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Week 15  1 Samuel 16

Sixteen is a transitional chapter with two things happening: a) Saul is on a down-and-out trajectory while b) David is inching up-and-in.
One pretty definite clue about Saul’s decline is this: now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
The idea that an evil spirit came from the Lord raises questions about “How-all Does the Lord Operate?” It’s one of my big bible-reader’s questions.
One possible way to think about it is this: the Lord is a good god who does good things but he’s also a bad god who also does evil things. Both-And. Personally I don’t think this idea fits with quite a few other things the bible says about the Lord. But sending-an-evil-spirit is a perplexing way for the Lord to operate.
A couple of weeks ago I was reading the story about Abimelech – a pretty abominable guy. It said: God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem. So Saul wasn’t the only case where the Lord decided to utilize an evil spirit to ensure a specific outcome.
I sit for a bit wondering why the Lord used an evil spirit. Wondering if he could have done something else. But the main thing I keep in mind is that it looks like the Lord can and does have unorthodox operational options that make up his discretionary tool-kit.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 16:14 & Judges 9:23 (NLT)

Week 14  Psalm 93

One of the topics I try to track while I’m reading-through is What-the-Lord-Is-Like. I don’t know if finding out what the Lord is like is the most important topic. But it’s near the top of my Important Topics List.
The bible is quite a bit like other books when it comes to me finding out about a character. I look for A) what the book says about the character and then B) what the character does and then C) what the character says. The last verse of psalm 93 is in the A) category (it says something about the Lord): the nature of your reign, O Lord, is holiness forever.
Saying that the nature of how the Lord oversees everything is holy is pretty definitive. The way things are run – their essential-quality & foundation & norm & inherent-tendency & baseline & standard – is along the lines of holiness. Holiness is fundamental. This is a useful idea to have in mind as I read…the reason being that when I read something about the Lord that looks-like or sounds-like or feels-like he is Not Holy then I’ve got something else to come back to.
There’s a totally different way to read the bible where I’m free to make my own judgment-calls about whether the Lord is holy. I get to say what the text means. It’s my call.
But I prefer the option of trying to figure out what the text says about itself.

Note: quote from Psalm 93:5 (NLT)

Week 14  Psalm 91

When it comes to bible-reading a bible-reader’s Objective #1 is to just read-through the bible. For some readers there’s also a supplementary objective – Objective #1b – something like ‘I want to understanding the bible better’.
Psalm 91 reminded me that there’s another type of bible reader with a different objective. Midway through the psalm the writer says that God: orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone. It’s a familiar verse. A good verse. But it’s a verse the devil used to try to goad Jesus into jumping off the temple roof. After all: (God) orders his angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.
So the Lord’s reply was: the Scriptures also say: “do not test the Lord your God”. The Lord was quoting Moses’ words: do not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah (at Massah Israel complained about being thirsty and Moses asked them: why are you testing the Lord?)
Anyway…in this case the devil’s objective in reading the bible was to use it to try to test-the-Lord with a crazy assistance-in-dying suggestion.
So my take-away is that there are legitimate reasons for reading the bible.  Any others I’d best avoid.

Note: quotes from Psalm 91:11-12 Matthew 4:6 4:7 Deuteronomy 6:16 Exodus 17:4 (NLT)

Week 13  Psalm 86

I was out of town yesterday so didn’t do my regular end-of-the-month reading review (it’s important to keep track so I’ll do that today).
I read Ruth yesterday. (After reading Judges for eight days in-a-row it was a big relief to read Ruth! I like to think that Ruth is a bible-reader’s reward for slogging through the undignified goo of the judges.) So anyway if someone who’d never read any stories in the OT said they wanted a recommendation for one nice OT story to read I’d suggest Ruth. It’s really almost a perfect story. There are other good OT stories. But none are nicer than Ruth.
Yesterday I also read this: teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! That meant I got an end-of-month reminder about what I’m doing as I’m reading-through. I know that first of all I’m reading to read-through so that by December 31 I’ve gotten to page-396 of my NT. But then secondly I’m also (almost by default) picking up some clues about the ways-of-the-Lord. The Lord has his own particular ways of doing things and while I’m reading I’m puzzling my way through some of them. I think it’d be easier to figure the ways-of-the-Lord if his operations were uncluttered by the complications of human activity. But they aren’t.

Note: quote from Psalm 86:11 (NLT). End-of-the-month reading: Genesis-to-Ruth (236 chapter) + 86 psalms = 322. The Bible has 1189 chapters. I’ve read 27% in 25% of the year.

Week 13  Judges 19-21

I’ve never seen a list titled: Top Ten Worst Stories in the Bible. But my guess is that one exists. And I’m pretty sure that the long & revolting story at the end of the book of Judges would be on it. It would have to be. In fact Judges 19-21 might be the story at the very top of the list.
The story grinds out more than a hundred degrading verses of personal violence and cruelty that insanely blossoms into rage against the city of Gibeah and grows into a murderous civil war that comes very close to eliminating the tribe of Benjamin.
The story of that evil Levite from the hill country of Ephraim who dismembered his gang-raped girlfriend then managed to diabolically galvanize all of Israel in a vendetta against Benjamin is a terrible terrible story.
The story starts with the line: now in those days Israel had no king. And it ends by saying: in those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
I guess that one way to frame this grisly finale is to say that a big point is being made: Israel needed a king!
Maybe that’s true. But I close the book in a low-spirited funk over how very very far Israel has managed to regress in just 19 short chapters. It’s a terrible story to have to read. And a huge relief to have it over-and-done-with.

Note: quotes from Judges 19:1 & 21:25 (NLT)

Week 13  Judges 6

There’s a snippet in the Gideon story that’s easy to skip past. A prophet appears with a message from the Lord: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt…I drove out your enemies and gave you their land…I told you that you must not worship the gods of the Amorites…But you did not listen to me.
The message is important but it isn’t really the message I notice. What I notice is that the Lord sent a prophet. The only prophet I can think of in Judges is Deborah. I check a word book and it looks like the only prophets in Judges are Deborah and this Anonymous Guy. I also check prophecy prophecies prophesied prophesies prophesy prophesying prophetic & prophets. Just Deborah & the guy.
Back in Numbers the Lord said that one of the characteristics of prophets was that: I the Lord communicate with (them through) visions and dreams. Which is interesting because here in Judges there’s a bunch of unusual vision-and-dreamlike things happening – in fact right away in the Gideon story an angel appears…speaks with Gideon…and disappears right before his eyes.
But even though people in Judges are being communicated with in super-normal ways they’re not prophets and they don’t become prophets. Or at least not formal and actual real-life prophets (not like the prophets in the books of the prophets).
So in spite of the fact that there’s lots of exceptional activity in Judges there’s almost no prophecy.

Note: quote from Judges 6:8-10 & Numbers 12:6 (NLT)

Week 13  Judges 1-13

I always just figured that the judges in Judges appeared consecutively in the order they’re described in the book. But then I heard somewhere that maybe they’re not all just listed one-after-the-other. Maybe they showed up in different places at different times…not in order.
I’m not sure I buy that idea so I tried testing it by scanning through for hints in the text to see if the record is sequential:
Othniel appeared first in chapter 3 (so I’m guessing he’s the first judge). From there it goes like this:
Israel again did evil (then Ehud appeared)
after Ehud, Shamgar…
after Ehud’s death… (Deborah appeared)
again Israel did what was evil... (then Gideon appeared)
one day Gideon’s son Abimelech…
after Abimelech’s death, Tola…
after Tola died…Jair…
again the Israelites did evil… (then Jephthah appeared)
after Jephthah, Ibzan…
after Ibzan, Elon…
after Elon died, Abdon…
again the Israelites did what was evil… (then Samson appeared).
The word ‘after’ is used seven times. After sounds pretty sequential to me. First one person and then after that another.
It’s a bit harder with the word ‘again’. Even though there’s the idea of repetition I can’t say for sure it means after or later or subsequently or next-in-order. But even so it easily could mean later-in-time.
So for now I’m going to stick with my original idea that the judges are written-up in order by date.

Note: quotes from 3:12 3:31 4:1 6:1 9:1 10:1 10:3 10:6 12:8 12:11 12:13 13:1 (NLT)

 

Week 13  Judges 1

The book of Judges opens with the people asking the Lord which tribe should be first to go into battle. The answer is: Judah, for I have given them victory over the land. That might be why the Judah tribe is featured in chapter 1 (it’s not like no one else is mentioned…but the spotlight seems to be on them).
So Judah (tag-teaming with Simeon) begins consolidating territory. They’re spot-lighted in the first 21-verses (it’s confusing at first because some of Caleb’s story seems to clutter things up. But even though in reality Caleb is a Kenite he had become a kind of naturalized Judahite – he had been Judah’s choice to spy-out Canaan in Numbers 13 – and his land allotment was inside Judah-territory).
Anyway after featuring the Judah clan in 1:2-21 ‘Joseph’ appears. There is no tribe-of-Joseph…only the tribes of his two sons – Manasseh & Ephraim. They get about 8-verses.
Even though it looks like Judah (+Simeon) and Ephraim & Manasseh get top-billing in chapter 1 there are honourable-mentions: Benjamin Zebulun Asher Naphtali & Dan.
So the nine tribes I found in chapter 1 were Judah Simeon Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin Zebulun Asher Naphtali Dan.
There’s no mention of Issachar.
No mention of Reuben Gad & ½-Manasseh (they were already set up across the river).
No mention of Levi (for obvious reasons).
I wonder if there’s anything to make of it but I’m finished for today and so I’m left wondering.

Note: quote from Judges 1:2 (NLT)

Week 12  Joshua 24 & Psalm 81

Right near the end of his life Joshua makes the tribes an offer. It’s a pretty interesting one: so honour the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Serve the Lord alone. But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today who you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?
This sounds to me like a fair choice that’s on offer. If it’s disagreeable to serve the Lord then choose someone else to serve. Since y’all gotta-serve-somebody feel free to make your choice.
The psalm I was reading today quoted the Lord: my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around. So I let them follow their…way, living according to their own desires.
This is the sense I usually get reading the bible. The Lord makes an offer and Israel gets to make a choice. Free to choose what’s on offer…or free not to.
One thing the Lord usually does is to spell-out consequentialities – outcome x is the consequent of action y. But I don’t get the impression the Lord is a terrible punitive vindictive I’m-gonna-get-you kind of God for mentioning after effects. To me it sounds more like a fair warning. More like a don’t-drive-through-a-red-light-at-high-speed-at-a-busy-intersection kind of warning.
In the end the choice is mine to make.

Note: quotes from Joshua 24:14-15 & Psalm 81:11-12 (NLT)

Week 12  Joshua 24

I finished Joshua today.
In chapter 24 the Lord summarized Israel’s history:
Long ago your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took Abraham from that land and led him into the land of Canaan. I gave him many descendants through his son Isaac.
Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
Then I sent Moses and Aaron and I brought terrible plagues on Egypt. Afterward I brought you out as free people. But the Egyptians chased after them. When your ancestors arrived at the Red Sea they cried out to me. I put darkness between them and the Egyptians. Then I brought the sea crashing down on the Egyptians, drowning them.
You lived in the wilderness for many years.
But finally I brought you into the land of the Amorites. They fought against you but I gave you victory and you took possession of their land.
When you crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho the men of Jericho fought against you. So did the Amorites the Perizzites the Canaanites the Hittites the Girgashites the Hivites and the Jebusites. But I gave you victory over them.
This is a pretty good condensed version of the bible covering Genesis 12 to Joshua 24. 335-pages collapsed into ~20-lines.
It would’ve saved me a lot of time if I’d just read it. But I would have missed quite a bit.

Note: paraphrased from Joshua 24:2-11 (NLT)