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Daily Bible Study

April 27, 2019 Bible Study — God Works In Israel When Ahab Was King

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 20-22.

King Ben-Hadad of Aram mustered his army and demanded tribute from Ahab. When King Ahab agreed to pay the tribute initially demanded, King Ben-haddad demanded to be allowed to loot the city. This latter demand was too much for King Ahab and his advisers. A prophet of God advised King Ahab on how to take Ben-Hadad’s forces off guard. King Ahab followed the advice and defeated Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad’s advisers convinced him that they had lost because God was a god of the hills and if they attacked again but stayed on the plains they would win. On this second occasion the Israelite army was vastly outnumbered, but was still able to gain the victory.. King Ben-Hadad believed that God was limited by geography and paid the price. Our God is not limited to the hills or the plains. Wherever we need His aid He is able to rescue us.

When Naboth refused to sell King Ahab his vineyard, King Ahab threw a temper tantrum until his wife, Jezebel, arranged for Naboth to be killed. Then later, when Jehoshaphat asked that they consult a prophet of God, King Ahab did not want to do so because he did not like what the prophet told him. I want to point out some similarities between these tow incidents. In the first story, despite the fact that King Ahab did not give the orders for Naboth’s death, God held him accountable. When Elijah confronted Ahab with God’s judgement, Ahab humbled himself and begged forgiveness. In the second story, King Ahab initially “misinterpreted” Jehoshaphat’s request and consulted his prophets of Baal. In both stories, when Ahab was pushed he recognized God’s sovereignty. In the first story, when King Ahab did not get his way, he threw a temper tantrum. In the second story, when King Ahab did not want to consult the prophet because he did not like what he told him, King Jehoshaphat called him out on it. In both cases King Ahab acted childishly. In the first stroy Jezebel coddled him and rewarded him for his behavior. In the second story, Jehoshaphat confronted him and made him do what was right. When our friends act like Ahab, we should strive to be like Jehoshaphat and not like Jezebel.

Daily Bible Study

April 21, 2019 Bible Study — Using a Ritual To Worship God

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The Lord is Risen!

Happy Easter.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 8.

Solomon said some very wise things when he dedicated the Temple. After his prayer of dedication he turned to the people and reminded them, and us, that in order to serve God we must desire to do so. And in our human frailty the desire to serve God is a gift we must receive from Him. I came to realize as I read today’s passage that each time Solomon referred to someone praying towards the Temple he was using that action as a metaphor for turning away from evil and towards God. We, as human beings, are very influenced by taking physical actions which have symbolic meanings. Many of those who smoke cigarettes are as addicted to the ritual they go through each time they light a cigarette as they are to the nicotine. In the same way, a ritual can help us focus on God and doing His will. Solomon was offering the people of Israel such a ritual. Each one of us needs rituals in their life which turns our attention to God and His will for us. The only downside to this is that we may allow the ritual to take the place of God.

Daily Bible Study

March 23, 2019 Bible Study — A Bad Start Rarely Leads To A Good Ending

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 9-10.

Today’s passage starts with a story which we will want to contrast with the one which begins tomorrow’s passage.  One of Gideon’s sons, Abimelech, who we are told was the son of a concubine, not a wife, makes himself ruler of at least part of Israel.  Abimelech clearly had no fraternal care for his brothers, since his first act was to attempt to kill them all.  Only one got away.  Actually, Abimelech’s first act was to hire a bunch of toughs who agreed to follow him.  Apparently, Abimelexh ruled as he started and after three years the parts of Israel over which he ruled were in open rebellion, even Shechem which had first set him up as ruler.  Scattered throughout the account of Abimelech are references to idolatry on the part of the Israelites.  The passage suggests that their failure to faithfully obey God played a role in the evil which they suffered under Abimelech.

The passage lists two other men who ruled over Israel as judges.  It gives us no real idea how either of these men became judge, nor much of an idea about the quality of their leadership.  However, after the death of the second it tells us that the Israelites fell completely into idolatry, abandoning even the pretense of worshiping God.  As a result they fell under the oppressive dominance of the Ammonites, who continued as a threat to Israel until Saul became king.  The oppression they were under led them to turn back to God.  This was one of the points in their history where they rejected the worship of other gods completely.

Daily Bible Study

March 12, 2019 Bible Study — The Importance Of Being Accountable To Others

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 5-7.

I find it interesting that none of the children born while the Israelites were in the wilderness were circumcised.  No real explanation is given for why this was the case.  We are just told that all of the men were circumcised after they crossed the Jordan because they had not been while they were in the wilderness.  Perhaps it is unrelated, but Moses’ sons were also not circumcised until he was returning to Egypt.  I do not know why the Israelites did not practice circumcision while they wondered in the wilderness, nor why they resumed when they crossed the Jordan.  The only clue we have is that while the men were recovering from being circumcised they celebrated Passover and the Feast on Unleavened Bread in the Promised Land for the first time.  The last time it was mentioned that they celebrated the Passover was before the 12 spies went out.  Perhaps, they had not celebrated the Passover in the meantime?  That seems like a stretch, since the Passover mentioned here was significant because it was the first in the Promised Land.

The story of the Israelite loss at Ai and Achan’s sin always troubles me because the punishment seems so severe.  It was Achan’s sin, why were his family killed and all of his possessions destroyed as well?  There are two aspects to the answer.  First, his family was aware of his sin, and complicit in it because they did not report it.  When we read the way in which Achan concealed the loot he kept from Jericho in violation of God’s command, a little thought reveals that his family would have had to know about it.  He could not have dug the hole beneath his tent each time they moved camp without his immediate family knowing what he was doing and why.  As for destroying his possessions, by doing this no one can claim that anyone profited from his punishment.  We learn from the story of Ai and Achan’s sin that one person’s sin can undermine the efforts of an entire group.  Our sins may seem to be a private matter between ourselves and God and thus no one else’s business but our own.  However, they may impact the group of which we are part and undermine the efforts of others to do God’s will.  Therefore we must allow ourselves to be held accountable by those with whom we strive to serve God.

 

 

Daily Bible Study

March 4, 2019 Bible Study — Looking Out For Those Who Have Fallen On Hard Times

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 14-17.

When he commanded the Israelites to give a tenth of their produce to God, he told them that, if they lived too far from the central place of worship to transport their tithe there, they could sell their tithe and take the money there.  When they got to the central place of worship they could buy whatever food or drink they wished and celebrate their offering with that.  However, the part which stood out to me was that every three years they were to store their tithe in the nearest town and give it to the Levites, the foreigners living among them, orphans, and widows.  Basically, every third year they were to use their tithe to support those who had no other means of support.

Another interesting practice laid out here was debt forgiveness.  They were to forgive the debts of those to whom they had loaned money every seven years.  In addition, they were to help those among them who had fallen on hard times.  Moses instructed the Israelites to give generously to the poor among them.  I want to make note that there was no suggestion that this giving should be managed by the government.  It was something which each individual Israelite was obligated to do.  Related to that was how they were to treat their slaves.  Every seven years they were to set free any of their fellow Israelites who had become their slaves.  And they were not just to set them free, but to provide them with the means to support themselves.

 

Daily Bible Study

March 3, 2019 Bible Study Responding to God’s Power and Love

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 11-13.

Moses focused his comments to those of us who have seen and experienced God’s power and love.  While I have not experienced anything comparable to the parting of the Red Sea, on numerous occasions I have seen God act in my life when I was desperate for change.  This experience has made me a firm believer that if we are faithful to God He will meet our needs.  However, as Moses said in yesterday’s passage and again in today’s passage, if we begin to believe that our good life is a product of our own worthiness and turn away from God disaster will strike.  If we have seen God’s power and love in our lives we must be strive to obey God’s will with all of our being.

From time to time I encounter someone who claims that Judaism was not monotheistic until relatively late.  They base this upon the biblical accounts which describe how the Israelites often worshiped other gods along with God once they entered the Promised Land (and on some of the stories in Genesis).  However, such an opinion overlooks the repeated focus on monotheism throughout the first five books of the Bible.  It is true that the Israelites tended towards polytheism through most of their history before the Exile.  However, the command in today’s passage for the people of Israel to worship God in a central location was designed to address that.  Sacrifices were only to be offered at that designated central location.

I had intended to stop at that point, but I was struck by a lesson the modern Church could learn from.   If anyone was discovered to be trying to seduce people away from following God’s commands they were to be put to death.  I do not believe that God calls us today to kill those who violate His commands.  However, I have been struck by the number of people who attempt to convince the people of God to stop calling one sin or another a sin who remain in good standing with their Church after their argument has been defeated.  Many of them fail to accept that God has spoken through the Church and continue to strive to change the Church’s teachings after the Body has rejected this change.  Those who reject the teachings of the Church, which have been its teachings since the First Century should be cast out with those who refuse to stop practicing those sins.  I want to make an important distinction here between those who fall into sin and acknowledge that God is calling them to change and those who sin and proclaim that there is no reason to stop doing so.  Even the best of us will fall into the former category but those who fall into the latter category must be exposed as not seeking to follow God’s will.

Daily Bible Study

February 28, 2019 Bible Study — Search For God With All of Your Heart and Soul and You Will Find Him

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 3-4.

Moses concludes his summary of the journey which the Children of Israel took from Mt. Sinai to the eastern bank of the Jordan River by telling them what all of those events should mean to them.  There were two elements to the lesson Moses wanted the Israelites to take from the history he recited.    The story of their travels taught them the danger of breaking their covenant with God.  If they failed to keep that covenant they would not live in the land they were about to enter for very long.  The most important part of that covenant was that they should not worship any material thing, whether an object they created as representative of God, or a natural object (such as the sun) which they perceived as representing the magnificence of God. 

The other element of what they, and we, should learn from the story of their travels is that there is only one God.  The choice we make in idolatry is not which god we worship.  The choice is whether we worship God, or something He created.   Logic dictates that this is indeed the case.  If God is the Creator of the universe and everything in it, then there can be no other being which deserves our worship (simplifying the logic slightly to keep things short).  On the other hand, if God is not the Creator of the universe, then He is not deserving of our worship in the first place.  The story of the Israelites’ journey provides evidence that God is indeed the Creator.

Which brings us to something of utmost importance. Moses told the Children of Israel that they WOULD, sooner or later, break God’s covenant with them and be exiled from the land God was giving them. However, he made them a promise, a promise which God makes to every human being. If we seek God with all of our heart and soul, with all of our being, we WILL find Him. This is something I have seen again and again among those I know. An important corollary to this is that we must be willing to accept God when we find Him. I have known people who have sought God with all of their being, only to reject Him when they discovered what He was. They were unwilling, for one reason or another, to accept God when they found Him. This is the source of most, if not all, idolatry. The desire to enter into a relationship with God, but the unwillingness to accept Him for what He truly is.

Daily Bible Study

February 27, 2019 Bible Study — Moses Summarizes Israel’s Journey

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 1-2.

As the children of Israel camped on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, preparing to cross into the Promised Land, Moses addressed them and summarized the events since leaving Mt. Sinai.  This summary was important and necessary because only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb were left of those who were adults at Mt. Sinai.  I will note the things which Moses chose to highlight from that journey.  First, Moses tells them how he appointed judges, selected by the people, over the people to share some of the burden of providing leadership and resolving disputes among the people.  He highlights this as his suggestion to the people, who accepted it.  Then he brought up the scouts.  Here he tells them that the scouts were the people’s idea, which he accepted.  In this account Moses places most of the blame for the people’s rebellion against going into the Promised Land at that time on the people.  In the account in Numbers, the scouts are given a larger share of the blame.

Moses skims past most of the time they spent in the wilderness until they approached the land of Edom.  At that point Moses explains how God instructed them not to attack the Edomites, the Moabites, or the Ammonites.  Moses completely passes over the incident with Balaam and the subsequent attack on the Midianites.  Of course, this also explains why in the account of that the Israelites attacked the Midianites, and not the Moabites.  I also find it interesting that the Israelites were instructed not to attack the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, but were instructed to attack the Midianites.  They were not to attack the Edomites because they were the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother.  They were not to attack the Moabites and Ammonites because they were the descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew.  However, they were to attack the Midianites, the descendants of Midian, one of Abraham’s sons.

Daily Bible Study

February 26, 2019 Bible Study — Consequences For Killing Another Human Being

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 34-36.

Having resolved the issue of where the tribes of Reuben and Gad (and half of the tribe of Manasseh) would settle, Moses laid out the boundaries of the land which the rest would conquer when they crossed the Jordan River.  Then, Moses lays out an interesting idea, the cities of refuge.  There are actually two aspects to what Moses lays out here.  First, Moses declares that someone who murders anyone must be put to death by the victim’s nearest living relative.  However, he then specifies an “escape” for someone who accidentally kills someone.  They can flee to one of the cities of refuge.  Then the community will conduct a trial to determine if the death was truly accidental or not.  If the community agrees that the death was accidental, the slayer must remain in the city of refuge until the current high priest dies, after which they may return to their home.  If the “avenger” (the victim’s nearest kin) discovers them outside of the city of refuge in the meantime, the avenger may kill them.  As part of this Moses lays out circumstances which distinguish deliberate from accidental killing.  I want to note that Moses declares that if you hit someone with an object held in your hand and they die, that death counts as murder, not an accident, no matter what your intentions were. 

Daily Bible Study

February 22, 2019 Bible Study — Sexual Sin Often Leads Us to Other SIns

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 25-26.

Shortly after the failure of Balak’s attempt to get Balaam to curse the Israelites, Moabite women began having sex with Israelite men and inviting them to take part in the sacrifices to Baal-Peor.  This resulted in a plague among the Israelites, likely a sexually transmitted disease.   While Moses was discussing with the leaders of Israel how to address this issue, a man brought a Midianite woman to his tent, in front of the gathered people, to have sex with her.  Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas, grabbed a spear and killed both the man and the woman, ending the practice.  I want to point out how sexual desire, and sexual immorality, was used to seduce Israelite men into idolatry, resulting in disease being spread among the Israelites.  There are good reasons for the limitations of sexual behavior to marriage, both for our spiritual and physical health.

There are a couple of interesting points here.  First, “peor” was both the name of the mountain the Moabites primarily worshiped at and the Hebrew word for “open”.  The literal translation of Baal-Peor would be “Lord of the Hole” (or something similar).  Another one is that many commentators struggle to explain why the focus of the passage goes from Moabites to Middianites, more or less in the middle.  It was Balak, king of Moab who tried to have Balaam curse the Israelites and it was Moabite women who initially seduced Israelite men into worshiping Baal-Peor.  However, God instructed the Israelites to attack and destroy the Midianites.  Well, Moses had spent time among Midianites and had married one, which suggests that the Israelites would have perceived the Midianites as fellow worshipers of God.  Another point worth noting is that before Balak sent for Balaam he gathered the elders of the Midianites for consultation.

Expanding on why the Israelites attacked and attempted to destroy the Midianites here gets a little involved.  Consider the idea I keep referring back to that there were other people besides the Israelites who were familiar with the creation story they followed.  The Midianites were one of those people, being descended from Abraham.  So, it may have been the Midianites who convinced the Israelites that the worship of Baal-Peor was just another variant of worshiping God.  Related to that is the fact that in the languages spoken by the others in the region, Baal and El had similar meanings.  El is a word which was used from time to time in the Bible to refer to God.  My point in all of this is that the Israelites likely felt more betrayed by the actions of the Midianites to seduce them into idol worship than the same actions by the Moabites.  The Midianites had the background and understanding to KNOW that the worship of Baal-Peor was incompatible with the worship of God, while the Moabites may have genuinely believed them to be interchangeable.