900 years of the history of Israel

Yesterday I woke up at 6am, made breakfast and my standard french press of coffee. Then I made my way to Starbucks, opened up my computer and my Bible, drank yet more coffee and made my way through most of the book of 2 Kings over the next twelve hours. I find on days like yesterday, I finally wind down the work and walk away with what I am sure is a scientific term: SBS coma. Wow. it takes about an hour or so to snap back to reality and have a conversation with real human beings.

This next week we will finish the book of Chronicles so since I last posted, the Israelites have just made it in the promised land, they did a lot of really stupid things and turned away from the Lord again and again in the book of Judges. Ruth shines as a bright light in the midst of the Judges and leads us to King David who appears on the scene in 1&2 Samuel and then everyone who comes after him is measured up to his standard (and fails) throughout the times of the kings of Israel and Judah. So there is about 900 years of the history of Israel in just over 3 weeks. Whew.

So, in effort to keep up with writing about the books I'm studying, here we go.....
Judges
This was quite the difficult book. At the end of it I just felt....well, really sad. Joshua was such a book of hope and promise and it all comes crashing down in Judges. There are some decent people that God uses (aka Deborah) but then you have some real characters like Samson who you just want to smack across the face and tell him to take a cold shower! What struck me is that Judges reveals the real side of humanity. Without the grace of God, without his standard of goodness and his moral law, humanity would spiral further and further into its own sin. The Bible has caused me to see how prone to sin humanity is, and then I turn that mirror upon myself and realize, yep. That's me too. It's been a good reality to face because a lot of times I think I'm pretty awesome. So, to bring some good ol' embarrassment into my life, I thought I'd also post the skit that my group did for the book of Judges. We got assigned our classmates and portions of scripture and my group ended up with Deborah....guess how played Deborah?

Ruth
The book of Ruth occurs during the time of the Judges. When humanity is wrecking havoc in their own sin, Ruth and Boaz and Naomi arise as a bit of a light in the darkness. An interesting study for you if you are so inclined is to look at the character traits of all three, a little character study if you will. And Ruth shows how the line of David came....which as we all know, is also the line of Jesus.

1&2 Samuel
We study these as one book because they were written as one book, just divided on two scrolls, when they were first written. Samuel focuses on the lives of Samuel, Saul and David, and then a bit on David's son Absalom (And as a side note, I'd recommend the book Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards for those of you who have not read it). A major contrast and lesson that runs through the book of Samuel is the fear of man vs. the fear of God. Saul embodies the fear of man, lives and even dies by it. David continues to walk in the fear of the Lord time and time again. Throughout this book, it held the mirror up to my own soul and I can see the fear of man so much in me. I make decisions based on what others think, I view myself in comparison to others, I like my strengths and try to hide my weaknesses. Saul peeled back a lot of my layers this week of study. Another thing I'm always impressed with in King David, is his willingness to bring people around him and to encourage them and see them grow into leaders. I get a kick out of the four hundred men who gather around him in a cave while he's on the run who are in distress, in debt, and bitter in soul in the cave of Adullam. Then at the end of Samuel you have a list of David's mighty men and their exploits and their bravery. God can use the least likely people to do some great things for the Lord. There is hope for all of us yet.

So, folks there you have it. I'll get to Kings and Chronicles next weekend when we begin our second break! I'm looking forward to some time to relax, hang out with friends, get some good nights of sleep in, and maybe try to see some new things, besides the classroom and my Bible, as thankful for both of those as I am.