Book of Judges

Judges 

Summary: 

It was a time of no king in Isreal. The promise land had been taken through war or compromise. The tribes had mingled with other religions, beliefs and peoples. The priesthood was weak and so where those who followed God. It is good to note that in these days Isreal was oppressed by other nation because of there sin. Prayers would rise to God for help and because of this God rose up Judges.

Things I Noticed:

1. The five lords of the Philistines. (They had five rulers. Is that like five great houses?)
2. Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. (So Caleb's nephew was a judge.)

3. Ehud... the Benjaminite, a left handed man. 

4. Has not the Lord God commanded you,

5. March on my soul, with might! 

6. Have they not found and divided the spoils?- A womb or two for everyman;

7. Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianites. (Is this cowardice or cleverness?)

8. Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am least in my farher's house. (God likes using the least.)

9.  He was too afraid of his family and men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. 

10. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all of Isreal whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. (Instead of leading his people to righteousness his ignorance lead them to a false priesthood and adultery.)

11. Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitue. (God use those who are shunned.)

12. Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. (A party of alcohol, food and who knows what else!?)

13. Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. 

14. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him...And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey...

15. Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitue, and he went in to her. (Samson has relations with a whore. What kinda of judge is he?)

16. The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bond him in bronze shackles. And he ground the mill in the prison. (It is ironic that his eyes which drew him into so much sin where taken by his enemy.)

17. Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him. (Sodomites said such things, this tells us the depravity of which the tribe of Benjamin had reached during this time.)

18. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. (This was wrong on both sides. The man giving up his lover to be raped and abuse rather then protect her.) 

19. In those days there was no king in Isreal. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 

The Journey this year has taken me to places where I could not get word out. I final gotten to a place where I can get word out to you my dear friends. Isaiah and I are still traveling together. I do know what else we will talk about next but this prophet is strange company. Till we meet again, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

Joshua

Joshua 

Summary: Moses is gone and Joshua son of Nun is left as leader. Caleb and Joshua are the only ones left who witnessed Egypt with their own eyes. The mantle of leadership has fallen to Joshua who trailed Moses around seeking to see God as he did. If standing in the shadow of Moses was not enough before the Israel laid the walls of Jericho and thirty-one kings with armies and lands promised to them by God. A daunting task for anyone and Joshua felt this weight. So as an spry eighty year old the Lord told Joshua "Be strong and courageous!" and that is where this story begins.

Things I Noticed:

1. Chase after my word and laws follow them sure footed like moses. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may act wisely and have good success wherever you go. 
2. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
3. Rahab a prostitute who had discernment, with deception and cunning saved her family from the sword by saving the spies of Israel.
4.  An overflowing river Jordan is held back by the Lord's hand and Israel passes over on dry land. The Jordan is a large river.
5. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” (If he came today would he look like a Spec-op soldier fully geared?)
6. It makes no sense that circling a wall for seven days with trumpets will cause walls to fall flat and prostrate outwards, rather then crumble or collapse. Yet, this is what God caused to happen at Jericho.
7. the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. (The Lord sent a meteor storm to smite and army. AMAZING.)
8. The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
9. And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.
10.  Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
11. And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. (More giants in the land of Israel.)
12. Joshua killed or hung 31 kings.
13. The Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

14. However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.
15.  For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.
16. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge
17. One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.


The Journey this year had been topsy-turvy as well as rough. I spent all day with Joshua in the murk of battle, the intrigue of Kings, and the hand of God moving. Isaiah and I are taking our times slowly with his strong visual prophecies and harsh words for Israel. I have had to remember to be strong and courageous as well as faithful. Till we meet again next year, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 

Summary: דְּבָרִים‎, Devarim, "These are the words..." more commonly known as Deuteronomy is my favorite book. Within this mighty tome spoken by Moses are a recap of the law, a recap of the history of there journey to the promised land, blessings, cursings and the Shema. The richness of this book continues to build up (edify) my faith upon every read through. It contains many verses Jesus used in his teaching, including the summation of the law. Here is the set up: it is the cusp of of Moses death, God has said no to his last plea to enter into the promised land, so Moses looks to make his last words a legacy. Here is what I found...

Things I Noticed:

1. We have seen the sons of the Anakim there. (The Anakim were giants of the Nephilim line of the sins reference in Genesis 6:4)

2. The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many and tall as the Anakim. Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

3. (Rephaim formerly lived there- but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim- a people great and many, tall as the Anakim.)

4. (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold his bed was a bed of iron...13ft  tall by 6ft wide.)

5. Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan... Enough of you; do not speak to me of this matter again. (Even Moses nagging could not change God's mind)

6. Only take care of your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. 

7. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

8. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[b] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (The Shema)
9. To fear the Lord our God, for our good always.
10. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

11. Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
12. As a man that disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
13. A people great and tall the sons of Anakim 
14. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to posses because your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. (That word stubborn also could be stiffnecked and obstinate.)
15. I command you today, to love the Lord God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. (The first great commandment.)
16. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes. (Sounds like America.)
17. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their Gods, for they even burn there sons and daughters in the fire to their Gods.
18. For the Lord you God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Don't I feel like this at the moment.)
19. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
20. If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
21. Therefore I command you, "You shall open wife your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land."
22. Freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord God blesses you.
23.  Justice and only justice, you shall follow. 
24. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
25. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
26. If the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken presumptuously.
27. Lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for and inheritance, and so the guilt of blood shed be upon you.
28. A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord God.
29. You shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. (That is God say make a toilet then cover your crap up.)
30. You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.
31. Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall say 'Amen.'
32. Cursed anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.
33. The Lord will cause your enemy who rise against you to be defeated before you.
34. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.
35. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down...if you do not turn aside from any of the words
36. I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have note worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
37.The secret things belong to the Lord our God. 
38. There is no God besides me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
39. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.  


The Journey has been rough recently. Isaiah never offers soft truths but strong lessons. Maybe as I continue on through this mirky valley Joshua can lighten me up. Just have to remember to be strong and courageous. Till we meet again, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

II Thessalonians

II Thessalonians 

Summary: The time will come full of deception and lawlessness (abandoning of God's word). A warning and a encouragement of That God will protect and repay justice this second letter to Thessaloniki if short and full of edification for the saints. My favorite part is the end time prophecy from Paul. Take a look at what I found:

Things I Noticed:

1. Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and grant relief to you who are afflicted.

2. That our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. For the day will not come, unless rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. (The end time will be herald by rebellion and the revelation of a leader who truly is divorced from all of God's law.)

4. For the mystery of the lawlessness is already at work. (Plans already in movement and being executed.)

5. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (He will be like a messiah with false miracles and stand against everything that the word calls Holy.)

6. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

7. The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 

8. Do not grow weary in doing good.

Deuteronomy is on the horizon and illuminates wisdom yet unreveiled to me. since my journey to find John will be long I also will be reading Isaiah's writtings. What better way to understand to understand the prophets thenbwith the first. The next length of my quest is led solely by the Spirit. What joys wait over the next hill and dale only God knows. Till we meet again, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

Numbers

Numbers

Summary: The priestly order has been set up and the tabernacle has been set up. The people move when God moves and rests when God rests. The begin their travel to Canaan. During this time the take a census, Korah rebels, Balaam services are bought to curse but he blesses instead and the spies make a bad report showing lack of faith. Numbers is full of great stories and dry counts of populace. Still God there is much to learn here. This is what I took out of it this round:

Things I Noticed:

1. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

2. And when you go to war in your land against the advesary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. 

3. The Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not." (God challenging Moses to have faith in his character.)

4. As soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. 

5. Would that all the Lord's people were prophet's that the Lord would put his Spirit on them! (The Spirit is on them his people now.)

6. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the Earth. 

7. The descendants of Anak, were there. (The Anakim where descendants of nephalim and thus giants.) 

8. And there we saw Nephilim (sons of Anak, who come from Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves as grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.

9. Freewill offering, grain offering, drink offering, wave offering, guilt offering, sin offering.

10. Behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.

11. You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

12. Then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. 

13. The angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. 

14. The wilderness of Zin. 

15. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. (This is the same Balaam whose donkey spoke to him.)

16. The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee.

17. The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgement. 

18. The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. 

19. Blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land or the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 

Numbers was great but Deuteronomy is my favorite bok of the Tanakh. i have one more letter to Thessaloniki and the I will travel long to find John. He has written about a revelation he has experienced and I hunger to read it. Still he is an allusive Apostle traveling to and fro so until I find him I think I will find solace in the major prophets. Till we meet again, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians

Summary: Thessaloniki a major trade city under the governing of the great Marc Anthony. Paul stopped here on his way to Athens for a few weeks. After leaving he was a bit worried about how the small church was fairing in the large trade city. Sending Timothy to check up Paul finds out there where a
few things he needed to address. This letter was the corrective guidance. This is what I discovered:

Things I Noticed:

1. Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in part and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. (The word comes with Conviction.)
2. So we speak not to please man, but to place God who tests our hearts.
3. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed-God is witness. (We do not come with slick gimmicks or promises.)
4. We worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. (They asked for no money or collection plate.)
5. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.
6. The Lord is an avenger. (Take that Iron Man.)
7. God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
8. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (Fallen Asleep means dead.)
9. That we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
10. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  (End time prophecy.)
11. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (What cost will that peace and security come at?)
12. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let use keep awake and be sober. (Let us not acts as if we are dead but alive and focused.)
13. Having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. (More armor something to compare to Ephesians.)
14. For God has not destined us for wrath.
15. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything: hold fast what is good. Abstain from every evil.

Taking the sights and sounds of Thessaloniki I will be here for a bit since. Number is still what I am meditating on. My birthday just passed and it was celebrated well with my wife. The next part of my Journey takes me to here so relax and enjoy with me.
Till we meet again, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.

Colossians

Colossians 

Summary: Colossae was quaint situated by a small river on the to Ephesus and south of Laodicea. The church here was not started by Paul but received letters from him none-the-less. It was in this town that some Pagan influence had found there way into the Christian practice specifically that of elemental spirits and angels. This letter goes on to encourage and defend Christ's divinity and ultimate authority. Take a look at what I found:

Things I Noticed:

1. Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
2. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but, now revealed to his saints.
3. Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (This is where I would put evolution as well as Gnosticism.)
5. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him.
6. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. (All these things Paul says don't let it disqualify you with I have seen in Catholicism. So do them, some do not. Just an observation.)
7. You died to the elemental spirits of this world.
8. Set you minds on things that are above,  not on things that are on earth.
9. Put to then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassions, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience... And above all these put on love.
10. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (The Lord's prayer referenced here.)
11. Wives, submit to your husband, as it is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
12. Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, least they become discouraged. (This is the second time Paul warns of provocation and children. I feel both warnings are ignored when a father abandons his children.)
13. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
14. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (This seems not to be practiced these days.)

As I sit next to the River here in Colosea I am reminded of Tulsa. I spent many days and afternoons staring at the river in Oklahoma. Here I was a bit more productive reading Numbers instead. My study of it is coming quickly to a close. The next part of my Journey takes me to Thessaloniki I will give you more of the Good News when I get there. Journey on my friends. Till we meet again
, Read up, Post up, and Shalom.