For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I will be out of town on business for most of this week. It is my plan to complete this blog every day, but I may run late some days.

    When making plans seek all the advice you can find, the more important the plans the more advice you should seek.

    This is too short to try to say anything other than what the passage says:

    We read today the story of Jesus raising Lazarus back to life. This is an example of Jesus’ power over even death. There are other lessons contained within the verses of this passage, but today I was struck by a question which is not really answered. Why did Lazarus have to die?
    Martha and Mary, and probably many others, suffered intense grief at Lazarus’ death. Yes, that grief turned to joy, but for four days they mourned. Why did they have to go through that suffering? Even if Jesus could not have arrived before Lazarus died (He waited two days after hearing the news, yet by the time He got there Lazarus had been dead for four days), He could have healed Lazarus from afar. He had healed others that way. I do not have a satisfactory answer to the question I asked. I do not know why Lazarus had to die. I do not know why Martha and Mary had to go through that period of mourning. The passage tells us in part that this happened to bring glory to God, and it certainly did that. My main point is that sometimes we suffer grief and heartache for reasons we do not understand. Sometimes, like in this passage, that grief is relieved and we gain some measure of understanding. But sometimes we will never learn in this life why something happened. We do not always have the ability to understand God’s plan. Just because we do not understand why we suffer does not mean that our grief and suffering are meaningless.

    Once again Saul goes hunting for David, and once again David passes on an opportunity to kill Saul. David realized that if he stayed in territory nominally controlled by Saul, sooner or later, he would have to fight Saul. Desiring to avoid this, David went to the Philistine king of Gath. From there, David raided the enemies of the Israelites who were not Philistines, but he told the king of Gath that he had raided Israelite settlements. This convinced the king of Gath that the Israelites would now hate David. So, he invited/ordered David to join him as he mustered with the other Philistine kings for battle against Saul.
    When Saul observed the mustering of the Philistine army he was frightened. When he could not get an answer from God concerning what he should do, Saul sought out a woman who spoke with the dead, he did this despite having banned the practice. The woman called up the spirit of Samuel for Saul. Saul asked the spirit what he should do and was told that it did not matter what he did, God was going to hand him over the Philistines the following day. When you have turned your back on God, and God has turned His back on you, all of you choices are bad.