OT 152 Devotional 8: A Humble Task

II Kings 5

 

Courtesy of: http://flickr.com/photos/seaniz/

 

Often times, we are asked to do great projects that will help our organization take the lead at the forefront. These great challenges are what we often love to tackle as we go on with our careers and our lives. But what about the little things? Cleaning the floor? Washing the dishes?

 

Well, as one army commander in the Bible found out, sometimes it’s the humble actions that we take that can get us to where we want or need to be:

 

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Just like Naaman, we should take this lesson to heart. Oftentimes, the humble path is the best path to take. God still blesses those who are humble, and who show this attitude with their actions.

OT 152 Ditty 8

Discuss the relationships of the prophets of Ancient Israel with the throne (government), the temple (religion), and the people (society).

 

            In the Bible, numerous prophets are mentioned, some of the more commonly known being Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Samuel. However, there were actually thousands of prophets during the ancient times. First, to dispel a common belief, prophets were not as is commonly understood, people who looked into the future. Foretelling was only one facet of a prophet’s work. A prophet’s real role is to be a representative of someone else.

            In ancient Israel, a prophet was a direct representative of God. However, each prophet’s role had major implications in the kingdom’s political, religious, and social sectors.

            We can find many examples of when prophets were heavily involved in the politics of the state. These prophets were approached for consultations on what the future holds. Also, it was the anointing from God through the prophets that officialized the installment of a person into the highest position, kingship. For example, it was Samuel who anointed Saul as the first king, and David as the second king. Without an official anointing from a prophet, all claims to kingship were less credible.

            As for the temple, the general pattern was that prophets tended to be more critical of the religious orthodoxy of the temple priests. They were not necessarily enemies, per se, but they tended to oppose many of the temple practices, and expressed their hopes for reformation of the temple.

            As for their societal role, the prophets of God always championed the people. They were very outspoken against the often times pattern of tyrannical oppression done displayed by the kings of the time. Most often, the prophets represented an ideological hope for the people, especially those of the lower unprivileged classes. It was not unusual for a prophet to be supported by the lower classes as well.

 

Sources:

http://www.heraldmag.org/literature/quest_9.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/prophet.htm

http://www.awitness.org/lostmess/poet.html

http://bible.gen.nz/amos/prophets.htm

 

OT 152 Devotional 7:Miracle By Faith

II Kings 4:1-7

 

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What would you do if someone told you that he had a magic purse which contained a few coins. Probably nothing, right? Well what would you do if that someone asked you to get as many containers as you can because he was going to fill all of them with the coins from his magic purse? You might look at him weird and start to walk away.

 

In the Bible we find a similar but true story:

 

 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.” Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

 

Miracles like this don’t happen very often. However, we can learn a great lesson from this woman. At a time of most desperation, we normally cry out to God to help us. And yes, he does help us. But sometimes we doubt the things that he asks us to do in order to help us. Learn from this woman. Have a little faith. It can move mountains, you know…

OT 152 Ditty 7

Choose a king from the North. Summarize his reign and the evaluation of it. What could have he done different in order to have a positive evaluation from God?

 

            Since the division of the united kingdom of Israel, all of the kings of the northern kingdom were all written as having done evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to the prophets who were recording the events. However, there was one exception. Jehu, the son of Jehosaphat, the tenth king of the northern kingdom of Israel, broke the mold.

            In contrast to the other northern kings, Jehu was actually recorded as having been anointed by the prophetic assembly to become king of Israel. After his anointing, he led a blitz rebellion against the current king of the time, Joram son of Ahab. After killing Joram, Jehu went to the capital and had Jezebel, the queen mother, executed. Following that, Jehu gave orders to destroy the entire bloodline of Ahab. Thus, the 70 princes birthed under the house of Ahab were slain. Additionally, all the officials, administrators, false priests, and other chief men who had served under Ahab were executed. Even the closest friends of Ahab and some of his Judean allies were executed by order of Jehu. During his reign, Jehu also abolished Baal worship in the northern kingdom. He destroyed the temple of Baal, and in one moment of deception, gathered all of the priests of Baal and slaughtered them. 

            In the eyes of the Lord, Jehu did well enough. He had done as the Lord had commanded in destroying the line of Ahab. For this, the Lord commended Jehu and promised that his descendants will reign over the throne of Israel up to the fourth generation. However, Jehu committed one major atrocity. He failed to destroy the worship places that Jeroboam had set up in Dan and Bethel. Because of this, his evaluation in the eyes of the Lord was diminished.

OT 152 Devotional 6:No Other God

I Kings 12:25-33

Courtesy of: http://flickr.com/photos/thefuturistics/

 

            In I Kings, king Jeroboam did an abominable thing:

 

 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”  One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.  And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.

  Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.  He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.

 

Jeroboam’s pride led him to pursue idolatry. He had broken the law, “To have no other god.” He even went as far as to set up alternate worship centers in the land. Because of this, he cast a long lineage of sin amongst the northern kings. As a result, his punishment was that his entire line was cut off from kingship.

In modern times, we tend to find alternate replacements for God in our lives. It could be money, power, position, material wealth, or social standing. Although not evil in and of themselves, these things can sometimes replace God in our lives. That’s when it becomes dangerous, and that’s when it becomes sin.

So now we can choose, to go down the path of Jeroboam and stay out of God’s favour, or to have no other God before Him.

OT 152 Ditty 6

Read Dr. Isbell’s article “History and Writing.” According to him, what is the biblical text disclosing? What is the relationship of the Bible with History?

 

            In the article “History and Writing” Dr. Isbell makes an argument that generates a profound yet interesting idea: The Bible is not a history book. At least, according to Isbell, not in the way that modern contemporaries view history. The modern definition of history is based more on a gathering of objective, verifiable facts that answer the interrogative questions of who, what, when, where and why.  However, the Bible does not meet these standards, and thus, is not a historical book.

            According to Isbell, what the Biblical texts disclose is a moral evaluation of the historical events as they occurred to the Jewish nation. The writers of the Bible were writing whether actions taken and events that unfolded were in line with what God’s will. In short, the writers of the Bible were not writing history, but a perspective on historical events and people. Isbell uses the Biblical record of the kings to strengthen his argument. For example, the biblical writers who wrote about the kings of Israel would note only the most significant accomplishments of a king, and then an evaluation of whether they did good or evil in the eyes of the Lord.

            As mentioned, the Biblical writers were keen to mention that their objectives were not to make historical records. This would then mean that the relationship of the Bible to history tends to be on an “as needed” basis. By this, I refer to the pattern that the Bible only uses historical facts when needed, and does not rely heavily upon them. Furthermore, the Bible plays more of the role of a critique of the historical events rather than being detailed records of those events itself.

 

Resources:

Charles David Isbell “History and Writing”

OT 152 Devotional 5: Cover-up

II Samuel 11

 

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            On April 26, 1986, disaster struck. At 1:23 a.m. Reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Over 300,000 people were evacuated. The land became unlivable as the radiation levels rocketed of the charts. The number of dead people still unaccounted for. All over the world, the news of the explosion was known. But the Russian people themselves had no idea of the tragedy that had occurred in their own country. It was a cover-up.

 

            A long time ago, an ancient king went to the roof of his house and saw a young and beautiful woman bathing. Instead of turning away, he looked on, and burned with lust for the woman. He slept with her that night. But that forced him with a problem. The woman was already married. So he sent for the woman’s husband (who was fighting in a war at the time). He asked the husband to sleep with the wife. The husband refused, on the grounds that he could not allow himself a luxury that his fellow soldiers were not privy to. So the king sent him back to the front lines, and ordered that he be put at the head of the battle. The husband died then. All because of a cover-up.

            King David had tried to cover up for his sin of lust, but ended up becoming a murdered instead. How many of us are trying to cover up for something we shouldn’t have done, and find ourselves caught in a vicious cycle of lying and deception?  If we are, then giving it up to God now is the best course of action. Continuing the cycle only escalates the amount of lying and deceiving that we will do just to cover up for our sin. Who knows, it might even lead us to the same extreme that David went to. So break the cycle. Now is a good time to.

OT 152 Ditty 5

Is David the first King of Israel? Why or why not?

            In first Samuel 16, we find that David is anointed as king. Despite being the youngest and most unlikely from amongst his brothers, he was still the one chosen by God to reign on the throne of Israel. However, he was NOT the first king of Israel. This is because at the time of David’s anointing, Saul was already the reigning king. The appointing of Saul can be found in three different points in the Bible:

 

1 Samuel 10:1

            Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the LORD anointed you leader over his inheritance?

 

1 Samuel 10:23-24

            They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

 

I Samuel 11:14-15

Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.” So all the people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.

 

            From these passages, we can see that Saul was affirmed as king by God (through the prophet Samuel), and the people.

            Some may argue that David was the first king, since it was under his reign that Israel was first wholly united. However, this does not discount the fact that although the tribes were not united, Saul had the majority of tribes under his reign. Furthermore, the remaining tribes had no king to contest the kingship of Paul, due to the fact that only a prophet had the right to anoint a king. And at that time, the prophet Samuel had already anointed Saul.

 

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David

http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/david.htm

http://mn.essortment.com/davidisraelkin_rfvy.htm

OT152 DQ4

4. Is the book of Samuel pro-monarchy or anti-monarchy? Why/Why not?

 
During the time of the prophet Samuel, the Israelite nation had reached an all time low in terms of their disobedience to God. Furthermore, they did the ultimate affront to God: they asked for a King to rule over them. Surprisingly, God granted their request, and sent Samuel to find the one chosen to be king. However, we can see from several of its passages that the book of I Samuel is anti-monarchy.

 
First, we take a look at I Samuel Chapter 8. Here we find God using Samuel to warn the Israelites about having a King:

 

“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots… He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers…and you shall be his slaves.  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

 

Next, we find Samuel giving another warning in Chapter 10:18-19:

[Samuel] Said to them “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said, ‘No! but set a king over us.

 

 

Finally, in all of Chapter 12, Samuel gives final warnings about having a King. However, he ends with one final piece of advice that shows the true nature of why he was against having a king. In Chapter 12:24-25, we read:

 

Only fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

 

From this, we can determine that the reason why Samuel was against having a king was because it was showing that the Israelites had lost their trust in God and were turning to men for their answers and their guidance.

 

Sources:

http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/BIBLE/1SA/1SA8.HTM

http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/BIBLE/1SA/1SA10.HTM#17

http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/BIBLE/1SA/1SA12.HTM

OT 152 Dev4:“The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall”

I Samuel 17

Courtesy of:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/13962610@N02/

 A young boy stood in the middle of the field. The wind was blowing past the two combatants. The tension between the two watching armies was so thick it could be cut with a knife. The Bible tells the rest of the story:

 

Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him.  He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.  “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”

  David said to the Philistine, “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 hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, 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.”

  As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.  Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

  So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

  David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

Sometimes when we grow up, we get bogged down by worries and pressures in life. And a lot of times, like the Israelites, we tend to use our eyes to look at the obstacles ahead, completely forgetting the God who has brought us through the whole way. However, we are reminded by David to go back to the type of faith that a child holds. Compared to the other men in the Israelite army, David was just a mere boy. He couldn’t even carry the armour of King Saul when it was offered to him! However, he was unafraid, because he knew that God would carry through. And just like David, we should always remember that when facing our own giants in life, God will be there in the battle with us. He will carry us through.