Medicine Hat Joe

Week 14 1 Kings

Early in the Solomon story there’s a niggling little comment that the writer makes: Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
Four other bible versions use that same word – except. Solomon followed the Lord…except for one almost irrelevant departure.
It’s a small thing and easy to miss. The author skips over it quickly and so I do. But it’s not as easy to skip what happens in chapter eleven: King Solomon…loved many foreign women…And his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. The author doesn’t just slide over this one.
I looked back at the promise the Lord gave Solomon: if you walk before me in integrity of heart…I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever…But if you or your sons turn away from me…and go off to serve other gods and worship them…then I will cut off Israel from the land…and will reject this temple. The Lord gave Solomon a pretty rock-solid guarantee. But it came with the condition of devotion.
And unfortunately by the end of his life Solomon’s almost whole-hearted devotion to the Lord had eroded into half-hearted and then into no-hearted non-devotion.

Note: quotes from 1 Kings 3:3, 11:1 & 4, 9:4-7 (NIV)

Week 13 1 Kings

Today I read about Solomon’s Temple and thought back to the story of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Two building projects, similar like an Amish barn-raising is similar to a company getting a city-contract for low-rental apartments.
Exodus took about seven chapters detailing plans for the Tabernacle. 1 Kings doesn’t record anything about the planning stage.
On Mount Sinai the Lord gave Moses exacting instructions on how the Tabernacle should look. Solomon didn’t go to Sinai and the bible doesn’t say anything about him getting blueprints from the Lord.
Bezalel & Oholiab were given special Tabernacle-building talent by the Lord’s Spirit. Solomon hired Hiram – an accomplished metallurgist but – from what we can tell – not spirit-talented.
People willingly donated materials to build the Tabernacle but the Temple didn’t have much community engagement. Costs were covered by the state and police-enforced labour did all the heavy lifting.
The two projects were different. But it looks like the differences were over-look-able because when Solomon dedicated his Temple to the Lord a cloud filled the temple – a very good sign – and the Lord said: I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple which you have built…My eyes and my heart will always be there.
So it looks like Solomon’s government-contracted bricks-and-mortar project was done with his heart in the right place.

Note: quote from 1 Kings 9:3 (NIV).

Week 13 Psalm 82

I’ve tended to give verse #1 the once-over-lightly treatment when I’ve read it before: God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the “gods”. [My principle there is that when something is tough to dope out it’s maybe easier not to bother trying.]
But today I’m wondering. It says that the Lord is presiding in an assembly hall of some sort and that there are gods of some sort in that hall and that the Lord is communicating in a formal and judicial way to those assembled gods. It looks like the Lord asks them why they have defended injustice (which if they have would put them in a not-good-god category). Then a couple of verses later it looks like the Lord says to the gods: you are all sons of the Most High. But you will die like mere men.
Gods of some sort. But they’ll die like men die.
Probably the easiest way to manage this verse is to call it an elaborate and imaginary picture that isn’t actually true. If it’s a metaphor I can bring it down-to-earth.
But I’m reluctant to do that too soon.
For now I’ll go with an actual judicial assembly that’s operating in a supra-material dimension where – in addition to the Lord – there’s a group of divinities & angelic beings of some type, some of whom are evil.
I’ll keep looking to see if I can find anything to substantiate this model.

Note: quotes from Psalm 82:1, 3, 6-7 (NIV)

Week 13 1 Kings

The book opens ominously with the old king dying and vultures beginning to circle the palace.
Adonijah Joab Abiathar & their associates are forming up on one side.
Solomon Benaiah Zadok Nathan & David’s high-ranking officers are on the other.
Like the showdown at the O.K. Corral – but way bigger.
The transition of political power in the ancient near east wasn’t like it is in Alberta. Exchange of power in the modern world starts with some basic constitutional guidelines, and from there parties mobilize friendly media-outlets, have public debates and arguments and name-calling along with not so public skullduggery, dishonesty, disinformation, character assassination, election rigging and like that. The big difference between now and then is that back in the day political opponents were routinely killed. In the time of Kings the expectation was that political life could include physical death.
So that’s what I’m seeing as I begin Kings.
It’s a whole different world and it’s hard for a bible-reader not to get twisted up about how brutal murderous cruel violent and inhumane the late Bronze Age was. It’s like reading a history of the 20th century.
So I keep that in mind as I read. The cultural environment was what it was. But as important as it was it isn’t what preoccupies me.

Note: It’s April 1 – time to check my reading progress. I’ve read up to 1 Samuel 24. That’s 291 consecutive chapters + 80 psalms. 371 chapters out of 1189 is 31.2% of the bible in 25% of the year. So I’m ok.

Week 13 2 Samuel

The last chapter of 2 Samuel tells a story about David’s national military census.
For some unexplained reason he shouldn’t have done it.
But I don’t waste time wondering why it was wrong because today I’m looking at what prompted it: the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah”.
But then there’s a cross-reference to the same story in Chronicles: then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So Israel had done some unnamed evil that angered the Lord. Then David personally initiated the census – he admitted later: it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong – but the text says that the Lord incited it and that Satan motivated it too.
I don’t have a big problem with the idea that an event can have a bunch of inputs. The problem is that in this story the inputs that you’d think would work against each other seem to be collaborating.
For me this story is part of the bible-reader’s minefield. I don’t like having to manage multiple contrary inputs. My preference is for simplicity clarity & common-sensicality.
That said…even though I don’t get it doesn’t mean I don’t believe it.
But it’s a complex story and so I finish the book of Samuel filing the Census Story in my Inconclusive Events drawer.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 24:1, 17, 1 Chronicles 21:1 (NASB)

Week 13 2 Samuel

After king David had his adulterous sexual intercourse with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover it up the prophet Nathan came to David and told him a story.
A rich man had herds of livestock. His poor neighbour only had a single lamb. One day company came to the rich man’s house and he wanted to prepare a meal for them but he didn’t want to use any of his own animals. So he stole the poor man’s lamb and slaughtered it for his feast.
When David heard the story he was furious with the rich man.
But David got off his high-horse when Nathan told him: you are the man!
It’s an interesting thing to see. How clearly and accurately David judged another guy who had basically done the same thing that David had just done but that David didn’t see clearly or accurately.
It was easy for David to judge the other guy. Things got a little fuzzier and complicated when it came to judging himself.
I don’t know what the hardest thing in the world to do is. But getting an error-free read on myself is right up near the top.
It’s pretty much impossible to be impartial about me, to face up to what I am.

Note: quote from 2 Samuel 12:7 (NASB)

Week 13 Psalm 77

Psalm 77 seems like two psalms to me…
Psalm 77A (1-10) and
Psalm 77B (11-20).
Psalm 77A seems like a Downsider Blues psalm.
Psalm 77B is sunnier.
Asaph sounds like he was down when he wrote 77A : this is my fate, that the blessings of the Most High have changed to hatred. That’s pretty strong language (even though I understand the feeling and I’m reassured he said it).
Of course Asaph doesn’t end with that. He goes right on into 77B with its Remember What the Lord Has Done reminder.
In my bible the space between the end of verse-ten and the beginning of verse-eleven is fractional. I think it’s deceptively fractional. In real life that fractional-looking transition might be Grand Canyon-sized.
I’ve got no problem with Asaph saying the Lord’s past actions can be a helpful management tool when it comes to dealing with my blues. But I think his shift from verse ten to eleven is a bigger one – psychically-emotionally-spiritually – than he lets on.
But I don’t fault Asaph. He can’t say everything.
And if some things are left unsaid I still walk away from 77 with the reminder that being familiar with what the Lord has done has the potential to help me. Reading through familiarizes me. And being familiar can help with the Deep Blues.

Note: quote from Psalm 77:10 (NLT)

Week 12 2 Samuel

Nathan came to David with a big-time prophetic message: the Lord declares that he will build a house for you – a dynasty of kings! For when you die, I (the Lord) will raise up one of your descendants, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house…for my name…If he sins, I will use other nations to punish him. But my unfailing love will not be taken from him…Your dynasty and your kingdom will continue for all time before me and your throne will be secure forever.
I’ve read the story before and so I know the first part of the forecast comes true because Solomon does build the temple in Jerusalem. Then the if-he-sins part comes true too. Solomon turns from the Lord. His kingdom is busted-up. He dies and things go off the rails. The short-range prophecy comes true.
But there’s also the longer-range forecast: your kingdom will continue for all time before me and your throne will be secure forever.
For a prophecy to be true it has to come true. So for this longer-range forecast to be accurate David’s dynasty has to – in some way – keep on going permanently. For-all-time. Forever.
Which means that technically David’s perpetual-dynasty has to have maintained momentum from his time up until 27/03/21 – in some identifiable way – and then to carry right on-and-on into the future.

Note: quote from 2 Samuel 7:11-16 (NLT)

Week 12 2 Samuel

So far I’ve only read about David’s Hebron Years: he had reigned over Judah from Hebron for seven years and six months, and from Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-tree years. Something I noticed is that other than the Lord specifically telling David to go to Hebron at the beginning of chapter two there isn’t much said about the Lord for the next 86-verses. I counted about twenty-two events that happened during the Hebron Years – Ishbosheth Abner Joab Asahel & like that – but almost nothing said about the Lord being part of that mix.
I’m not sure why the writer wrote it that way but he really keeps the Lord under wraps.
It’s way more useful for a reader when the bible says something like: David became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him. Then I know.
Still…even though 2 Samuel two-three-four don’t spell out that the Lord helped David it doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t.
I read the bible and I find things left unsaid.  I can just keep reading. Or I can try filling in the blanks – which can be a bit of a risky game. But one pretty fair place to begin is to ask myself: if the original writer had filled in that gap what would he likely have said?

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 5:4-5, 10 (NLT)

Week 12 1 Samuel

In the middle of 1 Samuel there’s a changing-of-the-guard statement made. Samuel had told the young David that he would be the next king and then the bible says: the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon (David) from that day on. Then the very next verse says: now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression. These two verses land right in the middle of the book – I counted 395 verses before them and 413 after.
If I’m reading through 1 Samuel for the first time I’m likely getting a sense at this point that things will a) get worse for Saul and b) get better for David. But what actually does happen is that things a) get worse for Saul and b) get worse for David.
After the Spirit of the Lord came on David Saul tried to murder him twice before sending a death squad to assassinate him. So David left town. He spent time going from pillar to post – Nob, Gath, Adullam, Moab, the forests of Hereth, Keilah, Ziph, Horesh, the Arabah valley, Engedi, and back to Gath and Ziklag. Hiding out, living like an outlaw from the Dead Sea to Philistine country.
This all happened after the Lord’s Spirit came on him.
It’s tempting to think that when the Spirit comes to people things will get better.
In David’s case the Spirit came and things got worse.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 16:13 & 14 (NLT)