Finding the Narrow Way

Devotions for Sankofa Class

2010-11-07T20:42:00.001-06:00

Every Monday night, I go to one of my favorite classes – Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation. Each week, a student opens us with devotions that are based on what we’ve been learning in the class, and this week is my turn. I have several thoughts floating around in my brain for what I’d like to share so I’m going to try to use the blog as an avenue to work those out.

I think I’ll read from two passages, Matthew 12:49-50 and I Corinthians 12:25-27. I’ve included them below if you’re not familiar with them or don’t want to run and grab your Bible to look them up. It’s the passage where Jesus says that his mother, brothers, and sisters are those who do the will of God and the passage where Paul talks about the church as the body of Christ. I think that these are two very important passages when thinking about racial injustice (or any injustice for that matter).

We recently read a book for Sankofa called Being Human by Dwight Hopkins. In it, Hopkins writes about the concept of one human race. For Christians, because of Jesus’ redefinition of family, not only are we a part of one human race, we are part of one Christian family. This has both global and local ramifications. The Anglican woman living in poverty in Kenya is my mother; the Christian women murdered in Iraq last week are my sisters, and the African-American pastor living with the realities of racism on the south side of Chicago is my brother.

When one considers the concept of the Christian family, one cannot hold on to ignorance and apathy about the injustice throughout the world. These things are happening to members of my family! This should not only awaken us out of our apathetic, ignorant slumber, it should spur us on to action.

Paul’s metaphor of the church as the body of Christ is equally powerful when considering racial injustice. No one part of the body is greater than the others. No one part is deserving of more concern than the other parts. How can I enjoy luxurious living and the benefits of white privilege when other parts of the body suffer poverty and injustice through systemic racism? Does that not then imply that one part is better than the other? How am I affected by the sufferings of my sisters and brothers in Christ? Paul said, “when one part suffers, all the parts suffer.”

That line has really stuck out to me the past week, “When one part suffers, all the parts suffer.” It rings in my ears when I hear of various injustices throughout the country and world. Do I have any idea of what that means? To be so intricate a part of the body of Christ that when one part anywhere throughout the world suffers, their pain is my pain, their sacrifice is my sacrifice, their poverty is my poverty?

In the Sankofa class, we recently finished another book called Understanding and Dismantling Racism by Joseph Barndt. In it, he writes not only of the devastating history of racism in the US but the ongoing destruction racism still causes. When you look at the economic, education, housing, social services, and criminal justice gaps between white people and people of color, racism is as destructive a force in our society as it has ever been. I’ve been shocked to learn about some of these things in my class. Ignorantly, I thought racism was an evil of the past. I’m afraid it is alive and powerful.

So when we see how racial injustice affects our sisters and brothers in Christ, when we hear of how members of our family are being persecuted and murdered for their faith, when we look at the vast inequality between the rich (us) and the poor, let’s take these verses to heart and perhaps reevaluate some things in our lives.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Peace.

Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:49-50

…so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
I Corinthians 12:25-27

Seminary is hard. Seminary is challenging. Seminary is awesome.

2010-11-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

I sort of feel like my first few months of seminary have been spent learning how to go to seminary. There's a ton of reading, studying, and writing that goes into seminary. And it's best not to get behind. One day in my New Testament class, our professor asked us how we were all doing. We had a big quiz that week as well as a ton of reading and other assignments. The class responded that it was a lot of work and we were all exhausted. His response was, "Well, yeah. Seminary's hard." Then he encouraged us that our studies are so important. In three short years, we are being equipped for a lifetime of ministry. What we do here is in many ways more important than law school. What we learn will influence ministries that will have eternal significance. So yeah, seminary's hard, but that's the way it needs to be.

It's also super challenging. I'm finding myself challenged and stretched in so many ways. My Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation class has confronted me with the many ways that racism still permeates our society as well as the ways I have contributed and benefited from it. My New Testament class has challenged me in so many ways to live out the teachings of Jesus. Just last week we talked about money and the rich young ruler. Our professors paper on this topic is titled, "Jesus and Money - No Place to Hide and No Easy Answers." He challenged us with the statement, "If you want to really know somebody, find out where they read Scripture literally and where are the places where they say, oh that one doesn't really count." Money is one place many Christians do that.

It's also challenging to keep a balanced life in seminary. I haven't been to the gym in months. Some weekends, I forget to call my family. Since so much of my life is spent studying the Bible, it's easy to forget to spend devotional time in the Bible and in prayer. But we have chapel twice a week, and it's edifying and refreshing to the soul. When our professors open class in prayer or a hymn, it's not just a superficial exercise; it is deep and real.

So ultimately, seminary's awesome. I love all my classes. Yes, they're hard, but that's what we all signed up for. I've already learned so much and can't wait to learn more. Learning Greek is awesome; there's something amazing about reading a passage in the Greek text. Seeing the narrative of church history through the centuries is fascinating. Finding myself challenged and convicted in the middle of a class is a beautiful experience. This is why I am here. To be challenged, encouraged, and prepared for ministry. I'm so incredibly grateful for this place already.

So now that I've procrastinated my studying with this blog post, I'd better get back to work. :)

Finally, A New Post

2010-07-20T17:19:00.003-05:00

I think it’s time to resurrect my blog. As you can tell, I didn’t quite make my blog through the Bible in 90 days goal. Nor did I make the read the Bible in 90 days goal. I’m still working my way through, just at a much slower pace.

I’d like to continue blogging through the Bible, but I think that will become just one of a few different types of posts and be a bit less frequent than it was initially. I really enjoyed blogging as I read through the Bible because it helped me to think through many passages in ways that I hadn't before. I'm hoping to post a few times a month on that topic.

Since I’ll be starting seminary classes August 30, I’m thinking this blog can also serve as a great place to process and share the various things I learn in my classes. I’m also thinking it will be a great venue to share other various thoughts and general news with my friends.

I’ve already finished my summer Greek course, and it was amazing. It was really intense to cover two semesters of material in six weeks, but I loved it. The language is fascinating, and it’s so exciting to be able to read (albeit at a very elementary level) the Greek text of the New Testament. This past Sunday I took my Greek NT to church with me and was actually able to follow along as the pastor read the text for his sermon from Ephesians! It was pretty exciting. I’m really looking forward to Greek Exegesis in the Fall where I’ll learn a lot more about the Greek language.

This Fall I’ll be taking Interpreting the New Testament I, Christian Heritage I, Introduction to New Testament Greek Exegesis, Spiritual Journey, and Sankofa: Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation. I’m super excited to start classes and will do my best to share the cool stuff I learn. I can't promise I’ll post super consistently, but I'm hoping to be much more consistent than I have been.

Peace.

Entry 32: II Chronicles 7:11 - II Chronicles 23:15

2010-01-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

So I didn't quite make my blog through the Bible in 90 days goal. I got busy, fell out of the habit of daily blogging, and, as you can see, it's been quite a while. I would like to continue blogging through the Bible though, so I'm back. I can't promise daily entries, but I'll try to blog as often as possible. Here goes.

The reading for today's entry includes one of the verses that I often hear quoted at the National Day of Prayer, local community prayer breakfasts, and similar events. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” My blog today is on why I don't think this verse applies to those events and shouldn't be used there.

First of all, let me acknowledge that there are timeless truths in this verse. It is good and we should humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways. However, this promise of God to hear from heaven, forgive national sin, and heal a nation was to a specific nation at a specific time in history in response to a specific event. If we read 2 Chronicles 7:13, we see the context, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people...” This promise is to Solomon and the Israelites so that if they turn away from God and He punishes them by causing drought or locusts, they can and should repent and He will forgive them.

Am I saying that we shouldn't gather corporately to do all these things? Of course not. But I think it is dangerous for us to take a conditional promise that was made specifically to the nation of Israel and apply it to our own nation. The United States is not a theocracy, established by God to be a light to the world, and the national promises to the nation of Israel do not apply to us.

I think this is a danger we have to be aware of when reading the Old Testament. Some of the promises of God in the Old Testament can't be taken out of context and applied to us directly. However, we can gather truths about who God is and how He responds to his people from these passages. For example, in this passage we see the forgiving grace and mercy of God. That is something that applies to us today and something that we can cling to. What I don't think we should do is post II Chronicles 7:14 on a banner and quote it as a promise for national revival. I do think we should pray for these things, but I also think we shouldn't quote the Bible out of context.

What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree vehemently? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The next entry will cover 2 Chronicles 23:16 2 Chronicles 35:15.

Day 31: I Chronicles 23:33 - II Chronicles 7:10

2009-11-17T19:55:00.001-06:00

Quick summary: Names, names, and a lot of names. Temple building preparations, lots of details about the temple, and then it's done. I think these names and details were probably of more interest to the original readers. They could read and say, “Oh yeah, I remember those great Kohathite musicians.” Or, “You know son, Jeduthun was your great-great-grandfather.” It's like the credits at a movie or the masthead in a magazine. It's important, but it means more if you have a connection with the people listed.

One very interesting thing that I learned in today's reading is that Solomon is not the one who came up with the plans for the temple. David prayed and asked God if he could build the temple. God told him that he couldn't because he is a warrior and has shed blood. However, God gave David the plans for the temple and he is the one who drew up the blueprints. He also used his resources to provide a lot of the gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, etc. for the Temple. I never caught that before. I thought Solomon took care of all that. Nice job, David.

Solomon had a pretty decent theology on God's transcendent and omnipresent nature. Twice he declares that no one can actually build a temple for the Lord to dwell in because the highest heavens cannot contain Him.

In II Chronicles 2:17-18, we read how Solomon recruited labor for building the temple. Take a look:

17 Solomon took a census of all the foreigners residing in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600. 18 He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 supervisors over them to keep the people working.

Am I reading this right? Did Solomon conscript the foreigners as slave labor to build the temple? It's not technically condoned but it's also not condemned. I wonder why or why not. What do you think?

Tomorrow's reading is II Chronicles 7:11 through II Chronicles 23:15.

Peace.

Day 30: I Chronicles 10:1 – 23:32

2009-10-28T20:17:00.001-05:00

Today we re-read the story of King David—from when Saul dies and he is made king all the way through to his death. Since I've already commented on a lot of David's life. Today I'm going to focus on one small incident that happened with his mighty men in I Chronicles 11:15-19.

15 Three of the thirty chiefs came down to David to the rock at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 16 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 17 David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" 18 So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD. 19 "God forbid that I should do this!" he said. "Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?" Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it.

I highlight this story because I found it fascinating the first time, and this second time reading it a thought occurred to me. The first time I read it, I thought how annoyed I'd be if I were one of the three, I'd just risked my life to bring David this water, and then he didn't drink it! But this time through I looked at it more from David's side. What sort of evil despot would he be to command his men to fight through the opposing army just to bring him a drink of water from his favorite well? What would it say about his opinion of himself if he were to drink that water? He poured the water out before the Lord to show both the men and the Lord that he valued the lives of his men more than his own comfort. He refused to consume something that could have cost his men their lives.

So here's the thought I had while reading this passage: what do I consume that could have cost someone their life? Or, what do I consume that shows how little I value someones else compared to my own comfort? Think about it. Aren't we doing the same thing as David would have done had he drunk the water when we purchase clothes that were made in sweatshops? When we eat chocolate from coco that was picked by child slave labor? When we eat vegetables picked by migrant slaves in the South?

There are so many unjust systems that we support everyday whether willingly, begrudgingly, or unknowingly. How would things be different if, before purchasing something or consuming something, we thought, what was the cost to the person who provided this? Are we willing to affirm that whatever that person went through is justified because of our desire for it?

Thinking of it that way really challenges me anew to rethink the way that I spend my money and the systems I buy into. Because when I think about it, a lot of times I do value my own comfort over someone else's life. Lord, have mercy and help me to value others above myself.

What do you think? Am I a little off base hermeneutically? Or is this a valid application?

Peace.

Day 29: I Chronicles 1:1 - 9:14

2009-10-26T21:59:00.004-05:00

I've decided that these nine chapters are the most boring part of the Bible. It's a really, really, really long list of names. There are short, random stories every couple chapters, including a little story about a man named Jabez. Now I see why The Prayer of Jabez was such a popular book. Maybe the author was doing a verse by verse study of I Chronicles. If so, I'd get excited about Jabez praying a prayer too!

All joking aside, I'd like to make a few comments on The Prayer of Jabez. I know the book came out a long time ago, and the excitement has long since worn off. But there are a few concerns I have with The Prayer of Jabez movement and I think some of them still apply today. But I'll keep it brief since the fad is pretty much long gone.

I really don't see the big deal actually. Some guy prayed a prayer, and God answered it. That happens a lot in the Bible. But that doesn't mean that I should model my prayers after every single prayer that someone prayed. He trusted God, prayed a prayer specific to his circumstances, and God answered him. That's great, and it should encourage all of us to pray. But I think that's the main takeaway here. I don't think it was meant as a model prayer.

When the disciples came up to Jesus and asked Him to teach them to pray, He didn't say, "Haven't you read I Chronicles? Jabez has already modeled for us the way by which we should pray."

I think the big problem with The Prayer of Jabez movement was that people were more excited about the content of the prayer than the God who answered it. As I recall people were really excited to pray for God to "expand their territories". But the thing is that even though He saw fit to answer Jabez's prayer that way, that doesn't mean that He'll answer everyone's prayer that way.

The biggest thing that bothered me about The Prayer of Jabez was how the author made it into a 30 day challenge. Pray this prayer every day for 30 days, and I guarantee you'll see results. I'm not a fan of turning prayer into a risk-free trial for prosperity and blessings.

The fact of the matter is, the Christian life is oftentimes hard. It is marked by suffering and persecution. Yes, there are innumerable blessings to following Christ. But most of them are not material. It's much harder to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" than it is to pray "Expand my territory".

I apologize for the rant that was pretty much 8 years late, but given the choice, I'll go with the prayer of Jesus over the prayer of Jabez.

Peace.

Day 28: II Kings 15:27 - 25:30

2009-10-18T11:51:00.001-05:00

Today's reading wraps up the book of II Kings and the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah. There are a couple bright spots here, but for the most part every king does evil in the eyes of the Lord and disobeys the Law. By the end of the book both Israel and Judah have been taken into exile in foreign lands as the Law foretold.

Israel is first to go. The king of Assyria come and attacks Israel. He deports all the Israelites to Assyria and resettles the land. This takes place as a consequence for their sin. They did not follow the Law that the Lord had given them. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before them. The Lord gave them many chances to turn back to Him through the prophets, but they would not listen.

I mentioned in my last post how strange it was that even the kings that did serve the Lord didn't take down the high places. When Hezekiah becomes king in Judah, he removes the high places. He was king in Judah when Israel went into exile. He followed the Lord and served Him.

So Judah had a few good years with Hezekiah as king. But Hezekiah's son, Manasseh does evil in the eyes of the Lord and rebuilds the high places. He sacrifices to Baal and makes an Asherah pole. He builds additional altars in the temple of the Lord to other gods. He's really, really bad. So is his son.

The next king of Judah is a boy names Josiah. He becomes king at 8 years old. When he's 26, they find the Book of the Law in the temple. When Josiah hears the Book of the Law, he tears his clothes and weeps. He sends someone to inquire of the prophet, Huldah, about what is written in the Book of the Law for the Lord's anger must be great. She tells him that the Lord says that He will bring abut disaster on Judah and its inhabitants according to what is written in the Book of the Law. But because Josiah's heart was responsive and he wept when he heard the Law, the Lord will not bring about this disaster in his lifetime.

So Josiah renews the covenant with the people. He purges Judah of the idols, destroys all the alters to other gods, and desecrates the high places. He turns to the Lord with all his heart.

But Josiah's son apparently didn't learn anything from his father. When Josiah's son becomes king, he does evil in the eyes of the Lord. As do the next two kings after him.

Finally the book ends with Nebuchadnezzar conquering Judah, and taking them into exile in Babylon.

There are a couple things that really sick out to me through this era in Israel's history. The first one is God's incredible patience. He promised them in the Law that if they disobeyed, served other gods, and did not follow Him with all their hearts that He would punish them and drive them into exile. But He gave them so many chances to turn back. He waited a long time before driving them into exile. Our conclusion after reading the books of Samuel and Kings has to be that God is compassionate, patient, and just.

The second thing that sticks out is the hardheartedness of the people. I was thinking about this the other day about how it was even possible for them to forsake worshiping the Lord, who brought them out of Egypt with His mighty hand, and serve false inanimate idols. How could they do that?

But then I started to think about the things that distract me from serving the Lord. Sure, I don't sacrifice to Baal or build up an Asherah pole in my back yard. But I do waste a lot of time that I could otherwise give to the Lord or to serving others. At times, I do rely upon things other than the Lord for comfort or security. How many times do I place my trust or find my worth in other things by my actions and my thoughts? In all actuality, I'm really not that different from the Israelites.

So the question I should be asking isn't how could the Israelites turn away from the Lord and become distracted by all these other gods and idols. The question is, will I be like them and allow other distractions gradually turn my heart from the Lord? Or will I serve Him and follow Him wholeheartedly? I'm shooting for the latter. What about you?

Tomorrow's reading is I Chronicles 1:1 through 9:14.

Peace.

Day 27: II Kings 4:38 - 15:26

2009-10-13T21:43:00.002-05:00

Today wraps up the section where we read about Elisha. We also read about a ton of different kings of Judah and Israel, very few of whom actually serve the Lord. I was surprised to find what appears to be a story of creative non-violence in the life of Elisha. Also, why won't the good kings who do follow the Lord tear down the high places?

Here's an interesting story about Elisha. He's meeting with a bunch of guys, 100 to be exact. It's time to eat, and a man brings 20 loaves and some grain for everyone--not quite enough. Elisha says to give it to the crowd; that the Lord says they will eat and have some left over. They do. I wonder if people thought of this story when Jesus fed 5,000. Because Elisha was one of the greatest prophets Israel ever had, and all of the sudden there's this guy who feeds not 100, but 5,000 people with even less food.

I won't write too much about it, but you might remember the story of Naaman. He is the commander of the army of the King of Aram, and he has leprosy. His servant is a Jewish girl who tells him about Elisha. He goes to him and is healed. After he is healed, he declares that he knows that there is no God in all the world but in Israel. He says that he will never make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any god but the Lord.

Soon after that, the king of Aram goes to war with Israel. Hmm, I wonder if Naaman was in on that. He can't beat them because Elisha is giving the King of Israel inside info on what the king of Aram is going to do. He finds out that Elisha seems to know what he says in private and sends his army to attack him. Elisha's servant is freaking out and can't understand why Elisha is so calm. Elisha prays, his servants eyes are opened, and he sees the horses and chariots of fire all around them.

Here's where the non-violence kicks in. Elisha prays again, and the army is struck with blindness. Elisha informs them that they're in the wrong city, and he will lead them to the man they're looking for. He leads them right to the king of Israel and his army. The Lord opens their eyes and there they are standing before the king of Israel. He asks Elisha if he should kill them, to which Elisha surprisingly responds, “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” So they have a feast, the soldiers go home, and the king of Aram stops attacking Israel.

Now you will certainly not hear me arguing that Elisha was a pacifist. He certainly had no problem having people killed who had turned against the Lord (or calling down curses so that bears will maul people who mock his baldness(actually the gang of youths were probably threatening his life, but it's more fun to focus on the baldness part)). But I think it's fascinating that here in the middle of the Old Testament is a story that shows how effective non-violence can be. Something to think about, huh?

One last Elisha story. He gets sick, dies, and is buried. One day some guys are carrying their dead friend out to be buried when the see a band of raiders. They freak out and throw the man's body into a nearby tomb. It just so happens that it's Elisha's tomb. The man's body touches Elisha's bones and he instantly comes back to life. Craziness!

One final question to ponder. On the rare occurrence that there is a king of Israel or Judah who follows the Lord, why don't they ever tear down the high places? I can't figure out why they never take that final step toward bringing Israel back to the Lord fully. Any thoughts?

Tomorrow's reading is II Kings 15:27 through 25:30.

Peace.

Day 26: I Kings 16:21 - II Kings 4:37

2009-10-12T20:14:00.002-05:00

We pick up today with the probably the worst king Israel had. King Ahab does more evil in the eyes of the Lord than all the kings before them. He marries Jezebel (who you might have heard of for her evilness), and begins to serve and worship Baal. But we also read about two of the greatest prophets Israel had–Elijah and then Elisha. These guys were awesome.

We first meet Elijah when he prophesies to Ahab that it won't rain in Israel for years except at his word. He then goes to hide and gets fed by ravens. Then he goes to stay with a widow at Zarephath. She's out of food and is gathering firewood to make the final meal for her and her son. Elijah tells her to first make him a small loaf of bread for him and the Lord has told him that her jar of flour and her jug of oil will not be used up until the drought is over. And that's what happens. Her son dies suddenly, and she asks Elijah if he came to remind her of her sin and kill her son. He goes up to where her dead son is, cries out to the Lord, stretches himself out over her son 3 times, God hears him, and the boy is raised from the dead. That's pretty intense, and it's just the beginning for Elijah.

Some time later, Elijah meets up with Ahab to tell him that he should summon all the people from Israel and the prophets of Baal and meet him on Mount Caramel. Once they're all gathered, Elijah throws down. He tells the people, “How long will you waver between to opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” He tells them that they'll set up a test to see which God is God. The prophets of Baal and he will each build an alter, place a bull on the alter, and see which God answers by fire. The people think this sounds like a good plan. Ball prophets go first.

The 450 prophets of Baal set up their alter and cry out to Baal. Nothing. They dance; they shout. Nothing. Elijah taunts them suggesting that Baal might be sleeping, traveling, or deep in thought. They shout louder and cut themselves. Still nothing.

So Elijah sets up an altar, has four large jars of water poured over his alter three times, and then prays. The fire of the Lord falls and burns up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil around the alter. The people see this, fall prostrate and say, “The Lord–He is God!” Elijah then has the people kill all the prophets of Baal. He prays, and it rains.

Ahab tells Jezebel this story, and she sends Elijah a message that she will kill him. So he goes and hides. The Lord then appears to Elijah. First a great and powerful wind tears through the mountains, but the Lord is not in the wind. Then comes an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Then a fire, but the Lord is not in the fire. Then comes a gentle whisper. When Elijah hears it, he pulls his cloak over his face and speaks with the Lord. He tells him that he has been very zealous for the Lord, but the people have all rejected His covenant, put the prophets to death, and He is the only one left (apparently their zeal on Mount Carmel was short lived). The Lord gives him some instructions on who to anoint as king next and who will be his successor. Then He adds that he reserves 7,000 Israelites who have not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him. Elijah isn't as alone as he thinks.

Elijah goes and meets Elisha who is plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. He throws his cloak around him, which I guess means that he's calling him to be his protege. Elisha's response is fascinating. Talk about not looking back and passing the point of no return. He kisses his father and mother goodbye, kills the oxen, cooks them by burning the plowing equipment, and follows Elijah to become his servant.

You probably remember the story about Ahab, Naboth, and his vineyard. He won't sell it to Ahab so Jezebel has him killed, and Ahab gets the vineyard. Elijah shows up and tells him that the Lord will bring disaster on him and his house. Ahab then dies in battle shortly after that.

Ahab's son, Ahaziah, isn't any better. When he is injured, he sends messengers to inquire of the prophets of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron if he will recover. Elijah meets them and sends them back with the message, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of the god of Ekron? You'll die from the injury.” The king is not pleased with this message, so he sends 50 men to bring Elijah to him. They say, “Man of God, the kings says, 'Come down!'” To which Elijah replies, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” It does. The king sends fifty more men. And repeat. The third captain sent begs Elijah not to call down fire from heaven; he really doesn't want to die. So Elijah goes with them and delivers the same message to the king. The king dies.

After that it's time for Elijah to be taken up to Heaven. Elisha asks for a double portion of the anointing that was on Elijah, and he sees Elijah taken up in a whirlwind and chariots of fire. On his way back, a gang of youths come out and taunt him (they especially make fun of his baldness). He calls down a curse on them in the name of the Lord and they're mauled by two bears.

This post is way too long already, so I'll end by saying that Elisha also has a story with a woman's son who dies, he prays, and the son is brought back to life. That's where the reading ends today, and we'll read more about Elisha tomorrow.

Tomorrow's reading is II Kings 4:38 through 15:26.

Peace.

Day 25: I Kings 7:38 - 16:20

2009-10-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

Today's reading is a bit depressing. We start with the high point of the dedication of the Temple. The presence of the Lord descends and it's pretty awesome. We end with Judah being split off from the rest of Israel and each of them having king after king who does evil in the eyes of the Lord. How do we get from point A to point B? Let's take a look.

First up—the dedication of the temple. Everyone in Israel assembles for the Ark to be moved into the temple. The priests take the Ark into the Most Holy Place. And then the cloud fills the temple, and the priests cannot perform their services because the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Solomon prays a prayer of dedication that reveals he really understands his theology. He understands that God doesn't actually dwell in the Temple, for all of heaven cannot contain Him much less a building. However, he is physically manifesting His presence there for the sake of the Israelites. I liked a part in Solomon's prayer when he asks that God would hear prayers of the foreigners who have come from a distant land.

Everyone in the world is amazed by Solomon's great wisdom. The Queen of Sheba comes to test Solomon with hard questions because she's heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship with the Lord. I'm curious what sort of questions she asked him. Ethical questions? Philisophical? Math? Science? Who knows. But she leaves praising God for placing Solomon on the throne.

In chapter 11, we find out where Solomon messes up. He loved many foreign women from all the nations about which the Lord said, "You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." As he got older, he wives turned his heart after other gods and he was no longer fully devoted to the Lord. He began to worship their gods with them and build altars to their gods. The Lord tells Solomon that he will tear his kingdom away and give it to one of his subordinates. But for David's sake, he will wait until Solomon dies and will allow his son to remain king of Judah. God tells Jeroboam (the soon to be king of Israel) that if he walks in obedience and does what is right in God's eyes, he will build his dynasty and bless him.

Solomon dies and his son, Rehoboam becomes king. The people come and ask him what sort of king he will be. Rehoboam takes his friends' crappy advice over his father's advisers, and he tells the people that if they thought his father was harsh, just wait. The people (except for Judah) say, no thanks we'll take Jeroboam as our king instead.

Jeroboam creates golden calves for Israel to worship because he doesn't want them to go to the temple in Jerusalem (capital of Judah) for fear they'll return to Rehoboam. He tells Israel that these calves are their gods that brought hem out of Egypt. He built shrines on high places and appointed anyone as a priest--not just Levites.

One day, a man of God shows up at the high place when Jeroboam is standing to make an offering and tells Jeroboam that a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. And he will kill the priests who make offerings at the high places. As a sign he says that the altar will be split in two. Jeroboam reaches out his hand to tell his men to seize him, but when he does it shrivels up and the altar is split.

Here's where that story gets a little weird. God instructed the prophet to go, deliver the message, and to return home. He wasn't to even stop to eat or drink before going home. But he gets tricked by an old prophet into staying for dinner. The older prophet tells him that God told him that he should stay. While they're eating, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet and he tells younger prophet that he defied the word of the Lord by not going straight home. After dinner, he's eaten by a lion on his way home. The old prophet mourns for him and buries him. And it turns out that Jeroboam still doesn't change his evil ways.

Rehoboam doesn't do any better than Jeroboam. And then Jeroboam's son, Abijah doesn't do any better. Next up for Judah is Asa who does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. His heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. But we're now in a cycle where king after king after king does evil in the eyes of the Lord. Every so often, there's a good one, but for the most part, they're all pretty bad. And it all started with Solomon's compromise by marrying so many foreign women to turned his heart away from the Lord.

Tomorrow is I Kings 16:21 through II Kings 4:37.

Peace.

Day 24: II Samuel 22:19 - I Kings 7:37

2009-10-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

After finishing the Psalm that ended yesterday's reading, we read David's last words. Which he apparently gave quite a bit before he died since we read about a few more things in his life after that. We read about David's mighty warriors. We read about the time David sinned by taking a census of all Israel and Judah. As David is on his deathbed, Adonijah (Absalom's next youngest brother) tries to set himself up as king. But some quick thinking by Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet get David to crown Solomon king, as he promised Bathsheba he would. Solomon becomes king, God makes him wise and prosperous, and he builds the Temple and a palace for himself.

David's mighty warriors are awesome. These guys make the Navy Seals look like wimps. I'm serious. The Army Rangers would cry if they met up with David's mighty men. Check out some of these stories for yourself in II Samuel 23:8-39. One of my favorites is a guy named Eleazar. The Israelites were fighting the Philistines, but they retreated. Eleazar stood his ground and fought until his hand got tired and froze to his sword. The Lord brought about a great victory, and the rest of the troops only returned in time to strip the dead. Interesting thing I hadn't noticed before (or didn't remember), Uriah the Hittite (Bathsheba's husband) was one of David's mighty men.

David takes a census of all the fighting men in Israel. Joab tries to stop him, but David insists. Apparently this is a very sinful thing to do (I'm not entirely sure why). Perhaps because it was David counting the men to glory in his strength... I don't know. But after the census is complete, David is conscience-stricken and repents to the Lord. The Lord gives David three options for punishment for his sin: three years of famine, three months of fleeing from their enemies, or three days of a plague. David chooses the three day plague. The Lord sends a plague and 70,000 people die. This is what makes me think that perhaps the sin of the census was an attempt to trust in human strength (similar to why God wanted to make Gideon's army smaller). If David trusts in the strength of his armies, he's not trusting in the Lord. David, upon seeing the plague, says to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.” Once again we see that personal sin has corporate consequences.

David goes to offer a sacrifice to the Lord so that the plague will stop. It is in the scene of this sacrifice that he he makes one of my favorite statements. He goes to the place where he is supposed to make the sacrifice and offers to buy the threshing floor and all the animals for the sacrifice. The man who owns it tells David that he will give it all to him free of charge. To this David replies, “No...I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” I love the concept of offering to God something of value, something that has a cost associated with it. It makes me think of the words of Jesus when he tells His followers to count the cost before following Him. But we'll get to that.

David gets pretty old and is about to die. His son, Adonijah, decides to set himself up as king. We read yet another flaw of David's parenting because it says that never once did he rebuke his son and ask him why he behaved the way he did. Bathsheba and Nathan inform David of this and he quickly acts to have Solomon crowned king. In this case, there's really no battle or struggle. The people rally around Solomon and Adonijah yields without a fight. He does try to sneak the throne back by asking for a strategic marriage that would have given him the kingdom. Solomon then has him killed. He then goes on to have many of his father's enemies killed.

God appears to Solomon in a dream and offers to give him whatever her asks for. Solomon asks for wisdom, and God grants his request. He also gives him wealth and honor because He was pleased with his request.

Solomon builds the temple for the Lord, and it's pretty impressive. Cedar and gold everywhere. It takes seven years to build. Solomon then builds himself a palace. That takes thirteen years. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Maybe Solomon is starting to get a little enamored with his wealth?

Tomorrow's reading is I Kings 7:38 through 16:20.

Peace.

Day 23: II Samuel 12:15 - II Samuel 22:18

2009-10-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

It's possible that you've noticed that I've missed a day here and there. Since every day is a pretty large chunk of reading, I'm not going to try to catch up. I'm just going to keep going from here, keeping my day count the way it's going. So while I will still read the whole Bible in 90 actual days, it'll take me more than 90 consecutive days to do so.

Today we're still going through David's story. We pick up right after Nathan, the prophet leaves him. We immediately see the consequences of David's sin. His son dies, one of his son's rapes one of his daughters, one of his other sons avenges his sister's honor, that same son then stages a coup, dies in the battle, another guys tries a coup and gets his head chopped off, and David beats down some Philistines. Oh, and we get a preview of Psalms.

Amnon, one of David's sons, is in love with his half-sister, Tamar. He plots a way to get her alone with him and then tries to seduce her. She won't give in and he rapes her. Then he decides that he hates her and casts her out. Her brother Absalom is pissed. David's pissed too, but it doesn't seem like he really does anything about it.

Two years later, Absalom invites all the king's sons over to his place for a party. Once Amnon has a bit of wine and is in high spirits, Absalom gives the command and his servants kill Amnon. David and all his sons weep and mourn the death of Amnon. It's interesting to see the range of emotions of the men in the Bible. They are these warriors who go out and fight these epic battles, but man, they can weep and wail with the best of them. David then longs for Absalom to return. David cares a lot for his children, but it seems he really fails when it comes to disciplining them.

But Absalom then starts to plan a conspiracy. He gets up early and sits at the city gate to resolve conflicts before they can get to David. He usurps his father but the way he judges the people rather than letting them go to David. He pretty much starts kissing babies and campaigning for king. After four years of this, he gets himself crowned King in Hebron. Unfortunately for David, all that campaigning that Absalom was doing worked, and he ended up with the majority of Israel on his side. David had to flee Jerusalem in the middle of the night. Absalom sent men to fight David and his men, but God was on David's side and David won. In the battle, Absalom got caught in a tree by his really long hair (I guess long hair is as bad as a cape). Joab found him and killed him (even though David had told him not to.)

Right after David wins against Absalom, another guy tries a coup, but Joab and the army go to the city where he is hiding and lay siege to it. The city doesn't want to get destroyed so they turn the conspirator over to Joab.

David then goes to war against the Philistines, but he's almost killed when he gets very exhausted during the battle. After that, his army will no longer allow him to go to battle for fear that he will be killed.

The reading for today ends with a song of David's about the Lord saving him. It sounds a lot like some Psalms I've read, and I'm interested to see if it is actually a Psalm that is included in Psalms or if it only appears here.

That's all for today. I'll try to get back on the daily schedule tomorrow. Tomorrow's reading is II Samuel 22:19 through I Kings 7:37.

Peace.

Day 22: I Samuel 28:20 - II Samuel 12:14

2009-10-01T21:17:00.001-05:00

As was prophesied, Saul dies in the battle the next day. He's mortally injured, his armor bearer won't kill him, so he kills himself. When David hears of the death of Saul, he tears his clothes, mourns, weeps, and fasts til evening. A young man brought him the news. He lies and claims that he killed Saul, probably looking for a reward. Boy, was he mistaken. David asks him why he wasn't afraid to lift his hand against the Lord's anointed and then kills him. He then laments Saul and Jonathan's death.

The next several chapters read like a Shakespearean play. Betrayal, murder, deception. David is anointed king over Judah, and Saul's son Ish-Bosheth is crowned king of the rest of Israel. Israel and Judah fight for a while until Ish-Bosheth is murdered. Just like the guy who pretended to kill Saul, David puts to death the men who murdered Ish-Bosheth. Quite a surprise to them since they expected a reward. He still holds pretty closely to his belief that you shouldn't raise your hand against the Lord's anointed. David then becomes king over all Israel. David takes Jerusalem, makes it his capital, and a palace is built for him by the king of Tyre.

After David makes Jerusalem his capital, he decides to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. At first it's great. Everyone is celebrating and dancing. Then Uzzah reaches out, touches the ark, and is struck dead. Two problems here—first, the Ark is not supposed to be transported on a cart, and second, no one is under any circumstances supposed to touch it. David is angry and and afraid so he sends the Ark to Obed-Edom's house. While it's there, the Lord blesses Obed-Edom and his whole house. So David has the Ark brought to Jerusalem as originally planned. He's so excited that he dances before the Lord with all his might. He then gives bread and cake to everyone present, both men and women. Soon thereafter, God promises to David that he will establish his kingdom and his throne forever.

So David's doing pretty good. God's promised to establish his kingdom forever. Every time he goes into battle, he consults the Lord first and finds victory. He keeps his covenant with Jonathan and finds Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son. David restores his family land to him and has him eat at the King's table.

But here's where David starts to mess up. It all starts when David is supposed to go out to war and doesn't. He sends Joab to to do his job. One night, he's wandering on his roof and sees Bathsheba bathing. He inquires about her, and finds out that she's the wife of Uriah the Hittite. With this knowledge, he sends for her anyways. She comes and sleeps with him. Then she goes home and finds out that she's pregnant.

David tries to cover up his sin so he sends for Uriah the Hittite to come and give him a report of the battle. He's hoping that Uriah will go sleep with his wife and will assume the baby is his. However, Uriah does not go home; he sleeps at the entrance to the palace with the kings servants. When David asks him why he didn't go home, Uriah responds that he can't go home, eat, drink, and make love to his wife while the Ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents and his commander Joab and the men are camped out in the open country. David gets him drunk, hoping that he'll go home anyways. He doesn't. So David sends a letter to Joab (and has Uriah take it back to him!!) telling him to send Uriah into the thick of the battle and leave him to be killed. After Bathsheba mourns her husband, David sends for her to come to the palace to become his wife, and she bears him a son.

God then sends Nathan the prophet to confront David. He tells David a story about two men in a town—one rich and one poor. The rich man has a ton of sheep and cattle, and the poor man has one little ewe lamb. He loved this lamb and raised it. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. One day, the rich man has company over so to prepare a meal for his visitor, he takes the poor man's lamb and prepares it for his guest.

David is pissed. He vows to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity.” I can only imagine the shock on David's face when Nathan responds, “You are the man!” That moment when David realizes what he's done. When he finds out that even if he lies to himself and justifies his sin to himself, God knows and will hold him to account.

David confesses his sin and God forgives him. But he still faces the consequences for his sin. His son will die, and Nathan prophesies that sword will never leave his house.

This post is really long so I'll end it here. Tomorrow's reading is II Samuel 12:15 through 22:18.

Peace.

Day 21: I Samuel 16:1 – I Samuel 28:19

2009-09-29T19:51:00.002-05:00

Today we meet David, who is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. It might have something to do with my being named after him, but regardless of that fact, he's pretty cool. Today we read from the point where Samuel anoints David to (eventually) become king to right before he actually does. David does some professional lyre playing, kills Goliath, receives several promotions in the army, and almost gets killed by Saul when he goes crazy. Then Saul tries again, David spares Saul's life, Saul tries to kill David again, David spares Saul's life again, and finally Saul in despair consults a witch to try to hear from Samuel to hear from the Lord and finds out what he already knew.

When Samuel goes to anoint David, we read a classic verse in I Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” It's a verse I've read a lot and heard often, but not one I always take to heart. I sometimes judge people based on their appearance. Here's a good reminder that God doesn't work that way. What really matters is in the heart. So Samuel anoints David with oil, and the Spirit of the Lord comes on him in power.

Saul is really struggling in this passage. An evil spirit sent from the Lord torments him (I'm not quite sure how that works). David is brought in for his great lyre skills, and his music soothes Saul when the evil spirit comes upon him. So Saul knew David before the whole Goliath thing, and he liked him.

David and Goliath. I love David's indignation that no one is challenging Goliath. He can't understand why everyone is allowing him to say what he's saying about Israel and about the Lord. David goes to Saul and tells him he will fight Goliath saying as his argument, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

David goes up to Goliath and gives a speech that, I think, could rival that of many action films (think Braveheart, Return of the King, Independence Day.) David says:

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

I love that David is so confident in the Lord and so willing to give him all the glory for his victory. As you know, David goes on to defeat Goliath, and God establishes him as a mighty warrior.

Because of David's success with Goliath, Saul sends him out on missions, and he earns a high rank in the army when he is successful on every mission. Here's where Saul starts losing it. He becomes angry when the people sing David's praises, and Saul begins to fear David because the Lord is with him but has departed from Saul. Saul becomes even more afraid of David and becomes his enemy.

One night David is playing the lyre for Saul, and Saul tries to kill David by pinning him to the wall with a spear. David gets away and begins his time on the run. He gathers up a group of about 600 men who travel with him and raid Israel's enemies. I thought it was interesting to read that David's men were made up of those who were in distress, in debt, or discontented.

David goes to the town of Nob where the priest gives him food and inquires of the Lord for him. Saul finds out and has all 85 of the priests killed. Then he has the whole town killed—men, women, children, livestock. Saul's completely lost it,. I find it ironic that he would do to a town in Israel what he disobeyed the Lord by refusing to do to the Amalekites.

David has two chances to kill Saul—once in a cave and once when he sneaks into Saul's camp. Each time, he does not. He refuses to lay his hand on the Lord's anointed. He says that the Lord will strike Saul or his time will come and he will die or he will go into battle and perish. He quotes a saying to Saul -- “from evildoers come evil deeds.” I thought that was interesting. David knows that it is God's will for Saul to die and for David to become king, but David is patient to wait and let God do it his way. He doesn't resort to evil to accomplish the will of God. I think that's a lesson the Church throughout history could have learned better from time to time. You can't accomplish God's will through evil means.

This is a really long post so I'll wrap up here. The last thing we read today was Saul hitting rock bottom and seeking out a witch to call up the spirit of Samuel. Samuel actually does show up and tells Saul what he already knew—as God had originally prophesied through Samuel, David will become king, Saul and his army will be defeated by the Philistines, and Saul will die.

Tomorrow's reading is I Samuel 28:20 through II Samuel 12:10

Peace.

Day 20: I Samuel 2:30 – I Samuel 15:35

2009-09-28T21:14:00.001-05:00

Another day with a ton of content. Today covers most of the life of Samuel. We see him grow up as a child under Eli's care. After Eli and his sons die, Samuel takes over the governance of Israel. When he is old and ready to pass it on to his sons, the people reject his sons as request a king. God instructs Samuel to anoint Saul as king. Saul starts off very humble, but slowly he becomes proud and does not follow the Lord's command. After disobeying the Lord's command regarding the Amalekites, the Lord instructs Samuel that Saul's kingdom will be taken away from him. I'll focus my comments on two stories—the story of the Ark of the Covenant being stolen by the Philistines and the story of Saul going from humble, good king to prideful disobedient king.

Shortly before Eli died, the Israelites were fighting the Philistines and losing. They decided that if they brought out the Ark of the Covenant, they'd have a better chance of winning. So Eli's two sons carried the Ark to the battle (you'll recall from yesterday that Eli's sons were pretty evil). Israel gets whooped, Eli's sons die, and the Ark is captured by the Philistines. When Eli hears the news, he falls backwards out of his chair and dies. The Philistines take the Ark of the Covenant and place it in the temple to their god, Dagon. The next day, the Philistines come in to find that the idol of Dagon is laying prostrate on its face bfore the Ark. They put him back, and the next day he's prostrate again with his head and hands broken off. Then the people of the town are afflicted with tumors. Long story short, they pass the ark around from town to town with similar results. Finally they determined that the hand of the God of Israel is heavy upon them and their god so send the Ark back with guilt offerings. Basically they're saying, “So it turns out your God wins and is going to kill us and our god so, um, you can have this back.”

When the ark returns to Israel, the people turn back to the Lord. Samuel tells them that if they are really turning back to the Lord with all their hearts, they must rid themselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit themselves to the Lord and serve Him only. So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths and serve God. Unfortunately Samuel's son's do not follow his ways. They accept bribes and pervert justice. Since the people don't want Samuel's sons to govern them; they demand a king.

Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin (which as you may remember from the end of Judges wasn't the most prestigious tribe). He was good looking and a head taller than everyone else. Samuel meets Saul and tells him that he will be king over Israel. Saul responds with complete humility. The Spirit of the Lord comes on him with power when he meets a procession of prophets and he prophesies with him. When it comes time to crown him king, he hides himself among the supplies. Saul starts off as a really good king. After Saul assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side and won.

But here's where Saul really screwed up. Samuel passes along the Lord's command to Saul: attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare anything, put to death everything that is alive. This is similar to the command that God gave the Israelites when they first came to the land for specific towns and people groups. But Saul takes the king alive and also kept the best of the sheep and cattle. He and his men were unwilling to destroy these completely.

God tells Samuel what Saul has done and that He regrets making Saul king. Samuel is angry and cries out to the Lord all night. The next morning, Samuel goes to Saul, but he's moved on and built a monument in his own honor. When he does meet him, the converstion goes something like this:

Saul: The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions.
Samuel: Oh really? What is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?
Saul: The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God. But we totally destroyed the rest.
Samuel: Enough!! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night, although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king and he sent you on a mission. Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you do evil in the eyes of the Lord?
Saul: But I did obey the Lord. I thought it would be good to save the best for sacrificing to God
Samuel: Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice? To obey is better than sacrifice. Rebellion is as the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.

I remember reading this passage in morning prayer at Church of the Resurrection one morning. The conclusion to this passage was this - partial obedience to God is disobedience.

Tomorrow's reading is I Samuel 16:1 through 28:19.

Peace.

Day 19: Judges 15:13 - I Samuel 2:29

2009-09-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's reading covers a lot of ground. We finish the book of Judges, read the book of Ruth, and start I Samuel. The end of the book of Judges is probably the most disturbing thing I've read thus far, the book of Ruth is a hopeful story in the midst of the time of the judges, and at the beginning of I Samuel Israel is on the verge of a pretty significant paradigm shift.

Sampson is very foolish and tells Delilah how his strength can be lost, she tells the Philistines, and they cut his hair and imprison him. His hair grows back and when they bring him into the temple of Dagon to entertain them. Rather, he prays to the Lord, his strength is restored, and he knocks down the pillars that hold up the temple, thus killing more Philistines in his death than he ever did while he lived.

The final story in Judges is, perhaps, the most disturbing story I've read thus far. A Levite and his concubine are traveling, and they stop in a city for the night. Here's where the story begins to parallel the story of the angels' visit to Lot in Sodom. I'm sure this isn't an accident. My guess is this is to show just how far the Israelites have fallen. They stop in the town square, and an old man says, please don't stay in the square; come stay in my house. Some of the wicked men of the city stop by and say, “Please send that man out so that we can have sex with him.” The owner of the house says “No, please don't be so vile. Here, I'll send out my virgin daughter and his concubine.” Here's where the story strays from the Lot story. The man sends out his concubine. They violently gang rape her all night and let her go at daybreak. She stumbles back to the house and dies. He takes her home, chops her up into 12 pieces and sends her to all the areas of Israel.

All the Israelites come out as one accord. They've never seen such an atrocity. The Benjamites won't turn over the perpetrators. Instead they fight the rest of the Israelites. After a three day battle, the Lord gives them into their hands and they kill everyone from the tribe except for about 600 men. The people assemble at Bethel and weep bitterly. Judges ends with a verse that pretty much summarizes the whole book, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

I think it's interesting that right after this picture of total depravity, we see a story of hope in the story of Ruth. We see in this story that not everyone had completely forsaken the law. Ruth and Naomi return to Israel as widows. Ruth goes out to Boaz's field and gleans behind the harvesters (which shows that Boaz is obeying the part of the Law where widows and foreigners are allowed to do that). Boaz treats Ruth well and instructs the men to not lay a hand on her. The story ends with Boaz fulfilling his duty as her kinsman redeemer. Because her husband died, the law requires that someone else in his family marry her to maintain the name of her deceased husband.

I Samuel begins with the birth of Samuel. His mother was barren and prays desperately for a son. She promises the Lord that if He gives her a son, she will dedicate him to the Lord all his life. Samuel is born, and he goes to live with Eli the priest and his sons. Eli's sons are very evil and have no regard for the Lord. Eli confronts them, but they don't' listen to him. A messenger of the Lord tells Eli that because he is honoring his sons more than God that his sons will die and no one in his family line will minister in the priesthood again.

Samuel will then become Israel's final judge. We'll see today that the Israelites demand a king when Samuel gets too old to govern.

Today's reading is I Samuel 2:30 through 15:35.

Peace.

Day 18 Trivia Answer

2009-09-25T23:25:00.002-05:00

The first king of Israel was Abimelek. Check it out in Judges 9:6, "Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king."

It's possible that he was only a regional king, crowned by a few people, but it says in Judges 9:22 that he governed Israel for three years.

So, it's a fun piece of trivia to stump people with. I'll post today's blog tomorrow morning. I finished the reading, but it's a lot to process into a post, and I've just arrived in Indiana for my nephew's birthday.

Peace.

Day 18: Judges 3:28 – Judges 15:12

2009-09-24T23:02:00.004-05:00

Judges. Not the best of times for the Israelites. We touched on this yesterday, but here's the basic plot of Judges. The Israelites do evil in the eyes of the Lord and serve other gods. God punishes them by handing them over to ________ who enslaves and/or oppresses them. Israelites cry out to God for help. God sends ____ judge to save them. While the judge lives, Israelites live in peace and (most likely) don't serve other gods. Until the judge dies. And repeat. But with each repetition, the Israelites rebel even worse against God and the judges start becoming less and less admirable.

I was initially planning to highlight some of the cooler judges for my post, but I think I'm going to go a different route with this blog after talking to my roommate, Steve. Here are the main judges we read about today: Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, and Sampson. There's quite a few other ones mentioned too. One of the more tragic stories is Jepthah, the judge who makes a rash vow to the Lord that he'll sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house when he returns. It's his daughter, and he can't break a vow to the Lord. So sad.

Deborah rules. In fact, women rule in the book of Judges. First off you have Deborah who leads Israel for many years. She leads the army into battle and holds court to settle disputes among the Israelites. Then you've got Jael who kills Jaban, the king of Canaan who had oppressed the Israelites. You've also got random unnamed women who drops a millstone on the head of Abimelek and strikes what would have been the fatal blow had he not acted quickly to have his armor bearer finish him off so they can't say a woman killed him (quite the sexist, he was).

One of the biggest take aways for me with the story of Gideon is that God likes to use us in our weaknesses so that when He accomplishes something great, there's no way for us to take the credit. He basically chose the weakest, least important guy in Israel to lead the smallest army ever in battle.

Here's the big theological debate of the day that I'd love to hear your opinion on: who is the Angel of the Lord? It seems that most of the people who encounter the Angel of the Lord come away with the understanding that they'd just seen and interacted with God. After his encounter, Gideon says, “Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” Manoah, Sampson's father says, “We are doomed to die! We have seen God!” Also, when Manoah asks the Angel of the Lord his name, he responds, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” So it seems that an encounter with the Angel of the Lord is an encounter with God, Himself. But since God told Moses that no one could see His face and live, does this mean that they encountered a pre-incarnate version of Jesus? What do you think?

Also, did you realize that Gideon, after insisting that he wouldn't become their king because God is their King, makes a golden ephod that all the Israelites proceed to worship? Most of the judges ended up having some serious flaws.

Then we have the Incredible Hulk, er, I mean, Sampson. Sampson is an interesting case study because there's really not much in his character to admire. He's filled with a desire for revenge, and I think he's possibly a sex addict. But he does flip out and kill a lot of the Philistines. When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, he has some ridiculous strength and he helps the Israelites a lot in their struggle against the Philistines.

Here's your Bible quiz of the day...who was the first king of Israel? I'll confirm the answer tomorrow.

Also, today we read about “Shibboleth.” Thank you President Bartlett for teaching me this Bible story.

Tomorrow's reading is Judges 15:13 through I Samuel 2:29.

Peace.

Day 17: Joshua 15:1 - Judges 3:27

2009-09-23T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today's reading wraps up Joshua's time leading the Israelites and moves into the time of the Judges. The first part of today's section went into a lot of detail as to which tribe settled where and who lived in what cities. There was a misunderstanding that almost led to civil war. And Joshua gives his final speech to the Israelites as they renew the covenant at the end of the book. We then move into the time of the Judges where Israel begins a slow (or at times not so slow) spiral downwards toward rebellion.

There's an interesting instance which almost leads to civil war just after the Israelites take the land. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh head back to their side of the Jordan after helping the other tribes conquer their land. After crossing the Jordan River, they build an imposing alter right by the river. The rest of Israel rises up in force to wipe them out but first sends a delegation to find out why they built it. They ask them why they have broken the covenant to serve other gods and warn them that God will hold all of them accountable as He did with Achan's sin. Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh respond that they built the altar with the intention of creating a witness to their children and the other tribes that they worship the same God and that they are a part of the community. The alter is a replica of the one in the Tabernacle and is not meant to be used at all. They are afraid that future generations will see the Jordan River as a boundary and cut off the other tribes so they built this alter as a testimony. And the other tribes don't attack them. Crisis averted.

Joshua gives his final speech to the people at the end of the book. I wrote my Old Testament exegesis paper on the passage and have also preached on it before. It is so awesome. Forgive me if I go on and on. Joshua calls all the people to renew the covenant. Here's Joshua 24:14-16

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The people assure Joshua that they want to serve the Lord. Joshua then gives this slightly shocking response,

"You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."

The people insist that they will serve the Lord, and they renew the covenant with Joshua telling them,

"Now then, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."

While this passage deals with the renewal of the Old Testament covenant, as believers under the New Covenant, I believe there are quite a few takeaways for us here. We too are called to fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. We are to not worship any other gods (e.g. money, self, family, security, etc.) and are to yield our hearts to the Lord. Also, like the Israelites, we can't actually do it. Thank God that He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to serve Him. But more on all this later. We'll hit the New Testament eventually. :)

Joshua dies, and for a time Israel continues to serve the Lord. But, as Joshua predicted, the next generation “knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.” The Israelites begin to do evil in the eyes of the Lord and serve the Baals. The Lord begins to punish them by allowing them to be defeated in battle and to be sold into slavery. The Lord raises up Judges for them and for a time saves them from the hands of their enemies. But whenever a Judge dies, the Israelites return to even more wicked ways. The reading for today introduces us to the first two judges, and I especially want to comment on Ehud. But I'm going to do that with tomorrow's reading since this post is so long already and the last two verses of Ehud's story fall in tomorrow's reading.

Tomorrow's reading is Judges 3:28 through 15:12.

Peace.

Day 16: Joshua 1:1 - Joshua 14:15

2009-09-22T21:34:00.002-05:00

Ah, the book of Joshua. I've always been a fan of this one. Today's reading goes from when Joshua takes over for Moses to the point where they've pretty much conquered everyone there is to conquer in the land. There's the battle of Jericho, Achan's sin, the Israelites get tricked into a treaty, the sun stands still, and an 85 year old man can still go out and fight with the best of them.

God continues to lead the people through Joshua. The speech he gives him in chapter one rules. He tells Joshua that He will give him every place he sets his foot. No one will be able to stand against him. As God was with Moses, so He will be with Joshua. He promises to never leave Joshua nor forsake him. He commands Joshua to be strong and courageous because he will lead the people into the land. That would certainly instill confidence in me. Then in a later battle we see that Joshua and God have a pretty tight relationship when Joshua commands the sun to stand still in the sky. And it does!

When the people march around Jericho and God gives them the city, He commands them to devote the entire city to Him. Basically everything is to be destroyed. There's one guy though, Achan, who decides to kept some of the devoted things for himself—a robe, some silver, and a bar of gold. Even though it was one man who sinned and stole the devoted things, the text says that the Israelites were unfaithful. The Lord's anger burns against Israel so that when they go into the next battle, they get a serious beat down.

After this loss, Joshua falls on his face before the Lord to plead with Him to find out why God has withdrawn His blessing. God replies, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant...they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen; they have lied; they have put them with their own possessions...This is why Israel cannot stand against their enemies.” One man's sin caused the whole people to be punished. Personal sin has corporate consequences. Even if we think sin only affects us, it doesn't. Other people will be hurt by our sin. In Achan's case, many people died because of his sin.

Another great theme throughout Joshua is how God uses the Israelites to deliver His message to the nations. When the spies are staying with Rahab, she tells them that everyone who has heard about what God has done through the Israelites is terrified and are melting in fear because they know that the Lord their God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. God uses Israel to proclaim His glory to the nations.

For those who have sinned against them, He uses Israel to punish them and drive them from the land. For the foreigners among them, He uses them as a blessing (and to chime in on a conversation between Joel and Robin in the comments a few days ago, it turns out there were foreigners living and traveling with the Israelites at the time they were driving out the inhabitants from the land). When Joshua reads the law to the people, the foreigners are included among those to listen to the Law. This isn't quite the exclusivity that I thought I remembered. Part of God's plan for Israel is for them to help the nations see that He is God.

To wrap up today, I'd like to pose a question to my readers. Right before the battle of Jericho, Joshua has a run in with the commander of the army of the Lord. When Joshua sees him, he asks, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” Commander replies, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I come.” Joshua falls face down before him and asks, “What message does my Lord have for His servant?” Commander replies, “Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy.” In the next chapter, the Lord gives Joshua the instructions on how to take Jericho. So since it's clear that God is on the Israelites' side, why does the commander of the army of the Lord say he's on neither side?

In closing, here's a fun fact: the manna from heaven stopped the day after the Israelites first eat food from the land. Tomorrow's reading is Joshua 15:1 through Judges 3:27.

Peace.

Day 15: Deuteronomy 23:12 - Deuteronomy 34:12

2009-09-21T18:52:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of Deuteronomy and the end of the Torah. I must admit, reading through the books of the Law has been a much more interesting experience than I was anticipating. The thought that God set up the Law as a means of grace—a way for the Israelites to know that they were in right standing with God, while all other people groups had no way of knowing if the gods they worshiped were angry or what they required of them—really changes the way you read the books of the Law.

And the vast majority of the laws that I read made sense to me—some from a health standpoint, others from a justice standpoint, still others from a holiness standpoint. Yes, there are still some that seem a little odd to me, but I'm sure God has his reasons for including those, and since I'm not really doing a lot of in depth research for this little 90 day experiment, I guess I'll have to look into those more obscure and strange laws later.

Moses finishes giving his final set of speeches to the people and goes up to the mountain to die in this passage. He continues to emphasize the need for the Israelites to obey the Lord and serve Him. He makes it very clear that if they do, the Lord will bless them in every way. If they don't, the Lord will curse them and drive them into exile in a far away land. The Lord has commanded them to follow these laws with all their heart and soul. Moses essentially tells them that he knows they will ultimately disobey and go into exile. Yet he gives them hope by telling them that even when they have been exiled to all corners of the earth, when the return to the Lord, he will bring them back and bless them again.

Also of note are a few additional laws that show God's sense of justice and kindness to the poor. There is a law that if you make a loan to a poor person, do not go to sleep with their pledge still in your possession. You should return it before sunset because they probably need it. It is a law to pay your workers every day before sunset because they are counting on their wages. It is also a law that you cannot take a cloak of a widow, foreigner, or orphan as a pledge. God reminds them many times that they were slaves in Egypt so they should be kind and generous to those in need. When harvesting in the fields or vineyards they are not to go back a second time to get what they might have missed. That is to be left for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.

Next up is Joshua 1:1 through Joshua 14:15.

Peace.

Day 14: Deuteronomy 8:1 - 23:11

2009-09-17T21:18:00.004-05:00

Deuteronomy is mostly Moses talking. I think most of it is sort of his final impartation to the Israelites. There's a lot of repetition of the themes from yesterday—destroy the inhabitants completely, don't forsake the Lord and serve idols, fear the Lord and serve Him only—as well as re-summarizing several laws with a little clarification here and there. There were also several interesting passages that will make appearances in the New Testament. In today's reading there are also strong themes of justice and holiness.

Jesus was clearly well versed in the Law. As a young Jewish boy, he would certainly have been trained in the Torah, and He often quotes from it. Deuteronomy 8:3 is one of the verses that He quotes when He is tempted by the devil in the wilderness to turn stones into bread. Jesus responds that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

I saw a verse in Deuteronomy that He might have been referring to when he said, “The poor you will always have with you.” I've often heard this verse quoted as a reason we shouldn't work too hard to help end poverty. However, I think he might have been referencing Deuteronomy 15:11 which says, “There will always be poor people in the land.” It goes on to say, “Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward those of your people who are poor and needy in your land.” This verse comes at the conclusion of a passage where God instructs them to not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward the poor. They are instructed to freely lend what is needed and to give generously to the poor without a grudging heart. I'm told that part of the Rabbinic tradition is to reference a verse in the Law and your students (who also know the Torah crazy good) will know the context and understand that you're not just saying that verse but referencing those around it. Maybe that's what Jesus was doing there. What do you think?

Moses reminds the Israelites of God's grace in giving them the land. He tells them that it is not on account of their own righteousness that the Lord is giving them the land but on account of the wickedness of the nations that are being driven out. He reminds them that they are a stiff-necked people, but he charges them to circumcise their hearts and do not be stiff-necked any longer. He reminds them of the greatness of the God they serve saying,

“For the Lord your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners for you yourself were foreigners in Egypt.”

I find it interesting that long before the Israelites demand a king from Samuel, God knew that they would eventually demand a king. Moses tells them in 17:14-20 all the rules for the king that they appoint to make sure that he follows the Lord and does not oppress his people.

I'll end with a verse that struck me as funny. As many of you know, I'm more or less a vegetarian. Not because I think it is prescribed my my faith, but because of some disturbing things I've read about the safety, sustainability, and humaneness (is that a word) of the meat industry. I chuckled then when I read Deuteronomy 12:20. It says,

”When the LORD your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, "I would like some meat," then you may eat as much of it as you want.”

Tomorrow we finish Deuteronomy by reading 23:12 through 34:12. Peace.

Day 13: Numbers 32:20 - Deuteronomy 7:26.

2009-09-16T21:25:00.002-05:00

There were several themes that kept repeating themselves in today's readings. First, the Israelites were to drive out the inhabitants and destroy their idols. Second, they are to fear the Lord, follow His decrees, and it will go well for them. Third, do not worship or bow down to idols. Fourth, if they do not fear the Lord and follow his decrees, He will punish them as He did in the wilderness and they will forfeit the land. We also see a recap of everything that's happened since the Exodus as well as some clarifications and repeating of some of the laws. Also, in today's reading is the Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism and the law identified by Jesus as the most important of all.

It is repeated to the Israelites over and over again that when the Lord brings them into the land, they are to drive out all the inhabitants; destroying them completely and utterly. Every carved image and cast idol is to be destroyed. Their high places and asherah poles are to be demolished. God gives several reasons for this total annihilation. First, the Israelites are a people holy to the Lord their God; if they allow the people to stay, making treaties and intermarrying with them, they will be tempted to and ultimately turn away from the Lord. They will be ensared to serve other gods if they allow themselves to intermingle with the residents of the land.

At first read, I used to think this was a bit harsh. Show no mercy, no pity? Destroy everything and everyone? But reading straight through has helped me to put this together a little bit, I think. The current occupants of the land worship many other gods, some sacrifice their children in the fire to Molech, they do not serve the Lord. Because of their sin, they have offended a holy God. The Israelites are God's instrument of punishment to those in the land. God assures the Israelites that if they begin to worship other gods, He will drive them from the land just as he is driving the current occupants. A theme that I have seen over and over again is that God is a holy God. The sins of humanity are offensive to Him and deserve punishment. That's why the law is such a beautiful thing. It gave people a way to be right with God.

Over and over in this section, they are instructed to fear the Lord and serve Him only. If they do, He will bless them and it will go well for them in the land. If not, he will punish them, and ultimately drive them from the land. They are reminded of their rebellion in the wilderness—that even though the Lord carried them out of Egypt as a father carries his child, they did not trust Him. They are reminded of the way He punished them in the wilderness when the rebelled. But they are also reminded of His great mercy. Moses says to them, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our god is near us whenever we pray to Him?”

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is known as the Shema. It begins, “Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad” which translates to “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” and continues “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” This is the most important prayer in Judaism and is identified by Jesus in the New Testament as the greatest commandment. This and “Love your neighbor as yourself” sum up all the laws and the prophets according to Jesus.

The Israelites are then instructed to impress these things on their hearts. Impress them on their children. Talk about them when they sit at home, when the walk on the road. They are to tie them as symbols on their hands, bind them on their foreheads, write them on the door frames of their houses and on their gates. The law is such a beautiful and important thing, they are to immerse themselves in it. I wonder why Christians don't immerse themselves in the Scriptures as the early Israelites did.

There is one other thing I wanted to comment on but will only mention in passing since this post is really long. The Israelites are given a warning that when God brings them into the land with cities they didn't build, houses with good things they didn't provide, and wells they didn't dig, they are to be careful that they don't forget the Lord. The message I see there is that in prosperity, it is easy to forget the Lord. (also this post is so long and it's late that I didn't get a chance to re-read it before posting it; i apologize for typos, bad grammar, or incomplete thoughts)

Tomorrow is Deuteronomy 8:1 through 23:11. Peace.

Day 12: Numbers 21:8 – 32:19

2009-09-15T20:38:00.000-05:00

Another exciting day in Numbers. Today's reading includes the story of Baalam and his donkey. I've heard the story many times as a kid (who didn't love hearing about the guy who gets told by his donkey?), but this time, I noticed several things I hadn't seen before.

So it all begins when the Israelites send a message to Sihon, king of the Amorites requesting passage through his country. He refuses and sends his army out to attack them. The Israelites beat him down and take all his land.

Next up is Og, king of Bashan. He brings his army out against them. The Lord delivers Og and Bashan into their hands too.

So Balak, king of Moab is getting nervous. He calls for Baalam to come and put a curse on them. He knows that whoever Baalam blesses is blessed and whoever he curses is cursed. Baalam checks with God and God tells him not to go and curse the Israelites because He has blessed them.

Balak comes back with a counter offer. He offers Baalam all sorts of rewards to come curse Israel. Baalam responds that even if Balak gives him all the silver and gold in his palace he could not do anything great or small beyond the command of God. But that night he checks with God again and God says go, but do only what I tell you.

When Baalam goes the next morning, God gets mad and sends his angel to kill him. This is the part we all know The donkey stops 3 times, Baalam beats it, God opens the donkeys mouth, it tells Baalam that is was saving his life, Baalam repents, God forgives him and sends him to Balak with the command to only say what he tells him to say. One interesting thing here is that Baalam is so mad at his donkey, he doesn't even seem surprised when it starts talking to him. Now that's some serious road rage.

But here's the part I hadn't noticed before. God told Baalam to go the night before he went. Why did he get mad and send his angel to kill him? Was it because God knew Baalam's heart and knew that he would try to curse Israel? Was it because God knew what Baalam would ultimately do with some very nasty advice later on? We don't really know. I'm guessing that Baalam was thinking that maybe he could do a curse and make some money. But I don't know.

Baalam goes, tells Balak he can only do what God tells him to do. He ends up blessing them three times because Balak sends him to check with God to see if he can curse them a couple extra times. The answer comes back to Balak that God is not human that He should lie or a human being that he should change his mind (cool verse – Numbers 23:19).

But here's the thing about Baalam we don't' find out until a little later. In the next chapter, we read that the men of Israel engage in sexual immorality with the women of the area. They make sacrifices and bow down to other gods including Baal. God directs Moses, Moses calls the judges and tells them they must put to death those who have yoked themselves to Baal. A plauge strikes and kills a lot of rebellious Israelites. We don't find out until chapter 31 that Baalam is the one who gave them the idea to entice the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord. Interesting.

So I guess the moral of the story is don't rebel against God. It'll probably end badly.

Tomorrow's reading is Numbers 32:20 through Deuteronomy 7:26. Peace.

Day 11: Numbers 8:15 – 21:7

2009-09-14T21:42:00.003-05:00

Sorry it's been a while since I blogged. I had a really busy weekend. But I'm ready to get back to the reading and blogging. The reading for today covers quite a bit of Israelite rebellion and whining, God smites the rebellious ones, Moses intercedes, God relents, and repeat.

The Israelites just don't seem to learn. It seems at every turn, they forget what God has done for them, whine about how great it was in Egypt and how they're going to die because of ______, and then rebel. God punishes them, Moses intercedes, God relents. Sometimes the cycle starts right back up instantly. It's amazing, really. One thing that is clear here is that God does not tolerate rebellion. The fire of the Lord consumes some, the earth opens up and swallows others, God sends poisonous snakes and plagues. But they don't learn.

The big story that we see in this passage is when they finally arrive in the land. The 12 spies go and scope everything out. Unfortunately 11 out of the 12 spies are really lame. Caleb is the only one that says that they should go out and take the land. The other spies talk about how big their cities are and how strong their armies are. The people respond by crying out that they should have stayed in Egypt or even died in the wilderness. They think the Lord has brought them there to let them die! Unbelievable. (of course, I have the benefit of being able to see this from the outside perspective, but still)

Joshua and Caleb are the only ones who think they should go and take the land. Everyone else believes the other 10 spies. God plans to destroy them until Moses intercedes yet again. Reminding the Lord of His great love, he asks Him to forgive the people. God does, but the consequence of their disbelief and rebellion is that they will return to the wilderness for 40 years. And the 10 spies die of a plague.

Now, it's really easy to be hard on the Israelites. They've seen God work wondrous miracles when He freed them from Egypt. He has led them through the wilderness as a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day. But I have to keep in mind all the times that I don't trust God or don't rely upon Him. I've seen God come through in powerful ways, but I still doubt sometimes. Sometimes I place things before Him or rely upon and trust in other things to provide for me, making them idols. And I glorify the past at times, failing to see all the ways God provides and comes through in the present. So really, I guess I'm not too entirely different from the Israelites. Hopefully I can learn from their mistakes better than they did.

Tomorrow is 21:8 through 32:19. Peace.

Day 10: Leviticus 26:27 – Numbers 8:14

2009-09-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

I didn’t finish yesterday’s reading until today so this post is a little late. Leviticus is finished. Whew. Moving into Numbers, there are also a lot of laws and quite a bit of numbers. There were more punishments for disobedience, some more laws, a census (with all the details), directions for moving the Tabernacle, Levite instructions, Nazerite instructions, and the official blessing. Some really interesting things today.

One of the main themes of Leviticus and now Numbers too is obedience to God. God requires total obedience. The reading picks up in Leviticus 26 where God describes blessings for obedience and consequences for disobedience. If they obey, he will walk with them. If they disobey, He will lay waste to the land and exile them.

Anytime the Tabernacle is to be moved, the Levites are the ones who do all the work. God sets them apart and chooses them specifically to serve Him. It’s fascinating how it works. I didn’t mention it before, but there were a couple times since the Exodus where God says that every firstborn son is devoted to Him and belongs to Him. I must confess I was a little confused how that was going to work.

God explains this in Numbers 3:11-13. When He struck down the firstborn in Egypt, He set apart for himself all the firstborn in Israel – human and animal. They belong to Him. But God takes all the Levites in place of the first male offspring of everyone in Israel. They are His to serve Him. Sound familiar? I think this is a fascinating foreshadowing of God sending His own firstborn son to take our place.

Here’s another interesting thing in Numbers. Moving the tabernacle was a crazy amount of work. Each Levite family is assigned a different task as they carefully take down and pack up everything. The Kohathites have one of the more interesting jobs. They take care of the most holy things whenever the Tabernacle moves. But they don’t pack them; they only carry them.

Aaron and his sons go in and take down the shielding curtain, cover the ark, and cover and wrap all the articles used for ministering. Only after they’re all covered can the Kohathites carry them. They can’t touch them directly or they will die. They also cannot enter the sanctuary to go look at the holy things or they will die. I’m not sure why, but I thought that was really interesting.

I’ll close today’s post with the official blessing that God gives them in Numbers 6:23-27. Today’s reading is Numbers 8:15 through 21:7. Peace.

"Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

"The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."

"So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

Day 9: Leviticus 14:33 - Leviticus 26:26

2009-09-08T22:55:00.001-05:00

Well, for day two of Leviticus, we learn about household molds, unnatural (and natural) bodily discharges, festivals, rules for who not to have sex with, year of Jubilee, and blessings for obedience.

Under the Law, there are very specific rules for how and when one is to approach God. Because of their sinfulness and uncleanness, the Israelites were not able to approach God whenever they wanted. Yesterday I read about all the sin offerings that were required. Even with those, the people were not allowed to approach God directly. They had to do so through a mediator. Even Aaron, the high priest couldn't approach God whenever he wanted. God tells Moses that if Aaron enters the Most Holy Place whenever he chooses, he will die.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures of redemption I've read in the law thus far is the Day of Atonement. After sacrificing a bull for his own sins, the high priest takes two goats. One is to sacrifice for the sins of the community. The other is the scapegoat. The high priest lays both hands on the head of the goat and confesses all the wickedness and sins of the Israelites over it, thus putting them onto the goat. It is led into the desert, carrying on itself all their sins and is released it in the wilderness. After the Day of Atonement, they are clean before the Lord from their sins.

I listened to a Rob Bell sermon on this passage (it's called “The Goat Has Left the Building”), and he had some fascinating insights. He draws some beautiful parallels between the Day of Atonement and Christ's death on the cross. Christ became the scapegoat for our sins, carrying them into the wilderness and being crucified to make atonement for us. We are now clean before the Lord from our sins and can approach God directly. The goat has left the building, as it were, taking our sins with it.

In the reading for today, God's call to holiness is once again evident. He tells the people many times to be holy as He is holy. He calls them to live differently from the rest of the world around them. They are not to live as the Egyptians or the Canaanites. In fact, we read that the reason God is driving the Canaanites out the land is because of their sinfulness. God says that if the Israelites adopt their practices and do not keep the decrees of the Lord, the land will vomit them out just as it is doing so to the current residents. I've often wondered about the violent nature of the Israelites taking over the land. I'm not sure I ever put two and two together to realize that God is punishing the current occupants for their sin by giving the land to Israel.

Once again, we see God's passion for justice and the downtrodden evident in the law. The Israelites are not supposed to go through their vineyards a second time or to pick up grapes that have fallen tot he ground. Those are reserved for the poor and the foreigner. They are told to not pervert justice. Neither show partiality to the poor nor favoritism to the great. Judge fairly. Treat foreigners the same as native-born. Love them as yourself. If anyone becomes poor, help them as you would a foreigner or stranger. But then there's this in Leviticus 25:44. They're allowed to purchase slaves from the nations around them. I don't understand how that fits with all these other laws about justice and kindness. Any thoughts on why slavery was acceptable?

Today I read in it's original context the command that Jesus will say is the second greatest command. Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

An interesting series of three laws is in Leviticus 19:19. They are commanded to not mate two kinds of animal, not plant a field with two kinds of seed, and to not wear clothing of two kinds of material. Interesting. On the surface, a little confusing. Those cotton polyester blends are sinful? Perhaps the purpose of these laws is to make the point that some things shouldn't be mixed. Some things are meant to be separate. By making these laws, God is giving them tangible reminders that they are to be set apart, a holy people.

This is getting long so I'll just say this of chapter 25: Sabbath year, fascinating; Year of Jubilee, amazing. Every 50 years all land reverts to its original owners. They are supposed to buy and sell land based on how close it is to the year of Jubilee. Every seven years, they're supposed to let all the land rest. No sowing or reaping that year. God promises to bless them with abundance on the sixth year so they have enough to eat. Pretty awesome system.

Tomorrow is Leviticus 26:27 through Numbers 8:14.

Peace.

Day 8: Leviticus 1:1 – Leviticus 14:38

2009-09-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

And so begins Leviticus. This is one of the harder books of the Bible for me to read because it is so technical concerning the various laws and sacrifices that God lays out for the Israelites. Today's reading consisted of a lot of variations on the sin offerings, we witnessed the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests, and we wrapped it all up with some rules concerning molds.

Midway through reading for today, I remembered that Rob Bell, when he first started Mars Hill Bible church, preached through the whole book of Leviticus for a year and a half. I haven't been able to find any of those sermons yet (but I'm going to be looking), but I did find a youtube clip of him explaining why he started there. He said something that fascinated me and really helped me as I kept reading. He said that up until this time, people had no way of knowing if they were in right relationship with God (or the gods). No religion on earth gave any certainty that you had atoned for your sins. He talked about the Law as a beautiful expression of God's grace. Not only did the Israelites know exactly what God required of them, the knew exactly what to do to atone for their sins and could achieve assurance of right relationship with God. That's pretty awesome, and I never thought of the Law that way.

One thing that kept jumping out at me as I read the various different sacrifices required to atone for various sins is that sin was (and still is today!) very expensive. The sin offerings were always to be of the finest flour or the unblemished animal. It occurs to me that people didn't have an unlimited number of livestock to keep sacrificing as they sinned. Sinful habits could rapidly send someone to poverty. I think that is a value of the system established here. It is much easier for them to see the cost of sin than it is for us.

Speaking of poverty, if someone cannot afford a lamb for their sin offering, they can bring two doves instead. If they can't afford two doves, they can bring fine flour as their sin offering. I think it's telling about our God that He made sure that everyone would have the opportunity to receive forgiveness regardless of social class.

In Leviticus 10, right after Aaron and his son's were consecrated as priests, two of his sons take their censers, add incense, and offer unauthorized fire before the Lord. Fire then comes out of the presence of the Lord and consumes them. Moses explains, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: 'Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.'” God calls the people in Leviticus 11 to be holy as he is holy. Jesus makes the same call to us in Matthew 5:48.

I'll keep this post shorter since yesterday was so long. Tomorrow is Leviticus 14:33 through Leviticus 26:26.

Peace.

Day 6 and 7: Exodus 15:19 – 40:38

2009-09-06T22:07:00.002-05:00

I'm combining yesterday's reading and today's reading into one giant blog post. This section starts with the moment right after the Egyptians are swept into the Red Sea and goes to the end of Exodus when the tabernacle is complete. We witness the first battle, Moses goes up to Mount Sinai, gets 10 commandments, Israelites worship Golden Calf, water comes from stone, and quite a bit more.

One really cool part of this section is we meet Joshua. We don't find out a whole lot about him just yet. We know that he is Moses' aide, his protege, if you will. Joshua leads the Israelites in their first battle. He travels with Moses up Mount Sinai (though he doesn't go the whole way up). It also sounds like he sits with Moses and God when Moses has face to face chats with God in the Tent of Meeting.

The first battle that the Israelites fight is against the Amalekites. Joshua leads the people in fighting them while Moses, Aaron, and Hur go up to the top of a hill where they can see the battle. As long as Moses holds up his hands, the Israelites win. Whenever he lowers his hands, the Amalekites begin to win. So Aaron and Hur take a stone for Moses to sit on and they hold his arms up when he can't hold them up any longer. I love that image.

We see several examples of the Israelites forgetting what God has done for them. It seems that every time they encounter trouble, they wish that they were back in Egypt (which sounds pretty nice now to hear them talk about it) and think that they are going to die. The completely forget all the amazing things that God has done for them to that point and think that this is it. They think they're going to starve and God provides manna from heaven for them to eat. Then they don't have water so they think they're all going to die of thirst. Nevermind that God has provided manna from heaven, helped them defeat the Amalekites, and, oh yeah, wasn't there that thing where they crossed the Red Sea on dry land!! It's amazing how quickly they forget the unbelievable things God has already done for them. Then again, it's amazing how quickly I forget the amazing things God has done for me when I come against a hard circumstance.

Something that I've been thinking about for most of Exodus is the concept of the fear of the Lord. Many times I've heard preachers talk about the fear of the Lord, they say it's more of a respect thing and that it doesn't really entail being afraid. In reading Exodus, I'd have to disagree. When the Israelites saw God come down upon Mount Sinai, I'm pretty sure they were quaking in their boots. Exodus 19:18 describes the scene. Smoke covers the mountain and the Lord descends in a fire. The whole mountain trembles violently. It says that when they look up as Moses is meeting with God, He appears to them as a “consuming fire.” That's terrifying. Moses tells the people that the Fear of God will be with them to keep them from sinning. Sometimes I think we need to remember that we serve a Holy God. I know that God is a God of love and that He is gracious and compassionate. But He's also a consuming fire who can destroy His enemies in an instant.

While Moses is up meeting with God, God gives him the law. We read the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. We then read a lot of other laws. Some of them sound kind of strange reading them in 21st century America. But some of them are really cool. Here are a few of my favorites.

“Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” Exodus 22:22-23
Exodus 23:5 contains a command to help your enemy if his donkey has fallen down under its load and you come across them.
Exodus 23:33 contains the reason the people who currently live in the land cannot share the land with the Israelites. If they do they will cause them to sin against God because the worship of their gods will be a snare to the Israelites.

The whole Golden Calf incident is another example of the Israelites forgetting what God has done for them. But this time, they cross the line. Up on Mount Sinai, God informs Moses of what's going on down in the camp, that the people have created a golden calf and are worshiping it and saying that it brought them out of Egypt. God tells Moses that he plans to destroy them and will start over with Moses. Moses intercedes for the people and God relents. He does punish them with a plague, but He does not destroy them. They were moments away from utter annihilation, but the intercession of Moses saved them. I suppose this goes to show us that prayer is really, really important.

I'm sorry this post is so long. Only two more thoughts. I LOVE the scene of Exodus 33:14-18. God tells Moses that His Presence will go with them. Moses replies that if God's Presence does not go with them, they're not even going to go. It would be pointless to go any further if they do not have God's Presence with them. He then boldly asks, “Now show me your glory.” How different would our churches be if we prayed like that? If we refused to do anything unless God's Presence went with us? If we boldly asked God to reveal His glory among us?

I'll close with a passage from Exodus 34:6-7. When the Lord passes in front of Moses, this is the description of Himself that He declares:

The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

Tomorrow is Leviticus 1:1 through 14:32.

Peace.

Day 6

2009-09-05T23:57:00.001-05:00

Went to the Jazz Festival with friends today and just got home. I did complete the reading for today, but I'm tired and am going to bed. I'll post the blog for today's reading tomorrow (along with the blog for tomorrow's reading).

Peace.

Day 5: Exodus 1:1 through 15:18

2009-09-04T21:14:00.001-05:00

What a day! It was pretty cool to read the whole Exodus story in one day. It really is an amazing story of God's power and redemption. There were a few things I noticed especially as I read it this time—some for the first time, some that it was good to remember.

I love that the midwives engage in civil disobedience against Pharaoh. In Exodus 1:17, the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and refuse to obey him and kill the male babies. May we have the same courage and fear of the Lord as the midwives to go against culture and authority when it comes to serving the Lord and doing what is right.

I noticed in verse 2:12 that even as a young man, Moses had a sense of justice and wanted to act to stop the injustices that were happening to the Israelites. He acted in a way that was not right and would have to wait many years before he became the instrument the Lord uses to free the Israelites.

Once again in 2:23 and 3:7-9 we have that imagery of the injustices committed against the Israelites rising up to the Lord. He sees their misery, hears their cry and is concerned about their suffering.

There's a fascinating passage in 4:21-23 where God foretells what's going to happen with Pharaoh and the plagues. God then basically says, “Israel is my firstborn son. If Pharaoh is going to enslave my son and refuse to let him go, I will kill his.”

There's a debate with this passage that sort of goes with the whole Calvinist/Armenian debate. The question is: did God harden Pharaoh's heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? The text is a little confusing. It says both. And it seems to interchange them pretty freely. As a good Wesleyan/Armenian in my theology, I'm of the mindset that Pharaoh hardened his heart and God foresaw that and allowed it. But there is room for debate there. I'm not going to get into that in this blog entry. Feel free to comment on that in the comment section if you'd like.

Here's a weird story I didn't catch before. In 4:24-26, Moses is on his way, lodging for the night. And God shows up to kill him. What?!? Moses' wife then grabs a knife, circumcises their son, and touches Moses feet with the foreskin. God then relents. I'm guessing that had something to do with the fact that Moses had not circumcised his son as God had commanded. You might remember I read and commented on God's desire that his people be set apart when he commanded Abraham to circumcise his whole family. He takes that pretty seriously it would seem. That's my guess. Any thoughts?

One of the most poignant verses to me this time was 12:30. As the Angel of Death goes through Egypt we read that “there was not a house without someone dead.” This is an example of how systemic sins hurt the whole nation. While everyone in Egypt might not have been the ones saying no to the request for freedom, they all benefited from the slavery of the Israelites. They could see the injustices committed and they, as a nation paid. I think that's a good reminder to us that even if we are not the CEO or President making unjust decisions, when we align ourselves with unjust corporations or powers, we become participants in the injustice. Something to think about.

I know this post is really long, and I apologize. I'm wrapping up. :) In 13:17 we read that God takes them the long way out of Egypt to avoid war. He doesn't' want them to encounter a battle and return to Egypt. This is exactly what they do anyway when Pharaoh's army catches up to them. There's a lesson here. Sometimes freedom is harder and scarier than slavery. But that doesn't mean it's better. And look what happens in 14:12. Moses answers their cries of fear and says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” Then the Red Sea is parted, they walk on dry ground, and God drowns the Egyptian army.

One final thought. In 13:19 they take the bones of Joseph out with them as he requested. When you look at his request though, he says, “God will surely come to your aid.” Did he foresee this problem? By the end of his life, did he see that they were heading in this direction? Perhaps the systems Joseph set up during the famine is what made it so easy to enslave them. Just a thought.

That was long. Tomorrow is 15:19 through 28:43. Peace.

Day 4: Genesis 40:12 through 50:26

2009-09-03T20:49:00.002-05:00

Today, I finished reading Genesis. This section was basically the life of Joseph. The reading starts while he's in jail in his twenties and ends with him dying at the age of 110. He goes from slave to head of Potiphar's house (still a slave) to prisoner to head of the prison (still a prisoner) to second most powerful man in Egypt. He does use his position to help a lot of people, but we actually see that Joseph uses his position to hurt people too.

Joseph, who earlier in his life had dreams that he didn't understand, now begins to interpret others' dreams. He always gives credit to God for the interpretation of these dreams. In fact, he gets the gig by being incredulous that the baker and cup bearer had no one to interpret their dreams. He says, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” Two years after interpreting their dreams, he gets the chance to interpret Pharaoh's dream. Once again, he doesn't claim any ability to interpret the dreams. “I cannot do it,” Joseph tells Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

He ends up second in power to Pharaoh. When given the opportunity to get even with his brothers, he doesn't. Not really. It seems that the things he puts them through are to test if they're at all sorry for what they did to him. And they are.

But here's the thing that bothers me about this story. Reading through it this time I noticed something that Joseph did that doesn't seem quite right. I've always admired Joseph, but when I read through the story this time, I noticed that he was especially good at his job. Too good, perhaps. He sells grain to everyone in Egypt during the famine. One day they come to him and say, “We have no money left. How will we eat?” So Joseph buys all their livestock in exchange for grain. Here's what happens the next time they need food.

“...our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your eyes-—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh...”

So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh's, and Joesph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.

He sets it up so that they still farm their land, but have to give one fifth of the produce to Pharaoh. It bothers me that Joseph disempowers the people like this.

And the story is told matter of fact. Joseph's actions are neither condoned nor condemned. But it seems to me that in other parts of the Bible, someone who abuses their position of authority is condemned. Why does this event go without comment?

Perhaps Joseph thought he was just doing his job, that this is just how things work. But how is that excusable? And how many times do we participate in injustice because it's just part of our job or because it's just the way it is? Does that excuse it? I don't think so. What do you think?

Day 3: Genesis 28:20 - Genesis 40:11

2009-09-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

There is too much to write about today. Wow. Jacob work for his uncle, Laban, for 7 years in order to marry Rachel. He gets a surprise wife out of the deal and works another 7 years. Rachel and Leigh show some sibling rivalry on who can have more sons for Jacob, and Jacob leaves to return home after 20 years away. We see his sons grow up and sell their younger brother, Joseph, into slavery. Joseph ends up in jail in Egypt after refusing to have sex with his master's wife.

A few thoughts and observations:

I'm very intrigued by the passage where Jacob wrestles with God. Especially verse 25, “When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” I'm not sure why God couldn't overpower Jacob. At first I thought maybe it was an angel and not God, but Jacob identifies the man as God in verse 26. Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

While Jacob generally seems to do what God tells him to do, he's very cowardly in the way he does it. God tells him to leave Laban and go home so he sneaks out in the middle of the night. Even though God told him to return home, he is terrified of Esau and splits his group into two and gives a ridiculous amount of gifts to Esau to appease him. Not gonna lie, I'm really not that impressed with Jacob.

It's not that he's all bad. There is a great scene in chapter 35 where his whole camp purges themselves of any foreign gods and purifies themselves. He buries the foreign gods under a tree and they move on without them. Great scene. It provides a good inspiration for us to rid ourselves of whatever idols we have in our lives, bury them, and follow God wholeheartedly.

There's so much more to talk about in this section, but this post is already pretty long. Rachel steals her father's household gods. Because she wants them? Out of spite? Dinah is raped, and her brothers go nuts and kill an entire town. The story is told pretty matter of fact. Jacob's upset with them because it could cause people to come attack them, but it's not really told as if it were a good or bad thing. What do you think? Appropriate response? Joseph is the man.

Tomorrow, we finish up Genesis by reading 40:12 through 50:26.

Peace.

Day 2: Genesis 17:1 - Genesis 28:19

2009-09-01T18:48:00.002-05:00

Another day with a lot of information. We went from God making the covenant with Abrahan all the way through Jacob stealing the blessing of Isaac from his brother and fleeing to his uncle's house.

A few thoughts and observations:

In Genesis 17, God instructs Abraham to circumcise every male among him as a sign of the covenant. God wanted (and still wants today) his people to be set apart. Sometimes it is painful to be set apart (Abraham was 99 years old and there wasn't any local anesthetic back then).

The encounter between Abraham and the Lord in Genesis 18 is fascinating. God just walks up to Abraham's camp. He delivers the message that Sarah will have a son in a year and is about to leave when He decides to tell Abraham his plans for Sodom and Gomorrah. It's interesting the language that the Lord uses here. He says "the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me." In Genesis 4, Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground. And now the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has created an outcry that has reached Him. I think that's such great imagery that when injustice and sin are committed, it creates an outcry that reaches to Heaven.

Abraham has a good sense of who he is in relation to God in 17:27 when he says, "I am nothing but dust and ashes." When we go before the Lord with our requests, I think it's good too keep in mind who He is and who we are.

Moving into chapter 19, we see the scene with Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. It really bothers me that when a huge crowd comes to Lot's door and asks him to send out the two visitors to have sex with them that Lot offers his virgin daughters. I'm not sure if that is just indicative of the hospitality culture and the view of women in that society or if Lot is desperately trying to preserve the angels at any cost. It seems to me that it's an utterly despicable thing to offer your daughters to gang rape for any reason. I hope that his daughters weren't there to hear him say that.

I think that's probably just one example of how Lot compromised himself little by little. Oh sure, he wasn't as bad as the rest of the city, but come on. Offering your own daughters to a sex crazed crowd? Really, Lot?

Another interesting part of the Lot story is that he's not willing to go as far away from Sodom as God wants him to. In verses 18-20, he asks if he can stay closer than he's instructed to. He doesn't want to flee all the way to the mountains. He wants to go to a small town that's nearby. He emphasizes how small it is. He's not willing to leave the comforts of the city altogether as the Lord instructs him. Then Lot's wife looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt.

I suppose the lesson we can learn from this is a) don't compromise your integrity no matter what the cost, b) your integrity isn't based on a comparison with others, it's based on how you measure up to the statutes of a holy God, c) when God tells you to flee somewhere, don't just go halfway, and d) don't look back.

Some random thoughts and points of research for later on: Is there a significance to God showing up with two other angels to make the total 3? What happened with Lot and his daughters in the cave is messed up; I wonder if they did know that he offered them to the crowd. There's so much in the Abraham being instructed to sacrifice his son passage that I wish I could write another post for today talking about that. Why did Esau give up his birthright so easily? And why, when Jacob is the lying manipulator, is Esau the bad guy? Does it not matter that he received the blessing through complete deception?

I don't want these posts to go too long so I'll wrap it up there. Tomorrow is Genesis 28:20 through Genesis 40:11 if anyone wants to read along.

Peace.

Day 1: Genesis 1:1 - Genesis 16:16

2009-08-31T21:35:00.003-05:00

I'm not yet sure what the format for these posts will be. Since I'm reading such large portions of the Bible at a time, it won't be easy to comment on everything I read. However, at times it might be good to focus on a particular passage or two. I think my tentative plan will be to offer some thoughts on the passage as a whole, comment on one or two specific sections, and then wrap up with some things that I should look into further when the 90 days are over. I should also try to include some application to my daily life.

Quite a bit happens in Genesis 1:1 through 16:16. We start with the creation of the whole world and go all the way through to Abram having his first son, Ishmael. I must admit, of all the parts of the Bible, I think this section contains some of the ones I find hardest to believe. It's not that I doubt that they happened per se. It's just the harder parts for me to really grasp that this happened. I'm fine with the creation narrative. I believe that God created everything. Since Genesis 1 and 2 doesn't go into too much detail, I'm fine with him doing it instantaneously or through the process of Evolution. That's not something I worry too much about. The one that I have trouble with is the flood. It seems so unbelievable that a) a flood could cover the entire earth and b) Noah could fit every animal on the ark. But I suppose that's what faith is for. Some of the things in the Bible, we believe because we believe, eh?

One interesting thing to note here is that before the Fall, Adam and Eve were vegetarians. The killing of animals for food was not in God's original plan. I know that we're allowed to eat meat based on Genesis 9:3, but I think it's interesting that this wasn't the original, perfect plan.

Something that is evident in this section is God's value for human life. Cain is punished for killing his brother; Abel's blood cries out to the Lord. I noticed a couple interesting things in this passage. First, God warns Cain in advance. He tells him to be careful because sin is crouching at his door. Second, He punishes Cain, but does not take his life. Why is that? God will tell Noah in Genesis 9:6, "Whoever sheds human blood, by human beings shall their blood be shed." Yet God not only spares Cain's life, he places protection on him for the rest of it. Interesting example of God's grace right away.

Some things that I'd like to research in the future (and if anyone knows anything about these feel free to let me know): who/what are the Nephilim? What does it mean that in Peleg's life the earth was divided? the Tower of Babel, maybe... Who was Melchizedek? Was he a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ?

I think that's all for now. I apologize for the length and stream of consciousness nature of this post. I'll try to spend a little time refining the posts as I move forward. If anyone wants to join me for the journey or part of it, I'll be reading Genesis 17:1 through 28:19.

Peace.

The Bible in 90 Days

2009-08-31T12:25:00.000-05:00

I'm planning to read the Bible in 90 days. I got the idea from Steven Furtick at Elevation Church. He challenged his church to the B90X program to read the Bible together in 90 days, and I think it's probably a good idea.

Everywhere we go, our minds our saturated with the influence of our culture. And even though we don't like to admit it, it affects us. I've noticed several ways recently that my worldview has been slightly tweaked by the messages that inundate us from our culture. Materialism and greed slip their way in. Slowly the norms of society begin to cause slight revisions to my worldview and values. It's hard to focus on Christ when I'm hearing so many voices from every direction that try to pull me away.

I'm looking at this 90 days through the Bible as a sort of cleansing diet for my mind. Lately I have spent way more time immersing myself in culture rather than reading the Bible. That's gonna change starting now. It will require some time to read the Bible in 90 days so that will force me to limit my time spent with TV, movies, etc if I'm going to succeed in the 90 day goal.

The purpose of this blog is three-fold.

I figure that by blogging every day as I read through the Bible it will help me to read for the purpose of learning and applying what I read.

It is a good accountability measure. If I know that my friends (and maybe random other people) will be checking the blog from time to time, it will help motivate me to follow through with the plan.

Hopefully by putting my thoughts out there, one or two people might be encouraged by something that I write. We'll see

That said, here we go. I'll be reading Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 16:16 today, and I'll work on getting the first blog post up before I go to bed.