Joab

Joab was one of David’s most trusted advisors. He was the son of Zeruiah, David’s sister. There are many incidents in Scripture that show Joab to be a wise man, and yet…
The first thing that we told about Joab is that, shortly after King Saul’s death, another man, named Abner, tried to make Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, king instead of David. Joab led some of David’s men to go deal with this threat, and they met with Abner and some of Ishbosheth’s men, at the pool of Gibeon. There was a great battle there, a lot of people were killed, but the battle went worse for Abner than for Joab. Abner ran away, but Joab’s brother Asahel chased after him. The exchange between them makes it seem that Abner knew Joab, but Abner ended up killing Asahel. At the end of the day, Abner had lost 360 men, and Joab had lost twenty. Of course, one of the twenty that Joab lost was his brother, so that was a particularly difficult loss for Joab.
As the war continued, and David grew stronger and stronger, Abner came to David to try to make peace. Joab was not there when David met with Abner, and when Joab returned, the servants told him that Abner had been there, and that David had sent him away in peace. Abner became angry, and accused Abner of spying on the king, and sent servants after Abner. When Joab caught up to Abner, he killed him (more because of Asahel than because of suspicion of spying, but, there it is). Of course, David got upset with Joab for that, but apparently he somewhat understood, because Joab still had a job; in fact, 2 Samuel 8:16 says that Joab was captain over all the host.
In 2 Samuel 10, the Ammonites hired the Syrians to help them fight against Israel. David sent Joab to fight the Ammonites and the Syrians. While that was going on, David got himself into another little jam, and sent to Joab to help him out. Joab did as requested.
In 2 Samuel 14, David’s son Absolom had been exiled. Joab had a woman come into the king and describe a situation very similar to the one that led David to exile his son. After he pronounced judgment (the judgment that Joab had expected), then the woman asked the king why was Absolom still exiled? David only wanted to know one thing from her after that; he asked if Joab had put her up to it.
Unfortunately, later on, Absolom led a rebellion of his own, trying to become king in David’s place. Joab led the army that tracked Absolom down, under orders from the king not to harm Absolom. Joab realized that Absolom would always be a problem, so when he saw the king’s son, he killed him. David wasn’t happy about that, and he mourned his son. Joab spoke harshly to the king (I doubt whether anyone else could have spoken to David that way and gotten away with it), but pointed out that, if Absolom hadn’t died, he probably would have kept trying to become king until David was dead, and everyone loyal to David was dead, also.
In 2 Samuel 20, Joab pursued after a man named Sheba, and Sheba took refuge inside one of the cities of Israel. It looked like Joab was going to have to destroy the city in order to get to Sheba, but a wise woman called to Joab, and asked what he wanted. He explained who they were after, and she asked if he was prepared to destroy a city in Israel in order to get Sheba. Joab indicated that he would really rather not have to destroy a city, but he wasn’t going to leave until he had Sheba’s head. She told him to give a few minutes, and shortly thereafter, Sheba’s head came sailing over the wall.
In 2 Samuel 24, David told Joab to count the people of Israel. Joab reminded David that the number of people wasn’t important anyway, but David insisted. In fact, the Law forbade counting Israel, since God wanted Israel to trust in Him, rather than their numbers, so David got in trouble with God for this.
Then another one of David’s sons tried to usurp the throne, a man named Adonijah, but this time Joab threw in with Adonijah. The Bile doesn’t make it clear why. Perhaps simply because Joab had been too close to David for too long, and knew how many serious mistakes David had made. In any case, Joab seemed convinced that Adonijah would make a better king than David. Joab was a smart guy, but, in the end he outsmarted himself. I think sometimes we get close to someone that seems so godly and righteous, and we start seeing his or her flaws. Guess what? We all have flaws. Don’t let somebody else’s flaws cause you to outsmart yourself. The bottom line is that Joab did a lot of very smart, and very courageous things for an awfully long time, but, in the end, he was found to be fighting against the ordinances of God, because, flawed or not, David was the man that God had ordained to be king over Israel.

Making a Name for Yourself

There are a lot of people in the Bible whose names aren’t even mentioned. Paul’s nephew helped keep Paul alive once, when he overheard some zealots taking a vow not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul; not realizing that Paul’s nephew could hear their plan. Paul got away clean; I wonder if the zealots maintained their vow?
There was a widow woman that Elijah dealt with; she had a pot of oil that didn’t fail, all because she was faithful to God.
Philip had four daughters that were prophetesses, but we are not given their names.
There was a woman that was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. That’s an interesting story, in and of itself. She managed to sneak up, in the crowd, and touch just the edge of his robe. He stopped everything, and asked the question, “Who touched me?” The disciples didn’t know what to think of that. “Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” But Jesus was aware that someone had received a healing. He didn’t mind that she had gotten healed, of course, but He wanted her to make a public profession of faith. If you want to sneak in to get a blessing that’s fine, but you’d better tell people what God did for you…
There was a man who had died, and his friends were on their way to bury him, when they were attacked by the Moabites. In their haste, they just threw the corpse into the open sepulcher of Elisha. As soon as his body touched Elisha’s bones, he revived, and went chasing after his friends (which probably gave them extra incentive to run).
The man that we know as the rich young ruler was never named; just as well, I guess, since he ended up walking away from Jesus…
The boy who gave the disciples the two fishes and the five loaves of bread that Jesus used to feed the five thousand, is not named.
The blind man that Jesus healed in John chapter 9 is not named. That’s an interesting story, in and of itself. This man was born blind, and the disciples wondered about that, because the cultural superstition of the time was that blindness was punishment for sin. How could this man have sinned before he was born? Was he being visited by his parents’ sin? Jesus told them that this man was born blind specifically that God might be glorified, then he made some clay, and put it on the man’s eyes, and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. So this guy goes to the pool that Jesus specified. Now, I don’t know how many pools there were in the area; Siloam may have been the nearest one anyway, so it would be no surprise that he went to that one, but it may also have been that there were several other pools closer, but he decided to do what Jesus told him to do, even if it wasn’t convenient (if I was trusting someone to give me my sight, I think I’d have done exactly what I was told to do). After he washed the clay off, he received his sight. Eventually, someone led him to the Pharisees, who, of course, didn’t want to believe that Jesus had opened the blind man’s eyes. Of course, the man couldn’t have picked Jesus out of lineup; he had never seen Him. The Pharisees called in the man’s parents. Is this your son? Was he born blind? How does he see now? The parents verified that he was their son, and that he was born blind, but refused to say anything about Jesus (the Pharisees were putting people out of the synagogue for confessing Christ). So they came back to the man that had been blind, and gave him the third degree again. Finally, they told him to give God the praise, because they didn’t know who this Jesus was, not realizing that he was giving God the praise. It ended up that the formerly blind man told them that if Jesus were not of God, He wouldn’t be able to do anything, and they put him out of the synagogue.
The point is that, it’s not about becoming famous. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that we should let our light shine, that men may see our good works, and glorify our Father, which is in Heaven. Not that any of us are so great, but that God is great, and if we show His good works to those around us, they should come to know Him. If you get your name in the papers, that’s fine, but be careful that God gets the glory. The Pharisees at least had that much right.

Samson

Samson and Delilah is probably one of the best-known stories in the Old Testament. I mentioned briefly last week, when blogging about the women of the Bible, and pointing out that Delilah was the exception, rather than the rule. Samson was something of an exception, himself. I don’t think there was any hero in the bible quite like Samson.
First of all, the Bible tells us that Samson was a Nazarite. A Nazarite was supposed to be separated unto God. I think most of us know that he wasn’t allowed to have his head shaved. That was part of being a Nazarite. He also wasn’t allowed to imbibe alcohol, or touch a dead body.
Samson’s first choice of women was a Philistine woman. That’s generally a bad idea. Here is a man, that, for religious reasons, has to avoid a lot of different things, and he’s getting married to a woman who isn’t even the same religion. She’s not only not a Nazarite, she’s not even a Jew! There is enough stress in married life without those kinds of differences. In this case, we have a man who has a special calling on his life, married to a woman who would probably like nothing better than to see his religion go away.
Prior to the wedding, Samson killed a young lion in a field. After a few days, he was interested to note that, as the lion’s carcass decayed, some bees nested inside the remains. Samson reached in, and snagged some honey. Now, a case could be made that it was all right for him to be handling a dead lion, because the commandment was not to touch a dead body—implying human remains. Jews in general were not supposed to touch dead beasts that ‘go on all four’ which would seem to include lions.
Then he begins toying with the Philistine guests at his wedding (friends of his prospective in-laws). He asks them a riddle, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness,” and told them that if they could figure out what that meant, he would get them each thirty changes of garment, but if they couldn’t, each of them would buy him thirty changes of garment. Well, the Philistines and the Jews didn’t get along very well to start with. Toying with one’s enemy is a bad idea. Perhaps Samson didn’t consider these Philistines his enemy, because his in-laws knew them, but playing games with prospective in-laws isn’t very smart, either. The Philistines started putting pressure on Samson fiancée to find out the riddle, which she of course did. Samson was furious that his betrothed would betray him, and stormed off. That may have been the most intelligent thing he had done thus far in his entire life. But then he came back. Her father had married her to someone else, thinking that Samson didn’t want her any more (a reasonable assumption). Samson tried to take her back anyway, after she betrayed him.
So he decides he wants a different wife. Again he chooses a Philistine woman. He didn’t learn from the first one? By this time, the Philistines have a pretty good idea that Samson is a problem (they’ve already tried to kill him at least once). Not only is he a Jew, but he is a very strong individual, and he is unstable. They never know what he is going to do next. He must have some weakness, though, so they conspired with Delilah to find out what it is.
She asks him the secret to afflicting him, and he makes up some nonsense about binding him with green withs (cords). She tries it, while he is asleep, but it doesn’t work. She asks again. Now some would say that he didn’t even realize that she had tried the withs, and, certainly there is a basis for that belief in that he broke the withs so easily that he might not have even realized that they were there, but, why would she ask again unless she knew he had lied, and how would she know he had lied, unless she had tested it? So, maybe Samson wasn’t really consciously aware that she had attempted to take away his strength, but he should have been. He lied to her three times, and eventually told her the truth. Samson really was thinking impaired. I’m not entirely sure whether he didn’t think through how Delilah knew when he lied, or if didn’t think through what would happen if he told the truth about what could make him weak, when she’s already tried every thing she knows that could possibly have that effect, but, one way or the other, he really should have spent more time thinking about what he was doing before he did it.
We have a bad tendency to think that Delilah was Samson’s downfall. Delilah certainly didn’t help his situation any, but, realistically, Samson’s downfall was Samson. Delilah couldn’t have touched him if he had been doing what he was supposed to be doing. I’m not sure if Samson had just gotten so full of himself that he actually believed that he could do whatever he wanted, and nobody could touch him, or if he had led such a blessed life from his youth up that he just thought God would never leave him. Romans 8:37-38 provides a list of things that could not separate Samson from the love of God; it sounds like an all-encompassing list (but that’s New Testament—Samson lived in the Old Testament; God hasn’t changed), but notice that it never even suggested that Samson couldn’t separate Samson from God. It does make it clear that Delilah could not separate Samson from God, but she could help persuade him to put himself in a situation where God wouldn’t bail him out. Of course, God did eventually give Samson his strength back, but not until the Philistines gave their god, Dagon, credit for bringing down Samson.
Here’s the thing, though, Samson is a lot like most of us. A lot of times, for one reason or another, we start thinking that we can handle this situation, or that problem, on our own. I won’t bother God with this one; he’s busy. This is a no-brainer; I’ll be fine. The ‘no-brainer’ is thinking that you can do anything right without God. Don’t be like Samson

The Early Church

Occasionally you hear discussions about how different the early church was. Some people envy the disciples that got to walk with Jesus, and learn directly from Him. Others have no wish to be anything like the people in the early church, on the grounds that they were one step removed from primitive superstition. I think the correct attitude is somewhere in between.
I have to admit, there is a certain appeal to the idea of having been able to walk with Jesus, but, even though there are Old Testament prophecies that indicate that He would be a light unto the Gentiles, for the most part, He didn’t deal with us during His lifetime. There was the Gentile woman that asked Jesus to heal her daughter, and He did, but not before referring to her as a dog. She had faith enough to be willing to accept being a dog, in His eyes, if He was willing to grant her no more than what a dog could gain just by sitting under the Master’s table. He had what she needed, and if she had to endure a little bit of name-calling to get it, then so be it. To be honest, as a Gentile living in Israel, she had probably been called a lot worse. The point is, I’m not ethnically Jewish, so I don’t think that Jesus would not have let me hang out with Him during His ministry.
On the other hand, some people seem to think that they are so much smarter than the people in the early church. Well, you know they just didn’t understand this, or they hadn’t been taught that. Maybe not, but these are the people that God chose to spread the Gospel. Do you really think that God called them, and didn’t qualify them? Everything that we know about Jesus, we know because these faithful men wrote it down. Is there anything that we really know about Jesus that we didn’t learn from the Bible?
Some people also seem to think that people today are more moral than the people in the early church. Certainly a case could be made for the fact that in Biblical times arranged marriages were the rule (from what I understand, people were generally married at age 13). Usually when I hear talk like that, they make it sound like there were a bunch of dirty old men marrying 13 year old girls, which I don’t doubt happened, but, normally families wanting to ensure that their sons and daughters were taken care of would arrange for them to be married while both were 13. Certainly nowhere in the New Testament is there a commandment for arranged marriages. Some would say that the writers didn’t feel that it was necessary to specify, since the practice was so common. Maybe so, but the fact remains that there is no such commandment. Keep in mind also that, with regards to 13 year old girls, there really was no such thing in Biblical times: A 13 year-old was considered an adult; it isn’t so much a shift in morality as it is a change in the understanding of what constitutes an adult.
I think it’s interesting too that some people talk about declining morals in today’s society. I suspect that it has less to do with what people think or feel as it does just people getting to be less hypocritical. Are the people of 2008 less moral than the people of 1958? Somehow, I doubt it, but I do think that people today are less likely to be inhibited by social standards than the people of the 50’s were. I don’t think that it was even a question of did they sin less, I think it was more a question of how careful were they not to get caught. Perhaps it was more a question of what sins did they commit.
Quite frankly, I don’t think that we are any smarter, or any more (or less) moral then the original disciples of Jesus. Yes, sometimes we have to filter what was written, because society has changed. It seems to me, though, that people are still very much the same. Like it or not, we are the early church.

The Biological Clock

I mentioned Hannah briefly last week. She was the mother of Samuel, and promised to loan him to God before she even got pregnant. It is clear from her story that having children was very important to her. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 that “if the flower of her age pass,” let them marry, that is not a sin. I think what Paul was referring to is what most people today would call the woman’s biological clock. Perhaps that is what Hannah was dealing with.
Not every woman wants children. Some women want children, just not right now. Sometimes there are other things they want to do first. Maybe they feel a calling to do something for God that they wouldn’t be able to do as a mother. Perhaps they put their career first, at least in their twenties and early-to-mid thirties. When they decide that they have established themselves, or succeeded in whatever it was that they intended to do in their professional lives, sometimes they are a little old to be having children. Of course, one can get married, and still choose not to have children (at least, in the twenty-first century one can; it was probably considerably more difficult in the first century). There is nothing wrong with that. I think that it’s important to note that Paul says that staying single is better, because one can do more for the Lord, but that getting married is good, too. There’s nothing wrong with having kids, but there’s also nothing wrong with not having kids. Being a mother is pretty much a full time job in and of itself. It doesn’t leave you a lot of time to encourage other people in the Lord. It can still be done, but raising children will soak up a lot of your time (if you do it right).
The point that I’m trying to make is that, the decision to have children, or not to have children, is a personal choice. There are some people that have a calling on their lives that simply cannot be fulfilled as a mother (or a father), but, for most of us, God has left that decision in our hands.
I am particularly concerned about women that put off family life for one reason or another, and then, when they start feeling their biological clock ticking, suddenly get anxious about finding a husband and having babies. Don’t tell me that doesn’t happen, it does. I realize that a lot of women that have had that happen to them don’t want to admit it, and that’s okay; I’m not asking for confessions. The sad part of it is, when a woman finds herself in such a situation, and starts trying to make things happen, instead of letting God have control, she winds up seeming desperate. Did you ever notice that a less-than-attractive confident person usually gets more dates than a very-attractive desperate person? On the face of it, that may not make a lot of sense, but desperation can make a person seem a lot less attractive. I think that guys tend to think that even if she looks good, there must be something seriously wrong with her for her to be so desperate. I’m sure that this works in reverse, too, but guys are much less susceptible to the biological clock. Yes, we sometimes act really goofy when we start thinking that we’re ‘getting old,’ but with us, we suddenly start trying to do things to prove that we’re still young; getting married and having kids isn’t usually a symptom of a male mid-life crisis. If anything, it’s more likely that a man will leave his wife and kids to go do something completely stupid because they are part of what makes him feel old.
Think about it, though, ladies, would you go out with a guy that came across as being desperate? Of course not. So, why do you want to chase after us acting desperate? Just relax, take a deep breath, and let God have His way. If that guy that seems like the perfect husband really is, then God will bring the two of you together. You don’t have to rush things; remember that patience is a virtue, and in your patience possess ye your souls.

Are There Modern Day Pharisees?

I know that some of us have a tendency to at least think of some of the religious people in the world today as Pharisees, even if we don’t actually call them that. I read something recently, someone said that we shouldn’t call them that, because the real problem with the Pharisees was that they didn’t accept Jesus or His teachings, but the modern-day religious people that we want to call Pharisees have at least accepted Jesus. That’s an interesting point, but…
I have posted before about the seven women who tried to take the name of one man, and that this is prophecy of churches wanting to call themselves Christian, but not being willing to accept the complete teachings of Christ. There are a lot of Christian people that Jesus wouldn’t be willing to claim as His own. I don’t say that to point fingers, but just to provide a warning. If someone tells you that they are a Christian, but there is no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in that person’s life, then you should check what they say against the Word of God. Really, even if a person seems to be totally Christian, you shouldn’t base your salvation on that person’s word. If I tell you one thing, but the Bible says something different, then who is wrong? Obviously, I am, and if you follow what I say without checking up on me, then you are, too. And if you get to Judgment, and God says, “Why did you…?” and you say, “But, Pete Shepherd said…” He may very well tell you, “I don’t know any Pete Shepherd.” Let’s face it, if I’m teaching false doctrine, He’s not going to know me at Judgment, unless I repent and get right in between. I would hope that if I find out that I’m teaching false doctrine, that I would be able to reach the people that I misled, and get them back on the right path…
The point, though, is that the Pharisees were hypocrites. They were the great teachers of the Law, and yet they didn’t really follow it themselves. Oh, they made a show of obedience, but only the things that people could see. The weightier matters of the Law, they ignored completely. They tried to make everybody else obey the Law (in fact, they tried to get people to do more than what the Law commanded), and they were very quick to mete out punishment for those ‘sinners’ that did not obey, even though they were no better. In fact, frequently they were much worse, because the sinners that they looked down on so much were frequently putting forth more effort to try to fulfill the commandments than the Pharisees themselves were. Does that sound like someone you know? It sounds like a few people that I know, and a couple of televangelists that used to be on television. To be honest, there are probably several people like that preaching on the tube now that I just don’t know about.
Jesus said that all the Law and the prophets hang on just two commandments: Love the Lord thy God with all…, and love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, if one loves one’s neighbor, then one would at least put forth an honest effort to do right by said neighbor. You wouldn’t watch someone that you honestly loved struggle with a burden, if you had any ability at all to help, would you? The Pharisees would, though, and so would a whole lot of religious people. If you knew that your neighbor had a problem, and you could help them with it wouldn’t you? You see where I’m going with this. We should be trying to help people, not criticize them to death (not even the ones that we might consider ‘Pharisees’). Lift them up, and encourage them, keeping in mind that we are going to need some encouragement ourselves, sometimes.

Women In the Bible (Part IV)

There are two women that I forgot to mention earlier, both of them in the book of Judges: Delilah, and Jephthah’s daughter. I think pretty much all of us are familiar with Delilah, but I do want to point something out. She asked Samson four times what the secret of his strength was—how could he be defeated, and the first three times he lied to her about it. After she tested those ideas, she accused him of lying to her, and sobbed big crocodile tears and eventually got him to tell her the truth. Delilah, like Jezebel, was loyal to her people; Samson should have realized that. Think about it, if someone asked you how to teach them how to use a gun, and as soon as they learned how to aim it, they started pointing it at you, would you then teach them how to load it?
Jephthah’s daughter is an interesting case. Jephthah was something of an outcast, but when Israel got involved in a war, they decided that Jephthah was the one to lead the army. He prayed about it, and vowed to God that, if they won the war, then, upon his return, whatever came out of his house to greet him, he would offer up as a sacrifice before the Lord. I assume that he had several affectionate dogs that he was fond of, that would normally race to meet him whenever he came home. As it happened, though, when he returned, his daughter wanted to make a special greeting for him, so she tied up the dogs (I suppose) and she went out the door, dancing, and playing timbrels. He became very angry with her, but she was wise enough to realize that if he had made a vow unto God, that he needed to keep it. Some have said that he didn’t really offer her as a sacrifice, but that he simply disowned her as his daughter. Even that would be a high price to pay. The point of the story would seem to be to be careful when you make a vow, it may end up costing you more dearly than you expect; but that was Jephthah’s mistake, not his daughter’s.
There is also the witch at Endor, who King Saul tracked down just before the battle in which he lost his life. Interestingly enough, although the Bible refers to her as a woman with a familiar spirit (which would suggest that she was an evil woman), she became concerned for Saul’s health and fed him and was kind to him (so, was she a kind witch? That’s not exactly what we read about in fairy tales).
And there is Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar was the Egyptian who ended up owning Joseph after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph, but Joseph refused her. So, instead, she accused him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had him imprisoned (the fury of a woman scorned). In prison, Joseph met Pharaoh’s butler, who later told Pharaoh about Joseph, which led to Joseph being made second to Pharaoh. This, in turn, led to the saving of Joseph’s family. I think that we have to apply to Potiphar’s wife the same philosophy that Joseph voiced to his brothers: “…ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.”
In any case, I think that completes the summary of the women in the Bible. There are more, but I don’t think I’ve left any out that would seem to have a major impact, one way or the other. Of the ones that I’ve listed, it would seem that only Delilah, Jezebel, Athaliah, and possibly Potiphar’s wife, and the Witch at Endor, were actually evil. Many of the others simply made mistakes along the way, just like the men in the Bible. That’s an interesting thing about the Bible. Most of the heroes of the Bible are depicted as flawed, imperfect creatures. The term, “Achilles heel” has become popular in part because Achilles was one of the few heroes in Greek mythology that had an actual weakness. All of the people in the Bible had weaknesses. A lot of the men got themselves in trouble with women: Adam let Eve lead him astray, Samson had his Delilah, David had his Bathsheba, Solomon had his many wives and concubines…Yet in most of these cases, the women were not evil, they were just there.
Apostle Paul wrote once that he had a thorn in his flesh. Some have suggested that Paul’s thorn (or his problem) was that he hated women. I think that if that were the case, then he would not have considered that a problem, and he would not have prayed that God remove it. I also think that God would have healed that, because God wouldn’t want Paul, as a leader in the church, hating women—or God would have removed Paul from his position. If anything, I think Paul was aware that he (like most of the rest of us men) had a weakness for women. I think he worried that women would exert undue influence on the church, not necessarily out of malice, but just because too many men would let them. I think he was really just trying to warn us that we, as men, need to take our marching orders from God, not our wives, or our girlfriends. Not to suggest that we shouldn’t love and to cherish them, or that we should ignore their needs, or even their desires, but to understand that we are God’s servants, and, ultimately, we answer to God for what we do (and that includes how we treat the women in our lives).

Women In the Bible (Part III)

The Queen of Sheba was apparently a good woman, even though she was not of Israel. The Bible doesn’t say anything negative about her, only that she admired Solomon’s wisdom.
Solomon, on the other hand, wound up with enough wives and concubines to keep him busy for years. I personally don’t understand how a man that wise could tie himself down to so many women. It just doesn’t seem, you know, wise. The Bible doesn’t even tell us much of anything about Solomon’s collection of women, except that they turned away his heart. Of course, if he had married one faithful woman of his own kingdom, that wouldn’t have happened.
We could talk about Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, but Ahab’s heart wasn’t right with God to start with, and he married this woman who was not Jewish by birth or by faith. There were a lot of men that would have done as much damage to Israel as she did if they had only been given the opportunity. One thing I will say for Jezebel: She was very faithful to her god and to her husband.
Athaliah was the mother of a king, and when the king died, she went and slew as many of the royal blood as she could find, and she ruled over Israel for several years. She missed one, and eventually he was placed on the throne in her stead (she called that treason). Certainly that was a wicked woman, but no more so than many of the men in the Bible.
Esther was a well-favored woman that became Queen of Babylon during the captivity, and she was able to use her position to save Israel from what would have otherwise been a great slaughter.
In the New Testament, of course, God chose a woman who was a virgin to bring Jesus into this world. He could have simply sprung Jesus upon us, fully grown and ready to preach, but he chose to live a human life, including being brought up as a son of Israel.
I’ve mentioned before that the Bible really tells us very little about Mary Magdalene. We know that Jesus cast seven demons out of her, and that she was one of the first, if not the very first person to see Jesus after the resurrection. Of course, that means that she is one of the few people in the entire Bible that we cannot ascribe any faults to. She was human, so she was not perfect, but we really don’t know of anything that she did wrong.
Lazarus had two sisters, Mary and Martha, who are mentioned very prominently in the Gospels. One interesting thing about them: When Jesus went to Martha’s house, the Bible tells us that Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His teaching. Martha complained to Jesus that her sister wasn’t helping her serve. Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the better part, and that He wouldn’t take that away from her. Some people, in those days, would probably have questioned Mary even being allowed to learn from Jesus (especially if she’s not helping with the ‘women’s work’), but Jesus makes it clear that He was in favor of Mary learning everything she could.
In the Book of Acts, There are some women that are mentioned prominently: Tabitha was a faithful woman in the early church who died, and was subsequently raised from the dead. That puts her in a very exclusive club: The Resurrected.
There was also mention that Philip had four daughters that prophesied. What prophesies did they utter? We don’t know, they are only mentioned in passing; apparently their prophecies only dealt with the early church.Paul shared with a couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who went on to share with Apollos. Apollos shows up again in Corinth as a leader in the church (1 Corinthians 3:4-6). Would he have if it had just been Aquila that shared with him? I’m thinking probably not, but, of course, that’s speculation.

Women In the Bible (Part II)

Hannah was a godly woman who wanted nothing more than to have children. The Bible says that God had shut up her womb, but that she went to the temple and prayed about it. She promised God that her first-born son would be loaned to God, and she indeed had a son, Samuel, that she loaned to God, and then she had more children afterwards that she raised herself. I could probably spend a lot of time talking about Hannah, but, for now, suffice it to say that God laid something on her heart, and, even though it was hard for her, she did it, and she got rewarded for her faithfulness. Some of you may be saying to yourselves that I shouldn’t be telling you that having children is a reward. Maybe for you it isn’t, but for her it was.
Ruth was an important woman in the Bible; she has her own book. She was not Jewish by birth, but somewhere along the line she accepted the Jewish faith. Naomi was a Jewish woman that went, with her husband and two sons, to the land of Moab when they fell upon hard times in Israel. The two sons married Ruth and Orpah (presumably these women accepted the Jewish faith before the wedding—it doesn’t really say). Something happened to the men in the family, and then these three women were all widows. Jewish tradition (and perhaps Moabite tradition as well) dictated that if a married man dies childless, then his nearest male relative was to take the widow as his own wife, but then her children would be the heirs of the deceased. Naomi had a problem, though, she didn’t have any male relatives in Moab, they had all died. She was going to go back to Israel, but she suggested that Ruth and Orpah go back to their own families in Moab. Orpah did, Ruth, however, insisted that Naomi was her family, and that Naomi’s God was her God, and Ruth went to Israel with Naomi. Once there, she met a relative of her late husband named Boaz. They got married and lived happily ever after; they had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David…
King David’s first wife was Michal, and for the most part she was a good woman—she saved David’s life, but she did criticize David once, and she never had any more children after that (was that punishment or reward? I assume that it was punishment).
David’s wife Abigail was a real prize, although she was married to someone else when David first met her. Nabal had angered David greatly, and David was on his way to kill him, when Abigail interceded for her husband. Later Nabal died anyway, and David married Nabal’s widow.
Bathsheba was, evidently, a very attractive woman. One night, David was up on the roof, and found a vantage point where he could observe Bathsheba taking a bath. It turns out that her husband was one of the mighty men in David’s army, and was off defending Israel. David sent for her, and she came to him, and became pregnant. The Bible doesn’t really say how much of an argument she put up; what do you say in an era when women were treated pretty much as property, and your husband is away, and the king sends for you and wants to have you? I’m sure she argued the best she could; the sin was David’s, not hers.
There was woman of Tekoah that had some significance during David’s reign, whom the Bible doesn’t even name. There had been a situation where David had banished one of his own sons from the kingdom. David was miserable about it, and, quite frankly, it didn’t make a lot of sense. One of the men close to David, named Joab, sent this woman to David with a situation that closely mirrored David’s own situation. Once she got David to look at the situation objectively (that is, looking at it from the perspective that it was someone else’s problem, instead of his own), he realized that he could deal with the situation better, and he brought his son home. As it turns out, he might have been better off if he had left the situation as it was, but that wasn’t her fault.

Women in the Bible (Part I)

What I would really like to post about is women in the Bible, but to do that subject justice may take a few days’ worth of blogging.
I have posted about Adam and Eve before, but let me just point out quickly that they were in it together. She gets the blame for ‘original sin,’ but he followed right behind her. In First Timothy 2:13-15, Paul makes the point that Adam was formed first, and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but Eve was. Is that supposed to make me feel better about being a man? She was deceived, she didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong; if Adam wasn’t deceived, then he did know he was doing wrong, but he went ahead and did it anyway! Besides that, where was he when the serpent was talking to Eve? Why was he not there protecting his beloved?
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Noah’s wife, and even less about Noah’s sons’ wives, but they must have been faithful women to go on board the ark.
Sarah was a faithful woman, although she has been criticized for laughing at the thought of having a child in her old age. Still, I don’t think Abraham believed any more then she did, he just was able to keep from laughing out loud. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that Abraham was sitting face to face with God, while Sarah was inside the tent—she may have thought that, in human form, God wouldn’t be able to hear her.
Abraham’s son, Isaac, married a woman named Rebekah. I blogged about her and her sons Jacob and Esau just recently.
Jacob had two wives, Rachel and Leah. The Bible says that Rachel was well favored, but Leah was tender-eyed. I’m not sure what it means to be tender-eyed (my guess would be she had allergies or maybe she just had very expressive eyes and looked at things tenderly), but I’m pretty sure that Rachel was very attractive and Leah, well, maybe Leah had nice eyes (and maybe she didn’t). One thing we know about the two women is that when Jacob took them away from their father’s house, Rachel stole some of her father’s idols. Why we would she do that? She knew that it wasn’t the custom of Jacob’s family to worship idols. Leah didn’t take any. Maybe Rachel just didn’t feel comfortable with only one God, yet. I’m tempted to comment that one should beware pretty women, but that’s not fair. Lot’s of good-looking women have been faithful to God, even though a few have not been; and lots of ugly women have gone very much against the commandments of God. The thing is, that we are naturally biased towards people whom we find attractive. A pretty women (or a handsome man) that wants to create problems can create a lot of problems, especially if she is subtle about it; but one that wants to do good, can do a lot of good, also.
Moses’ sister Miriam was a prophetess, but she got herself into trouble once because she spoke out against Moses’ wife, Zipporah. If that were the worst we have to say against Miriam, though, I would have to say she did pretty good. Very few of the men in the Bible only messed up once…
Rahab was a harlot, but she hid the Israeli spies from the soldiers at Jericho, and she and her family were spared. I would assume that she wasn’t a harlot anymore after that.
Deborah was a prophetess, who led the army of Israel into war, because the general had it in his head that she, being more easily led of God than he was, would be better able to ensure victory. There was a great victory that day, and the enemy of Israel was killed by another woman (not Deborah, a woman named Jael).
--More tomorrow

Father's Day

I was reminded this past weekend that, some time ago, my pastor preached a message on Abraham and Isaac. He pointed out something that I think most people miss; I know I had always missed it up until then. He asked us to try to imagine the difference it made in the relationship between that father and his son when Abraham took Isaac up to Moriah. We have a tendency to read that story, already knowing how it turned out: the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice, but Abraham didn’t know, on the way to the mountain, that he would be stopped, and Isaac thought, on the way to the mountain, that they were going to sacrifice a ram. Granted, there was a very short period between the time that Isaac found out that his father had lied to him, and when Isaac was reprieved, but that had to have changed the way Isaac felt towards Abraham for the rest of his life.
After that service, we had one young man that told me that didn’t make any sense. The incident, in his opinion, shouldn’t have changed their relationship at all, because in Hebrews 11:17-20, it says that Abraham knew that Isaac was the son of promise, and that if Abraham had actually had to kill Isaac, then God would have raised Isaac up from the dead, to fulfill the promise. That’s an interesting point, but, even though Abraham knew that at the time, Isaac still would have felt differently towards his father. We discussed this for a while, and this young man still couldn’t see it, and kept insisting that Abraham knew. Finally, I told him, “but Isaac didn’t,” and he replied, “But Abraham did,” and I just said, “You’re missing the point,” and walked away. One party knowing that he isn’t really throwing the other party under the bus isn’t going to keep the second party from feeling badly about the whole thing. I guess I should be grateful to him, though: Thanks to him, I don’t think that I will ever forget that message.
God wants those of us who are fathers to be good fathers. He also wants those of us who have fathers to love and to respect our fathers. For some people, that’s hard (I can’t really speak to that too much, because I’m not one of those people). God is our Heavenly Father, and, to some extent, our earthly fathers should mirror our Heavenly Father. Notice I said ‘should.’ The problem that you run into is that of an imperfect, flesh and blood human being placed in a position to emulate a perfect, Spiritual being. Some people do that better than others (although even the best of us falls way short), and some don’t even try. For those whose fathers were about as far from God as one can get, the idea of God as Father can be difficult. The idea that God would still want them to honor that flesh-and-blood father may be as difficult, if not more so. But God does want us to honor our parents, no matter how flawed or imperfect they may be. Keep in mind that we are all flawed and imperfect. Some people just manage to inflict more damage with their imperfections than others. God wants us to love our neighbors, but there should be a special place in our hearts for our own family members, even a family member that has treated us in a manner that could only be termed, ‘despicable.’ If you can’t forgive your flesh-and-blood family, then how can you forgive the members of your spiritual family? They’re going to let you down, too, you know. We’re only human; that’s just the way it is.

Reward or Punishment

I sometimes think of myself as a writer. Of course, I understand that there is a big difference between writing for a blog, and writing as a writer. Even if I were to make the right connections with the right people and actually make money off of my blog, I would still be a professional blogger, and not a professional writer.
In any case, I have several movies and a couple of TV series’ floating around inside my brain. Would anyone actually buy them if I wrote them out? Probably not, but I can dream. One of the TV series’ that I have in my head, a police officer, who also happens to be a widower and a single father, has spent years angry at God. His wife used to drag him to church, and seemingly did all the right things, and was a good wife and mother, but God took her. In the pilot episode of the series, God gets tired of this cop being angry all the time, and decides to spell some things out to him. Among them, that his wife’s death wasn’t punishment, it was just her time. If anything, it was a reward; she was right with God, and is now home with Jesus for all eternity. The only pain she knows now is that her husband isn’t living right. It’s a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea. With Jesus’ help, he manages to work through years of anger and frustration, and give his heart and life to Jesus Christ. Fast-forward a few episodes. Some bad guy captures our intrepid hero. After a certain amount of torture, the villain puts a gun in our hero’s face, and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t renounce his faith. He isn’t really anywhere near ready to actually commit murder, but he would like to hear the protagonist beg for his life. The hero, meanwhile, is trying to figure out just how far he can go before God would consider it suicide. The final conversation goes something like this: “So, tell me, where is your God, now?” “Same place He was when His Son died on the cross for the greater good two thousand years ago.” “Greater good? What greater good would be served by your death?” “I don’t know what greater good God might have in mind for my death, but, if you’ll pull that trigger, I’ll ask him.” Of course, at this point, the rogue throws down the gun in total frustration. He didn’t expect a response anything like that; it becomes evident that he didn’t understand true faith, and he certainly didn’t think that this cop had it. Shortly thereafter, some other policemen break down the door and rescue our stalwart hero. On of them makes the comment, “Man, looks like we got here just in time. Another few minutes and he probably would have killed you!” “Don’t remind me.”
I think that sometimes we misunderstand what is a reward, and what is a punishment. Granted, one man’s reward is frequently another man’s punishment. If a farmer wants rain for his crops, but a golfer wants a sunny day for his tee-time, one of them is going to get disappointed. Is that punishment? Not really, it’s just the way things are. Death isn’t necessarily a reward or a punishment, but it’s usually a punishment to loved ones left behind. Why would God take my wife/husband/son/daughter away from me? Maybe just because He knew that they would never be more ready; I don’t know. I do know that Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Sometimes we don’t see the good. That doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I heard somebody on the radio a year or so ago, saying that before his last birthday, he had laid some heavy hints to his wife about this watch that he wanted. It was a pretty expensive watch, but it had some really nice features, and he wanted it. Well, when his birthday came, and his wife gave him his present, the package was completely the wrong shape; it couldn’t possibly be a watch. He tried to hide his disappointment, but when he opened the package, it was plane tickets, and a stay at a ski resort in Aspen, Colorado. Now, he could have gotten mad at his wife for not getting him the watch he wanted so badly, but quite frankly, the ski trip was so much cooler than the watch. I think some of us have ski trips stuck in our closets, and we’re angry with God because we didn’t get a watch.

Fruit of the Spirit

I posted something recently about using the Old Testament Law as kind of a checklist of living life under New Testament Grace. It occurs to me that the Bible gives a better indication of how to tell if one is living the life: Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” And in Galatians, We are told that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” That’s an interesting description.
I won’t pretend to have a perfect record in any of those categories, and I hope that you wouldn’t believe me if I did make such a claim. I have a temper, and sometimes I have a hard time finding peace, just with myself. I have been known to be longsuffering, but I have also been known to have a short fuse. More than once I have really gone off on a person because I was trying to be longsuffering with someone else, and an innocent bystander just happened to come in and step on my last nerve (some of the victims of my wrath have been less than forgiving with me—not that I blame them—because they knew that what they had done really didn’t justify my response). Overall, though, I think that my general attitude is more characterized by those traits than not. Of course, now that I have said that, someone will probably point out to me areas where I have fallen short, and that I was not aware of. That’s okay; that will help me, in the long run.
The point is, you really shouldn’t judge someone else (Matthew 7:1), even if you think that you are a good fruit inspector, but you can judge yourself. Keep in mind, that you are human, and you make mistakes (just like I do), so, on any given day, you can probably find fault with yourself, with regard to the above list. Under normal circumstances, how do you behave?
Do you care about the people around you (even the ones that get on your nerves)? Jesus told us in John 15:13 that great love would include a willingness to lay down one’s life for others, and he set the example for us. Are we ready to do the same for other people? 1 John 3:16-17 reminds us of the kind of love we should have for those around us. Is there joy in your life (even when you are feeling guilty about your shortcomings)? Nehemiah tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and Joel tells us that everything goes bad where there is no joy. Do you have peace in your life (and I don’t mean the peace that comes from having a scapegoat handy)? Jesus said that He would give us peace. Malachi 2:5 talks about a covenant of life and peace. Are you longsuffering (can you keep your temper, even when the people that you care about the most do the things that upset you the most)? Jesus said, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19) Are you gentle (can you endure the pain of a hurt relationship in order to keep from hurting someone else)? 2 Corinthians 10:1 and Titus 3:2 talk about the importance of both gentleness and meekness… Are you good (of course not, there is but one good, and He is in Heaven—but do you do the best that you can)? Do you have faith in God (if He brought you to it, He’ll bring you through it)? Jesus said that if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that you can move mountains, but so often we can only cry out, help thou mine unbelief. Are you meek? Moses was meek—some people confuse meekness with timidity; Moses was meek, but he wasn’t timid (at least, not usually). The Bible says that the meek shall inherit the earth (not sure I want it, but it sounds like that was intended to be a good thing—and it does say that we will live in peace). Are you temperate (Can you control your temper)? In Second Peter we are given a list of things that we should be adding to our faith, and temperance is one of those things.
None of us has a perfect record (all have sinned), but a true Christian can maintain most of these things most of the time, and God can cover what we can’t do. That’s what Grace is all about.

Great Expectations

There’s an old story about a man that was caught in a flood. He was a good Christian man, so he prayed, and prayed hard. He got what he felt like was an answer from God: an assurance that God would see him through the storm and that he would live on to share the gospel with many more people. As the rains continued, he had to go upstairs, because the ground floor of his house was taking on water. Looking out the window of the second floor, he saw someone come by with a rowboat. The man in the rowboat called out to him, but our hero called back, “It’s okay! God’s gonna save me! Go help someone who really needs it!” So, the man in the boat, grateful for an excuse not to have to spend time with this religious kook, went away. As the waters continued to rise, however, our protagonist found himself on the roof of his house. After a little while, another man in another boat came by, and a similar exchange took place. Still later, as he’s climbing onto the chimney, a helicopter comes by, and tries to lower a rope to him. “That’s okay! God’s gonna save me!” So the helicopter left. Eventually, the man drowned. Upon his arrival in heaven (I told you he was a good Christian man) he demanded to see ‘the boss’ immediately. “What happened? I thought you were going to save me?” God replied, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you want?”
My son mentioned this past week-end that heard about a radio announcer that was on the job one afternoon, several years ago, and he got a call from a man who identified himself as Jimmy Stewart. He put the caller on hold, took care of a few things, started another song playing, and saw that the caller was still holding, whoever it was. So he picked the phone back up, “What can I do for you, Jimmy?” “Well, some friends and I were just out here fishing, and listening to the radio, and I wanted to call and thank you for playing such good music for us this afternoon.” “Well, thank you, Jimmy, but I have to go,” and he hung up. Later on, he picked up a newspaper and saw an article explaining that Jimmy Stewart had come to the area to do some fishing with some friends. At that point, of course, the realization hit that that really was jimmy Stewart on the phone. “Not only,” says the DJ, “did I talk to Jimmy Stewart on the phone, but I was a jerk to him.” One would hope that Mr. Stewart was understanding enough to realize that the DJ had no real reason to expect a call from Jimmy Stewart.
The two stories have a common theme: In both stories, the main character didn’t recognize what an opportunity he had, because it wasn’t what he was expecting. In the first story, the man was expecting some great miracle from God, but God used ordinary, mundane things to accomplish His purpose (or, at least, tried to). In the second story, the man didn’t know Jimmy Stewart was in the area, and so, when the call came in, naturally assumed that it was a crank call. In retrospect, a crank caller probably wouldn’t have waited on hold just for the sake of a joke.
How many times have you longed to see a miracle, and ignored the sunrise? Asked God for help with something, and when someone came along and helped, you chalked it up to coincidence? Wondered why nobody did something that so obviously needed doing, when God had given you the ability to do it yourself? Sometimes miracles hide in plain sight and we just walk right by, because they aren’t what we expect. Sometimes you can find the miracle you are looking for at the end of your own arm (I didn’t make that up, by the way, but I don’t remember where I heard it from, or I would give credit, but I’m not going to claim it as my own).
I don’t want to go without at least one Scripture reference, so here it is: Jeremiah 29:11.

Living Beneath Our Privilege

Yesterday I posted about seeking first the Kingdom of God, and about how often God tries to do for us, and we just get in the way. It occurs to me that we live so far beneath or privilege. God wants us to have so much more than what we end up with. The Bible says that we have not because we ask not, and when we do ask, we ask amiss (James 4:3). Sometimes that’s as simple as not going to God in faith believing that He will give us the desires of our hearts. Sometimes he gave us those desires, to start with. How’s that for a conundrum: God lays something on my heart, but I don’t believe that it’s of God, so, even though it something I want to do, I don’t think it’s something that God wants me to do, so I try to push that out of my mind, and do what God wants me to do, only I’m really avoiding what God wants me to do. Wow. That even sounds confusing to me.
The point is, sometimes we don’t ask God, because we’re sure He’ll say no, before we even ask. Sometimes when we do ask, we feel so guilty, because we know what we’ve done, and we feel that we don’t deserve what we are asking for, even though we know that God has forgiven us, we don’t feel forgiven. Because we don’t feel forgiven, we go to God as if He hadn’t forgiven us. It’s kind of like asking dad for the car keys, when just this afternoon we got into trouble. Even if dad has forgiven us, we still kind of feel bad about asking. If we don’t ask, though, we can’t receive (of course, we may ask, and still not receive, but if we don’t ask, we definitely won’t receive), and if we ask, not expecting to receive, then we mess up our own chances.
One of the times that David got in trouble with God, God sent Nathan to remind David how much God had already given him, and then to say, “If that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.” That always struck me as some kind of awesome. That particular instance, it seemed to me that David was being just a little bit greedy (well, maybe a lot greedy), but you notice God didn’t get angry with David for wanting more, only for not asking God for more, and just going out and taking what he wanted.
In the parable of the prodigal son, the Father tells the other son that he could have had, if he had only asked, “All that I have is thine.” The other son is the one who has been faithful all this time, but then when his brother returns, he gets miffed, as though his Father treats his miscreant brother better. The Father has to remind him that, all along, he has gotten exactly what he has asked for; no more, and no less.
Keep in mind, also, though, that Jesus set the example for us in the garden, when he said, “…not my will, but thine, be done.” He knew what was going to happen, and He understood why. He prayed that prayer to set the example for us. Sometimes we will ask for things, and the answer is just, “no,” because what we are asking for is not God’s will. Remember that Paul prayed three times to have a thorn removed from his flesh, but God told him that Paul needed that thorn. Sometimes, though, the answer will be, “Yes, I’m so glad you asked! I’ve been waiting for you to ask that!”
So how do you pray, in faith believing, if you aren’t sure that what you want is what God wants for you? Start out by asking God to help you to understand His will for your life, and ask Him for direction, even in your prayer life. Then work your way from there, remembering that God wants the best for you, even if sometimes you don’t know what that is.

Seek Ye First

Friday I posted about not seeking a spouse, but what I didn’t mention is what one should seek. Jesus said, in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” I think most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the context; Jesus was teaching (the Sermon on the Mount) and telling people that they shouldn’t worry about what they should eat, or what they should wear, or the basic things of life. The important thing is not what one eats, or what one wears; it’s where one will spend eternity. How one lives will determine where one will spend eternity, but not how one handles the mundane things of life; it’s how one handles the things of life that are more important. If you put God first, then everything else falls into place.
God cares about us, and He will take care of us, if we let Him. If we worry so much about this or that, things that He’s planning on taking care of us for us, anyway, that we don’t get done the things that He wanted us to do, then what have we really accomplished? Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good, to them that are the called according to God’s purpose. There are many times when it doesn’t seem that way; we have problems all around us, and it seems that nothing is going right, and yet, the promise holds true. Whatever we actually need, God will take care of for us. Does that mean you should quit your job and go out evangelizing? No, God gave you that job, not only to help provide for yourself, but so that you can be a witness to the people that you work with (not a preacher, by the way, unless that really is your job title). Should you sell all that you have, and give it to the poor, the way Jesus told the rich young ruler? Only if Jesus really speaks to your heart and tells you so. But he told the young ruler… Yes, He did. IMHO, Jesus told the young ruler to sell his things because Jesus had come to the realization that this young man, although it says that he had great possessions, it wasn’t so much that he had great possessions; it was that those possessions had him. There was no way he could keep himself focused on God with all the stuff that he had, and he didn’t understand that they were just things (as evidenced by the fact that he went away sorrowful). That’s conjecture, of course, but I think it makes sense. The bottom line is that he had so many things that he wanted to have, that he wasn’t able to gain the things that he needed to have, even though God wanted to give those things to him.
Well, what if the thing that I need is a spouse? Well, my first question would be, do you need a spouse, or do you want a spouse? Tell you what, never mind, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s the thing: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” All these things. If you need a spouse, then that would be included in ‘All these things.’ If you don’t need one, then once God gives you whatever it is that you really need, you will probably realize that you don’t need a spouse, after all. Of course, if you go about seeking a spouse, then that makes it hard for God to give you a spouse. Does that sound crazy? it’s not; if we keep getting in the way when He’s trying to work, then we just make things more difficult. The Bible says to cast your cares upon Him, for He careth for you, but so many times, we cast our cares, and then snatch them right back, as though we’re afraid that He will make things worse. Why can’t we just trust God?

update: I logged in this morning and spotted a typo in the title. In the title! That has been corrected.

Looking For Love

In 1 Corinthians 7:27, Paul tells us that if a man is married, he shouldn’t seek to be single; and if a man is single, he shouldn’t seek to be married. Of course, in other parts of the same chapter, Paul expounds upon his belief that a single man is better suited to carry out the work of God than a married man. A single man, Paul tells us, looks towards the things that be of God, he is better able to do the work of the ministry than a man who has a wife to look after. Of course, a single man whose focus is on getting married, isn’t doing any more ministry than a married man is (possibly even less). Does this mean that a married man can’t serve God? of course not. Peter was married (we know, because Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law), yet he was the man to whom Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom. In Acts chapter 18, Paul shared with a couple, Priscilla and Aquila, and they went on to share with a man named Apollos. Apollos is mentioned again in 1 Corinthians, and the context of that mention suggests that Apollos had led many people to Christ.
The point is that a married man has other things he has to take care of that a single man doesn’t. If it comes down to it, a single man can camp out in the corner of the living room, spend the night, and in the morning go out and spread the gospel some more. A family man can’t just deny himself; he has the responsibility to take care of his family. A married man can still do many things, though. A man whose main desire is to be married and raise a family, though, will often miss opportunities to share the gospel (because he’s trying to figure out who might be the one to ‘complete’ him), and is going to have an even harder time keeping his mind right than a married man. Please understand, I’m not talking about dating; I’m talking about someone (and I’ve been using male pronouns, but it doesn’t have to be a guy) who is so convinced that they need to be married (even though they don’t have someone in mind) that they have a hard time focusing on anything else.
Love happens. God created us to love one another, and He also created us with the ability to procreate. Marriage is honorable; but if God wants you to be married, he will find the right person for you. Is it wrong to pray for a spouse? I’m going to reserve judgment on that. That could be considered seeking a wife (or a husband), but, it seems to me that if you pray it through, and then get on with your life, and don’t let those thoughts about what married life will be like, then maybe that’s okay. Maybe.
But, if every time you walk into a restaurant, you’re scanning for a potential spouse; or even a church group activity (“Well, at least here I should be able to find someone who believes the same thing I do”), then I think you are making a mistake. You may very well meet the right person at a restaurant or a church group, but it probably won’t be because you were trying to. I would suggest that it is considerably more likely that you will meet the wrong person that way, and not recognize that they are the wrong person until it’s too late.

Shadows of Things to Come

In literary circles, the term foreshadowing is used to indicate that the author of a piece of fiction suggests that something is going to happen, before he or she actually gets to that part of the story. It’s kind of a hint as to what lies ahead.
The Bible talks about things in the Old Testament being shadows of things to come. Paul talks about the law being a schoolmaster, teaching the Israelites about the things of God; providing a framework that Christ could build on. Jesus said He had come to fulfill the Law, but, at the same time, we are not under the law, but under Grace.
Christ brought about a lot of changes in the way things are done; for example, dietary restrictions were pretty tough under Old Testament Law, but there’s really very little that we can’t eat, now (some of our doctors might wish that we were following Old Testament Law in that regard, though—bacon double-cheeseburgers aren’t kosher, you know). At the same time, there are a lot of things in the Law that foretell the life of Jesus.
I have posted before about how the Passover sacrifice was an image of Christ’s crucifixion. Beyond that, though, the Bible says that Pharaoh had the infants killed at the time of Moses’ birth, just as the Bible says that Herod had the infants killed at the time of Jesus’ birth. Moses spent forty days on the mountaintop without food or water; Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness without food or water. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, to the Promised Land; Jesus came out of Egypt, into Israel. Peter also tells us that the story of Noah and the Ark is a figure of baptism.
The point is that the Law was a stern ‘schoolmaster,’ and yet, it provided a framework for the coming of Christ. A lot of those things were physical commandments, but intended to show the kinds of actions that would be taken by one with a right mindset. We aren’t under the Law, now, and yet, we shouldn’t completely ignore the Law, either. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we can ignore the dietary restrictions (not only did God indicate as much to Peter, but refrigeration and better cooking techniques mean that foods that were once dangerous are not any longer). Still, if you are living a life that is completely inconsistent with Old Testament Law, then I think that you should be asking yourself why that is. If you are being led by the Spirit (the Spirit that dictated the law to Moses), shouldn’t your actions be somewhat in line with Old Testament Law? Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that you should make an effort to live according to the Law, because if you are under the Law, then you have forsaken Grace (and you don’t want to do that, believe me). But, the Law was the schoolmaster that helped prepare the way for Christ. Many of the commandments in the Law are still good things to do, with the understanding that Jesus is our sacrifice, we don’t have to sacrifice sheep and goats any more. Jesus said that the whole Law was really fulfilled in two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and Love thy neighbor as thyself.
If you call yourself a Christian, but you worship some other God, then obviously that would be wrong. If you are a Christian, but you are also a murderer, then what kind of Christian are you? If you lie about other people, or covet things that other people have…
If you are led by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Mysteries In Scripture

There are a lot of mysteries in the Bible: What did Jesus write on the ground? What happened to Jesus in between ages 12 and 30? What in the world does the Book of Revelation actually mean?
Personally, I think that if these things were truly important, they would have been written down. Some people get very bothered about those things, and I can somewhat understand, but I think too often we get sidetracked by things that might not have any real significance, and we miss the things that are truly important. The disciples asked Jesus why He taught in parables. A lot of Bible scholars will tell you that He was trying to relate things in such a way that people would understand them. In an agrarian culture, it made sense to relate the Kingdom of Heaven to farming (even though sometimes the characters in His parables did things that wouldn’t make sense to a farmer, He managed to get His point across). There is a great deal of truth to that, and yet, the answer that Jesus gave was, so that seeing they might see, and yet not understand. Why would He not want people to understand? Didn’t He come to earth to teach us what we needed to know? Isn’t that what the parables were all about?
The point is, Jesus wanted people who were willing to put forth a little effort into understanding His teachings to be able to, but He also wanted people that had no interest in truth to be able to walk away with whatever ideas that they brought with them. He wasn’t trying to force people to believe, but He was making the Gospel message attainable.
When I was younger, I wondered why it was that God led the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, but then made them exterminate the Canaanites that lived there. Couldn’t God have wiped out the inhabitants, or convinced them to move? Of course He could have, but what they obtained too easily, the Israelites would have esteemed too lightly. The same thing holds true for us, today. If all the knowledge of God were simply handed to us, it would mean very little to us; we would probably take it for granted. So, God gave it to us in a form that needs to be studied to be understood, and even then, to get a true understanding, one would need to spend a considerable amount of time in prayer, asking God to help us to understand.
Alternatively, if we did what we did only because we knew that it was required of us (and there was no question about what was required), then there wouldn’t be much (if any) reward for that. I’ve heard people make the statement that you just can’t legislate morality. In the sense that no framework of laws can exist that will force people to be moral, that is a true statement. We have had people that tried to be thought-police, but you really can’t be sure that another human being is thinking the right things, or acting out of the right motives. If I do all the right things for all the wrong reasons, I may convince most of my neighbors that I am a terrific guy, but God is not fooled. God wants us to do the right things for the right reasons, so He gives us wiggle-room in the commandments. Does this mean this, or does it mean that? What if I misinterpret what God wants? If the motivation is right, then God will understand, and forgive, an honest mistake. If one is just trying to see how much one can get away with, though, that’s not going to fly. If one gets caught up in trying to understand all of the intricacies of things that don’t really even pertain to them, then it becomes very easy to lose focus on what things are truly important. Don’t allow yourself to become sidetracked; seek the face of God, and allow Him to direct your paths.