Medicine Hat Joe

Week 20  1 Chronicles 28

Not long before he died David gave Solomon some father-to-son advice:
Acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
Years later – his dad was long gone – Solomon got a similar kind of prompt-reminder from the Lord:
If you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever.
In the early & middle stages of his life Solomon had a run of successes and he eventually became the greatest king Israel ever had. But as years rolled by Solomon got sidetracked: as (he) grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God…He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Solomon’s end-story is a sad reminder that getting good advice at the front end is only as useful as adopting a Good-Advice Maintenance Program over time. Staying on track is at least as tough as getting on track.

Note: quotes from 1 Chronicles 28:9 1 Kings 9:4 & 11:4-5 (NIV)

Week 20  Psalms 140-143

On the news yesterday I saw a team of sappers moving along a sunny forested road in eastern Europe. Taking their time. The countryside was clear of invaders but not clear of the landmines they’d left behind…
Maybe that image was still in memory today when I was reading psalms 140-143 (my plan was to just read 140 but the computer was running a lot of updates so I kept reading).
The four psalms are similar. They’re all written by David. They’re all short. They all have a similar vibe…they’re all I’m In A Jam Please Help Me Out psalms.
One of the things I noticed was that even though David was alert to Obvious Big Dangers – like getting assassinated – he was also aware of Trickily Disguised (But Still Potentially Deadly) Problems – like getting tripped up & trapped & snared & ambushed by his enemies…
(They) have set a trap to catch me…they have set traps all along the way
Keep me out of the traps they have set for me
Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.
David doesn’t mention traps and snares in 143 but he does ask the Lord: show me where to walk…teach me to do your will…May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.
It’s a pretty good prayer: please show me where to walk. A kind of Sapper’s Prayer for negotiating zones with hidden dangers.

Note: quotes from Psalm 140:5 141:9 142:3 143:8 (NLT)

Week 19  1 Chronicles 25

Right away I see data & lists in chapter 23 so I page forward – hoping for the best but seeing I’ve got five more chapters of names & numbers. About 160-verses of material in the Hurry-Up Bible-Reading Category so I shift into a higher gear.
I guess I would have breezed through all of it – including chapter 25 – except a couple of days ago I read: by the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
And Zion would have had a bunch of songs to sing because 1 Chronicles 25 says there were 288 full-time musicians (I checked the arithmetic – 24 groups with 12 individuals in each = 288 musicians). (It also finally registers with me that chapters 23 & 24 & 25 is one long list of many different temple workers – Levites priests Gershonites Kohathites Merarites. Plus those 288 temple musicians.)
Buried in the musicians’ names are a couple of comments about what the group was set up to accomplish: the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals
They: prophesied using the harp in thanking and praising the Lord
They were: trained and skilled in music for the Lord.
So if prophecy praise & thanks were the real objectives of Israel’s dedicated temple musicians it’s easier to understand their reaction in psalm 137 – entertaining their Babylonian overlords wasn’t part of the mandate.

Note: quotes from Psalm 137:1-3, 1 Chronicles 25:1 3 7 (NLT)

Week 19 1  Chronicles 9

My bible reader’s Prime Directive is: read the bible. On the secondary-directive level I’d include: try to understand what you’re reading.
So anyway yesterday I lumped 1 Chronicles 1-9 together as one big list-of-names. But today I see something I missed in chapter nine: the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon…The first to return to their property in their former towns were common people.
Hmmm… I missed the time difference. I check a couple of other bible versions and they give me the same impression – that chapters 1-8 is a long list of family names from the older-past (before the exile to Babylon). But chapter 9 is a different list that jumps forward to the newer-past (after the exile was over).
[I’ve read Chronicles before and I figure I know what I’ll find but I still page through the next 56-chapters…quickly…only looking at title headings…double-checking. Sure enough I’m seeing things I expected…stories about David Solomon Rehoboam Abijah Asa…like that. All the kings of Judah. I look at chapter nine again. I see it’s people from long after the kings of Judah…names with marginal cross-references to Ezra & Nehemiah – both of them after-the-exile guys.]
I come away with two things…
A) it looks like the Chronicles were written after the exile was over (I don’t care too much about exact dates…but I like being in the right century)
B) if I could flip-flop chapters I’d make 1 Chronicles 9 2 Chronicles 37.

Note: quote from 1 Chronicles 9:1-2 (NLT)

Week 19  1 Chronicles 1-9

Sometimes I figure it’s a useful trick to give myself a Bible Reader’s Exercise (BRE). A BRE is a self-directed drill for when I’m losing focus interest concentration…like that. Gives me a point of mental convergence.
The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles makes up a pretty ominous & depressive subsection that’s hard to get jacked-up about. So this is an ideal passage for a BRE.
My BRE this year was to count up how many narrative comments I could find buried in the long list of names. What I found were things like this…
Nimrod: grew to be a mighty warrior
Achan: violated the ban
Jehoiachin was nicknamed: the captive
Geharashim’s family: were craftsmen
Mered married: Bithia the daughter of Pharaoh
Jabez: was more honorable than his brothers
Reuben’s: rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph
Johanan: served as priest in the temple Solomon built
Manasseh had an Aramean concubine
Shaharaim: divorced his wives Hushim and Baara
Levite musicians: stayed in the…temple and were exempt from other duties.
In a little over 400-verses there’s at least 41 of these biographical snippets that take up about 60-verses. Meaning the section isn’t 100% names…more like 85%.
I don’t know how many names are in all nine chapters. But it’s a lot (there’s almost 250 just in chapter one). So my BRE turned out to be a good reading-management tool for me this time around.

Note: quotes from 1 Chronicles 1:10 2:7 2:14 2:17 3:17 4:9 5:1 6:10 7:14 8:8 9:33 (NIV)

Week 19  1 Chronicles 4

Chapter four begins: the sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur and Shobal. I think: hold-on-for-just-one-second! I haven’t memorized family name lists but that doesn’t sound right. For one thing I have a clear memory of that off-kilter Judah Story (it not only interrupts the flow of Joseph’s Long Story in Genesis but it sticks in memory as one of those what’s-the-point? bafflers). And for another thing I just read seventy-seven verses ago that: the sons of Judah were Er, Onan, and Shelah…(and) Perez and Zerah.
I cross-reference back and see that the 1 Chronicles 2 list matches with Genesis 38 – Judah had five sons: Er Onan Shelah Perez & Zerah.
In 1 Chronicles the only common name in its two lists is Perez. But I also see that chapter two says Perez had a son named Hezron (who’s in the chapter four list). I cross-reference back to another Genesis list of Judah’s sons: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah…And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Okay…so Perez is Judah’s son…but Hezron is his grandson.
Finally I check two other bible versions. I wish I’d done it earlier because they both say that Perez Hezron Carmi Hur & Shobal were: the descendants of Judah. So…not necessarily sons.
I wonder why writer’s in the ancient near east didn’t just use the same kinship terminology we use in Alberta. So there’s another Reader’s Alert for me.

Note: quotes from 1 Chronicles 4:1 (NASB NIV & NLT) and 2:3-4, Genesis 46:12 (NASB)

Week 18  1 Chronicles 1-9

I figure that in the last 2500 years no more than a couple of dozen people in the whole world have enthusiastically sat down to read 1 Chronicles 1-9. On the Bible-Reader’s Interest-Level Scale 1 Chronicles 1-9 is near the very bottom. I guess the reason is because it wasn’t written to be read enthusiastically. So even though the passage serves a purpose the purpose isn’t excitement. Or fascination. Or stimulation. Or entertainment. Or personal enrichment. Or adventure. The nine chapters are kind of like the Medicine Hat telephone directory: not intended to thrill.
But today I did notice four things in the early going that got me wondering…
One: a guy in the Noah-Shem line – Peleg – was given that name: because in his time the earth was divided. I wondered about what exactly that meant.
Two: the chronicler devoted twenty-six verses in chapter one to listing Ishmael’s clan. So how important is the Ishmael line? Hard to quantify exactly…but pretty important from the chronicler’s perspective.
Three: David had six brothers. Only three were named back in the episode in 1 Samuel 16. Q: who were the other three? A: Nethanel Raddai & Ozem – named right here in chapter two.
Four: the chronicler says David’s first six sons were: Amnon Daniel Absalom Adonijah Shephatiah Ithream. The cross-referenced list of sons in 2 Samuel 3 says: Amnon Chileab Absalom Adonijah Shephatiah Ithream. What do I make of Daniel vs. Chileab? Second name? Nickname? Not sure.

Note: quote from 1 Chronicles 1:19 (NIV) & see 1:29-54, 2:13-15, 3:1-3

 

Week 18  2 Kings 17

Chapter 17 is the last chapter in the history of Israel North. Game over.
Once the dust had settled Assyria started reorganizing Israel North and part of reorganizing included a policy of two-way migration.
The writer says that first: Israel was carried off to the land of Assyria.
Secondly: the king of Assyria transported groups of people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and resettled them in the towns of Samaria.
A kind of Out-Migration In-Migration musical-chairs operation.
One of the upshots was the importing of religion. The writer listed developments according to a religion’s geographic Point of Origin & then the name of the local god-in-residence…
Babylonia: Succoth-benoth
Cuthah: Nergal
Hamath: Ashima
Avva: Nibhaz-Tartak
Sepharvaim: Adrammelech-Anammelech.
To top off the list the Assyrians appointed a Hebrew priest who specialized in the local religious customs of Israel North. So… Israel: God.
The result was a kind of religious smorgasbord: while these new residents worshipped the Lord, they also worshipped their idols. Both…and.
Whatever current rational political sense the plan made the writer of the Kings reflected back on the benefits of the old exclusive covenant-of-Moses mandate. But it was pretty clear that that train had left-the-station.
By the end of the War with Assyria Israel North got totally rid of the One-God model in favour of a Multiple-Gods approach: and to this day – the writer ended – their descendants do the same.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 17:23-24, 41 (NLT)

 

Week 18  2 Kings 20

King Hezekiah was sick in bed…hoping it wasn’t his deathbed. But then Isaiah arrived and said: set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from your illness.
Hezekiah was stunned. Isaiah was an established & reliable prophet and he gave credible forecasts. Even kiss-of-death ones.
But even so Hezekiah didn’t cave-in. He did the only thing left to do. He prayed a kind of neutralizing/negativizing prayer: a please-overturn-Isaiah’s-forecast type of prayer.
I wonder about what was going on in the place where final decisions were made. Isaiah said Hezekiah would die. So his death was genuinely in-the-cards. But Hezekiah resisted that outcome and pleaded for a different one.
One of two things could happen. Either Hezekiah’s fate wouldn’t be changed and he’d die. Or his fate would be altered and he’d live. Isaiah’s forecast would either happen…or else it wouldn’t.
I feel pretty sure that when Isaiah predicted Hezekiah’s death Hezekiah was literally & materially & actually going to die.
But then Hezekiah introduced a brand new component into his own personal stream-of-future-inevitabilities. If he hadn’t injected that element then he would have died. But he did. So he didn’t.
In this instance the predetermination that Hezekiah would die was malleable and responsive to alternate inputs.
I don’t think there’s many things that can recalibrate an already decided future. But in this case praying did.

Note: quote from 2 Kings 20:1 (NLT)

Week 18  2 Kings 16

Some things a reader has to figure out for himself.
King Ahaz went from Jerusalem to Damascus to see Tiglathpileser.
Tiglathpileser was Ahaz’ political master so Ahaz likely had to go. But once he got there he did a couple of things he didn’t have to.
He saw the big shiny altar in Damascus. He liked it and got a scaled-down model sent to Jerusalem to be duplicated (which he didn’t really need to do).
He told Urijah the priest to build it (technically-speaking he was likely stepping way beyond his own political jurisdiction).
When he got home he went and offered sacrifices on his new altar (Israel’s sacrifices were supposed to be offered on the authorized altar).
Moses’ original bronze altar in front of the door was shifted to give centre-stage to the new one (which Ahaz decided was an improvement).
Ahaz then made his Damascus-altar the one for public sacrifice and re-purposed the old bronze altar for personal use (a functional change that he made on his own say-so).
Personally I knew that Ahaz was going against the exacting specifications and precise instructions that Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers said had to be undeviatingly followed.
But the author of Kings didn’t say a word about the novelties. He could have spelled things out for me. But I guess he expected me to remember that religious mixes-and-matches weren’t allowed and that I could draw reasonable conclusions about Ahaz based on what I already knew.

Note: the story is in 2 Kings 16:10-18