not work hard.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 20-21:15

     In today’s passage we learn the extent of Jonathan’s and David’s friendship. Jonathan is a model of being a friend. Jonathan refuses to put family loyalty and ambition above his friendship for someone who has done no ill towards himself or his family. We can compare and contrast King Saul’s attitude towards David and Jonathan’s attitude towards David. King Saul is angry towards David because he believes that David will prevent Jonathan from becoming king. Jonathan wants to know what David has done to deserve death. The thing is that King Saul has become so irrational in his hatred of David that when Jonathan refuses to help him kill David, Saul attempts to kill Jonathan, even though he justifies his hatred of David on the fact that he believes David will prevent Jonathan from taking the throne.
     This passage also tells us something of David’s development as a warrior. When David went up against Goliath, he was uncomfortable with Saul’s armor and sword. Now when he is fleeing Saul and he stops to see the priest Ahimelech, David is happy to take Goliath’s sword, so as to have a sword. This indicates that David has become comfortable with the weapons of war. There is another interesting thing about this encounter. When Ahimelech sees David, he is frightened. There are several possible reasons for this. The first is that Ahimelech knows that King Saul is attempting to kill David and he is afraid either that word of David coming to him will get back to Saul or that David will kill him as payback to Saul for Saul’s efforts to kill David. However, I believe that Ahimelech’s fear comes from another cause. Based on what Ahimelech first says to David, I think that Ahimelech was afraid that King Saul had sent David to kill him secretly. This suggests that King Saul governed Israel through fear, that anyone who developed an independent power base was killed.

John 9:1-41

     This passage is one of my favorites because it is packed so full of lessons for us. The first one is the question of the relationship between sin and misfortune. When Jesus’ disciples see the man born blind, they can only think of two reasons why this might be so. They thought it must either be punishment for some sin he committed or for some sin his parents committed. Jesus’ answer was that the man was born blind so that God’s power could be demonstrated. This echoes the lesson from the book of Job that not all misfortune is a punishment for sin. I think we are called to see all misfortune as an opportunity to bring glory to God. If the misfortune is to ourselves, we should strive to bring glory to God by continuing to praise God and express confidence in God’s power. If the misfortune is to others, we should strive to bring glory to God by our efforts to alleviate their hardship by the application of the gifts that God has given us, both material and spiritual.
     The next thing we see in this passage is the refusal of some to accept that a miracle has taken place; “This isn’t the man who was born blind, just somebody who looks like him.” We face this every day in this world, people who insist that no miracles ever happen. This leads us to the next point. The religious leaders questioned the man born blind about what had happened. Some of them refused to believe that Jesus could be from God because He performed a healing on the Sabbath, which by their rules was a violation of the command to keep the Sabbath. The religious leaders wanted to deny that a miracle had taken place but the man’s parents corroborated that he had indeed been born blind and everyone could see that he could now see. They call the man back in and tell him that Jesus is a sinner and the man should glorify God. The man’s reply is profound. He says, “I don’t know whether he is a sinner.” The man is saying, “I can’t argue with you about this. I don’t have the training to construct an abstract argument like you can.” Then he says, “I know this. I was blind and now I see.” Here he is saying, “All of your abstract arguments are well and good, but the important fact is that when I was powerless, He helped me. None of your abstract arguments did that.” When the man suggests that they should become Jesus’ disciples, they tell him that they don’t know where Jesus comes from. The man’s response is, “What more do you need to see to believe? I was born blind and this man made me able to see. What other explanation can there be for that than that He is from God?” The religious leaders’ response is to reject the man as uneducated and a sinner who has nothing to teach them. We should be careful not to reject God’s teaching just because we don’t like the messenger.
     Finally, Jesus comes to the man born blind and reveals who He is. He tells the man that He came to give sight to the blind and to show those that think they can see that they are blind. He was telling us that we must not think we are better than “sinners”, we all need Jesus in order to see God’s will. If we claim to be better than those who society sees as sinners (drunks, drug addicts, violent criminals, etc) because we know God’s will, we stand condemned because we have broken His law just as they have. They at least have the excuse of not knowing God’s will. If we admit that we are just as much in need of Jesus’ healing as they, than God will forgive us, just as He will forgive them.

Psalm 113-114:8

     The psalms today tell us to praise the Lord everywhere because He is powerful and just. These psalms cause me to lift up my heart to praise God today. He raises the poor and the needy to places of prominence, not even forces of nature can stand in His way. Everything that is will move to fulfill God’s will. I will praise the Lord today and every day.

Proverbs 15:15-17

     These three proverbs tell us some important truths. The first one tells us that if we are looking for what is wrong with our lives, we will find it. On the other hand, if we celebrate what is good in our lives, we will find ourselves with nothing to complain about. This is not because it will make that much difference in what actually happens, but because if we focus on the good things in our lives, the troubles will seem unimportant, while if we focus on the trouble in our lives, the good things will seem unimportant. The second and third proverb are linked. The second tells us that it is better to do God’s will and be at peace with little material wealth than to have a lot of material wealth and be constantly concerned about either losing it or getting more. The third tells us that it is better to spend our lives with those we love and who love us and miss out on material pleasures than it is to have those material pleasures surrounded by people we do not like.

Daily Bible Study

May 16, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

     Today’s passage tells us of King Saul’s growing jealousy, fear and hatred of David. King Saul has been tapped into playing the public relations game since he became king, and everything he has done wrong has come from that. He offered the sacrifices in Samuel’s place when Samuel was late in arriving because he was afraid if he waited any longer all of his men would desert him. He kept alive some of the Amalekites’ livestock in order to throw a big bash of sacrifices because that was what the people wanted and he was afraid to go against them (at least that is what he told Samuel, I wonder if his plan wasn’t to set himself up as a priest-king as many of the other rulers in that area had done), even though God’s command had been to kill everything. And now, he hears the people saying that Saul has killed many of the enemy, but David has killed even more. The next day, Saul has one of his fits and attempts to kill David while David is playing his harp in an effort to calm Saul. After this Saul sends David out to be one of his army commanders. David has even more success and Saul’s jealousy grows.
     King Saul next tries to pump David’s ego up and get him to take excessive risks in battle by offering David his eldest daughter in marriage. All David has to do is prove himself in battle even more than he already has. The Bible does not tell us exactly what Saul asked David to accomplish in battle, perhaps it was just open-ended enough that Saul could keep upping the ante, either way it was suicidal to attempt, since the Bible does tell us that Saul intended for David to be killed by the Philistines, and David recognizes this. David does not outright refuse to do it. Instead, he says that he is unworthy to be the king’s son-in-law. King Saul tries to play upon David’s ego, but David shows that he has a realistic understanding of his abilities. King Saul then marries his daughter off to another man. In the meantime, Saul’s second daughter has fallen in love with David. King Saul sees this as another opportunity to get David killed by the Philistines, which suggests that the feeling was not entirely one-sided. This time King Saul sets David a specific task, which David exceeds.
     King Saul continues to escalate his attempts to have David killed until David has no choice but to flee for his life. In all of this, David continued to serve King Saul faithfully and to the best of his ability. He does not use this as an excuse to plot against Saul. He does not do less than his very best in serving King Saul as both a military commander and as a member of his court. It is only when King Saul orders some of his men to kill David that David flees from King Saul’s court. In all of this, David does his best to obey God and does not use Saul’s perfidy as an excuse to be dishonest or disloyal himself.

John 8:31-59

     This passage has always bothered me a little bit, because it seems like Jesus is antagonizing the crowd, escalating the confrontation with each exchange. However, this time and I read and re-read this passage, I realized that the confrontation starts with the crowd, not Jesus. Jesus starts by saying that if they want to follow Him, they need to be faithful to His teachings and that as a result they will know the truth and the truth will free them. The crowd responds by saying, “What are you talking about? We are descendants of Abraham and do not need to be freed from anything.” This is the key point of the whole passage. If we want to follow Jesus, we need to admit that we need Him and His salvation. Jesus goes on to explain that if we sin, we are slaves to sin and thus need to be freed from sin. In order to receive the salvation that Jesus is offering we must admit that we need it and our powerless on our own to free ourselves. Sin is an addiction, or addiction is a sin, but in either case, in order to be free of them, the first thing we must do is admit that they have power over us. Until we admit that sin has power over us, we will be unable to accept God’s ability to free us from it and we are completely unable to free ourselves from it. The best we can do on our own is to substitute one sin for another, it is only through submission to God that we can be freed from sin. That is, it is only through the power of God that we can stop committing acts of sin which bring harm to ourselves and those around us.
     I can illustrate this from my own life. Years ago I smoked marijuana and occasionally did other drugs. I was always very careful to avoid becoming physically addicted to any of these drugs and used them in extreme moderation. But marijuana was “safe” because it was not physically addictive, so I didn’t need to be so careful. Then my life changed and I started to feel God’s call to be more involved with the Church and serving God. But I felt that as long as I was smoking pot, which I knew was wrong, (if for no other reason than it was illegal), I would be a hypocrite to be more active. So I decided I would stop smoking pot. Only, it wasn’t that easy. I tried for a couple of years to quit, all the while the feeling that I should be more actively serving God grew, as did the feeling that I would be a hypocrite to do so while smoking pot. Then the Lord spoke to me, “You know what I want you to do. Do it! Leave the marijuana to Me.” So I did. I started attending a congregation where I couldn’t just come in for the service and slip out without talking to anyone. A congregation where people had known me my whole life and had expectations of me. I got involved with a couple of Christian Singles’ groups and talked about what i thought it meant to follow Christ. I stopped trying to quit smoking pot. Six months later, I realized it had been six months since I had smoked pot. It was really that easy. I didn’t stop hanging out with the friends that I smoked pot with. I just didn’t spend as much time with them because I was busy doing other things most of the time. I didn’t have to stop spending time with my friends that I smoked pot with because they smoked pot. I just spent less time with them because I was spending more time with people who were helping me grow in my faith. It wasn’t that hard to say, “No thanks, not tonight,” when they passed the pot around, when I only had to do it once in a while (since I was busy spending time with other people rather than with them) rather than 4 or 5 times a week. On the other hand, it was hard. I had to admit to my fellow Christians that I smoked pot, that I lacked the willpower to give it up. I had to admit that for as strongly as I felt about the importance of following God and doing His will, I was unable to stop doing something that I knew He didn’t want me to do. Then one day I realized that God had taken the power of that sin over me away.
     When I started writing that story, I wondered what I was doing. I write these blogs for me, so that I can work on my daily devotions and study God’s Word. I knew that story and what it means. Except that as I wrote it I started to realize that I had forgotten. Oh, I hadn’t forgotten the story. I had forgotten the point. Once again I find myself fighting a habitual sin and once again I am trying to defeat it by the strength of my willpower. That isn’t how it works. God says, “I have things I want you to do. Stop trying to overcome sin. Just do My will and I will take care of the rest.” Unfortunately, this time I am not as sure of what things God wants me to do as the last time, but I know a few things and I just need to start pulling that thread and I am sure that God will show me the rest. This blog was part of that. God has been calling me to do this for over a year and I never got to it. Now I don’t know how I started my day without it.

Christian Graphics

Psalm 112:1-10

     This psalm has so much in it, I don’t know where to start to unpack it. I will start where the psalmist does. I will praise the Lord. He tells us that those who fear the Lord will be joyful and follow His commands with delight. If you are trying to follow God and you are not full of joy, you are doing it wrong. Then we need to be generous. We need to be fair in all of our business dealings. No squeezing every transaction for every penny, just fair. Confidently trust the Lord to care for us. I am sure there are many things this psalm has to say to us. But today it says to me that we should not allow the world around us to convince us that we have to “Look out for number One first.” That is not God’s way for us. God’s way for us is to look out for those in need. This does not mean that we delegate the task for caring for those in need to the government. It means that we look for those around us who have needs that we can fill and then we do our best to fill those needs.

Proverbs 15:12-14

     Two of these proverbs tell us how to recognize the wise. The second of the two is easier to talk about. It tells us how to tell if we are behaving wisely. “A wise person is hungry for knowledge…” What sort of stuff do we fill our leisure time with? What TV shows do we watch? What books do we read? What Internet sites do we visit? What do we do with our time? Do we seek out knowledge? Or are we like the fool? “…while the fool feeds on trash.” I think we all know the sorts of things that we can fill our leisure time that falls into that last category. Understand that what qualifies as trash is not the same for everyone, but if you can’t think of how it feeds you knowledge and/or you think of it as trash, maybe you shouldn’t be spending your time with it.
     The other one tells us how to tell if someone is a wise source. “Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.” If someone is criticizing another or making fun of something, but they refuse to talk with those who support who or what they are criticizing, we can know that the criticism is poorly founded or all together unfounded. For that matter, we can use this to measure our own criticism of something or someone. Are we willing to talk about our criticism with those who are supportive of that person or practice? If the answer is No, then our criticism is probably something we should keep to ourselves even if it is, perhaps, not just plain wrong.

Daily Bible Study

May 15, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 17-18:4

     Today’s passage is the story of David and Goliath, which most people are familiar with. The passage tells us that three of David’s brothers were in Saul’s army, but that David went back and forth to help with his father’s sheep. This is probably because David played the harp for Saul when Saul became depressed (as was mentioned in the previous chapter of 1 Samuel). David’s father sends him to the army camp with food for his brothers and their unit. When David gets there, the army is just going out into the field to face down the Philistines. Apparently the two armies had been doing this for 40 days with neither commander (Saul and whoever was commanding the Philistines) feeling he had enough of an advantage to initiate a fight. David leaves the supplies he brought with the quartermaster and hurries out to the lines, ostensibly to talk with his brothers and follow his father’s instructions to find out how they are doing. While he is talking to his brothers, Goliath puts forth his daily challenge to the Israelite army. While David is talking to his brothers, Goliath comes out and delivers his taunt. Some of the men nearby ask David if he has seen the giant and tell him of the reward King Saul has offered to anyone who kills him. David then turns to some other men and ask them what reward is being offered for killing Goliath and why is he being allowed to defy the armies of the living God. To us, this seems innocuous enough, he’s just asking for confirmation of what the first men said. However, David’s elder brother knows what he is doing and accuses him of wanting to get into battle. David’s response is, “What me? I’m only making conversation.” From this exchange I am going to guess that David was under instructions, that his brother knew about, to not get involved in battle. As soon as his brother moves on, David goes up to another group of soldiers and asks the same questions. The passage does not explicitly say so, but I am going to guess he kept doing this until someone reported his questions to King Saul.
     King Saul sends for David. As soon as David comes before Saul he says, “I’ll go fight this guy.” Saul responds by telling David he can’t defeat Goliath because David is a mere boy and Goliath is an experienced warrior. David responds by saying that he has fought lions and bears and besides that Goliath is not merely taunting Saul’s army, but God Himself and God will give David the victory. Saul was convinced to allow David to try and he outfits David with his(Saul’s) own armor and weapons. David tries out Saul’s armor and weapons and concludes that he cannot fight like that. He goes out against Goliath as he would have gone into the fields to tend his sheep, with a staff, a sling and a few carefully chosen stones. When David comes out, Goliath treats him with contempt that is reminiscent of that shown to Jonathan earlier. David’s reply is. “You are a great warrior and I am nothing but a boy. But you have defied God and He will defeat you, after which I will kill you.”
     There is a lot to learn from this passage and most, if not all, of it has been covered by others batter than I can. But I will still write about the lesson that comes out strongest to me today. When Goliath challenged and belittled the men of Saul’s army, he was challenging and belittling God. He did not see it that way and Saul and his men did not see it that way. But David saw it that way and he was right. Saul had gone into battle as God’s anointed king over Israel. The Israelites claimed to be God’s chosen people (and they were). When Goliath proclaimed that he was the champion of the Philistines and the Israelite army was nothing but servants of Saul, he was saying that their claims to being God’s chosen people were of less consequence than Goliath’s claim to be the champion of the Philistines. He was saying that Israel’s God was weaker than the Philistines, not than the Philistines’ gods but than the Philistines themselves. When David came out before Goliath, he said, “I am going to win today, not because I am better or stronger than you, but because my God is better and stronger, not only than you, but than your entire people and your gods.” David did not claim that his victory would show what a mighty warrior he was. As a matter of fact, he claimed that he was nothing much and that his victory would show that God was powerful. We need to take that position, our successes do not come from our greatness but from God’s greatness and our weakness.

John 8:21-30

     The New Testament passage today is short and much of what it says is a restating of what was said in earlier passages. However, there are two things that stood out to me. The first is that twice Jesus uses the Divine “I AM” to refer to himself. This would not have been lost on His audience even though it is less clear in the translation. The second is that this section ends by saying that many who heard Him say these things believed in Him. I am not sure that I understand, because I do not see Jesus making any particularly convincing arguments in the section that preceded the author saying that. However, I am going to try and see what I can garner from this. It looks to me like we are being told that sometimes our willingness to stand our ground and say that we unconditionally believe that Jesus is God is the final straw to allow the Holy Spirit to reach some people. The fact that when ridiculed and questioned Jesus did not back down from what He had said finally led some/many of His listeners to believe in Him. Today the same is true, sometimes what people need in order to believe is for us to stand up in the face of ridicule and questioning and say, “I believe.”

Psalm 111:1-10

“…all his commandments are trustworthy.
They are forever true,
to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.”

     They don’t come with expiration dates after which we can rewrite them to something more to our liking as some people today (and all throughout history) seem to believe. Of course this psalm concludes with the important point that so many wish to avoid:

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.
All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.

     Too often today, we Christians emphasize God’s love (which is fine) and downplay the need to fear Him. I remember when I was young there were many preachers who talked of God’s fearsomeness. They often, in my recollection, took it too far and were, as I heard it expressed, “selling fire insurance.” But today, there are not enough Christians who talk about the coming Judgement and how much it is to be feared. In some ways I wish I could go back and listen to those men again with ears shaped by my experience. Perhaps I would discover that they were not saying what I remember, shaped as those memories are by those who were older than myself, yet younger than those preachers. Some of those same people who shaped my memories of those preachers as “selling fire insurance” are the same people who shaped my perception of the Mennonite Church of the 1920s-1960s as being a Church that was insular and did not do enough evangelism. A Church which needed to do away with its traditional teaching in order to be better able to reach those outside its community. Of course, now I look back and I see a Church which did more to spread the Gospel than those who told me it needed to be less insular and change in order to be able to reach those around it. I don’t believe that my observation is unique to the Mennonite Church. It appears to me to be true of the Christian Church in the U.S. in general. The argument was, and too often still is, that we need to give up traditional positions of the Church in order to reach the world around us with the Gospel of Christ. Yet we often find that once the Church has abandoned those traditional positions, it no longer has any Gospel left to offer the world around it. There is a reason for this many of those “traditional” positions are not just traditions, but the teachings of the Bible and when you get rid of them you discover that what you are preaching is no different than what the world teaches. And offers people nothing of value.

Proverbs 15:11

     How fitting that this proverb comes today following the lesson I learned from today’s psalm. We, as humans, always think that we can improve on what God has told generations past. Yet time and again we learn, to our dismay, that we were wrong. As this proverb points out, if God can see and understand what is beyond death, something which is completely beyond the bounds of human understanding, what makes us think there is any part of human motivation that He does not see and understand?

Daily Bible Study

May 14, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 15-16:23

     Today’s passage starts with Samuel telling Saul that God has commanded him to destroy the Amalekites completely, killing all of the people and their livestock. Saul killed everyone except for the king of the Amalekites and kept the choice livestock. When Samuel confronts him with keeping the choice livestock, Saul tells him that they kept them to sacrifice them to God. Here Saul says something interesting, he says that they kept the livestock to sacrifice them to “the Lord your God.” He says this twice more while pleading with Samuel. Saul does not say, “the Lord my God” or “the Lord our God.” He says, “the Lord your God.” I think this is very telling, especially when we see that he blamed the people for his failure to kill all of the livestock. King Saul appears to have come to view God as a prop for maintaining his political power. He no longer worships God out of the depth of his own heart but instead sees the various worship ceremonies as a means to cement his power over the people. I believe this is why Samuel was so grieved by Saul’s actions, not because God was going to take the throne of Israel from King Saul, but because Saul had ceased worshiping God.
     Next the passage tells us of Samuel anointing David. God sends Samuel to Jesse, to anoint one of Jesse’s sons. When Samuel sees Jesse’s eldest son, he thinks that he must surely be the one. But God tells him not to judge by outward appearances, that He sees what is in the heart. Jesse presents his sons to Samuel, but none of them are the one God is looking for. Samuel asks Jesse if he has any other sons and Jesse responds, “There is still the youngest. But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” Even David’s father dismissed him as not that important. We must not make the same mistake. We do not know whom God will call, because unlike God, we cannot see into the hearts of our fellow man. All too often, we judge people by their outward appearance and dismiss someone because they do not measure up to our idea of what someone in that role should look like.

John 8:1-20

     The first of the two stories today is not in the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of John, so it may never have happened. However, even if it never happened, we can learn from it. The basis for the trap in this story is selective enforcement of the Law. The story tells us that the teachers of the law presented this woman caught in the act of adultery and confronted him with the fact that the law called for her to be stoned. Now first off, if she was caught in the act, where is the man involved? But Jesus does not bring that up, instead He begins writing in the dust on the ground. The story does not tell us what He wrote, but from the context we can guess because when they continue to push Him to answer He says, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone.” He then resumes writing in the dust and one by one the accusers slip away until they are all gone. What we can learn from this is that none of us is in a position to cast judgement on others. This does not mean that we cannot point out that someone’s behavior is sin, just that we need to remember that we, also, sin. There is no hierarchy of sins, whatever sin we have committed, we stand before God condemned…unless we accept the covering of Jesus’ death. And that covering applies to everyone, either we stand condemned or we acknowledge that anyone can receive the covering of Jesus’ death and be forgiven through no act of their own.
     The second part is in the oldest manuscripts and therefore reflects Jesus teachings (as opposed to the first part, which may not). Jesus tells us that He is the light of the world. If we follow Him, we will be able to see where we are going and the light will lead us to life. The second part I think is interesting. Jesus says that if you don’t know Him, you won’t be able to know the Father. From time to time, someone will say that Muslims or Jews worship the same God as we do. While this may be nominally true, they do not know or understand God because they do not know Jesus and understand His teachings. This is more of an issue with Muslims because their “scripture” (the Quran) is not built of stories, as both the Old and New Testament are. Both Jews and Christians understand that God has revealed His will through the stories of the people who have chosen to follow and obey Him. The Muslim view of God is very different from that of Jews and Christians. Jews and Christians believe that we can come to know God (although only imperfectly) because God has revealed Himself to us. For both Jews and Christians this is derived from the Creation account where it tells us that man was made in the image of God. For Christians this, also, derives from the fact that Jesus was God and dwelt among us. Muslims teach that we cannot ever know God, only His commands. They teach that God is unknowable, which of course is consistent with what Jesus teaches in this passage. Since Jesus teaches that to know the Father we must know Him and Muslims do not know Him, they cannot know God. Therefore, since Muslims claim to be unable to know the God which they worship, while Christians claim to know the God which they worship, Muslims cannot legitimately claim to worship the same God as Christians.

Psalm 110:1-7

     The psalmist tells us that those who oppose the Anointed One of God will be broken and humbled before Him. The psalmist, also, tells us that His people will serve in His army willingly. There are no conscripts in God’s army.

Proverbs 15:8-10

     This set of proverbs goes along with what I saw in today’s passage about Saul. Following the forms of righteousness for selfish reasons will not find favor with God. There is only one way to enjoy God’s favor and that is to follow His will and allow Him to correct your mistakes and failings. I pray that I may strive always to do God’s will and accept His correction when I fall short.

Daily Bible Study

May 13, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 14:1-52

     This passage starts with Jonathan taking a calculated risk, but demonstrating his faith in God. He tells his armor bearer that God can win the battle no matter the number of men on either side. As he approaches the Philistine camp, he illustrates his calculation. He tells his armor bearer that if the Philistines told them to stay where they were or be killed, they would stop and withdraw, but if the Philistines tell them to come on up and fight, they would fight. The first answer would indicate that the Philistines were cautious and would attack them as they approached. The second one would indicate that the Philistines were over confident and would allow them to close with them. The Philistines gave the second answer and allowed Jonathan and his armor bearer to close with them. Jonathan and his armor bearer were able to wipe out twenty men in a short period of time. This led to panic among the Philistines. The panic was amplified by an earthquake that struck at that moment. King Saul witnessed the disarray in the Philistine camp and as soon as he determined that it was caused by Jonathan, he launched an attack. At this point, the story tells us that some Hebrews had joined the Philistines, but at this point they switched sides. In addition, many Israelites who had been in hiding out of fear of the Philistines came out and joined the assault.
     King Saul illustrates his foolishness twice. First, he places his men under oath not to eat anything until evening. Jonathan does not hear this oath and when he comes upon some wild honey, he eats it and refreshes himself. When Jonathan hears of his father’s command, he tells the men that such a command only hurts the Israelites because it does not allow them to refresh themselves with captured food and thus kill even more Philistines. At the end of the day, King Saul gathered the plundered animals and has them killed according to kosher practice (or at least something close to kosher) and prepares food for the men. Saul proposes pursuing the Philistines all night, but the priest suggests that they ask God first. Saul agrees, but God makes no answer. Saul then vows to kill whoever has acted so as to cause God to not answer, even if it is his son Jonathan (his second foolish act of the day). When Saul discovers that it was indeed his son, he prepares to carry out his oath, but the men of the army refuse to allow Saul to kill Jonathan because Jonathan was the hero of the day. Saul’s actions illustrate the dangers of making decisions in the heat of the moment.

John 7:31-53

     Many people began to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. This led the Jewish leaders to send the Temple guards to arrest Jesus. In response to this Jesus said that He would only be with them for a short time and then He would return to the One who sent Him. That they would search for Him and be unable to find Him. The religious leaders were puzzled by this statement and rightly so, without the context of what happens later, it is not possible to understand what He meant. I don’t know if this is a correct interpretation of this passage, but I think that perhaps there is a message for us today. Perhaps there is only a short period of time in each of our lives when we can choose to follow Jesus. After that, we can search for Him but will be unable to find Him. If that is so, it is because once we have rejected Him, we will not re-examine our conclusion and truly consider Him again. Certainly my experience is that many people think they know that following Christ is not the answer to the spiritual questions they are asking, but when you question them closely you discover that their understanding of what following Christ means is faulty and Christ actually offers the answers to the core of what they are seeking.
     The crowds listening to Jesus were divided, much as society’s opinion of Him today. There were some who thought He was a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah. (“He’s a great teacher, but nothing more than a man.”) There were some who thought He was the Messiah. (Those who believe that He is God and the only way to salvation and eternal life.) There were those who rejected Him because they were sure that they understood what the Messiah would be like and what He would teach (“The Bible is inconsistent, Matthew says there was one man at the tomb, Luke says it was two. That stuff is all nonsense.”) Finally, there were those who thought He was evil and should be arrested. (“All the worst things people have done have been done in the name if religion.”) I am firmly in the second group. Jesus is the Son of God and is one with God.
     When the Temple guards returned to the Jewish leaders they said that they did not arrest Jesus because they found His teaching compelling. The leaders did not show how any of Jesus’ teachings were wrong, they merely belittled those who believed them and appealed to authority; “His teachings must be wrong. None of us believe in him. Look at all of the foolish people who believe in him.” At this point Nicodemus speaks up and points out that they should give Jesus a hearing before they convict Him and reject His teachings. To which the other leaders reply by insinuating that Nicodemus must be biased (“Are you from Galilee too?”) and lacking in knowledge (“…no prophet ever comes from Galilee.”). When you face such arguments you know that you are dealing with someone who has no interest in actually determining the truth of the situation. They merely wish to reinforce the conclusion they have already come to. It is time to stop arguing and pray for them. A lesson I must remember. Too often I continue to try and convince people who are not listening.

Christian Art

Psalm 109:1-31

     Here the psalmist talks about how often times those who seek selfish ends accuse good people of doing the very things that the accusers are guilty of. The psalmist tells us that if we continue in doing good, it will be our accusers who are disgraced. Even as they attack us, we should do as the psalmist says:

I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations
even as I am praying for them!
They repay evil for good,
and hatred for my love.

We should go right on doing good, even in the face of false accusations because God will defend us.
Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me because of your unfailing love.
Let them see that this is your doing,
that you yourself have done it, Lord.
Then let them curse me if they like,
but you will bless me!
When they attack me, they will be disgraced!
But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing!

When others attack us and malign us, we should continue to do good and praise God. We do not need to attack them in return. God will be our defender. Others will see what we do and know the truth.

Proverbs 15:5-7

     Ok, so the clipart I used today has nothing to do with the proverbs in today’s passage :-). The three proverbs we have today appear to have little to do with one another, however, I think I see a connection. The first tells us that we are foolish to despise correction and discipline. The second tells us that wealth obtained wickedly will bring trouble. The third that the wise give good advice and fools don’t even see a reason why you need it. The connection is this. Fools do not listen to correction and thus never learn that wealth obtained through evil means brings nothing but trouble…they fail to learn this from their own experience. I have known people who time and again faced trouble as a result of their own actions, but always, they blamed something outside of their control. They refused to acknowledge that they could have avoided the trouble if they had behaved differently. I do not know about anybody else, but I know that I am guilty of doing this myself sometimes. I continue to work at acknowledging how my failings and sin are responsible for when things go wrong for me. The final proverb comes in when someone else with problems turns to these people for advice. They have none to give because, to them, all of what went wrong was the product of other people’s actions and none of their own responsibility.

Daily Bible Study

May 12, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 12-13:23

     Samuel gives his farewell address. He starts by asking if anyone has any gripes against him, has he in anyway abused his authority? The people answer that he has never done anything to call into question his judgements. Samuel then recounts how the people turned from God and were oppressed, but God provided them with judges to deliver them when they turned back to Him. Finally, Samuel tells the people that they have done wrong by demanding a king, but that God will forgive them as long as they continue to worship Him and follow His commands and do not return to worshiping idols. We must remember this. We will sin, but when we do, we must acknowledge our sins and live with the consequences of those sins. And then we must strive to be faithful to God going forward.
     After Samuel’s farewell address, Saul selected 3,000 men out of the 300,000 that had answered his summons to go to war against the king of the Ammonites. He chose these men to be a standing army. He placed 1,000 of them under the command of his son Jonathan. Jonathan attacks and defeats a Philistine garrison. The Philistines mobilized their army with a core of trained men that outnumbered Saul’s force by 2 to 1 with an unnumbered amount of conscripts that we are told was “as the grains of sand on the seashore” accompanying them. King Saul then summons all of the fighting men of Israel. Saul had arranged for Samuel to come and offer a burnt offering to the Lord. When Samuel is late, Saul, fearing that his men will all desert him, offers the sacrifice himself. As he is finishing offering the sacrifice Samuel arrives. Samuel demands to know why Saul has done this. Saul explains that he was afraid the battle was about to begin and he had not yet asked for God’s help, so he felt compelled to offer the sacrifices himself. All very practical reasons that sound like good reasoning to us today. Samuel tells Saul that God had given him (Saul) very explicit instructions which Saul took it upon himself to violate and Saul would be punished for this. This is an important lesson for us today. There may be sound, pragmatic reasons for us to take an action, but we must obey God first even when that seems to bring risk to us. Today’s lesson hits very close to me. I have been considering a job that has a schedule that conflicts with my Church commitments. The job fills some very desperate needs in my life right now, but perhaps this lesson is telling me not to allow pragmatism to displace faithfully following God. I will need prayers on this so that God can give me clarity as to what His will for me is at this time.

John 7:1-30

     This passage starts with Jesus staying out of Judea because the Jewish leaders were seeking an excuse to have Him executed. When the Festival of Shelters came up, His brothers asked Him to go to Jerusalem for it. They tell Him that if He wants to become famous, He needs to go to Jerusalem for the big festivals. The passage tells us that they did not believe in Him. Jesus tells them to go ahead without Him, that He is not going now. When I read this passage, I think that His brothers wanted Him to go to the festival because they wanted to bask in the reflected glow of being brothers to this big celebrity. This is a common human failing, we like to be seen associating with celebrities. I think that part of the reason Jesus sent His brothers on without Him was to protect them from the suffering that He knew was coming His way.
     After His brothers have gone to the Festival without Him, Jesus heads there as well, but keeps a low profile. The people at the Festival argued about Jesus, whether He was a good man or a charlatan. Midway through the Festival, Jesus starts teaching at the Temple. People are amazed that He can know so much because He had not gone through the equivalent of seminary. This is a problem I see today, we have a tendency to think that pastors ought to have a seminary education. If we see someone who we think has gifts from God to be a pastor, we think, “He should go to seminary to become a pastor.” I think this is wrong. I think that if we see someone who has been given the gifts from God to be a pastor, we should call them to the pastorate. If someone feels led by God to go to seminary and others concur (whether before they have been called to the pastorate or after, or perhaps because they have some other calling), then they should go, but not everyone who God calls to the pastorate is also called to attend seminary. We as a Church need to stop valuing a seminary education above the teaching of the Spirit of God.

Psalm 108:1-13

     Can I truly say with the psalmist, “My heart is confident in you, O God?” Am I willing to “thank you, Lord, among all the people?” Or are there people who I don’t want to know of my faith? When I started this blog, it was not readily accessible from my main web page. This was not on purpose, but when I realized it had happened, I put forth no effort to fix it because I thought this blog might interfere with the purposes of that main page. I have recently started to address this issue, but my original concern was wrong. For that matter, I have not publicized this blog several places that give me that option. It is true that that was partially because I do not want to do a lot of self-promotion, I want people to find and use this blog because God guides them to it. However, it is, also, because I did not want to have to defend what I wrote here before people who oppose what I believe. I need to follow the instructions of this psalm and sing God’s praises among the nations because I do believe that His “unfailing love is higher than the heavens,” and His “faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” I find myself once again echoing the father of the demon-possessed boy who had seizures, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Proverbs 15:4

     Over the last few days, we have had several proverbs which condemned untruthfulness. This one contrasts a “deceitful tongue” with “gentle words.” I found the above image and it contains the following words, which too few of us today honor.

Use gentle words, for who can tell
the blessings they impart!
how oft they fell as manna fell
on some nigh fainting heart
in lonely wilds by light-winged birds
rare seeds have oft been sown:
and hope has sprung from gentle words
where only grief has grown.

These words are so true. We cannot know how often a kind word spoken in passing may have changed someone’s life, or given them strength when they felt the world was about to crush them. We cannot know when our gentle words will be the thing that gives someone the hope and confidence to face their lives trials, nor when our failure to say those words may be the last straw in someone’s losing battle against life’s tribulations.
     On the other hand this proverb tells us that “a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” I pray to God that I have never been the one to utter the cruel words that were the straw that broke the camel’s back for someone who was losing the battle against life’s difficulties. I know there have been times when I said something unthinking where I had to later spend hours attempting to repair the damage. On the other hand, I have had friends who were only my friends because when we first met, I did not have the heart to tell them I didn’t really like them, people who came to mean more to me than I could ever have meant to them.