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.
Three days after David had returned to Ziklag a man arrived bringing news that the Israelite army had been defeated by the Philistines and that Saul and Jonathan were dead. The man who brought the news was an Amalekite who lived among the Israelites. When David questioned him about his news, he claimed that he had come upon Saul injured. Further he claimed that Saul had asked him to kill him and that he had done so because he saw that Saul would not live long in any event. The Amalekite than took Saul’s armband and crown and brought them to David. David ordered his men to kill the Amalekite based on his confession to killing King Saul. This fits into a pattern whereby David punished people who performed actions that were morally wrong but that they thought would benefit David and bring reward from him. I think this teaches us an important lesson about what to expect from those in positions of power. David did not accept those who did wrong to advance his cause with a “wink and a nod”, where he claimed to be opposed to the actions they took, but accepted them anyway. There will be several more occasions where we are told that David punished someone who came to him claiming to have done wrong to advance David’s cause.
David composed a lament for the death of Jonathan and Saul which expressed his deep love for Jonathan and his respect for Saul. It praised Saul and Jonathan for their might in battle defending Israel. Once David finished his mourning for Jonathan and Saul he moved back to Judah with his men and their families. They settled around Hebron. The elders of Judah came to David and made him king over Judah. When David heard the news that the men of Jabesh-gilead had taken the bodies of Saul and his sons and buried them, he sent them word praising their action and blessing them for it. In his message, he asked them to accept him as king, as the tribe of Judah had done. However, in the meantime, Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Saul’s remaining son, Ishbosheth and declared him king. With Abner’s backing, Ishbosheth became king over all of Israel except for Judah.
While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover (and after the Triumphal Entry), some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast approached Philip and asked him to arrange a meeting with Jesus for them. Philip told Andrew about their request and Andrew and Philip approached Jesus. In response to this request Jesus said that the time had come for Him to enter into His glory. He went on to say that it is only as a kernel of wheat enters the ground and dies that it is able to produce more wheat. In the same way, if we hang onto our lives, if we love our lives, we will lose them, but if we are willing to sacrifice our lives for God we will gain eternal life. It is interesting that this teaching is in response to some Greeks, some non-Jews, seeking to meet with Jesus. I am not sure why that is significant, but it is.
Jesus went on to say that His soul was troubled. But He did not wish to ask the Father to save Him from the trial He was about to face, rather He asked the Father to glorify the Father’s name. Jesus says this immediately after telling us that if we wish to serve Him, we need to go where He is. This reads to me as a model for us to follow. We, also, should ask the Father to glorify His name through the difficult times we face, rather than asking Him to take these difficult times from us. I find this to be a very difficult teaching to follow.
I just read the last passage in John where I understood Jesus to teach us to ask God to glorify His name through the difficulties we face rather than take them from us. Then I read this psalm where it says:
and giving me victory!
This is the result of embracing the difficult times we face in order to bring glory to God’s name. God will give us victory. Trials and tribulations will come. When they do, let us call on God to bring glory to His name through them. Even in those times I will say:
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
I will sing that and praise the Lord, even when I face difficult times.
The greedy bring trouble not only on themselves, but on their entire household. Those who seek after righteousness strive to control what words they use. The wicked do not give a second thought to the type of language they use, or what they say.