I am just amazed at the bloodshed in 1 Kings 8. I have no idea how so many animals could be sacrificed.

1Kings 8:62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.1Kings 8:63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD.

It sounds like all Israel sacrificed in addition to King Solomon. The if you read 8:5 there were many more.

1Kings 8:5 and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

If they could count "twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats," how many animals had to have been sacrificed to be uncountable?

I'm not saying I think that it is wrong, obviously it is what God demanded. I just don't understand how that many animals could be killed and I assume burned as offerings. Where would all the blood go?

2Sam. 12:1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2Sam. 12:2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
2Sam. 12:3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
2Sam. 12:4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
2Sam. 12:5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
2Sam. 12:6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
2Sam. 12:7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
2Sam. 12:8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
2Sam. 12:9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
2Sam. 12:10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
2Sam. 12:11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
2Sam. 12:12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
2Sam. 12:13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

In 2 Samuel 12, God sent Nathan to confront David with his sin. It must have been really hard to tell a king as powerful as David these things. Nathan was wise in the way that he approached David. He gave him a parable that described exactly what David had done. David agreed that it was wrong.

If David had not been a man of God and recognized his sin, he could have had Nathan killed. It took much faith on Nathans part to rebuke him.

I pray that as I enter the ministry, when I am called to confront difficult situations, I can show the courage and wisdom that Nathan had.

Joshua 7:19-21, 25-26
19 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, tell the truth. Confess to the Lord, the God of Israel. Tell me what you did, and don't try to hide anything from me."
20 Achan answered, "It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I did:
21 Among the things I saw was a beautiful coat from Babylonia and about five pounds of silver and more than one and one-fourth pounds of gold. I wanted these things very much for myself, so I took them. You will find them buried in the ground under my tent, with the silver underneath."

25 Joshua said, "I don't know why you caused so much trouble for us, but now the Lord will bring trouble to you." Then all the people threw stones at Achan and his family until they died. Then the people burned them.
26 They piled rocks over Achan's body, and they are still there today. That is why it is called the Valley of Trouble. After this the Lord was no longer angry.

Achan caused God to be angry at all of Israel. He had given specific instructions to not take any of the spoils of war. Achan apparently did not think this applied to himself.

How many times in today's world do we see people committing sins, publicly admitting it and then continuing on with life as if nothing had happened? I am amazed that Achen felt convicted enough to admit his wrong doing and was still stoned. What if that were to happen today? What if we stoned those in public office who admitted that they had done unspeakable things? Would there be less sin? Would people take God's commands more seriously, or would they try even harder to not have to confess?


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I love the clues to Jesus' arrival and ministry in the Old Testament. I find it interesting that God is using us to make the Jews jealous. What I don't understand is how this impacts Jews today. Are they jealous of us now, in the past or in the future? Will this make a difference and bring Jews to salvation?

Deuteronomy 32:21
21 They used things that are not gods to make me jealous and worthless idols to make me angry. So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous; I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.

Romans 10:14-21
14 But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them;
15 and before someone can go and tell them, that person must be sent. It is written, "How beautiful is the person who comes to bring good news."
16 But not all the Jews accepted the good news. Isaiah said, "Lord, who believed what we told them?"
17 So faith comes from hearing the Good News, and people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.
18 But I ask: Didn't people hear the Good News? Yes, they heard—as the Scripture says:
"Their message went out through all the world;
their words go everywhere on earth." — Psalm 19:4
19 Again I ask: Didn't the people of Israel understand? Yes, they did understand.
First, Moses says:
"I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous.
I will use a nation that does not understand to make you angry." — Deuteronomy 32:21
20 Then Isaiah is bold enough to say:
"I was found by those who were not asking me for help.
I made myself known to people who were not looking for me." — Isaiah 65:1
21 But about Israel God says,
"All day long I stood ready to accept
people who disobey and are stubborn." — Isaiah 65:2

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In Exodus 13-40, the Israelites were protected by a cloud that they followed. When it moved, they moved; when it stopped, they stopped. Later on, they questioned God even after they had followed the cloud by faith. It shouldn't really be a surprise to us though. How many times has God shown Himself faithful to us, yet we constantly question Him. I know I do.

When I received my calling into the ministry, I felt really close to God. Now that I am into the work of preparing for that ministry, I find that I have moved away from Him a little bit. It's quite easy to do when you have so many "irons in the fire." By moving away from Him, I find myself questioning Him, His intentions, His plan.

I need to stop; realize that He hasn't changed one bit from the God who called me. I'm just so busy with "His" work that MY perspective has changed.

If He was faithful before, He is faithful now. If I was called before, I am called now.

Hebrews 12:1
We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.

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Numbers 14:1-4, 26-27
1 That night all the people in the camp began crying loudly.
2 All the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, and all the people said to them, "We wish we had died in Egypt or in this desert.
3 Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to be killed with swords? Our wives and children will be taken away. We would be better off going back to Egypt."
4 They said to each other, "Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
27 "How long will these evil people complain about me? I have heard the grumbling and complaining of these Israelites."

And then He described His punishment for them.

Notice that the Israelites did not complain directly about God. They wished they had died in Egypt or in the desert. They thought they would be killed by swords in the land God had brought them to. They thought their wives and children would be taken away. They thought they would be better off going back to Egypt. God took this as an affront to Himself.

How often do we say things that offend God? How often do we complain about worship services that don't meet our taste? How often do we ask if God has called us into ministry, how we are going to pay for school?

We don't have to complain directly about God to offend Him. What if God punished us for our offenses as He punished the Israelites?


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I find Leviticus 26:39-42 interesting.

Leviticus 26:39-42
39 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers’ sins they will waste away.
40 ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers—their treachery against me and their hostility toward me,
41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,
42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

We see over and over again, that the sins of the father are carried on to the next generation.

2 Kings 21:20-21
20 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.
21 He walked in all the ways of his father; he worshiped the idols his father had worshiped, and bowed down to them.

2 Kings 23:32,37
32 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
37 And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.

2 Kings 24:9
9 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done.

In some rare cases, righteous fathers were also followed:

2 Kings 15:34
34 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done.

Now God commanded that sons not be put to death for the acts of their fathers:

2 Chronicles 25:4
4 Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sins.”

But according to Leviticus 26:40, we owe it to God to confess our father's sins to him and repent. I do not believe that this means that by confessing our father's sins, they will be forgiven, but that we will free ourselves from a past that we had no control over. We recognize the shortcomings of our family history and acknowledge the mistakes. We try to eliminate the pride associated with our heritage in order to prevent ourselves from repeating those same mistakes and claim the promises of God's mercy on our lives.

I pray that I will have the wisdom to recognize the sins of my father's, to ask for forgiveness of them and turn from those ways, that I may be a better servant of the LORD.


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Edodus 4
24 As Moses was on his way to Egypt, he stopped at a resting place for the night. The Lord met him there and tried to kill him.
25 But Zipporah took a flint knife and circumcised her son. Taking the skin, she touched Moses' feet with it and said to him, "You are a bridegroom of blood to me."
26 She said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because she had to circumcise her son. So the Lord let Moses alone.

I noticed this for the first time today and it really surprised me.

It's pretty scary that God would want to kill one of the main characters of the Old Testament before he completed God's assignment. I guess it shows again, that God doesn't need any of us. We should constantly thank Him for His mercy and grace. We had better take seriously any covenant between ourselves and God.

References:
Exodus 4:24-26
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The story of Moses' calling to speak for God has a special meaning for me.

I have always been somewhat of a computer geek. When I first felt a calling to go into ministry, I wondered if I would be a part of a "media ministry" somewhere. The funny thing is, the further I went into discerning the call, the more I realized that I feel called to preach the gospel.

I identify with Moses, because I don't feel like a talented speaker. Moses tried everything he could to get away from it.

"What if the people of Israel do not believe me or listen to me? What if they say, 'the Lord did not appear to you'?" he said.

"Please, Lord, I have never been a skilled speaker. Even now, after talking to you, I cannot speak well. I speak slowly and can't find the best words."

Then the Lord said to him,"Who made a person's mouth? And who makes someone deaf or not able to speak? Or who gives a person sight or blindness? It is I, the Lord. Now go! I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say."

God doesn't promise him that he will instantly be a great speaker. He promises him that he will teach him what to say.

That should give us all hope that when it appears that God doesn't instantly grant us the ability to do what He has asked of us, maybe He is teaching us.

I've heard it said that God doesn't need you for your strengths. He wants you for your weaknesses, so that His glory can shine through you. I believe this now more than ever and can't wait to see what He has in store for my "weaknesses."


References:
Exodus 4:1, 10-12
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One of the things that I have learned from the story of Abraham is that God is a God of chances. Abraham showed a lack of faith on several occasions, but when he came back, God always forgave him and blessed him.

In Chapter 12, God tells Abram, "leave your country, your relatives, and your father's family and go to the land I will show you." It seemed as if Abram would do as God instructed, but he didn't. He "went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food." He then sold his wife to the king for "sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels." The Lord was looking out for him though and sent disease on the king and his people to allow Abram to escape.

God then proceeded to promise Abram that his descendants would be too many to count.

"Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abram's faith, and that faith made him right with God."

Again, Abram lost his faith and proceeded to have sex with his wife's servant to have the first of the descendants that God promised him. Did he not believe that God would provide?

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. All things will be possible for you."

Abrams faith must have been the size of a mustard seed, because he was saved through it and God was true to His word and blessed Abram as Abraham. Through God's belief in him, Abram became the man of faith God claimed him to be.


References:
Genesis 12:10
Genesis 12:16
Genesis 15:6
Matthew 17:20

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I am just starting "my" ministry and already I struggle with thinking in terms of "what is God's plan for His kingdom or His church" rather than "what is God's plan for my life and ministry." I pray that I will always keep Him first and foremost.

This brings me to a thought I recently had about the New Testament. Instead of reading about the actions in terms of who they are happening to, I'm trying to read it in terms of it's impact on Jesus.

Traditionally, I have thought about Peter denying Jesus and thought about how bad Peter felt afterwards. Now I think more about the impact it had on Jesus. He was in His last days, and one of His most trusted friends denied Him. If He hadn't already told Peter about it, can you imagine the shock it would have been to Him? I'm sure it still was very hurtful to Him, and served to make Him even more human.

Another aspect that I thought about was when Jesus was on the cross, and He told John to take care of His mother. Again, being God, He knew she would be ok, but the human side of Him must had been in agony knowing that His mother was losing her first born son. I can only imagine seeing the hurt on your parents face and knowing that it must happen that way.

Reading it from God's perspective instead of a human perspective has given me new insight into what it's all about.

I know these New Testament thoughts have been off topic, but I needed to share that. After all, it's all about JESUS.


Lord, I pray that "my" ministry is truly yours. I pray that you will keep all of us humble and that we will never lose track that all glory belongs to you.

I've always had a problem reconciling the Genesis account of creation to science and to itself.

My pastor and I had a conversation recently regarding the apparent contradiction between the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 accounts of creation.

He pointed out that in Genesis 1, the word for God is "elohim" which means just "God." In Genesis 2, the words are "yhwh elohim" which means "Lord God," signifying a more personal view of God.



So, I take it to mean that Genesis 1 is the big picture, whereas Genesis 2 is the beginning of the real story of God's desire for a personal relationship with mankind.

As far as science goes, I think that we run the risk of losing the very purpose of the Bible when we try to use it as a science text book.
I read the other day from a book published in the 1930's about the reason that the Earth was shown as being created before the sun in Genesis. Many religions of the day worshiped the sun and stars. God wanted us to understand that mankind was the center of His creation. The easiest way to express that was to place that first in the story of creation. The sun and stars came along later to serve a purpose for man.

An important theological point that is lost when you try to view the Genesis creation story from a scientific viewpoint.

That being said, we can't "compartmentalize" our lives. Everything must point back to God. When science/culture/poltics/psychology/etc. disagree with the Bible, God's Word must take precedent.

I do think however, that there are so many holes in the creation story of Genesis that it makes me question how literal it is meant to be taken.

Chapters one and two do not agree with each other.

Based on a literal interpretation, the Catholic Church once thought that the Earth was the center of the universe. That has been proven false.

There is no mention of other planets or their moons, yet they exist.

In Gen 4:14, Abel says,

“Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Who are these people? This is the first mention of anyone other than Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel.


I say these things not to say that the Bible is wrong. I say them to prove that there are too many things that we don't know (and will never know in this life) about the creation to make it such an "important" aspect of our theology.

I have a very scientific minded friend who couldn't get over these issues. Not the Bible, but people telling him he had to believe the whole Bible literally or believe none of it was a huge stumbling block for him. It took the literal voice of Jesus to bring him to salvation. Since that time, he glosses over the creation issue and will not discuss it with anyone. The only thing that matters is that Christ spoke to him and he is now saved.

I believe the real purpose of Genesis is to make these points:
1. God is the creator of everything in existence.
2. Mankind is the center of that creation.
3. From the beginning, God has given mankind freewill, which has been used by man to try to become as gods.
4. God knew this outcome and planned for the sacrifice of His Son for our salvation.


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I noticed that in Gen. 3:3, Eve mistakenly tells Satan that they were not to eat of the tree, nor even touch the tree for they would surely die.

3 But God told us, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.' "

In Gen. 2:16, where God gave the command to Adam, He said nothing about just touching the tree.

16 The Lord God commanded him, "You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden,
17 but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!"

It seems that God expected Adam to communicate this command to Eve, as she had not been created yet, and he failed.

Is this an example of how man, even from the beginning, has not really understood his role as spiritual leader?

Some have said to me that at least Eve knew what God had said, even if she took it one step further; but expanding on God's law may be part of what kept them from being able to keep the law.

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12 Those who have understanding will be given more, and they will have all they need. But those who do not have understanding, even what they have will be taken away from them.

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11 I say this because I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.
12 Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!