Apr. 27 – Thoughts on 1 Kings 1-2 & Luke 19:28-48

Luke’s report of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem harkens back to his report of Jesus’ birth in some interesting ways.  One of those ways is the cry of the angels and the people.

When Jesus is born and the angelic army shouts His praises, they shout:
“Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to humankind.”

When Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt and the people shout His praises, they shout:
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”

This message is an interesting one on both counts.  The angels proclaim glory in heaven, peace on earth.  Jesus was the hope for both.  We read in Revelation that when Jesus approaches the throne, there are shouts of glory.  And we read in the New Testament that Jesus is our peace.  Through Him, God fulfilled both pieces of the angelic proclamation.

The human proclamation is interesting in that the initial idea is Peace in Heaven.  Luke is missing the expected “Hosanna” or “Lord, save us!”  Given Luke’s emphasis on Jesus as savior, this is an interesting omission.  Why peace in heaven?  Some translators say that this is not about Jesus bringing peace to heaven, but bringing peace between heaven and earth, between God and humankind.  This makes sense given what will come a week later.

Through Jesus’ death on the cross, He reconciles us to God, bringing peace between us where sin has causes us to be estranged.  I don’t view Jesus’ work to be one of appeasement of an angry God who would otherwise lash out at us because of our sin.  Instead, Jesus died as a gift, a sacrifice, a substitute for us, who deserve all that Jesus got because of our sinfulness.  Instead, Jesus died in our place so that we might once again know the peace of God, and bring Him glory.

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Apr. 26 – Thoughts on 2 Samuel 23-24 & Luke 19:1-27

David counts his people and 70,000 are killed for it.

Yeah, the bible has some very confusing sections and this is one.  Today we read that God incites David to take a census (though in the parallel account in 2 Cor., it is Satan who, presumably under God’s direction, incites David).  Back in the day, censuses (censi? censees?) were only conducted for 2 reasons: taxation and war.  Only by knowing how many men you had could you know how much to tax each, or how many to call to arms.  David was in a time of relative peace, so probably this was a taxation issue.  I don’t buy the argument of those who claim this was about David’s pride in seeking to know just how great his kingdom was.

With Satan prompting David to this greedy taxation of his people, something Samuel had warned the people about when they pressed for a king against God’s wishes, God punishes David with a terrible choice.  And David chooses to have natural causes inflict the damage rather than his enemies.

This is yet another instance of God using Satan (or “an evil spirit”) as a tool to bring His wrath or testing.  From Job to Baalam to Saul to David, we see the Jewish worldview that God is in control of everything, even the bad things, even evil spirits and Satan himself.  And so God punishes David for his greed, and his people suffer for it.

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Apr. 25 – Thoughts on 2 Samuel 21-22 & Luke 18:24-43

Once again, Jesus lays out the truth of our absolute dependence on God for our salvation.  In the Sermon on the Mount, He upps the ante on the Pharisees by spelling out the impossible entrance requirements for the Kingdom of God: no lusting, no anger, violent removal of any limb that causes one to sin, perfection itself.  And here again, we see that even the rich, those assumed to be blessed by God because of their righteousness, cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Easier for a 1000 lb. camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle.  And then comes the Point.  Who then can be saved if even the most righteous and blessed among us cannot?  “What is impossible with humankind is possible with God.”

Get that?  “What is IMPOSSIBLE…”  It is impossible for us to live lives righteous enough to enter God’s Kingdom by our own accord.  Yet still some think they can, or more importantly that others should be able to.  We constantly judge others as less worthy of God’s Kingdom than we are, or we judge ourselves as less worthy of God’s Kingdom than anyone else.  Both thoughts are foolishness, and here’s why.

Colin, Komichi, and Jayden are standing on a San Diego pier jutting out into the Pacific.  “I bet I can jump to Hawaii,” Colin muses.  “You’re on!” Jayden replies.  So Colin jumps as far as he can into the Pacific, and travels 3 feet.  “Ha,” he splutters as his head reemerges.  “Beat that!”

Jayden then, standing back from the edge of the pier, takes three long strides and leaps into the Pacific.  He travels 6 feet.  “Beat you!” he calls to Colin who looks chagrined.

With a roll of her eyes, Komichi walks back to the start of the pier, takes a long run and dives off the pier into the Pacific.  When she comes back up for air, she finds she has jumped 12 feet!  “I am so much better than you, Jayden, and I won’t even talk about your pathetic attempt, Colin,” she jibes.  And all three feel superior – or inferior – to the others.

Yet none of them got to Hawaii.

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Apr. 24 – Thoughts on 2 Samuel 19-20 & Luke 18:1-23

Today is all about communication.

Let’s begin with Mephibosheth and finish yesterday’s story.  When last we left Mephibosheth, Ziba had reported to King David that Mephibosheth was siding with Absalom, David’s son who stole the throne.  David, in response, took Mephibosheth’s property and gave it all to Ziba.  However, when David returns to power, who is waiting for him but Mephibosheth, in obvious mourning since David left.  Ziba had lied about him to get his land, and David sets things right.

Next is David himself.  At the death of his son Absalom, David goes in to mourning.  Now when a king goes in to mourning of this magnitude, people tend to die around him, so the whole army gets very nervous.  Though they won the war and defeated the usurper of David’s throne, David was making them feel like they had failed or even sinned against him.  Thankfully, Joab confronts David in his grief, a life-risking proposition, and convinces David to encourage his troops rather than shame them.

Sheba, seeing that Absalom’s coup was successful for a while, tries his hand at the “overthrow the king” game.  But Joab, David’s military commander, corners him in Abel Beth Maakah and attacks the city.  But they are saved when a Wise Woman agrees to hand Sheba over (or at least his head).

Finally, we find the famous “persistent widow” in Jesus’ parable.  To get a ruling in her favor, she doesn’t study and convince the judge of her righteousness (he doesn’t fear God) and she doesn’t call up a Facebook campaign and start a protest movement in her favor (he doesn’t care what people think).  Instead, she simply keeps on bugging him.  In negative terms, she nags and badgers him, wearing him down.  In positive terms, she persists.  And this, Jesus says, should be a familiar pattern in our prayer life – persistence.

Ziba’s manipulation.  David’s discouragement.  The Wise Woman’s compromise.  The widow’s persistence.  Communication is a powerful tool, both for good and evil.  We have to watch out that we are using our communication for God’s good, not for personal gain.  Gossip, slander, lies, discouragement, manipulation: all of these go on every day and are sins of communication.  But praise, encouragement, truth-telling:  these are all Godly uses of our tongues.  Which will you choose to do today?

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Apr. 23 – Thoughts on 2 Samuel 16-18 & Luke 17:20-37

Mephibosheth (meh-FIB-oh-sheth) is King Saul’s grandson and Jonathan’s son, yet David not only spared his life, but blessed him.  Typically, when a new king takes a throne, they destroy the old king’s entire family line to avoid anyone trying to overthrow this new king in the old king’s name.  David set about destroying the line of Saul, but soon he decided to seek out any remaining survivors to show them mercy.  Who he found was Mephibosheth.

When Saul and Jonathan were killed, Mephibosheth was only 5 years old, and his nurse snatched him up and ran to save his life.  As she ran with him, he fell and hurt both of his feet causing him to be crippled for the rest of his life.  When David asks the Saul family servant named Ziba, he tells David about Mephibosheth.  Mephibosheth is brought to the king, the family lands are restored along with servants to work the land, and given a place at the king’s table.  This is an incredible gift.

God grants us a similar gift.  Though belonging to God’s enemy, we are brought into God’s presence and given a new life as His adopted children.  We are given a place at His table.  This is the good news.  Not because we are worthy (spiritually, we are as lame as Mephibosheth) but out of God’s abundant mercy, we are now His children.

But today’s reading has another lesson for us.  That is not the end of the story of Mephibosheth.  When Absalom overthrows David in a coup, who do we read about but Mephibosheth again.  He has apparently not learned the lesson of God’s mercy from David.  It is reported by Ziba that instead of following David in response to David’s mercy, he is in Jerusalem hoping that Absalom will restore the kingdom to Saul’s family line.

How often do we receive God’s mercy, only to turn back to our old ways as soon as the offer seems better?  And how often is the offer actually better?  We need to learn both lessons from Mephibosheth:  accept God’s mercy when it comes, and then having received it don’t turn back… ever.

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