2 Samuel 15; Psalm 114; Romans 15

June 15: What keeps us from hearing God? Self. Sometimes it’s apathy, passivity, laziness, as it seems was the case with David until God’s judgment came upon him. Sometimes it’s stubbornness, rebellion and bitterness over our circumstances, as it was with the Hebrews of the Exodus in the wilderness. Sometimes, as Isaiah says in 6:9-10, it’s a chastisement of God, that we have a fat heart, heavy ears and closed eyes; but it's a "giving over to" type of judgment—letting us alone that we may do what we already want to do. (See Matthew 13:14–15; Acts 28:26–27; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Romans 11:8) May God send a desperation to hear Him to our hearts.

2 Samuel 15: At the time of Absalom’s conspiracy, David’s passivity vanishes. He knows God’s chastisement has come on him, and it’s time to move without questioning. (2 Samuel 15:14) Where does he get the faith to pray that Ahithophel’s counsel to Absalom be turned to foolishness? (2 Samuel 15:31) It must be God’s determination to show him He has not abandoned him, for Hushai, God’s agent to answer the prayer, shows up immediately afterward. (vv. 32-37)

Psalm 114: Was it necessary for Israel to be saved out of Egypt for there to be such miraculous manifestations in the natural world? No; so why do it in such a dramatic way? So that the salvation of Israel would be unforgettable and result in praise to God forever.

Romans 15: As Paul has indicated, his life was full of miraculous events, including smiting Elymas with blindness, (Acts 13:8-11), rising after being stoned, (Acts 14:19-20), raising Eutychus from the dead, (Acts 20:9-12) and surviving the snakebite, (Acts 28:3-5). How did Paul hear from the Lord? Sometimes it was through a vision (Acts 16:9, 18:9), sometimes an appearance of Jesus Himself, (Acts 23:11) or an angel (Acts 27:23). Here in Romans 15, do we have evidence that he was also being given special, personal application of the Scriptures as he read? I think so. He’s justifying his ministry by quoting the Bible, as in Romans 15:9’s quote of Psalm 18:49, but also his call to preach the gospel where no one had yet heard of Jesus, by referencing Isaiah 52:15. Interestingly, this passage is clearly talking about Christ as the Suffering Servant, as the verse before pictures Jesus in his marred visage; but Paul sees the next verse as the outcome of what Christ as done, and is called to be the agent of that. In a similar way, I’ve sensed such personal application when I am moved to be desperate to hear from God, and seen the application of the call to a work or a clarification open for whoever is willing. In many cases, I think the call is open to the willing.

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