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Week 16 Isaiah

Adjectives are a big help when you’re reading through.
I got this reminder in chapter ten when Isaiah tells Israel that they’re going to get clobbered by Assyria!
Isaiah says: the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has already decided to consume (Israel) (another version says destroy). So the Lord had decided to destroy Israel and that plan would happen soon enough. It’s an unhappy forecast and Isaiah’s graphic death-and-destruction language make a lot of his prophesies hard to digest.
I know what the word destroy means and on the surface I tend to dislike what the Lord plans to do here. So that’s why it’s a bit of a relief that verse twenty-two tips me off that destruction isn’t just anything I think or want it to be.
Isaiah says the destruction he’s talking about here is a fairly specific class of destruction. He calls it destruction that’s: overflowing with righteousness.
So…righteous destruction – a helpful adjective for a word that needs help. I’m not left with figure-it-out-for-yourself destruction. Isaiah says that the Lord’s destructive capacity isn’t just a free-wheeling random destructiveness. It’s not wanton unthinking casual aimless remorseless mindless angry unreflective detached destructiveness. It’s a pretty specific kind of destruction.
Of the different categories of destruction in the world this one is in the righteous class of destructions. Good and necessary destruction.

Note: quotes from Isaiah 10:23, 22 (NLT & NASB)

Week 16 2 Kings

I finished reading Kings yesterday which means I’ve spent about five weeks in the Samuels and the Kings.
The stories were good right up until the end of the Elisha section. Then the last fifteen chapters of 2 Kings bogged me down a bit. It’s the account of the two kingdoms told in parallel – first the one king and then the other, back-and-forth, interweaving the events, giving barebones data about when the king came to power, his age, length of reign, some character description, his death and burial.
For some reason the thought of starting in on Chronicles today seemed too weighty so I’ve decided not to keep reading in bible order.
[I’m telling myself I just want a bit of a change. The reason why I want a bit of a change might be something worth asking but I’m not asking it. The main thing is that I’m going to keep reading. Which book is less of a concern.]
Anyway I’ve decided to jump to Isaiah. I most likely chose Isaiah because near the end of 2 Kings his name showed up a few times. He fits right into the 2 Kings timeline. His story coincides with four kings of Judah – Uzziah Jotham Ahaz & Hezekiah.
So today I started reading Isaiah. If I read three chapters-a-day I’ll be reading Isaiah until May 10 – about three weeks. So I’ll try to speed up a bit and finish by May 1.

Week 16 2 Kings

There’s a nice bible-reader’s story near the end of the book.
It’s about Josiah – one of Judah’s best kings and a bit like David. When he was a young king he started to renovate the temple. During that clean-up a priest found the Book of the Law. [It’s pretty hard to imagine how it got lost in the first place since it was supposed to be the foundational text of the Jewish religion.]
Anyway a scribe read the book to the king and: when (Josiah) heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair – which meant he was upset fearful distraught anxious disconcerted and like that. It was obvious that contemporary religious practices didn’t line up with the Book and Josiah concluded: the Lord’s anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll.
So he adopted the Book of the Law as his new Procedures Manual. He did two things: a) he got rid of religious practices not prescribed in the book, and b) he reinstituted things that were in it. Josiah’s religious revamp was summed up this way: he did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scrolls that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s temple.
Josiah reminded me that the Book is best used as an Assessment Evaluation & Operations Guide.
Otherwise it’s basically just a lost book.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 22: 11, 13 & 23:24 (NLT)

 

Week 15 2 Kings

After his stunning & miraculous healing from leprosy Naaman offered Elisha a big cash reward but then got his second surprise of the day when Elisha told him: as surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.
Standing there listening Gehazi was surprised too and figured Elisha was crazy to refuse the money: my master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him. So Gehazi chased down Naaman and got the reward.
Even though Gehazi lied to Elisha his master knew what was going on. Elisha asked him: is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants?
It’s an interesting question: is this the time to receive money?
If Gehazi was a modern-day Albertan he would say yes (anytime is a good time).
But the answer to Elisha’s question was no. Now isn’t the time to receive money.
So I’m left wondering what all determines the timing of monetary acquisition.
I heard about a business major who inexplicably left Alberta to help in a small church in a country in southeast Asia. And I figure it’s a pretty safe bet to say that at some point this guy asked himself Elisha’s question: is this the right time for me to be making money?

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 5:16, 20, 26 (NLT).

Week 15 2 Kings

I got to the story of Naaman today so I was looking forward to the chapter.
But before I’m past the intro I’m already onto a mental sidetrack. It said: the king of Aram had high admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories.
That last phrase doesn’t sound quite right and I guess the reason is because Israel is supposed to be the star of the bible’s story. For the last three-hundred chapters or so I’ve been focused on Israel. Which is okay. But I have to remember not to catch Israelite Tunnel-Vision.
And for that Naaman is a good reminder. Naaman was an Aramean. Arameans were national enemies of Israel. Aramean marauders captured Israelites. Naaman had his own Israelite slave girl. Arameans were bad guys. And then I also read: through (Naaman) the Lord had given Aram great victories. Naaman – an outsider & enemy – got military assistance from the Lord.
So – even if I am – the Lord isn’t suffering from national-tunnel-vision. He’s operating on an international scale. He might key in on Israel…but he’s Master of the whole world.
I look at a map of the bible world: Egypt Libya Ethiopia Syria the Hittites the Hurrians Assyria Babylon Medo-Persia; later there’s Greece Rome; off the map there’s Japan India China Peru & eventually even Alberta.
The Lord’s seriously engaged in all of them.

Note: quote from 1 Kings 5:1 (NLT)

Week 14 Psalm 90

I’m reading along through Moses’ psalm in the normal bible-reader’s way and I realize – since I’m a human being – that it isn’t doing much to jack up my ego.
Moses – talking about what the Lord does – says: you turn people back to dust…You sweep people away like dreams that disappear or like grass that springs up in the morning…but by evening it is dry and withered.
Moses – talking about the short time that I have here on earth – says: even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble.
So I get the not-too-elevating notice that I’m roughly comparable to dust. To a dream. To prairie grass growing along the coulee. Plus my time is running out.
It leaves me feeling light-weight…like there’s a fluffy airy feathery foamy buoyant vapouriousness to me. I just have dust-mote consequentiality as I phantom my way through life.
I slow down in that middle section of the psalm. I don’t feel too great about what it says but realize that everything that can be said about something can’t be said in a couple of verses. There’s other things to be added…but not right here. So that’s a bit of a relief because it means even if my life is only dream-light that’s not the whole picture.
There’s more to me than psalm 90. Which isn’t saying 90 isn’t accurate.
It’s totally accurate in what it says without saying everything there is to say.

Note: quotes from Psalm 90:3-6 & 10 (NLT)

Week 14 1 Kings

Micaiah was called to the royal court to make a prediction about an upcoming battle. King Ahab didn’t like his bad-news report. So Micaiah explained where he got his message: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the armies of heaven around him, on his right and on his left.
That’s a pretty unusual circumstance. The more common thing is for a Divine Visitor to reach down to a person on earth – maybe orally; maybe in a dream. But Micaiah was transported in some way to some other dimension where he stepped into a different-than-worldly reality. The Lord was there. His throne was there. Other spirit beings – both good and bad – were there. They were conferring – discussing Ahab’s battle.
Yesterday I landed on psalm 88. It asked: who in all of heaven can compare with the Lord? What mightiest angel is anything like the Lord? The highest angelic powers stand in awe of God. He is far more awesome than those who surround his throne.
It seemed like a weird bible-reader’s coincidence to see two places that talk about the Lord’s throne and about his premiership and about angelic powers grouped around him.
I’d estimate that about 95% of the time I’m reading-through I’m mentally located in my real-material-sensory world.
So Micaiah’s story shines a small light into the shadows of a much bigger room. And reminds me about something I don’t normally think about.

Note: quotes from 1 Kings 22:19; Psalm 88:6-7 (NLT)

Week 14 1 Kings

There’s a one-verse story in Kings: it was during (Ahab’s) reign that Heil, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid the foundations, his oldest son, Abiram, died. And when he finally completed it by setting up the gates, his youngest son, Segub, died. All this happened according to the message from the Lord concerning Jericho spoken by Joshua son of Nun.
I checked the cross-reference and reread the message from the Lord that I saw last month where Joshua said: may the curse of the Lord fall on anyone who tries to rebuild the city of Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn son, he will lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son, he will set up its gates.
If I’m reading eighty or a hundred verses a day I can’t spend much time on any single one of them. But I do stop and wonder for a bit about Heil. His story is almost nothing but blanks. What’s the author’s point? Why add this one-verse anecdote?
I figure his single point is that a fairly specific forecast that was made maybe four-hundred years before had just came true.
When a specific forecast comes true it gives a reader a reminder that the writer is aware that there’s some intentional shaping of events going on…
…that from ground-level maybe just seems like one of those random things…
…but that isn’t.

Note: quotes from 1 Kings 16:34, Joshua 6:26 (NLT)

Week 14 1 Kings

I ran into a dating problem.
Kings says: Elah…began to rule over Israel…in the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. (Elah) reigned in Israel two years.
Elah only reigned for two years because one of his commanders – Zimri – assassinated him. So then – when did Zimri become king? King says: Zimri began to rule over Israel…in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. So that doesn’t sound quite right.
If Elah started his two-year reign in Asa’s 26th year and if he reigned for two years then you’d think he was assassinated in Asa’s 28th year.
What do I do? I don’t know for sure so I’m guessing but one way to come at it is to figure that Elah’s two-year reign wasn’t a 365×2-year reign. In that case Elah became king in Asa’s 26th year (which counts as Elah’s year one) and he was assassinated in Asa’s 27th year (Elah’s second & last year).
Trying to deal with bible dates can be a nightmare. I’m maybe tempted to say to the writer “you’re wrong because Elah couldn’t have reigned for 730 days” but the writer comes back with “who’s saying anything about 730 days all I said was that he reigned during two calendar years?”
Trying to deal with bible dates is a real nightmare so while I’m reading-through I usually just read them and move on.
Today was an exception.

Note: quotes from 1 Kings 16:8 & 15 (NLT)

Week 14 1 Kings

An unnamed man of God (MoG) prophesied to Jeroboam. Afterward Jeroboam invited him for a meal but the MoG refused – the Lord had told him not to eat or drink.
Heading home the MoG met an old prophet (OP). The OP invited him for a meal but the MoG refused – the Lord had told him not to eat or drink.
But the OP insisted – told him that an angel had said it was okay. The MoG must have figured the angel’s word carried weight. He ate with the OP.
Unfortunately a follow-up word from the Lord came saying that because the MoG disobeyed he would die on the trip home. And he was killed by a lion.
On the surface the MoG seems like a stand-up guy who’d been tricked by the deceptive OP – who seemed like a liar and a bad guy. But I really don’t think that’s the point. I think the point arrives when the OP tells the MoG: you have defied the Lord’s message and have disobeyed the command the Lord your God gave you. That was the key thing.
The MoG got specific directions. And when his obedience was tested – and it was a wily & devious test – he failed.
To begin with the MoG did what he was supposed to do. But in the end he didn’t do what he wasn’t supposed to.

Note: references from 1 Kings 13:9, 17. Quote from 13:26 (NLT)