First Chronicles 10-12

God’s message to me: It is important to understand the times. Past, present and future come together to form a picture we can use to understand our place in the world and God’s will for us. We are not of this world but we are in it and we are expected to effect it for the better. We cannot hope to do that unless we understand and act on the times.

1) Stand up for what God’s word tells us.
2) Stand up for the principles that protect our rights to worship and to teach the truth.
3) Stand up for God’s chosen people Israel.
4) Stand against those who label sin as personal choice.
5) Stand against those who demand we accept their “personal choice”.
6) Stand against those who redefine Christianity and Godliness as accepting everyone regardless of evil.
7) Stand up for the truth of the Gospel.

In the past few years I have heard leaders tell us that religion is the source of evil, that man is the source of law, that government is the source of wisdom, that Israel is a racist and evil state, that the US Constitution is an impediment to government and that the government can ignore the rights of the people when it is in the governments best interest(that last one is a supreme court decision regarding campaign finance reform). I see the present. I understand the past and how the progressives led us into the evils of Eugenics and Socialism while pulling us away from God. I see the future in the pages of scripture and know that Christ will return within my own life expectancy.

Promises: God’s word will tell us what is coming and what to do about it if we simply read it. While current events in the US may not be precisely predicted in scripture, the scripture can still be applied. Through it we know when what our leaders are doing is leading us in opposition to God. We can also see when the path our country is taking is right, wrong or even leading towards the end times.

Commands: Understand God’s word. When Saul was killed and David was made king there was a period of strife in the land because of those who didn’t understand or refused to acknowledge the prophecy of Samuel. Saul had disobeyed God in his first major act as king and was doomed by God to lose the kingdom. David was raised up to be Saul’s replacement. Those who knew and understood God’s will in the matter joined him immediately. Those who failed to keep up with what was going on found themselves on the wrong side of God’s will.

Timeless principles: Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. The time of the Judges was a steady stream of Israelites repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The time of the kings was a steady stream of kings who followed God and kings who didn’t and history meaning nothing to most of them. Josiah learned history through the book of the law and mourned and prayed forgiveness for the sins of his fathers. Most kings served God or didn’t based on personality. Some would follow in their father’s footsteps while others did the opposite of their fathers. Few ever gave a glance at history or the idea of turning from God would scare them to death.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Understand the times. 1 Chronicles 12:32 mentions that members of the tribe of Issachar, that understood the times, came to make David king. God commands us in many places to understand the times and to understand prophecy so that we can be prepared. Like the men of Issachar that did not come, we will no be prepared to do the right thing and avoid the wrong actions if we don’t know what is happening and what God has to say about it.

more to learn for in-depth study: Keeping up with current events, understanding politics, knowing prophecy and learning history are all things people tend to avoid. Without and understanding of history you cannot hope to understand the present or to know the future. (those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it) Without understanding current events you will find the world passes you by. Without understanding politics you will find others control your life and you don’t even know why. Without understanding prophecy you will not know how the other 3 subjects apply to God’s plan and how you should react to what is happening and what is coming.

tomorrow: First Chronicles 13-16

First Kings 9-11

I fell behind again. Go figure

God’s message to me: It’s easy to lean on God when everything is going wrong and you feel you have no where else to turn. It’s also easy to forget where your loyalty should lie when everything is going right. When life is good and God’s blessings are overwhelming it is all the more important to remember Who provided your good life.

Promises: This portion describes all God did for Solomon. Solomon asked only for wisdom and because that is all he asked for he received wisdom greater than anyone before or since. He also received wealth and power as God had promised so that he was the richest and most powerful king in the world.

Commands: Do not turn from God. God had commanded that the Israelites not intermarry with the people of the surrounding nations and the nations that he was rejecting from the promised land because they would turn their hearts to false gods. Solomon took 700 wives and 300 concubines most of whom came from the nations they were not supposed to marry into.

To keep his wives happy he built temples and alters to the false gods they served and he worshiped those gods with them. This act against God resulted in the second half of God’s promise. The kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon’s 40 year reign and those who David and his generals had put down were the ones who came back and took over the portion that was not under control of the house of David. For the sake of His promise to David and His promise to place his name in the temple Jerusalem and the territory it was in remained under control of David’s decedents.

Timeless principles: The greatest blessing can lead to the greatest fall. Solomon had it all, literally. He had more power, wealth and wisdom than anyone. He got to comfortable in it and turned from God who had given it to him. He sacrificed the future for the pleasures of today.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: “it’s not hurting anybody” is not an excuse. Doing the right thing is required even if the wrong thing doesn’t seem to do any harm. We answer to God in the end and He judges on whether we followed His law, not on whether others liked us, not on how successful we were and not on whether we did something that didn’t hurt anyone.

more to learn for in-depth study: The book of the acts of Solomon is yet another reference to a book that is not found in the bible. Many books of Jewish history are mentioned throughout scripture. They are not scripture but historical reference. Some can be found in the Talmud and other works of significance to the Jewish faith and might prove useful to historical interest. They should not; however, serve as a replacement to scriptures. The bible is the divinely inspired word of God and is meant to provide us with all we need to know in order to serve Him. While other books are of interest to learn of the times in which biblical events occurred they are merely historical reference and not religious guidance. The books of the Apocrypha found in the Catholic bible are such documents. The Rabbis who provided the original document later translated into our modern bibles specified that these books were not seen as or treated as scripture which is why the translators of bibles used by most of the protestant faiths did not include them. Following the tradition of separating scripture from reference they left these books out of the bible so that the bible would remain purely the word of God.

tomorrow: First Kings 12-13

First Kings 1

God’s message to me: We must act on God’s will and remember that we are either sheltered by his will or overcome by it. Adonijah was the little brother of Absalom and even had the same mother but didn’t learn anything from his big brothers foolishness. As David was growing to old to be effective Adonijah convinced many in leadership to follow him and invited them to a feast and sacrifice to make him king. He didn’t invite the prophet, the priest or any others who knew that God had planned to place Solomon in power and he sought to reinforce his position so that Solomon couldn’t take the throne after David’s death.

David failed to correct Adonijah. He simply ignored his foolishness until Adonijah was celebrating his being made king.

Promises: God will not be subverted. He intended Solomon to be king and none who attempted to take the throne from him succeeded.

Commands: Do not attempt to undermine God’s will. Adonijah knew full well that God and David intended Solomon to be the next king. Because he knew this he was careful not to include Solomon or any of the people involved in choosing Solomon as the successor to celebrate and make him king. He thought he could get around the issue by reinforcing his position enough to get everyone else behind him before Solomon could be named. Once in power he could easily overcome them all. God ensured that his treachery was found out and undermined before he could get a following and so those who had come to help him become king abandoned him and left him in fear that Solomon would kill him for treason.

Timeless principles: The surest way to get a power-hungry person to go to far is to not stop him when he is starting out. Adonijah and his brother Absalom could have both been dealt with when they first started making trouble and a great deal of pain would have been averted. David failed to discipline his sons and to correct their improper behavior resulting in long term trouble.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Don’t sit still and quiet when you see trouble coming.

Allow me to demonstrate at the risk of offending some who read this. This country is heading down a road of pain because we have allowed our leaders to get away with to much. As a result of our failure to reign them in when they first started overreaching their authority, we now have a government who believes they have the authority to:

Remove the CEO of a private company from his job.
Appoint their own people to run private companies.
Confiscate the earnings of private individuals without due process or cause.
Tell private citizens what they can buy and how much of it they can buy.
Punish private individuals for being successful.

let’s skip past the political and move on to security.

Threaten God’s chosen people if they defend themselves.
Sanction God’s chosen people for defending themselves.
Force God’s chosen people to bow to those who wish their destruction.
Demand God’s chosen people give up part of the land Promised to them by God to people who want to destroy them.

Do I really need to continue?

Bless Israel, Be blessed. Curse/oppress Israel and face destruction. The bible is extraordinarily clear on this matter. We have given over the running of our nation to a group of people who will use our resources and power to undermine Israel, tear down our Judeao-Christian values, weaken our defenses and empower the enemies of the United States, Israel and God and the only reason they have been able to gain the power to do this is because we didn’t stop them. The constitution doesn’t grant the power they are wielding. The constitution forbids them from having most of these abilities and yet, when they took that power for themselves and admitted, “it’s a violation of the constitution but the government needs to have the power anyway”, no one stopped them. Now we will pay the price.

Don’t believe me? Look at the history, The great depression and WWII came after we backed the idea of Eugenics which declared Jews were subhuman and a drain on society. The recession and problems of the late 1970’s including the Iran Hostage Crises came after the United States demanded that Israel trade land for peace. Clinton tried to make similar demands without the full backing of the legislature and the personal cost could be seen in the constant cloud of legal scandals over his administration. As former president Bush and current President Obama continued to pursue more and more strenuous actions to force land for peace and “2 state solutions” on God’s chosen people we have dipped into one of the worst recessions in decades, had a US Cargo ship captured by pirates and slipped quickly into the anarchy we haven’t seen since 1979.

See a problem? Fight the problem. If you don’t, you can count on the problem to get a lot bigger until your forced to confront it at much greater cost.

tomorrow: First Kings 2-4

Deuteronomy 29-31

God’s message to me: God never goes back on His word. Even when the Israelites rebelled against His law, and were sent into captivity in foreign lands as punishment, falling victim to the curses we have read, God’s promise was to return them to their inheritance. When Israel was broken apart in the first century under Roman rule it’s people were scattered to the ends of the earth for nearly 2000 years. In 1948 their homeland was restored and their nation reborn. Since then God has been fulfilling His promise to gather them from the ends of the earth and return them to their home.

Promises: God has made many promises and never, Never, NEVER, failed to fulfill even one. It is impossible to ever lose that which God has promised you because, even though He will chasten and correct us when we are wrong, God is incapable of ever reneging on His word.

Commands: Follow God’s commands that you may live under the blessings and have the curses applied to your enemies.

Timeless principles: Deuteronomy 31:9-11 “So Moses wroth this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.”

Not only was the record a written record, it was kept on record and, at appointed times, including the Feast of Tabernacles which is a yearly celebration, the record had to be READ(as in looked at in a book and quoted directly from the page) to all the people.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Bless the people of Israel, Love the land of God’s people, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, stand united with God and with His people against all who would take from them the land that God Promised them as an eternal inheritance.

more to learn for in-depth study: God made a habit of reminding people of the past. One of the political complaints in the United States is that the collective memory is so short. People gloss over the past after only a couple of years and sometimes in a matter of months. The good and the bad are both forgotten in favor of the new. We just don’t seem to learn from history. The Israelites weren’t much different.

In spite of all the miracles they had witnessed the Israelites kept losing faith and turning from God. Through Moses, God kept reminding them of what they had seen. Just as Moses reminded Israel of the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the sea and drowning of Pharaohs army in that sea, the manna, the water from the rocks, the clothes that never wore out and many more miracles the Israelites took for granted, the Apostles had a reminder job of their own. Throughout the New Testament they told of the miracles of Jesus and reminded their audiences that, many of the people listening to the story had seen the events as well. When historians and legal scholars judge the New Testament, they find this evidence most compelling: When speaking of the resurrection and the times Christ was seen after it, the Apostles always mentioned that the audience, also, had been witness to the events. NO ONE Ever denied it. Given all the times they challenged people to remember what they had seen for themselves it is amazing that no one ever tried to claim that any of the miracles of Christ, particularly the resurrection, didn’t happen. The only conclusion available is that there were enough eyewitnesses to put down any dissent. In fact there are over 500 written affidavits attesting to having seen Jesus after he rose from the grave. It’s enough that, Simon Greenleaf, the creator of our rules of evidence for the United States and founder of the Harvard School of Law, wrote that the testimony of the witnesses alone was sufficient to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, the validity of the New Testament record.

Given the evidence before us it should be impossible to lose faith or fall away from following God. Our memory is short and we fail anyway. Even Moses, who regularly spoke to God and heard God’s voice directly in reply, occasionally worried that things would not work out because, he forgot the power of God. We all need occasional reminders.

tomorrow: Deuteronomy 32-32

Leviticus chapter 7-9

God’s message to me: Giving to the Lord is not just an obligation but can also be a celebration.

Promises: God will reveal himself and show us His Great pleasure when we do all He commands.

Commands: Never do something halfway for God. If your doing it for His service be careful to complete every detail. In the New Testament we are told we should always work as if we were working for God. This work ethic, if applied, results in a thoroughness and dedication to our jobs that not only pleases God but brings Him glory by letting Him shine through us. People should see Christians as a cut above the rest and willing to go the extra mile. They should prefer Christians employees because Christians do a better job.

WARNING: I can say from personal experience this leads to being a workaholic. Work should never outrank your service to God and obedience to Him. You still need church. You still need your day of rest.
Working as to God never means ignoring His command.

Timeless principles: The price of sin is quite high.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Tithing is our duty. Some give offerings out of a sense of obligation. Giving out of our abundance and in celebration is pleasing to the Lord as well.

more to learn for in-depth study: “Unclean” is a biblical concept that ranges from simple laws to protect against disease to the need to avoid sin by avoiding those who, unrepentantly wallow in it. The main definition was applied to things which were not Kosher and things which were ritually unclean. Kosher laws were primarily to protect against illness. They made a great deal of sense and still do. By the time God presented the Apostle Peter with non-Kosher foods and told him it was alright to eat them, the practices of farming, food preparation and food preservation had become much more modernized. The Romans invented canning and made great strides in anti-microbial preparations. Ritually unclean things are a matter of Israel’s law. It is wise to take caution with these things but not necessary to avoid them. Some are unavoidable anyway. Someone has to tend to the dead, for example. Someone has to clean up after the livestock too. None of us would think it wise to do either without taking precautions against disease.

Fun Facts: The animal hides(for leather goods)belonged to the priest who offered the sacrifice. The only time leaven was offered with the sacrifices was in a thanksgiving sacrifice which was a celebration. When part of an offering was to be eaten it had to be finished the day of the offering. Leftovers were to be burned up. The one exception was if the sacrifice was voluntary(not part of some defined offering) or part of a vow. In that case it could be eaten on the next day as well but nothing remained for 3 days or it was burned.

Tomorrows assignment: Leviticus chapter 10-12

Genesis Chapters 9-12

God's message to me: God does not forget His own, even when He is angry.

Promises: Animals fear man naturally, not the other way around. Vegetable or animal it is there for food for man. The Rainbow is God's sign that the rain will not become a worldwide killer flood.

Commands: Be fruitful and multiply is God's most basic command and repeated several times in the bible. Twice in this passage. Population control is not our job and overpopulation is not our problem. Never eat blood-there is a reason the idea of doing it grosses most of us out. If man shed's man's blood by man shall his blood be spilled. Capital punishment was one of God's earliest commands and one of the earliest punishments mentioned in the bible going back to Cain, who was spared from it by God's mercy.

Timeless principles: God's wrath never outweighs His love and justice. Even finding only one man on earth who still followed his law, He spared the life of that man and his family.

How can I apply what I've learned: Wait for God's timing but don't hesitate when He says it's time. Noah was 500 years old when he started building the ark and he and his sons spent nearly 100 years doing it before the flood came. Even when he could tell that the flood was gone and much of the land was dry he did not leave the ark until God said to.

More to learn for in depth study: There is to much to cover simply and, frankly, I'm still breaking it down. I'll cover it in a second entry later today. This passage covers a lot of ancestry explaining the origins of many ancient cultures. Some, like the Assyrians, you may have studied in high school. Most of them play roles in the later history of the old testament and knowing their origins can help you understand the reason for some things then and even now. The middle east is the focus of end times prophecy and the cultures involved have been established since the flood. Babylon was built and ruled by Nimrod and the nations founded in this passage still exist throughout the region.