Category: Thinking about Biblical NARRATIVES

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” ² The word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³ “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴ It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. ⁷ It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.  I Kings 17:1-7  NASB

It must have been tough being a prophet.  King Ahab knew right well that he had done wrong by marrying the wicked Jezebel.  He knew right well that he had done wrong by abandoning the worship of God for the worship of idols.

Yet it wasn’t politically correct to speak the truth to a powerful king.  In fact it was downright dangerous.  It fell to the prophet Elijah to tell King Ahab that God was about to punish him with drought.

There are consequences to telling a powerful king that God is about to punish him.  The king cannot hurt God – but he can go after the messenger.  So God sent Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith.

It’s still tough being a ‘prophet’.  Our society that has by and large abandoned the worship of God for the worship of the secular idols of humanism, materialism and hedonism, among others.  Those in positions of power and influence cannot hurt God, but they can and do go after those who call them back to truth and godliness.

The appropriate response would be to heed God’s messenger.

 – SSXG

⁹ When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly upset it. ¹⁰ The anger of the Lord burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. ¹¹ Then David became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzza; and he called that place Perez-uzza to this day. ¹² David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God home to me?” ¹³ So David did not take the ark with him to the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹⁴ Thus the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months; and the Lord blessed the family of Obed-edom with all that he had.  I Chronicles 13:9-14  NASB

David was offended with God.  Uzza had been struck dead for touching the ark to steady it.  Surely God understood that Uzza meant well!  Surely God wouldn’t hold it against Uzza that he tried to prevent the ark from falling off the cart!

Looking at it from another point of view, God had already been very gracious with those who were moving the ark – it was supposed to be carried on poles by the priests.  They had no business putting it on a cart.  Touching the ark to steady it (as it bounced along on a cart that never should have carried it) was ‘the last straw’.

Later, David would read the instructions and move the ark to Jerusalem correctly.

Are we offended with God when he doesn’t act and respond as we think he should to our best intentions?  Perhaps – like David – we will eventually read the instructions and do things God’s way.

– SSXG

 ²¹ She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  Matthew 1:21  [NASB]

According to the footnote from the NASB, Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua or Joshua.  This means that Jesus (his name in Latin and English) was named after the ancient Joshua.  But his name also has a meaning.

According to the same footnote, his name means:  the LORD saves.  Joseph was told to call him ‘Jesus’ because in the plan of God, he would be Saviour.  Although we (who read English) don’t look at the name Jesus and see Saviour – that is the meaning of his name.

The LORD saves us by the One that the angel said will “save His people from their sins.”

– SSXG

 

4 Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel, ² they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” ³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

⁴ Then the people of the land ^[a]discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.  Ezra 4:1-5  [NASB]

At first it seems they weren’t enemies.  They offered to help out the people of God with the rebuilding of the temple.  Indeed, they even declared their intention to seek God and to sacrifice to him.

We would wonder at Zerubbabel’s refusal of their help.  Somehow he recognized that they were enemies – which they proved to be when they tried to discourage and frighten off the workers and when they went so far as to intervene against them in the court of Cyrus the king.

Perhaps Zerubbabel recognized they weren’t quite sincere in their worship of God.  It was not uncommon in those times to worship more than one god at a time.  Perhaps their worship was unacceptable – a mix of other traditions directed towards God.  To join together in common labour would give these outsiders an influence and even an ownership in the temple.  Being, as it turns out, enemies of God, they would inevitably undermine the spiritual ministry of God’s people.

We do well to similarly distrust those who offer to help us in our building of the temple of Christ.  Is their worship of Christ sincere and acceptable?   Will they be able to influence or take ownership of the Christ’s temple?  Will they have a say in how Christians should worship and serve God?

To accept the assistance of outsiders is to put ourselves under their influence – perhaps even under their power.

– SSXG

²⁴ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” ²⁸ Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”  John 20:24-29 [NASB]

Thomas the twin has come to be known as ‘doubting Thomas’.  Yet he was in a situation much like ours.  He was told that Jesus had risen from the dead, but he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

Jesus recognized that – and though he did present himself to Thomas in person; he blessed those who believe though we haven’t seen him with our own eyes.

Thomas’ statement here is remarkable.  He says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”  This is a statement of worship.  It is a statement of recognition.  He is declaring Jesus to be ‘lord’, to be the one in position of absolute authority over him.  Think medieval lord of the manor.  He is also declaring Jesus to be God.

What Jesus didn’t say at this point is even more remarkable.  In Acts 14:14, Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes because they were upset that the locals thought they were Greek gods.  Jesus, by contrast, doesn’t immediately deny Thomas’ declaration.  He calmly accepts Thomas’ statement and his worship!

– SSXG

 

 

²³ On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, ²⁴ asking, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; ²⁶ so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”

²⁹ But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not ^[m]understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” ³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.   Matthew 22:23-33  [NASB]

Jesus was challenged by those who believed there is no life after this life.  They challenged him with a puzzle – a hypothetical scenario.  They knew that Jesus believed in marriage.  They knew that Jesus believed in the resurrection.  Surely this puzzle would confound him.

Jesus dealt with both parts of this puzzle.  First, there is no marriage in the after-life.  So the woman in this scenario is not bound to any of them.

Second, the after-life is real.  Jesus used an argument similar to that used by the Sadducees in their puzzle.  If God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then they must still be alive — for God is not the God of the dead but rather the living.  If they are alive, then there is a resurrection and an after-life.

The crowds were impressed.  Jesus had confounded the Sadducees using their own argumentation.

On this occasion, Jesus gave no other information about life after death.  Indeed, he didn’t even say who will enter the after-life.  It was enough to make it clear to the crowds – and to the Sadducees should they be willing to hear – that there is a resurrection.

– SSXG

21 When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,

¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”    Matthew 21:1-11  [NASB]

Jerusalem was filled with visitors come to celebrate the Passover.   Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem stirred up the people to such an extent that people were asking, “Who is this?”

This is one of those questions which matter most in life.  When confronted with the person of Jesus, the most important question is:  Who is this?  You are free, of course, to answer any way you like – but your very life is in the balance.

The immediate answer of the crowd with him is that this is Jesus, a prophet from Nazareth.  They are identifying him to the people in Jerusalem rather than making a religious statement.

However, in the mouth of someone living nearly 2000 years later, this would be a religious statement.  To say that Jesus is a prophet is to say that Jesus is only a prophet.  This brings us into the realm of those who think that Jesus was a good man – even the best man who ever lived – but just a prophet.

However, the crowd with Jesus that day had already made a religious statement about Jesus.  They had already identified him and hailed him as the Son of David and the One who comes in the name of the Lord.  They had identified him as a king in the line of King David, and as the Messiah who would come in the name of the Lord.

If Jesus is a king, then he must be obeyed as such.  If Jesus is the Messiah, the One sent to deliver or save his people, he must be trusted to do so.

So… who is Jesus?  Is he the one you trust as Saviour?  Is he the one you obey as king?  Or is he nothing more to you than a great prophet?

 – SSXG