Month: April 2022

Week 17  2 Kings 9

The story catches me by surprise. Elisha tells one of his men to go to Ramoth-gilead with a message for an army commander named Jehu. Here’s the exact message Elisha dictated: this is what the Lord says: I anoint you to be king over Israel. That’s it – a 14-word message.
But when Elisha’s man goes and speaks to Jehu he gives him a longer message – five-verses long – about 110-words. There’s an obvious discrepancy and I think about what to make of it.
Maybe Elisha gave the young prophet a 14-word message but then his man went off half-cocked and added a bunch of extra gobbledygook when he met Jehu.
Or maybe Elisha gave the young prophet the brief 14-word message but the man was able to expand & develop it – which he could do because he was a prophet too.
Or maybe Elisha gave the young prophet the full 110-word forecast but the writer of 2 Kings didn’t want to repeat the 110-words twice so be abbreviated Elisha to 14-words (and assumed I’d figure it out).
The last option makes good sense to me.
And it’s a reminder that the writer’s decisions are part of the reading mix. He has to make editorial choices – what to include…what to exclude. I need to keep the writer in mind. He had his own limitations & requirements.
I usually figure the bible is plenty long as it is but I sometimes wish the writer added some detail.

Note: quote from 2 Kings 9:3 (NLT)

Week 17  2 Kings 1

A guy once told me you can prove anything you want from the bible. I figure that if bible writers had decided to compose a bland encyclopedic document that was endlessly reader-editable then maybe it’s true. But I’m not exactly convinced the bible is that gelatinous.
Of course reading the bible isn’t a walk-in-the-park. Last week I read the story of a troop that came to arrest Elijah and – in a divinely-mandated strike – was instantly incinerated. I’m asking myself: what do I do with that?
If – like the guy said – I can do anything I like then I can say: that’s unfair. Cruel. Terrible. God is brutal-unfeeling-disgusting. Like that. But if I can’t just do anything I like then I try a couple of other things: a) admit I don’t know and b) file it for now and c) realize that not knowing now isn’t the same as not knowing.
Anyway Elijah’s story was in memory when I read psalm 119 today. The writer said about the Lord: you are good and only do good. And later: your decisions are fair.
A few days ago it looked like the Lord acted in an unexplained and unfair and arbitrary way. But today I read that he has reasons and he’s fair and acts with purpose.
He acts – and apparently only acts – in good ways.
Today was a bible-reader’s reminder: I’m not just reading…I’m trying to correctly jigsaw bits-and-pieces together.

Note: quotes from Psalm 119:68 & 75 (NLT). The Elijah story’s in 2 Kings 1.

Week 17  2 Kings 5

Naaman was an outsider – an Aramean – a non-Israel guy. So generally-speaking he was in the broad classification of being foreign & oppositional & a danger to Hebrew life and health. An enemy. But he travelled to Israel in search of a miracle.
It’s hard to know whether he thought he would definitely get his miracle or whether he was just thinking I’ve-got-nothing-to-lose. But he did have at least three expectations: a) I thought (Elisha) would come out to meet me! b) I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and c) (I expected him to) call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me. (Naaman also threw in a water-quality comparison question – aren’t the Abana River and the Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? – but that was more an annoyed add-on.)
Anyway when Elisha didn’t a) meet him personally or b) wave his hands or c) publicly call on God Naaman was furious. He could also have been a bit self-conscious about his degenerative disease. Maybe irritated at coming to his ethnic-inferior cap-in-hand. Used to giving orders and now having to take them.
But when Naaman’s expectations didn’t materialize he came this-close to going home. Losing his status. Becoming a social outcast. Dying prematurely. Because of what he thought.
Lucky for Naaman that one of his men respectfully floated the idea of giving his expectations a second thought.

Note: quote from 2 Kings 5:11-12 (NLT)

Week 17  Psalm 114

This psalm is an extreme condensation/summary of a 140-chapter chunk of the bible (Exodus 1 to Joshua 4). Hard to believe he’d even try…but the writer did a pretty nice job of squashing it into 8 verses. Hundreds and hundreds of details are skipped in the process but the writer got away with it because he was really just trying to make one main point: when the Israelites escaped from Egypt – when the family of Jacob left that foreign land – the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom.
I tried to visualize the point by drawing a simple diagram/map – a small box inside a big box. In the small box I wrote Israel – God’s Sanctuary. Then in the big box I wrote Outside-Israel – Not God’s Sanctuary (and since I had room I penciled-in a couple of geo-political territories: Egypt & states of Africa & tribes of Europe & kingdoms of India & Chinese dynasties. Like that.) I don’t think this Sanctuary-&-non-Sanctuary distinction is a case of Better vs. Worse. Not Superior vs. Inferior. It’s more like The Safety Zone vs. The Danger Zone.
The Promised Land became the geographic unit where Israel would be safe & protected & secure. In OT Bible World it was Israel’s safe territory. All the rest was unsafe territory in a state of slow degradation.
Unfortunately I remember what’s coming. Non-Sanctuary-type life will be imported into Sanctuary Land. Corrosive renovation’s on the move. Soon enough nowhere will be safe anymore.

Note: quote from Psalm 114:1-2 (NLT)

Week 16  Psalm 106

It’s difficult not to come away from 106 thinking that the point of the psalm is that: both we and our ancestors have sinned. We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!
The writer hammers away on that idea…gives eight historical instances where Israel acted wickedly. I recognize the eight stories. I’ve been reading them over the last couple of months…
Egyptian slavery
Sea of Reeds
Dathan & Abiram
Gold Calf
Spying Canaan
Baal-Peor
Meribah’s water
Worshipping idols.
Eight readily recallable and indisputable historical events. Eight open-ended opportunities where Israel could act in one way or another. Eight times where they made a choice and acted wickedly.
41 of the 48 verses make that point.
When 85% of a psalm’s content emphasizes We Have Done Wrong then I’d tend to think that’s a high enough percentage to qualify it as a Negativity Psalm.
But the remaining 15% of the psalm carries weight too. Verse one says: give thanks to the Lord for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
And the psalm ends: blessed be the Lord…from everlasting to everlasting.
So maybe 106 is more a Contrastive Psalm. We have acted wickedly…but the Lord’s faithful love endures forever.

Note: quotes from Psalm 106:6, 1, 48 (NLT)

Week 15  2 Samuel 13

The book begins with the pathway open for David to become king of Israel. The skies are clear & blue. They stay like that for ten chapters.
But then the horizon begins filling with cumulonimbus after David’s sexual and homicidal gangsterism. From then on the book’s dark episodes impress on David the rule that evil actions come with vicious aftermaths.
One example: David’s first son – Amnon – had a goliath-sized lust for his half-sister – Tamar. Sexual intercourse with your sister wasn’t legal so…what to do?
A crafty guy named Jonadab doped out that Amnon was preoccupied about something. When he found out what it was then he began reflecting…what to do?
Jonadab could have advised in a couple of directions. For instance he could have said: there’s a law against that kind of sexual intercourse so you can’t do it. It’s illegal. But he affirmed Amnon’s sexual tilt: ok…so you want to have sexual intercourse with your half-sister…let’s figure out how we can make that happen.
With Jonadab’s bad advice in hand Amnon tried to seduce Tamar but then raped and humiliated her. Tamar’s brother – Absalom – found out and eventually murdered Amnon.
That’s an example of how the blue started washing out of David’s sky. From there the colours faded to late-evening greys.
In the end David did recover within his own spirit. But mentally & psychically & emotionally & domestically & nationally he lived his later life in the twilight.

Week 15  Psalm 103

For me it’s a slightly odd (but also helpful) way for David to begin the psalm: praise the Lord, I tell myself (another version says bless the Lord, O my soul).
What I notice is that David’s not saying praise the Lord. That would be saying something to the Lord.
David is saying praise the Lord, I tell myself. That means he’s speaking to himself…telling himself what he ought to say: praise the Lord.
On that day David needed to remind himself: praise the Lord.
But he didn’t leave it at that. Praising the Lord was an abstract thing to remind himself to say. So he spelt out several concrete details that answered the questions “how-&-why do I praise the Lord?”
He forgives all my sins
And heals all my diseases
He ransoms me from death
(He) surrounds me with love and tender mercies
He fills my life with good things…
It was a short but useful list of things the Lord had done.
(David wasn’t finished. He went on to list fourteen more things. The majority weren’t things the Lord had done. They were what he was like. His qualities. Mercy. Love. Grace. Even-temper. Like that.)
For now I’m sticking with the first five. All of them are benefits the Lord has given to me too. I shouldn’t need to remind myself to thank the Lord for them. But – like David – I do.

Note: quotes from Psalm 103:1 & 3-5 (NLT & NASB)

Week 14  1 Samuel 24 & 26

The trajectory of Saul’s life went from good to bad to terrible. I wondered if he could have turned things around.
There are two stories that look like potential turning points. Two incidents where Saul was hunting David in the Judean wilderness and he was brought-up-short. Given a bit of a shake-up. Offered some retrospection time.
First time was when Saul took a toilet-break in a cave. It was a bad choice of caves (since David was hiding there) but a perfect chance for David to assassinate the king. But David didn’t. When Saul was a safe distance away David revealed himself. Then: Saul called back, ‘Is that really you, my son David?’ Then he began to cry. And he said to David, ‘You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #1.
Two chapters later Saul is back on-the-hunt. David had a second chance to assassinate Saul but didn’t. When David was a safe distance away he called to Saul. Then Saul confessed, ‘I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #2.
Both times sounded like I’m-sorry. A kind-of a sorrow. Half-a-sorrow. But as thing turned out for Saul half-a sorrow was about equal to no real sorrow at all.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 24:16-17 & 26:21 (NLT)

Week 14  1 Samuel 11-31

I sketched out a graph to trace Saul’s progress as king.
The x-axis was a simple time scale – the period of Saul’s reign.
The y-axis measured Quality of Leadership. It was more complicated and had to consider things like character stability mental-health integrity fairness objectivity rationality. I was asking if Saul was concerned with the betterment of the nation. Did he have a vision for Israel? Did he inspire followers? Was he focussed on concerns of state and the well-being of his citizens? Like that. Multiple factors along the y-axis.
In chapter 11 Saul became king and I started him high on the top-left of the graph.
In 13 he supervised a burnt offering. And in 14 disobeyed explicit battle orders. Serious offenses… Moving right I dropped Saul down a bit. And things continued to go-south.
In 18 David saved Israel from Goliath but Saul got screamingly jealous.
18: Saul set-up David to be killed by enemies.
19: Saul tried to murder David.
19: Saul tried to have David assassinated.
22 23 24 & 26: Saul tried again again again & again to kill fugitive David. Down down down & down drops the line on Saul’s Quality of Leadership chart – it looks like the buying power of the Canadian dollar.
The graph doesn’t lie. Saul seemed like a good guy at first. But he lived to show that good at-firsts don’t necessarily convert to good at-lasts.

Week 14  1 Samuel 11

There’s a strange conversation recorded near the end of the chapter:
The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring these men to us and we shall put them to death.”
But Saul said, “No one shall be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come and let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.”
You have to read chapter 10 for the backstory. But 10’s not really the point. The point is that the people asked Samuel a question. But Saul answered it.
When I’m reading the OT histories I’m making mental adjustments allowing for the fact that the material is three-thousand years old. I guess it’s possible triangulated interrogations took place in the ancient near east. But I figure that normally when “A” asked “B” a question that he expected “B” to answer…not “C”.
So I’m not exactly sure what-all to make of this.
Samuel was a Priest / Prophet.
Saul was a King.
What did the Handbook of Division of Responsibilities say about who could do what (apart from answering the other guy’s question)?
I wonder if there was already an edginess between Samuel and Saul. More important – was there a point of conflict growing between the two power-roles?
I know that eventually kings and prophets will lock horns. And chapter eleven might be an early warning of just that.

Note: quote from 1 Samuel 11:12-14 (NIV)