Genesis 12-15

Say hello to Abram!!!!! The LORD just barged into his life one day and said, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." Wow, uh... well, OK! So he, his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot set out with all their stuff not knowing where they were going. We've done THAT:P When they got to the Negev, Abram and Lot's herdsman started fighting with each other over pastureland, because each had so many possessions they couldn't stay together. So Abram said to Lot, "Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left. Lot looked out at Sodom and Gomorrah. Everything was green and nice and had a lot of lakes and such. He figured it would be perfect for all his sheep and stuff, so he picked the best land and moved there. But what he didn't check out before he went there was the occupants of the land - they were a bad lot.

But God said to Abram, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make you offspring like the dust of the earth. God, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you." Then God told him that his number of his offspring would be as great as the stars, even though he was an old man. It says, "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Wow, that's pretty self-explanatory. God told him that he would take over the land, and told Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached it's full measure." God was telling him - years before it actually happened - that the Israelites would be in slavery! And they did come out with great possessions when they plundered the Egyptians! And they fought the Amorites when they were worshiping other gods and sacrificing their children! God always knows what will happen and he doesn't forget when he's supposed to fulfill his promises and how.

Isaiah 12-15

I read today in Isaiah and I think this passage is pretty self-explanatory:

"I will praise you, O LORD.

Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away

and you have comforted me.

Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation."

With joy you will draw water

from the wells of salvation.

In that day you will say:

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;

make known among the nations what he has done,

and proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;

let this be known to all the world.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

Wow.

2 Kings 1-2

Say hello to 2 Kings! Elijah and his apprentice Elisha were walking along and they stopped at 3 different places. At each one, a group of prophets said to Elisha, "do you know the the LORD is going to take your master from you today?"

He replied, "Yes, I know, but do not speak of it."

At the last stop, Jericho, 50 prophets stood and watched the two "Eli"s from afar. Elijah took off his cloak and smacked the Jordan river with it and it split in two. When I read this this time, it clicked that this was the same place that Israel had crossed the Jordan when they entered the promised land - and in the same way. Elijah asked Elisha, "What can I do for you before I am taken from you?"

"Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied.

"You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours - otherwise not."

I wonder if Elijah knew how he was going to "be taken". I wonder if God told him. I wonder if he was waiting to just die, like Moses did when God told him he would be taken. But he didn't die - God sent his express chariot to pick him up and take him to heaven in a whirlwind! Wouldn't it be cool to go that way?

1 Kings 22

Today was a interesting day in Kings!!! Ahab talked with Jehoshaphat the king of Judah (a good guy) and the two decided to go take Ramoth Gilead. But Jehoshaphat said, "First seek the council of the LORD." So Ahab shrugged and asked 400 prophets if they should go. The prophets all said, Go, for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."

In my Bible, when they are talking about the one true God, they use the name "LORD" in all caps. When the prophets said this, it said, "Lord" just like that. I looked in a different Bible, to see if maybe it was some sort of typo in my copy. But it was the same. Interesting I thought! What's even more interesting is that, looking around at all 400 of these prophets, Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here, whom we can inquire of?" And he said "LORD" with all caps. There is a difference!

Ahab replied, There is still one man through we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah."

"The king should not say that!" Jehoshaphat said, and called for Micaiah. But all these other prophets were still prophesying. One called Zedekiah made iron horns and declared, "This is what the LORD says: 'With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.'" Everybody else was saying the same thing. The messenger who was bringing Micaiah said to him, "Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs and speak favorably." When he got there, Ahab said, "Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

Micaiah said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.' " If I were king, I'd see that as a pretty juicy insult. And Ahab did, because he rolled his eyes and said to Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

Micaiah continued, "I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?'

"One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.'

" 'By what means?' the LORD asked.

" 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said.

" 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.'

"So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."

The Zedekiah, the loudest one that had predicted success, slapped Micaiah and said, "Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?" That sounds like a jeer.

Micaiah said, "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room." Whoa. I'll keep you updated on THAT one!!!!

Micaiah was thrown in prison, and Ahab rode out to war. I would've played it safe I think. Because guess what? God was right. Somebody randomly shot and arrow and killed Ahab. And the dogs licked up his blood, just like God had said.

Joshua 11-15

Whelp! It's Tuesday - which means Joshua day!!!! The Israelites are cleaning house, so they can go to the land that God promised them. Jabin, king of Hazor even showed up one day with an army as numerous as the sand on the seashore. But God told Joshua that He would hand them over to the Israelites. Sure enough, the Israelites surprised them and drove them out and no survivors were left!!! It's amazing how God can do things like that (BTW, does anyone know what it means to hamstring a horse?). In all they defeated 31 countries along with 31 kings. Whoa.

I know we all know Caleb. Good guy, and he's still alive through all this to see the Promised Land, just like God told him. One day he came to Joshua and reminded him of God's promise to them when they stood up for God after spying out the land. "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day." Joshua agreed, and Caleb, after years of wandering around and getting old with nothing but a promise to go off of, was finally settled in his land. The Israelites started to divide land, and this whole process reminds me a lot of moving in!

1 Kings 20-21

Ben-Hadad, king of Aram went up and besieged Samaria! Oh no! Then he sent a message to bargain with King Ahab. He said, "Your sliver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine." King Ahab readily agreed to the terms. Either Ben-Hadad was surprised that he agreed so quickly and thought maybe he hadn't charged enough, or he thought that Ahab was a sucker:P So he said, "I sent to demand your silver and gold, your wives and your children. But about this time tomorrow I am going to send my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. They will seize everything you value and carry it away."

So Ahab talked with the elders. They said, "Don't listen to him or agree to his demands." So Ahab refused Ben-Hadad. The king was then very angry and said, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful."

Ahab replied, "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off." Heehee! He was basically saying don't count your chickens before they hatch!!! So Ben-Hadad prepared his men to attack. But God told Ahab that he would deliver Israel - then he would know that the LORD is God. The Israelites routed the Arameans the first time. They said to each other, "Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they." Well! Problem solved!! Heehee that cracks me up!!! But God is a God of the plains as well, and the vast army was delivered into Israel's hand.

Some time later, Ahab got a real hankering to plant a vegetable garden. He just had to have some fresh tomatoes. So he went to a man named Naboth, who had land nearby that was just perfect to grow some cucumbers. When he asked to buy the land, Naboth said he wouldn't sell it, because it was the inheritance of his fathers. Ahab couldn't believe it. He sulked home and sucked his thumb and threw himself a pity party. His devil woman Jezebel said, "Oh, it's ok sweetie. I'll get you that land." She proclaimed a day of fasting (probably to "find out who had sinned against the LORD" sort of like they did with Achan.) and she told some scoundrels to say that Naboth cursed God and the king. They did so, and Naboth was stoned. Ahab giggled and got up to plant the seeds for those tomatoes. This whole situation sounds a lot like what David did with Bathsheeba - get rid of the opposition and get what you want. Who showed up in the David story next? Nathan. Who shows up this time? Elijah. He said to Ahab, "Have you not murdered a man and seized his property? This is what the LORD says: 'In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood - yes, yours!' " God also said that he would make his house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat (remember that sentence?) and that dogs would devour Jezebel. Then it said that "There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel." But when Ahab heard the prophecy, he put on sackcloth and fasted. Then God said to Elijah, "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son." What? After all the bad things Ahab did? And God is sparing him? Elijah was probably a tad disappointed. It seems like Ahab did too many bad things to just get cleared like that. It just goes to show that God is merciful beyond all we could ever imagine!!!

Romans 3-4

I really like Romans. Paul will really just tell you like it is, and cover a lot of ground. Today it talked a lot about faith. In chapter 3 it says: "What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar." I like that one. It's saying that even if we don't believe and expect that God can do the unthinkable, it doesn't change God's mind or immobilize Him in any way. Then it goes on: "But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument." Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" Why not say - as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say - "Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved." That's pretty self explanatory! We are NOT just cleared to sin.

A little bit later it started talking about Abraham. In Genesis 15:6 it says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Paul addressed that, saying, "When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." Later is says, "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Unlike, say, Zechariah who was mute for not believing when the angel told him he would have a son named John. God's hand is not too short to save - and it's up to us to believe.