1 Chronicles - Making history

Well...we've pretty much been through the entire Biblical story by the time we get to Chronicles. Starting in Chronicles the writers begin to re-tell the story...with changes. One thing we learn as we read the entire Bible is that it rarely likes to tell a story only once. Instead, it retells it again and again in a number of variations. Rather than spending lots of time and energy trying to "harmonize" all these versions of stories, we should ask ourselves what message God is telling us through these multiple tellings. Maybe, any story is impossible to tell in only one way. Maybe the only way to be truthful about something is it look at it from a number of different angles. What does this say about our own lives and how we should look at ourselves? Maybe it's always helpful to get multiple perspectives on how to perceive ourselves. As you read through the re-tellings in the rest of the Old Testament...look for what's new in the story. How is it shedding new and different light on the same old thing?

1 Kings - Peer Pressure

In chapter 22 of 1 Kings, the kings of the northern and southern kingdoms are cooperating, miraculously, but they shop around until they find a preacher who will tell them what they want to hear. Of course, in those days, a preacher who didn't preach the right sermon to the king might have found himself floating upside down in the river. Rev. Micaiah resists peer pressure and gives the kings the bad news and no one is very happy about it except God who is glad that at least one person is listening to him. Do you find it difficult to hear God when God isn't saying what you want to hear? Yikes...

2 Samuel - Power and Presence

I used to think the "Sopranos" on HBO was about as violent and vindictive as you could get, but that was before reading about bloody general Joab who is constantly tossing someone's head over a wall or impaling them with a spear, or Solomon's favorite "hit man," Benaiah. All of these stories make me wonder whether or not it's possible to have human power and to trust in God. Does our sense of personal power get in the way of trusting God's power? David and Solomon seem to balance the two somewhat successfully with some notable exceptions. But on the whole, it seems like a pretty shaky alliance. Are all of these stories just supposed to cure us of our desires to reach the top? What does it mean to, "Be all you can be"?

1 & 2 Samuel - War

In 1 Samuel, young David seems to be able to do no wrong. Like the book of Joshua, he seems to have the Midas touch in all his battles. But then along comes 2 Samuel and suddenly things seem so much more .... complicated. His relationship with Saul and especially Saul's son, Jonathan, are full of irony and sadness. David must negotiate the troubled waters of being both friend and enemy. Soon, the bodies start piling up. You can't get involved in a cycle of violence without it coming back and affecting you. At one point, when David's relentlessly "hawkish" general Joab is pursuing the enemy general Abner, Abner says to him, "Is the sword to keep devouring forever?" Isn't this what happens? Violent means to our ends wind up bringing nothing but sadness. David loses his best friend ever - his soul mate. David's own life begins to lose its pristine luster.