Also - the LOST finale was totally stupid.
Reading for May 19 - May 23
1 Samuel 24 - 31
So Saul continues to pursue David in hopes of killing him, but David is always one step ahead. David has multiple opportunities to kill Saul, but doesn't. Each time though, he lets Saul know that he could have - and didn't. The reason David gave each time was because Saul was God's anointed. So it wasn't so much out of respect for Saul as it was for God's choice.
It does eventually get bad enough that David decides to go and live with the Philistines - to stay out of Israel and out of the grasp of Saul. The Philistines then began an attack against Israel and Saul was afraid because of the size of their army. He asked God for guidance, but got no answer - so he went to a spirit medium. This spirit medium channeled the spirit of Samuel to give answers to Saul.
Now, I was planning on getting on my high horse about this and being all like "Eugh...this invalidates the Old Testament because they are showing silly witchcraft working and not making the practitioners of the witchcraft look like fools...wahh..."But you know what? If I believe in a big deity in the sky who created mankind and an immaculate conception and resurrection after death - I can't draw the line there and say - "Nope! That's as far as anything supernatural goes. Anything else is hogwash." That wouldn't be fair, would it?
The end of 1 Samuel shows Saul taking his own life after being critically wounded in battle. He wanted to die heroically, instead of being shamed by his attackers. So that's what he did. He ran himself through with his sword and did himself in real nice.
2 Samuel 1-3
2 Samuel starts off with David mourning over the death of Saul and then he is anointed king of Israel. A new war began between David's house and Saul's house. David's house was totally destroying Saul's house by the way. But there is a poignant line here in the middle of the battle:
"Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their brothers?"Does this speak to the larger question of the violent nature of the Israelites? A call to end their overall tendency towards bloodshed? Probably not - but it would be nice if it was, no?
John 10:22 - 13:30
There is some fantastic detail in here about the story of Lazarus. Remember that Lazarus is the man that Jesus raised from the dead. Well, in the previous account of this story, it gives very few details about who this guy was and his condition and all that. It's revealed here that Jesus was somewhat of a family friend to Lazarus and his sisters. Jesus showed real emotion when dealing with the death of Lazarus, likely in part because it was reflective of his own death, but the emotion was there for his friend too.
It's also revealed that Lazarus had been dead for four days, and he had already started to smell and decompose. So he was absolutely dead when Jesus brought him back. After he is raised, Jesus tells his sisters:
"Take off the grave clothes and let him go."This seems to be a recurring thing after Jesus heals someone. He tells them to take whatever physical thing that was representative of their illness, and to go. Kind of like a "hey throw those crutches away, you don't need them anymore." I suppose.
There's also a pretty famous scene where Mary Magdelene pours perfume on Jesus feet. It's well known that the disciples say "hey, she could have sold that and given the money to the poor!" But john reveals that Judas is the one who said that, and not because he wanted to give the money to the poor, but because he was in charge of the "poor people fund" and would often steal from it. Stealing from the poor and betraying the savior. Two pretty dick moves if you ask me...
Then the Last Supper. There's a scene here where Jesus washes the feet of all the disciples. A humbling thing, I would imagine. Jesus then says that he did that to set an example - to be a servant to everyone you meet - no matter how great or small - serve one another in love. Pretty great, that Jesus was.
Psalm 116 - 119
Wow, lots of modern-ish songs were taken from these.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Psalm 119 starts what is called an acrostic poem where in the verses of each stanza begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I would love to hear those read in the original Hebrew - I bet it's beautiful.
Proverbs 15:20-30
Just some nice, simple advice
22 Plans fail for lack of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed.
23 A man finds joy in giving an apt reply—
and how good is a timely word!
Alright, epic post. Back to work tomorrow after 5 days of being mega sick. Gimmie those prayers if you're the praying type - it's gonna be a rough week.
Love.
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