2 Samuel 20; Psalm 118; John 2

June 19: Like Adam’s rebellion against God, Absalom’s rebellion couldn’t be put down by just the death of the rebel. Sin cost everyone; yet God’s enduring mercy kept manifesting itself to David, as He had promised, until ultimately his greater Son completely satisfied the debt we all owed because we could not do so.

2 Samuel 20: Absalom’s death seems to have defused a a chaotic situation before it could really cause too much destruction. How can you continue a rebellion when the rebellious heir has been extinguished? Sheba shows us how: find a way to express the core thought of every dissatisfied person in Israel. It ends with Amasa slain by Joab’s treachery and a city in Israel barely escaping destruction through the giving up of Sheba as he takes sanctuary there.

Psalm 118:1-16: What does it really mean to say the LORD’s mercy endures forever? This Psalm begins by urging the reader/worshiper to give the LORD thanks for His goodness and everlasting mercy. Then it begins with the whole nation, comes down to the priests, then everyone who fears the LORD. If a person sins against his neighbor, you might hope that enough time will pass that he will forget. God has no such limitation and lives in eternity. As Eli the priest put it, when he found his sons committing sacrilege in the priest’s office: “If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him?” (1 Samuel 2:25) Hebrews 10:14 reassures us: “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” This is what the Psalm means when it goes on to say that the LORD, who is his strength and song, has become his salvation (Yeshua). (Psalm 118:14)

John 2: Why did Jesus make water into wine at the wedding at Cana? Jesus’ mother was already there, and Jesus and all his disciples were “called”  - so the couple must have been close to Mary, like perhaps she was an aunt. Mary’s knowing manner “Whatsoever he saith unto you do it” speaks both of authority in the wedding administration and the wordless understanding that Jesus had decided to do what she wanted without her having to directly ask. We’re told it “manifested forth His glory” and that “his disciples believed on Him.” (v. 11) Is it because it was a wedding gift? One way to describe God’s first gift to man would be to say that it was also, essentially, a wedding gift, in that God made Eve for Adam to marry. The second half of the chapter shows Jesus acting in an administrative way over His temple; so I think, as subtle as it may be, I’m not too far off in saying this chapter follows the first chapter, which identified Jesus as God by simply declaring Who He is, in doing it again by identifying Jesus as God through what He does. 

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