For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I apologize if my writing over the last few days has been below my usual standard. I have not been feeling well and if the doctor is to be believed I will feel this way for a few more. On the other hand, if my writing has not been substandard, praise God because it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that such is possible.
It is natural for people to be proud of their grandchildren. At the very least. grandchildren are a sign that one was not a complete failure as a parent. Children should be proud of their parents. I know that I am proud of my mother and father. They are great servants of the Lord and I strive to live up to their example.
As a Christian, I do not put much emphasis on Jerusalem, but it is clear from this and other psalms that Jerusalem is special to God. If the people of Jerusalem are faithful to God, He will protect the city from all threats. Jerusalem is God’s desired home on this planet and will bring prosperity to it, as long as its people serve Him.
Here is the second reference in the Bible to Barnabas. In it we see that Barnabas has at least some of what I call the “tendency to take in strays.” Here we see the first evidence that if it was not for Barnabas, Saul/Paul would never have risen to the prominence he later had in the Church. When Saul arrived in Jerusalem after his conversion in Damascus none of the Christians in Jerusalem would have anything to do with him because of the way he had previously persecuted Christians. Except for Barnabas, who met with Saul and took him to meet with the apostles. We, also, discover in this passage that Saul was not afraid of offending people (similar to Stephen, whose stoning Saul witnessed).
When every tribe of Israel except for Judah rejected Rehoboam as king, he raised an army to try to force them to accept him. However, a prophet came forward and warned the people of Judah against going to war against their countrymen. The passage does not outright say this, but I do not think that it was Rehoboam’s decision to stand down the army. I think that the men of the army chose not to go to war after the prophet spoke to them and Rehoboam had no choice but to accept their decision.
As soon as the threat of immediate war with Rehoboam was passed, Jeroboam created two golden calves which he encouraged his people to worship in place of God. Jeroboam was afraid that if his people continued to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship God they would start to give their allegiance to Rehoboam. Jeroboam chose “pragmatism” over obeying God. A mistake which continues to plague mankind.
For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I want to apologize to my readers. I felt completely unmoved by the passages today and feel that what I wrote shows this lack of inspiration.
If you know any grandparents, you know the first part of this is true. Which is at it should be. The second part should be true. Children should be proud of their parents.
God promised that David’s line would continue forever and that promise was fulfilled in Jesus. God also promised that He would live in Jerusalem and bless that city. While bad things have happened to Jerusalem, that city is once more prospering.
When Saul returned to Jerusalem the believers there would not be near him, despite his claims to be a believer as well. That is, except for Barnabas, who took him to the apostles and told them the story of his conversion. This is the second time Barnabas is mentioned in Acts. Barnabas is another one of those characters who act mostly in the background. We often look to model ourselves on Peter, or Paul, or other such bigger-than-life characters from the Bible. But the world only needs a few of those people at any one time. The world needs a lot of Barnabases and Ananiases (the one from Damascus, not the one who lied about his money). Let us strive to be one of the latter two rather than the former two. If God needs us to be a Peter, or a Paul, the Spirit will move us to be so.
Jeroboam sought to consolidate his political power by setting up idols for the people of Israel to worship. He made two gold calves and claimed that these were the gods which had brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. God sent a prophet to warn Jeroboam away from his idolatry, but despite the signs which God sent him Jeroboam did not listen. In addition to setting up the idols, Jeroboam appointed those of his favorites who wished as priests. Jeroboam’s mistake is one that we must always guard against. The mistake of twisting and distorting God’s commands so as to serve our own purposes rather than God’s.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
When Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem, he mobilized the men of Judah and Benjamin in order to regain control over all of Israel. However, the prophet Shemaiah prophesied to Rehoboam and the people that God was telling them fight against their brothers, the rest of Israel. The people obeyed God and went home rather than going to fight the rest of Israel. It is not clear if Rehoboam sent the people home after hearing the prophet or if the people refused to support his attempt to regain control after hearing the prophet. Personally, I suspect the latter is more likely than the former.
When Jeroboam became king over the northern tribes he was afraid that if the people continued to go to Jerusalem to worship God they would revert to supporting Rehoboam as king. In order to stop the people from going to Jerusalem, Jeroboam had two gold calves made and placed one at each end of his kingdom, one in Bethel and one in Dan. Jeroboam then built temple complexes at both sites. In addition, he appointed priests from among the general populace rather than from the descendants of Levi. Finally, he instituted a religious festival to replace the Festival of Shelters. Jeroboam offered sacrifices at Bethel as part of the religious festival he established.
At the very first festival, while Jeroboam was offering his sacrifices, a man of God from Judah arrived and loudly condemned Jeroboam’s idolatry. The man of God prophesied that a descendant of David named Josiah would destroy these altars and execute the priests who served at them. He further prophesied as a sign that his prophecy was true that the altar would split and the ashes pour out of it while Jeroboam was offering sacrifices. When Jeroboam heard his prophecy he pointed at the man of God and ordered him killed. But as he pointed to the man of God, Jeroboam lost control of his hand and was unable to pull it back. At that moment the altar split apart and the ashes poured out. Jeroboam begged the man of God to ask God to restore his hand. The man of God did so and Jeroboam’s hand was restored. Jeroboam then offered the man of God a gift if he would return and eat a meal with him. The man of God declined saying that God had told him to eat nothing while he was in Bethel.
When the man of God left Bethel, a prophet who lived in Bethel went after him and claimed that God had told him to bring the man of God back to his house so that he could have something to eat and drink. The man of God listened to this prophet’s lies and ate with him. While he was eating, the prophet told the man of God that God had declared that the man of God would die and not be buried with his ancestors because he had not obeyed God’s command to not eat or drink in Bethel. When the man of God left a second time, he was killed by a lion while he was on the road home. The prophet who had deceived him retrieved his body and buried it.
This passage gives us an important lesson on testing the messages that others have received from God when they conflict with what we understand God to have commanded us. The prophet claimed to have a word from God that was in conflict with what the man of God himself had received. The man of God accepted the prophets claim without praying about it himself and paid the price.
When Saul arrived back in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he had truly converted. However, Barnabas brought Saul to meet with the Apostles, told them his conversion story and how he had preached in the name of Jesus in Damascus. Saul stayed with the Apostles and moved freely about Jerusalem. He got into some debates with Hellenistic Jews about Jesus, which led them to try to kill him. When the believers learned of this they hustled Saul out of Jerusalem and sent him to his home city of Tarsus. There was something I had not noticed here. The Church hustled Saul out-of-town twice, first in Damascus and the second time in Jerusalem. It is worth noting that this time they sent him to his home town, where he could be expected to get into fewer confrontations. It almost looks as if the early Church felt that Saul (who we know as Paul) was too confrontational and should spend some time with his family learning to tone it down a bit.
Peter was traveling around Judea. At one point, when he was visiting the town of Lydda, he met a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been bed ridden for eight years. Peter told Aeneas that Jesus had healed him and that he should get up. Aeneas immediately got up. Those who lived near by saw Aeneas walking and became believers. While there, a believer named Tabitha died in the city of Joppa. The other believers in Joppa had heard that Peter was nearby in Lydda, so the sent word begging him to come at once. Peter went to Joppa at once. When he got there, they showed him the room where they had placed her body. The room was filled with widows who were weeping for Tabitha’s death. They showed Peter the many clothes that she had made for them. Peter asked them all to leave the room. Once they had all left the room he prayed over Tabitha (also known as Dorcas). Peter then told her to get up, which she did. He called everyone back in and presented Tabitha to them alive. This story spread throughout Joppa and led many people to become believers. Peter stayed in Joppa with Simon the tanner for some time.
In some ways we can dismiss this psalm because it is about the physical location where we worship God. God no longer calls His people to worship Him in a specific physical location.* However when we consider that God lives within us it puts this phrase in a new light:
I will not let my eyes sleep
nor close my eyelids in slumber
until I find a place to build a house for the Lord,
a sanctuary for the Mighty One of Israel.
Have we built a house for the Lord within our innermost being? Have I made myself a sanctuary fit for the Lord God Almighty? Will God say of me, “I will live here, for this is the home I desired?”
*Of course from a different perspective God does call us to worship Him in a specific place. That specific place is wherever we happen to be at any given moment.
The first part of this proverb seems self-evident, have you ever seen the way that grandparents gush over their grandchildren? On the other hand, if you have children, are they proud to have you as a parent?
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Upon returning to Jerusalem after the bulk of Israel rejected him as king, Rehoboam mustered the fighting men of Judah and Benjamin to attempt to reclaim control over all of Israel. God sends word telling Rehoboam and the people of Judah and Benjamin not to war against the rest of Israel. They listened to this command from God and Rehoboam did not attempt to regain control of the rest of Israel by force.
In the meantime, Jeroboam consolidates his control over Israel. He becomes concerned that if the people of Israel go to Jerusalem to the Temple to worship, they will switch their loyalty back to Rehoboam. To prevent that from happening, he had two golden calves made, one in the south of his kingdom and one in the north. He, also, built shrines in various high places and ordained priests who were not descended from the tribe of Levi. Jeroboam then compounded this by establishing a religious festival that was not one of those given by God in the Law where he himself offered the sacrifices. While Jeroboam is offering the sacrifices God sends a prophet to condemn his actions. When Jeroboam directs his men to seize the prophet, the hand he uses to point at the prophet becomes paralyzed.
Jeroboam, in an attempt to consolidate his power, set up a new religion completely under his control. He established new holidays and ordained his own priests. Jeroboam made the same basic mistake as Saul. He made pragmatic decisions to shore up his power base but did not focus on obeying the will of God. The passage tells us that Jeroboam made anyone who wanted to be a priest a priest. It reminds me of what has happened to the Church in the U.S., or at least the denomination that I am part of. When I was very young, my denomination selected pastors by a method called the lot. When a congregation needed a new pastor, the members would nominate from among its members those they thought might make good pastors. Then they prayed for God’s guidance and used a random system to select which of those nominated should be the next pastor. In this way, the congregation called a pastor with guidance from God. There were flaws in the system and not all congregations executed it in a manner that was truly faithful to the leading of God, but the principle was there. Sometime when I was young, congregations began hiring young men who had gone to seminary as a career choice as pastors when they needed a new pastor. This became a matter of making into pastors those who wanted the job. For a while, those who entered the pastorate were those who in high school or college decided to pursue that as a career. The Church was not doing a good job of calling men to the pastorate, it was merely hiring from among those who chose that career. The system is not as bad as the way I described it makes it sound, just as the system it displaced was not as good as my description may make it sound. The current system has those who are truly called to the ministry, just as the previous system had those who ended up in the pastorate who had not been so called. I believe that there are others besides myself who have noticed the shortcoming of the current system and are working at seeking God’s guidance for calling people to the ministry.
When Saul fled from Damascus he returned to Jerusalem where he tried to meet with the believers. The believers were afraid of him, not believing that he had truly converted. However, Barnabas knew the story of his conversion on the road to Damascus and his preaching there. Barnabas took Saul and introduced him to the apostles and told the story of what had happened to him in Damascus. After his introduction, Saul stayed with the apostles and traveled around Jerusalem with them preaching boldly. At one point he got into a heated argument with some Greek speaking Jews which led them to try and kill him. When the believers heard about this they got him out of Jerusalem and sent him to his home town of Tarsus.
We do not pay as much attention to Barnabas as we should. The scriptures do not tell us a lot about him, but he was clearly a very influential man in the early Church. The first mention we have of him is when he sold some property and gave the money to the apostles to distribute to the poor among the believers. Now we have him taking Saul in hand and introducing him to the apostles. Later he goes on several missions trips. What do we know about Barnabas? He was generous. He gave people the benefit of the doubt. He listened to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Meanwhile, we are told that Peter traveled around Judea, in particular he visited Lydda and Joppa. In Lydda, Peter healed a man who had been paralyzed for eight years, leading to many coming to believe. Shortly thereafter, Dorcas (also known as Tabitha), a believer, died in Joppa. The believers in Joppa sent for Peter, who came and raised her from the dead. Again the news spread throughout the town leading many to believe. Dorcas was noted for doing kind things for others and for helping the poor. If we died today, would people say that we did kind things for others and that we helped the poor?
“Let us go to the sanctuary of the Lord;
let us worship at the footstool of his throne.”
This was the prayer of the psalmist. While the Temple of God is now in our hearts, there is still something to be said for gathering with the believers to worship God. It is as important today as it was in the psalmist’s day to get together with others who share our faith whenever possible. The imagery here of worshiping at the footstool of God’s throne is that of prostrating ourselves before God. Recognizing that we are unworthy to be in His presence.
This proverb tells us that grandchildren are the glory of their grandparents. If you have ever met a grandparent, you probably know how true that is. It further tells us that children should be proud of their parents. There is certainly something to both aspects of that.
