For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    The proverb writer reminds us that the places where no explorer has ever returned to tell us about, the kingdoms of death and destruction, hide no mysteries from God. Since even the kingdom of death holds no secrets from God, what chance is there that God does not thoroughly understand our hearts?

    This psalm makes a great meditation. Pick a verse and meditate on it throughout the day…or come back to this psalm every hour or so and meditate on a different verse each time. I will start the day with verse 2:

    Jesus told the people that He would be going away and they would be unable to go to where He was going. When the people wondered what He meant by that He told them that they would die in their sins if they did not believe that He was who He said He was (the way the NLT translates it). Other translations say that Jesus said that they (that we) would die in their sins if they did not believe that “I AM he.” I had to read several different translations until I came to understand what Jesus was saying by that. The first part of understanding is the realization that Jesus used “I AM” in a way that His listeners would have understood to be a reference to Exodus 3:14 when God told Moses to tell the Israelites, “I AM who I AM.” From there I came to understand that when Jesus said, “I am he,” He was saying that He was the Messiah. Together this phrase is a claim to divinity.
    From there Jesus goes on to speak about being lifted up, by which He meant His crucifixion. As He continued He made His claim to divinity even more explicit. As we read this, Jesus is making it plain that those who do not believe that He is God will die in their sins. And when He says that He means a belief that causes us to act in ways which reflect that belief.

    When David’s older brother, Eliab, got angry with him, I think that Eliab was worried about his young brother. He knew how cocky and confident David was. He had probably seen David get into dangerous situations before. Eliab certainly knew what David was up to. David was not going to put himself forward as the champion to take on Goliath…Buuut if someone were to ask him about it, he would certainly declare his willingness to do so. When Saul heard that David was asking questions about Goliath and the reward for defeating him, Saul sent for him. However, when Saul met David, he did not believe that David could possibly take on Goliath.
    When I read about David’s actions leading up to facing Goliath, I am tempted to think that David was arrogant. And David’s behavior has a lot in common with someone who is arrogant and thinks they are better than others. However, I realized the key tell that David is merely confident. An arrogant man would have wanted to go out to face Goliath wearing Saul’s armor and carrying Saul’s sword. An arrogant man would have been confident that he could go into battle successfully with unfamiliar equipment. David knew better. He tried on the armor and picked up the sword, but realized that he did not know how to use such equipment.
    David chose to rely on what he knew…and the fact that Goliath, in defying the armies of Israel, had defied God. Let us remember David’s response to Goliath’s insult, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies…” When we face those who defy God’s will we do not need to fear their weapons, nor do we need to match their weapons. Instead, let us face them confident in the skills which God has caused us to develop and in the gifts which God has given us. If we are serving God, let us remember David’s final word before the battle began, “This is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us!”

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    God can see into the depths of death and destruction so that they hold no secrets from Him; they can hide nothing from Him. In the same way, He can see into our hearts, we can hide nothing from Him and He knows all of our secrets.

    I will praise God for all that He has done for me. I will thank Him when I meet with those who serve Him. I will spend time thinking about the meaning of the many great things He has done. I will strive to obey His commands. Oh God, transform me into someone who obeys your commands with joy and ease.

    Jesus clearly declares here that those who refuse to accept His teachings will die in their sins. Jesus did not preach a message which He had come up with on His own. He preached the message which He had received from the Father. This passage gives us the clearest model of how we are to follow Jesus. He did nothing on His own, but spoke only that message which the Father had taught Him. In the same way, we should speak only the message which we have been taught by God.

    When David first heard Goliath’s challenge to the Israelite army, he asked several different groups of men in Saul’s army about the reward Saul was offering for killing Goliath. It seems to me that David was trying to encourage them to go out to fight Goliath. He was trying to find someone in Saul’s army to take on Goliath. This was not out of a desire to see battle. Rather this was because David believed that God would strike down Goliath for defying His army. David perceived Goliath’s challenge as a challenge against God. David did not go out against Goliath because he was so confident in his own ability that he was sure he could defeat Goliath. David went out against Goliath because he was confident that God would defeat Goliath.
    David sought for more experienced warriors to take up Goliath’s challenge against God, but when none did, he took up God’s call himself. In the same way, when we see God calling for someone to champion His cause, we should be willing to answer the call. There may be those with more skills to the task than we possess who choose not to take it up. We should not let that stop us. When God calls us to a task, He will give us the ability to accomplish it. When we fight these battles, let us remember that we will not win from our own greatness. Rather the battle is the Lord’s and He will be victorious.

     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.

     Here we have the story of Goliath. Goliath challenged the Israelite army. He called them servants of Saul and dared one of them to step forth and face him, a Philistine. The passage tells us that Saul and the Israelite army were shaken and terrified by Goliath and his taunts. I think this passage shows the failing of Saul’s political philosophy. As I discussed yesterday, Saul was constantly looking to do what bolstered his power and authority. He had not led his men to believe in and rely on God. He had led his men to believe in and rely on him.
     The passage tells us that David went back and forth between tending his father’s sheep and the encampment. Why he made the other trips is unclear, but on one occasion he was sent by his father to bring supplies to his brothers who were serving in Saul’s army. On this occasion, he arrived just as the armies were drawing up to face each other. David rushed out to the battle lines to greet his brothers (and perhaps get a chance to join the battle?). As David was talking to his brothers, Goliath came forth and made his challenge. David overheard some members of the Israelite army discussing the reward that Saul had offered to the man who killed Goliath. David then asked some other men about the reward which Saul had offered. They told him the same thing. David’s oldest brother, Eliab, got angry with David. Since I am the youngest of six, I suspect that Eliab’s anger was partly justified and partly protective. Eliab thought that David was trying to stir someone up to go fight Goliath (I think that is likely) because he wanted to see a battle. But Eliab was also afraid of what might happen to his baby brother if battle broke out while David was there.
     David continued to ask questions about the reward for fighting Goliath. When word was brought to Saul, Saul sent for David. When David appeared before Saul, he told Saul not to worry about Goliath, he, David, would go fight him. Saul told David that he would not have a chance against such an experienced warrior as Goliath. David responded that when a lion or bear went after the sheep he guarded, he would go after it and strike it and rescue the lamb it had taken. If it responded by attacking him, he would kill it. In David’s mind Goliath was no more than a lion or bear going after his sheep, if God would protect him from the lion and bear, than God would surely protect him from Goliath. I never noticed before, but this statement by David was a subtle dig at Saul. David went after the lions and bears which threatened the sheep he was responsible to guard, with no thought to his own safety. He relied on God to protect him from danger. He further said that he would rely on God to protect him when he went out after Goliath. Yet, Saul, who as king was the shepherd of the people of Israel, had himself failed to go after Goliath who was threatening those people.
     Seeing that David was determined to go out after Goliath, Saul offered David his armor (or perhaps to dissuade him). David tried it on, but after just a moment in it he realized that he could not fight in Saul’s armor. So David went out to face Goliath with just a staff and a sling. When Goliath saw David coming toward him, he was contemptuous. David’s answer to Goliath’s contempt was not to make the claim that his peasant weapons were all he needed because he was such a great warrior. Rather David responded that while Goliath was bringing the full force of his might against David, David was fully relying on God as he came against Goliath. As Goliath moved in to attack David, David took his sling and struck Goliath down. When the Philistine army saw that Goliath had been defeated, their morale was completely broken and they fled in panic. Meanwhile the Israelite army was encouraged and pursued the Philistines, wreaking great destruction on them.

     Jesus once more told the crowds that He was going away. The people would look for Him, but be unable to find Him and die in their sins. Where He was going, they could not follow. The people began to question whether He was talking about killing Himself. Jesus answered them by saying that they would die in their sins if they did not believe that “I am who I claim that I am.” By phrasing it in that manner Jesus was very definitely making a reference to the way in which God identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush.
     When Jesus recognized that the people did not understand what He was saying, He told them that when He was lifted up, they would begin to understand. The word that the writer used for lifted up also means exalted. I believe that the writer was intentionally juxtaposing a veiled reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and to Jesus being glorified. This connection between suffering and glory is something we should bear in mind. Tribulations and suffering will come, we should not just bear up under them but embrace them as opportunities to glorify God (this is not a lesson I have mastered).

     What a great psalm:

     God can clearly see what is going on in the midst of death and destruction, how much more will He be able to see what is going on in the human heart?