Reading from Saturday, July 3

Hey hey, what do you say? Yesterday was Independence Day. And I've been listening to Jay
Z up in the ride, so is my raps good? is you on my side? Do you like my rhymes? Cuz listen up holmes - it's Bible time.

Reading for July 3
2 Kings 22:3-23:30
This is a great little gem of a story hidden in the Old Testament here. So the current king of Judah is Josiah. One day he asks his employees to go and rebuild and repair the temple. During their work they come across the Book of Law that Moses had written and they brought it back to Josiah and read it to him. Upon hearing the laws which they were supposed to be following, Josiah freaked out, realizing all the sin that had been occurring within his nation.

So he gathered all the people of Judah together and read the Book of Law to them and said that they all should follow what it says. Then he ordered the destruction of everything that had been created to praise other gods. This part was the most remarkable to me - the text here lists about a dozen different shrines and idols that had been erected in the temple. The temple that God said to keep holy and was only for him and that if they messed with it there would be hell to pay - yeah, that temple. So everything that represented other gods was obliterated and Josiah turned all the people of Judah back to God. It says that there has never been another king like him - no one had ever had such a radical change of heart for God.

However, it says that even though Josiah had done all these great things, God was still pissed from the previous kings, and was still saying he was going to make good on his promise of removing Judah from their nation just as he had done with Israel. We all know that God keeps his promises too.

Acts 21:37-22:16
Paul recounts his conversion to his persecutors.

So if you remember, Paul had just been arrested in Jerusalem and was about to be killed. He pleaded with the Roman guards to let him speak to the crowd and they agreed.

Paul began telling the story about how he was a Jew and was a devout follower of God and how he would kill the people who were part of the the Way (Christians). Most of the story is a copy paste of the early chapters in Acts, but there are some extra details about how badly he persecuted the Christians. Check it:

 Then Paul said: ³"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. ⁴I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

So just as Peter had done earlier, Paul was playing to his accusers' strict Jewish nature. Saying he was raised the same way they were, taught by the same people and worshiped the same God. Then he talks about how he would kill the people who were different, even going so far as to kill people who were sending letters to Christians. This was likely pleasurable to the people in the crowd.

To put it in modern times, let's say that Muslim extremists are absolutely right in what they are doing, and Charlton Heston becomes one of them. Then he comes back to Austin, Texas as is arrested by the NRA and then gives this speech to them. I think that sufficiently explains what's happening.

Psalm 1:1-6
Alright - starting the psalms over. In my first go around back in January I had this to say about Psalm 1.

Nothing stands out.

I think now I have a little more insight as to some of the meaning here.

 ¹ Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.
 ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

Just coming from that passage in 2 Kings where Josiah realizes how important the Book of Law actually is to his people, verses 1 and 2 really stand out here. The idea of meditating on a verse or group of verses in the Bible is something I've always had interest in, but never done. Maybe that can be next year's blog. 

Proverbs 18:11-12
Pride comes before the fall

 ¹¹ The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
       they imagine it an unscalable wall.
 ¹² Before his downfall a man's heart is proud,
       but humility comes before honor.

Bam. Much love, yos.