BIBLE IN A YEAR
Bible in a Year – Day 120: Commonality
Apr 29th
Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 1 & 2
Some really fascinating reading today, huh? My question is: Did you read it all? I mean, let’s be honest, it’s pretty easy to skip through this big long list of names and not even bother reading it. In fact, we could probably get by with never reading this kind of genealogical list. And yet, I think there’s something in here for us to learn, even if we aren’t Biblical genealogists.
For me, this list highlights one of the main struggles of human beings – that we forget what we have in common. I have a friend, Dr. Rick Love, who is devoted to finding common ground among various people groups. It is Rick’s belief that peace and love (the God kind, not the hippie kind) can be found when we discover and focus on our commonalities rather than our differences. Rick leads a group called Peace Catalyst International. The stated goal of PCI is to “stimulate peacemaking between individuals and between peoples.” They do this by digging back through all the philosophical and cultural differences that have developed over time and finding one or more common guiding principles that all parties can agree on. In other words, they trove the cultural genealogies of people and look for common ancestry.
As we read these genealogies today, I’m reminded that all of the warring tribes and nations that we read about in the old testament (and indeed, those we see today) have a common ancestry – not just Adam and Eve, but Noah. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth. From these sons came every person and nation that has ever existed. The great nation of Egypt was settled by one of Noah’s grandsons, as was the land of Canaan.
And so, this genealogy serves not only as a historical record of family line, which was very important in ancient culture, but also as a reminder that not so long ago, we were one people. I would imagine that someone reading these verses shortly after they were written would have hung his head and wondered how in the world things got so bad so quickly. How did things do south so rapidly?
It’s good to be reminded of our common ground. For the tribes of Israel and Judah, they didn’t even have to go back as far as Noah. They only had to go back to Israel – a man who had 12 sons. What would Israel have to say to his warring ancestors? What would Noah have to say to us?
As we stand in our modern context and declare ourselves “Pro” this people group and “Anti” this people group, have we lost site of our commonality? Particularly for Americans, as we place our stake in the ground of “Americanism,” have we forgotten that there is no such thing as a true, pure American? We are a mishmash, melting pot of cultures, identities and genealogies. We have, in our past, heroes and villains. And, the people that we seek to keep out of our country may have a lot more in common with us than we think. At the very least, they are more like our own ancestors than we realize.
Would you think twice about kicking somebody out of our country if they were your 2nd cousin? Commonality changes the equation a little bit, doesn’t it?
Bible in a Year – Day 119: Wolf!
Apr 28th
Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 23, 24 & 25
And so we’ve reached the end of 2 Kings. In chapter 23, it seems like things are heading in the right direction, but by the time we get to chapter 25, the city of Jerusalem is in ruins and the people are in exile. What in the world happened? Well, a couple of things took place here, in my estimation.
First, God showed that one man can’t save a city or country. This is an important pattern that I think God establishes in the Old Testament, in order to juxtapose Jesus onto the scene – the one man who was an exception to the rule. Josiah did it all right. He cleaned house. He knocked down, crushed and burnt up everything that even had the faintest hint of not being Godly. He did absolutely everything he could do as a leader to rid his country of idolatry, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.
You see, that’s the flip-side of free will (and, indeed, of freedom itself). Along with individual freedom comes individual responsibility. God would ultimately send the people of Judah into exile because he knew that even though Josiah had learned the lesson, the rest of Judah hadn’t. This fact is emphasized as we look at the kings that succeed Josiah. Without exception, they are wicked and they take Judah back to its old ways. And so, as much as Josiah tried to follow the Lord and as many good things as he did, his city was still not in God’s good graces.
The second thing that I think God is doing here is letting people know that he will keep his word. Many years ago (long before we had a child), Melody and I attended a parenting class. And while I don’t remember much from that class, one thing that has stuck with me to this day is the value of keeping your word. With kids, this means that you do what you say you are going to do whether positive or negative. If you say, “You hit your sister, so when we get home, you’re going straight to bed,” then, no matter how long it may take to get home and no matter how “normal” things are between now and then, once you get home, you need to honor your word and send that child to bed. Likewise, if you say, “We’ll stop and get some ice cream on the way home from the store,” you need to honor that word, too.
The logic was simple. If your kid knows that you honor your word at all times, then your words carry much more weight – you’re not the boy who cried “Wolf!” It seems that God wanted his “kids” to know that he wasn’t the boy who cried “Wolf!” either. And so, off to exile the people go…again. But God, as always, has a plan – one that will reveal him for who he is and will bring the people back to him.
Bible in a Year – Day 118: What if We’re Wrong?
Apr 27th
Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 20, 21 & 22
What if everything we think we know about God is wrong? What if we’re trying to do the right thing, but we’ve completely missed it? What if my heart is right, but my actions are misguided? I was pondering this question today as I read 2 Kings 22. This is a story that first really caught me off guard last year as I was reading through the Bible at break-neck speed over the course of 90 days (you should really try it sometime!)
This is the scenario that Josiah finds himself in. He’s only eight years old when he becomes king and for his entire life plus the 50 or so years before he was born, there have been kings in power who didn’t follow God. Manasseh, who reigned most of that time didn’t simply continue the traditions of former kings. He actually rebuilt what his father had destroyed – returning Judah to the worship of Baal, the sex-rituals and self-mutilation exercises. He essentially removed God from the equation. I would imagine that by the time Josiah was born, all that remained of true Godly worship were a few stories and ideas passed down through oral tradition and told by some of the old geezers in town. And yet, Josiah somehow was able to see the truth in those stories. He was determined to follow the God that they spoke of, even though he didn’t have the whole picture.
Imagine the shock, then, when Josiah discovers that, in so many ways, he and the people of Judah have missed it. Suddenly, his men who are working on the temple discover this ancient book that contains instructions that Josiah knew nothing of up to this point. He freaks out:
“Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:13)
Suddenly, Josiah gets it. And when he does, he’s terrified. How in the world did the people who came before him NOT follow the instructions of the Lord? Well, as I’ve mentioned previously, tradition is a powerful force. “We’ve always done it this way,” sets in hard and fast. Fifty years of Baal worship had eliminated God from the minds of the majority of Judah. In one generation, study of the scripture was gone.
For us, the question still remains, although slightly nuanced. You see, we have the Bible and we know it’s full of useful knowledge and instruction from God. And yet, how often do we actually consult this book? If you started with me on day 1 of this journey and have made it this far, you can at least say that you are reading your Bible regularly, which most followers of Jesus, unfortunately, aren’t. But how many instructions are in this book that we are ignoring while we defer to how “we’ve always done it,” in our homes, our churches and our lives? What if we’ve got it wrong and we don’t even know it?
Bible in a Year – Day 117: Are You Listening?
Apr 26th
Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 18 & 19
As a pastor, I am sometimes asked to offer my advice or opinions on a person’s life situation. When someone is facing a tough decision or is in crisis, they turn to their friends, family – and even their pastor – for advice. And while I am under no illusion that I have the answers to all your problems, I try to offer sound advice when asked.
It’s pretty frustrating, then, when that advice is completely ignored. And if I get frustrated when my very imperfect advice is ignored, is it any wonder that God gets frustrated when his very perfect advice, direction and guidance is ignored? But God is a very patient God and he puts up with a lot from us. He can even put up with us ignoring his direction for a while, but eventually, something’s gotta give.
In 2 Kings 18, God hits that wall…again. He’s fed up with Israel. Even the fact that they have one of the most faithful and God-following kings in history doesn’t help. Why? Verse 12 gives us a clue:
This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out. (2 Kings 18:12)
OK, even worse than somebody not heeding your advice is somebody not even listening to what you are saying. These people, when given directions from God himself, not only failed to follow the instructions, they didn’t even bother to listen to what they were. And so God had to send them a wake-up call, just as he had done so many times with their ancestors in the days of the Judges.
Not only does he send them this wake-up call, but he sets up a situation in which the trust of the people of Israel is placed in the only guy around who is actually looking to God – their king, Hezekiah. The word from the Lord to Hezekiah in chapter 19 outlines God’s plan in great detail and concludes with these words:
“I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” (2 Kings 19:34)
Through the actions of God, not only were the people of Israel reminded of God’s power and faithfulness, but the people of Assyria (those who survived) were shown that human beings (no matter how strong, powerful or numerous) cannot defeat God. You have to wonder if there were a few Assyrians who made a decision that day to do a little more research about this God of the Israelites!
Bible in a Year – Day 116: That Pole Looks Like A…
Apr 25th
Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 15, 16 & 17
The story of these three chapters (and, indeed, most of the history of human beings) can be summed up in these two sentences:
Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did. (2 Kings 17:41)
You see, sometimes while reading the Bible, it’s easy to gloss over sentences like “the high places were not removed” or “they set up Asherah poles” because those phrases and objects have no significance to us today. We don’t even understand what is being referenced. Most of us just assume that these things aren’t important.
But what if I told you that a former President of the United States (pick one, either party) had done the following:
1. Performed occultic worship rituals, including animal sacrifices, on the White House lawn.
2. Invited prostitutes to those rituals and included their “duties” as part of the worship experience
3. Set up a large monument that was carved with images of naked men and women in all kinds of “interesting” poses – with the monument itself being crafted to resemble a certain male organ.
4. Forced his daughters to walk across hot coals near this monument.
5. Killed and burned children to offer as sacrifices to the “god of the earth.”
I’m guessing you wouldn’t have a very high opinion of that guy. Now, what if I said, “And the next president was a good man, but he didn’t do away with the phallic pole or sex-ritual sacrifice site.” If you can possibly imagine that scenario playing out, then you have a little bit of a glimpse into what the writer of 2 Kings is trying to tell us.
But I think the subtext of this story tells us something about the core nature of people. In the end, we just tend to do what we’ve always done. We accept whatever we’ve been exposed to. We grow accustomed to the stench of our own filth. Things which were unthinkable to our great grandparents became “daring” to our grandparents, “cool” to our parents and normal to us.
The life priorities, values and idols of our ancestors have permeated our culture to the point that we don’t even notice them any more. And in the end, just like the people of ancient Israel, we continue to serve these idols while worshiping the Lord. My question to you (and me) is this: What idols are you serving while also worshiping God?
Is it money? The American dream? Even your country itself can become an idol. Is it your political party? Your pet cause? Whatever it is, no matter how good or noble, ask yourself (and, more importantly, ask God) if this thing that you are so passionate about has caused God to have to take a back seat in your life. Are you choosing between God and this thing or are you giving him control of it. When we willingly lay down that which we think is part of our core, God reminds us that he is sufficient and sometimes, he even picks that noble cause back up and allows us to plug back into it – plug in, that is, with a clear understanding of its proper place in our life.
