Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
ABIATHAR
REJECTION
1 Kings 2:27 ESV – So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, thus fulfilling the word of the LORD that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
I would like to return to Abiathar for one more post, for though he reflected Jesus as a survivor, (Jesus in the Old Testament – Abiathar – 01) he also reflects the Lord’s experience as one rejected.
Remember that Abiathar was a priest that had narrowly escaped the wrath of a crazy king, but in his latter days, he made a decision that was not in his own favor. In the last days of David’s reign, Abiathar decided to break away from his king to follow Adonijah. The rebel son who sought to become King Solomon’s enemy. The son of David who saw his brother Absalom succumb to the hand of God in protecting the reign of David, also tried to wrest the kingdom away.
David’s reign and dynasty was to be extended through Solomon, but Adonijah saw opportunity, and Abiathar got caught up in the possibility of a King Adonijah
All of this history speaks of Abiathar’s mistakes, his ungratefulness, his treachery to the reign of God through David, yet he was rejected by the king, rightfully so, but rejected!
A priest rejected by a king. How shameful!
Jesus, as a priest above and beyond the mere earthly honor of Abiathar, performed no self serving lining up with an earthly political flashpoint, but served God only in His faithful life. He is nothing like Abiathar in this priest’s efforts to gain office through treachery, yet they both suffered rejection, shame and dishonor.
Only how much greater shame the Son of God experienced, for though Abiathar deserved the shame, Jesus only deserves honor, glory and splendor. For His name to be associated with shame, rejection and dishonor only reflects on us, a people who truly do not understand the greatness of the Son!
Honor and accept His ways, for He is beyond our imagination in the goodness He will guide us into.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
173
GLORY TO YOUR PEOPLE ISRAEL
Luke 2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
In a post in this series, the Name of God we considered was “Glory of Israel”, and Samuel was addressing King Saul, trying to get through his head that he wasn’t the glory of Israel, he wasn’t the strength or supreme eminence of Israel, and that his throne was not perpetual – As a matter of fact, his kingdom had been taken from him.
Flash forward over 1,000 years into the future from the rejection of the earthly reign of King Saul to the birth of a young peasant girl’s first born.
Mary and Joseph arrive at the temple, with the child being 40 days old for his presentation before the God of Israel when Simeon first laid eyes on this baby. Now it seems God had somehow communicated to Simeon that he would see the salvation of the “Lord’s Christ”. This is no small event that Simeon had been privileged to enter into. The focus of all the prophets, seers, priests and faithful of Israel and beyond had waited for this day, the day when the Savior would be revealed to the world.
Did Simeon have preconceptions? Was he informed by God that he would recognize the Messiah in the form of a baby? Might he have thought that the Messiah would be a man of power that would rise up in the nation, with God providing verification to him at the right time? Even anointed as David was, though somewhat in obscurity until the right time?
All conjecture, but for myself, to think that Simeon would make such a statement over a baby as he did, after waiting to see the “Lord’s Christ”, the Anointed of God, is remarkable.
Jesus spoke no words. He provided no message. He had performed no miracles. He was a helpless baby, dependent upon his parents, held close to his mothers heart. Mary had treasured up many things, pondering truths revealed to her in her heart. Joseph had been spoken to, and now Simeon comes out of the woodwork, speaking of the person of this baby.
Even at His birth, those of the nascent church recognized truth without any argument, without any “evidence” required. They heard the voice of God and knew this baby was the One.
He was, and is, the glory offered to the nation of Israel. Even as the nation of Israel was in the throws of it’s deepest idolatry and legalism, God’s greatest gift was provided to the nation, and not only the nation, but to the world. And one more voice, the voice of an elderly man, was added to the list of witnesses that spoke of salvation from God in the form of a baby.
To those who have yet to trust Him, His person, His words, and His works, glory has also been offered. To those who know not God, glory is offered.
Yet note that Simeon spoke of glory being offered to “your” people Israel. Simeon spoke of glory being offered to Israel, the people of God. They had no idea of the explosive, blinding glory they would experience as His life was lived before them.
Beyond His life, His resurrection only multiplied and magnified the glory they experienced during His life amongst them. Glory upon glory to a people who rejected Him, and yet were offered greater glory than they could have ever imagined!
He truly is good, and He is truly good all the time!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.
As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.
1 Thessalonians 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,
Election. To be chosen.
There is a large portion of the Christian body that focuses on this term and develops a logical construction of the process of salvation with the help of this term.
I have spent much of my time as a believer deep in this teaching, defending the doctrine, all in an effort to promote the faith, to maintain the true gospel and to provide comfort and encouragement to those who have not found the truth.
In this teaching called Calvinism, I emphasized the need to believe the logical construction of the five points of Calvinism, in order to provide an eternal security to the believer. If you have been with me for any period of time, you will have come to know that this teaching has been found wanting in my mind and heart as I have aged, and that security in Jesus is found in the person of God and not a contract that I depended on 40 some odd years ago.
Yes I depended on that night in 1981 as my key to heaven, instead of the Living Christ!
The verse we are addressing this morning is one of seven verses that use the term “chosen” ἐκλογή eklogḗ. The full list of this specific word follows.
In our verse today, it is apparent that the evidence of the choosing by God of these Thessalonians is described in the next verse, and we shall develop that thought in our next post. For the verse today, let us consider the motivation of God in His choosing the Thessalonians at the time of Paul’s visit.
Loved by God
In this verse we have one verb. Simple. One action word by which Paul is trying to communicate to these people a message of comfort and encouragement. The verb is not “to choose” or “chosen”, but beloved.
This is the heart of the verse, and here our focus should rightly settle. As we get into our next verse, Paul will indicate that these people understood the love of God, and that Paul reminded them of God’s choosing of them by the evidence of their actions.
I do not understand Paul to be teaching an us / them scenario, in which he calls out believers as more special, or better than those who did not believe. He simply reminds them of the love of God they experienced, and of the proof of this through the actions they took.
Consider – Might there be some interplay between the love of God and the decisions/actions these believers entered into that exhibited the truth of their faith to Paul? Is Paul letting them know that based on the power of the Spirit in their lives and their steel convictions, it is evident they are children of God.
My friends, as I ventured into the logical reasonings of Calvinism – and it is logical! , I found I fell into a fatalism, a thinking (rightly or wrongly – I cannot tell) that caused a hardening in my heart, an indifference to those outside the faith.
In my focusing on my election, I fell into the rut of thinking “They weren’t chosen but I was”. Whatever evangelistic tone in my life morphed into a analytical defense of a teaching that created an us/them thinking. Are we to discern truth by the effect it has on our lives? I would argue that any teaching that hardens us to others is not the spirit of the Friend of Sinners!
This is my testimony, and I do not claim it to be anything other than my testimony, but to follow after the logical reasoning that in time past God chose me to be saved created questions I couldn’t grapple with, thoughts that limited God and froze me up.
But God loves me, a sinner and rebel that is weak, blind and crippled. He has provided a Savior that constantly provides blessing and gladness in spite of my history, my failings and my self love. His love is to be the Banner over our lives, not a teaching that creates questions, provides mysteries and borrows from a logical thought process of the ancients.
As mentioned above, I have walked away from a contractual perspective of Christianity, finding that security may be best, and I believe, only be found in the person of the Christ. As the believer seeks to follow the Messiah, we find that He provides the comfort, encouragement, strength, challenge and guidance for a daily walk.
To know Him and to follow Him is to have and gain an internal security that settles in the heart, as opposed to an eternal security based on a decision in some past point in time.
The decision to trust Christ is the start of a continual life adventure that is full of challenge, rife with repentance, and with abounding comfort and He ministers to His people.
He is so good. He loves us! Spend your day focusing on the great love of God, and His continued blessing in your life.
May God be honored in our lives by our remembering His great love to us!
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 69 is a psalm of sorrow, of apparent defeat and deep emotional stress, of a distress in the heart and of being overwhelmed, of a weariness of soul, and of a waiting for an answer from God. It is a psalm that speaks of loneliness, of disappointment and of extended trials.
As we venture through the psalmist’s deep confession, his pain and his sorrow, we will encounter passages that will be referred to in the New Testament, providing a recounting of the sorrow of Jesus.
Psalm 69:19 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Psalm 69:20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. Psalm 69:21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
It has been said that this passage is amongst the deepest pleas for mercy in the Old Testament. David is hitting rock bottom, and expressing a complete helplessness and hopelessness, a condition that repeats the first few verses but has the sense of a deeper exposing of the grief and despair of the subject.
Reproach
Reproach is a common refrain in this psalm.
Psalm 69:7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. Psalm 69:9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. Psalm 69:10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. Psalm 69:19 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Psalm 69:20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
The Hebrew term is חֶרְפָּה cherpâh and includes the concepts of disgrace, rebuke and shame.
Shame
This is the only occurrence of shame in this psalm, and the Hebrew term is בֹּשֶׁת bôsheth. This term includes the concepts of confusion and shame, and is associated sometimes with idols, the object of shame for an Israelite. Shame, for the modern world is such that it is ignored, an emotion that is considered to be rejected as opposed to accepted and trained from. How often has our modern society taken a topic that is shameful, even just decades ago, and turned the topic into a discussion of those brave to enter into a shameful life decision. This rejection of the painful emotion of shame is not to anyone’s benefit. We, as a modern society have lost much honor by rejecting shame in our society.
The Hebrew culture was a shame based culture, and to be inflicted with shame was to enter into a condition that may effectively remove you from the social order, from business associations, from family and loved ones, who sought to uphold the social fabric of their community.
Shame, when accepted due to sinful activities performed by the subject, should produce repentance and possibly allow for reentrance in to the social order. At the very least, right living after repentance would be the fruit of accepting and responding to shame in a godly way.
On the other hand, shame laid on a person due to libel, gossip, slander defamation and lies is not something that can be responded to by the victim. Repentance is not necessary, or even available as a tool to repair the damage. The lies and vilification of the enemy stick to the victims character, and even in the best situations, some of the slander will never be removed from the social conscience.
Dishonor
Our third term is the Hebrew word כְּלִמָּה kᵉlimmâh, and it is mentioned twice within our Psalm.
Psalm 69:7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. Psalm 69:19 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.
This term includes the concepts of insult, reproach, shame, confusion and ignominy.
As you have read through this short study, I am sure you have recognized the three terms we have looked at all describe the basic concept of shame.
David was experiencing a depth of shame in his condition that bared repeating in three different shades of meaning. For a king of Israel, the man after God’s own heart, to experience shame within the culture should speak volumes to the modern believer. It is not always the way of the Christ to walk in apparent honor within the social order, though we are not to bring the shame upon ourselves or family, or the church by willful sin and rebellion. Yet our enemy may fling accusations and slander to create the illusion of dishonor on our lives. Let us remember the counsel of Peter in regards to suffering, even of undeserved shame.
1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
1 Peter 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
Of course, we are to look to the Master in all areas of our life, and as David poured out his heart, helpless in his circumstance, we too may also cry out to the One who hears, and can restore in His time. For of all those who have walked this earth, He alone has suffered the greatest undeserved shame.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
172
Glory of Israel
1 Samuel 15:29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.
Samuel, the great prophet of God, the king maker of Israel is facing Saul, Israel’s first king. Samuel is not a happy camper, for Saul has ignored the Word of the Lord by not completely destroying the enemy of Israel. Saul has decided to be religious instead of righteous, for instead of obeying, he sacrifices animals that cost him nothing, in an effort to appease the God who had given him everything.
Nothing good is coming from this decision of Saul’s. Samuel lets him know that the kingdom will be taken from him, that the Lord has rejected him as king over Israel.
Samuel had to tell the man he anointed as king over Israel that his time of authority over Israel, and under God was over. Not only has Saul lost the kingdom, God had already found a replacement.
This has to be a mistake. Saul was desperate and sought to find a solution, yet Samuel makes the statement we are considering this morning declaring God’s unchanging will in this matter.
This is the only time this name of God shows up in the Word, and the term “Glory” in this verse is the term נֶצַח netsach. Of the many Hebrew words that are translated as glory in the Word, this particular word is inclined to the meaning of strength, or eminence, even perpetuity.
An interesting word to remind Saul that he is not the strength or eminence of Israel, and that his reign is not perpetual.
God is the perpetual strength of His people. He is the eminent One, the King of all. He is the Glory of Israel!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Ezekiel 18:24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
When reading Ezekiel in my former thoughts, I would conveniently skip over chapter 18, and 33.
For this post, let’s not skip the message Ezekiel delivered to the nation of Israel in chapter 18. It is a difficult passage, and will sting as it did I when I eventually allowed it to get through to my contractual heart!
I say contractual heart, for as I have mentioned of my previous thoughts on this topic of eternal security, I considered my initial faith to be the signing of a contract with the Lord that was unassailable, that the contract could not be deemed null and void, that all decisions and heart thoughts I entered into and acted upon had no bearing on my relationship with the Living God.
I had a contract!
Since those days of old, I have come to a considered opinion, an opinion some near and dear friends consider a wrong position, but that as I read the Word, seems to be the consistent witness of the Word.
One of the many passages that cracked open the possibility of my error in thinking was the passage we are looking at today.
Ezekiel is in the middle of a generation of Israeli’s that are under the judgment of God, with deportation and captivity from the land being experienced by the nation. Of course, as we know of human nature, we should expect complaints and blame-shifting by those who are in trials. This generation does not disapoint.
Those with Ezekiel in Babylon are speaking a proverb about sour grapes, and that their circumstances aren’t fair, that their fathers sinned and they are being punished for their father’s sin.
Ezekiel provides the nation a lesson on personal responsibility.
Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
He goes through a recounting of a man and his son’s life choices.
Ezekiel 18:5-9 Speaks of a faithful man and that he shall live.
Ezekiel 18:9 walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully–he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.
This faithful man’s son decides to sin. Ezekiel 18:10 – 13
Ezekiel 18:13 ….shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
This violent man fathers a son, and walks the faithful life.
Ezekiel 18:17 withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live.
So Ezekiel lays it out before the people of Israel, that each generation has a choice to walk properly, and will be judged on their own lives. Life and death is dependent on their life time decisions.
Faithful = life
Sinful = death
The summary of the story – the soul who sins shall die
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Verse 24 fleshes this truth out, for Ezekiel speaks of the righteous man who turns away from righteousness, in his treachery he shall die. His past righteousness shall not be remembered!
Ezekiel 18:24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
In explaining this truth to the people of God, Ezekiel asks a rhetorical question.
If a righteous person turns away, shall he live?
Of course the people of God argued against this teaching, even saying that the Lord is not just in His ways.
Incredible how history repeats itself, and that those who struggle with this general teaching will claim that God is unjust.
No matter your opinion on this topic, Ezekiel’s words are as pertinent to us as to the men and women during the captivity. The people who know God are to have a new spirit and a new heart. Our ways are to reflect the faith we espouse – continuously.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”
My friend, seek God and do as He directs. Be faithful unto God in all that you know, and His Spirit will be with you.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you would like to receive daily posts from Considering the Bible, click on the “Follow” link below
As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.
Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.
1 Samuel 27:1-12 1 Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” 2 So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. 4 And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.
In our last post, we watched as the existing king of Israel and the future king of Israel faced off after some very embarrassing circumstances for Saul and Abner, along with some very good logic provided by David, the future king.
During the discourse, Saul confessed his sin towards David, and invited him home. (How sweet!)
David, on the other hand provided an argument to Saul of the current situation that was unanswerable, much like the Son of David often provided to those who sought His life!
During this speech of David, and in the middle of one of his claims, he mentioned that if men had stirred up Saul to persecute David, the end result, which was horrendous to David, would be that
1 Samuel 26:19 ….they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
The men who had stirred up Saul was intending to drive David from the God he loved, from the temple where he sought the Lord, and into a land that was foreign and without the God of Israel.
In our passage today, we find that David refused the kind offer of Saul to return to Israel, and it’s general populace, (along with being within Saul’s grasp at any moment), but that he left the nation completely, knowing Saul was not to be trusted at all, that his words were to be rejected.
So we find David resorting to Achish, king of Gath, in the land of the Philistines.
Now if you have a good memory, this isn’t the first time David has went to Achish. Early on in David’s fleeing from Saul, David showed up at Achish’s doorstep, seeking some refuge of a type. For a brief reminder consider reading 1 Samuel 21:10-15, or Life of David – 12.01 and 12.02
This time, David flees Israel to enter the land of Dagon, the fish god, bringing his 600 men, with their families into pagan territory.
This strategy of David is not uncommon for those who follow the Lord, disappearing for a time to allow their enemies to be taken care of.
Did not the parents of Jesus go into pagan territory to keep the future King of Israel, and Savior of the world safe from a wicked king in Israel? David removed himself from Saul’s grasp, and in doing so, would never interact with him again.
What turmoil David must have endured, for we know that he literally cut himself off from his family, for he had lost his wife Michal to Saul’s instability, he lost access to his best friend Jonathon, all of the relationships he has forged while fighting for Israel under Saul’s kingship were done, other than those he was now traipsing into foreign land. Certainly a time of David’s life that offered him the temptation to despair.
On top of all his turmoil, he would no longer enter the temple, no longer be where the Lord resided, and to be before Him. He would be amongst weak, foreign, lifeless god’s who mocked the True God and His followers.
David’s strategy worked, for we see in the 4th verse, Saul no longer sought David, since he had fled to Gath.
Could we conclude that when David claimed the men that forced him to the land of other gods, that in reality, those men, or that man was to be cursed for doing so?
Let’s reread 1 Samuel 26:19
1 Samuel 26:19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant…. if it is men, may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
David was delivering Saul his own curse, in that Saul was the reason David fled his nation, and had entered Philistia, a land that was rife with other gods.
Saul intent may have been to corrupt David, but we know that he came out of Philistia stronger and more passionate for the will of God than when he entered. We shall see David enter struggle after struggle, disappointment topped with despair, but he came out of the land of the Philistines ready to reign and to bring glory days to the nation.
What man planned for evil, God used for good. Does that sound familiar? Very much so, for God orchestrates our lives through the good and the bad, to bring about His will.
The best example of this is of course the Lord Jesus, for He entered the worst possible condition, that is the taking of His life, the violent removal from the land of the living, to only arise to greater glory, greater authority and greater power.
He did not stay in the land of the dead, but arose to provide entrance into the land of the living for all His followers.
May we give thanks to our Son of David, no matter our own situation. If it be difficult, look to Him, for He is orchestrating the good even as we follow Him.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Balaam
A Stranger to the Jews
Deuteronomy 23:4 … because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
John 6:42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Balaam was a non Israelite prophet that is reknown as a man with an evil (greedy) eye, as a prophet who forsook the way of righteousness, and who loved the wages of unrighteousness. His greatest failing was that of providing Balak counsel to cripple Israel though committing fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
Peter also has some very harsh things to say about this man.
2 Peter 2:15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
Jude reiterates the rebuke of Peter.
Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
In all of Balaam’s moral failings and apostacy, he remains a type of Christ in a number of surprising ways.
Our first picture of Christ in Balaam’s life was that He was a stranger to the Israelite. Now before you start to fear that I will seek to argue that Jesus wasn’t a full Jew, let me explain. But first let me establish that Balaam was a stranger to the Jews.
Deuteronomy 23:4 … because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Balaam was neither Israeli, nor of the Moabites, yet a prophet that spoke to God and that listened to God (sort of).
Jesus was THE prophet of God, yet His origin was not Israeli, nor of any near neighbor to the Israeli people. He was from far, far away, a Stranger that was brought to the region to prophecy. He spoke to others the Word of God, and we shall see in the following posts that Balaam also spoke the Word of God though in this case Israel’s enemies.
Balaam turned out to be Israel’s greatest enemy of the time, simply by providing counsel of their weakness to the enemy. Thankfully in this regard, Jesus is the Savior of those who are victims of this teaching, bringing holiness, purity and contentment to His followers.
In relation to their origin as related to those who benefitted from their prophecy, both were strangers. One a failed prophet from Mesopotamia, and One a faithful and True prophet from Heaven
Jesus is the Stranger to the Jews who brought salvation and not sin!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
171
GLORY OF THE NATIONS
Isaiah 66:12 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.
To determine the glory of the nations may take many forms. It may be the fantastic roadway systems developed for the safe travel of the nations population. Remember I am a highway engineer so trust me – the highways are incredible – but enough of that.
Other characteristics that might be considered a glory of a nation may be the massive buildings built, the wealth generated for it’s people, the stable social order established, the religious fervor of the people, the integrity of the political process, the righteous laws established, the fair and equitable enforcement of those laws, the societies attitude towards life, both in the womb and next to the grave, the freedom of the citizen to express their thoughts freely. We could go on and on in how some may describe the glory of a nation.
Each of these are valid characteristics for a nation to be judged by in our world.
Note that in Isaiah, as he is describing Jerusalem, representing the new Israel, he speaks of the Glory of the Nations being extended over Israel like an overflowing stream.
Incredible. Thinking in earthly terms, the message may be understood that all the valuable characteristics, possessions and attributes of the greatest nations will impact Israel like an overflowing stream, that Israel will be inundated by the greatness and glory of each of the gentile nations characteristics! She will be elevated to her greatest position. How wonderful!
Yet let us consider an alternate view, a view that may honor God from a different point of view.
Two millennium ago, an itinerant Rabbi taught of God, of the love and care the Father had to those who would repent and follow. The following He attained became threatening to the powers that were, and eventually, all fell away. Yet after His murder and resurrection and within the next 40 years, the new, true Israel flooded the populace of the existing Israel with a new life, with a new understanding of God and His saving nature, and the Glory of the Nations, the One who is the Savior of the world inundated the physical nation of Israel.
The true Israel exploded in life, and while the political/national/religious life of the established Israel faded and eventually ceased to exist, the true Israel continued to grow exponentially, covering all the known world.
The Glory of the Nations is Jesus, and as the resurrected One, He has led the overflowing stream of life and righteousness not only over the people of Israel, but over all the nations.
The nations of the world, including Israel today, have one true Glory in God’s eye.
His name is Jesus!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.
As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s remember that this letter to the Thessalonians is the first of Paul’s many letters to churches and individuals that have become identified as Scripture.
In his career as an apostle, Paul would end up writing at least 13 books of the 27 in the New Testament.
Those books would be Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. I did not add Hebrews to the list as there is disagreement over the author of Hebrews!
I mention this fact due to the multiple times we will trip over seed thoughts of Paul’s in relation to the Christian life, church truths, end time discussions and general direction for the believer in this letter to the fledgling church.
Such is the case in this verse. The triad of Christian virtues is laid out for us in this verse.
Faith love and hope. It turns out that this was a very present theme on Paul’s mind and heart as he aged through the Christian life. Here we find the seed thought in 1 Thessalonians – twice, for he speaks of this again in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 but it is expanded for us in 1 Corinthians.
He doesn’t provide the expansion as he does in 1 Corinthians, but let us consider each on thier own.
Work of Faith
Faith without works is dead. James would coin that phrase for the church to be challenged by years later as he wrote his letter, but the truth for our ears was spoken by the apostle, the apostle of grace, the same apostle who wrote that by grace we are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
We often consider faith to be an internal gift from God, and for many we gravitate to verses such as Romans 3:28 to support the sense that faith is apart from works, as spoken by the same apostle Paul.
Romans 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
How are we to relieve the tension between faith apart from works, and the work of faith?
Consider that the work of faith springs from a faith that was from works. The order is critical, and the work of faith is simply the response of the believer to the tremendous grace Jesus Christ has offered us.
To those who believe not, but are considering following the Master, a word of note. If you truly believe, if you truly repent and believe, you will receive life, an amazing life, and from that life you will desire to know Him first, and to serve Him always. The natural outcome of knowing His will be to produce a work of faith as the Thessalonians did.
LAbor of Love
Again, Paul settles on the concept of work, or labor. A different word here though. As the word “work” in our previous clause was the Greek word ἔργον érgon, meaning to toil or to work, our verb “labor” is κόπος kópos, and it brings into the message the idea of intense labor combined with trouble, or even in combination with a beating, or the voluntary acceptance of trials and pain in the work.
Will not love drive you beyond the efforts your would expend for a simple paycheck, even for a distant friend? To Labor is to push yourself, sacrifice your time, treasure and talent for the sake of someone else, maybe even an enemy. This is so reminiscent of the Master Himself, for He labored for us.
Steadfastness of hope
As I lay in bed this morning, my mind wandered onto this verse and prior studies I ventured into years back. For you see, this steadfastness is a word I have looked at previously and found it to be fascinating.
For those who are interested in the concept of patience and endurance, I spent a period of time considering the concept and its importance in the Christian life in an 8 part series titled Patience. The first in the series is Patience – A Component of Hope
The term is our verse is ὑπομονή hupŏmŏnē, and speaks of a cheerful endurance, a “stick to itiveness” that is not dismayed by trials or tribulations. The term literally means to “remain under”, for the Greek word is made up of “hypo”, meaning under, and “meno”, meaning to remain. To remain under. When pressure becomes intolerable, remain under. When other’s walk away from the faith, remain under. When all the world is yelling at you to concede, or to give up, remain under. Be patient. Endure. Stay the course.
Though I spoke of a “stick to itiveness” above, this characteristic we are to exercise has an object of motivation. It is not simply a “grind your teeth and bear it” type of mentality, a state of stubbornness, but a standing of hope, or of expectation. It isn’t to be fueled by a stubborn heart, a heart that refuses to move out of shear pride.
This abiding under pressures or trials is to be maintained because of the One who led the way. He has endured, “stayed under” the suffering of the cross, for the joy that was set before Him.
Hebrews 12:2-3 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Is not the hope we have that we will experience joy in the future. Our hope is the amazing future ahead, to know Him better, to be with Him in the future. This hope is the anchor that motivates us to “stay under” to remain for His sake.
May the Lord give us the heart of expectation, that we may stand our ground with joy, to “stay under the pressure” and be faithful unto death.
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 69 is a psalm of sorrow, of apparent defeat and deep emotional stress, of a distress in the heart and of being overwhelmed, of a weariness of soul, and of a waiting for an answer from God. It is a psalm that speaks of loneliness, of disappointment and of extended trials.
As we venture through the psalmist’s deep confession, his pain and his sorrow, we will encounter passages that will be referred to in the New Testament, providing a recounting of the sorrow of Jesus.
Psalm 69:16 Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. Psalm 69:17 Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. Psalm 69:18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!
David has bared his soul, revealed his troubles, the threat on his life and kingdom and admitted to his inability to find strength in himself. He has spoken of his humbling in front of his enemies, and the apparent success they bore over him. How it looked for all watching that he had trusted in error. His faith had been directed towards a God who was not able to answer.
How terrible for a saint to go through the appearance of One you have boasted of, and yet experience the appearance of His failing to save. The sting of disappointment cuts to the core, along with the raising of questions in the mind, the self doubt in the heart and the “lostness” the saint may experience.
David has but one thing to say to His Master.
Answer me. The boldness of this saint to demand an answer is beyond my experience. Yes, I have been through difficult times, but I fall into the “Why”, category of prayers. In reflection, this response to difficulty be asking “Why, why why” is the sign of a self indulgent prayer, concerned with my life as opposed to the honor of God!
David needs answers, and he is speaking to God from the most inner core of his being, demanding a response, knowing even in this apparent failure, that God is steadfast in His love, and that He is good. This is foundational for David, an unshakeable truth that he depends on and reminds God of, as he struggles through this prayer.
He hinted in his appeal to God’s nature in a previous verse.
Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
By the time we are three verses later, David has dropped the acceptable time option and is simply appealing to the Lord’s steadfast love and mercy.
He repeats similar demands throughout this small portion of the Psalm
Answer me
We have spent a moment on this demand, yet a moment more. To speak “answer me” is to demand an accounting from One of their inactivity, to direct One to pay attention to the state of the situation, and is to imply that the One spoken to has lost focus, is distracted, and possibly has lost interest.
David is so bold before God, yet his appeal is to the Lord of all creation, and not some vengeful, arrogant, sensitive, insecure cultural deity. He knows to whom he is speaking!
Hide not your face
For God to hide His face is a study that needs to be addressed at a later time, in a separate post or series of posts, for my readings have provided amazing implications.
For the purposes of this posting, and as a generality, God would hide His face due to His people forgetting Him. It was a way of expressing the discipline of God on His people, especially in times of prosperity for the people of God.
But let us consider the modern day believer. For the saint in the New Testament, God has provided the promise of never hiding His face.
Ezekiel 39:29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”
Yet we know that the believer is sometimes disciplined by God.
Hebrews 12:5-6 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
He has promised to not hide His face, and yet we turn from Him.
We turn from Him. His face is towards us in the Savior Jesus, and yet we turn from Him.
Draw near to my soul (Redeem me)
David, after all his confessions, his admission of weakness, his declaration of the trials he is going through, the injustice that he recognizes, in all of this whirlwind of distractions and tribulations, he calls on God to draw near to him.
What?
Are we not to draw near to God? Are we not the ones who are to initiate the process of closeness to God, of repentance and confession? Yes James makes that abundantly clear.
James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
David has spent the previous verses drawing near to God through confession of his sin and inability to solve his trials. He has admitted he is not in control, and that he has no other hope than in God.
Now, he is only expecting that which a millennium later James so succinctly put together for us.
But get this – David speaks in the imperative. For those like myself that aren’t grammar nerds, that speaks of a command, even an order. David may be telling God …
I am broken before you. I am helpless. But You are of a constant and steadfast love. It is who You are O Lord! Now your faithful response O God, is to draw near to me, to my very soul.
David knew his Master. He knew his God and His nature in that He is abundant in mercy, steadfast in love, that his God is a saving God, and that His love is good.
Yes – He is good!
May those who know the Lord confess always and only that He is good!
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
170
GLORIOUS NAME
Nehemiah 9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
We spoke of the term Glorious in our previous post, and of my surprise of the original way this Hebrew term began to describe glory.
For this post let us consider that the very name of God is glorious, not that we call God Glorious, as though people call me Carl, but that His name is glorious.
So, what is a name at it’s core?
A general name is to define a person place or thing as someone, something different than an other. A general name is simply a designation of convenience to identify someone or something.
For a personal name, (for God is personal), the name may describe or identify an individual in his or her most intimate manner, in an effort or manner to designate that person from all others by way of a personal relationship.
When I am in a crowd, and I hear my personal name “Carl”, one head turns to the direction the voice came from. My personal name is used by those I work with, those I have the honor of being friends with, those who relate to me in business matters and the such.
Now, from my personal name to my familial name, there is a filtering of those who apply. When I hear one calling me Dad, (or Daddy), there are few that this applies to, and when I hear it, I come a running.
Then there is the name that I respond to because of who speaks it. When the love of my life says my name, whether it be Carl, Sweetie, Hon or other, I recognize it and respond. She is the only one who may say any of my names and I respond singularly to her because of who she is.
All this rambling about names is my weak effort to describe the reality of relationships in how we relate to one an other.
For God, in the context of this passage, the name that is glorious is “LORD”. For a quick review of LORD, see Names of God – JEHOVAH (LORD) – 2.
He is the One who depends on no-one, is self existent, all powerful, all knowing and never changing. The name “LORD” is glorious in and of itself, for it describes the indescribable.
How my reader would like to consider His glorious name (general, personal, familial, spousal )in his or her life is dependent on their relation with the Savior Jesus, for He revealed the name of God in it’s fullest sense, and provided us the avenue of knowledge to know the LORD.
How glorious is His name to you?
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Consider the first verse. Why are the subjects of the verse blessed? What is the result of this blessing?
When I first read this passage, I automatically though John was simply stating a past fact – that those who had washed their robes – they would have the right to the tree of life. I washed my robes in 1981 – I’m good. Let’s move on!
Yet as I started looking at the passage, I started to consider that the verb was in the present tense. That is to say, it is a continual action. Now I am not a greek scholar, nor even a student of the language. I rely heavily on those who went before, and I am fully open to any for correction. With that said, I will provide what I have found regarding this verb.
As I have found, the verb πλύνω plýnō, – wash in our verse – describes a plunging, or of a flow, a laundering of sorts. The parsing, as shown in the graphic speaks of the possibilty of the verb to be a past action. If this is the correct understanding of this passage, it would definitely support my previous thought.
But in reviewing numerous english translations, non of the translations available translate it as “Blessed are those who have washed…”
Some are so bold to interpret this first phase as
Blessed are those who do His commandments… NKJV
Happy are those doing His commands… YLT
Blessed are they that do his commandments… WEB
I fear that my original understanding, though somewhat comforting, did not provide me the surety of my condition. Surety of my right to the tree of Life, our Savior, is to be found in following Him, washing our robes as they get soiled from our living on this earth.
Got clean robes?
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you would like to receive daily posts from Considering the Bible, click on the “Follow” link below
As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.
Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.
1 Samuel 26:21-25
21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” 22 And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. 23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. 24 Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.” 25 Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
Here we go again.
Saul confesses his error before David, somewhat in similar fashion as he did in 1 Samuel 24:16-21. There are differences though. Other than an admittance that he had sinned, and the invitation for David, his son to return to the family, Saul only speaks of his living the life of a fool. How utterly sad.
Then Saul tries a different tack. He invites David back into the fold. This is very revealing, for I imagine (and that is all this is – my imagination) that Saul is thinking – if I can’t capture this threat to the throne, maybe I can convince him to come back, that my invitation will be sufficient to entice him into my surroundings.
Saul may be sincere, but I fear not. Is it not true that once a man’s word is broken, which Saul has proven on capable of on numerous occasions, only a foolish man would trust enticing words from him.
Proverbs 25:19 Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
Yes Saul is untrustworthy, and may be sensing his own failures.
This turns out to be Saul’s last interaction with the future king of Israel. A future king that sought to have his kingdom built on allowing God to place him on the throne, and not through acts of violence or treachery.
David understood the truth of the Lord’s faithfulness, of how the Lord reward’s us out of our decisions in life. Living a life of self centered desire, walking over others to get ahead, and focusing on my own wants will lead to a life God cannot bless. With that said, it must be reiterated that in all things God is abundantly gracious to us in our circumstances, no matter our decisions, yet it is for us to act properly for the blessings to be released in greater ways.
David said he would not put out his hand against Saul, and that Saul’s life was precious in his sight.
Is not David expressing God’s own thoughts towards His enemies, and expressing the very actions of the Son of God as he proved God’s thoughts. He did consider our lives precious, and not only kept death from falling on us, but took the death we deserved. He is of course the Son of David, and in His life, He exhibited decisions David made here with added grace and added mercy, culminating in His own sacrifice.
Consider verse 24 in relation to God honoring David’s life due to David honoring Saul’s life. David looked to God for salvation from tribulation, and protection.
1 Samuel 26:24 Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.”
Alas, not so with the Son of God, at least in regards to His earthly life. He went through death, even as He saved others, even to save others.
The truth is still the truth, for as we read in verse 23
1 Samuel 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness…
Jesus has been rewarded for a sinless life and a sacrificial death, by way of being raised from the dead, and being lifted to the highest position. He is the King, and as Saul spoke the last words to David, may the same be considered for our Savior.
1 Samuel 26:25 ESV – Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.”
Jesus succeeded in all His actions, and is the Most Blessed!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
It was a good day, a day when things were getting accomplished, when I was finding success in connecting with people, coordinating actions and discussing ideas for the near and far future.
Yes I was enjoying my day, thinking I have it good – which is the truth! I have a beautiful family, having fathered five great children, and now the happy grandfather of nine more living souls. I am feeling healthy, having lost weight and having my doctor report that my blood pressure is down. I have a great job and so many multiple blessings have showered on my life, I feel it would be boastful to express them all.
Yes, I was having a great day. Nothing was at odds, until I took a bio-break, as as I was leaving the restroom, and washing my hands, I looked up into the mirror and noticed my pink shirt has a small stain on it. Just a small smudge, in the left side of my right pocket. A small discoloration, nothing to drastic.
And I became self aware.
Now, when I would enter into someone’s office to discuss an action item, I thought of my appearance. Although I have never thought of my self as a “clothes horse”, this small stain impacted my ability to freely discuss openly with my peers items related to work. I found myself using alternate methods of communication instead of simply walking to a peers desk.
Before I noticed the stain, I had relatively no hesitation to be with people. After, I was reluctant, withdrawn and quieter.
And this got me to thinking. Nothing in my experience regarding all the blessings God has showered down on me had changed. I still had a wonderful wife. My family hadn’t changed in the least. My job was great. Why the inner change with relating to others?
I became self aware. I was concerned with my appearance. I was focused on ME. This inner adjustment happens to all of us at different times in our lives, some more than others. Of course, some are consumed with this self awareness to the point they think of nothing but of themselves.
I suppose I should take note that when I think of myself, when I am consumed with ME, I am not purposedly thinking thoughts of how to please God, of what I should do in my life, how to think and act to reflect the mercy of God I have experienced, of how to relate to others and to be a servant to those I work with.
Am I advocating wearing spotted and stained shirts to work? I think you may be missing the point.
To be concerned with me, myself and I is the antipathy of walking the Christian life. It is not that I should be thinking little of myself, but that I should not be thinking of myself. To think of myself is to start to hollow out my life, to become a shell, a bit lonelier than I was a moment before.
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Paul tells us not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought to think, but to think with sober judgement. In this context he is speaking of the reception of gifts from God, and even in the receiving of gifts from God, we are not to think of ourselves, other than in a sober judgement.
One last passage to dwell on for this topic of self awareness and its unfruitfulness. (Trust me, there are multiple passages that speak this truth!)
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Paul speaks of thinking on attributes of God and of His nature, and of these attributes being exhibited amongst us as we walk this earth. At no time do I see him addressing me as being worthy of thinking on, but the attributes we are to mimic.
Sometimes in my foolish walk, the Lord uses various ways to “”knock me on the head”. Something to take my attention off myself. I am sure His ministry in my life has greater challenges than simply redirecting my thoughts, but I am thankful I have a Savior that will continue to teach and direct me in my day to day walk with Him.
To think of His teaching His child by a stain on a pink shirt! He is so capable to communicate, and as believers, we need to be open to listening to some possibly surprising incidents, always checking with the truth of God’s Word to filter truth from mundane experiences.
A pink shirt. I think I may wear that shirt to work next week! And just forget about that stain!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
169
GLORIOUS SPLENDOUR OF YOUR MAJESTY
Psalm 145:5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
To meditate is to dwell, to settle the mind on a subject or topic and reside on that topic. To consider the topic, to review the topic, to ask questions and to accept the message, to understand how the topic impacts your life or to realize how little you know of the topic.
Or name of God in this post is the double description of the King.
Let’s try to dig into this name of God and find a thought to carry into our day to dwell on, as the psalmist dis in his day.
MAJESTY
Majesty speaks of authority and dignity, of royalty, nobility and elegance. To be majestic was to imply that the majestic one was higher, better, greater, stronger than those he reigned over. To be majestic did not allow for a democratic choosing of a leader, but of the right to rule due to bloodlines, to lineage, to the identity of the one ruling.
This was the picture provided in the Old Testament of the earthly kings, that the dynasties had the right to reign. God actually strengthened this thought by promising the eternal reign of David’s Son on the throne. David’s Son, who was faithful to God would reign eternally. Not only through a bloodline, but by actually being higher, better, greater and stronger than those He reigned over.
He is the only One deserving of Majesty as He sits on the Throne of the Kingdom of God, and over all of creation He is the King.
Yet this name includes two superlatives that are attached to majesty.
GLORIOUS
When I first found that this Hebrew word spoke originally of weight, I lost my bearing. Yet I dug a bit and found that during the establishment of this word meaning, a majority of those in authority also ate well, thereby associating weight (glory) with awe, magnificence, wonder or astonishment.
To be glorious implied a “weight” of being, an otherness from the ordinary, different than those around them, separate and of greater (implied) value.
Of course, as this term is brought into the discussion of God, this implied meaning becomes absolute, for He is different, sinless, without weakness, ignorance or foolishness. He is completely and without argument other than us, and yet He has bonded with our lives in the Son.
He has taken on our flesh (Hebrews 2:14) , that He may die to bring us to God.
SPLENDOUR
Splendor describes beauty, carrying the idea of beauty associated with glory, majesty and honor. All three of the terms we are looking at in this passage have much overlap, as though the psalmist could not find the words to completely describe the object of our worship.
The combination of splendor and majesty is common in the Old Testament, with both the Hebrew words being found in 8 different verses of the Old Testament.
But as mentioned above, the psalmist can’t hold back from his description of our God in this passage. The combination of these three terms are found only twice in Old Testament verses, with the second verse being
Psalm 21:5 His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
Although the words are found in Psalm 21:5, the combination of these three terms in relation to the name of God may only be found in our verse today.
As you meditate on the name of God today, consider our Savior, for He is the GLORIOUS SPLENDOUR OF MAJESTY.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.
As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.
1 Thessalonians 1:2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
We ended our last verse with grace and peace being conferred onto the church in Thessalonica. This verse is the expression of an Apostles heart to God for the fledgling church he had to leave behind.
Pauls second missionary journey, in which he was instrumental in the birth of this church, was between 49 & 51 AD. His second journey took him through the following cities, planting the life of Christ wherever he could.
Antioch
Syria
Cilicia
Derbe
Lystra
Phrygia
Galatia
Troas
Phillipi
Samothrace
Neopolis
Amphipolis
Thessalonica – 15 days
Berea
Athens
Corinth – 18 months
Ephesus
Caesarea
Antioch
I provide this list to indicate that during the second missionary journey of Paul, which lasted less than 4 years, he didn’t get to Thessalonica until possibly the second year, maybe the third year of the trip. Being in Corinth and sending the letter meant that it was very little time between when he left the church and when he wrote to them. Chronologies of Paul’s journey’s suggest less than a year between the planting of the church and the first letter to them.
Paul missed the church of Thessalonica.
Remember the life of an apostle, especially in Corinth, where he labored on his own and preached during the time he wasn’t working. Paul was a man of much energy and with a drive that would not shut off. Corinth was exploding and he may have felt this was the success he missed out on elsewhere. If it had been myself, the tendency would be to focus on the success.
Paul loved the church of Thessalonica.
Paul was thankful To God
It is good to remember that Paul thanked God for the church, and not the church for believing the gospel. This may seem like a “splitting of hairs”, but consider the difference.
To be thankful to God is to find the source of the blessing, the source of the life, the source of the life, to direct thanks to. Yes the church believed, but the Lord is the One to be thankful to for not only the message and the power of the message, but the guidance to the town, the interest of the adherents, and the continued faithfulness of God in leading this church, even as Paul was missing.
Yes it is wise, and right to be thankful to God. To be thankful to our those we rub shoulders with is a blessing, for us and to them, and is not to be discounted. Yet in the final analysis, thankfulness, true thankfulness is to be directed to God.
Paul was thankful For All
Ok. We are to be thankful to God. Got it. Paul says for all. Even that saint that gossips, or is lazy and entitled, those that are fear mongers and busy bodies. Yes our churches are full of these type, and though Paul did not have to face these folk on a daily, or even weekly basis, he was thankful to God for ALL.
As we go through this letter to a church that had up to 12 months of life together in Jesus, Paul brings to the front certain issues that are of concern. He knows there are those who are not pulling their weight, that are going around spreading gossip, or spreading false hope. Problems, but he will get to the granularity of the church soon enough. For now, he is expressing his thankfulness to God for all the church, each saint no matter their maturity or dedication.
For us, we are involved day to day with those we have been joined to through Christ and we seen the issues, (though not our own!) Be thankful for those you worship with, for those you study with, for those you serve with, for those you mourn with and for those you rejoice with.
Nothing destroys a family faster than an unthankful heart to God.
Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not …. give thanks to him….
There is an option for the believer!
Colossians 3:15b …be thankful.
After all, to be thankful is a command, and that means we can (and should) exercise a thankful spirit unto God our Savior
My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 69 is a psalm of sorrow, of apparent defeat and deep emotional stress, of a distress in the heart and of being overwhelmed, of a weariness of soul, and of a waiting for an answer from God. It is a psalm that speaks of loneliness, of disappointment and of extended trials.
As we venture through the psalmist’s deep confession, his pain and his sorrow, we will encounter passages that will be referred to in the New Testament, providing a recounting of the sorrow of Jesus.
Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. Psalm 69:14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Psalm 69:15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.
The psalmist turns to prayer for deliverance. After describing the pit of trials he is experiencing, he draws his attention to the only One who can provide deliverance.
After describing men in the earlier passage as those who disapprove of him, as those who throw reproach and shame upon him, David now looks to the One who rightly may show disapproval. Yet David knows the God he serves. He emphasizes the impossible when he writes of God and His
..abundance of His steadfast love
Recall that for God to have steadfast love is to describe His faithfulness in the midst of rebellion. Steadfast love was often translated in older versions as mercy or even pity. The term used is חֶסֶד cheçed and is closely equivalent to our term grace in the New Testament. Also embedded in this term is the concept of commitment, of covenant keeping. I am sure when I mention that God is the ultimate keeper of covenant, my reader will heartily agree!
And yet David goes beyond simply speaking of the cheçed of God, but adds the superlative of abundance. He appeals to the abundance of mercy, faithfulness, love and commitment of God in this prayer. He is looking to the One who is NOT like the men he has just described, throwing reproach and shame on his life. No – God is different, and to that difference, David appeals!
David prays for deliverance. He has described those who are against him previously, and now uses pictures of mire, of the deep, of a flood and of the pit (grave) to emphasize his hopelessness.
Each of the pictures he uses are overwhelming situations that provide no hope of self rescue. Only an outsider could provide the deliverance required, and thankfully David knew His God as One who was fully committed to His cause, including his own life and kingdom.
How much more for the greater Son of David, and how this prayer may have contained the same spirit of desperation for Him as He prayed in the garden. God exercised an abundance of steadfast love to the Savior in delivering Him up from the grave, and shedding the salvation to the world.
Are you in a place where there is no self preservation, no way to find strength or rescue within yourself. Be it known that in this condition, you need to reach out to the One who is abundant in steadfast love.
His name is Jesus, and to follow Him is to know the love of God.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
168
GLORIOUS ARM
Isaiah 63:12 who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name,
As New Testament believers, we have the privilege of understanding the Old Testament from the standpoint of being in Christ. The entire Old Testament open up for us as we have found the key of understanding, the Person who is the focus of all that happened in the former days.
I previously pictured verses like our topic passage, exhibiting a massive, literal and muscled arm that Isaiah describes in this verse. I am way too literal at times but I fear that we sometimes interpret the Old Testament as 21st century believers and not as the ancient Hebrew recipients.
So how would an ancient Hebrew believer, contemporary to Isaiah understand this passage? How would the Old Testament Hebrew understand Isaiah’s use of “glorious arm?”
Throughout the passage, Isaiah is speaking of the Lord’s mercy to the nation, and uses word pictures, even metaphors of strength to describe God’s saving work for the nation.
I understand the Hebrew prophets to write in a poetic form, and to make use of figures or images that provide dual meanings for those reading the message. The prophets of old would also use a form of poetry called parallelism. This form of poetry would be developed by repeating the same message as the previous line, but with greater force, or with a richer picture to wedge itself in hearer’s mind.
When Isaiah started the portion of Scripture for our verse, He mentioned the Holy Spirit (twice) and of course God the Father was the subject of the deliverance of the people of God. When the deliverance was attributed to God’s Glorious Arm, it seems obvious to my understanding that Jesus is the subject.
He is the One who executed the deliverance, who completed the work, who was the One who accomplished the feat of rescue, who fulfilled the work planned. To further identify the Glorious Arm in this passage, the Savior is referred to in verse 8, and the Angel of His Presence in verse 9.
Consider the One who compared Himself as meek and lowly, as the Glorious Arm, the One who is able, and has performed the work of our salvation.
He is the Glorious Arm.
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Exodus 32:31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. Exodus 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin–but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” Exodus 32:33 But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
Moses has a problem. The newly formed nation, whom God has delivered out of Egypt by His mighty hand has a problem. After receiving the covenant and confirming the covenant, obligating themselves to obey the covenant delivered to them by Moses, decided to fall back to the old ways of idolatry.
Exodus 32 is the story of the golden calf and of Israel’s deliverer interacting with God Almighty on the mount, while the people, are running roughshod over the very agreement they made with God.
Consider
Exodus 32:7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”
God is about to wipe the nation off the face of the earth, and speaking of replacing the nation!
Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
Moses went down the mountain, saw what God was referring to and was furious.
Exodus 32:19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
Moses laid it out on the line for the nation. They had sinned a sin, a great sin.
Exodus 32:30 ESV – The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
Even after undertaking such a great sin, Moses offered the hope of atonement. The hope of continuing with the Lord as a nation. Moses provided an option for the Lord, a chance for the Lord to simply take Moses and punish him instead of the entire nation. This is Moses acting like Jesus, a tremendous exercise of the love of God being offered for the rebellious people of God by Moses the mediator.
This passage speaks the truth – the one who sins will bear responsibility – he will be blotted out of God’s book. Now it bears to reason that to be blotted out of God’s book means the person was in God’s book in the first place.
It is easy, coming from my position to assume that to be in God’s book is equal to being saved, and to be removed from the book is to loose salvation. It would be easy to make the equivalent, but I think it wise to be careful, since we are speaking of a national existence and individual sinners within the nation that will have judgement fall on them.
The very next verse helps us understand the extent of the judgement, and our topic verses are directly linked to the reason for the death entering the camp.
Exodus 32:25 Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
People died because of sin. This is the point, even for the rescued people of God. It is obvious the people of God fell under judgement, and death resulted. How we as New Testament believers are to understand this passage is worthy of pause and consideration.
Are we to consider it only a physical death that may result as in 1 Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 11:30, 32 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Or are we to understand that, just as the people who fell in Exodus, the New Testament people of God can also loose spiritual privileges, even life with God by wanton, great sin?
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you would like to receive daily posts from Considering the Bible, click on the “Follow” link below
As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.
Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.
1 Samuel 26:17-20
17 Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 18 And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? 19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the LORD who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
David has demolished Abner with words. He has nothing left at this time, being shamed in front of his men, and in fron t of the king, whom he is directly responsible for. A terrible situation for Abner.
Saul now takes the lead in conversing with David.
David lays the base complaint out. Why are you after me? What have I done to you to make this way? What evil have I performed? Make it make sense King Saul, for I am still unsure what I have done to deserve this.
And without waiting for response from Saul, David continues with an either / or statement that leaves Saul in the dust.
The Lord is stirring you up to chase me.
Men are stirring you up to chase me.
A simple either / or argument. Nothing brought into the discussion that is emotion laced, with feverish arguments, personal attacks, screaming, shouting and cursing, (although being separated by the fields, I am sure the voices were raised to be heard). I get the impression that David is addressing King Saul from a standpoint of logic. Not a discussion based on emotion, as all dependence of David being related to Saul, and of their personal relationship has been clearly jettisoned at this point!
The Lord Stirring Saul
First suggested reason David provided to Saul, as to his reason for hunting him down, is that the Lord is behind this action. Did David seriously consider this to be a possibility, for he had been crowned by God, had been informed of Saul having lost the kingdom, and was being led by God through this persecution.
But consider the wisdom of David in this offering. Saul must come to a point where he is to be shaken from any assumption he is doing the Lord’s work. If David has done anything offensive to God, and Saul is seeking the Lord’s will, a sacrifice may be performed to make things right.
The solution in David’s mind was based on the revealed will of God. For Saul, this option was simply unacceptable to agree to, since a sacrifice would allow David to live, and provide Saul no righteous opportunity to eliminate this young upstart!
Men stirring Saul
Only other option was that men were stirring up Saul to take David out of the picture. When I say men, I am including Saul as a source of the stirring up, and think David is simply offering this argument to honor the king.
If this continual effort to cut David’s life short is “of men”, of which Saul is providing ample evidence of being controlled by, the option is only worse for Saul.
v 19 …may they (whichever man is responsible for this injustice) be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
Both David and Saul understand that the war is strictly between two men, two kings, a worldly king and a non-worldly king. Between righteousness and non righteousness.
And David makes it clear.
If this continual persecution is of man, they are to be cursed of the Lord, for this aggression towards David is the commitment of extreme prejudice, jealousy, envy, hatred and self preservation. Nothing righteous or of God can be found in this action, for it drives a man of God away from the very God he is to worship. David is forced to leave the promised land to enter foreign lands, and if he is able to be in Israel, he can not be near the temple.
For David, all things centered around God. His argument before the king of Israel was logical and plain, provide straight forward conclusions to the two options provided, and left Saul without any response.
Consider the strength of David in his communication to the most influential men in Israel, Abner and Saul, and how he stripped them both of any ability to defend themselves in their actions.
The Son of David was only greater in His delivery of questions, of His provision of options within a situation, and of His conclusions to situations faced by those who hunted Him. He strictly and consistently appealed to truth, and left His opponents without response.
All of this is so awesome, for I too love to strip those who may be my enemy of any response to an argument. I often thought of myself as one who brought the gun to a knife fight, metaphorically speaking, when entering a discussion with one I may disagree with.
This is sin. Note that David showed respect to the King, and sought to dull the argument when possible without taking the sting out of the point being made. (I refer to David speaking of “men” goading on Saul when all knew the motivation was sourced from Saul himself!
For the believer, the weapons of our warfare are not characterized by pride, self worship, competitiveness, or the abuse of truth.
We are to speak the truth in love, even when addressing our enemy, realizing we are fighting for the person we are speaking to, and not against him or her.
Remember my friend, we follow the One who is full of GRACE and TRUTH. A massive challenge to present the truth in grace can only be met when we are constantly listening to His guidance and voice.
Are you listening or formulating arguments?
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.
I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.
SEEING JESUS IN
Amos
Knowledge of God’s Secrets
Amos 3:7 “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
Ephesians 3:5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
There is an element of Christianity that claims God almost requires their permission to act, that they are the creators of their own prosperity. One of the verses that this group rely on is our passage above, wresting it out of context and using it for their own benefit. The leadership of this group claim privilege beyond any saint or prophet of old. God is looking to warn His people of the judgement coming, and with this intent, Amos speaks of God revealing this secret to his prophets. Nothing more than that for Amos.
Ephesians 3:5 speaks to this limitation of the Old Testament saints and prophets. For the New Testament era, Paul does provide teaching regarding the knowledge revealed to His apostles and prophets. This greater revelation though is of the mystery of Christ, but Paul defines this mystery. This mystery is of the combining of the Gentiles and Jews into the Body of Christ.
For us who have readily accepted this truth, to call it a mystery seems to be dated since it is such an established truth. Yet even in the era we live in, God has not revealed everything to His people. The Word has provided revelation beyond anything we deserve, yet there are many things God is still holding close to the chest from us.
We are to be thankful for His revealing of the One who can and does share in the knowledge of God’s secrets. for He is worthy, and rightly to be considered the One who is the Knowledge of God’s Secrets.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
167
GLADNESS OF YOUR NATION
Psalm 106:4-5 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
Psalm 106 is a psalm in which the author recounts the many instances of Israel’s rebellion. In verse 6 and continuing for 40 verses, the psalmist speaks of Israel’s failure. Psalm 105 speaks of God’s mercy and mighty acts for 40 verses, and this chapter speaks of the many times Israel has forgotten God wandering into sin.
Psalm 106 is a psalm that speaks of the nation’s weakness and tendency to wander. The psalmist knows his content and cry of admission, but before he recounts the failed history of the nation, and his own life, he begins with verse 4 &5. He cries out to God in verse 4 for national help, for a national salvation and for favor to be shown to His people.
The psalmist cries this out for three reasons in verse 5. He is asking for the favor of the Lord that he (the psalmist) may…
1. look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, 2. rejoice in the gladness of your nation, 3. glory with your inheritance.
He knows that though God has been offended by their rebellion, the only hope they have is the mercy of God. Once granted by God, the psalmist will take part in experiencing the prosperity, gladness and glory of the nation, of the people of God.
Hundreds of years after the psalmist passes, God provides this mercy in the person of the Lord Jesus. He is the personification of all of God’s mercy towards Israel, in the midst of their sinful behavior, and as believers today, we know that in His coming and dying for the nation, He is, for those who will see, the very Gladness of Your Nation.
He is the Gladness of His Nation, the church spread throughout the earth!
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.
A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.
As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
Three men. A simple greeting to a group of people that they barely knew.
These men arrived uninvited, interrupted their lives and vanished. When I say they interrupted their lives, I mean it in only in the most drastic way.
This group of people, I assume, were peaceful, law abiding folk, seeking to know about the God of Israel, for they were adherents to the synagogue Paul and his ruffians entered. After only one message, hearts started changing. One message my friend. No extended argument or debate – the message struck hard and deep, with such force that those who resisted it resorted to violence. How pitiful.
For those who believed, they were under instant resistance, enduring much affliction, as we will read in a later verse. Two sabbaths later, Paul and his buddies are gone.
Now what? No one to guide or encourage. Very minimal teaching has been provided, when compared to other churches that had been started. Some of the churches had Paul as a teaching apostle for years!
Not the Thessalonians. Two weeks, maybe three and they had been effectively abandoned.
Abandoned by those three men, not out of want, but forced to move on. Abandoned if they had placed their faith in the apostles. Yet the church soldiered on, exhibiting faith love and hope. They had caught the message of the resurrected Savior and were moving on with it.
Paul expressed three wishes or prayers for this fledgling church.
Grace
That which is partnered with joy, delight, loving kindness, favor, bounty and benefit. For grace to be provided means the recipients are the benefactors of Another, and that is Paul’s prayer, not that they may receive it, but that they realize they have it.
Grace is a merciful kindness to those recipients, a full dose of the sweetness and gentleness of God to a needy people.
Peace
Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is not the absence of war, although there may be a link.
Peace in the first century spoke of a wholeness of life, of a harmony within and between people and God. There can be national peace – that is no war between nations, and yet the turmoil and upheaval inside a soul can be devastating. Let us not reduce peace to a simple visual understanding of actions of violence.
Peace is a tranquil state of the soul, even in the midst of uncertainty and upheaval. This is the Thessalonians state, for they lived amongst those who erupted their city for the sake of quelling the small group from advancing. They were, in their enemies minds, worthy of destruction.
And Paul sends peace.
Grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom it is obvious these folks followed!
Considering the Bible 