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:
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?