A Boomer in the Pew

Must Read Narrative of God's Amazing Intervention on Behalf of King Jehoshaphat and the Nation of Judah

Bible in a Year Series - Day #181 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Chronicles 19-23. 

I greatly enjoyed reading the narrative of 2 Chronicles 20.  Here we find information that is original with the "chronicler", and helps us to better understand Jehoshaphat.

A massive army was assembling to destroy Judah, and King Jehoshaphat, knowing that he was completely helpless, assembles the nation to seek the Lord in prayer:

"“O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. 7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ 10 And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— 11 behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. 12 O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 13 Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children."

Got the scene?  Completely helpless before God.  Ever been there, or at least thought you were there?

And then...Judah gets the most amazing response from God:

"And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”"

Wow!  Take time to mull this around in your mind.  God has answered their prayer, rewarding their supplications.  Yet, God still required that they act upon this faith, go and only "stand firm" in the battle, and watch the one and only Yahweh destroy the enemies of his chosen people.

What a display of God to the land of Judah.  Imagine how thankful they must have been to be spared their lives in such a magnificent way. 

God desires that His name be glorified.  And in this situation, He clearly made His name known, not only to Judah, but to the surrounding nations who were now afraid to mess with the One God.

Oh my soul, continue the journey to "stand firm" in God's promises, and thereby marvel at Yahweh's display of affection.

What are we to Make of This Extraordinary Heavenly Throne Room Scene and King Ahab's False Prophets?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #180 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Kings 22, & 2 Chronicles 18.

After the death of King Solomon's son, King Rehoboam, the Bible has us fairly quickly sprinting through a number of Israel's monarchs until we get to the evil King Ahab.

With King Ahab, we find six whole chapters dedicated to his story, and in particular his interactions with Elijah.

Today, Elijah is absent and we find ourselves viewing King Ahab and another prophet by the name of Micaiah.

Most interestingly, we are here permitted another rare view into the heavenly throne room of God:

"And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ 23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”"

This whole scene is reminiscent of a similar scene in the book of Job where God allows Satan to torment Job.  The difference here is that King Ahab is an adversary to Yahweh in that he has placed his faith in the false god Baal.

There is a small part of me that recoils at the recalling of this throne room scene, but we must be reminded, as Paul seeks to have us understand in the first chapters of Romans, that we are all worthy of being God's adversary, save for his merciful grace, and the regenerating calling of his elect.

It is impossible for the thinking student of the Bible to zoom past this scene without a fair bit of chin scratching.

What strikes you with this peculiar vision of God's throne room?

Felix Mendelssohn, Elijah, and a Heart for God

Bible in a Year Series - Days #178 & 179 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Things have gotten very bad in the nation of Israel. Look at how 1 Kings 16:30-33 records the situation under King Ahab:

"And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him."

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, in pops Elijah to our scene pronouncing to Ahab that there will be a severe drought in the land, and furthermore, there wasn't a darn thing that the false god Baal could do about it.

Elijah's confrontations against Israel's apostasy culminates on Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenges 450 of Baal's prophet to a duel of gods.  The false god Baal, of course, doesn't show up, and here we find Elijah in fervent prayer that Yahweh might show up and show these people that He alone is God:

“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

I don't know the tone that Elijah used as he prayed these words, but composer Felix Mendelssohn clearly felt it was a tender prayer.  Listen to the famous German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing Mendelssohn's famous aria, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel:

Oh Yahweh, turn our hearts back to you!

Syncretism in Ancient Israel and Modern America

Bible in a Year Series - Days #176 & #177 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

syn-cre-tism - the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.

King Solomon started this whole syncretic mess by building alters to Chemosh and Molech for his wives.

In our reading of the past few days, we have now traveled many hundreds of years and it is now very difficult to find a king who is worshiping God alone.

The tablet above is from 750 BC (during our reading's time period), and reads:

“Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he saved him!”

The tablet, found at the site of Khirbet El-Qom near modern Hebron, clearly shows an ancient man of Judah worshiping Yahweh and his Asherah.

Unfortunately, our nation's largest "church", lead by Joel Osteen, promotes a similar form of syncretism blending a faith in God with the popular pop psychology message of having your best life now.

Sadly, then as now, those who are far from a personal relationship with God, and taking upon themselves serious study of his word, find themselves easily duped by these false teachers and theologies.

As we are seeing in our readings, God is not pleased with his people having other gods before him, and in our culture this other god can certainly be longing after riches instead of longing after God.

There is nothing wrong with riches unless the longing for riches becomes more important in our life than our longing for God.

And here is where Osteen gets it so wrong!  He continually suggests that God is likened to a candy machine in heaven, desires that we be happy, and all we need do is ask, believe, and follow the seven steps in his book.

Unfortunately for him, and the many thousands that he leads astray, this teaching is completely off base, and far from a heart longing for only God.  The blur between a right understanding of God, and the worship of the things of this world has become very confusing for many.

The only cure for this dilemma is a personal journey in God's word, with a diligent intention to understand through prayer, and a right heart.  The most important things of God are not difficult to understand.

Rehoboam: the Male "Paris Hilton" Spawn of King Solomon

Bible in a Year Series - Day #173, #174, & #175 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Our travel schedule has fouled up my daily study routine, but I have been able to keep up with my daily reading using the on-line ESV Study Bible on my Droid.

A lot has happened since we met last.  King Solomon has died, we finished the Bible's collection of Proverbs, and now we find ourselves in the company of King Solomon's son Rehoboam, who seems more interested in the size of his manhood than he does in knowing and following God's desires.

Clearly, God is not amused, and sets about a series of events that will ultimately split the nation of Israel into two pieces and has them warring with one another.

Further, God set the Egyptian King Shishak against Israel and the splendor of King Solomon's Temple is completely sacked, and all of the golden treasures are stolen away to Egypt.

Imagine the shame that must have fallen upon King Rehoboam's head.  His father had built, through God's blessing, the greatest nation the world has ever seen, and in just a few short years King Rehoboam has destroyed the nation and lost the treasures of the Temple.

Note:  the photograph above is from King Shishak's "City List" that is still standing, and gives us another historical reference for our text.

As we are now fast approaching the complete destruction of Israel, the Temple, and the scattering of Israel from the Promised Land, I find myself remembering the key reason God has preserved these narratives for us:

• Man is fallen, and desperately needs a Savior to permanently keep him from God's holy wrath against sin.
• These historical narratives serve as excellent examples of the folly of intentioned, and determined disobedience to the Creator's wishes.

These two statements strike our culture as certain absurdities, but a serious student of the Bible will see in them a clear, and distinctive recognition of God's instruction for us through the lives of our Jewish brothers and sisters.

Thoughts?

Watching in Sorrow as King Solomon Bends the Knee to Idols

Bible in a Year Series - Day #171 & #172 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

I thought this interesting from the ESV Study Bible Notes:

Throughout chs. 1–10 the reader has received hints that all is not well with Solomon's heart: 3:1–3 juxtaposed his love for God with suggestions of divided loyalties revealed in his choice of marriage partner; 4:26 and 4:28 told of his accumulation of horses; 6:38–7:1 pursued the question of building project priorities; and 10:26–29 did the same with regard to horses, in a context in which the topic of Solomon's great wealth was introduced and the marriage question again briefly addressed. Since the prayer of 8:22–53 and God's response to it in 9:1–9 have made clear both the importance of keeping the law and the consequences of disobedience, 9:10–10:29 sounded ominous; and now the authors reveal the inevitable consequences of all that has gone before. Solomon's sins have led him to apostasy.

It serves to make me tremble to see that the world's wisest man has turned away from God through riches, pride, and the influence of others (his 700 pagan wives).

What a dichotomy we find in Solomon between the end of his journal (Ecclesiastes) where he concludes that all must "fear God and obey his commandments", and here in the Book of 1 Kings where we find him prostrate before an idol.

Therefore, should we not daily earnestly pray that God might guard our hearts and minds?

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

King Solomon: He who Increases Knowledge Increases Sorrow

Bible in a Year Series - Day #170 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Ecclesiastes 1-6. 

If you had the opportunity to hang with the wisest man that ever lived, would you want to? 

The Book of Ecclesiastes is King Solomon's personal journal, and in this journal he seeks to understand the meaning of life.

In the very first chapter, King Solomon makes a number of summary statements.  One that I have certainly struggled with is:

For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.(Ecclesiastes 1:18)

Solomon is going to sum up the whole of a man's life by the end of his journal, but here he let's us know that this journey of seeking such a thing is very painful.

I don't claim to possess the wisdom of Solomon, but I have certainly painfully struggled with a number of issues that God has revealed to us through his word.

Saying that one believes in God is evidently an easy thing to do as 90% of Americans make that claim. 

But, beginning to strap on the teachings of this book is completely another matter.  Once people read what this book says, they tend not to like it, and would propose to cut out, or water down their meanings.

But, as Solomon is going to teach us, our lives are but a vapor, many of our strivings are but folly, and at the end of the day our task is to fear God and obey him.

There, I let the cat out of the bag.

Solomon proclaims that this must be the sum total of your life:  fear God and obey him.

How does that make you feel?

What Does it Mean to Fear the Lord?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #169 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Proverbs 27-29.

Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always,
but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. (Proverbs 28:14)

One of the instructions that rings through the whole of the Bible is to "fear the Lord".  In fact, as King Solomon surveyed all the things that might be good for a man, he concluded his search with fearing God.

So what does this fearing of God mean?  Here are a few of my thoughts:

• It's a matter of perspective.  We are the clay.  We are dust.  He is the Creator.
• He is infinitely perfect, we have natures that are in open rebellion against him.
• God has made it clear that he will destroy those who are in rebellion against him, and have even the slightest stain of sin.
• God has also made is clear that there is a final judgment day where he will for eternity separate those that are his, from those whom he opposes.
• Once a person acknowledges these things, then trust followed by obedience is God's desire.

Once a person reads, and diligently seeks to understand God's words to us, it seems that this fear of God perhaps changes color.  It's not that we now fear his holy wrath, but now we fear, or give great honor and respect to His awesomeness.

God has instructed that no man can see God and live.  It is not until we have the promised resurrected bodies that we can be in His presence.

I don't know about you, but this is all very difficult for our finite minds to comprehend.  What we don't understand, we tend to fear.  Therefore, we come back full circle to trust, faith, and obedience.

So, it seems to me that the fear of God is all of this.

What are your thoughts? 

Hauling out the Magnifying Glass of Solomon's Proverbs

Bible in a Year Series - Day #168 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Proverbs 25-26

If we allow our emotions, whims, and desires to control our lives, then we are certain to run into difficulty. 

As we have learned many times in our journey thus far, the Christian lives in constant battle with his fallen nature.

Solomon's proverbs, it seems to me, are like a magnifying glass that we can pull out to investigate our lives.  Although we may not be the fool described in Proverbs 25:28 - 26:12, we have all certainly acted the fool's part from time to time.

Proverb to self:  The more you make the magnifying glass of Proverbs your friend, the less time you will spend as the object of a particular proverb.

I'm going to carry this one around today:

A man without self-control

is like a city broken into and left without walls. (Proverbs 25:28)

Now, where's that gym?

Solemnly Watching King Solomon's Struggle With the Flesh

Bible in a Year Series - Day #167 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time. 

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Kings 9, & 2 Chronicles 8.

We are starting to see the hints of a dark cloud brewing in Solomon's fabulous kingdom. 

At the temple dedication, God warned King Solomon against turning to other gods, and here, for some reason, we see King Solomon moving his wife, Pharaoh's daughter, away from the holy temple:

"Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”  (2 Chronicles 8:11)

In this drawing of Solomon and his wife, you can see a scowl on her face as she is being removed from the city of David.  I wonder what was going on behind the scenes?  Solomon knew better than to marry a pagan.  But he did it anyway.  What types of pagan worship might she have been practicing that would cause Solomon to move her away from the dwelling place of God's holy name?

It's interesting that this wisest of all men is here before us struggling with his flesh.  I can recall times in my life where I too directly disobeyed the small voice in my head.  Unfortunately for Solomon, his sin is going to end in full fledged apostasy, and we will begin to see the beginning of the end of all Israel.

There are most solemn things for us to consider here.

Abba, I desire to disobey you every single day.  A constant battle exists in my soul.  Please keep me chained to your presence, continue to mold and change me, so that I daily begin to grow more and more like Christ.