Reading from Sunday, June 13

I've been thinking about starting a new blog. Don't worry, I'm not cheating on my two readers of this blog, this new one would be in addition to the Bible Adventure. The idea is this: I have a ton of video games that I've never beaten. My goal would be to go through all of them one at a time and beat each one, and write a post every time I do. Obviously I wouldn't be posting every day, or even every week depending on the game I'm playing. As a side goal, I would create a rule for myself that I couldn't buy any new games until I finished everything I own. What do you think of that idea? Would you read it? Or should I keep my self indulgent pandering to myself?

Reading for June 13
1 Kings 11:1-12:19
Solomon blows it.

So as Solomon got on in years, he began to take more and more wives. It says he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. A concubine is a woman who is in a committed relationship (I would assume sexual in nature) but cannot be married to the man because of differing social status. So if this is to be believed, Solomon then had over 1000 sexual partners. That is unbelievable. Maybe its examples like this that made Jesus preach on monogamy.

However the majority of Solomon's wives were from other nations, and God had warned Sol not to get involved with women from these specific nations because they would lead him astray and lead his heart away from God. Well, that's exactly what happens. Solomon lets his wives convince him  to start worshiping the gods of their countries and he falls away from the God of Israel. Because of this, God rises up enemies against Solomon and says that the power promised to him and his lineage would be stripped from them because of Sol's infidelity. That's an interesting parallel - Solomon was in a relationship with so many women in a polygamous relationship and ended up in a polygamous relationship with other gods. I wonder if that is speaking against polygamy or if its just a coincidence...

Anyway, God says that because of David and how beloved he was by God, that he would not take the power from Solomon in his lifetime because he had promised David that his son would inherit the throne. So God takes the power away from Solomon's son who takes the throne after him. And even then, God allows Solomon's son to still reign over one tribe - Judah, while the other eleven tribes are rules by a new king - Jeroboam.

Have you picked up on the irony yet? Jesus' lineage is from Judah and from the line of David. Out of the shamed kings of Israel, the guys who were, after all, just regular guys. People like you and me with faults and vices and issues. But through these fallen people, God brought to earth the king of kings. That's pretty awesome. 

Oh. Also, Solomon ruled for forty years.

Acts 9:1-25
Saul's conversion.


Every story needs a bad guy, and Saul so far was the bad guy for the new Christians, or members of "The Way" as it is called here in Acts. He constantly persecuted the Christians and was there when Stephen was killed, giving his blessing. One day, Saul was out doing his daily persecutin' and Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks. He ordered him to stop persecuting the Christians. Saul immediately became blind at that moment. He was brought the house of one of the followers of Christ, who prayed for him and Saul could see once again. He then joined the disciples and became one of their most active members. The chief priests were pretty pissed at this and tried to kill him, but the disciples kept Saul well guarded.

It's pretty interesting that the chief priests just tried to kill anything and anyone that didn't match up to their belief system. We still see this going on today. Islamic extremists killing people because they do not fall into their moral code. Even on a lighter side, Christians berating and belittling people for not believing the way they believe. They're not killing them, but they're certainly doing their damage. Let's also not forget the crusades and the witch trials and all the other horrible things Christians have done in the name of God.

Psalm 131:1-3
 ¹ My heart is not proud, O LORD,
       my eyes are not haughty;
       I do not concern myself with great matters
       or things too wonderful for me.

Kinda sounds like the guy is just giving up. I am not what most people would call an intellectual, but I am very concerned with 'things too wonderful for me'. I have a desire to know and learn and experience these things that the Bible seems to hide from people. While there is wisdom in knowing that you cannot know everything, the wonder and excitement about learning these things is where I really grow, I think. Don't just say, "Meh, it's too big to understand." At least try, you may get part of it and that may set your heart on fire.

Proverbs 17:4-5
Love v 5


 ⁴ A wicked man listens to evil lips;
       a liar pays attention to a malicious tongue.
 ⁵ He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
       whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

Alright yo. Don't forget you can submit prayer requests either in the comments below or to my email: brandonamurray@gmail.com

Please don't be shy about doing this. It will give me something to pray about as I often just forget or don't feel like it. Thanks yo.  

Reading from Saturday, June 12

Jilly left this morning for Chicago for a week. It always sucks when she leaves - I always think that I'll be perfectly content by myself playing video games, but usually it only takes an  hour or so after she's left that I get lonely and miss her. That makes me a sad panda. Well so far today, I've played about 5 hours of video games and watched about 3 hours of TV, so I figured  I should be a little productive and do some reading. I may also go out tonight and take some pictures of the local town. We'll see how I feel.

Reading for June 12
1 Kings 9:1-10:29
God appears to Solomon a second time.

So the first time God appeared to Solomon, God asked him what he wanted, and Solomon asked for wisdom. Because he chose wisely, God gave him wealth and power as well as the requested wisdom. This time God is appearing to Solomon to express his pleasure with him for building the Temple. He also responds to the prayer that Solomon prayed in the previous chapter where he asked for mercy from God on the Jewish people, and also for Israel's prosperity. God says that he will honor Solomon's requests if the Jews follow God's commands and decrees. This should be expected by now - the people ask God for something, God agrees on one condition - follow the rules.

Then God specifically addresses the finished Temple. There are some intriguing things about what God says here. He says basically that it was built out of the love of God and that because the people of Israel had been faithful to him, he will keep his "heart and eyes" there forever. But, again, if they stray from his commands or begin worshiping other gods, he will withdraw himself from the temple and it will become nothing more than an hollow building with no meaning or significance, and it will become a blotch of shame on the Israeli landscape.

Now what I find interesting about this whole thing is that at first, it seems like the people are doing God a favor - for lack of a better term - by building this temple. But it's actually the other way around, God is doing the Jews a favor by allowing a small piece of himself to reside in the world, in a building constructed by men. Maybe I'm stretching a little here, but  I think there's some symbolism in this when compared with Jesus. Jesus often refers to himself as a temple or the temple. In the same way that a small part of God lived within the actual temple, the whole persona of God lived within Jesus. Jesus became the new temple for the Israelites. Contrasting the actual temple and Jesus - Jesus' outward appearance was the epitome of humility while the temple was the epitome of luxury and excess.

I'll bet there's a ton of parallels between Jesus and the temple, and I can't wait to find them.

Acts 8:14-40
Woah woah woah. There is some dimensional time/space hopping this chapter. So Phillip is instructed by an angel to follow a chariot containing an Ethiopian man who was serving the queen of Ethiopia. This man was reading the book of Isaiah. Eventually, Phillip speaks to the man and asks him if he can help him understand what he's reading, as the passage is a prophecy about Jesus. Phillip talks and prays with this man and then the man asks to be baptized. Philip agrees and baptizes the man, but as soon as they come out of the water,

the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the [Ethiopian man] did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

What? He disappears and then reappears somewhere else? I often wonder about some of this pseudo-science stuff in the Bible and think it could be one of three things:

1) Completely legit and the only reason these things don't happen today is because we aren't as close to God.
2) Misinterpreted by  the writers, and because they didn't understand something, they assigned a miraculous event to it.
3) Intentionally misleading to try and prove the existence and divinity of God and Christ.

While I highly doubt that #3 is the case, I often sway between 1 and 2.

Psalm 130:1-8
Beautiful.

 ¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
 ² O Lord, hear my voice.
       Let your ears be attentive
       to my cry for mercy.
 ³ If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
       O Lord, who could stand?
 ⁴ But with you there is forgiveness;
       therefore you are feared.
 ⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
       and in his word I put my hope.
 ⁶ My soul waits for the Lord
       more than watchmen wait for the morning,
       more than watchmen wait for the morning.
 ⁷ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
       for with the LORD is unfailing love
       and with him is full redemption.
 ⁸ He himself will redeem Israel
       from all their sins.


Proverbs 17:2-3
 ² A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son,
       and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.
 ³ The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
       but the LORD tests the heart.

Alright, I'll be back later tonight with another entry. 

Friday, June 11

Yes. just got back from a wedding. Pretty good times for only knowing a few people there. I ate another inhuman amount of pasta and thoroughly shamed myself and the Murray name on the dance floor.

Reading for June 11
1 Kings 8:1-66
So now that the Temple was done and Solomon's palace was done, the next step was to bring the ark of the covenant to the Temple. So I'm just starting to understand the importance of the ark, its not so much a physical representation of God so much as it is a physical representation of God's promises to Israel. Promises which have all come to pass. And contained within the ark are the two stone tablets on which the ten commandments were written. That's kinda cool to think about because it has always been said that God's promises would be upheld if the Israelites followed his decrees. So this box that symbolizes these promises has his commands within it - pretty poetic way to encapsulate the entire thing.

As they bring the ark into the temple, all of Israel turns out - apparently this is a huge deal. Solomon then offers up a very long prayer that essentially just asks God for mercy on his people. He states that all people are susceptible to sin and will sin in their lifetime - that may be the first time that is admitted in the Bible. Up until now, its been silently expected that all men should be perfect.

My favorite part of his prayer, however is this:

²⁷ "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

Speaking to the futility of building a temple for a God that cannot even be contained by the highest heaven. Pretty cool. 

Acts 7:51-8:13
Stephen's speech concludes.


So at the end of this speech that is packed to the brim with a sparkling knowledge of Jewish history,  Stephen's tone becomes accusatory. Here's what he says:

 ⁵¹"You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵²Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— ⁵³you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."

This is basically the same thing Peter said to the crowds at the beginning of Acts, admittedly Stephen is saying it in a much more unpleasant way. Nonetheless, this obviously ticks off the Sanhedrin and they throw him out into the square to stone him. Stephen's death is freaking epic.

 ⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." ⁶⁰Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. 

The same way Jesus asked God to forgive his mockers at the cross, Stephen asks God to forgive the one's who are killing him. One more point - right before he is killed he looks up and claims to see God and Jesus at his right hand. To this the Sanhedrin cover their ears and yell. Is there something in your life that you're trying to ignore even though all the evidence is there?

Psalm 129:1-8
Nothing stands out here.

Proverbs 17:1
 ¹ Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
       than a house full of feasting, ^[a] with strife.

Running out of battery. Good night.
 

Reading from Thursday, June 10

Good gravy, what a day. I had this video thing that I was working on that didn't have audio so I had to get the audio from a different source. THEN the audio was playing at a slightly different speed than the video so every few minutes I had to adjust the audio to realign it with the video. All this was happening while I was moderating another session in the next room. Now I need to get it out to the UPS store before it closes and sent it overnight to someone. Stress zone 50. That's the worst stress zone to be in.

Reading for June 10
1 Kings 7:1-51
So Solomon spent 7 years building the temple of God. On the contrary, he spent 13 years building his own palace - almost twice as long. The text doesn't give any clues as to whether or not Solomon should be revered or hated because of this. For me, I would think that spending twice as long on yourself as you spend on something for God should be something that is admonished.

I often find myself in the same position however. I will rush through doing this blog so I can play video games or eat dinner or whatever other selfish task. So while its left up to the reader to make what they will of this information, I will take it as a personal challenge to spend less time on myself than I do for things that honor and glorify God.

Acts 7:30-50
Oh man, what a great follow up to reading about the construction of the temple. So here, Stephen continues his speech to the Sanhedrin, recounting Jewish history. Thinking a little more about this, its likely that he was quoting all of this history to defend himself - he, like Peter, knew his audience was made up of staunch Biblical scholars and Jewish historians - showing off of his knowledge was likely something Stephen thought would help his case.

The coolest thing here though is Stephen's interpretation of the building of God's temple:

 ⁴⁴"Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, ⁴⁶who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[g] 47}But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
 ⁴⁸"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
 ⁴⁹" 'Heaven is my throne,
      and the earth is my footstool.
   What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
      Or where will my resting place be?
 ⁵⁰Has not my hand made all these things?'

Beautiful.

Psalm 128:1-6
This psalm says blessed are those who fear the LORD. Then it goes into specifically what those blessings will be:

That the person will have a good wife and good sons and live to see his children's children. First of all, its completely male focused, but such is the writing of the time. Secondly it's entirely focused on ones family, as if the writer was giving the best possible blessings. Do you think these would be any different if they were written today?

One thing that comes to mind is televangelists claiming that God wants to make you rich and wants you to have a Lexus. The difference between them and the writer of this psalm is that there is a prerequisite to the blessings in the psalm: fearing God. Peter Popoff claims that nothing is required. Nothing except the special anointing oil and prayer handkerchief for 12.95 plus shipping. But I mean, what Christian is complete without his or her prayer handkerchief?

Proverbs 16:31-33
 ³¹ Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
       it is attained by a righteous life.
 ³² Better a patient man than a warrior,
       a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
 ³³ The lot is cast into the lap,
       but its every decision is from the LORD.

I like the one about gray hair. I need to remember that for when my friends start going gray. 

 

Reading from Wednesday, June 9

Yesterday was absolutely crazy, but it's work stuff that I won't bore you with. I'll just ask for continued prayers for my sanity in these next few weeks with this job. Thanks.

Reading for June 9
1 Kings 5:1-6:38
The temple. This incredibly symbolic and spiritual structure for the Jewish people was built under the reign of King Solomon. Some great little nuggets of info that come out of this:

• A timeline is finally given: Solomon began construction on the temple four years into his reign as king. This was 480 years after the Israelites exile from Egypt. It is likely from this passage that scholars were able to trace back the time of each king and judge. David ruled for 40 years, and I think Saul ruled for 40 years as well...confirming with Wikipedia...yup. That's interesting - each king ruled for 40 years a piece. That earthly + heavenly number is pretty prevalent in the OT. (4 earthly X 10 heavenly perfection = divinely appointed kings) 
• God proclaimed to David that his son would build a temple for the LORD. Again, is this fate and proof of God's existence, or Solomon knowing his history and consciously fulfilling things that were predicted about him?
• The reason no one built the temple until now was because Israel had so many enemies on every side. At this point in the Israeli history, there was a time of peace. Extremely hard to believe because it seems like ever since the Israelites left Egypt they were warring with one nation or another. It took 480 years for them to reach a peaceful state. Pretty insane. 
• The temple was built with the help of laborers from another nation, Tyre. Tyre was really far away - look:

That's not an efficient work arrangement. But I suppose it couldn't hurt. The two nations already had a lot of good will between them, so this could only help matters.


The final thing that is of interest here is the fact that there is so many details written about the structure of the temple. We have seen this before many times - for example Noah's Ark was given a chapter or two's worth of details about its construction, the Ark of the Covenant was given I think 6 or seven chapter's worth of writing, and here again we see about a chapter's worth of content on the construction of the temple.

I know that the temple is incredibly important to Jewish history, but I don't know much about it. I know that it's referenced in the Gospels so it stood for at least 1000 years, and I know that there is still a wall of it standing today, commonly referred to as the wailing wall. I'm excited to see all the stories that take place around and in this temple.

One more thing - the construction of this temple permanently cements the Israelites in their new home - 480 years after their exile from Egypt. Even though they had inherited the promised land many many years ago, they were in a state of perpetual war and were still at risk of losing it all because of bone headed leaders. Now the war time was over and they were building a monument to their Lord. What a great feeling that must have been for them.

Acts 7:1-29
Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin.

In this section, Stephen recounts all the Jewish history starting with Abraham and going up until Moses flees Egypt for killing a guard who was beating an Israelite. He does it with startling clarity and passion as someone who studied and adored the word of God.

The coolest thing that I found in this section is from the actual history itself. It must have gone over my head before. Before Abraham had a single child, God led him to the land which the Jews would eventually inherit and call Israel. To prove to Abraham that he was going to give him descendants, God told him that his offspring will live and prosper in this land many years later. Stephen reminds the members of  the Sanhedrin that this is the land in which they are currently standing.

There's not much to interpret there, but I just think its so cool that God promised something so huge and it came to pass. In other words God has made other promises that could have been fulfilled just because the people believed that they would be. The fact that the Jews ended up living in the very spot God told Abraham they would end up living is a pretty big coincidence...they overcame countless obstacles for that to take place such as surviving in the desert for forty years and escaping from being slaves...

Psalm 127:1-5
Love this stuff.

¹ Unless the LORD builds the house,
       its builders labor in vain.
       Unless the LORD watches over the city,
       the watchmen stand guard in vain.
 ² In vain you rise early
       and stay up late,
       toiling for food to eat—
       for he grants sleep to ^[a] those he loves.

Kinda further delves into the proverb that the foundation of all wisdom is the fear of God. Everything that is done is done in vain if God is not part of it. 

Proverbs 16:28-30
 ²⁸ A perverse man stirs up dissension,
       and a gossip separates close friends.
 ²⁹ A violent man entices his neighbor
       and leads him down a path that is not good.
 ³⁰ He who winks with his eye is plotting perversity;
       he who purses his lips is bent on evil.

Verse 30 is really funny. I'm gonna walk around winking and pursing my lips all day tomorrow. 

 

Reading from Tuesday, June8

Hey. I just ate an entire box of pasta. That was a bad choice.

Reading for June 8
1 Kings 3:3-4:34
Solomon cools down and focuses on being smart rather than a murderer. God comes to Solomon in a dream and instead of asking for tons of money or power, Solomon asks for discernment and wisdom. This pleases God and he gives Solomon what he requested, but he also gives him what he didn't request - money and power. I don't like this because I feel like this could be exploited by televangelist types. It kind of says "ask for the right thing and trick God into giving you money." I know that wasn't the intention of the author, but its something that could easily misinterpreted to think that.

Well, from this wisdom that is given to Solomon by God, it says he wrote 3,000 proverbs and over 1,000 songs. But he also gave a very well known ruling. Two women lived together and each recently had a baby. One of the ladies accidentally squashed her baby by laying on it, and then swapped her dead baby for the alive one while the other lady was sleeping. They argued over who's baby was whose and brought the issue to King Solomon. After hearing the case, King S suggests that they cut the baby in half and give each woman a piece. The child's true mothers says the other woman can have the child as long as its not hurt. The other one is fine with the baby halving, and says "No one can have the baby." It was cleat that the first woman was the real mother and Solomon awarded custody appropriately.

Hey - Chicago just won the Stanley Cup.

Acts 6:1-15
This section talks about the first Christian martyr, Stephen. He is not killed yet in this section, but he is seized and the Sanhedrin rile up the people against him, producing false witnesses saying that Stephen was preaching against the teachings of Moses. Sounds mighty familiar...

Psalm 126:1-6
⁵ Those who sow in tears
       will reap with songs of joy.
 ⁶ He who goes out weeping,
       carrying seed to sow,
       will return with songs of joy,
       carrying sheaves with him.

It's like my man Puff say "You gotta go through the pain to experience the joy. This too shall pass. Can you fix my H-E-A-R-T? Yeah Diddy what!" 

Proverbs 16:26-27 
 ²⁶ The laborer's appetite works for him;
       his hunger drives him on.
 ²⁷ A scoundrel plots evil,
       and his speech is like a scorching fire.

Alright, yo. Mad sleepy. Goodnight. 

Reading from Monday, June 7

Yeah, I'm behind, I'm sorry.

Reading for June 7
1 Kings 2:1-3:2
Solomon goes on an effing rampage!

Similar to the advice to beat someone up the first day you're in prison to establish your cred, Solomon takes the throne and then immediately starts murdering people. Here is everyone he killed or had killed in Chapter 2:

• Adonijah - the guy who was gonna become king before Solomon did. Adonijah was killed for asking to marry Abishag - the woman who took care of David as he was dying. 
• Joab - the army commander. For his reckless muderings during David's reign.
• Shimei - some dude who Solomon asked to live in Jerusalem. He told him never to leave. One day his slaves escaped and he went after them, leaving Jerusalem. For this he was murdered.
• Abiathar - a priest who Solomon believes is worthy of death, withholds his wrath until a later time. Abiathar is not killed in this chapter, but I think its happening shortly.

 Solomon Smash!

For the guy who wrote Proverbs, which contains some of the best nuggets of wisdom anywhere in the world, he was kind of a bloodthirsty maniac to start...

Acts 5:1-42
The disciples get a taste of Jesus' persecution.

So as we read in the last chapter, we're starting to see the priests and Sadducees and all those dudes get jealous and fearful of Jesus. Only now Jesus is working through a group of 12. Peter and John are considered the leaders and they are once again brought before the council of holy dudes. They are thrown in jail, but during the night an angel comes to bust them out. The next morning, the religious council members find them in the temple courts, once again preaching in the name of Jesus.

They bring them in again and contemplate killing them. Then one guy, Gamaliel tries to persuade the Sadducees to let Peter and John go. Saying:

Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. ³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.

So Peter and John are flogged, ordered to stop preaching in Jesus' name and subsequently released. Here's how that chapter wraps up:

1The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. ⁴²Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Consider it pure joy, brothers when you face trials of many kinds.


Psalm 125:1-5
 ⁴ Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
       to those who are upright in heart.
 ⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways
       the LORD will banish with the evildoers.
       Peace be upon Israel.

I think this shows the limited human understanding of God at this point in history. It's logical to think that God would reward those who are good, and punish those who are bad. That's how we as people roll. But how could anyone have ever guessed that God would do good to those who 'turn to crooked ways'. God died for those people that David demanded God banish. 

Proverbs 16:25
I think this is a repeat proverb, I've definitely heard it before...

 ²⁵ There is a way that seems right to a man,
       but in the end it leads to death.

 Right? Doesn't that sound familiar?

OK, prayer request time. It's a particularly busy time for both me and Jilly at work. Would you pray for us and for unprecedented strength and perseverance to get through it all in one piece?

Remember, you can send in prayer requests in the comments below, or to my email: brandonamurray@gmail.com and I will pray for you as well. Thanks chums. Much love.