Thoughts on the OT

[marvmax]

First Samuel 16 and 17 I always find a little jarring. In 16 David is sent to play the harp to calm Saul and it says.

21 And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.
22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight.

In 1 Samuel 17 David slays Goliath and at the end

57 And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
58 And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Beth-lehemite.

I'm not a Biblical inerreinist but it seems that these two stories cannot both have happened the way they are portrayed here. It is stuff like this that causes me to think that the Documentists might be right about the creation of the Bible.

I personally hate it when those who would defend homosexuality use the relationship between David and Jonathan. Of course that causes me to read the accounts more carefully.

3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

I noticed this for the first time. I believe that this is the time where Jonathan abdicates his claim on his father's kingdom. Even though with David becoming king it would negatively impact himself, he was willing to submit to the Lords will. I think this is a great example of being willing to step aside if the Lord should require it.

30 Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness?
31 For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.
32 And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?

33 And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.

I have no idea what the highlighted portion means? I fine it amazing that in all the descriptions of the OT families there are none that we wouldn't consider dysfunctional. At least none that I can think of off the top of my head. I wonder why that is?

1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
2 Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.

3 And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?

4 Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

I think there are some good lessons here. One, if the Lord tells you to do something you should not fear to do it the Lord has a way to accomplish what he wants you to do. Second, you should trust those who are the Lords leaders. I know the problem here is deciding who are legitimate leaders, but then that has always been a problem.

3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.

When I was teaching an adult Sunday school class I read that "cover his feet" is a euphemism for having a bowel movement. That adds a whole new light to this encounter between David and Saul.

 

[skylark1]

First Samuel 16 and 17 I always find a little jarring. In 16 David is sent to play the harp to calm Saul and it says.

In 1 Samuel 17 David slays Goliath and at the end

I'm not a Biblical inerreinist but it seems that these two stories cannot both have happened the way they are portrayed here. It is stuff like this that causes me to think that the Documentists might be right about the creation of the Bible.

Maybe Saul wanted to know more about David's family, since the person who killed Goliath was promised Saul's daughter in marriage. Maybe David was not close enough for Saul to recognise him at first, and Saul had a hard time believing that it could have been the same David who played the harp for him that had just killed Goliath. He didn't sound like a likely candidate to be the one to slay the fierce Philistine champion, who sent Israelites running off in fear.

I have no idea what the highlighted portion means? I fine it amazing that in all the descriptions of the OT families there are none that we wouldn't consider dysfunctional. At least none that I can think of off the top of my head. I wonder why that is?

The NIV translates this as:

30 Saul's anger flared up at Jonathon and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother who bore you?​

I think that he is both cursing at Jonathon (there is a similar more modern expression), and saying that the covenant that he made with David to protect him from Saul brings shame on the family.

 

[dimwhitt]

or perhaps simply time had elapsed and as any dad can tell you the ages between 10 and 15 sees alot of changes

do not unsettled by variations in the texts, the Scriptures often explains things from a narrow context

we have the same issue over what is written on the plaque on Christ's cross - how many angels were at the tomb - how Judas died - all these things can easily produce both rational answers and skeptical ones

 

[marvmax]

I was going to say that I think that the position of Armourbearer would be one of great honor and privilege. I wasn't sure that it was that was just my assumption. However, in the account of Saul's death we are told this.

3 And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers.
4 Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fellhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/1_sam/31/4a upon it.

5 And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him.

To me it seems like armourbearer is a position in which if David held in 1 Sam 16, it would be impossible for Saul not to know him in 1 Sam 17. I didn't really remember this account of the death until I read it this time, and since I was thinking about it because of the responses. My thinking is that for some reason 1 Sam 17 is misplaced and should be in front of 1 Sam 16. It still doesn't seem like Saul could not know David if either account happened in front of the other, after all David is supposed to become Saul's son-in-law after killing Goliath, but the one time event of killing Goliath then taking the sword to another town would lend itself to being forgotten better than rising in the King's esteem until he is made the armourbearer.

JMHO.

 

[marvmax]

I've always been troubled by the account of Saul and the witch of En-dor. For me it shows the absolute need not to mess with the occult, and that there is something to it.

I one time asked about this account and what it meant when dealing with the occult when I was young and was told this. There are spirits that will answer with the occult. There are spirits that were not righteous on this side of mortality, why should we think that they would not be unrighteous on the other side, and answer and do things that the Lord would not be pleased with. Then there are the devils that could also answer. The point being that any answer that comes through occult methods cannot be trusted.

In this case it never really states that Samuel comes back. Saul simply "perceived that it was Samuel." From what I understand, which is not much, many people who deal with the occult depend on the gullibility of those who approach them. Saul might have associated any old man with Samuel. (1 Sam 28:14)

Like I said this story always bothers me.

I did find a gem though. In 1 Sam 29 David is told that he is not trusted by the Philistines and the King acquiesced in their desire. David is upset by this and reluctantly goes home. When he arrives home in 1 Sam 30 he finds that his town has been attacked and everyone has been taken captive including his two wives.

6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

I find it amazing that the peoples response was to want to stone him . I wonder why? Well things couldn't possibly get any worse for David, and what does he do? "Encourag[es] himself in the Lord his God." Beautiful. I can certainly learn from that response.

I know that many people have a problem with multiple wives, as do I, but here is David with two wives (three if you count Michal, Saul's daughter, who has been given to another man at this time). The thing is that this is David's most righteous time in his life where he is constantly turning to the Lord in all his decisions to the Lord. It would seem that he would turn to the Lord in something as important as who to marry. Also, there is the account of his meeting Abigail in 1 Sam 25, and it would seem that the Lord played a hand in opening the way for David and Abigail to wed.

 

[gort]

Yeah, interesting part, the witch.

A little surprised too, was'nt she?

Was it Samuel or not? Where would he have come from?

Did'nt what he said come true?


btw, there was once a donkey who talked, or so the recepient perceived.

 

[marvmax]

Yeah, interesting part, the witch.

A little surprised too, was'nt she?

Was it Samuel or not? Where would he have come from?

Did'nt what he said come true?

That is hard par;t was it Samuel or not. While this prediction did come true, not every prediction does when dealing with the occult.

btw, there was once a donkey who talked, or so the recepient perceived.

I have no problem with animals being able to talk. Besides the Balaam's donkey there are beasts in heaven giving praise according to Revelations.

 

[gort]

That is hard par;t was it Samuel or not. While this prediction did come true, not every prediction does when dealing with the occult.



I have no problem with animals being able to talk. Besides the Balaam's donkey there are beasts in heaven giving praise according to Revelations.

Did'nt God say something about prophets and if their prophecies don't come true they are not from God?


Yes, it was Samuel.

 

[marvmax]

I'm into 2 Sam now. The first thing that jumps out at me is that David starts his reign, although not every Hebrew has accepted him yet, by killing someone, the same as Solomon. A liar and a braggart perhaps but still. It must have been a very violent bloody time, very different from today.

Chapter 11 is the disturbing story about Bath-sheba. I heard a preacher, on the radio I believe, and he pointed out this scripture.

1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

David's duty was to be leading the army. If he had been doing his duty he would not have been in a position where he could see Bath-sheba and might not have fallen in this way. When we do our duty we are protected.

I thought that was pretty good thinking.

We know how David killed Uriah. This caused me to remember something that I just read in 1 Sam 18

17 ¶ And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD’s battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.

Perhaps this was a tried a true method for kings to get rid of rivals, or those they perceive as their rivals.

 

[marvmax]

Well I'm mostly through 2 Sam now. I have to say that I really enjoyed it this time. There could be two reasons. 1) The Bible always reveals new things whenever it is reread. 2) I'm reading closer in consideration of posting here.

Whatever reason I realized what an action story the story of Absalom is. It has about everything that could be wanted in any story and lots more. Incest & rape (the sad sad story of Amnon and Tamar), intrigue, murder (pretty much thoughout) spying, suicide, civil war etc.

I know that one thing leaped out me because I never knew what it meant until I read something in BAR since the last time I read through this part.

2 And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate:

The city gates were built as sort of a City Government building where people could meet, and also as a place that could be defended when needed. Absalom meeting people here was positioning himself as a person of authority and lamenting that he couldn't do more for the people of Israel. He was fomenting rebellion right under his fathers nose.

I've always wondered why David lamented Absalom's passing so grievously. I mean he was his son and everything, but something else occurred to me this time through. As David returns across the Jordan he is being forgiving to everyone, despite his followers desire to meet out judgment. A good example is his pardon of Shimei. Perhaps he wanted Absalom alive not so much because he was his son as because he wanted him alive to help with the reapproachment of Israel.

I've always thought of Joab as a kind of conscience of David's. Mostly because I remember his telling David that he had better stop mourning Absalom or he was going to alienate everyone who fought for David against Absalom. However, I've been paying more attention to Joab this time through and it seems as though he is nothing more than a self serving toady. He pretty much kills anyone that he thinks is getting in his way, or might get in his way. I'm now wondering if he effected bring Absalom back because he thought it would help him personally. Also, did he kill Absalom to hide his complicity? No way to tell. I'm pretty sure that the first thing that Solomon does is kill Joab. I know he kills someone, but I'll get there in a few days and quench my curiosity.

Has anyone every fictionalized this? It's great stuff. The author would have to be careful not to make it too racy for the average Christian reader though. I'm mean you could really make this into an R rated movie, or book.

 

[marvmax]

I've always wondered why 2 Sam is called 2 Sam. Samuel dies in 1 Sam and never makes an appearance in 2 Sam. I personally think we ought to just go with 1, 2, 3 and 4th Kings makes more sense.

I'm about half way through 1 Kings. I'm always disturbed by the way David has Solomon start off his reign. I mean it says David was a man of blood and so couldn't build the temple, so why didn't he kill Shimei and Joab? Especially Joab. Also, it seems I was wrong when I said in my last post that David had forgiven Shimei, and he was just waiting for a better time to kill him. Politics in a kingdom I've never heard of such a thing.

The intrigue in 1 Kings 1 is pretty exciting as Adonijah tries to steal the Kingdom away from Solomon. I also love the way that Nathan manipulates David into proclaiming Solomon King. Politics in the kingdom being played by the prophets! I didn't especially like the way that Adonijah got treated by his brother. However, trying to marry one of the King David's wives could only have been understood as making a play for the kingdom. Taking over the old kings wives was a way to establish legitimacy for the new king. That's why when Absolom went a lived with 10 of David's concubines David would have nothing to do with them afterwards, that and possibly it would seem really yickey to sleep with someone your son slept with.

So one thing that occurred to me is why we consider Solomon so wise? The only account of his wisdom is the dividing of the baby and there have been so many plays on that scenario that it can only makes sense in isolated cases. There is the account of the Queen of Sheba visiting because she has heard of King Solomon's wisdom, but we don't get many details.

He builds himself a house that is bigger and takes longer to build that the temple. I really wonder about the wisdom of that. He marries all kinds of strange women, and then builds them temples. he marries 1000 wives and concubines. This may be an exaggeration, in fact if it were in any other book I would say that it definitely was an exaggeration. Marrying that many women is just asking for trouble and not at all wise. All the dumb things Solomon did would seem to bely the sobriquet Solomon the Wise, or the Wisdom of Solomon.

 

[marvmax]

I'm still wondering about the Wisdom of Solomon. Apperently he was that good of a King. He made his people really not like him. Here is what they said to his son

3 That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.

Actually they might have loved King Solomon because he was very good for the kingdom, but he was starting to get oppressive in his demands, or his 'yoke'. Whatever, this response shows that King Solomon was not very wise in his rule. I wondered about this and went back to look at what it was Solomon asked from the Lord. Here is what I think is applicable.

9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

So Solomon asked to be able to judge others but didn't seem to be a very good judge of his own actions.

And then there is his son Rehoboam. It's not very wise to raise an idiot. In his first action as King Rehoboam loses over half the kingdom. If that not raising an idiot I don't know what the definition would be.

I've never understood the meaning of the story of the prophet that comes from Judah to heal Jeroboam and then the 'prophet' from Beth-el tricks him into coming back and eating so that the prophet from Judah dies. Also, why would the guy from Beth-el recieve the word of the Lord and condemn the Judah guy? Is this a case of jealousy? Pretty disturbing. I guess the real lesson is that if the Lord gives you a mission/job/calling that you shouldn't let yourself be dissuaded from it even if someone else comes by and tells you they're a prophet.

Oh yeah and they use my favorite phrase in the whole OT a lot in this section. "He that [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]eth on the wall" I don't know why but that just cracks me up every time I read it. Well I guess I really do know -- It's my low sense of humor.

 

[greatnut]

Hi Marvmax

You asked...
So one thing that occurred to me is why we consider Solomon so wise?

What do you think of the writings of Solomon, viz. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes? Do they impress you as the writings of the "wisest man to ever live"?

I personally don't believe we should look too closely at Solomon's personal life. Many people know the right thing to do, they just lack the willpower to perform it.

IMO Solomon tried everything, even being stupid, and sometimes I think his life reflects that (I mean who needs 1000 women - and what self-respecting woman wants to share her husband with 999 others.?)

 

[marvmax]

Hey greatnut;
Thanks for stopping by and contributing.

You know I'd forgotten that Solomon is credited with writing Proverbs and Lamatations. Thanks for reminding me. Of course there is a tradition of other Middle Eastern cultures having proverb type literature, that is supposedly as old or older. I guess that I can accept that Solomon wrote them also, since I accept that Moses wrote at least a version of the Torah. I think however, that Solomon is still a great lesson for us, just because you can be very wise, and an instrument of the Lord doesn't mean that you can fall and do stupid things.

I was talking to a friend about the prophet in Beth-el and why he tricked the prophet from Jerusalem. He pointed out that the prophet from Beth-el didn't necessarily trick the other prophet. He may have been trying to help him, and had no idea that he had been commanded not to eat and drink. He certainly tried to do the right thing by him after he died. I guess I was so tied to my negative viewpoint that I just didn't consider it that way. That's why it's nice to get other viewpoints.

 

[marvmax]

Hey Marv


Samuel is prolly my fave prophet.

I've been thinking about this statement by my forum aquaitence for a while. It is interesting about Samuel because he is probably many people favorite prophet, or one of them, as he is mine. The section I'm in in Kings is some more favorite prophets Elijah and Elisha. The interesting thing about these prophets is that while we have stories about them, we don't have any writings by them, although it says that at one time at least Solomon wrote some thing that might be nice to have (1 Kings 11:41). I'm reading a book that gave at least one reason that this might be so. An article in it talked about how societies are gerenally orraly or litureature oriented. The article says that the shift in the Hebrew society from oral to literature can be seen during Hezakiah's reign when we start getting the writing of Isaiah and other prophets. And it was solidified after the return from captivity during Ezra and Neamiah who sere scribes and didn't claim to be prophets and then we have no more prophets at all because now the Hebrews had the saved scrolls.

Don't know if it is so or not, but it is interesting that we have two sets of prophets. The first set we hear about their wonderful exploits like Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, or we have prophets teachings written down but we know little of what they did like Isaiah, Ezekial, and Obadiah.

I just find it interesting. I'm going to have to come back and write about my impressions.

 

[marvmax]

In my talking to people they seem to think that there are two kinds of prophets, those who seem to be nearly magical workers of who Elijah and Elisha are the greatest examples, and those who are 100% correct fortune tellers, of who we have the OT prophets for example. I may be wrong, and probably am, but that seems to be the expectation.

Anyway I'm nearly through the Elijah and Elisha chapters. Great stuff. Elijah is my favorite prophet for the way that he treats the prophets of Baal. It is probably wrong, and in my heart I really feel it is wrong, but I love it. "Perhaps he is sleeping, or hunting."

The thing that is interesting is that there are other prophets that are around. Obadiah saves 100 prophets.

In 1 Kings 22, there is an interesting story concerning a prophet that we know very little about. Micaiah. The kings of Isreal and Judah get together and want to find out the word of the Lord. There are a bunch of prophets that tell the kings to attack. However, there is one prophet Micaiah that the king of Israel hates because he always tells the king bad news. He gives the same prophecy that the others give but his voice must have been dripping with insecerity because the King of Judah realizes that he has not given a real prophecy. This seems to be another sign of a prophet, at least in the OT, in that the prophet seems to go against accepted opinion. Then Micaiah give a vision where he say that he sees God in the midst of the host of heaven, and one of the hosts volunteers to be a lying spirit, and the Lord agrees. This is the third time in the OT that the Lord seems to lead people astray. Pharo, King Saul, and now these prophets. How, can they be held accountable when a lying spirit from the Lord is sent to them?

I can't help but to see the similarity between this story, with Heavenly Father in the midst of the "host of heaven" and the beginning of Job where he is with the "sons of God". In Job Satan comes before Heavenly Father, here is is someone who voluteers to be a lying spirit. In both stories the Lord seems to OK the torment of the humans, or a specific human.

By the way I had totally forgotten this story. I'm loving this stuff. The Bible is new every time I read it.

Next comes the great story of Elijah blasting the captain of 50 and his soldiers, twice. The the third captain humbly petitions the prophet and lives. Great lesson on humility.

So now Elijah knows that he is going to be taken to heaven. Elisha follows him, and everywhere he goes the "sons of the prophets" tell him Elijah is going to be taken that day, so it sounds like everyone knew.

Elisha is now the prophet, so he parts the Jordan, he then heals the water so it is drinkable, then he calls the bears out because the "little children" (KJV) are calling him names. This seems a little extreme to me today. This would be child abuse, although I know it is wrong to judge the ancients by our standards. I know that "little children" is a bad interpretation and it should be "youths" like teenagers, although it still seems like harsh punishment, it is more understandable when it happens to teenagers.

Next Elisha makes a wonder prophecy.

This is something that I forgot in 2 Kings 4. The story of someone who is happy and sorry at the same time. A lady is about to lose her sons when her husband dies and the creditors come to take the to slavery to pay the debt. Elisha tells the woman to borrow a lot of vessels as many as she can. Then he tells her to pour out the oil from her container into the borrowed ones and then to sell it. She is happy she borrowed as many as she did but it sounds like from xxx that she wishes she had borrowed some more (2 Kings 4:6). Then he brings a child back to life. This is something Elijah also did. Then he saves people from poison. Cool things all this that he did.

Well Elisha did more but this is where I at so I'll stop relating the seeming magic the Elisha did.

 

[marvmax]

Well I see that I didn't write about where Elisha makes the head of an ax float. I've always liked that touch. That miracles can help us in our every day life.

I'm still reading though the OT but frankly this part of Kings is exceedingly boring. All the evil kings and everything. Every once in a while I think it would be exciting to come up with a time line as I read through this part. But then I think that there must be some where where it has been done already. Maybe I should find one and use it as a resource as I read through the next time. (However, in the unlikely event that some that is reading this knows where one is online and could link me to it that would be cool.)

One thing I've always wondered about is why this righteous king gets smitten with leprousy.

2 Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. 3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done;

4 Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.

5 ¶ And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.

That must really suck. I guess that we can consider it a lesson that the Lord will bless us with things that seem hard and unfair but they are ultimately for are own good. We really don't learn enough about Azariah to know if he did this.

Also, what happened to Elisha. I didn't remember seeing his death, or assumption, or whatever in this account. Perhaps it is in Chronicles.

 

[marvmax]

So number of thought threads are coming together in this reading of the OT.

One. I read an article recently that talked about the switch from an Orally based society to a Textually based society. The article claimed that you could see the shift from Oral to Text in the OT. It started around the time of Hezekiah, was further established by Josiah, and finished up by those who returned from Babylon. I mean Ezra and Nehemiah don't even claim to be prophets, just scribes, but their books make it into the Bible.

As an example the article points out that it is around Hezekiah that we start getting the written records of the prophets like Isaiah. Before that, we have stories of the great prophets Samuel, Elijah, Elisha etc, but none of their writings. Whereas after this time we have the writings but no stories. Did Isaiah ever perform a miracle like those earlier prophets? We don't know. Going strictly by the Bible all we have is Isaiah changed a prophecy and then said the Lord told him to change it. Nothing like making an axe head float, or calling fire out of heaven.

Two Margaret Barker's books point out this change also, except she says that there is evidence that the change is less than positive. She points out that many groups, such as the Dead Sea Scroll Essenes consider the reign of Josiah as a tragedy. However, those who saw it as an accomplishment paint his reign as a great accomplishment and give Josiah more text space that any other King after Solomon. The king afte Josiah with the most text space? Hezikiah.

So one thing really caught my attention reading through this time.

3 ¶ And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

This scribe gets precedence in the Kings court. Never saw that before. Josiah has the priests rebuild the Temple, and the find a book with the Law. They make this sound like they didn't have the Law before? How had they been keeping the Law then up to that time? Perhaps by prophets?

Anyway there is no prophet in King Josiah's court, as there has been during earlier kings reigns. So they try to find a prophet, and what do they find? A prophetess (2 Kings 22:14). Now I don't have a problem with a prophetess, but where are the prophets? Is the kings relation with the prophets so strained that the King didn't approach them.

Anyway it was pretty interesting to have this jump out at me this time through, for what it is worth.

I'm into Chronicles now. Well into it since I didn't bother reading most of the first 10 chapters. Those genealogies just drive me up the wall, I just scan them.

 

[marvmax]

It's been a while since I've read Chronicles. I knew that it was a different history of Israel. Let me give my impression of 1 Chronicles.

Endless Genealogies.

Also, they really white wash David. No mention of Bathsheba.

Also, apparently no one in Kings noticed that David made a huge production of setting Solomon up as King. They also seemed to miss that David set up the Aaronic and Levite courses for serving at the Temple.

I'm not an expert but I will bet that the experts think that Chronicles was written by the Dueteronomists.

355

 

[fritz300]

Elijah is my favorite prophet for the way that he treats the prophets of Baal. It is probably wrong, and in my heart I really feel it is wrong.

Just gonna add my two cents.. hehe

when I first read this situation with Elijah, I also was kinda like "uhh.. what is he doing..!"

but after YHVH helped me with further understanding, He revealed that He was very joyful over the whole thing.... When it really comes down to it, here we have the Prophet's of Baal trying to prove that Baal is mightier than the one true God and Mighty One of Israel...

In this situation, YHVH was MORE than pleased to operate through Elijah... Elijah was operating in a boldness that it is hard for many of us to grasp today... and there was just something about it that YHVH had no problem coming down and showing these prophets of Baal that they were serving nothing but an idol.

There's something about operating in the spirit of Elijah... standing firm and knowing the mighty one, confidently and boldly that YHVH just honors and is more than over-joyed about.. even to this day I believe

Regards,
fritz