48 - Daniel in the Lions' Den

Daniel 6:1-6:28

In a story that is reminiscent both of Joseph in Genesis, and the book of Esther, Daniel is a faithful Jew who with his three companions has been hijacked to Babylon to serve in the court of King Nebuchanzzar.  All do well in learning the language and court customs.  Daniel has not only interpreted the king's dream (like Joseph), but also was able to fathom what the dream was.  His companions, having been caught not worshiping a local statue, have survived being thrown into the fiery furnace.

Now Daniel has risen to a very high position in the court of a successor king.  Other jealous courtiers seek to trip him up, by getting the king, Darius, to sign a decree forbidding praying to anyone other than himself.  Daniel ignored the rule, and continued praying toward Jerusalem, to the God of Israel, three times a day.  He is caught and condemned to be thrown in the lion's den.

As we know, God "shut the lions' mouths" and Daniel survived the night.

Daniel and the lions

Imagine that you were living in a place that was totally inimical to your Christian faith.  How would you keep your faith?

47 - Jeremiah's Call and Message

Jeremiah 1:1-3:5

Jeremiah is another of the "major" prophets, meaning the book is of significant length.

His call narrative reminds us of Moses.  Jeremiah protests "Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy."  Likewise Moses had said "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."  But in both cases God promises "I am with you."

And so Jeremiah speaks as God's prophet, accusing Judah and Israel of having forsaken the God who brought them out of Israel, and of sacrificing to other gods.

God's accusations are against all the people -- the rulers, the teachers and the priests.  All were guilty.

Jeremiah's language reflects the patriarchal society he lived in.  Many of the references to the sinfulness of the people use images of an adulterous woman, a wicked woman, even "a restive young camel interlacing her tracks" - interpreted elsewhere as "a lustful she-camel restlessly running about."

Jeremiah again reminds the people of what they lose when they turn away from God, who brought them out of slavery, who gave them the law, and a land to live in and worship him.  Why do they keep turning away from Him?  Why do we?

46 - The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 51:1-53:12

The prophets served as messengers from God, and often critiqued kings or societies for not living up to God's expectations.

One of my favorite preachers says:  "a prophet is one who sees what God sees, who hears what God hears, and feels what God feels.  A prophet is one who is deeply connected to God’s heart, and who always speaks the truth."

Isaiah was such a truth teller.  (Or truth tellers, as there were at least two contributors to the book of Isaiah).  Examples of Isaiah's writing you may recognize:

"...seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."

"they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;"

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,    make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

The section we read today is referred to as the Suffering Servant passage (there are other passages in Isaiah 42, 49 and 50 which also refer to the servant).  Christian tradition, starting in Acts 8, interprets the Suffering Servant as Jesus Christ.  But how did the Hebrew people, several centuries before Christ, interpret this passage?

There is no simple answer.  Jewish scholars have intensely debated the references in these passage for centuries.  Is the Servant Isaiah?  Or Jeremiah?  Or Moses?  Or all of the Hebrew nation? 

Isaiah

In any case this passage and all of Isaiah are a rich source of understanding about the nature of God, and his relationship to all people.

45 - Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 16:1-18:24

A few gems from today's readings:

16¹⁸Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.

17⁵Those who mock the poor insult their Maker;
those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the aged,

and the glory of children is their parents.

 Which ones were your favorites?

44 - Godly Wisdom

Proverbs 1:1-4:27

1⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

⁸Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

Proverbs is a key part of "Wisdom" literature in Hebrew scripture, combining folk wisdom and teachings of the elders, much in the form of a parent (especially a father) instructing a child (especially a son).  

Much of the teaching reflects the patriarchal structure of society at the time, but also attention is directed to the feminine personification of divine Wisdom (in contrast to the foolish or strange woman).

How do you make sure children learn to love divine wisdom?

43 - Praise the Lord

Psalm 103:1-103:22

From this and other psalms of praise we learn much about the character of God.  He is the one who:  forgives, heals, redeems, works justice for the oppressed.

He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger.

Perhaps above all his characteristic is loving-kindness, sometimes rendered "steadfast love."

No wonder the instinct to praise such a God!

42 - Have Mercy on Me

Psalm 51:1-51:19

In the Jewish Study Bible, Psalm 51 begins with these words:

For the leader.  A psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had come to Bathsheba.


By Jewish tradition, this psalm reflects David's confession and repentance when confronted by Nathan -- see the posting here about that story in 2 Samuel.

But biblical scholars think it more likely that the psalm was composed in the period of or after the exile to Babylon.

In any case, the psalm reflect a deep understanding of the human sense of guilt, and asks God's help, by asking for:  mercy (v. 1); blotting out of transgressions (2); washing and purification (2); purging (7).

Every reading reveals new insights into scripture.  This time I noticed that on the one hand the psalm prays that I may have greater insight into my sins, that I be taught "wisdom in my secret heart."  On the other hand I pray that God not look at my sins - that He "hide his face" from my iniquities.

This psalm is an essential part of our Ash Wednesday liturgy.  What do you see that you hadn't noticed before?

41 - The Lord is my Shepherd

The most beloved psalm.  Try reading several versions.

The NRSV version: Psalm 23:1-23:6

And the classical King James Version:


¹The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
 ²He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
 ³He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
 ⁴Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
 ⁵Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
 ⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.


And the Message version:


 ¹You, LORD, are my shepherd.
   I will never be in need.
    ²You let me rest in fields of green grass.
   You lead me to streams of peaceful water,
    ³and you refresh my life.
   You are true to your name, and you lead me
   along the right paths.
    ⁴I may walk through valleys as dark as death,
   but I won't be afraid.
   You are with me, and your shepherd's rod makes me feel safe.
    ⁵You treat me to a feast, while my enemies watch.
   You honor me as your guest, and you fill my cup
   until it overflows.
    ⁶Your kindness and love will always be with me
   each day of my life, and I will live forever
   in your house, LORD.


And the translation in the Book of Common Prayer:

1      The Lord is my shepherd; *

     I shall not be in want.

2      He makes me lie down in green pastures *

     and leads me beside still waters.

3      He revives my soul *

     and guides me along right pathways for his Name’s sake.

4      Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I shall fear no evil; *

     for you are with me;

     your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5      You spread a table before me in the presence of those

who trouble me; *

     you have anointed my head with oil,

     and my cup is running over.

6      Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days

of my life, *

     and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

   Which do you prefer?  Why?

40 - The Fall of Jerusalem

2 Kings 25:1-25:30

The reigns of David and Solomon are seen as the "golden age" of the kings:  the northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) kingdoms are (somewhat) united, the Temple is built, and the united kingdom has considerable power in the region.

But before long, under Solomon's son Rehoboam, the north and south separate.  The kings of Israel (the north) pretty consistently did what is "evil in the sight of the Lord," praying to other gods, erecting altars and sacred poles to the local gods.  Around 721 BCE, the north fell to the powerful Assyrians.  Many of the people of Israel were resettled to other areas.

In the south, in Judah, there was also much apostasy, although there were a few good kings, including Josiah (7th C. BCE), who was said to have found the scroll of Deuteronomy, and re-instituted proper worship, outlawing worship of anyone other than Yahweh.   There were periods during which Judah was a vassal state to Assyria or Egypt; it was a much weakened state by the late 7th C BCE.

Finally, we are told at the end of 2 Kings 24, Zedekiah became king of Judah.  He too "did what was displeasing to the Lord....Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them from his presence."

Thus, by the account we read today, Babylon (now ascendant), in the person of King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem, and the Babylonian exile of at least part of the population of Judah began in approximately 586 BCE.

Fall of Jerusalem

The exile is as crucial an event in the history of the Hebrew people as the time in Sinai, crossing the Jordan into the promised land, and building the temple to YHWH.    Why is that?  Why had God done this to them?

39 - Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

1 Kings 16:29-19:18

In a series of delightful stories, we meet the prophet Elijah, who is a refreshing change from the dreary kings of Israel and Judah.  And we see further evidence of the most fundamental teaching of Hebrew scripture:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

This is a direct reference to the first commandment, repeated in Deuteronomy as:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

Elijah fed by ravens

We start with one of the worst kings ever, Ahab.  Despite being king of Israel, he builds an altar to Baal.  Elijah calls him out, and in the name of God declares there will be no water in the land.  Elijah departs, and miraculously survives the ensuing drought with the aid of ravens.

He is then dispatched to the widow in Sidon, who has nothing, and asks her to bake a little cake for him, promising in the name of God that she will have meal and oil as long as the drought lasts.  She believes, bakes the cake, and the promise is kept.

Later her son falls ill and stops breathing.  By holding him close to his body, Elijah is able to return him to life and health.  The widow knows by this act that Elijah is "a man of God and that the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth."

The Lord sends him to confront Ahab, promising that the rains will come.  Elijah challenges Ahab to summon all Israel, including their priests.  Elijah challenges the priests of Baal  to a "my God is better than your God" elimination tournament, and wins.  The priests of Baal are....eliminated.  And the rain poured down.

Elijah calls on God to light the fire for the sacrifice

More than Baal or Ahab, however, Elijah fears Jezebel.  He flees to the wilderness, and is sent by God to the mountain at Horeb, or Mount Sinai. He then spent the night in the cave. The next morning, the dispirited Elijah stands at the mouth of the cave, and the Lord passes by him:

1911 He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

"Sheer silence" is sometimes translated "soft murmuring" or "a gentle whisper" or "a still small voice."

The appearance of the Lord gives Elijah the strength to carry on to his next task, to appoint his successor, Elisha.

Do you recall when you have heard the "still small voice", or the "gentle whisper"?

38 - Solomon's Temple

1 Kings 8:1-9:9

His father David had hoped to build it, but now King Solomon builds the Temple for the Lord.  For the architecturally inclined, the design and build are specified in great detail in Chapters 6-7.

First Temple in Jerusalem

The time has come to dedicate the temple.  The Ark of the Covenant, with the stone tablets brought down from the mountain by Moses are placed in the temple.  The presence of the Lord is known by the cloud which fills the precincts.  Solomon blesses the whole congregation of Israel.  He reminds the people of their liberation from Egypt by the hand of the Lord, and the covenants made with Moses and David.

He asks for continued favor for the people, as long as they pray to his name.  His prayer echoes the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, in which Moses recapitulates the history and laws and covenant. He recognizes that the people may sin and therefore be taken by their enemies, and asks God's mercy if they pray to his name.

God responds, and makes it clear that the Davidic covenant is conditional -- that if Solomon maintains his worship of God alone, and follows the law, then God will maintain his throne.

But...

9 ⁶“If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples.

 This is a warning, and a foreshadowing, of what is to come.

37 - King Solomon

1 Kings 2:1-3:28

King David is about to die, and gives a charge to his son and successor, Solomon.

2 ²“….Be strong, be courageous, ³and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.”

David gives charge to Solomon

Thus begins a tumultuous period.  By the end of 2 Kings, the united kingdom of Judah and Israel has disintegrated, and the first temple built and destroyed.  These books make it clear that the failure of the kings to worship God and to keep his commandments cause the exile to Babylon.

Here at the beginning we see the young king Solomon, already recognized by his father as having wisdom, asking God in a prayer or dream for discernment:

3⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind* to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people? *[or understanding heart]

God grants this and more; He gives what Solomon did not ask for:  riches and glory and long life.

Immediately, Solomon shows his wisdom in the famous story of the two women brought before him, each claiming a baby.  Since they could not agree, he threatened to cut the baby in half.  The one whose child it was pleaded for the child to be spared and given to the other; Solomon recognized her love for her child, and gave it to her.  

Solomon with two women pleading for one child

And the people stood in awe of him, "because they perceived the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice."

When have you seen great leaders exercise wisdom and justice?  Should that be our expectation?

36 - David and Bathsheba

2 Samuel  11:1-12:25

David has been blessed with a covenant with God, he has consolidated the combined kingdom, but he is not a perfect person, perfectly following the law.

In the story of David and Bathsheba, David arguably violates at least 4 of the 10 commandments (coveting, adultery, murder, false witness).  Other than murder, he may not be that different from some political leaders of our day.  Is he an irredeemable sinner, or a faithful servant of God?

Nathan rebukes David

In my view,his faith his seen in his response to God’s judgment as delivered by Nathan. David understands and confesses immediately that he has sinned (12:13) and is subject to judgment. Where before he has received blessings, now he is subject to curses. Unlike other leaders, he stops denying that he did it, and accepts the truth of the judgment and the curse.

And even as the judgment is delivered on his son, in his stead, he fasts and seeks graciousness from God by prostrating himself on the ground (12:16). He suffers real anguish for his son, and believed that God would accept his penance and save his son. He also accepted when that did not happen.

David suffers the disease of all great leaders, but he accepts that God is his Lord, and he is subject to God’s laws – he may break those laws, but he accepts the consequences. He is a man of faith.

Do you agree?

35 - King David

2 Samuel 5:1 – 7:29

Both gospels (Matthew and Luke) which trace Jesus’ genealogy include King David in the ancestors of Joseph.   Our reading today shows why David was so important to Israel.

Having previously been anointed by Saul, David is now confirmed and anointed as king over both the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel.  David marched in and took Jerusalem, which ever since is called “the city of David.”  With direction from the Lord, David defeats the Philistines.

David knows the importance of worshiping God, and of the centrality of the Ark of the Covenant, containing the tablets given to Moses.

He brings the Ark to Jerusalem, dancing with joy.  He wants to build a house, a temple, for the ark, so that God’s people may worship properly.  But God has other ideas.  Instead he first will establish a covenant with David, then later his son (Solomon) will build the temple (in 1 Kings we learn that David could not build the temple because of the continuing warfare).

King David dances before the Ark

So God makes a covenant with David, and promises that when David dies, his son will succeed him and the Davidic kingdom will be forever. 

“7¹⁴I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.¹⁵But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.”

David then prays to the Lord, one of the greatest prayers of praise in scripture, rehearsing the history of the people of God, and of David’s own gifts from God.

This passage uses words that mean or are related to the word “house” many times.  How many references do you find?  What might it mean?

34 - David and Saul

1 Samuel 23:7 – 24:33

Saul knows he has fallen out of the Lord's favor, and knows that David will succeed him.  Nonetheless, he continues to pursue David, trying to eliminate him.

But David stays a step ahead of Saul, by communicating with the Lord, by receiving warnings from Jonathan, and by the very timely intervention of a "messenger" to Saul, who diverts him from the almost certain capture of David.

Finally Saul wanders into a cave occupied by David's men.  David is able to cut off a corner of Saul's cloak, proving he could have killed him.  But he prevents his men from killing Saul, and promises not to raise his hand against Saul; Saul in turn realizes David is more righteous, and he has wronged David.

David spares Saul's life