Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

I tell myself that over and over. I’ve known real school. Real school exists in pockets, eddies, updrafts, sudden currents, all over the place. I’ve met several extraordinary people at the Lilly International Conference on College Teaching who are doing extraordinary things in the service of real school. Doing these things with next to no [...]

I am not sure that the Israelites were any better off at end of Gideon’s time as judge than they were in the beginning.  Technically Gideon did deliver them from the Midianites, but at the end Gideon appears to set them back up for failure.  Gideon begins by questioning and testing God multiple times.  Gideon had some obvious trust issues and then had a lot of guts (or stupidity) to test God.  We see Gideon hesitantly carry out his first command from God by tearing down the altar of Baal at night and then things seem to get be better as Gideon follows God’s commands to defeat the Midianites.  After the Israelites have been delivered Gideon asks everyone to give the earrings they had collected from their enemy and Gideon once again shows his “wisdom” by creating an ephod, aka an idol.  Is worshiping and prostituting themselves for this ephod of Gideon any different from the indiscretion with the Baals?  I’m not sure why the story says that the Israelites relapsed after Gideon’s death and not before.  Possibly the difference is made in that the Israelites did not completely forget about the Lord their God until that point.

This video was posted on our Church blog, and I had to share. I’m pretty sure this is what the ancient Israelites did for fun… http://blog.harriscreek.org/2009/10/08/video-blog-dance/

The Psalms are some of my favorite pieces of literature ever written. I loved to read growing up, but I could never bring myself to sit down and have a ‘quiet time.’  I thought too that the best way to connect with God would be to start reading a book and just keep on reading it until I was done.  By the grace of God, this was partially true, as I began to read the Psalms.  As a sophomore in high school I began to read Psalm 1 one night and its honest and heartfelt words drew me in.  Over the next 150 days I read all 150 Psalms- 1 a night (and yes I stayed up late the night I read Psalm 119).  It was over the course of the next 150 days that I fell in love with reading the Bible.

To this day though there are certain Psalms that I really enjoy.  For example, Psalm 25 has always been one of my favorites.  Psalm 27:13-14 says, “I believe that I will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”  This passage has spoken to me over and over as I have needed encouragement.  There have been many times that I have needed to be patient with God and have needed to take courage in him.

I love the honesty and brokenness that the Psalms convey as well.  Psalm 51 has been one of my favorites to turn to when I know that I have deeply grieved God’s heart and need to repent.  The heartfelt confession and repentance of David have been a great reminder in my life of what that looks life and have many times been the voice of my prayers.  The humility and desperation found in other Psalms has been a theme that I have latched onto many times.

On the other hand, the majestic acts of the Lord prod me to worship Him as I read the Psalms.  God in the Psalms is a God who forgives, a God who gives life, and a God who deserves our praise.  The words of the psalmist have many times been the praises that I have said or sung.  For example.  In Psalm 115 David writes, “not to us O Lord, but to your name be glory.”  The Lord is one who has power over Creation, he saved the people of Israel, and He formed me in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139).  How great is His name and He is worthy of all praise!

The comfort found in Psalms such as Psalm 57 has also been another helpful tool found in the Psalms.  God is seen as a God who cares for his people and his compassionate.  He is a rock, a fortress, a protector, a provider, and a Savior.  I love that He is the one who delivers from the enemy and the one who listens.  The psalmist’s desperation in crying out to God though in a time of need has been my prayer many times as well as I have needed comfort.  The Lord’s steadfast love has been the answer to this question as the psalmist records.

I love the passion the psalmist conveys for the Word of God as well.  He respects and diligently studies who God is and asks the Lord for wisdom and guidance.  This has been a necessary prayer of mine for all of my life. I need to be reminded of who I am and who God is.

At the end of the day I must end how the Psalms end (Psalm 150):

Praise the Lord!  Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!  Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!

1 Chronicles:

• Chapter 1: Genealogy from Adam to Abraham
• Chapter 2: Genealogy from Jacob to David
• Chapter 3: Descendants of David
• Chapter 4: Descendants of Judah and Simeon
• Chapter 5: Descendants of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe Manasseh
• Chapter 6: Descendants of Levi
• Chapter 7: Descendants of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher
• Chapter 8: A genealogy of Saul (who was from Benjamin)
• Chapter 9: A genealogy of the returned exiles and Saul’s genealogy is repeated

Comments: It is overwhelming that the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are comprised of genealogies. This must have taken a lot of work and time to put together.  What was the purpose of these genealogies? The genealogies do chronicle the rich heritage that the people had and shows how the covenant was passed down from generation to generation.  There is a considerable amount of repetition though which makes me think that whoever recorded these texts fell asleep and forgot what they wrote down, or combined some previous texts to form this one.

Chapter 10:

• The Israelites fought the Philistines on mount Gilboa and lost. Jonathan and Saul’s sons along with Saul were killed.
• The people of Jabesh-gilead came and took Saul’s body away (minus the head which the Philistines put in Dagon’s temple)

Chatper 11:

• David is anointed king at Hebron.
• David took the city of Jebus on Mt. Zion and made it his stronghold.
• Joab went up first and so became David’s commander.
• David’s mighty men are recorded.
• Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the 30 mighty men.
• Benaiah was over David’s bodyguard.
  • Uriah the Hittite was one of David’s mighty men.

Chapter 12:

• It seems like a different list of the 30 is given.  What is this about?
• A list of David’s army is given. (It’s huge!)

Chatper 13:

• David consults his officers and the ark is brought from Kiriath-Jearim.
• Uzzah reaches out and steadies the ark when they are carrying it and dies. David had a huge celebration for the ark, but left it at the house of Obed-edom after Uzzah dies.

Chapter 14:

• Hiram king of Tyre send David materials for a palace and David takes many wives and has many children.
• David then went out and defeated the Philistines.

Chapter 15:

• David then built a tent for the ark and had it placed there.
• David had the Levites plan on bringing the ark to Jerusalem.
• David danced before the ark and Michal, the daughter of Saul, despised him.

Chapter 16:

• The ark is placed in the tent and David appoints Levites to officiate over it.
• David then offers a song of praise to the Lord

Chapter 17:

• Nathan comes to David and tells him that he will bless him and make his name great and his descendants will be great.  But, the Lord does not permit him to build the temple.
  • Comments: Here God does not tell David not to build the temple, and he does not give any reasons as to why David should not be the one to build the temple.
  • David then prays to the Lord and tells him how great He is.

Chapter 18:

• David defeated the Philistines, Moabites, and other places. The Lord gave him victory wherever he went.
• David reigned over all Israel with justice and equity.
  • Comments: The writer seems to want to draw the reader back to a perfect time in the land of Israel and he seems a bit nostalgic about what happened.

Chapter 19:

• David tries to comfort the king of the Ammonites whose father died, but the prince disgraces David’s men by cutting off their beards.
• Joab and his brother Abishai defeated the Ammonites and Syrians.

Chapter 20:

• David’s men go and capture Rabbah and kill the Philistine giants.
• One of David’s brothers kills Goliath’s brother.

Chapter 21:

• Satan provokes David to take a census.
  • Comments: It seems interesting that the author says that Satan was the one who tempted David and led to his mistake.
  • Joab is seen as despising the census but David overruled him.
  • God then struck Israel, and David realized he had sinned.
  • Gad, the seer, comes and tells David that God has given him 3 options. David picks the 3 days of punishment from the hand of the Lord.
  • David then offers sacrifices at the threshing floor of Ornan.

Chapter 22:

• David makes plans for the temple and puts Solomon in charge of it.
• David says that the Lord would not permit him to build the temple because he had shed so much blood.
• David charges Solomon and the people to build the ark.

Chapter 23:

• David makes Solomon king over Israel.
• David organizes the Levites and gives them positions.
  • Comments: This seems a lot like Jethro’s advice to Moses to organize the people and give authority to some.

Chapter 24:

• David organizes the priests

Chapter 25:

• David organizes the musicians.

Chapter 26:

• David organizes the gatekeepers and treasurers.

Chapter 27:

• The author lists those in charge of military divisions and lists the leaders of the tribes.

Chapter 28:

• David assembled the people and charges them to build the temple and listen to Solomon who he made king.  He also tells them to obey all the commands the Lord gave them.
  • Comments: This charge seems very similar to the one that Moses and Joshua give the people when they depart.
  • David charges Solomon to seek the Lord and gives him the plan for the temple.

Chapter 29:

• David explains to the people what he has done and then gives all his riches to the temple which is going to be built. The people and David rejoice.
• David thanks the Lord and prays to Him.
• David reigned 40 years then died.
• The accounts of David are written in the Chronicles of Samuel, the Chronicles of Nathan, and the Chronicles of Gad.

As I read through Genesis it is difficult not to be judgemental to a certain degree because of the way some of the characters act immediately following an encounter with God.  I especially look at Jacob and wonder sometimes what he was thinking when he was always trying to find the easy way out of situations.