turning back

Good evening friends,
Stephen has been reviewing Israel's story. Now he starts getting to a main point: Israel has often turned away from God and God's messengers. Moses provided faithful leadership, and God saved the people from slavery, but the people got scared and build a golden calf. The thing to remember as we read this part (and most of Acts) is that we Christians are just as bed at listening to God. It's often helpful to think about Israel or the Jewish leaders as Christian religious leaders or as you and me. Do the criticisms still fit? More often than I want to admit it, they fit me.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 7:39-46

³⁹Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ ⁴¹At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ⁴³No; you took along the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, ⁴⁶who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

Deborah judges Israel

Good evening sisters and brothers,
Judges is a book we don't read from often, but there are some great stories in it. The book takes place soon after the people of Israel came into the Promised Land. Joshua, who led them in has died and the book tells the stories of the struggles the new people had. It seems that the tribes had some organization, but the the nation wasn't really unified. Time and again the people turn away from God, often to the gods of the other inhabitants of the land. When they turn away God allows them to be defeated by their enemies for a time. Before long, God can't bear seeing them oppressed and raises up a leader, called a judge, to lead Israel back to faithfulness and to victory.

Tonight's reading begins the story of the only woman judge, a woman named Deborah. Deborah is also the only judge who also acted as a judge in the way we think of it. This passage tells us that she settled disputes for the people before becoming a leader in the political and military sense. It's an interesting story, so I hope you enjoy it.

God bless,
Sam


Judges 4: 1-9
The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. ²So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. ³Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years.

⁴At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. ⁵She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

⁶She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. ⁷I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’” ⁸Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Elijah on the run

Good evening friends,
We skip ahead quite a bit to the divided kingdoms of Israel (Northern Kingdom with Samaria as its capital) and Judah (Southern Kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital.) Ahab has become King of Israel and, along with his wife, Jezebel, has led Israel deeper into sin. The passage refers to Jezebel killing the Lord's prophets, but doesn't tell us that story. It seems that overall, Jezebel promoted the worship of another god, Baal, and persecuted those who worshiped the Lord. At the same time, many still worshiped the God of their ancestors.

The most famous prophet of that time was Elijah. He had prophesied a drought as a sign of God's anger for Israel's unfaithfulness. When we get to this passage, it has been more than three years since the last rain. We get a sense in this passage that Elijah spent much of his life on the run, fleeing from Ahab and other rulers upset by God's judgment. There are many great stories of the prophets from this part of scripture, and this is one of them.

God bless,
Sam

1 Kings 18:1-16

After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” ²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. ³Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah revered the Lord greatly; ⁴when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water.) ⁵Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” ⁶So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

⁷As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” ⁸He answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.” ⁹And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me? ¹⁰As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would require an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. ¹¹But now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.’ ¹²As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth. ¹³Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water? ¹⁴Yet now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here’; he will surely kill me.” ¹⁵Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” ¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

Judges

Good morning friends,
This is week 2 of the New Beginnings small groups. One group met after church on Sunday, another group meets at Pete and Laura Braggins' house at noon today, and two groups meet Wednesday, one at 5:30 at the church and one at 7 at Susan Orr's condo. I hope you can make one of them; it's good and important conversation.

Today's reading gives us the brief summary of the Book of Judges. Israel followed Joshua like they had followed Moses, and under his leadership they took possession of the promised land. After his death and the death of others in that generation, the problems God warned Israel about started to take place. The people became complacent, forgot God and worshiped other Gods. Throughout Judges the pattern repeats itself over and over: the people turn away to other gods, God allows them to be oppressed by other nations, God hears their cry and sends a "judge" to save them, the people follow God and the judge during his (or her) lifetime, but then abandon God again. How can we return to God today? How can we pass our faith down to our children?

God bless,
Sam

Judges 2:7, 10-19

⁷The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. …¹⁰Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

¹¹Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped the Baals; ¹²and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³They abandoned the Lord, and worshipped Baal and the Astartes.

¹⁴So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. ¹⁵Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring misfortune, as the Lord had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress. 

¹⁶Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them. ¹⁷Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord; they did not follow their example. ¹⁸Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them. ¹⁹But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.