Monthly Archives: May 2019

Daily Bible Study

May 22, 2019 Bible Study — Forgetting The Lessons Of Our Youth

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 15-18.

As Asa returned from his victory over the Ethiopian army, he was confronted by a prophet of God, but not in an accusatory or otherwise negative way.  Rather, the prophet confronted him with a call to carry on with his reliance and dependence on God.  Asa responded to both God’s aid in the battle and the exhortation of the prophet.  He removed the idols from all of the towns which were under his control and repaired the altar at the entrance to the Temple.  The writer tells us that many people moved from the Northern Kingdom into Asa’s territory when they saw that God was with Asa.  That tells me that Asa’s reforms had an economic impact as well as a spiritual one.  Asa followed up his other reforms by calling the people to gather in Jerusalem.  At this gathering, the people dedicated themselves to seek the Lord.  We see here that God uses good times and bad times to call people to Himself.  In other passages we see how when things are bad, people call out to God for rescue and turn away from evil.  Here times had been good and they had just won a great victory over a powerful threat.  This caused the people to praise God and have a renewed dedication to serving Him.  We have no excuse for not praising God with all of our being.

Unfortunately, late in his reign King Asa forgot the lessons he should have learned from these early events.  When King Baasha of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, made war against him, rather than once more relying on God, Asa bribed the king of Aram to attack Israel.   When King Asa first took the throne and faced adversity, he did not feel like he had any choice but to rely on the Lord.  Later in his reign he felt like he did not need to call on the Lord when faced once more with adversity.  He thought he had a better way to solve this new problem.  We are all tempted by such things when we get established in life.  We think that now we have the resources to stand on our own two feet and no longer need to rely on God.  I pray that I never again make that mistake.

Daily Bible Study

May 21, 2019 Bible Study

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 11-14.

When Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem after the rebellion of the Northern Tribes, he mustered the warriors of Judah and Benjamin to attempt to take put down the rebellion.   However a prophet named Shemaiah prophesied that they should not make war against their fellow Israelites.  The passage here, and the equivalent in 1 Kings, is somewhat ambiguous about who responded to Shemaiah’s prophecy, but it reads to me like the warriors declined to fight against their fellow Israelites and Rehoboam was forced to allow the Northern Tribes to go their own way.  In response to this Rehoboam initially emphasized following God’s commands as laid out in the Law of Moses and welcomed the priests and Levites who migrated from the territory of the Northern Tribes.  The wording of the passage suggests that the Levites left the Northern Kingdom voluntarily because they felt unwelcome there.  Once Rehoboam felt secure on the throne of the Southern Kingdom he stopped doing more than paying lip service to doing God’s will.  However, when the Pharaoh of Egypt invaded, he had a renewal of faith.

Fortunately, both Rehoboam’s son and grandson learned from his shortcomings and were faithful to God.  When Rehoboam’s son Abijah was king, Jeroboam attempted to conquer at least part of the Southern Kingdom.  Jeroboam’s army outnumbered the southern army by two to one.  The account of the battle between the two armies is interesting.  While Abjiah was practicing psychological warfare against the northern army, Jeroboam was outflanking him..  In the end, the faith which the men of the southern army placed in God was rewarded and they slaughtered much of the northern army. We have a similar story when Abijah’s son Asa became king.  This time the opposing army was not that of the Northern Kingdom, but one from Ethiopia.  Asa was able to muster a larger army than his father had, but the Ehtiopian army was even larger and once again they were outnumbered by approximately two to one.  King Asa recognized that he could not defeat such a large army directly and called on God’s aid.  God provided that aid and Asa defeated the enemy army.

Daily Bible Study

May 20, 2019 Bible Study — King Solomon’s Reign

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 8-10.

King Solomon had married Pharaoh’s daughter.  Then rather than insist that she give up her idolatry, he built her a palace because he understood it would be wrong to have her live in the same palace where the Ark of the Covenant was housed for a period of time.  (Side note: nowhere does the Bible mention that the Ark was in David’s palace except here, I would interpret this to mean that it was kept on the grounds of David’s palace. )   Reading between the lines, this suggests to me that the writer is telling us that Pharoah’s daughter was practicing her idolatrous religious practices in the palace where she lived, and rather than make her stop, Solomon relocated her away from the center of Jerusalame.  This is the only hint of the idolatry which 1 Kings says led to the Northern Tribes revolting against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.  The passage tells us that after doing so Solomon offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in front of the entrance to the Temple.  To a degree, Solomon was trying to have it both ways, worshiping God while taking part, even if only passively, in his wife’s religious practices.  Something we can take as a warning against marrying someone who does not share our religious convictions (although I do not believe that is any part of the writer’s intention).

From time to time I see people write about the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon as a romantic liaison.  There is nothing in the passage to lead us to that conclusion.  The only biblical basis for reaching such a conclusion is the fact that elsewhere we are told that King Solomon was a prolific womanizer (in 1 Kings we are told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, which pretty much sounds like a womanizer to me).  However, I read the Queen of Sheba’s visit as a diplomatic/trade mission.  The account of the Queen of Sheba comes after the writer describes the trade routes King Solomon setup and before describing the great wealth he accumulated from that trade.  Sheba was a trade kingdom.  To me this seems as if the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon to figure out how he had developed such a large trade network in such a short time.

Daily Bible Study

May 19, 2019 Bible Study — Prayer and Becoming One Of God’s People

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 5-7.

I commented yesterday how before this year it had never registered to me that the Tabernacle was not in Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant.  As a result, when I read how Solomon had the ‘special tent” brought into the Temple along with the Ark I thought it meant the Tabernacle.  Now I realize that this “special tent” was one which King David had had made when he brought the Ark to Jerusalem.  Another interesting detail mentioned here is that the only thing in the Ark when it was brought into the Temple were the stone tablets which Moses had placed in the Ark at Mount Sinai.  This is noteworthy for two reasons.  First, Moses had also placed a jar of manna and Aaron’s staff in the Ark.  The writer tells us that they were gone when the Ark was moved to the Temple.  Second, this means that someone looked into the Ark. The only previous account where someone looked into the Ark was 1 Samuel 6:19, where 70 men died because they looked into the Ark. 

Once the Ark had been moved into the Temple, Solomon dedicated the Temple to God.  Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the Temple and God’s reply provide us with several lessons about prayer and whose prayer God will answer.  Actually there is more than even that. 

Solomon begins his prayer by acknowledging that God is unique among gods and that He cannot be contained in any temple, city, or geographical location.  He goes on to ask God to nevertheless treat the Temple and Jerusalem as special.  Further Solomon asks God to always respond to prayers prayed towards the Temple.  God responds to Solomon’s prayer by saying that the Temple is dear to His heart and He will always watch over it.  However, before He said that God replied that if His people (we will come back to who they are in a moment) will humble themselves, pray and seek His face, and turn from wickedness, He will hear, forgive, and restore.  Notice that while God places special significance on the Temple, praying towards it is not one of the conditions on Him hearing and answering our prayers.

Now I want to touch on who God’s people are.  Solomon asked God to hear and answer the prayers of those foreigners who hear of God and pray to Him.  In His reply to Solomon God tells Solomon, and us, that His people are those who are called by His name.  Not just the descendants of Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham, but everyone who chooses to be called by His name.  That sounds simple and inclusive, and it is every bit as simple and inclusive as it sounds.  In fact it is as universal as Universalist and Unitarians often make it out to be.  But there is a catch, if God’s people do not obey His commands, or if they worship other gods (which right there is a failure to obey His commands), they will suffer, God will bring disasters upon them. 

 

Daily Bible Study

May 18, 2019 Bible Study — Seeking God’s Aid So That We Can Help Others

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 1-4.

The first thing I want to write is something that has been going through my head for a few weeks.  I realized that this blog varies between entries which talk about how the passage I am reading speaks to my faith to what it tells me about the historical context of the Bible to how it influences my biblical interpretation (I was going to use the word hermeneutics there, which would have been an example of me sometimes using more obscure words than necessary).  Basically, this blog is whatever thoughts the passage I am reading that day bring to me.  I would prefer if those thoughts were about ways the passage teaches me to be a better servant of Christ, but sometimes those thoughts go in different directions.  Nevertheless, I think that those thoughts have value and illustrate how reading the Bible over and over again can teach us things we missed previously.  Today’s thoughts are an example of that.

 I am not sure I was ever aware before my reading through the Bible this year that when King David moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem he did not move the Tabernacle or the altar which had been built when Moses was alive.  I had not even been aware that they still existed at that time.  I first noticed the fact that the Tabernacle and altar were still at Gibeon when I read the 1 Kings passage about Solomon becoming king but did not comment on it at the time.  However, when I was presented with that understanding again today I realized that it changes my perception about what was going on in passages both before and after this.  I have always viewed the Ark, the Tabernacle, and the Exodus altar in unity.  That unity meant that to me, the Temple was a transformed Tabernacle.  However, this passage shows us that the early Israelites did not view it that way.  In fact, it made me realize that the Ark and the Tabernacle had been in separate locations since the Ark was captured by the Philistines in Eli’s day, and perhaps before that.  All of this suggests that the pre-Davidic Israelites had developed a practice whereby certain priests, Samuel is an example, traveled around and offered sacrifices to God locally for those who were unable to travel to where the Tabernacle or Ark were.  

I may have mentioned this next thought in my discussions about the similar passage in 1 Kings.  When I was growing up I was taught that what made Solomon’s request so wonderful was that he asked for wisdom rather than wealth or fame.  The lesson being taught was that wisdom should be valued more highly than either of those other two.  There is truth to that lesson, but it misses an even more important lesson which Solomon’s request teaches.  Solomon’s request was not for wisdom for himself.  Solomon requested wisdom in order to serve God’s people better.  We should seek how we can better serve God’s people.  So, we should seek wisdom because wisdom will always help us serve others better.  But there may be other things which are just as necessary for us to do the tasks to which God has called us.  Note: one element of any task to which God has called us is serving others.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2019 Bible Study

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 Chronicles 27-29.

The account given here of King David naming his son Solomon as his successor and commissioning him to build the Temple is, on the surface, inconsistent with the accounts of Solomon becoming king given in 1 Kings. However, despite the inconsistencies between these two accounts, they are not contradictory. The account in 1 Kings emphasizes King David’s frailty and the political maneuvering which surrounded the end of his reign. The account here emphasizes that King David chose Solomon as his successor and put the force of his reputation behind the legitimacy of Solomon as king. More importantly, I think, the writer puts King David’s support behind King Solomon building the Temple. I believe that the writer attempts to more closely tie the Temple to King David than the account in 1 Kings did.
Having said all of that, I think if we read both passages in light of each other we can see how both could represent what happened. I was tempted to go into a discussion of how these two accounts fit together, but I think the messages in this passage are of more value.

God had chosen David to rule over His people and He chose Solomon to rule after him. Wherever we find ourselves in life and whatever success we have result from the fact that God has chosen us for that lot and that success. God intends for us to serve His purposes. That is why we are wherever we are and why we have the successes which we do. If we worship and serve God with all of our being, He will grant us great joy in all of our life and take care of all of our needs. God does not do this for us as payment for our service, because He does not need us. God rewards us for doing His will because it pleases Him to do so. We suffer when we reject His will because He has designed the world that way.

Daily Bible Study

May 16, 2019 Bible Study — Identifying Our Sources And Acting Impartially

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 Chronicles 24-26.

This is another passage which I always struggle to read because I am not sure why I should care which priestly and Levitical families were assigned to which duties. However, there are a couple of things we learn from this particular passage. We see once again that the writer of this book was more of a compiler than a writer. This passage is taken from other documents to which the writer had access. How do we know this? Because the writer tells us who took the notes at the meeting where the duties were assigned. This is not the sort of detail which someone who is writing out a myth or legend includes. Rather, this is the sort of detail which someone includes because they know that their readers to know that they are relying on a primary source. While my understanding of this passage supports the idea that 1 and 2 Chronicles were written in order to bolster the claims of the Returned Exiles to ownership over Jerusalem and surrounding lands, it runs counter to the idea that they did not have such a claim. I find this important because I know people who believe that the Old Testament was compiled to cynically cement the claim of people who had no actual connection to what we now know as the Holy Land.

The writer imparts to us that the duties of the Levites and priests were assigned with no preferential treatment given. He makes it clear that those who assigned those duties under King David were fully conscious of the ways in which people might claim that duties were assigned based on who people knew rather than on an impartial basis and made a concerted effort to ensure that they could refute such claims. We need to follow their example when choosing who to assign tasks in the modern Church. It is not enough to assign duties impartially. We must make sure that we do everything we can so that people know that we did so.

Daily Bible Study

May 15, 2019 Bible Study — Choosing To Fall Into The Hands Of God

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 Chronicles 20-23.

The writer/compiler of this account is even more emphatic that David’s census was a sin. He is less than clear as to what sin was committed in taking the census, perhaps it was the failure to collect the census tax which God told Moses to collect in Exodus 30. The consequence of David’s census was exactly that which God told Moses would happen if they took a census without collecting the tax. When given a choice as to what punishment he would suffer for his sin, David chose to suffer Divine punishment rather than punishment delivered by human agency. We must always balance David’s choice to fall into the hands of God against the writer of Hebrews warning that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is indeed a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but, as David said, at least we know that He may show mercy.

The account also tells us that David witnessed an angel of the Lord stretching a drawn sword out over Jerusalem. David and those with him expressed remorse and contrition upon seeing the angel and God halted the plague before it entered Jerusalem. David felt led by God to build an altar to worship God at this site and this became the site where Solomon later built the Temple. Further we learn that David was afraid to go to Gibeon where the Tabernacle and the altar built by Moses resided because of the sword carried by the angel he witnessed.

Daily Bible Study

May 14, 2019 Bible Study — God Promises David a Son Who Will Rule Forever

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 Chronicles 17-19.

When David had built secured his control over Israel and built himself a palace to rule from, he felt that he should build a Temple for God. Through Nathan, God told David that He did not desire a fixed location house to live in and that David should not build Him one. But God did have Nathan tell David that He would raise up one of David’s descendants to be king after him. That descendant would build a temple for God, and God would establish his throne forever. While this was interpreted by David and Nathan as referring to Solomon, in many ways it was not truly fulfilled in Solomon. God said that He would never take His favor away from this descendant of David. Yet we know that, because of Solomon’s idolatry, God chose to take His favor from Solomon and split the kingdom upon Solomon’s death. Clearly the descendant to whom God was referring was the Messiah, Jesus Christ. While Solomon built a physical Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus built a spiritual Temple. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, while the Temple which Jesus built will never be destroyed.

David’s response to the message which God gave him through Nathan tells us a some things about the theology of those who worshiped God in his time. Throughout the Old Testament we read things which reveal to us that the people of Israel tended to view God in ways which were influenced by the beliefs of those around them. The people around them viewed gods as being geographically limited. They worshiped a god of the hills and a god of the plains. To them God was just another god who ruled over a limited geographic area. Some of those gods were able to extend their geographic reach a bit further. Some of them were more powerful than others, and the power relationship between them shifted over time. However, the exchange here between God and David reveals that God is not like those other gods. God tells David that His home is not a fixed location. God is not limited to a geographic location. His power extends to the whole earth. David responds by stating that the people of Israel know that God is different from all other gods. None of the other gods had done for their people anything even vaguely resembling what God had done in bringing the Isrealites out of Egypt.

Daily Bible Study

May 13, 2019 Bible Study — Good Intentions Are Not Enough

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 Chronicles 13-162.

As I read the account here of David’s decision to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem I realized that this was both a political move and an act of faith. By moving the Ark to Jerusalem David brought the focus of Israelite religious activity to his capital. However, he also led the people to make worshiping God a more central part of their lives. While David had good intentions in moving the Ark of the Covenant, he did not do so according to God’s instructions for moving the Ark. As a result, one of David’s friends died. We must realize that good intentions is not enough. If we do not act according to God’s instructions and commands, things will go wrong and bad things will result. When that happens we often react as David did and get angry with God when bad things happen. However, David did not turn away from God in his anger. Instead, he took the time to learn what he had done wrong. Then he made plans and completed moving the Ark to the prepared location, doing things the right way.