service genset jogja
2 Samuel 1:1, 1 Samuel review

Saul’s defeat – David’s victory

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 25, 2022

Saul’s defeat – David’s victory! (2 Samuel 1:1)

Phillips gives an excellent review of the final events of 1 Samuel to connect the story with what is to come in 2 Samuel.  “1 and 2 Samuel is one book in the original Hebrew composition. During the second half of the third century BC, 70 scribes translated the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek Septuagint. Because the scrolls at that time did not have enough space for the content of Samuel, it was divided into two books.”[1] Don’t miss the similarity between the opening words of 2 Samuel and those of some earlier books. Joshua begins recounting the death of Moses. Judges begins recounting the death of Joshua. 2 Kings will start by recounting the death of Ahab. It might be that this formula was the deciding factor as to where the book of Samuel was to be divided into two books. 2 Samuel begins by telling us of Saul’s defeat and David’s victory. “After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.”

Phillips writes, “As we begin to study 2 Samuel, we encounter in David another man whose life was dramatically changed by news of a death. Second Samuel picks up the story directly where 1 Samuel left it off. This is to be expected since originally, until the time of its translation into Greek, Samuel was a single book in the Bible. First Samuel 29 tells of David’s armed band of fugitives marching in the Philistine host as it advanced toward its invasion of Israel and of how David was providentially delivered from the battle that would take place in the north. Chapter 30 tells of his return to his southern base at Ziklag, only to find that Amalekite raiders had made off with their wives, children, and property. David and his men pursued and defeated these raiders and returned to Ziklag. The final chapter of 1 Samuel then relates the result of the battle between King Saul and the Israelites against the massed Philistine host. When 2 Samuel begins, the reader knows what David does not yet know: Saul was defeated and killed, and the Israelites were scattered in defeat.”[2]

David had just returned from defeating the age-old enemies of Israel, the Amalekites. When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, the Amalekites would attack the rear of the Israelite procession to such an extent that Moses had to recruit Joshua to go to war with them.  We saw the rise of Moses’ successor in the victorious person of Joshua. Here we see Saul’s successor in the victorious person of David. The English Standard Translation says David “struck down” the Amalekites, while some other translations say he “slaughtered” them. The main point seems to be that while the Philistines were defeating Saul, David was defeating the Amalekites. From his first appearance in the Bible, David is seen as a very different kind of leader than Saul.

[1] https://answers-to-all.com/users-questions/why-was-samuel-split-into-two-books/

[2] Phillips, Richard D. 2018. 2 Samuel. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Iain M. Duguid. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

Tags:
Permalink
1 Samuel 1:1, Micah 5:2

Looking for a Leader

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 24, 2022

John Woodbridge titles his commentary on 1st Samuel, “Looking for a Leader.” He writes, “The book of 1 Samuel takes us back more than 3,000 years. The date was about 1050 b.c. It was a time when the question of leadership was very much in the air in the small and relatively young nation of Israel.” It had just endured several centuries of confusion, social upheaval, and near anarchy. It was the time during which there were 13 cycles where the nation sinned against God. God brought punishment to them. They repented and cried out for salvation. God would then send a judge or a deliverer. Then, the cycle would begin again. Each time the nation found itself in dire straights, they called for God to send a deliverer. God sent them one to “lead” them against their enemies. The book ends with the phrase, “there was no king in Israel, so each man did that which was right in his own eyes.” In the Hebrew Old Testament, 1 Samuel comes right after the book of Judges. In English Bibles, Ruth found its way between the two books because its first verse places it in the time of the Judges. So Woodbridge concludes, “In other words, there was no established and permanent political authority in the land. Anarchy reigned. There was a crisis of leadership in Israel. Or so it seemed.” We’ll read the story of three leaders: Samuel, Saul, and David, whose story will be concluded in 2 Samuel.

1 Samuel begins by introducing a man named Elkanah. The first verse says, “There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.” We don’t know much about Elkanah besides what is recorded in the opening verses of 1 Samuel. To some degree, we might say Elkanah was a nobody. The book of 1 Samuel is about how God uses “nobodies” to accomplish his will. He chooses a nobody and makes a “somebody” out of them. Samuel, the maker of kings, is the descendant of Elkanah, as we’ll see, and God uses him to establish the united kingdom of Israel under King David.

Down the lineage of Elkanah was “Zuph.” He is called an “Ephrathite.” He was also a nobody from a place that was a “no place”: Bethlehem! But the “little town” was to become famous as the Prophet Micah foretold long after the story of 1 Samuel takes place. He writes in Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” So “The book of 1 Samuel is going to tell us the extraordinary story of the leadership crisis in Israel at the end of the second millennium b.c. In ways that will surprise us, it will point us to God’s astonishing answer to Israel’s predicament. We will see that God’s answer for Israel turns out to be his answer for the whole world and for each of us individually.”[1]

[1] Woodhouse, John. 2008. 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Tags: ,
Permalink
Ruth 1:1, Jeremiah 5:25

A test of faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 23, 2022

Commentators seem to think that the book of Ruth took place at the time of Gideon in the book of Judges. We don’t know for sure. The first verse says, “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.” The period of the Judges was a dark time in many ways with repeated cycles of sin, judgment, repentance, and deliverance. Each cycle ended with deliverance but then it would start all over again. Several times judgment on the land took the form of a famine so the opening verse of Ruth is consistent with the circumstances in Israel. This is much like me and my diet and exercise program. I’d eat so much and become so lethargic that I’d make myself sick. I lay in bed and repent and pray for help and then I’d get back to living healthier for a little while but sooner or later I’d eat myself sick again!! As I look back over my life that cycle has repeated itself numerous times, so I have some sympathy for the children of Israel in the days of the judges. But, in the book of Ruth, we see the overwhelming grace of God to keep his promise of sending the ultimate redeemer who will save his people from their crippling cycles of sin once and for all. “Bethlehem was about five miles south of Jerusalem. Later Obed, son of Ruth and Boaz, was born in Bethlehem and Obed’s grandson David was born in Bethlehem (Ruth 4:18–21; 1 Sam. 17:58). Bethlehem, of course, would also be the birthplace of David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 2:4–7).”[1]

Moab is a very strange place for the story to take place because the Moabites were recognized enemies of the Israelites. It was very inhospitable when Israel wanted to cross their lands on their way to the promised land according to Deuteronomy. This should catch the attention of any biblical student right from the start. Ruth is a strange character to find in the genealogy of Jesus as well. She comes from the incestuous relationship of Lot with his daughter. Ruth’s history does not bode well for her! But God didn’t care about that. I’m already comforted by that truth.

God uses famines in our lives for several reasons. It appears that they often come because of failure to stay faithful to God’s direction for happy living. Moses reminded them of curses and blessings in the book of Deuteronomy.  The blessings of obedience brought Israel houses they didn’t build, water from wells they didn’t dig, and food from crops they didn’t plant. Indeed, Israel was blessed with a land flowing with milk and honey. Jeremiah explains the famine in his day by saying in Jeremiah 5:25, “Your sins have kept good from you.” But God also uses famines in our lives to test us. I think that was the case with Abraham. Just stay where you are in the will of God no matter what trouble comes your way. For Abraham, the famine was not a test of personal morality or corporate responsibility, but to remain in the land that God had given him.  He failed in this.  A famine in the land weakened Abram’s faith, and he went with Sarai into Egypt in search of food. You might ask yourself in times of famine whether you brought the drought on yourself or is God testing your faith.

[1] Reed, John W. 1985. “Ruth.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:419. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Tags: ,
Permalink
Judges 1:1

Christ is Our Deliverer!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 22, 2022

After the major campaigns to take the land, Joshua charged each tribe to continue the occupation until they eliminated the enemies from their various lands. The tribes were not uniformly successful in doing this. At the beginning of the book of Judges, this task has yet to be fully dealt with. Just as the book of Joshua begins with the death of Moses, God’s servant, so too does Judges start with the death of Joshua, God’s servant. But God had appointed a leader to succeed Moses and made that appointment clear to the children of Israel. There was no such appointed leader at Joshua’s death. Joshua had divvied the land appropriately to the 12 tribes, but not all the land had been adequately possessed by the tribes.  Joshua charged the tribes to finish the conquest and drive out the remaining enemies. But, Joshua had left no successor to help them complete the task. The book of Judges begins, “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?’”

The book begins with the request for a military leader to finish the conquest of the land. Hundreds of years go by with 13 various cycles during which the nation sins against God, God allows them to fall into servitude to the nations around them instead of conquering them. Then the Israelites cry out to God for help. God sends a “judge, “ a military hero, to deliver them from their enemies. Victory ensues, but the cycle starts over. Swindoll summarizes the book well, “The nation underwent political and religious turmoil as the people tried to possess those parts of the land that had not yet been fully conquered. The tribes fought among themselves, as well, nearly wiping out the tribes of Manasseh (Judges 12) and Benjamin (20–21). The pattern of behavior in the book of Judges is clear: the people rebelled through idolatry and disbelief, God brought judgment through foreign oppression, God raised up a deliverer—or judge, and the people repented and turned back to God. When the people fell back into sin, the cycle started over again.”[1]

It appears that Walton is right, “…the aim of this document (Judges) is not to celebrate the achievements of the generation of Israelites that survived Joshua, but to lament their sorry response to the divine mandate to occupy the land and to eliminate the Canaanites…The structure… declares that this military failure accounts for the disastrous history of the nation in the next two or three centuries.”[2] Yet, at the same time, one cannot miss God’s longsuffering with his sinful people. Throughout this book, God’s people are disobedient and idolatrous. Yet when they repented and cried out to God for help, He sent a savior! God never failed to open his arms in love to his people when they turned to Him for salvation. This is the Gospel message for us today. Though we, too, like the children of God in the period of the Judges, have been disobedient and idolatrous in our own ways, God is waiting for us to repent and turn to Him. One blogger says, “God’s compassionate delivery of His people despite their sin and rejection of Him presents a picture of Christ on the cross. Jesus died to deliver His people—all who would ever believe in Him—from their sin.”[3]

[1] https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-historical-books/judges

[2] Walton, John H. 2009. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Judges.html

Tags:
Permalink
Joshua 1:1-2

Trust and Obey

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 21, 2022

The first five books of the Bible are named by their first word or phrase according to the Hebrew Bible and according to their content by the Greek, Latin, and English translations. The sixth book of the Bible, Joshua, departs from that practice and is the first book named after the central character in the book. Most of the following books follow this lead. Look at other books: Job, Esther, Ruth, Jonah, Samuel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all of the minor prophets as well. It’s appropriate that this book gets its name from the lead character. Boice quotes Keller, “He [Joshua] has seldom been given the full credit he deserves as perhaps the greatest man of faith ever to set foot on the stage of human history. In fact, his entire brilliant career was a straightforward story of simply setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God.” Boice then continues, “Joshua was not perfect, and the achievement of ‘setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God’ is hardly the way to command the attention and admiration of the world. Nevertheless, obedience is the key to victory in God’s service, and Joshua is a noteworthy example of this point.”[1]

The book of Joshua begins with God pointing out the obvious to him. It begins, “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, ‘Moses my servant is dead.’” As recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it. I find comfort that even in light of Moses’ failure in this regard, he is still called the “servant of the Lord” by the author of Joshua, and it’s recorded here that he is called “My servant” by God. When it came time for the children of Israel to leave the wilderness life behind and enter the promised land, Moses’ work was done. He climbed the mountain by himself. This “servant” was not weak and feeble. He was not mentally challenged in his old age either. Exell writes, “Moses had no look of a dying man as he left the camp and climbed to Nebo’s brow; no painful and protracted illness, no decrepit old age. What a blessed exodus was this; more a translation than a death. An active, useful, holy life; a speedy death—could there be a greater blessing if we have to die?”[2]

The second verse goes on with the commission of Joshua to his extraordinary life’s mission. God speaks directly to him, just as he spoke to Moses and said, “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.” “Arise!” or “Get up!” Joshua. It’s time to leave the wilderness. Moses is gone. You cannot look to him for leadership any longer. You must strike out on your own and move on with your future. One of the two, Joshua and Caleb, who were part of the twelve who spied out the land 40 years earlier, Joshua was well aware of the consequences of disobedience. This book is about Joshua moving out from the shadow of Moses, taking the lead, and obeying God’s call. As Moses was God’s servant for the previous generation, Joshua was now God’s man. Ellsworth wrote, “Serving the Lord is difficult, but we often make it harder than it needs to be. An old hymn, written by John H. Sammis, boils service to the Lord down to the words ‘trust’ and ‘obey’: ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.’”[3]

[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 2005. Joshua. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[2] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. New York; Chicago; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company.

[3] Ellsworth, Roger. 2008. Opening up Joshua. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

Tags:
Permalink
Deuteronomy 1:1, Romans 9:25-26

Moses Speaks to Us

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 20, 2022

In the Hebrew Bible, the five books of the Pentateuch are all named by the first word or phrase in the book. Genesis is named “In the Beginning.” Well, that’s the English translation of “Bereshit.” Exodus is named “These are the names” which translates “Aleh Shemot.” Leviticus is “The Lord called” which is English for “Yiqra Yahweh.” Numbers is “The Lord spoke,” or “yidabber Yahweh.” Some might argue that the Hebrew title comes from the second phrase of the book of Numbers which translates “in the wilderness.” That would be “Be Midbar.” Deuteronomy takes its English title from the Septuagint as well as the Latin Vulgate. This word translates in English to “the second law.” It is of course the reciting of the law with a few tweaks and explanations. The Hebrew title is “These are the words” or “elleh ha dibarim.” So the first verse of the book of Deuteronomy is, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.”

When Moses speaks to the children of Israel, he is speaking for God. He is also speaking to every generation to follow. “As is made plain throughout, it is God’s word for the present generation as well as for all generations to come.”[1] The call is to “the children of Israel” but the Apostle Paul wants to include all those who come to faith in Israel’s Messiah as “grafted” in the children of Israel. Romans 9:25 and 26 say, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

There are some specific locations mentioned in the verse and some are identifiable today. This was a real event, happening at a real place, in a real-time in history. It was in the deserts of Moab, east of the Jordan River, and after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. In Numbers 14:34, we learn that the spies who were sent out to look over the land were gone for 40 days. They came back with a bad report and were charged by God to spend one year in the wilderness for each day they spied out the land. The wilderness was not only a physical place, it was a place of trials, hardships, hunger, thirst, and temptations. Since it was the result of 40 days of doubt, fear, and failure, Jesus reversed that experience by spending his own 40 days in the wilderness being hungry, thirsted, and directly tempted by God. But whereas the Israelites failed the temptation. Jesus passed it not only for himself but for all who would believe. Further, Jesus resisted all the temptations of Satan by quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. Just as Jesus understood the book of Deuteronomy as being relevant for him, thousands of years after it was written, so too is it relevant to us today.

[1] Hall, Gary Harlan. 2000. Deuteronomy. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

Tags: ,
Permalink
Numbers 1:1

The Wilderness Experience

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 19, 2022

The opening verse of the book of Numbers says, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt.” Numbers is the fourth installment of the larger work called the “Pentateuch.” The first five books of the Bible are just one main work. The Jews called in “The Law.” It is a continual narrative from book to book. Each of the five books contributes to the whole story. Duguid says, “the book of Numbers wants you to know that it never existed as an independent narrative: it is itself a continuation of the story of God’s dealings with his people already begun in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus.”[1] The name of the book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible is “The Lord Spoke.” That represents the first phrase in the book. Each of the five books in the Pentateuch is named after the opening word or phrase of the book in the Jewish Old Testament. This makes sense when you see that they are not independent books but parts of a greater whole. The Septuagint, however, separates the five into their individual accounts and attempts to name them according to their content. Genesis begins God’s work in the world. Exodus explains the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Leviticus records the instructions to the Levites regarding the sacrificial system and Numbers reflects the census that God told Moses to take of all the men of fighting age as they prepare to enter the promised land.

The speaker in the opening verse is the personal name for God: YHWH, Yahweh. The expression, the Lord spoke, occurs almost one hundred times in Numbers alone and shows God’s special direction of Moses as Israel’s authorized leader.”[2] It’s interesting to notice that the account of Numbers begins in the wilderness and finishes in the wilderness. The notable thing about the book is the lack of progress in the story of Redemption. Progress won’t actually be picked up until after God reviews the Law again in Deuteronomy and then Joshua takes over for the mobilization of the army numbered in the wilderness.

A blogger writes, “A ‘wilderness experience’ is usually thought of as a tough time in which a believer endures discomfort and trials. The pleasant things of life are unable to be enjoyed, or they may be absent altogether, and one feels a lack of encouragement. A ‘wilderness experience’ is often a time of intensified temptation and spiritual attack. It can involve a spiritual, financial, or emotional drought. Having a ‘wilderness experience’ is not necessarily a sign that a believer is sinning; rather, it is a time of God-ordained testing.”[3] Jesus had his wilderness experience after his Baptism. Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years during which time it experienced hunger and thirst and temptation. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. He too experienced hunger and thirst and was tempted. God had a purpose for the wilderness experiences of Israel. He had a purpose for the wilderness experiences of Jesus. He has a purpose for ours as well.

[1] Duguid, Iain M., and R. Kent Hughes. 2006. Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[2] Woods, Clyde M., and Justin Rogers. 2006. Leviticus–Numbers. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/wilderness-experience.html

Tags:
Permalink
Leviticus 1:1, John 1:14

The Lord Called

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 18, 2022

The name of the book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible is “The Lord Called.” Like Genesis and Exodus, the Hebrews named these books after the first word or phrase in the book. The instructions that God is about to give Moses concern the performance of the complete sacrificial system that was predominantly carried out by the Levites. Thus, our English Bibles follow the Septuagint in naming the book after them. God called Moses in the book to give him instructions to pass on to the Levites. Leviticus 1:1 says, “The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting…” The last three verses of the book of Exodus sets the stage for God’s call in Leviticus. It speaks of the cloud in the daytime and the fire at night that represents the presence of the Lord with the children on their exodus from Egypt. The cloud and the fire accompanied the tabernacle.

The writers of the Translator’s Handbook for Leviticus do not like the phrase “tent of meeting.” They argue that it does not adequately convey the full meaning of the Hebrew expression. “It is the portable sanctuary of the people of Israel, described in which God meets with Moses to communicate to him the divine will.” They like a more liquid translation of “Today’s English Version” which calls it the Tent of the Lord’s Presence. Better they say is, “the tent where the LORD is,” or “the place where the LORD appears.”[1]

In John’s Gospel, John 1:14, he uses the term “tabernacled” to describe Jesus coming to earth in the flesh. As Leviticus is going to tell us about the details of the sacrificial system by which God will make atonement for the sins of the people, John makes it clear, as do other writers of the New Testament that “Jesus is not only the revelation of God but the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system that foreshadowed his sacrifice that would remove sins once and for all. The tabernacle as the special place of God’s presence is a type of the incarnation of Christ, who ‘made his dwelling’ (tabernacled) among us. Eichrodt speaks of the significance of the tabernacle and its New Testament reality in Christ: The concept of the distant God who yet condescends to be really present in the midst of his people and enables them to participate in the divine life, lives on in the symbolic language of the New Testament, which uses the image of the ‘tabernacling’ to tell of the dwelling of the eternal God among men.”[2]

[1] Péter-Contesse, René, and John Ellington. 1992. A Handbook on Leviticus. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Rooker, Mark F. 2000. Leviticus. Vol. 3A. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Tags: ,
Permalink
sewa motor jogja
© Chuck Larsen 2019. Powered by WordPress.