1 Samuel 29-31
David is hiding out among the Philistines to protect himself again from Saul. The Philistines are about to attack Saul and his troops. But Achish, one of the military leaders, trusts David and his men. However, the commander of the Philistine troop does not. He fearss that David will turn tail and fight against the Philistines instead. David has won the admiration of Achish, but the commander pulls rank. David gets to flex his kingly muscles. He comes upon the town of Ziklag, but it’s been raided by the Amalekites. Even David’s wives have been taken captive. After seeking the Lord’s confirmation, David and his men pursue the Amalekites. They come across a kindly Egyptian whose master is an Amalekite. We’re not told why, but he’s starving after being in the elements for several days. Because of David’s kindness, he promises to take David to where the Amalekites are. David rescues his wives and saves everyone who the Amalekites had taken. It’s clear that David is not a passive man but one who will take action and do the hard thing. He’s motivated by love for his God and his people. The final note of 1 Samuel is of Saul’s death. Saul is struck by an archer, but he is not killed. He tries to convince his armor bearer to kill him with his sword, but the armor bear would not. So, we’re told here that Saul killed himself. It’s a total slaughter, and all of his sons are killed, as well. 2 Samuel 1-12 Because they were initially one book, 2 Samuel picks up where 1 Samuel leaves off. David now hears about Saul’s death. How do we reconcile the narrator of 1 Samuel 31 telling us that Saul killed himself and the a random man telling David in 2 Samuel 1 that he killed Saul. Everything this man says reeks of butt-kissing. He’s not telling the truth, and he’s trying to gain favor with David. This liar looted the crown and armlet from Saul and brought them to David, trying to get in good with him. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t work. David has him executed. Contrast that with David himself. Two times that we know of, David spared Saul’s life and refused to kill him. But this son of an Amalekite killed Saul at the first chance he got (or at least said he did). After David mourns the death of Saul and Jonathan, he is anointed, or coronated, in Judah. But not all is well in the kingdom. The commander of Saul’s army makes one of Saul’s sons who did not fight in his battles the king of Israel (the northern tribes). So after Saul dies, there is a power struggle right away. For seven years, these divisions caused battle after battle. Without recounting these battles individually, suffice it to say that David comes out on top. By chapter 5, David is recognized as the king of Israel, as well. The nation is united again, at least by recognizing who is on the throne. Under king David, Jerusalem will become the capital city of Israel. It will remain the capital of Judah after the kingdom splits into north and south under king Rehoboam. David, though, brings the ark of the covenant from Baale-judah to Jerusalem. On the road, David and the crew moving the ark were celebrating. The oxen carrying the ark stumbled, making the ark fall. A man named Uzzah tried to catch it, but God struck him down. One great teacher has remarked that Uzzah’s mistake was that he thought his hands were cleaner than the dirt on the ground. Touching the ark was a violation of Numbers 4:15. Once there is peace in the land, David decides its time to build a proper temple for God. Keep in mind that God has never commanded the building of a temple for himself. God does not tell David that a temple is a bad thing, but instead God does two things: he promises that David’s son will build the temple, and David will have an eternal throne. God does not need anything from anyone; that’s the point of his speech to David. God is the one who took David out of the pasture and his people from Egypt. In case anyone thinks that God is served by human hands, David will simply enjoy his rest as king. Let another build the temple. David is a military powerhouse in his day. He has victory after victory. But that doesn’t turn him into a heartless killer. For all of Saul’s faults, David does not just say good riddance to his family. One of Saul’s sons, Mephibosheth, is somehow physically disabled. David takes him into the palace and cares for him the rest of his life, keeping his promise to Saul and Jonathan that he would not slaughter their family. David’s primary character flaw seems to be how he deals with the women in his life. Instead of practicing the same self-control he did when he refused to kill Saul, he gives in to his own temptation. David already has multiple wives, but he needs one more. Instead of going out to another sure military victory, he stays behind in his palace. He sees Bathsheba on the roof, and he sleeps with her and impregnates her. Instead of confessing his sin, he concocts a plan to kill her husband, one of his own soldiers. David’s plan to have Uriah killed is successful. But God sees it all. He sends the prophet Nathan to rebuke David. After being confronted with the truth, David confesses. At times, we are blind to our sin because it admitting our faults stings. But a simple but firm confrontation brought about repentance and forgiveness. There were consequences, however. The son would die after he was born. In no way should anyone think that if they have had a child die in infancy that it is the result of some unconfessed sin. This was a specific instance in world history. Once David and Bathsheba heal from that loss, they conceive again. Solomon is the second son born from this marriage. John 7-9 The feast of booths is when the people constructed booths, or tents, on their property. They would live in those tents as a reminder of the time spend in the wilderness. They would also gather together for celebrations and meals. His disciples want him to show off his power to the people. Jesus says that he is not going, but then he does end up going. What’s going on here? It’s a translation issue. John 7:8 has the Greek present tense, which can also be translated as “I am not now going up to the feast.” Many of the oldest copies of this section of John that he have do include “not yet” instead of just “not”. Either way, it’s not a contradiction. When Jesus arrives, he begins to teach in the temple. As was common, there are those who think he’s wonderful and those who think he’s possessed by a demon. The theme of two radically different responses to Jesus runs throughout John’s gospel. Jesus responds to this crowd by a call to judge with right judgment. In context, Jesus is telling the people to return to Scripture; that is how you will judge with right judgment. The crowds are aware that the religious leaders want Jesus dead. Because the leaders are refusing to act, the people are somewhat turning against the leaders. Do they think he’s the Christ? They must, if they’re afraid of him. The leaders are trying to arrest Jesus even this early in his ministry, but they are too worried about what the people might do in response. So Jesus continues to teach in the temple. At the end of the feast of booths, Jesus promises to the people that God will one day send the Spirit among them, showing how Isaiah 58:11 will be fulfilled, which says, “And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” There is the interesting note in some translations that the earliest manuscripts do not have the last verse of chapter 7 or the first 11 verses of chapter 8. A brief history helps us see why that is. There are two primary traditions of the work of those who copied the Bible: Byzantine and Alexandrian (there are more than these, but all the rest add up to small percentages of these two). We have far more copies of the Byzantine text-type, but the Alexandrian text-type is older by about a hundred years. And even when it comes to fragments of books of the Bible that date back even closer to the originals, they are overwhelmingly Alexandrian. The Byzantine text-type was used to create what is called the Textus Receptus, a Greek manuscript of the whole Bible made from combining some of the best copies of the Byzantine text-type. The King James Bible is translated directly from the Textus Receptus, as are some of the revisions of the KJV. The KJV is a solid translation, worthy of the honor it’s been given. Many of the modern-day translations have opted to use the Alexandrian text-type because they are nearer in time to the original manuscripts. These text-types do not include John 7:53-8:11, but the Byzantine text-types do. But most translations these-a-days include this section, even if it’s separated somehow, because it’s so well-known. But in all likelihood, it’s not original. The “I am” statements of Jesus continues. Jesus is “the light of the world.” Here, Jesus clearly ties himself to the work he shares with the Father. Both he and the Father testify to who he is. The Pharisees reject the Father because they reject the Son, and vice versa. The Jews will realize when they crucify the Son of Man that he is truly who he has said he is. In this whole section, the Jews are boasting in their Jewish-ness. But Jesus corrects them and says that if they truly were Jews, those who are Abraham’s offspring, they would see Jesus for who he is: the seed of Abraham. He existed before Abraham ever did, but he is the promised seed of Abraham. Being born to an Israelite does not make you a Jew inwardly. They are not God’s children; they are children of the devil. Why is this? Because Jesus will be killed by the Jews, and the devil is himself a murderer. Essentially, we are like our parents. Many Jews had a particular understanding of suffering as a consequence of sin. It’s not totally unfounded, because they themselves had experienced exile and captivity because of their own faithlessness. But nowhere in Scripture is there an argument to be made that anyone would be born blind, or suffer any physical or mental disability, because of the sins of his or her parents. Jesus heals such a man, and the Jews have a difficult time understanding exactly what took place. The Pharisees believe Jesus is a wretched sinner, but the man who has been healed believes Jesus to be a prophet. But the Jews (meaning religious leaders like the Pharisees) had a hold on the people. When the man’s parents are questioned, they ride the fence like professionals. The Pharisees need to justify eventually arresting Jesus, so they try to fill the man’s mouth with their words. They mock this man, claiming that he has nothing that he could teach them. Jesus uses this situation to teach about spiritual sight. He again approaches this now-healed man and asks if he believes in the Son of Man (apparently if he believes that the Son of Man is truly mentioned in the book of Daniel and is still yet to come). When he replies in the affirmative, Jesus declares clearly that he is the Son of Man, which causes the man to worship Jesus. Because the Pharisees claim to have spiritual sight yet reject Jesus, they are guilty of condemning the Son of Man to death. Only through spiritual eyes, only through the heart of stone turned heart of flesh, do we see Jesus for who he truly is. Psalm 101-105 Psalm 101: God preserves those who live with integrity before him. Psalm 102: The great and mighty God hears the prayers of his people. Psalm 103: God’s love for those who love lasts forever. Psalm 104: God providentially controls every part of creation. Psalm 105: God’s people must teach the next generation of his goodness.
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1 Samuel 16-28
Saul knows that his time as king is short because of his disobedience. God sends Samuel out to anoint Saul’s replacement. As a priest, he would offer sacrifices regularly, so having a sacrifice as his cover to avoid Saul’s reaction is legitimate. He is sent to a man named Jesse, knowing that one of his sons will be anointed. Eliab is the oldest son, but he will not be king. God sees beneath the exterior, unlike man. Seven sons pass by Samuel, and God rejects them all. He has chosen the youngest, David. The Holy Spirit did in fact reside in Old Testament Israelites. There is debate whether the Spirit indwelled all believers as he does in the church. Psalm 51:11 asks God to not take his Holy Spirit away from him. Granted, the author is David, but it is put on the lips of every Israelite during his day. And yet, there is an Old Testament promise that the Spirit would fall in a special way upon all believers. I think it is sufficient to say that the Spirit is always the agent of redemption, even if the indwelling nature was different under different covenants. All that to say, the Spirit is removed from Saul, which is something that does not happen under the new covenant. In fact, an evil spirit fills him at various times. But David’s worship of God soothes Saul’s condition. Goliath is not a metaphor for the standard-fare troubles of this world, or trials and temptations. The Philistines were in Israel because of Israel’s sin. God did not send David to teach the Israelites how to defeat their own little Goliaths. He sent David to do what the Israelites could not do for themselves—saves themselves from the judgment of God. After David defeats Goliath, he becomes friends with Saul’s son, Jonathan. There have been attempts to make their relationship out to be homosexual in nature, which is complete garbage. Perhaps we need more friendships in this world like David and Jonathan. There should have been great jealousy on Jonathan’s part, because he’ll never be king. But it’s Saul who becomes jealous of David. Saul decides to keep his enemies close and tries to marry one of his daughters off to David. Instead, David marries another of Saul’s daughters, Michal. Saul hopes David’s interests will be divided and the Philistines will overtake him. The only dowry Saul required was, well, the circumcision of 100 Philistines. David went above and beyond and brought 200…trophies…from the Philistines to Saul. David’s willingness to do great things and the love he had from the people made Saul furious. He only saw David as his enemy. Up until now, Saul had tried to have David’s death look like a consequence of battle. David will try the same tactic to do away with Uriah later in life. But now, knowing that David will always succeed in battle, Saul knows he must be more direct in taking down David. To protect her husband, Michal pulled the ol’ “make a pillow statue of the person and pull the blanket over them and use a tape recorder to make snoring sounds” tactic to trick the messengers that Saul sends to kill David. It gave David time enough to escape. David land in Naioth for a short time. Eventually he finds his way back to Gibeah and meets Jonathan. Jonathan will find out exactly what Saul intends to do and will get a secret message to David. The plan includes shooting three arrows, something quite normal, much like Samuel and his sacrificing a heifer to go meet Jesse. If the arrows land beyond the servant who will pick up the arrows for Jonathan, David will know that he must flee. Saul intends to harm him again. Jonathan and David part ways. David is now a fugitive until he becomes the king of Israel. He comes across Ahimelech the priest and asks for food. He lies to Ahimelech and says he’s on official business of the king, and his comrades are on their way. So Ahimelech gives David the show bread, which was reserved for the priests. But in an act of mercy, he gives David the bread. In Mark 2, Jesus commends Ahimelech for giving David the bread. David even tricks Ahimelech into giving him a sword for self-protection through deceit. David heads off to Adullam and builds himself an army of misfits (his brothers, the anxious, the indebted, and the bitter). Saul catches wind of where David has been, so he heads out to find him. Saul is so enraged that he can’t find David that he has Doeg, his compatriot, kill 85 priests. Ahimelech’s son, Abiathar, is the lone survivor. David promises to protect him. Saul continues to pursue David, and David proves himself to be a man of higher character than Saul. After fighting some Philistines in battle, Saul finds a cave in order to relieve himself. Lo and behold, David and his men are also hiding out in that cave. This is the perfect chance for David to end Saul’s outrageous behavior. David’s men even think it’s a good idea. However, David still understands that Saul is the man God has appointed a king. To remove him from the throne before God’s time would be a sin against God, not just Saul. David cuts off a corner of Saul’s robe to show how close he was but also how trustworthy he is. When Saul leaves the cave, David gets his attention. David shows Saul the piece of the robe he has cut off and proved how he had spared Saul’s life. Knowing that this interaction could have gone either way, David is a courageous man. It seems to have its intended effect; Saul recognizes his sinful behavior and repents. He promises not to seeks David’s life anymore, because David is more righteous than him. Saul’s promise is about as good as a bottomless watering can. In a passing note, we’re told that Samuel has died. David’s men are currently living in the wilderness with and offering protection for the shepherd/servants of a man named Nabal. David sends a small group to Nabal to mention how they have been a big help to his shepherds and how Nabal should feed them. Not losing any sheep is a really big deal in the wilderness when wild animals are all around. Nabal refuses, which even infuriates his own servants. The servants complain to Nabal’s wife, Abigail, so she sends them food, anyway. This serves to feed David’s men and to assuage David’s anger against Nabal. Ten days later, Nabal dies because of his guilt. David takes Abigail as his wife. David did in fact have multiple wives. Scripture makes no excuse for his sin. Saul’s promise to no longer pursue David does not last long. Much like when David cut off a corner of Saul’s robe to prove his unwillingness to harm Saul, David now takes Saul’s spear while he sleeps. Once Saul realizes that it was David who has spared him, he again promises to spare David. David knows better, so he flies to the Philistines so Saul stops looking for him. Since the Philistines are providing cover for David, they expect him to fight with them against Israel. David of course does not expect to actually fight against his own people, but he will see to that later. Saul fears a great military loss, so he wants spiritual guidance. The urim and thummim were the appointed means by which God made know his will. He seeks the Lord, but he receives no answer. He has long since removed all of the mediums from Israel, for which he should be commended. But in this instance, he thinks he needs to contact one of them to get the answer he needs. What do we make of Saul going to a medium and seemingly hearing from a dead prophet, Samuel? The woman does in fact see Samuel, and once she sees him, she is told who Saul is. The words of the supposed-Samuel do in fact come true. There’s no note from the narrator that this isn’t actually Samuel but a demon instead. It could very well be that God permitted this to happen in order to condemn Saul. God hardened the heart of Pharoah. He gave Judas over to Satan. God does at times act in extraordinary ways. Of course, it would not be impossible to say that this was in fact a demon since it was necromancy to begin with. And, it could be that the demon was planting the seeds of failure in Saul’s mind. And Saul never seems to see Samuel, just hear from him. But context must determine what’s going on. John 4-6 Jesus himself had a baptism ministry. John 4:2 tells us that Jesus is having his disciples do the baptism while he oversees. John the Baptist is also in the wilderness near Jesus. When John’s disciples start to get jealous about Jesus’s disciples baptizing people, which must surely take away some of John’s glory (thereby taking away their glory, as well). John is content to do the work set before him. He even aligns himself with the return of Elijah as the other gospels do. What’s interesting here is that John is completely aware that he is fulfilling this role. John is happy to the friend of the bridegroom and to let the bridegroom have his day. Jesus avoids unnecessary confrontation by leaving town once the Pharisees catch wind of his disciple roster increasing. Jesus is never one to turn and run from a fight, but he’s also not going to fight unnecessary battles. He knows the Pharisees are largely out to trip him up and sully his reputation. If you have to get in the mud, don’t get in the fight. He leaves for Galilee, stops for a break in Samaria, and finds a women getting water at a well. He asks her for a drink, which breaks a long history of hostility between Jews and Samaritans. If the woman knew that it was the Messiah who asked for water, she would have asked him for water that leads to enteral life (he was humble, but Jesus knew how to introduce himself). Earthly water satisfies for a short time, but spiritual water satisfies for eternity. The Samaritans had built their own temple in the area so they would not have to go to Jerusalem. They even had their own revised Books of Moses, permitting them to do so. However, that temple had been destroyed a little over 100 years before this time. This makes sense of why Jesus tells the woman that there will come a time when people don’t worship on this mountain nor the mountain in Jerusalem. Between Jesus saying that there will be no temple worship one day and him saying that he will be the rebuilt temple in John 2, I see no good reason to believe there will be a rebuilt physical-structure temple in the future. True worship is worship in spirit and truth. God is omnipresent, so a temple is unnecessary unless he commands it. And by this time in the gospel of John, Jesus has said multiple times that he is that temple. When the disciples return with food, the catch him in 4K having a conversation with a Samaritan woman. But because of her willingness to hear and believe, many come to believe through her testimony about him. Sharing your testimony is good, but if your testimony is more about yourself than the one who saved you, reconsider how you tell it. Jesus often used the current situation to teach about himself and his work. While they are eating, he says that his real food is to do what the Father has sent him to do. But there is much to be done. Jesus has inaugurated the age to come, and in the meantime, people are being brought into the kingdom. There are those who are sowing and those who are reaping, and they are rejoicing together. We benefit from the work of the prophets and all those who prepared for the way of the Lord. And now that the Lord has come, we rejoice with them. As they arrive in Galilee, he meets an official with an ill son. It’s unclear if the official is a Jew or Gentile, a religious official or a Roman official. The point remains the same. However, I lean toward the official being Jewish since Jesus says he asks for a sign, which is a common problem for the Jews. The argument for the official being a Roman is that Jesus has already spoken with Nicodemus, a Jewish official (Pharisee and teacher). Then he met with a Samaritan woman, and if the official is a Roman, then it seems Jesus’s impact is growing. Regardless, healing the official’s son is called his second sign. The Sabbath is always a bone of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders. The feast mentioned in chapter 5 is unclear, but many feasts take place between chapters 5 and 10. At the pool of Bethesda, a man has been sick for 38 years, among many other sick and paralyzed people. In an unusual event, Jesus approaches the sick man and asks if he wants to be healed. Usually, the sick person approaches Jesus. The man gives excuses for why he can’t get in to the pool, but Jesus just tells him to get up because he has already been healed. The stealthy reader might have noticed that your Bible may or may not have had a verse 4 in chapter 5. The Bibles that include John 5:4 say that an angel swirled the waters of the pool of Bethesda, which healed anyone in there at that time. That note does not show up until later manuscripts. The earliest copies of the gospel of John do not include it. Most likely, this means that a scribe made a note in the margins or within the text itself. When these things happened, the note was clearly a note and not meant to be intended as equally inspired. However, over time, this note was included as part of a tradition in some Bibles. Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, attracting the ire of many religious leaders. He even has the nerve to call God his own Father, which the religious leaders clearly understood to mean he was identifying himself as God (5:18). Jesus does not correct the Jews because they’re correct! He simply goes on to explain that the Father and the Son work in tandem. The end result of their work will be the resurrection. Many sources have prepared the Jews for Jesus, including John the Baptist and Moses. If they believed what Moses and John had said, they would see that Jesus is truly God. Some time later, Jesus is teaching a crowd around the time of the Passover. Here Jesus will feed the 5000; it’s just a matter of how. Jesus takes five loaves and two fish, gives thanks to God, and he gave the people all they could stand to eat. In gathering the leftover, they had 12 full baskets. This was the sign that convinced many that Jesus was the prophet promised by Moses. That night, as they went toward Capernaum in a boat, a storm starts. They’re in the middle of the lake and horrified. Jesus, as lord of creation, walks out to them on the water to calm them down. Jesus isn’t said to calm the storm, but he does ensure they land at their destination. As the Jew (religious leaders) approach Jesus about a sign that he is not speaking blasphemy, he again goes into a lesson on his relationship to the Father. Since Moses gave the Israelites bread in the wilderness, if Jesus is a prophet, surely he can do something just as miraculous. He tells them that the bread of eternal life not rye, pumpernickel, or multi-grain wheat, but a man. In fact, he is the bread of life. He has come from heaven to do his Father’s will. Christology is so important to understanding the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit do not do the same things, but they all do their part in effecting redemption. What distinguishes the persons of the Trinity is not where they come from or who they answer to but what they do. When Jesus says that he comes not to do his own will, he is saying that he does not have a will of his own but that he shares a will with the Father, and by extension, the Spirit. Even in Jesus’s own day, when he said that the bread he has come to give is his flesh confused many. This whole time, the metaphor of bread carries through. What do you do with bread? You eat it! So when Jesus says that you must eat his flesh and drink his blood, he is carrying the metaphor through. To eat and drink is to receive into yourself and be satisfied. “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has enteral life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (6:54) is the language of being satisfied by what Christ has done. We will not be put to shame if we believe in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins in anticipation of the resurrection. Psalm 96-100 Psalm 96: God is king over every inch of creation. Psalm 97: God’s reign lead to rejoicing from his people. Psalm 98: The noise of creation is praise to God’s glory. Psalm 99: God is holier than we can imagine. Psalm 100: Be thankful for God’s goodness. 1 Samuel 1-15
The Books of Samuel comes to us as anonymous, but there is a long, unbroken tradition of Samuel as the author. 1 Chronicles 29 mentions that Samuel left behind many writings, so at least, we can say that Samuel likely had a hand in the writing of these books (which were originally one book). Despite how much input Samuel had in the composition of these books, he is he primary character until his death in 1 Samuel 25. The book itself is a seismic shift in Israel’s history. First, you have the exodus and the entry into the promised land. Once most of the people are settled and Moses and Joshua are dead, the era of the judges commences. That is a few hundred years of mostly wickedness and idolatry. Samuel will begin the era of the kings by the coronations of Saul and David. The book opens with Samuel’s birth. His mother, Hannah, was barren. Her husband, Elkanah, took another wife, Peninah, in order to have children. During the yearly journey to the tabernacle to make sacrifices, she is heavily grieved and begins praying. The priest Eli finds her by herself, sobbing and quietly mouthing her prayers. He thinks she’s drunk, so he wants her to leave. She assures him that she’s simply heartbroken at her condition, and he blesses her. Miraculously, Hannah conceives. She promises that her son would be given to the Lord for all his kindness to her. This likely means that she will dedicate him as a Nazirite (such as was the case with Samson). She is so ecstatic about this blessing to her that she writes her own song, which is included in 1 Samuel 2. We will soon find out that God blessed her with five more children (1 Samuel 2:21). The story shifts focus to Eli and his children. Both of his children are priests, but they are wicked and see the priesthood as means of gain. Instead of following the generous prescriptions of the Mosaic law that took good care of the priests, Eli’s sons were stealing and making demands upon the worshipers to have their meat prepared a certain way. They did not serve as mediator between God and Israel; they saw the priesthood a way to serve themselves. God chooses to remove Eli’s family from the priesthood. Eli has failed to correct his sons. By no means is every case of a child’s disobedience the fault of the parent. But in this case we see that Eli did nothing to correct his sons. He knew what they were doing was evil, but he did not stop them. So Eli’s family is fired. We will even see later that Samuel’s sons do not follow in his ways. They, too, will “[take] bribes and [pervert] justice” (8:3). But God will raise up Samuel as a priest. Much like how the common refrain from book of Judges of “there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes,” we’re told here that “the word of the LORD was rare in those days” (3:1). Samuel will be the next prophet and priest of Israel. This likely is a note to explain why Samuel did not know that the voice he heard was God’s. In the word he receives from God, he is told that Eli’s household will be removed from the priesthood, and no sacrifice will be given for their atonement. God charges them with blasphemy. From this point on, Samuel will regularly hear from the Lord. When the Philistines attack Israel, Israel is defeated, the ark is captured, and Eli’s sons are killed. As the special presence of God among the people, having the ark captured is a serious problem for Israel. “The glory has departed from Israel” (4:21). Capturing gods or their corresponding idols was a common ancient practice, representing the greater power of your god. Dagon is well known to be a god from ancient Mesopotamia. But the done, true God will not permit such blasphemy. God gives the Philistines tumors all over their bodies, which makes them want to return the ark. When they ask the priests what they need to do to return the ark, they must fashion either five or ten, depending on the best way to translate the phrase, five golden tumors and five golden mice, as a guilt offering. Because no obvious connections are given between the mice and tumors, it might be as simple as the tumors were shaped like mice. But the meaning of the number is more clear: one tumor for each city of the Philistines (6:17-18). The priests also tell the Philistines to build a cart, attach it to some cows that have never been yoked (trained to plow a field), and put the ark on it. If the cows bring the ark to the people, they will know that God was not behind the ark’s seizure (meaning that they were also not at fault). If the cows take the ark another direction, they will know that God is angry with them. The cows do take the ark back to Israel, so the people know that God was behind it. After this break in the story, Samuel returns to focus. As judge, he calls the people back to faithfulness after what took place with the Philistines. He makes an offering on behalf of the people, and the people beg Samuel to keep praying for them. As they are worshiping, Philistia attacks Israel. However, God intervenes and sends them into confusion. This gives the Israelite men time to prepare and attack. The Philistines are defeated. Even as Samuel proves to be a good and faithful judge, the people are not satisfied. Because of Samuel’s age, the people want a king instead of a short-term judge. But God affirms that the people are actually rejecting him, not Samuel. Samuel warns the people the dangers of a monarchy. A king will make demands of his people in a way a judge would not. That means taxes, slaves, and a standing army. Regardless, the people maintain that they want a king. God tells Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king” (8:22). Saul is then introduced, who will of course be the first king of Israel. God has already told Samuel that on the following day, he will send Saul to Samuel to anoint as the first king of Israel. None the wiser, Saul is caring for his father’s donkeys, and one gets loose. As he and a servant are out looking for the donkey, the servant recommends going to a nearby town to ask the local prophet where the donkey might be. As providence would have it, Samuel is that prophet. Samuel entertains Saul and his servant. They lodge with Samuel for the night and leave the next day. Samuel tells Saul’s servant to go on ahead so he can have a private conversation with Saul. Samuel anoints Saul with oil, telling him all that God has already revealed. God will confirm his word to Saul with a sign: on his way home, two strangers will tell him that the donkey has been found and his father is worried about him. Three other men will offer him food for the journey. He will then meet some prophets and begin to prophesy himself. Then, most especially, the Holy Spirit will rush on him. Saul had a good start. We’re even told that “God gave him another heart” (10:9). Samuel convenes the people to announce Saul as the king they had demanded. Samuel reminds the people of how they are rejecting God by demanding a king; and yet, this does not change a thing. He reminds the people of the demands a king will place on them. Saul is spooked; he’s hiding during his own coronation. But once the people find him, they’re glad to see that such a tall, handsome man is called to be their king. Saul’s first duty will be to defeat the Ammonites. Again, the Holy Spirit rushes on Saul, and he is encouraged to stand up to the task before him. To muster an army, he chops some oxen into pieces, sends them to the various tribes, and says that the same will be done to anyone’s oxen who does not fight him with. His mission is successful, and the surviving Ammonites scatter. This victory inspires the people, and they gather at Gilgal to re-establish Saul’s kingship. Samuel’s role will change since there is now a king. Since there’s no real break in the text, it seems like Samuel addresses the people at the same time they are at Gilgal for Saul. He basically calls the people to continued faithfulness, but he has little that’s good to say about them. But regardless of how they obey, “The LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake” (12:22). 13:1 is a difficult text because of how it describes the timing of Saul’s reign. However, in the ancient Near East, it was common to speak of the early part of a king’s reign as if it was a separate part of the reign (for more on this, see Genesis Unbound by John Sailhammer). Regardless, it has little effect on anything. We do see, though, that Saul has grown up. Jonathan was his son, so since being called a young man in chapter 9, he’s apparently taken a wife and had at least a son. Saul musters another army and fights against the Philistines again. This time, they are completely outnumbered. In fear, many of the Israelites hide. Some even flee in fear. Saul asks Samuel to come and offering a burnt offering to ask for help from the Lord. But Saul gets impatient, and he performs the sacrifice himself. The role of king did not include any priestly duties, so Saul has sinned grievously. Instead of waiting on the Lord, Saul grows more impetuous. Like father, like son. Jonathan gets his armor bearer to go with him to the Philistine garrison without his father’s knowledge of what he was doing. Jonathan somehow knows that there will be a sign from the Philistines about whether or not he will be successful. If the Philistines see Jonathan and tell him to come down to them, he will know that God will make him successful. This is exactly what happens, and he kills about 20 men. That incident caused a panic, presumably because the Philistines expected more Israelites to show up. Saul’s watchmen notice the panic and tell Saul about it. The chaos just increases, so Saul has the priest get the ark to go into battle. By this time, he recognizes that Jonathan is up to something since he and his armor bearer are the only ones gone. The battle is a victory for Israel. The army is exhausted, but food is scarce on the battlefield. Saul has everyone take a vow that no one will eat until everyone can eat. Since Jonathan is not with the army, he has no idea the army-wide vow. He eats some wild honey, breaking the vow. When Saul asks for priestly confirmation about the next military victory, he does not get an answer. He takes it as a evil among the camp; it could be found in his soldiers or in himself and Jonathan. He assumes that someone is guilty of a great sin, and that is why God is not responding. They cast lots to find the offensive party, and the lot falls to Jonathan. Jonathan confesses that he had wild honey while he was ignorant of his father’s rash vow. Because it was a rash vow and would end in an innocent man’s death, he is relieved of his vow. Contrast this incident with Jepthah in Jduges 11. The next kingly mission from the Lord given to Saul is to attack the Amalekites. No one is to be spared, man or animal. However, Saul and his army did not kill the king, and they kept the best of the animus for themselves. The only things they destroyed were worthless things. We’re then told that God “regretted” making Saul king. Does God change his mind? God does not think his choice of Saul was a mistake, but he does retreat Saul’s sinfulness. There is a charted course in God’s mind that even an unlimited number of evil kings cannot overturn. God sends Samuel to tell Saul that he has rejected Saul as king. After all the ways that Saul has spurned his covenant role as king, disobeying the command to destroy the Amalekites was the final straw. Luke 24 Luke describes the resurrection as taking place “on the first day of the week at early dawn”. Some debate (not very well) that Jesus was actually crucified on Wednesday, not Friday, but all the gospels clearly say that Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday. “They” is clearly the women from 23:55-56. At first, Luke says that the women met two men at the tomb, but he will later clarify in v.23 that they were angels. It’s not that the women misunderstood who they were and the apostles got it right, because angels/messengers often appeared as real people. The gospels do not so much record different numbers of angels as much as they do record what took place in particular ways. For example, Mark is not saying that only one angel was there, but he is simply recording the words of one angel. Taken as a composite, the four gospels do not contradict themselves. One interesting piece that Luke includes is that most of the apostles did not believe the women’s report. However, Peter believes, so he goes to the tomb. Going to the tomb is not an act of disbelief. His belief is contrasted with the disbelief of the other apostles. His going to the tomb is contrasted with two other disciples going to Emmaus. Interestingly, Peter will not see Jesus at the tomb, but the two disciples will meet Jesus on the road. The two disciples finally understand that the their Scriptures prophesied all that took place to Jesus. However, they have been dissuaded from belief by his death. Famously, Jesus, who they do not yet recognize as the risen Lord, explained all of it again from Moses straight through the whole Scriptures. As they are having dinner with this man, their eyes are opened, and they recognize him. He vanishes, and they begin to connect all of the dots. They inform the other apostles that Jesus has risen indeed. Once he is with all of his disciples, he again explains who he is and what he has done through Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, which is another way of saying the entire Old Testament. Christ himself had to open their minds for them to understand. He promises the Holy Spirit and describes him as “power from on high.” He is then taken up into heaven. As Luke began with Zechariah and Elizabeth in the temple, the apostles are now proclaiming the Christ in the temple. John 1-3 It has long been understood that the gospel of John is a entirely different way of assembling the life and ministry of Jesus. Matthew begins with a genealogy, Mark begins with John the Baptist, and Luke begins with a priest in the temple. However, John begins with a philosophical treatise about who Jesus is. Moving on to John the Baptist, the apostle John describes the kind of hostility the religious leaders had toward the Baptizer. While not explicitly describing Jesus’s baptism, we are told that the Baptizer saw the Spirit fall on the Son. This all moves along at a quick pace. “The next day” repeats itself a few times. One of John’s favorite titles for Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus begins calling the main twelve disciples. Andrew must have been one of the Baptizer’s disciples, but he leaves John to follow Jesus. Andrew brings Peter to see Jesus, who is also called to follow him. Then comes Philip and Nathaniel. Nathaniel famously asks if anything good can come from Nazareth, Jesus’s hometown. Nazareth wasn’t a bad place, but it was such a small town that it seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things. John describes seven “signs” or miracles that Jesus performs. Hint, the resurrection will be the eighth, being raised on the eighth day, signifying a new creation week. The first sign (2:11) was the turning of water in to wine in Cana. In order to understand much of the gospel of John, we need to understand many little words like these. The signs point somewhere, and John is showing how these miracles point to Jesus as the beginning of the new creation. Another such word is “hour”. When Jesus tells his mother that his hour had not yet come, he’s not going to wantonly identify himself as the Coming One, the Messiah. He must first correct many misconceptions about what the Messiah will do and who he is. Even by seemingly not answering his mother’s question directly, he is turning the tide in Messianic expectation among the people. Jesus did many other signs (2:23, 3:2), but John chooses seven to call out as a way of pointing out who Jesus is and what he did. There is debate on whether Jesus cleansed the temple once or twice. Either interpretation does not change anything of any significance. The difficulty is that John places Jesus’s cleansing of the temple as one of the first things he does and does not record a second one. However, the synoptic gospels (those that share most of the same timeline and details) also only record one cleansing and place it at the end of the life of Jesus. Two possibilities emerge: there were two cleansing of the temple, and each gospel only records one. Or, John is arranging the life of Jesus topically without focusing on a timeline. Both are possible, because 2:13 does not having the language of “the next day”, “immediately”, etc. Nicodemus is interested in what Jesus is saying. Jesus explains that only those who are born a second time can enter the kingdom of God. This stumps Nicodemus, because the imagery is seemingly particular to Jesus. As a Pharisee, though, Nicodemus should be able to grasp this idea. The background to being born of water and Spirit is likely Ezekiel 36, one of the two most important passages about the new covenant (the other being Jeremiah 31). In Ezekiel, God says that he will cleanse his people with clean water and give them a new spirit. John 3:9-15 are incredibly important Christology. When Jesus descended from heaven, he did not leave fellowship with the Father. The Trinity is completely unbroken throughout the time of the incarnation and the Son’s earthly ministry. The Old Testament prefigures Christ in many ways, clearly in the raising up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. In the same way the people looked up the serpent, those who look to Christ will be saved. Because of Greek grammar, it’s hard to tell if John 3:16-21 are the words of Jesus or are John’s explanation of what just took place between Jesus and Nicodemus. It does not change the meaning one bit, because regardless of the source of inspiration, it is wholly inspired and binding on the Christian. Psalms 91-95 Psalm 91: God guards those who make himself their fortress (quoted by Satan in Matthew 4). Psalm 92: The righteous will be guarded by God. Psalm 93: God is the creator and sustainer. Psalm 94: God remembers every one of his people. Psalm 95: God is worthy of praise because of his patience. Judges 14-21
Samson’s childhood is completely passed over. He is born at the end of chapter 13, and at the beginning chapter 14, he is looking for a wife. Samson, though he will be used mightily by God, is a lot like the people around him. He is self-centered and cares little for the things of God. He sees a beautiful Philistine woman, and instead of thinking at all about laws against intermarriage and purity, he insists on marrying her. Instead of marrying a woman who is right in God’s eyes, he finds someone who is “right [in his own] eyes”. And yet, the sovereign Lord used it for the good of his people, since the Philistines ruled over the Israelites at this time. It was “from the LORD.” Samson is a Nazirite, meaning he is barred from coming in contact with dead animals or humans. However, on his journey to his new wife, he becomes hungry and eats wild honey out of the carcass of a lion. Having a laissez fare attitude toward his vow will be a common theme throughout his life. The other Philistines do not want one of their women to marry Samson, either, so they try to intimidate him. He poses a riddle to them to show how much smarter he is than them. When they can’t figure it out, they ask Samson’s wife to find out and tell them. She cries and cries until he tells her, and of course, she tells the other men. But because they “plowed with [his] heifer,” he has to give them what he promised. Essentially, he’s so mad that he takes his ball and goes home, leaving his wife behind. She ends up marrying his best man in Samson’s absence. Solomon’s character will be one marked by an inability to control his tongue around the wrong kind of women. In a kind of act of treachery, some of his fellow Judahites cave to the pressures of the Philistines living in the land. The Philistines want Samuel gone, so some 3000 Jews convince Samson to let them bind him with new ropes and deliver him over to the Philistines. When he arrives to Lehi to meet the Philistines, he rips off the ropes, grabbed the jawbone of a donkey (which was another infraction of his Nazirite vow), and killed 1000 Philistines. To strike them “hip and thigh” likely means to be the stronger of the two parties and to completely take them down. Keep in mind that Samson’s strength comes from keeping the Nazirite vow. Though he has broken the prohibition against touching anything dead, he still refuses to drink alcohol or cut his hair…so far. Enter Delilah. A beautiful woman has blinded Samson to the dangers around him. And again, she is a Philistine, which the Philistines use against Samson. The root of Samson’s strength remains a mystery to the Philistines. But if they can get to Delilah, they can get to Samson. The whole time, every instance of deception, the Lord was with Samson. His strength did not leave him. Samsons toys with the Philistines, even offering the idea of using the same ropes as the Jews had tried using. He almost gave up the answer when he told her weave his hair into seven webs. But when another component of his Nazirite vow was broken, his hair being cut, his strength was gone. Delilah uses her feminine wares to entice Samson to spill the beans. Once his hair was cut and his strength was gone, the Philistines bound him and grouped out his eyes. He was a prisoner now, working in the mill. When the Philistines gather to make a sacrifice to the local deity, they want Samson to be the night’s entertainment. During his time in prison, his hair began to grow, in fulfillment of his vow. As his strength is returning, he prays to God that he might do in his death what he did not do in his life: save Israel. Or at least, he wants to punish the Philistines. He has one of the men help him find a pillar, he reaches out to touch another one, and in his great strength he pushes the pillars down, collapsing the structure. He may have killed thousands of Philistines during his life, but he killed more at the worship of a false god in his death. All in all, he served as a judge for twenty years. Chapter 17 begins a new section of the book. The whole idea of the final chapters is just how wretched Israel has become. Basically, all imaginable religious corruption was going on, exemplified in a man named Micah. He tempts a priest to essentially be his chaplain, performing all his normal priestly duties for him and his household. By way of reminder, the Levites did not have tribal lands of their own, as every other tribe did. They had special cities inside those tribal lands so that priests would be around the people to teach them. However, Bethlehem, where Micah lives, is not one of those Levitical cities. It’s unclear as to why the priest is even there. Even at this point, not every tribe had taken possession of their tribal land set out by Moses. One of those tribes is Dan. As a group of Danites are getting a sense of their allotment, they run across Micah and the Levite living with him. But instead of correcting the Levite, they ask him for a word from God about their success. Once that small group returns with their report, 600 Danites go up to take the land. They also come back across Micah and the Levite. This time, you think they’re going to rid Micah’s house of the idolatry going on inside. However, now these 600 men want the Levite to be their priest. We’re then told that after they conquer the people, they set up Micah’s idols and worship them “until the day of the captivity of the land” (18:30). A whole tribe of Israelites would be idolaters until God finally removes them from the land. But don’t worry, things still get worse. Not only was there a priest willing to practice idolatry for one whole tribe, but there was another Levite wondering around with a concubine. He marries her, they get into a little spat, and she leaves him to go stay with her father for a time. The Levite finally goes to his father-in-law’s to get her. After staying for about a week, the Levite and his wife return home. Dusk is drawing nigh, and they settle for the night in the town square of Gibeah because no one will house them for the night. One kindly old man welcomes them into his house. What follows is almost a shot-for-shot remake of Lot in Sodom. The men of the town want to have sex with the priest, and the old man who owns the house offers his virgin daughter and the priest’s concubine. The men take the concubine and do wicked things to her. She tries to get back in the house, but the priest and the old man don’t let her in. After all that’s been done to her, she dies at the old man’s front door. The priest takes her body back home, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends the various pieces to the tribes of Israel. This sparks a civil war among the tribes, all against Benjamin (where Gibeah, the site of rape and murder, is located). After a few failed attempts, the men of the tribe of Benjamin are nearly wiped out. This kind of thing had only been commanded against people like the Canaanites. It’s unclear if God commanded the annihilation, but it happened nevertheless. However, annihilation was the same fate promised for Sodom and Gomorrah for similar practices. The Israelites are somewhat regretful that one whole tribe might cease to exist. Their solution is to bring women from Jabesh-gilead to be wives for the remaining Benjaminites. No one from Jabesh-gilead came to fight against Benjamin, so that is there punishment. Throughout the last sections of Judges, you find this phrase or some version of it over and over again: “There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” You read this from the time of Samson forward. Whenever the people, whether ancient or modern, reject the word of the Lord, we will necessarily do what is right in our own eyes. The people do in fact need a king. God was supposed to fill that role, but the people reject him time and time again. There will come a king who will lead his people into all righteousness, but there be a succession of wicked kings before him. Ruth 1-4 (the entire book) Ruth is set during the same period of the book of Judges. That whole time period of a series of difficult circumstances for the people, all because of their unfaithfulness. But whenever they seek God’s wisdom and trust in his providence, they take the land and are successful in all they do. Some Jewish traditions say that Samuel wrote the book of Ruth. That’s possible, but it’s equally unlikely since the author talks about David becoming king, which took place after Samuel died. However, Samuel did anoint David to be a future king, so it’s also possible that Samuel is simply speaking prophetically. Either way, the book comes to us as anonymous. The book tries to show how Israel is one nation, but there are divisions already stewing. The books seems to be an attempt at unification. A woman has two sons who marry Moabite women. After Naomi’s husband and two sons die, one of the Moabites leaves, and the other, Ruth, stays. Ruth refuses to leave her helpless mother-in-law. It’s a great act of kindness, and they have a better chance at survival together than apart. When Ruth is introduced to Boaz, he has no obligation to her since she is a Moabite and because there is another man ahead of him who has rights to her dead father-in-law’s property. But in his kindness, she pursues the legal avenues to help both Ruth and Naomi. He will keep the land in the family, and he will give his brother’s family children (even though they actually come through Ruth, not Naomi). In contrast to the book of Judges, Ruth ends on a positive, hopeful note. Instead of, “There was no king in Israel,” Ruth ends by giving us the genealogy of the first rightful king of Israel. God made promises to Abraham about that ensured there would be kings in his offspring. Ruth is the first real sense that that promise is about to come true. Luke 21-23 Chapter 21 is another retelling of the Olivet discourse, or the teaching concerning the end of the age and Christ’s return. All of the same components are there: foretelling of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, wars and rumors of wars, the coming of the Son of Man, and a call to be spiritually alert. To read more about this, see the posts on Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13. The plot to kill Jesus thickens. The Passover is close, and the religious leaders know that this is their chance. They have to move quickly and quietly, because the crowds still like Jesus as a teacher. Judas prepares his betrayal. Luke notes that “Satan entered into Judas” (22:3). Judas had a pattern of disbelief. He resented Jesus’ behavior toward money. He disagreed with Jesus’ methods. So, much in the same way that Pharaoh hardened his own heart before God hardened his heart, Judas has hardened his own heart long before Satan entered his heart. During the final Passover, there are a couple of differences between Matthew and Mark, both of which are explained by the author’s intent. Luke has arranged much of his gospel by topic instead of on a thorough timeline. The final Passover meal is no different. Some have said that there are two cups of wine in this telling of the Lord’s Supper (a true Passover Seder had several cups of wine, each with its own significance). At a close reading, however, all Jesus does is have the disciples divide the wine before having them drink it after the bread. He does not tell them to drink it before giving them the bread. The order of the Passover is the same as Matthew and Mark. The Passover symbolizes the exodus from Egypt, which included a sacrificial lamb whose blood was spread on the doorposts and lintel with a branch of hyssop. By Jesus saying “This is by body” and “This cup…is the new covenant in my blood”, he is looking back at the sacrificial lamb and saying that he is the fulfillment of those sacrifices. And when he tells us to do it to remember him, there is no sense in which the bread and the wine change into anything else. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial meal. Of course, Christ is spiritually present, which he promises at the Great Commission in Matthew 28. After their meal, the disciples argue about who will be the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus confronts this misguided idea head on. If you want to be great, run as fast as you can to the nearest place you can serve. Don’t trust anyone who demands titles, exceptions, and recognition. That’s the way the Gentiles run their lives; God’s people are to stand out and in contrast to the world. Jesus then tells Peter that although Satan wanted Peter in the same way he wanted Judas, Jesus prayed for him. And the Son of God’s prayers never fail to be heard by the Father. With such a glorious truth, Peter responds that he will never fail Jesus, either. It’s a lovely sentiment, but our faith is frail. Jesus will not lose us, but if it were possible, we would lose him. Before morning, Peter will do exactly that three different times. As they leave the meal and go to the Mount of Olives, Jesus prays. Luke records that an angel came to Jesus and strengthened him. The cup that Jesus mentions is an Old Testament image of God’s wrath. That cup is filled with God’s righteous anger at our unrighteousness and rebellion. But instead of that cup eventually being poured out on us, Jesus is going to have that cup poured out on himself, instead. Jesus warns the disciples about the temptations coming their way. They will be tempted to reject Jesus as the crowds turn against him. Instead of sleeping, they should be in ardent prayer. In prayer, God gives us strength to overcome trials and temptations. We make our faces like stone, ready to approach anything that comes out way. We all know the temptations we will face; therefore, we should prepare ourselves in prayer beforehand. We do not wait to buy a spare tire when we are broken down on the side of the road. We make sure our spare tire is inflated and in the trunk. Judas brings his mob with him to arrest Jesus. Jesus says the first words, calling out the betrayal. Jesus has never done any violence to anyone, but here he is being approached and arrested as if he’s a murderer. Jesus’s word comes true, and Peter runs and denies knowing him. As he is being tried, the crowds mock Jesus. Luke makes it clear that while Jesus will be charged with blasphemy, the blasphemy is coming from the crowd. The Sanhedrin convenes a couple of time to charge Jesus with blasphemy. That’s a charge worthy of death to the Jews, but Rome has not permitted anyone to carry out a capital punishment except Roman officials. Pilate is their only hope in killing Jesus. Since Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate doesn’t want bothered with him and sends him to Herod, who has Galilee in his jurisdiction. As a joke, Herod dresses Jesus up as a king and sends him back to Herod. Pilate is fed up, and he finally decides to have Jesus get roughed up a little and released. The only outcome good enough for the people is Jesus’ death. They demand Pilate release another man, Barabbas. Jesus must be crucified, or there will be an even bigger mob. Pilate is still accountable to Rome, and he can’t have a revolution on his hands. In fear, Pilate permits the Roman soldiers to crucify Jesus. Luke even remarks how the crowd was perfectly content to release someone justly imprisoned for murder and insurrection but couldn’t stand the sight of Jesus living another day. He is led to the site of his crucifixion. There are some women, presumably disciples, who are mourning his death. He tells them that they haven’t seen anything yet. If Rome will kill a sinless man, what will they do to you? He is then crucified with two other men, both criminals. One mocks Jesus as most others have so far. However, only because of divine providence, the second criminal asks Jesus to remember him, recognizing his kingship. And of course, Jesus turns away none who come to him in faith. Jesus will remember this man. From noon to 3:00pm, the sky went dark. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. There were two curtains in the temple, but the most likely candidate was the temple blocking access to the Holy of Holies. After the curtain was torn, Jesus yelled, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”, quoting Psalm 31:5. While Luke only records a couple of the sayings of Jesus while on the cross, when combing all of the other gospels, we find that Jesus quoted many Psalms during his crucifixion. At his death, the people realize what they have done. Regret and repentance are two different things. Only the centurion praised God. The crowd considered his death a “spectacle”, and they regretted what they had done. Regret does not repentance make. Joseph of Arimathea was noted to be a good, wealthy man who did not vote to send Jesus to Pilate. He asked Pilate if he could bury Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. His tomb was freshly cut. This fulfills Isaiah 53:9, which says that the suffering servant would be buried with or by a rich man. When the women found out where the tomb was, they went home and prepared the burial spices. They would now have to wait until the end of the Sabbath to do their final act of adoration. Or so they think. Psalms 86-90 Psalm 86: There is no one like our gracious, merciful God. Psalm 87: One day, every nation will recognize your greatness, God. Psalm 88: People may reject me, but the Lord never leaves me. Psalm 89: Creation will sing of your greatness forever. Psalm 90: God has always been our help in ages past. Judges 2-13
Israel has entered the time of the judges, the time between Joshua and Samuel. Judges will be a combination of civil and military leaders. Judges came and went, depending on the needs of the people. The judges usually were a response to apostasy, or turning from the covenant and worshiping false gods. When the people repent, God sends a rescuer. The first judge is Othniel in Judges 3. He’s called the younger brother of Caleb, a contemporary of Joshua. That means that the turn to apostasy did not take more a generation. Othniel rescued the people under God’s rule, and there comes a common refrain: “And the land had rest for forty years.” That phrase will come up a few times, showing that the problem is that of the human heart. If one generation does not teach the next, the next generation will not naturally follow the Lord. When the people turn from the Lord, the next judge is Ehud. He has an interesting story about stabbing quite the rotund king named Eglan in the gut. Some judges, such as Shamgar, basically get an honorable mention. But the sheer number of judges shows us how little the people of Israel care about keeping the covenant. However, the fourth judge, Deborah, gets quite the amount of space dedicated to her time as a judge. Israel has been under the rule of King Jabin of Canaan for thirty years when God raises up Deborah. Jabin’s army general, Sisera, is more important to the story than Jabin. God speaks through Deborah to a man named Barak, and he is told to muster 10,000 soldiers to fight Sisera. Barak says that he will only go if Deborah goes with him. For this reason, some have argued that God raised up Deborah, the only female judge, as a response to the effeminacy and weak will of the Israelite men. There might be some truth to that, but it should be held with charity since the text does not explain why God chose most of the individual judges. The fact is that we’re not told why God chose Deborah, so even if we imagine some biblical reasons, we should not make more of it than it is. There is no mention of anyone being offended that the current judge was a woman, and Barak would only go if she went with him. Before we start to make connections between the time of apostasy in Israel and the church, we must clearly place each body in its appropriate place in redemptive history. As Sisera is fleeing the battlefield, he arrives at the home (tent) of a man named Heber. Heber’s wife, Jael, is at home when Sisera arrives. She invites him in, and she lets him take a nap. He wants her to guard the door, but instead, as this doofus is sawing logs, she pins his head to the ground with a tent peg and a hammer. Jael is another instance of a strong woman taking action and being rewarded for it. Barak’s army is successful. All of chapter 5 is a song sung by Deborah and Barak about the goodness of God in successfully expelling the Canaanites from the land. Again, forty years later (5:31), the people apostatize again. For seven years, the people are ruled by Midian. Gideon’s story begins somewhat like Barak’s. He’s a nervous leader. An angel appears to Gideon, essentially commissioning him as a judge. Gideon is fearful of taking up the charge because he sees himself as a weakling, though the angel has already called him a man of valor. Gideon is told to take his father’s idols, turn them into an altar, and sacrifice two bulls. He is to show the people the only proper way to sacrifice. Gideon asks twice for evidence that his charge is from God. It simply is not clear why God answered Gideon’s testing. The angel of the Lord had already told Gideon what his job was. What is clear is that Gideon’s faith is quite weak. But notice that what mattered most was that Gideon’s faith was in God, even if it was weak. It is the object of our faith that matters, not the quantity. Gideon gathers an army, but God said that it was too many. It would be tempting to argue that the army was strong, not God, leading the people into deeper apostasy. Gideon asked if anyone was suddenly too afraid to fight, and 12,000 men went home. The next test was if when the men drank water from a river they lapped like a dog or knelt to drink and brought the water to their mouth. Presumably, those who lapped like a dog had their face in the water and could not seen an enemy approaching, whereas those who knelt down were still ready to fight. From 10,000, now only 300 remained. God sends Gideon into the Midianite camp for some recon. Gideon is still fearful, even after God’s clear promises, and takes his servant with him. But finally, when Gideon overhears one of the Midianite soldiers talking about a dream he had, he believes that God will be true to his word. He gathers the Israelite soldiers together and are successful in destroying the Midianites. Gideon’s success turns the people into thinking that he should be their king. They even want a dynasty. In Gideon’s defense, he rejects that offer and reminds the people that God is their only king. From the spoils of war, Gideon makes an ephod, something that only the high priest wore. Gideon will not make himself a king, but he seems to want to make himself a priest. No man declares himself either of those roles; only God raises up kings, and Old Testament priests were from the tribe of Levi, not Manasseh as Gideon is. As is keeping with tradition, as soon as Gideon died, the people rebelled and turned against the Lord again. Gideon rejected the Israelite offer of kingship, but one of his sons, Abimelech, wants to take them up on it. He’s a horrible, wretched man. He kills all of his brothers so that there no chance of an uprising. One brother, the youngest, escapes and hides. The people accepted Abimelech’s kingship for three years. Eventually the tribal leaders turned against him because God sent an “evil spirit” on them. This is also accurately translated as “harmful” or “ill” spirit. This definitely is not the Holy Spirit of God. It’s a euphemism for ill will or antagonism between parties. God has alienated them from each other; God has not done evil. The Scripture says it is retribution for him killing his brothers. A black hat rides into town named Gaal. He doesn’t like that someone else has named himself king over these people. But Abimelech catches wind of the treachery and overtakes Gaal and his men. As Abimelech enters the city of Thebez, many people rush to the top of one of their main buildings. He decides to burn it down. But from the roof, a woman pushes off a stone and crushed his skull. It doesn’t kill him immediately, so he tells his armor-bearer to run his sword through him. He doesn’t want anyone to think that a woman killed him. There seems to have been no judge during Abimelech’s short-lived reign. But after him comes Tola, who serves for 23-years. Then comes Jair, who reigns for 22-years. Not much is said about either of them. But the people quickly turn away from the Lord again and serve false gods from the people living around them. This takes place for 18-years. In comes Jephthah. He was born from a prostitute, so he was not eligible for any of father’s wealth or inheritance. However, he was known to be a great fighter and extremely brave. So when the Ammonites start to fight against Israel, Jephthah is called up to lead the army. He has a chip on his shoulder for the wya the people treated him in his youth because of his mother’s participation in the world’s oldest profession. But he says that he will do lead them and be their king if God provides the victory. The aggression comes from a poor understanding of history. The Ammonites believe the Israelites stole their land when they left Egypt. When the Israelites were leaving Egypt, they asked for permission to pass through Moab and Edom, but they were rejected. It was because of this that the Lord gave their land to the Israelites. Of course, the king of the Ammonites will not cave to Israel. What happens next is an abomination. Jephthah vowed that if God gave him victory over the Ammonites, he would sacrifice the first thing to walk out of his house. God had already been clear about what an acceptable sacrifice would be. A random, haphazard approach to sacrifice was never acceptable. In this way, Jephthah pretended to think he could please God on his own. After his victory, Jephthah returns home only to have his daughter, his only child, come out to greet him. In Judges 11:31, the “whatever” he promises to sacrifice as a burnt offering can just as clearly mean “whoever”. It is well within the realm of possibility that Jephthah was always ready to commit a human sacrifice. Not only does Scripture never command human sacrifice, but if anyone did it, they would be put to death themselves (Leviticus 20:2). And, if anyone vowed to do something evil unintentionally, they were not bound to keep it (Leviticus 5:4-6). The bottom line is that Jephthah was in no way bound to keep such an oath. This is an instance of Scripture simply describing what happened, not prescribing what is good. Jephthah judged for six years, followed by a quick succession of judges: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. After their judgeship, Israel again abandoned the covenant. Enter Samson. A man named Manoah and his wife were barren. And angel of the Lord appeared to her and promised her a son. Her son would be a Nazirite his entire life. The Nazirite vow is described at length in Numbers 6. What was unusual about Samson’s vow is that he does not take it on voluntarily, and it is lifelong. The Nazirite vow required no strong drink, not cutting ones hair, and not coming in contact with dead things. As Samson’s life and judgeship is explored in the upcoming chapters, we’ll see him break every one of his commitments. Luke 17-20 Teachings It is no coincidence that the disciples saying to Jesus “Increase our faith” comes immediately after Jesus commanding to forgive our brothers every time they offend us. If you have ever been wronged by someone you love or respected, you understand the effort it takes to forgive them. Jewish tradition said that a good man forgives the offending party three times. Jesus does not say that tradition is bad, but he says that every offense, if repented of, can be forgiven. When asked about increasing their faith, Jesus says that a small amount of faith is suitable for doing great things. What is the object of your faith? If the object of your faith is Christ, then regardless of quantity, it is sufficient. We are to forgive relentlessly, trust in God, and do our Christian duty. We are “unworthy servants” (17:10), only doing what Christ commands. Jesus is passing through several towns on his way to Jerusalem for the crucifixion. In Jericho, he meet Zacchaeus, a wealthy taxman. He just wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus, but Jesus had plans for him. When Jesus says, “I must stay at your house today”, we hear the certainty with which Jesus saves him and us. When Jesus enters Zacchaeus’ house, he says, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” A true son of Abraham is a son by faith, not by genealogy. In the interaction with the rich young ruler, Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. But, what is impossible with man is possible with God. When Jesus enters Zacchaeus’ house, the impossible takes place. A rich man divests himself of his wealth which was acquired through fraud and calls Jesus Lord. Money is a major theme in Jesus’ parables. Some scribes and chief priests are out to kill Jesus, but they need a reason to arrest him. They do so by asking political questions (it’s as if some things never change). “Should good Jews pay taxes?” they ask. But Jesus knows their heart and their intentions. When he sees a coin with Caesar’s face on it, he says that a good citizen renders obeisance to civil rulers. How much more, then, do you owe to God, your creator and sustainer? Healings Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the final time. We’re not told what village he stays in, but at a stop along the way ten lepers say to him, “Jesus, Master, having mercy on us” (17:13). Jesus certainly does so, and he has them fulfill the lawful duty of having a priest confirm their new clean status. What we soon find out is that one of them, at least, was not even an Israelite, but a Samaritan. Jesus has already told the parable of the Good Samaritan, and now a Samaritan falls at Jesus’ feet to worship him and give thanks. Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy. A beggar is sitting along the road, and he says to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People are trying to shut him up and telling him to leave Jesus alone, that he can’t be bothered. But the man knows that Jesus is his only hope. But instead of listening those people, Jesus has them bring the beggar to him. When asked what he wants, the beggar tells Jesus that he simply wants his sight restored. By calling Jesus the Son of David, he has recognized Christ’s messianic status. As with the Samaritan leper, his faith has made him well. Eschatology Luke 17:20-37 is the parallel passage to Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13. As on the topic of prayer, Jesus taught on the end of the age and his return multiple times. In Matthew, Jesus is responding to his disciples’ remarks about how the state of Jerusalem is not as bad he said it was in Matthew 23. Now in Luke, Jesus is asked a question by the Pharisees about the timing of the coming of the kingdom. Jesus makes the same points as he does in other instances of this teaching. There will be many who say they know when he will return, but they will be each be wrong. When he returns, it will be visible to all to see. You will not need a prophet to tell you that he has returned. Before the kingdom comes, Jesus will suffer and die, then he will inherit the kingdom. Like in the days of Noah, life was going on like normal before the waters rose. Like in the days of Lot, life was going on like normal until the fire and brimstone fell. In like manner, life will go on like normal until the day Christ returns. There will be no secret return, but a single, glorious, visible return for the world to witness. When the disciples ask where these things will take place at his second coming, he replies, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Luke 17:37). He is simply saying that in the same way you can see vultures circling in the air over a dead animal from a distance, you will see Christ coming. It means the same thing as being able to see a lightning strike in the east and in the west at the same time (Matthew 24:27). In fact, in Matthew 24, Jesus says both sayings back-to-back. Later, Jesus gives a parable specific to eschatology. Many believed that Jesus would establish his kingdom when he entered Jerusalem, which he is just about to do. But to correct the notion that the kingdom will come sooner than later, he tells the parable of the ten minas (one mina is equal to about three months’ average pay for a laborer). A man leave his servants with his money, telling them to conduct business while he’s gone. Two of the three servants give their master a return on his investments, while one servant wastes it. There were also citizens of this man’s land who hated him and did not want to have him rule over them. When this man returned (let the reader understand), he rewarded the servants who prospered and condemned the servant who wasted his master’s money. Actually, the servant’s own words condemn him; if the servant really believed that the man was as strict and austere as he said, he would have at least let the money sit in a bank instead of a handkerchief. Those citizens who hated the man were destroyed. When Christ returns, he will reward those who lived for him, condemn those who betrayed him, and destroy those who reject him. Parables Jesus’ parables about the coming kingdom continue. First comes the parable of the persistent widow. Again, think about whether we should compare or contrast the parable with the kingdom of God. A certain judge is so bothered by a widow who kept showing up to his courtroom demanding justice that only because of her incessant squawking does he give her what she wants. How much more, then, does God want to bring justice for his children? After all of these parables involving money, a rich young ruler comes and asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. The young man thinks that he has kept the law perfectly, but at best he has kept it superficially. To keep the spirit of the law, his spirit must be broken, and he must part with the false god of money that he actually serves with his heart. After entering Jerusalem, he tells the parable of the wicked tenants as he teaches in the temple. In keeping with the theme of the second coming, a vineyard owner leaves for an extended period of time. In fact, he’s gone so long that he sends servants to do some inspections. He sends three servants, all of whom are beaten by the tenants/workers of the vineyard. Finally the owner sent his own son, thinking that he would be respected. However, the tenants kill the son, treating him worse than the previous servants. When the owner returns, he has the tenants destroyed. The Sadducees also try to trick him, and it is noted that they outright reject the resurrection (as they did most supernatural phenomena and explanations). It was customary for the brother of a dead man to have children on behalf of that man. So the Sadducees create a somewhat nonsensical scenario. There are seven brothers, all of them die, and the widow has no children with any of them. When the woman dies, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus rejects the premise altogether. Marriage is an image of how Christ loves the church, therefore, marriage is only suitable for the current age. In the age to come, no one will marry, just like how the angels in heaven do not marry in the present age. He goes on to say their own Scriptures prove the resurrection (from the Old Testament!). If God is able to say to Moses that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were all long dead, then God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Even without their physical bodies, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive right now. Death and resurrection On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus teaches abut his upcoming death and resurrection for a third and final time. He gives plenty of information about what will take place: he will die, but on the third day he will rise again. The point in this foretelling is that the prophets have said that all of this will happen. Jesus will fulfill not only the law but the prophets, as well. The triumphal entry is the last time the people will show any kind of respect and honor to Jesus until after his resurrection. They sing Psalm 118 over him as he enters the holy city. As he enters, he sees Jerusalem and weeps for her. Israel/Judah/Jerusalem has always been under threat of foreign oppression because of unfaithfulness. Even at that time, they were under Roman occupation. And in the same way they had rejected the prophets before him, because they will reject the final prophet, Jerusalem will be destroyed again within a generation. He enters the temple (possibly to show that the presence of God had finally filled the temple in the coming of Christ) and kicks out those selling animals for sacrifices. That was a perfectly legitimate transaction, but the sellers were exploiting the people traveling to Jerusalem who lived far enough away to warrant not bringing live animals with them. During holy week, Jesus was teaching in the temple. During those few days, the religious leaders finally decided he had to go. Psalms 81-85 Psalm 81: God calls for obedience to the covenant. Psalm 82: God will judge in righteousness at the right time. Psalm 83: The nations rage against God, but he will overcome them all. Psalm 84: It is better to be in the presence of God than anywhere else. Psalm 85: God is near to those who love and fear him. Joshua 11-24
The people of Israel are now beginning to have many military victories as they enter into the promised land. Things are going so well that the people are now able to start living in the land and prospering. But as Joshua gets up there in years, there is still much more to be done. Chapters 13-21 all describe the initial land boundaries for the different tribes. This included the specific cities of refuge, those cities where if a man accidentally kills someone he may flee for protection and await trial or the death of the current high priest. The tribe of Levi did not have their land as did the remaining tribes. The Levites were given cities within the various tribal lands so that there were always priests among the people. The priests were of course charged with the sacrificial system, but their other regular duty was that of teaching the people to obey the law of Moses. They would live among the people instead of making the people go to them to one place, like Jerusalem. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manessah (half on one side, half on the other) all took possession of some land on the other side of the Jordan river, which meant some distance between those three and the remaining tribes. There was nothing wrong with taking that land, but all the able-bodied men were required to fight along with their brothers across the river. Now that the majority of the land is conquered, the soldiers from those tribes are given permission to return to their own land and build their lives. What the ten tribes lost in a visual, they gained in suspicion. The eastern tribes built an altar in their own land, across the river. It appeared to the larger tribes, at least on the surface, that Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manessah were turning into idolaters. A group from the west is sent to get some confirmation about what is taking place. The two-and-a-half tribes assure the other nine-and-a-half that there is no funny business; there are no sacrifices taking place. Gad, Reuben, and half-Manessah built this altar as a testimony to future generations that they are all a part of the nation of Israel. It is also to remind the larger group of tribes that those who live across the river are brothers, not enemies. We know what that is like within our own families. If we only see each other at weddings and funerals, we lose that intimate knowledge of each other. If the Israelites only see each other at the major festivals, they’re going to basically be strangers. This “witness” altar would at least be a regular visual reminder that the people across the river are compatriots and fellow worshipers of the one, true God. Joshua, like Moses, then gives a sort of farewell address. He calls the Israelite elders to faithfulness and a firm backbone in leading the people. They’ve entered a new stage of Israelite life. Moses led them out of Egypt, and Joshua led them into the promised land. Now there isn’t going to be a point-man for the nation. They are going to be a group of tribes without centralized leadership. The elders are going to become even more important. Joshua ends with the covenant renewal at Shechem. As was common, Joshua rehearsed the nation’s history as a reminder of God’s good purposes. Because of God’s faithfulness to the people, Joshua calls on the people to choose faithfulness in return. Of course, no one wants to be seen as a faithless apostate, so everyone says that they will be faithful and true to the Lord. But this isn’t Joshua’s first rodeo. He tells the people that they are unable to do so in their own power. God is holy and jealous. He does not just throw out pardons and forgiveness wantonly. He is just. But the people affirm their intent, and Joshua tells them that they are witnesses against each other. Joshua set up a stone as a monument, or a witness, to the covenant that has been renewed. Note, this is not a new covenant between God and Joshua, but a renewal of the Mosaic covenant. Joshua’s death is then recounted. We’re told that as long as Joshua lived, Israel was faithful to God. Eleazar the priest, Aaron’s son, also dies. This means that all of the primary spiritual leadership, everyone that brought the people through the wilderness and into the promised land, has died. The book of Judges picks up immediately where Joshua leaves off. Things are not good. Judges 1 The term “judge” covers a variety of roles. There is no prophet like Moses, no military leader like Joshua, and no king in Israel. But at times, the people turn faithless and need spiritual leadership to call them to repentance and get them back on track. There are still people-groups to kick out of Israel. Note that Simeon and Judah are fighting together, because they are living in the same plot of land. Simeon was dissolved as a tribe because of his violence against those who did horrific acts against his sister, Dinah. Nothing happened to the people per se, but the tribe was essentially absorbed into Judah. Levi is not dissolved because they already do not have land of their own, only cities within the other tribes. Those tribes go up against Canaanites and Perizzites and king Adoni-bezek (Lord of Bezek). It was common practice to cut off body parts essential to warfare, such as thumbs or toes. Try grasping a sword or running without those things! But the tribes have great success. They finally capture Jerusalem for themselves, the future-capital city of Judah. But not everything is hunky-dory. The threat of faithlessness is all too real. If the people get tired and quit fighting, they will without a doubt assimilate with the pagan people around them. And that is exactly what happens. Manasseh fails to drive out the Canaanites and takes them as slaves. And it wasn’t just one tribe’s problem. Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali all fail to remove the pagans from the land and so disobey God’s word. Luke 13-18 The incident of Pilate killing people in Siloam is not recorded in Scripture, and as far as anyone knows, there is no recollection of it outside of Scripture, either. But the impulse of many Jews was to see people who die a violent death as getting a special punishment for some kind of special sin. This is a common belief among the Jews (and many assume it to be true today). Think back to when some tried to question Jesus about the man born blind; was he born this way because of his own sin or because of his parents’? Jesus corrects this misguided belief by telling them that they will suffer the same punishment or worse if they live unrepentant lives. The point is not that really bad sin leads to being squashed by a falling tower, but that ultimately all sin is deserving of death. Not all sins are equal, but the wages of all sin is death. Jesus tells many parables throughout this section. The parable of the barren fig tree is a perfect conclusion to the interaction with the people about the Siloam tower. The parable is a great image of God’s patience leading people to repentance. Remember that the parables are all about the kingdom of God. The mustard seed and the leaven envisage small beginnings but enormous ends. The narrow door is the image of what is necessary for salvation; when asked if there will be many who are saved, Jesus reorients the question by saying that it’s better to focus on repentance than numbers alone. The wedding feast teaches that God’s kingdom is a race to the butler’s pantry, not the front row seats. The great banquet shows God’s patience with Israel, and when rejected by Israel, God’s call to the gentiles. Chapter 15 tells perhaps his most famous parable, the parable of the prodigal son. But the prodigal son is one of three parables told back-to-back. All three are about things or people that are lost. In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd cares for each and every one his sheep and knows exactly how many he has. In the parable of the lost coin, the woman diligently searches for what is hers. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father absorbs back into himself the cost brought about by both sons. In all three parables, they end with celebrations. Parables require both comparison and contrast. The parable of the dishonest manager is not a call to live dishonestly but a call to wisdom and discernment. Because you cannot serve (be completely loyal to) both God and money, use your money to serve God. The rich man and Lazarus is a parable about the eternal state and rewards. Since this parable follows shortly after the parable of the dishonest manager, it should be read in a similar way, especially since money is involved in both. Money has a way of blinding us to eternal realities, and the rich man was too focused on luxury and comfort to notice or care about a poor, dying man at his own doorstep. If we care so little for the things of God, we will continue to care little for the things of God in the age to come. The rich man never repents, even in hell. All he wants is a little relief, not forgiveness. Later comes the parable of the persistent widow. Again, think about whether we should compare or contrast the parable with the kingdom of God. A certain judge is so bothered by a widow who kept showing up to his courtroom demanding justice that only because of her incessant squawking does he give her what she wants. How much more, then, does God want to bring justice for his children? After all of these parables involving money, a rich young ruler comes and asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. The young man thinks that he has kept the law perfectly, but at best he has kept it superficially. To keep the spirit of the law, his spirit must be broken, and he must part with the false god of money that he actually serves with his heart. Throughout this section, Jesus continues to heal many people, from exorcisms to physical ailments. These miraculous healings are always to show God’s power over nature and the spiritual realm. Jesus also has a lot to say about Jerusalem. Jesus once compares himself to a mother hen trying to gather her brood, but the brood keeps running away. And because of their stubborn, hard hearts, they will not accept him as Lord and Savior until their hearts are made anew. Luke 17:20-37 is parallel to the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24-25 and Mark 13. To make the comparison of the last days to the days of Noah even clearer, Jesus now compares the last days to the days of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. In both of those instances, those who were saved were those who were left behind. Those who were judged for wickedness were those who were taken and destroyed. And like it was with Sodom and Gomorrah, with fire and brimstone, so it will be again at the end of the age, when Christ returns. Just read about the seven seals, bowls, and trumpets of Revelation to see how accurate that is. When the disciples ask where these things will take place at his second coming, he replies, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Luke 17:37). He is simply saying that in the same way you can see vultures circling in the air over a dead animal from a distance, you will see Christ coming. There will be nothing secret about it. It means the same thing as being able to see a lightning strike in the east and in the west at the same time (Matthew 24:27). In fact, in Matthew 24, Jesus says both sayings back-to-back. Psalms 76-80 Psalm 76: God is to be feared above all others. Psalm 77: When my strength is gone, God remains powerful. Psalm 78: God is just, but he never forgets his promises. Psalm 79: God will never disappoint us. Psalm 80: Do not forget us, God, even when we fail.
Deuteronomy 32-34 Deuteronomy 32 is the famous son of Moses. It is the end of the final address that Moses gives to the Israelites before he dies and they enter the promised land. It is not just a rehearsal of Israel’s history up to that point; Moses is giving insight into God’s perspective of that history. He is calling the people to worship God as the creator and sustainer of all things. Like Jacob, Moses blesses each tribe of Israel individually. They are even similar to Jacob’s blessings of his twelve. However, a keen reader will notice that Simeon is missing from this list of the twelve tribes. In Genesis 49, Jacob says that because of Simeon's anger and violence, he will be dispersed (or dissolved). Remember that he and Levi led the advance in retribution against what happened to Dinah in Genesis 34 (cf. v.25). His punishment for a brash reaction was to have his tribe dispersed, or absorbed into Judah. In one sense, the tribe of Simeon would be "wiped off the map", so to speak, even though the people would be permitted to live. Leaving Simeon out of this particular list is faithful to that blessing/prophecy. But in Joshua 19, the tribe of Simeon is given a plot of land of their own. However, 19:2 tells us that Simeon will live among the people of Judah. So the tribe of Simeon still technically exists because the people are descendants of Simeon, but they are living among the Judahites, just like Jacob said they would. It's sort-of like a tribe living within a tribe. Though Moses will not be permitted to enter the promised land, he is buried on Mt. Nebo, which will overlook it. Joshua is now God’s man for Israel. He will lead the charge in the upcoming military conquests. Joshua 1-10 God speaks to Joshua, commanding and encouraging him to take up the task of leading the people into the land. The people commit to following him. Joshua sent two spies into the city of Jericho on an information-gathering mission. By staying with a prostitute, the two would likely not garner too much attention. But, the king of Jericho still found out about their mission. If God told the Israelites to push out all of Canaanites, why did Rahab get special treatment? God is a God of justice, but Rahab also highlights his mercy. Like at the passover, Rahab was to gather all of her family into her house, and the Israelites would pass over her home during their invasion. God never intended for ethnic Israel to be his only people. Rahab, a gentile, would be welcomed into God’s people if she worshipped him and him alone. And of course, she would later be mentioned in Jesus’s genealogy. The people must travel west from Shittim, over the Jordan river, to Jericho. As they cross the river, God tells Joshua to have one man from each tribe take a stone from the bed of the river and build a memorial in the place they would stay overnight. According to Joshua 4:9, it’s possible that Joshua set up his own memorial in the Jordan river, which would be a second memorial. Circumcision was the sign and seal of the Abrahamic covenant, and every male was to be circumcised when he was eight days old. Joshua does not circumcise the adult males a second time, but no one practiced circumcision in the wilderness for forty years. So God gives the command a second time. Not only do they get circumcision right, but they also have the first Passover celebration in the land. It’s quite fitting, because ending the wilderness wandering was a type of exodus. All of these are a type, or a shadow, of the greater reality that would be revealed in Christ. Now that the people are over the river (and through the woods), Jericho is ready to fall. The men of war will walk around the city one time for six days, then seven times on the seventh day with the priests and the ark. When the trumpets blow and the people shout, the walls come a-crumblin’ down. With the defenses (the wall) down, capturing the city was a breeze. Joshua pronounces a future curse on anyone who rebuilds Jericho. Unsurprisingly, the curse is enacted in 1 Kings 16 by a man named Hiel. When they went to Jericho, everything that was silver, gold, bronze, and iron was to be saved for use the treasury of Israel. But of course, there’s always one. A man named Achan keeps some of it for himself. At the next battle, Israel loses horribly. God reveals to Joshua that someone has kept the devoted things for himself. By fiddling down the possibilities, Joshua finds the man Achan. Achan’s sons and daughters were involved in the thievery (there is no way one man took all that himself), so they are not innocent by any means. Because they lie and steal, they are stoned and burned. Because the evil has been purged from Israel, they become successful in their next battle. They lost at the battle of Ai, and now they win. The Israelites are not to make any peace treaties or concessions with the Canaanites. A group of Gibeonites deceive Joshua, lying about their origins. The Gibeonites do not want to face the same fate as Jericho, so they con their way into being the slaves of the Israelites. But they “did not seek counsel from the LORD” (9:14). Because they swore protection in God’s name, God did not have them break their word and destroy the Gibeonites. But their punishment for their deception was to do the manual labor for the sacrificial system. A group of five kings, including the king of Jerusalem (which is not yet under Israelite rule), form a cabal and started a battle in Gibeon, knowing that Israel was now the guardian of Gibeon. This battle is entirely miraculous. God throws down giant stones from the heavens, and Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still during the battle. The book of Jashar is mentioned as corroborating evidence for this miraculous heavenly event. Finally, the people are making some real headway into the land. Luke 10-12 In like manner of the initial disciples going out to do the miraculous and to preach, Jesus now sends. Seventy-two disciples. The instructions are quite similar. Seventy-two is often a symbolic number, but there’s no real reason to necessarily take it as symbolic here. Context will usually let the reader know if a number is symbolic or literal. Jesus mentions several cities. Sodom was destroyed because of its wickedness. Tyre and Sidon were cities mentioned in the Old Testament because of their devotion to Baal worship and idolatry. And yet, these two cities, Chorazin and Bethsaida, which were the two places where most of Jesus’s miracles took place, were more stubborn than the older cities. If those older cities had been around to take part of Jesus’s ministry, they would have repented and believed. It seems to stand true that as human history rolls on, we only get more stubborn toward God. In the debrief with the seventy-two, Jesus is glad to hear of their success. Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (10:18). He must not be speaking of Satan’s initial rebellion since he says it in the context of this debrief of recent events. It seems as though Jesus saw Satan fall because of the work of the seventy-two. This actually aligns quite nicely with Revelation 12. In that prophetic vision, a woman (Israel) gives birth to a male child (Christ), and because that child is born, a war breaks out in heaven. Michael defeats Satan, and Satan is cast to the earth to pursue the woman. It seems as though these passages are depicting the same period of time. Satan’s initial sin took place long, long ago, before the fall of man. This “fall” is speaking of another time, concurrent with Jesus’s earthly ministry. Jesus praises the Father for both hiding and revealing spiritual truths. This prayer is imminently Trinitarian. The Father has given the Son all things, and no one knows the Son except those who the Father has chosen to reveal him. Trinitarianism is partly a mystery, but our faith and salvation is rooted in it. We only know of and believe in Jesus because the Father has decided so and because the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son. The parable of the good Samaritan is to twist the knife slowly in the hearts of the Jews. Samaritans were hated by the Jews. Samaria was the capital city of the old northern kingdom of Israel. When Assyria took Israel captive, their practice was to remove many natives and scatter them around the Assyrian empire. In turn, Assyria would send people from around their empire to a newly conquered land. The Israelites were already practicing idolatry, so it is no surprise that the religion of the people living in the northern kingdom was barely recognizable as anything related to covenantal, faithful Israelite religion. But in this parable, the Samaritan is who does the merciful act. And remember, Jesus tells this parable after being asked who our neighbors are. Jesus flips the script and instead says the better question is how to behave as a neighbor. Jesus is the true neighbor and our great example of neighborly love. Jesus encouraged women to study the Scriptures. That fact does not nullify Paul’s later commands about men and women in the church. Both men and women should be avid reader of Scripture, be able to understand it, and happy to teach it to others. Paul simply gives the proper avenues for doing that. Mary and Martha are sisters, and like most sisters, are two very different people. Mary is learning from Jesus, but Martha is concerned with pleasing everyone. Jesus has called both Mary and Martha, but we’re told that Martha is “distracted” (10:40). The answer to that problem is to please the Lord over other people and sit at his feet. Jesus likely taught the Lord’s prayer several times, which accounts for the slight variations between Matthew 6 and Luke 11. In Matthew, Jesus includes this model prayer in the middle of the sermon on the mount. In Luke, Jesus is asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray. Jesus tells them to pray this prayer. It is perfectly permissible to both learn to pray on your own by learning this prayer and to recite this prayer as a prayer itself. In both instances, the Lord’s prayer includes a section on God meeting our daily provisions. So Jesus follows with a lesson on how generous God is to his children. Jesus was busy casting out demons. He is charged with doing so by Beelzebul, or “the master of the house”, or Satan. If Jesus is powered by Satan, why is he casting out demons? Is that not working against his own master, if that’s true? Of course, it’s nonsense, but some people are willing to throw anything to the wall to see what sticks. Jesus is always concerned that people know who he is and do not have a caricature of him. As a woman tries to say that Jesus’s mother is a blessed woman, while he does not reject that premise, he instead says that those who keep God’s word are blessed. Worship of and prayer to Mary is idolatry. Others are only interested in the miraculous. Jesus knows they want proof of his authority, but the only sign he’ll give them (as if his power over nature, exorcisms, and physical healings weren’t enough) is his resurrection, or the sign of Jonah. In Jonah 2:2, Jonah says that he cried out to God from Sheol, not the belly of a fish. It may have been that Jonah actually died. If that’s the case, then the connection between Jonah and Jesus is even less metaphorical and more obvious. This also solidifies the place of typology in the Bible. Typology is when a person, a place, or an event foreshadows something about Christ. In this case, Jonah’s three days in a fish was a type of Christ’s three days in a tomb. The purpose of typology is to see God’s divine hand over redemption history. If that’s the case, then the Jonah-Jesus connection helps us understand the next passage that speaks about lighting a lamp. The people just want signs, but miracles don’t save anyone. Think about all the miracles that took place at the time of the exodus from Egypt. Nearly three-million Hebrews are saved from slavery and taken by God’s mighty arm into freedom. Three days later, they build a golden calf and choose to worship it instead. When people are filled with the knowledge of God, miracles are not necessary. The people just want signs, but Jesus says they want them for the wrong reasons. We think miracles will give us faith; only the Spirit of God gives us faith. What is the light that gets put on a stand? Jesus Christ! A healthy eye is a healthy way of seeing and understanding. A bad eye leads to a life full of darkness. If Christ is the light of your life, then you will be wholly bright. The Pharisees are a constant issue for Jesus. Jesus pronounces woes against them for turning their traditions against the law of God, overturning the authority of Scripture. People like the Pharisees, who always know better, are the ones who killed and persecuted the prophets. So Jesus warns his followers about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Do not fear the people like the Pharisees; fear God, because his power and authority exceeds every earthly power. The Pharisees lead you away from the word of God, which in turn leads you away from Christ. Therefore, acknowledge Christ before men and turn from hypocrisy. Jesus taught about similar issues many times to different crowds. What we think of as the sermon on the mount is found in parts throughout Luke. Jesus speaks about the dangers of anxiety in chapter 12. God clothes, or care for, those things which are common and short-lived. How much more does he care for those who are his image-bearers? The same goes for the Olivet discourse. Jesus teaches us to be ready for his return in Luke 12:35ff. As he teaches about his return in parables in Matthew 25, so he does in Luke 12. We must understand the age in which we find ourselves, seeing that his return is always to be considered at hand. He has not yet returned, but he is near, even at the very gates. Psalm 71-75 Psalm 71: I am weak, but God is my strength. Psalm 72: God blesses his people continually. Psalm 73: I have many lingering questions, but God is my counsel. Psalm 74: God remembers his covenant promises. Psalm 75: God is patient now, but his wrath will one day be poured out on the unjust. Deuteronomy 19-31
This section of Deuteronomy can understandably be difficult to read. Chapters 19 through 26 consist of various laws that often do not correlate to what comes before or after them. It truly is simply the law book of Israel. I don’t want to comment on every law, or this would be a several-thousand-word post. But there are a few passages that warrant some closer examination. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is important because it explains why the religious leaders demanded that Jesus be removed from the cross immediately after he died. They truly believed Jesus to be cursed for dying the way he did. This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:13. Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” At the cross, there was a double imputation, meaning a transfer of qualities. Our sin was imputed, or transferred, to Christ. He truly bore the curse that was rightfully ours. And his righteousness was imputed to us, righteousness that was not rightfully ours. By dying for all those chosen before the foundation of the world, the promises of God would be made available to everyone, Jew and Gentile, who believed. Laws concerning who can wear what clothes might seem odd, but they are about upholding the original purposes of creation (22:5). We should not try to blur the lines between male and female by what we wear. While this does outright condemn practices such as crossdressing, we should not culturally overextend the law to say things like women can’t wear pants. Every culture has customs that identify menswear and womenswear. Cultures that campaign to intentionally blur those lines do so in order to displace the good order of creation. All I want to say about the other laws through chapter 26 is that each of them is given in order to uphold the good order of creation and to identify the boundaries between God’s people and those who are outside of Israel. In chapter 27, Moses and the elders tell the people to build an altar on Mount Ebal across the Jordan. They will write the words of the law on those stones. Moses then has the priests tell the people the series of curses that will come upon them for breaking the law. These curses summarize all the punishments of breaking the law. Each curse follows the pattern of beginning with “Cursed be the man/anyone…” One one side of the mountain, the priests shout the curse. From the other side of the mountain, the people respond with, “Amen.” These are curses for individual sins, not for the nation as a whole. That will come in the next chapter. Chapter 28 confirms both the blessings and the curses on the entire nation for obedience and disobedience. Sin has both individual and cultural consequences. But keep in mind that these specific blessings and curses are in the context of a very specific covenant with God’s people, not all nations everywhere. The blessings are generally about protection from surrounding nations and God supplying all the needs of the people. The nations will fear the Israelites and will know that God is the one, true God of all people. The curses essentially undo the blessings. They have corollaries to being removed from Eden. God will frustrate their work. Instead of blessing from the ground, work will produce thorns and thistles. And ultimately, disobedience will result in expulsion from the land, just like it did in Eden. They will go into exile, and a foreign king will rule over them. Not only will the Israelites in Israel have a foreign power over them, but God will scatter many of them to faraway places around the world. As they affirm that they will do all that the law commands, Moses renews the covenant in Moab. Moses tells the people that “to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (29:4). The law does not bring about repentance or a new nature. Only the Spirit of God can do that. Never has the law been intended to redeem mankind. The law is intended to shine a light on our sin and God’s righteousness. Again, Moses recounts the years of journeying through the wilderness. As they are approaching the end of these forty years of wandering, the people need consistent reminders of their past behavior and God’s provision. Ultimately, Moses tells the people that they will choose either life, through obedience, or death, through disobedience. It will be their choice. The law will not bring life, but they do have the choice to obey this law or not. Moses urges the people to choose life and obedience. As they approach the promised land, Moses has been told that his time is short. He is going to appoint Joshua as his successor, as God has told him to do. If the people follow Joshua as they have followed Moses, they will have success in their taking of the land. But if they follow Joshuas as they have actually followed Moses, they will struggle and bear the curses. Luke 7-9 Luke constantly reminds us of exactly who Jesus is. Jesus heals a Gentile’s son, showing that he is the Savior of all those who turn to him in faith. Jesus raises a dead man, showing that Jesus is God incarnate. When he raises the dead man, Luke interprets the event by using the same language as when Elijah raised another widow’s son, showing Jesus to be the true and better prophet. When John the Baptist questions the identity of Jesus, Jesus responds by saying that he is the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah, shown that he is the mediator of God’s eternal plan of redemption. Later, Jesus’ miracles of calming the storm, raising Jairus’ daughter, and stopping the woman’s 12-years of bleeding prove his authority over nature. Jesus then contrasts himself with John. John practiced abstinence from most of life’s pleasures, while Jesus had no issue with enjoying the simple pleasures of life (7:33). John was a strong man who lived outdoors and spent his life prophesying all around the area. John called sinners to repentance, and many people were therefore prepared for the hard truths that Jesus taught. But the religious leaders of the day did not want to believe John, because he didn’t preach the same message that they did. Both of them couldn’t be right. It was when the people heard John and Jesus teach that they believed the words of God, not the Pharisees. And when Jesus forgives sins, which cements his divinity, the Pharisees know that Jesus is going to be a threat to their authority. Parables are Jesus’ primary public teaching devices. The parable of the sower teaches that people will respond to the gospel in a variety of ways, but there is one response to that leads to life. Essentially, it teaches the same truth as James: faith without works is dead. Living faith produces a hundredfold. Living faith produces endurance and perseverance regardless of life’s circumstances. Jesus gives the twelve disciples a chance to put his teaching into practice. He sends them out with authority to cast our demons and heal the sick. But the point of this time was to preach the kingdom of God; the miraculous serve to confirm the message. This activity will also teach them to depend on God’s provision in a way that an apostle will be be required to do, in a way that exceeds even those of an ordinary believer. Mark’s gospel records Jesus permitting the disciples to take a staff while Luke’s does not. But in the same way that Jesus tells them not to take two tunics (9:3), he is probably just prohibiting taking an extra or doubles. Divine dependence is the game. Because of the disciples did what Jesus sent them to do, they caught the attention of Herod. He is now interested in hearing more about Jesus’ teaching. Again, the miraculous serve to confirm or draw attention to the message, not the miracles themselves. This is a kind of a test-run; later Jesus will send out seventy-two disciples instead of twelve. One of Jesus’ most famous miracles is that of feeding the five thousand. Though Jesus wanted to debrief the twelve disciples in private, he never neglected teaching in public. Even in a desolate area (9:12), Jesus is able to miraculously bring forth provision. This harkens back to God providing manna, quail, and water in the wilderness for the wandering Israelites. Luke uses every opportunity to provide confirmation of who Jesus is: God in the flesh. But if Jesus is God, then it has consequences for this life and the hereafter. That fact requires that we deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Jesus. There is no via media when it comes to Christ. We deny ourselves by practicing self-control and prioritizing the lives of others, we take up our own cross by such faithfulness that dying for Christ is never off the table, and we follow Jesus by obeying his commandments and joining other Christians in the same pursuit. Later in chapter 9, Jesus will confirm that following him comes at a great cost. Everyone and everything else must become irrelevant in comparison to obedience to him. Before Jesus continues healing and exorcising demons, the transfiguration takes place. Luke’s account is remarkably similar to Matthew and Mark. As Luke continues to tell us who Jesus is, he see that Jesus is accompanied by Moses and Elijah. Jesus is the true and better prophet. As at his baptism, the very voice of God the Father speaks and confirms Jesus’ sonship. Psalm 66-70 Psalm 66: The works of God should lead us to rejoicing. Psalm 67: May everyone everywhere see the goodness of God. Psalm 68: God will strike down his enemies but uphold the righteous. Psalm 69: Lord, save the righteous from evil (v.9 is quoted in John 2:17). Psalm 70: May God’s deliverance come soon. Deuteronomy 5-18
Deuteronomy 5 repeats the ten commandments from Exodus 20. Many have seen how the chapters that follow the ten commandments, in both places they are written, simply expound upon them. Christian tradition has seen the ten commandments as a sort of preamble to the law given at Sinai. Depending on where you come from, you might have learned a different ordering of the ten commandments. What Protestants classify as two commandments (1 and 2), Catholics and Lutherans read as one. The same goes for the ninth and tenth commandments; Protestants combine all of the coveting prohibitions into one commandments, and Catholics and Lutherans read them as two. It doesn’t change the interpretation of individual commandments as much as it does show how we read the passages. It’s noteworthy that Deuteronomy 5:1-5 speak of a relationship between God and Israel that predates the law, even the ten commandments. The law was never meant to be what forms the relationship but what honors it. By being obedient to God’s law, God’s people honor the Lord and live in a way that brings about peace and prosperity. After the second announcement of the ten commandments, Moses gives what’s called the “shema”, or the primary creed of the Hebrews and modern-day Judaism. Deuteronomy 6:4 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Verse 5 reads, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” When Jesus is later questioned about the greatest commandment, he simply quotes Moses. It might seem as though Jesus plays around with the text, because in Mark 12:30 he actually says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” It simply has to do with the range of meaning of words between two languages. The Hebrew that the early Israelites spoke would have included the idea of “mind” when it spoke of “heart”. First-century Greek-speakers and modern-day Westerners think of the heart of the seat of the emotions, but to the Hebrews the heart was the seat of the intellect. For us, we think of the gut as the seat of the precognitive intuition, or the mind. These are similar to some of the considerations that translators have to make. Scripture consistently puts the onus for passing on the faith upon the parents. Moses says, “When your son asks you in the time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies…’”, that it is the parents who are to give a response. Moses supplies the response parents are to give, but it is to come from the parents. There are some truths that must be presented by parents for it to be meaningful. Moses then gives the people rules for how the actual conquest of the promised land should go. The conquest serves two purposes: Israel will receive Abraham’s promised inheritance, and the people currently living in the land will receive judgment for their sins, as promised back in Genesis 15:16. We must keep that in mind as we think about contemporary reactions to destruction, violence, and God commanding the killing of certain people. God graciously permitted their sin to continue for four-hundred years so that if they continued in their child sacrifice, idolatry, fornication, and other sins, he would be just to take their lives. God has never destroyed an innocent life. Not only are the Israelites to destroy the people, but they are to also destroy their religious artifacts. That would mean the destruction of idols, poles, temples, and anything related to paganism. Not only is God jealous, but he will give the people boundaries to help keep them from turning to the same sins of the people they are setting to destruction. The next greatest threat to the Israelites will be their pride. Moses warns them about both flirting with disaster by accommodating paganism within the land and by ever thinking that they pushed the people out of Canaan by their own power. The Lord is who has saved Israel out of slavery, and he will be the one who pushes the evil out of the land. And in chapter 9 we read that successfully inhabiting the land will definitely not be because of the personal righteousness of Israel. It will be because of the wickedness of the Canaanites. In fact, Moses reminds the people of their stubbornness all throughout the wilderness period. For forty years, the people constantly complained before God and Moses about how better the food was back in slavery. In fact, God, nearly destroyed the people because of their griping. Let it be known that griping and complaining nearly warranted the complete divine razing of an entire nation. When the people formed a golden calf as an idol to worship, God said that he was ready to destroy the people. Moses petitioned God on behalf of the people, as he often did. Moses insists the people remember what they have done. After Moses destroyed the first two tablets in response to the idolatry of the people, God wrote on two more tablets the same commandments. What the people have always needed is not some outward sign of the covenant but a new heart. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant for Israel. While that was a sign of obedience, what God actually wants is actual obedience. That requires a new heart, or as Moses says, a circumcision of the heart, which he defines as no longer being stubborn. God’s ways are not just good, but they’re better than anything we could ever concoct. Chapter 12 begins the second speech or sermon from Moses to the people. If the first several chapters were a call to remember, the second set of passages teach the people where and how to worship. God will choose a place to center his worship. It won’t happen for a few hundred years, but eventually God will choose Jerusalem for his temple. Until that time, judges and prophets will perform sacrifices throughout the land. But once centralized worship is established, and especially once the monarchy is established, the king will be responsible for tearing down all decentralized places of worship throughout Israel. This will be the downfall of many future kings. We are once again reminded that the land boundaries are not fixed. In Deuteronomy 12:20, God says that at some point he will enlarge the territory of Israel as he promised to Abraham. But once God does that on behalf of the people, they must not get lazy with his laws. Also, any person who claims to have a new word or vision from God that leads people away from his already disclosed will and word must be put to death. Whether rebellion comes from the inner man or from outside forces, it must be squashed. The food/kosher laws are difficult to understand if we try to find a pragmatic reason. What is clean about an ox that’s not clean about the rock badger? Is there a theological component to cloven hooves? It is better to see the kosher laws in line with the rest of the law and fulfilling the same purpose. The people are to be set apart and distinct from the rest of the surrounding nations. Their diet won’t give them superpowers, but they will refrain from the sorts of eating habits that identify their neighbors. Tithing worked quite differently then than it does today. In fact, it’s difficult to make a case for tithing as a condition of the new covenant. Sacrificial generosity, yes; principled tithing, no. In fact, it would be impossible to be obedient to the Old Testament tithing laws in the church. Old Testament tithing looked like taking the best from your field or flock, sacrificing it at the place of God’s choosing, then eating it afterward. If the distance to the temple was too great to warrant bringing as much as you had to give, you were permitted to sell it for money, take that money to Jerusalem, then buy whatever you wanted as long as it was equal to the amount of money. They could purchase “oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves.” Another component of the tithe was to care for the priests and the disadvantaged. This specifically included the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow. Some have argued that the laws for the sabbatical year (every seventh year) are inconsistent. Deuteronomy 15:4 says, “But there will be no poor among you”. But verse 11 then says, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land”. Is the evidence of multiple authors and a lack of Holy Spirit inspiration, therefore a black eye on Scriptural authority? Absolutely not. Verse 4 is a command for generosity, made clear by the context of the release of any debts owed you by your fellow Israelite. If a person becomes poor, it is up to the one who is owed to release that debt during the sabbatical year. Verse 9 also warns against manipulating the system in order to not have to lend to one in need because the sabbatical year is close and you will be obligated to forgive it. Verse 11 is an account of reality. There will always be those who struggle to get be, whether through circumstances beyond their control or by self-inflicted pain. The command is to be generous to your fellow man, because the Lord has been generous to you (v. 11). As a reminder about destroying all pagan forms of worship, Moses warns the people of its consequences. If any of the Canaanite practices are mixed with the Israelite practices, the malefactors must be investigated and charged only by multiple eye-witnesses. But that charge is not be treated lightly; it ends in death. And to prevent false charges, the first witness to come forward must throw the first stone. The goal of such a harsh punishment is to “purge the evil from your midst” (17:7). We cannot take idolatry too lightly. God never said that Israel would never have an earthly king. He promises it to Abraham (Genesis 17:6). But Israel’s kings will have specific laws. He must be a natural Israelite, and he must not treat the people like slaves. That means no huge amount of horses, no polygamy, and no obscene wealth. Every king will write his own copy of the law of God. He will be the primary covenant-keeper in Israel; therefore, he must know it quite well. The law especially protected the priests. Unlike the other tribes, the tribe of Levi did not have their own set-apart land. They lived off of special cities in each of the remaining eleven plots of land. They would also eat from the tithes and offerings of the people. Israelites were commanded to avoid the religious practices of the Canaanites, but in chapter 18 Moses calls out the practices of child sacrifice and necromancy. The law of God protects life. Necromancy attempted to receive special information from ancestors or spiritual beings, which of course they would not have. Only God knows and reveals mysteries and the future. Moses told the people that there would be a succession of prophets throughout the time of Israel. In 18:18, God promises a future Moses, one better than Moses. That promise would not be fulfilled until the coming of Christ. Luke 4-6 As in the other gospels, after Jesus’s baptism, he is taken into the wilderness. Along with his baptism, we can say that the testing in the wilderness was preparatory work for his ministry. There is not a secret Bible code where letters and numbers reveal a hidden message. But numbers do carry well-known and easily identifiable meanings. Forty is the number for testing, not because of some mystic secret, but because Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years. So Jesus being tested in the wilderness for forty days reveals that he is to be seen as the new Israel. Jesus’s testing is about whether or not he will be faithful where Israel was not. The devil offered Jesus what he could not give. That’s the essence of idolatry, which Israel failed to defeat over and over again. The devil will continue to be an opponent to Christ’s ministry, but he has sufficiently shown himself to be the true son of Israel. The first act of ministry Jesus performs is preaching. We’re told that going to the synagogue was his custom as he grew up. Good Christian parents would do well and get their children to worship and among God’s people. He reads from Isaiah 61, which speaks of the coming servant of God. As he preaches, he claims to be the one of whom this passage speaks. The people are surprised to hear someone speak with such authority. It was customary for teachers to simply regurgitate teachers of the past, but Jesus actually turns to the biblical text itself. The people are not warming up to Jesus that well, so he reminds them of what happens to Israel when they reject the prophets. He uses the ministries of Elijah and Elisha to warm them that rejecting him will lead to their own downfall. This harsh reminder leads to the first time that the people attempt to kill Jesus. Luke constantly describes Jesus’s ministry as healing and teaching. Early on, Jesus takes on the role of a rabbi and calls a few disciples. He will call the rest of his disciples in chapter 6. We have already addressed the context of Jesus calling ordinary men to be his disciples when we read Matthew and Mark, so as a refresher all I’ll say is that being called by a rabbi in your early adult years was similar to being offered a full-ride scholarship to Oxford that no reasonable person would turn down. A pattern of calling and healing continues throughout chapter 5. When Jesus calls Peter, he shows himself to be divine when he tells Peter where to fish. Peter does not believe that he is suitable for being a disciple of this great man. If Peter is unqualified to be a disciple, then Levi surely is unqualified. But even more quickly, Levi (Matthew) drops everything to follow him. It was calling Levi that got the attention of the Pharisees and the scribes. But that gives Jesus the chance to announce to them why he has come: to call sinners to repentance. The Pharisees take the chance to send a series of questions Jesus’s way. Fasting was not legislated very often in the Mosaic law, but a brand of traditions arose. It became quite common among ordinary Jews by the first century. Since John the Baptist’s disciples still fast, why does Jesus not command his disciple to fast? Through parables about fabrics and wineskins, Jesus tells them that the old covenant and the new covenant are not the same. There will be both continuity and discontinuity. Fasting was just one example of the old wineskins. Different groups of Christians have understood the continuity and discontinuity differently. A field of theology called “covenant theology” emphasizes the continuity between old and new. Most Christians who hold to some form of classic covenant theology are Presbyterians, or those who understand baptism to have simply been an “administrative change” to circumcision (this is a small component of classic covenant theology). Others Christians who hold to what’s called “dispensationalism” emphasize the discontinuity. Some dispensationalists see Israel and the church as completely distinct, the church was a new component of God’s plan unknown to God’s people before the time of the apostles, and Jews and Christians will have different destinies (Jews on earth, the church in heaven). While both of these theologies (and their varieties) are attempts to be faithful to the text, both of them have their faults. Both overemphasize some components while neglecting others. Myself, I hold to a form of covenantalism called progressive covenantalism. Don’t let “progressive” fool you. All it means is that God has always worked through covenants with his people, and each covenant needs to be taken on its own terms. Each covenant has moved the history of redemption forward, hence “progressive”. Progressive covenantalism recognizes how Christ fulfilled the law, formed a new covenant, and made one new man out of Jew and Gentile. It affirms the continuity between the people of God (always by grace through faith) and discontinuity with how different covenants worked. Chapter 6 consists of many of Jesus’s teachings, which is Luke’s form of the sermon on the mount. Throughout Luke, Jesus is will be questioned many times about how he observes the Sabbath and understands its meaning. When Jesus is plucking grain, he is breaking no such Sabbath law, which did prohibit the use of farm equipment. The Pharisees cast doubt on Jesus’s reputation, but Jesus corrects their misunderstanding. When Jesus heals a man with a weak hand, the Pharisees are enraged solely because it took place on the Sabbath. They miss the point of the healing completely. When it comes to the crowds, Jesus is loved early on. He teaches with authority and heals the sick. Similarly to Matthew 5-7, Jesus gives the beatitudes, pronounces woes, teaches on loving enemies and proper judgment, and building a life on his words. While it is much shorter, Luke’s sermon on the mount follows the same general outline. Psalms 61-65 Psalm 61: I will take refuge in God’s house. Psalm 62: God is the only one who makes salvation possible. Psalm 63: God is more satisfying than anything this world offers. Psalm 64: God guards his people from wickedness. Psalm 65: The God of creation is the God of salvation. Numbers 29-36
Beyond the regular sacrifices, there were a goodly number of offerings that people could make for a variety of reasons. This also ensured that there were continual sacrifices taking place in the tabernacle or later in the temple. A lamb would be slaughtered every day and on every Sabbath. Multiple animals were sacrificed throughout the month. Every holy day had its own set of sacrifices. The Feast of Booths by far had the most amount of animal sacrifices. Many animals were sacrificed, but there were well over 1000 lambs sacrificed alone. God takes truth quite seriously, and everything his people say should be true. Therefore, he takes vows quite seriously. God’s people do not lie. Men and women were given different particulars for rules concerning vows, but the point was the same: do not commit yourself to anything you do not intend to carry out. Fathers guarded their young daughters from making hasty vows, and husbands, who were the heads of the homes, could annul his wife’s vow if it proved impossible to keep or cost too much, for example. Basically, young girls and wives were guarded from the consequences of hasty vows, but they were not kept from making them in general. In Numbers 25, Midian had tricked many of the Israelites into idolatry. It has resulted in this battle. Phinehas was the son of the high priest, so he went out among the soldiers in his father’s stead. This prevented the high priest from being ceremonially unclean when around any fallen soldiers. As awful as it may sound, the Midianite women were guilty of idolatry and bringing the Israelites along for the ride. So, they were not spared from the invasion. When the army returned, a quick headcount proved that not a single Israelite soldier had died in battle. The plunder taken by the soldiers was turned over to the priests to be used to make honorable vessels for the tabernacle. The tribes of Reuben and Gad decide that the land in which they want to settle actually lies outside of where the rest of the tribes will settle. They land they want is west of the Jordan river, so the Jordan would separate these tribes from the rest. Is this a problem? Though it comes as a shock to Moses, it is not unreasonable. The promise made to Abraham was that he would have as many descendants as there is sand on the shore. Paul says is Romans 4:13 that Abraham knew he would one day inherit the whole world. So there is no theological issue with some tribes settling apart from the others. Moses recounts for the people the journey they took to get to the ends of the promised land. Remembering the history of God’s activity among his people is a common yet critical component of the Christian life. We do not have a “fidiest” faith, or blind faith. We can look back and see God’s hand, which prompts us to faithfulness in the present and the future. God then gives Moses the boundaries for the land they will initially occupy. This should not be thought of as a final boundary. Throughout the time of the monarchy, up until the exile, the land possessed by the Israelites would wax and wain depending on their faithfulness. When a foreign power took control, Israel would lose land. Especially after the exile, the arrangement of the land look completely different. The promise to Abraham included, ultimately, the whole world. Paul made this claim in Romans 4:13. So changing boundary lines should not surprise us, and we should not think that the limits placed on the land in Numbers 34 are final. We should also make sure that when we read about the promises made to Israel concerning the land that we recognize they are fulfilled in Christ and the church. Yes, there is absolutely a future to ethnic Israel in the millennial kingdom; otherwise, Romans 11 is unintelligible or has to be spiritualized away. But when Paul says that all of God’s promises find their fulfillment in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), he truly means all. Part of the boundaries include cities for the Levitical priests. Priests were not to have their own land inheritance but would live off of the tithes and offerings from the people. That would be their portion. When in came to their dwellings, instead of having their own tribal allotments, they would have cities within the various tribes. The priests would be spread throughout the nation. There would be forty-eight total cities for the priests, and six of those would be shared as sanctuary cities. You’ll recall that in Numbers 27, the daughters of Zelophehad went to Moses to say that without fathers or brothers, they would have nowhere to live if they did not receive their father’s inheritance. So, consulting with the Lord, Moses said that they should inherit what a son typically would. The issue was not that women were bad at inheriting land, which is ridiculous, but that inheritance through the patriarchs ensured no fighting about who owned what land. This is precisely the issue that is addressed in Numbers 36. If the women married men from other tribes, how would land be distributed upon someone’s death? To guard against imminent feuding, Moses said that the daughters of Zelophehad could only marry men within their tribe. That way, at the year of jubilee when land went back to its original owner, there would be no bickering between tribes about inheritance. Deuteronomy 1-4 Deuteronomy is either one sermon or a series of sermons Moses gave in Moab before the people officially enter the promised land. The introduction of the sermon is another historical account of God’s benevolent activity among the people. Three chapters are devoted entirely to the history between the exodus and arriving in Moab. We must be people that remember! Moses begin to reiterate the importance of obedience to the law. The law is a part of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel, and with the law comes blessings and curses. He spends considerable amount of time forbidding idolatry, of which they have been guilty several times already. And idolatry will be their undoing. It will be because of idolatry that after the nation splits into two kingdoms that they both are taken into exile. Luke 1-3 Each of the four gospels begin in their own way for their own purposes. Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus, Mark begins with John as an adult, Luke begins with John’s parents, and John begins with an extended theological statement about the eternal Word. If I were to recommend a gospel to really understand who Jesus is, I would recommend Luke. Luke was a gentile, so he writes from a gentile perspective. He includes plenty of Jewish information, because it’s necessary, but he also explains it. He makes note of how his writing is informed by eyewitness testimony and his own investigation. Luke interprets Jesus’s life as he writes about it. He begins by recounting how John the Baptist was born. He must begin before the birth of Jesus, because God’s plan has been at work long before. John will be a prophet, which is exciting for the Jew who has waited for 400 years since the last prophet. This means that God is active and has not abandoned his people, no matter what comes next. Zechariah and Elizabeth are elderly, simply meaning beyond the normal child-bearing years. Zechariah is a priest, and during his regular service he is confronted by an angel of the Lord. The angel tells him that his prayer for a child has been heard, and it will be answered. This child will be used mightily by God in calling his people to repentance, the common work of a prophet. His ministry will be marked by preparing the people for the coming of the messiah. In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent to the virgin Mary. Mary is frightened, but she is ready to be obedient. Here virginity is actually quite important. Some have argued that the Old Testament word simply means a young woman. Context, however, makes that unlikely. While that word has a wide range of meaning between “virgin” and “young woman”, the Greek word that Luke uses definitely means “virgin”. It could even be used for men who were virgins. So, “young woman” is definitely not what the author or the Spirit intends. Mary’s virginity becomes even clearer when she asks the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” It would make no sense for Mary to ask how she could be pregnant just because she’s a young woman. Who else can get pregnant? It’s a sign rightly because she is a virgin. The relationship between Mary and Elizabeth is close but uncertain. They could have very well been aunt and niece, or maybe even cousins with a considerable age difference. So John and Jesus will have some kind of family relation, likely cousins. Mary’s song has been called her Magnificat. She focuses her song on the mercy and greatness of God, not on herself. If Mary is a leader in anything, it is in right worship of God. When John is born, Zechariah is inspired to prophecy. He praises God for what he has done and what he will do through his son. John will remind people that God’s promises are sure, and one who sits on David’s throne is close at hand. After John is born, Joseph and Mary are forced to Bethlehem for a census. Some historians have taken issue with Luke’s dating and mention of a census brought during the time of Quirinius. Archaeological evidence has shown a census by Quirinius, but it is several years later. Several options are available to square what Luke writes with extrabiblical sources. The most convincing is that the phrase “when Quirinius was governor” could just as well be translated “before Quirinius was governor”. It’s a matter of which subordinating conjunction properly is best in context, because “when” is not in the original text. Some conjunction must be assumed when the phrase is translated into English. Luke tells the story quickly. He spends more time on the various travels the family makes. Thousands (multitude) of angels announce to the shepherds nearby that Christ the Lord is born. They are to visit him immediately and tell Mary and Joseph what the angels had told them, namely that this child will be for the salvation of all peoples. In keeping with the law, Jesus is presented at the temple on the eighth day. Mary and Joseph offer their sacrifices. This time is when Simeon and Anna get to see the Christ child. More and more people are assured that this child is the promised Messiah of God. Luke skips twelve years of Jesus’s childhood. The reasons are not clear, but we should not worry that there are truths we do not know for which we are responsible for knowing. There were attempts in later centuries to create fantastic tales about Christ’s upbringing that the gospels do not give. One such fabrication is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The earliest copies we have of this is from the sixth century, and no serious Christian has ever accepted it as remotely true. It’s quite short. In one section, Jesus is five-years-old and fashions twelve sparrows from clay. When he is questioned about why he did this on the Sabbath, he claps his hands and they come to life and fly away. Then, another child bumps shoulders with Jesus as he’s running, and Jesus curses the boy to die. You know, typical Jesus-stuff. But anyway, while at the temple, Jesus is asking the teachers questions. Asking questions was a common form of teaching, so it might be that what astonishes the teachers is how much this child already understands. One common question is if Jesus knew, or when he knew, what obedience to the law of God would get him. Or, when did Jesus know that he would die for the sins of the world? That seems like an awful lot to expect a twelve-year-old to carry. Whatever Jesus knew and when, he knew before age twelve that God was his Father. He knew what he meant, but his parents did not. By Luke pointing out that contrast, it seems that Jesus knows more than we might expect. Luke goes to great lengths to date exactly when John began his ministry. John was a traveling preacher who called the people to repentance. He would baptize people upon repentance, not before. John didn’t baptize babies. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, not of the proper genealogy. It is not a kingdom of good behavior. When people came to John to be baptized who were living as the pagans do, he knew that what they wanted was easy access to good living in God’s kingdom. The wrath of God was indeed coming, and no one could flee from it. It was inevitable. And an outward rite of baptism would do nothing to save you from it. What John demanded was repentance, followed by the image of death to self and resurrected life through baptism. So why was Jesus baptized? What did he repent of? In the same way that Jesus died on behalf of his people, Jesus repents on behalf of his people, of which baptism is the sign. The Holy Spirit descends on him, and the Father speaks. As a man, Christ lived in the power of the Spirit, just as we do. Luke is definitely a gospel for everyone, Jew and gentile alike. Instead of focusing on the Jewish nature of Jesus’s family line, Luke goes all the way back to creation. He shows that Jesus is the savior of all people, since he descends from the same two parents that we do. Psalms 56-60 Psalm 56: God is to be trusted. Psalm 57: God will save the faithful from their enemies. Psalm 58: Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Psalm 59: God’s strength protects his people. Psalm 60: God both judges and saves his people. |