I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     Today’s passage tells us of King Saul’s growing jealousy, fear and hatred of David. King Saul has been tapped into playing the public relations game since he became king, and everything he has done wrong has come from that. He offered the sacrifices in Samuel’s place when Samuel was late in arriving because he was afraid if he waited any longer all of his men would desert him. He kept alive some of the Amalekites’ livestock in order to throw a big bash of sacrifices because that was what the people wanted and he was afraid to go against them (at least that is what he told Samuel, I wonder if his plan wasn’t to set himself up as a priest-king as many of the other rulers in that area had done), even though God’s command had been to kill everything. And now, he hears the people saying that Saul has killed many of the enemy, but David has killed even more. The next day, Saul has one of his fits and attempts to kill David while David is playing his harp in an effort to calm Saul. After this Saul sends David out to be one of his army commanders. David has even more success and Saul’s jealousy grows.
     King Saul next tries to pump David’s ego up and get him to take excessive risks in battle by offering David his eldest daughter in marriage. All David has to do is prove himself in battle even more than he already has. The Bible does not tell us exactly what Saul asked David to accomplish in battle, perhaps it was just open-ended enough that Saul could keep upping the ante, either way it was suicidal to attempt, since the Bible does tell us that Saul intended for David to be killed by the Philistines, and David recognizes this. David does not outright refuse to do it. Instead, he says that he is unworthy to be the king’s son-in-law. King Saul tries to play upon David’s ego, but David shows that he has a realistic understanding of his abilities. King Saul then marries his daughter off to another man. In the meantime, Saul’s second daughter has fallen in love with David. King Saul sees this as another opportunity to get David killed by the Philistines, which suggests that the feeling was not entirely one-sided. This time King Saul sets David a specific task, which David exceeds.
     King Saul continues to escalate his attempts to have David killed until David has no choice but to flee for his life. In all of this, David continued to serve King Saul faithfully and to the best of his ability. He does not use this as an excuse to plot against Saul. He does not do less than his very best in serving King Saul as both a military commander and as a member of his court. It is only when King Saul orders some of his men to kill David that David flees from King Saul’s court. In all of this, David does his best to obey God and does not use Saul’s perfidy as an excuse to be dishonest or disloyal himself.

     This passage has always bothered me a little bit, because it seems like Jesus is antagonizing the crowd, escalating the confrontation with each exchange. However, this time and I read and re-read this passage, I realized that the confrontation starts with the crowd, not Jesus. Jesus starts by saying that if they want to follow Him, they need to be faithful to His teachings and that as a result they will know the truth and the truth will free them. The crowd responds by saying, “What are you talking about? We are descendants of Abraham and do not need to be freed from anything.” This is the key point of the whole passage. If we want to follow Jesus, we need to admit that we need Him and His salvation. Jesus goes on to explain that if we sin, we are slaves to sin and thus need to be freed from sin. In order to receive the salvation that Jesus is offering we must admit that we need it and our powerless on our own to free ourselves. Sin is an addiction, or addiction is a sin, but in either case, in order to be free of them, the first thing we must do is admit that they have power over us. Until we admit that sin has power over us, we will be unable to accept God’s ability to free us from it and we are completely unable to free ourselves from it. The best we can do on our own is to substitute one sin for another, it is only through submission to God that we can be freed from sin. That is, it is only through the power of God that we can stop committing acts of sin which bring harm to ourselves and those around us.
     I can illustrate this from my own life. Years ago I smoked marijuana and occasionally did other drugs. I was always very careful to avoid becoming physically addicted to any of these drugs and used them in extreme moderation. But marijuana was “safe” because it was not physically addictive, so I didn’t need to be so careful. Then my life changed and I started to feel God’s call to be more involved with the Church and serving God. But I felt that as long as I was smoking pot, which I knew was wrong, (if for no other reason than it was illegal), I would be a hypocrite to be more active. So I decided I would stop smoking pot. Only, it wasn’t that easy. I tried for a couple of years to quit, all the while the feeling that I should be more actively serving God grew, as did the feeling that I would be a hypocrite to do so while smoking pot. Then the Lord spoke to me, “You know what I want you to do. Do it! Leave the marijuana to Me.” So I did. I started attending a congregation where I couldn’t just come in for the service and slip out without talking to anyone. A congregation where people had known me my whole life and had expectations of me. I got involved with a couple of Christian Singles’ groups and talked about what i thought it meant to follow Christ. I stopped trying to quit smoking pot. Six months later, I realized it had been six months since I had smoked pot. It was really that easy. I didn’t stop hanging out with the friends that I smoked pot with. I just didn’t spend as much time with them because I was busy doing other things most of the time. I didn’t have to stop spending time with my friends that I smoked pot with because they smoked pot. I just spent less time with them because I was spending more time with people who were helping me grow in my faith. It wasn’t that hard to say, “No thanks, not tonight,” when they passed the pot around, when I only had to do it once in a while (since I was busy spending time with other people rather than with them) rather than 4 or 5 times a week. On the other hand, it was hard. I had to admit to my fellow Christians that I smoked pot, that I lacked the willpower to give it up. I had to admit that for as strongly as I felt about the importance of following God and doing His will, I was unable to stop doing something that I knew He didn’t want me to do. Then one day I realized that God had taken the power of that sin over me away.
     When I started writing that story, I wondered what I was doing. I write these blogs for me, so that I can work on my daily devotions and study God’s Word. I knew that story and what it means. Except that as I wrote it I started to realize that I had forgotten. Oh, I hadn’t forgotten the story. I had forgotten the point. Once again I find myself fighting a habitual sin and once again I am trying to defeat it by the strength of my willpower. That isn’t how it works. God says, “I have things I want you to do. Stop trying to overcome sin. Just do My will and I will take care of the rest.” Unfortunately, this time I am not as sure of what things God wants me to do as the last time, but I know a few things and I just need to start pulling that thread and I am sure that God will show me the rest. This blog was part of that. God has been calling me to do this for over a year and I never got to it. Now I don’t know how I started my day without it.

     This psalm has so much in it, I don’t know where to start to unpack it. I will start where the psalmist does. I will praise the Lord. He tells us that those who fear the Lord will be joyful and follow His commands with delight. If you are trying to follow God and you are not full of joy, you are doing it wrong. Then we need to be generous. We need to be fair in all of our business dealings. No squeezing every transaction for every penny, just fair. Confidently trust the Lord to care for us. I am sure there are many things this psalm has to say to us. But today it says to me that we should not allow the world around us to convince us that we have to “Look out for number One first.” That is not God’s way for us. God’s way for us is to look out for those in need. This does not mean that we delegate the task for caring for those in need to the government. It means that we look for those around us who have needs that we can fill and then we do our best to fill those needs.

     Two of these proverbs tell us how to recognize the wise. The second of the two is easier to talk about. It tells us how to tell if we are behaving wisely. “A wise person is hungry for knowledge…” What sort of stuff do we fill our leisure time with? What TV shows do we watch? What books do we read? What Internet sites do we visit? What do we do with our time? Do we seek out knowledge? Or are we like the fool? “…while the fool feeds on trash.” I think we all know the sorts of things that we can fill our leisure time that falls into that last category. Understand that what qualifies as trash is not the same for everyone, but if you can’t think of how it feeds you knowledge and/or you think of it as trash, maybe you shouldn’t be spending your time with it.
     The other one tells us how to tell if someone is a wise source. “Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.” If someone is criticizing another or making fun of something, but they refuse to talk with those who support who or what they are criticizing, we can know that the criticism is poorly founded or all together unfounded. For that matter, we can use this to measure our own criticism of something or someone. Are we willing to talk about our criticism with those who are supportive of that person or practice? If the answer is No, then our criticism is probably something we should keep to ourselves even if it is, perhaps, not just plain wrong.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     Today’s passage starts with Samuel telling Saul that God has commanded him to destroy the Amalekites completely, killing all of the people and their livestock. Saul killed everyone except for the king of the Amalekites and kept the choice livestock. When Samuel confronts him with keeping the choice livestock, Saul tells him that they kept them to sacrifice them to God. Here Saul says something interesting, he says that they kept the livestock to sacrifice them to “the Lord your God.” He says this twice more while pleading with Samuel. Saul does not say, “the Lord my God” or “the Lord our God.” He says, “the Lord your God.” I think this is very telling, especially when we see that he blamed the people for his failure to kill all of the livestock. King Saul appears to have come to view God as a prop for maintaining his political power. He no longer worships God out of the depth of his own heart but instead sees the various worship ceremonies as a means to cement his power over the people. I believe this is why Samuel was so grieved by Saul’s actions, not because God was going to take the throne of Israel from King Saul, but because Saul had ceased worshiping God.
     Next the passage tells us of Samuel anointing David. God sends Samuel to Jesse, to anoint one of Jesse’s sons. When Samuel sees Jesse’s eldest son, he thinks that he must surely be the one. But God tells him not to judge by outward appearances, that He sees what is in the heart. Jesse presents his sons to Samuel, but none of them are the one God is looking for. Samuel asks Jesse if he has any other sons and Jesse responds, “There is still the youngest. But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” Even David’s father dismissed him as not that important. We must not make the same mistake. We do not know whom God will call, because unlike God, we cannot see into the hearts of our fellow man. All too often, we judge people by their outward appearance and dismiss someone because they do not measure up to our idea of what someone in that role should look like.

     The first of the two stories today is not in the oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of John, so it may never have happened. However, even if it never happened, we can learn from it. The basis for the trap in this story is selective enforcement of the Law. The story tells us that the teachers of the law presented this woman caught in the act of adultery and confronted him with the fact that the law called for her to be stoned. Now first off, if she was caught in the act, where is the man involved? But Jesus does not bring that up, instead He begins writing in the dust on the ground. The story does not tell us what He wrote, but from the context we can guess because when they continue to push Him to answer He says, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone.” He then resumes writing in the dust and one by one the accusers slip away until they are all gone. What we can learn from this is that none of us is in a position to cast judgement on others. This does not mean that we cannot point out that someone’s behavior is sin, just that we need to remember that we, also, sin. There is no hierarchy of sins, whatever sin we have committed, we stand before God condemned…unless we accept the covering of Jesus’ death. And that covering applies to everyone, either we stand condemned or we acknowledge that anyone can receive the covering of Jesus’ death and be forgiven through no act of their own.
     The second part is in the oldest manuscripts and therefore reflects Jesus teachings (as opposed to the first part, which may not). Jesus tells us that He is the light of the world. If we follow Him, we will be able to see where we are going and the light will lead us to life. The second part I think is interesting. Jesus says that if you don’t know Him, you won’t be able to know the Father. From time to time, someone will say that Muslims or Jews worship the same God as we do. While this may be nominally true, they do not know or understand God because they do not know Jesus and understand His teachings. This is more of an issue with Muslims because their “scripture” (the Quran) is not built of stories, as both the Old and New Testament are. Both Jews and Christians understand that God has revealed His will through the stories of the people who have chosen to follow and obey Him. The Muslim view of God is very different from that of Jews and Christians. Jews and Christians believe that we can come to know God (although only imperfectly) because God has revealed Himself to us. For both Jews and Christians this is derived from the Creation account where it tells us that man was made in the image of God. For Christians this, also, derives from the fact that Jesus was God and dwelt among us. Muslims teach that we cannot ever know God, only His commands. They teach that God is unknowable, which of course is consistent with what Jesus teaches in this passage. Since Jesus teaches that to know the Father we must know Him and Muslims do not know Him, they cannot know God. Therefore, since Muslims claim to be unable to know the God which they worship, while Christians claim to know the God which they worship, Muslims cannot legitimately claim to worship the same God as Christians.

     The psalmist tells us that those who oppose the Anointed One of God will be broken and humbled before Him. The psalmist, also, tells us that His people will serve in His army willingly. There are no conscripts in God’s army.

     This set of proverbs goes along with what I saw in today’s passage about Saul. Following the forms of righteousness for selfish reasons will not find favor with God. There is only one way to enjoy God’s favor and that is to follow His will and allow Him to correct your mistakes and failings. I pray that I may strive always to do God’s will and accept His correction when I fall short.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     This passage starts with Jonathan taking a calculated risk, but demonstrating his faith in God. He tells his armor bearer that God can win the battle no matter the number of men on either side. As he approaches the Philistine camp, he illustrates his calculation. He tells his armor bearer that if the Philistines told them to stay where they were or be killed, they would stop and withdraw, but if the Philistines tell them to come on up and fight, they would fight. The first answer would indicate that the Philistines were cautious and would attack them as they approached. The second one would indicate that the Philistines were over confident and would allow them to close with them. The Philistines gave the second answer and allowed Jonathan and his armor bearer to close with them. Jonathan and his armor bearer were able to wipe out twenty men in a short period of time. This led to panic among the Philistines. The panic was amplified by an earthquake that struck at that moment. King Saul witnessed the disarray in the Philistine camp and as soon as he determined that it was caused by Jonathan, he launched an attack. At this point, the story tells us that some Hebrews had joined the Philistines, but at this point they switched sides. In addition, many Israelites who had been in hiding out of fear of the Philistines came out and joined the assault.
     King Saul illustrates his foolishness twice. First, he places his men under oath not to eat anything until evening. Jonathan does not hear this oath and when he comes upon some wild honey, he eats it and refreshes himself. When Jonathan hears of his father’s command, he tells the men that such a command only hurts the Israelites because it does not allow them to refresh themselves with captured food and thus kill even more Philistines. At the end of the day, King Saul gathered the plundered animals and has them killed according to kosher practice (or at least something close to kosher) and prepares food for the men. Saul proposes pursuing the Philistines all night, but the priest suggests that they ask God first. Saul agrees, but God makes no answer. Saul then vows to kill whoever has acted so as to cause God to not answer, even if it is his son Jonathan (his second foolish act of the day). When Saul discovers that it was indeed his son, he prepares to carry out his oath, but the men of the army refuse to allow Saul to kill Jonathan because Jonathan was the hero of the day. Saul’s actions illustrate the dangers of making decisions in the heat of the moment.

     Many people began to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. This led the Jewish leaders to send the Temple guards to arrest Jesus. In response to this Jesus said that He would only be with them for a short time and then He would return to the One who sent Him. That they would search for Him and be unable to find Him. The religious leaders were puzzled by this statement and rightly so, without the context of what happens later, it is not possible to understand what He meant. I don’t know if this is a correct interpretation of this passage, but I think that perhaps there is a message for us today. Perhaps there is only a short period of time in each of our lives when we can choose to follow Jesus. After that, we can search for Him but will be unable to find Him. If that is so, it is because once we have rejected Him, we will not re-examine our conclusion and truly consider Him again. Certainly my experience is that many people think they know that following Christ is not the answer to the spiritual questions they are asking, but when you question them closely you discover that their understanding of what following Christ means is faulty and Christ actually offers the answers to the core of what they are seeking.
     The crowds listening to Jesus were divided, much as society’s opinion of Him today. There were some who thought He was a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah. (“He’s a great teacher, but nothing more than a man.”) There were some who thought He was the Messiah. (Those who believe that He is God and the only way to salvation and eternal life.) There were those who rejected Him because they were sure that they understood what the Messiah would be like and what He would teach (“The Bible is inconsistent, Matthew says there was one man at the tomb, Luke says it was two. That stuff is all nonsense.”) Finally, there were those who thought He was evil and should be arrested. (“All the worst things people have done have been done in the name if religion.”) I am firmly in the second group. Jesus is the Son of God and is one with God.
     When the Temple guards returned to the Jewish leaders they said that they did not arrest Jesus because they found His teaching compelling. The leaders did not show how any of Jesus’ teachings were wrong, they merely belittled those who believed them and appealed to authority; “His teachings must be wrong. None of us believe in him. Look at all of the foolish people who believe in him.” At this point Nicodemus speaks up and points out that they should give Jesus a hearing before they convict Him and reject His teachings. To which the other leaders reply by insinuating that Nicodemus must be biased (“Are you from Galilee too?”) and lacking in knowledge (“…no prophet ever comes from Galilee.”). When you face such arguments you know that you are dealing with someone who has no interest in actually determining the truth of the situation. They merely wish to reinforce the conclusion they have already come to. It is time to stop arguing and pray for them. A lesson I must remember. Too often I continue to try and convince people who are not listening.

     Here the psalmist talks about how often times those who seek selfish ends accuse good people of doing the very things that the accusers are guilty of. The psalmist tells us that if we continue in doing good, it will be our accusers who are disgraced. Even as they attack us, we should do as the psalmist says:

     Ok, so the clipart I used today has nothing to do with the proverbs in today’s passage :-). The three proverbs we have today appear to have little to do with one another, however, I think I see a connection. The first tells us that we are foolish to despise correction and discipline. The second tells us that wealth obtained wickedly will bring trouble. The third that the wise give good advice and fools don’t even see a reason why you need it. The connection is this. Fools do not listen to correction and thus never learn that wealth obtained through evil means brings nothing but trouble…they fail to learn this from their own experience. I have known people who time and again faced trouble as a result of their own actions, but always, they blamed something outside of their control. They refused to acknowledge that they could have avoided the trouble if they had behaved differently. I do not know about anybody else, but I know that I am guilty of doing this myself sometimes. I continue to work at acknowledging how my failings and sin are responsible for when things go wrong for me. The final proverb comes in when someone else with problems turns to these people for advice. They have none to give because, to them, all of what went wrong was the product of other people’s actions and none of their own responsibility.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     Samuel anoints Saul and tells him that he will be king over Israel. Samuel further tells Saul that his father’s donkeys have been found (the reason that Saul went to speak with Samuel in the first place) and that he will meet a group of prophets, who he will join in prophesying for a period of time. Saul departs Samuel and what Samuel predicted does take place. After this Samuel gathered the people of Israel at Mizpah and tells them that God will now select their king. Using the lot, Samuel gradually narrows it down (first selecting a tribe, then a family and finally an individual) until it falls on Saul. Sometime during this process, Saul had gotten cold feet and hid himself, but with God’s guidance Samuel finds him and brings him before the people. A group of men attach themselves to Saul as his supporters, but some other men refuse to accept Saul as king. Saul ignores those who reject his anointment.
     The king of Ammon was oppressing the Israelites who lived east of the Jordan by gouging out the right eyes of the men. A group of those Israelites had taken a stand in Jabesh-gilead. When the king of Ammon laid siege to Jabesh-gilead he offered them the option of surrendering to him and having their right eyes gouged out, they asked permission to send messengers asking for help (and were apparently granted it). The elders of Jabesh agreed that if no one came to help them they would accept his terms. When word comes to the town Saul lives in, Saul is out plowing his fields. When Saul hears what the king of Ammon intends to do, he is furious and summons the fighting men of Israel in the name of himself and Samuel. The story tells us that the people were afraid of Saul’s anger and came together as one.
     There is an important lesson about good leadership here. Even though Saul was king, he was still plowing his own fields. He was not living off of the production of others. Second, after his victory, when the people wanted to round up those who had rejected Saul as king and execute them, Saul refuses to allow them to do so. Saul recognized that after a victory was a time to allow the people to come together. It was a time for healing, not a time to settle old scores.

     Jesus continues His teaching that He is the bread of life. He tells His followers that in order to have eternal life they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Many of His followers understand Him to mean this literally and physically. As a result they are disgusted and/or confused and leave off following Him. Jesus turns to the twelve and asks them if they are going to leave as well. Peter, demonstrating the insight that led him to be a leader of the Church later, replied asking where they would go since Jesus has the words the give eternal life.
     Many societies have believed that you take into yourself the essence of the things you eat, some of them extend that to their human enemies and thus become cannibalistic. They eat the flesh of their enemies in order to take the essence of their enemies (their strength, their bravery, whatever other virtues they are thought to have) into themselves. I believe that Jesus was talking about something like that when He said that we must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. He was telling us that we must take into ourselves His essence, his righteousness. We must feed on those things that make Jesus who He is. He was talking about us making ourselves like Him. We must desire to be transformed into His likeness as a starving man desires bread. I believe there are two facets as to why people left off following Him over this teaching. The first is that some of them just could not get past the metaphor of eating human flesh. The second was that some of them were unwilling to accept the absolute and total reordering of their lives that Jesus was asking them to undertake.

     The first two of today’s three proverbs are related. When we speak angrily, we tend to get angry answers in response. On the other hand, when we speak calmly those we are talking with often calm down (if they were angry or agitated). The second proverb discusses informing people. If you inform people in a way that makes them think that you think them foolish or stupid for not knowing what you are trying to tell them, they are unlikely to listen to the knowledge you are trying to impart. On the other hand, if you present your information in a way that lifts them up and makes them feel good about themselves, they are more likely to listen and learn. The third proverb tells us that we should always behave as if God is in the room with us watching what we are doing, because He is. It also tells us that those who do evil are being watched by God and will be held accountable for their actions and those who do good will be rewarded.

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     When Samuel got old, he had a similar problem to that of the man who raised him, Eli. His sons were not godly men as they began to take over for him. As a result the people of Israel came to Samuel and requested that he anoint them a king to take care of them. Samuel warns them that if they crown a king to take care of them, he will take away their freedoms. Samuel tells them that the king will take the best of everything and either keep it for himself or give it to his friends. The people demand that Samuel give them a king to take care of them anyway. It is amazing how much Samuel’s warning to Israel about what a king would demand reflects what happens whenever people demand that the government take care of them. The story then goes on to tell us how Saul was selected as king. While we are told that God selected him, we are also told that he was the most handsome man in Israel and that he stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Again, notice how similar that description is to that of a successful Presidential candidate. We, as humans, often select our leaders on superficial characteristics rather on those that would make good leaders of the people. God often grants the wishes of people to be ruled over by handsome and impressive people who are otherwise shallow in order to show people that they should put a higher priority on other characteristics. And just like the Israelites of old, we today are often slow learners.

     This passage is perhaps one of the strongest condemnations of prosperity theology there is in the Bible. Prosperity theology says that if you believe, you will receive material blessings. Here Jesus condemns the people because they are following Him merely because He fed them (gave them a material blessing), not because they understood the meaning of His miracles. Jesus goes on to say that we should be more concerned about eternal things than we are about material things that will perish. The people replied that they wanted to do God’s works and asked what they should do to do so. Jesus replied by telling them that they should believe in Him. The people then demanded a miraculous sign like Moses providing manna in the wilderness. Jesus then tells them that Moses did not provide the manna, it was provided by God. He goes on to tell them that God is now providing the bread of life and that He is the bread of life. When the people finally understand that He is not talking about some literal bread that they can eat, but about following Him and serving God, they start to mutter among themselves, “Who does he think he is? We know his parents and they aren’t anybody special.” This is something we all do, when we don’t like the message, we start to attack the messenger. We try to make it seem that the messenger can’t possibly be right when we know in our heart of hearts that the message is from God (even though He sometimes uses unworthy vessels to deliver His word to us).

     The psalmist continues with his recounting of the ways which the people of Israel rebelled against God’s commands. He spends quite a bit of time talking about how sacrificed their children to the gods of their neighbors and how this caused the Lord’s anger to burn against them. When I read this psalm I cannot help but think that God’s anger is burning against this country because of the way we are sacrificing our children on the altar of convenience in the name of “choice”. God has made His judgement clear about those who will sacrifice their children for their own betterment and abortion is sacrificing a child. The psalmist is writing from a time when the people have suffered God’s judgement and have come back to worshiping Him. The psalmist ends by petitioning God to restore His people and calling on those people to rejoice and praise the Lord. As we choose to be faithful to God and rejoice in His goodness and praise Him, we will be a witness to those around us who are enslaved to the idols of this world.

     This proverb tells us that godliness makes a nation great and sin is a disgrace to any people. What happens when a people is no longer ashamed of sin? When people become proud of their sinfulness? To me the answer is obvious, it is only a matter of time until tragedy strikes.