We all know the story…well all that grew-up in church…of 2 Samuel 11…the infamous story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah the Hittite. This is a story of many lessons.
But one of the most important lessons precedes the story of David and Bathsheba and it is encapsulated in these verses,
And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 700 chariots, and 40,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. 19 And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore.” -2 Samuel 10:18, 19
Just in case you missed the lesson of those verses in connection to the story of David and Bathsheba here it is from what I wrote in the margins of my Bible:
After great victory is when we are most susceptible to have our greatest fall.
I know the English and flow of that sentence is poor…it was a margin writing.
I don’t say this simply from David’s sorrowful tale. I unfortunately have had some of my biggest blunders after or in the midst of some of my greatest “triumphs.”
So here is the lesson then. I’ve learned to be more on guard in those times and I hope you will too. More on our knees, more in the Word, more in accountability to the Christian community Jesus has put around us!
Next Reading: Psalms 54-56
As is the case in the Bible there are things I cannot fully explain in a way that would fully appease the modern day mind. I think there are things in these 4 chapters of Exodus that would be appalling to our 21st Century Western conditioned minds. For instance, I don’t know that any jury would be willing to give a person the death penalty because their animal killed another person…even if they knew there was a potential it could happen. I am sure there are some that feel if a dog kills a child then the owners should die, but again no jury would enforce such a sentiment.
Yet this is what God commands,
“If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.” -Exodus 21:29
Also we read this,
“But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” -Exodus 21:24, 25
But it is contradicted by Jesus here,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” -Matthew 5:38, 39
One seems to teach just punishment is equal revenge and the other that equal retribution is to be avoided.
So did God suddenly become enlightened over the ages? Did Jesus and God the Father not agree on this principle in the first place and now that Jesus is on earth and has the captive attention of the people He’s going to get His two cents in? Was God just having a bad day when Exodus 21 was inspired and feeling much better about things by Matthew 5?
I don’t believe any of the above make sense. One common argument is that it is not about the specific laws but the principles. But then one could ask why would God order someone to be killed in order to teach a principle.
If someone were to say, “Well God wanted people to understand the importance of personal responsibility” say in regards to the law of the careless Ox owner, I would say I don’t think I like a God that is willing to take a life in one century to teach me a principle centuries later.
Could I say this…I don’t understand all of these laws…
But I know the God who saved me and loves me and is coming back for me and until He chooses to give me insight I will wonder, but I will not doubt. I will be confused, but I will not be dismayed. I will be curious but I will not search after other gods, because I know that I am not God, He is, and one day I will see…even if that day is not now, or maybe not ’till eternity.
Next Reading: 2 Samuel 10-14
Two types of guilt or “Sorrow” as it reads in my Bible–
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” -2 Corinthians 7:10
All humanity is convicted over certain things…we often times call it guilt. I don’t like to use the word “guilt” in association with God, but for lack of a better term at this moment that is what we are going with. Guilt is often misunderstood but Paul here states very clearly what is a Godly “guilt” or conviction and what is a “guilt” conviction from the devil or the world.
If we feel “guilt” conviction and it leads us to repent…now remember repentance is not just saying sorry, or feeling bad, or regretting something. Repentance is all those things, but it is also TURNING AWAY from sin, we may have to turn away several times, but it is still turning away from it. But if we feel a “guilt” that leads us to repent then we are experiencing this in the Spirit of God.
If we feel a “guilt” conviction and we may say sorry, or feel bad, or even have regret, but it does not lead us to turn away from that sin or mistake it is not truly a God led conviction. Also though if we feel “guilt” and even after we repent we continue to feel miserable and like we want to die…then that guilt is a false guilt and it is from the devil! Jesus’ conviction will never lead us towards a desire to die. That is the persecution of the devil!
One other thought I had in this reading:
We see in chapter 8 another reason to give to God’s work here on earth monetarily. Not just in our labors or our words, but actual physical gifts. Paul starts off chapter 8 by sharing about a church that gave generously, even beyond their means.
He then ends chapter 8 with this:
“Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.” -2 Corinthians 8:24
Paul is challenging the church in Corinth to show that they are just as loving as this other church….how? Through their monetary gifts. In our modern culture Pastors can get in trouble for saying, “we need to prove our love through our tithes and offerings” and yet it seems like such a position is Biblical…oh and by the way we aren’t proving our love to God in this, this is not a work of legalism, we are doing it as a witness to our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus and thus encouraging them to do the same.
Next Reading: Exodus 21-24
My notations from this reading:
“And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.” -Mark 15:21
I never noticed this before, Simon of Cyrene’s son’s names are mentioned in this text. Why does that matter to me? It tells me that this one encounter with Jesus changed the life of Simon and thus the life of the entire family, so much so that years after Jesus’ death Mark knew not only the name of the man that carried the cross but he knew his family as well, because Simon and his family were part of the disciples family now. The power of an encounter with Jesus, converting hearts even while He is headed to the cross.
Of course He also converted hearts while hanging on the cross,
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” -Mark 15:39
The interesting point about this text is that this centurion, a Roman centurion, is the first in all the book of Mark to acknowledge Jesus as the “Son of God” which then in a way is Mark affirming the heart of this Roman soldier.
Then immediately after that the women that followed Jesus were affirmed,
There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. -Mark 15:40, 41
Mark is just going after all the biases in one fell swoop!
“After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.” -Mark 16:12, 13
Based on the two texts above the disciples should have already been out spreading the good news of Jesus’ resurrection…but they weren’t which is why,
“Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.” -Mark 16:14, 15
This text to me is powerful because there are some of us that at times think we would have greater faith if we could have seen Jesus face to face…it seems Jesus doesn’t see that as a legitimate excuse for not believing. The testimony of another is enough in the Lord’s eyes.
Tomorrow’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 6-8
The blog is back-up and here is last night’s post:
I thoroughly enjoy the flow of Jeremiah and today’s reading was no different. The entire reading is interesting and I would encourage you to delve into it; but what I am going to focus on is one of the most quoted scriptures in all the Bible which also happens to be one of the most misapplied scriptures in all the Bible…
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Or in the NIV
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
How many graduates will receive this “promise” in a card or on the inside cover of a book or in a graduation speech over the next several weeks? And how many will receive this promise in a misused fashion?
Too many read this text and apply this text as if God is our vending machine that is just going to make everything “hunky dory” but what about the graduate from college that reads this card and then for two years can’t find a job with the degree he/she just paid $10,000’s of dollars to receive? What about the couple that gets married and they receive the promise, “I know the plans that I have for you…to give you a future and a hope,” and within two years they are filing for divorce. What about the family that on the day of the dedication of their child they receive a card affirming the promise God has for this little baby, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” And then a few months later the baby is diagnosed with a terrible disease and the family realizes their child of “promise” has almost no future…no more than five years.
It is funny this text is used as a prosperity text but notice the actual context…
In chapter 28 a “prophet” named Hananiah prophesies in the empty temple of Jerusalem, it is empty because Babylon ransacked the city and took the temple pieces and most the people back to Babylon, but this guy gives a prophecy that in just two years all the people and all the belongings will be restored to Jerusalem. Jeremiah actually affirms the prophecy, not that he believes it, but, “yeah I wish God would do that…but He’s not going to…”
Then with the backdrop of a false promise of prosperity from Hananiah Jeremiah sends a letter to the Israelites exiles in Babylon and says this is what is really going to happen, “You’re going to live there a long time. Many of you will die there. Your kids will grow-up, get married and die there. And so you might as well make the best of a bad situation. In fact God states very clearly the best way for these folk to prosper in the midst of bad,
“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” -Jeremiah 29:7
That sounds a lot different than the greeting cards with promises of abundance because of Jeremiah 29:11…
So how does Jeremiah 29:11 then apply?
No matter how bad things get God does not forget and eventually all will be made right. And isn’t that a more accurate promise than prosperity here on this earth?
We are journeying through this world and the promise isn’t in this world we’ll have the greatest experience, that we’ll have no calamity, that we’ll always prosper, that we have a great future here on this earth ahead of us…
The promise is that one day maybe still years from now…maybe long after we’re gone…maybe even long after our children our gone…all things will eventually be made right…sin will be no more, death will be no more, sorrow will be no more, we will not hope against hope, no our hope will ultimately be completely fulfilled, ’till then the best thing for us to do is as we are able pray for the nations we live in and seek to live like Jesus in the midst of those that don’t believe around us and God will ultimately bless them through our prayers, and us through their blessing in some way ’till that day of ultimate blessing.
Oh and one more thing…that ultimate promise comes as a result of relationship with our Lord…
“Then you will callon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” -Jeremiah 29:12-14
Better than a false prosperity promise of Jeremiah 29:11 this year let us give to our young people and our fellow man the promise of an eternal hope that can be ours and theirs as we daily seek the face of Jesus.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Mark 15 & 16
As I have so often reading the book of Job I struggled to find the meaning of the text for myself…or even in the larger context and so I searched for help. I liked what I read in the Asbury Commentary and wanted to share it with you:
Elihu’s fourth speech has two distinct parts. In the first part he moves beyond the penal concerns of the three comforters and emphasizes the remedial implications of suffering (36:1-25). In the second part Elihu focuses on God’s activities in nature, thereby anticipating the speeches of the Lord that follow (36:26-37:24).
Although God is mighty, he does not despise his creatures (36:5). Contrary to what Job claims (21:7), the wicked are not allowed to live (36:6). When the righteous suffer, it is to alert them to their sins (v. 9) and to lead them to repentance (v. 10). Through such suffering God speaks (v. 9). If the righteous learn from their discipline, prosperity and contentment will follow (v. 11). If they do not, doom will overtake them (v. 12). Elihu now applies this principle to Job (vv. 16-21), but this strophe is so problematic that it is not clear whether Elihu is encouraging or warning Job. While there is strong scriptural support for suffering being remedial in nature, the prologue precludes its application to Job. Job’s suffering is neither penal nor remedial. It is a demonstration of his integrity.
Elihu now turns to the greatness of God as revealed in nature (36:26-37:13). This portion begins with an emphasis on the power of God as seen in the storm. God has not only created the forces of nature, he controls them. He sends the rain (vv. 27-28), the thunder (v. 29), and the lightning (v. 30). The destructive qualities of the storm suggest God’s anger and his judgment (vv. 31-32). There is no break in thought here even though the speech extends into the next chapter where there is a shift from an attitude of awe to expectation. The thunder is recognized as the voice of God (vv. 29, 33; cf. Ps 29) and the medium of a theophany. It is in the storm that God frequently reveals himself (Ex 19:18ff.; Ps 18:7-15; Jn 12:29). These verses are a preparation for the theophany Job will experience.
Do you agree w/ this commentary or no?
Tomorrow’s Reading: Jeremiah 27-31