Day 102 - 1 Samuel 29-31

If the book of Judges ended with a big question mark as to whether a king could unite the nation and get them to observe the Law, the book of 1 Samuel certainly seems to extend that question. Samuel, the last of the judges, has died leaving no suitable successor (1 Samuel 8:5). Saul and his 3 oldest sons have just been killed. David has defected to the Philistines and only recently returned. As far as the people know, the priesthood has been exterminated. Hasn't the whole idea of a monarchy been a disaster? Saul has spent years pursuing the captain of his own army while acting like a madman, and even seeking guidance in necromancy. But things aren't all as they seem. The High Priest's son is still alive, effectively serving as High Priest, giving counsel to David. Even the king of Philistia swears by the LORD's name, while Saul has named a younger son after Baal. (1 Chronicles 8:33)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne
Read more

1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 106; Romans 10

  June 4 : In Job 34:14 and Psalm 104:29, the authors make the point that if God withdraws His Spirit, we die and return to the dust. In today’s three passages, I see how crucial His continual presence is in my life. He withdrew His Spirit from Saul, and it upended his reign and legacy. He sent leanness to the souls of the Israelites in response to their repeated concupiscence and whining at Him about what He was providing. The religious leaders in Israel by the New Testament times had been purified to some extent of yearning for carnal pursuits and of literal idolatry by the captivity’s exposure to a carnal and idolatrous culture, but they had become religious relativists, taking their extreme fastidiousness about the Law as evidence of their holiness, while ignoring the purpose of the Law, which was to make them dependent upon God, to be ready for His salvation, to long for the true holiness they couldn’t find in themselves. As Paul has said, I have to avoid the ever-present temptati
Read more