I picked up the Bible this morning (Sunday, July 17) and started Chronciles. The first nine chapters or so are catch-up on genealogies from the beginning of time to King David. I felt I deserved a break after getting through that, so I'll go back and read the rest another day.
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It's now Wednesday. I haven't picked up Chronicles yet to continue it because I'm still trying to process some stuff. In 1 Chronicles 2:4, it states: "Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar also had two sons: Perez and Zerah. Now, I remember reading about this in Genesis (chapter 38). In short, Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and Judah had sex with her. She got pregnant and they had two sons. I really didn't think too much of it at the time, because everyone was doing something wrong.
But, as I read the bigger picture of the fmaily tree, I see that David himself came from this line. So, King David came from an incestuous relationship. (Okay, maybe they were not blood related, but it was his daughter-in-law) And, she prostituted herself, which means he solicited her services.
All that's well and good. It sheds light for me about David and Bathsheba. But, I know that Jesus came from this family line as well. And he was the illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph, conceived outside of marriage. So, we have Jesus, the illegitimate child from a family line that is rooted in prostitution and incest. What is that?
And then I got to thinking. Solomon, the heir to David's throne, the builder of the temple, the wisest king that lived, was a child of adultery. Sure, I knew all this before, but I never really thought about it.
So you can see, Chronicles is a lot to take in, and it's just a repeat. We'll see how it goes.
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Now it's Friday, around 8:30 pm. I've been thinking about Judah and Tamar all week, and I think I've made sense of it (at least for me). God new before time began how it was all going to work out, yet he chose to have David, a man after his own heart, to be King and come from Judah and Tamar's line. Then, he chose that Jesus would entire humankind via this same line.
That, and every other messed up person that I've read about so far leads me to this final conclusion -- God prefers to work through misfits, or screw-ups. Or, for those who don't like strong language, God prefers to work through people who regularly screw up.
Why do I come to this conclusion? Although I haven't gotten as far as Job yet, I know the story. He was a man who was blameless before God, and look what happened to him - bad times. But, look at all the people who sinned for a living, but wanted to have a reationship with God - he used them.
Paul wrote about his thorn that God gave him - when we are weak, He is strong. I've always thought that God can use us in spite of our shortcomings. Now I've concluded that God likes to use us because of our shortcomings. It is when we are weakest, he is strongest.
Now I can move on.
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It's Saturday afternoon. I can finally finish this post, as I read the rest of 1 and 2 Chronicles this morning. It was nice. The writer focused more on the David, Solomon and the subsequent Kings who obeyed the Lord than all the ones who disobeyed. It was nice.
I'm not sure I would have come to the prior conclusion that God prefers to work through misfits had I read Chronicles in its entirety initially. Even David and Solomon had their challenges, though they are not mentioned much here (i.e., David's indiscretion with Bathsheba, Solomon building an altar for the pagan god of one of his wives). All in all, a pleasant Saturday morning read. Now I have to leave my house, because I just had my floors stained, and it stinks like nothing else.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
1 & 2 Kings
Same thing goes for Kings as Samuel - one book that's too long for one scroll so they cut it. I read both earlier today.
Solomon became king after Adonijah tried to take it. Again, you don't hear much about Adonijah, so we know how it worked out for him - no kingship! Solomon went to work building the temple and grew in wisdom and influence and wealth. Solomon disobeyed by worshiping the god of one of his wives. God's response is to split the nation - David's descendants will rule Judah but the rest of Israel will be ruled by someone else. Enter Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the King of Judah and Jeroboam, the King of Israel.
If up to now the book is about Solomon's installation, building the temple, the realization of God's promise in Egypt and Solomon's succession plans, the remainder of the two books is about destroying the temple, running away from God's promise and ruining any possible plans for future succession.
The people of Israel disobeyed from the time they left Egypt - in the desert, in their new land, and with the judges. Heck, before God chose them as his people and said he'd protect them and made these promises, we met a bunch of others who found new and creative ways to disappoint him. He destroyed the place in Noah's time and vowed not to do it again. Here we are with a divided Israel, reading the stories of the Kings and their antics, and it's the same old same-old.
Each King of Israel and Judah are listed, their time in office and some of the things they did. Some have more stuff written about them than others. Generally, each story ends with "and he ruled these many years and obeyed / disobeyed God more / less / the same as his predecessor." Only one King obeyed as David did - Josiah, King of Judah, but King Manesseh screwed it up so bad that God was finally done with Judah and they would eventually be given over to Babylon. Israel had already been given up to Assyria.
Each King that disobeyed did so in creative and deplorable ways. A common statement is that they sinned like that of those in other lands. For example, King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3 - CEV) "sacrificed his own son, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel."
Now, this hit me. More than once the writer talked about the sacrifice of children, that it was bad. Here, I'm reminded of Jesus. God sacrificed Jesus, his own son - "which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel." What a display. How difficult must it have been for the Jewish people of Jesus day to accept that he was God, or even for modern Jews, given that it is "disgusting?"
And what an act of love. The very thing God told his own people not to be - they were set apart from the lands and people they conquered - well, he did it in order to bridge the gap back to Himself.
That's a lot to process.
Solomon became king after Adonijah tried to take it. Again, you don't hear much about Adonijah, so we know how it worked out for him - no kingship! Solomon went to work building the temple and grew in wisdom and influence and wealth. Solomon disobeyed by worshiping the god of one of his wives. God's response is to split the nation - David's descendants will rule Judah but the rest of Israel will be ruled by someone else. Enter Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the King of Judah and Jeroboam, the King of Israel.
If up to now the book is about Solomon's installation, building the temple, the realization of God's promise in Egypt and Solomon's succession plans, the remainder of the two books is about destroying the temple, running away from God's promise and ruining any possible plans for future succession.
The people of Israel disobeyed from the time they left Egypt - in the desert, in their new land, and with the judges. Heck, before God chose them as his people and said he'd protect them and made these promises, we met a bunch of others who found new and creative ways to disappoint him. He destroyed the place in Noah's time and vowed not to do it again. Here we are with a divided Israel, reading the stories of the Kings and their antics, and it's the same old same-old.
Each King of Israel and Judah are listed, their time in office and some of the things they did. Some have more stuff written about them than others. Generally, each story ends with "and he ruled these many years and obeyed / disobeyed God more / less / the same as his predecessor." Only one King obeyed as David did - Josiah, King of Judah, but King Manesseh screwed it up so bad that God was finally done with Judah and they would eventually be given over to Babylon. Israel had already been given up to Assyria.
Each King that disobeyed did so in creative and deplorable ways. A common statement is that they sinned like that of those in other lands. For example, King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3 - CEV) "sacrificed his own son, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel."
Now, this hit me. More than once the writer talked about the sacrifice of children, that it was bad. Here, I'm reminded of Jesus. God sacrificed Jesus, his own son - "which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the Lord had forced out of Israel." What a display. How difficult must it have been for the Jewish people of Jesus day to accept that he was God, or even for modern Jews, given that it is "disgusting?"
And what an act of love. The very thing God told his own people not to be - they were set apart from the lands and people they conquered - well, he did it in order to bridge the gap back to Himself.
That's a lot to process.
1 & 2 Samuel
The notes at the beginning of Samuel says it is one book that was separated to fit on two scrolls, so I tried to read the entire thing as one. I did it in two sittings, but close together.
Samuel begins with his conception, birth and dedication to the Lord. It ends when David is about to die, so it takes us from Samuel as a priest, the Israelites request for a King, the installation of Saul and subsequent installation of David and the soap opera that surrounded it all. Lots of lessons for me, the first of which was that Samuel had to learn to recognize God's voice. Nice to know it's not just me.
I thought is was funny that in his farewell speech (12:17) Samuel proves to the people that God did not want to give them a King, but did so because they wanted it. Free will. Of course, Saul disobeys, as did most everyone else I've read about so far, and God chooses David. David, respecting the authority, would not kill Saul, God's chosen, but waited for God to remove him. It was several years.
I also found it interesting that at one point Saul needed some guidance so he called on a lady who could talk to the dead and they spoke with Samuel's ghost.
When David became king of Judah and he mourned and sang a song in Saul's memory (1:17-27). Ishbosheth became king of Israel but how much have we heard about him? It only lasted for two years, then David took over.
Lots of stories about wars, killings and deaths. All in all, David does good except for the Bathsheba incident. Even then, good came from it because their son, Solomon, was the next king. I learned that David was painfully loyal to his family and generally obedient to God.
On to Kings.
Samuel begins with his conception, birth and dedication to the Lord. It ends when David is about to die, so it takes us from Samuel as a priest, the Israelites request for a King, the installation of Saul and subsequent installation of David and the soap opera that surrounded it all. Lots of lessons for me, the first of which was that Samuel had to learn to recognize God's voice. Nice to know it's not just me.
I thought is was funny that in his farewell speech (12:17) Samuel proves to the people that God did not want to give them a King, but did so because they wanted it. Free will. Of course, Saul disobeys, as did most everyone else I've read about so far, and God chooses David. David, respecting the authority, would not kill Saul, God's chosen, but waited for God to remove him. It was several years.
I also found it interesting that at one point Saul needed some guidance so he called on a lady who could talk to the dead and they spoke with Samuel's ghost.
When David became king of Judah and he mourned and sang a song in Saul's memory (1:17-27). Ishbosheth became king of Israel but how much have we heard about him? It only lasted for two years, then David took over.
Lots of stories about wars, killings and deaths. All in all, David does good except for the Bathsheba incident. Even then, good came from it because their son, Solomon, was the next king. I learned that David was painfully loyal to his family and generally obedient to God.
On to Kings.
Ruth
I'm still on vacation in Nefoundland. I was confused on my last post - it was Friday, not Thursday. I thought I wouldn't add anything else due to the dial-up connection, but I've read so much my head is about explode if I don't write something.
After finishing Ortberg's book on Friday, I picked up "Jesus in the Margins" by Rick McKinley and read it Sunday morning. Another great book with some fantastic insights and also an easy read. In the midst, I read Ruth.
I mentioned to an acquaintence (a pastor) that I was about to read Ruth and he said he had prepared an eight week series from Ruth. I wasn't looking to get that deep, and wanted to take something away more personal. Ruth is a lesson for me in faithfulness. Ruth's faithfulness to her mother-in-law, Naomi (I live next door to mine), Naomi's faithfulness to Ruth, the community's faithfulness to Naomi, Boaz' faithfulness to his family, and all of it a picture of God's faithfulness.
As well, it's a feel-good story in the midst of all sorts of crazy disobedience-themed stories. It's nice to see that someone was being faithful to God.
Finally, it ends showing the family tree to get to David, which we know is an ancestor of the line Jesus was born into. So, the picture of faithfulness is put into context of a larger historical picture. I enjoyed it. Maybe I'll come back one day and look for an eight-week study, but not anytime soon.
On to Samuel.
After finishing Ortberg's book on Friday, I picked up "Jesus in the Margins" by Rick McKinley and read it Sunday morning. Another great book with some fantastic insights and also an easy read. In the midst, I read Ruth.
I mentioned to an acquaintence (a pastor) that I was about to read Ruth and he said he had prepared an eight week series from Ruth. I wasn't looking to get that deep, and wanted to take something away more personal. Ruth is a lesson for me in faithfulness. Ruth's faithfulness to her mother-in-law, Naomi (I live next door to mine), Naomi's faithfulness to Ruth, the community's faithfulness to Naomi, Boaz' faithfulness to his family, and all of it a picture of God's faithfulness.
As well, it's a feel-good story in the midst of all sorts of crazy disobedience-themed stories. It's nice to see that someone was being faithful to God.
Finally, it ends showing the family tree to get to David, which we know is an ancestor of the line Jesus was born into. So, the picture of faithfulness is put into context of a larger historical picture. I enjoyed it. Maybe I'll come back one day and look for an eight-week study, but not anytime soon.
On to Samuel.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Newfoundland Vacation
It's Thursday afternoon (I think), and we've been in Newfoundland for a couple days now. We arrived at my parents last night, I got up this morning and read "God is Closer Than You Think" by John Ortberg. What a great book! I enjoy his writing style and where he's coming from, but I'm not going to talk about the book here.
The only internet that's available here in my hometown is dial-up. Right now I've got a lightning-speed 40k connection. Wow.
So, not much blogging for the next few days.
Except one simple prayer that comes out of the book: "Lord, make up there come down here!" Genius!
The only internet that's available here in my hometown is dial-up. Right now I've got a lightning-speed 40k connection. Wow.
So, not much blogging for the next few days.
Except one simple prayer that comes out of the book: "Lord, make up there come down here!" Genius!
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