Old Testament Archives - Page 113 of 142

Ahab and Naboth

Joe Harby on July 21, 2013

The Text: 1 Kings 21

1-3 Naboth’s Vineyard

Although the capitol of Israel was Samaria, and this is where Ahab’s palace was, Ahab established what was essentially a summer home in Jezreel. The city overlooked the valley of Jezreel and was known for breathtaking views to the northeast, towards Syria. As Ahab looked to establish his connection with Ben Hadad, it made sense for him to develop an opulent estate in Jezreel. Ahab’s family became quite attached to this palace. It is here that Jezebel will be later thrown from the window (2 Kings 9:30-37). And it is here that Jehu will slaughter Ahab’s seventy sons (2 Kings 10:1-11).

Naboth had a vineyard here, just next door to Ahab’s palace. And Ahab began coveting the land for his own. Selling to Ahab was prohibited (Num. 36:7, Lev. 25:23), which is why Naboth refuses to sell.

4 Sullen and Displeased

The two words here describe both stubbornness and ill-temper. It takes two ingredients to create a good sulk. You have to be displeased with the situation and you have to refuse to get over it. A real estate deal gone bad is a great picture of what this looks like. We always see so much potential in the opportunities that are just out of our reach. And our inability to let go of these things can put us into a funk.

5-7 Enter Jezebel

Jezebel’s statement to Ahab is dripping with irony. Is it Ahab or is it Jezebel that exercises authority over all Israel? The relationship between Ahab and his wife is such a striking picture of a very particular and very common kind of manipulation that it is worth taking a moment to examine.

First, men frequently have very fragile egos. This can be good because it drives them to achievement. But it can be bad because it makes them so susceptible to manipulation. Nothing is easier to control than a man whose insecurities are obvious. Be careful, men, about what whispers you let yourself hear. In particular, the claim that your greatness is being neglected or insufficiently rewarded is poison to your soul.

Second, women who have found this button to push can get anything they want out of their husbands, but they make their marriages miserable. Wives, do you fuel contentment or discontent in your husband? How many women tell themselves that they are being Abigail when they are actually being Jezebel.

8-16 Proclaim the Fast

Jezebel orders two sons of Belial to accuse Naboth at a fast. A fast is a strategic moment for making an accusation against Naboth because suspicions would have been aroused. Two witnesses were required to make the charge (Deut 17:6. 19:15, and Num 35:30). The charge was cursing the King and God and the penalty was death (Ex. 22:28 (cf. Acts 23:5) and Lev. 24:16). With Naboth out of the way, Ahab was free to seize the vineyard.

17-26 The Curse

Elijah returns to give Ahab some bad news. As the worst Israelite king of all time (v. 25, cf. 2 Kings 21:3), Ahab gets a whopping curse levelled at him. Fist of all, note that even though we saw Jezebel’s hand behind all this, Ahab remains responsible. He cannot say, “the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” To be have been manipulated is not an excuse. It’s an extra sin. Ahab will be cut off. Just as he has done to Naboth, so will be done to him. Ahab is killed in battle and the dogs licked his blood from the chariot (1 Kings 22:38). Jezebel is thrown from the heights of Jezreel and the dogs ate her (2 Kings 9:30-37).

Joram, the son of Ahab, is killed by Jehu and his body is thrown onto the ground of Naboth’s vineyard (2 Kings 9:24-25). Ahaziah, who is the grandson of Ahab and the king of Judah, is killed by Jehu (2 Kings 9:27-29) and his forty-two brothers (2 Kings 10:12-14). Seventy sons of Ahab and then all the descendents of Ahab are all killed by Jehu (2 Kings 10).

In fact, even the genealogy of Jesus is expunged all the descendants of Ahab (Mat. 1:8, 2 Kings 8:16-18).

27-29 Repentance

At hearing this, Ahab is brought to repentance. There doesn’t seem to be any insincerity here. Just as he was in a funk at being refused Naboth’s vineyard (v. 4), now he mourns over the curse that is on him. And God acknowledges Ahab’s sorrow. It is only enough to postpone the curse, however, and does not delay it. Ahab has been capable of these kinds of turns on a dime throughout his life.

Ahab and Syria

Joe Harby on July 14, 2013

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1-11: The Threat is Sent

Ahab was willing to comply humbly with Ben Hadad’s initial demand (v. 4). But it would appear that Ben Hadad smelled weakness in Israel and decided to try for much more. Ben Hadad repeats his demand, but this time with the addition that his servants will be free to roam through Samaria taking whatever they want (v. 5-6). It is clear that Ahab sees this as a stiffer demand. Most likely, Ahab interpreted the first demand to be a requirement of tribute of some sort to Syria, which he was willing to give. But the second demand indicated that Ben Hadad was looking for complete and utter subservience. Ahab and the elders of Israel are not ready for this kind of submission to Syria and they send their defiance to Ben Hadad (v. 9). Ben Hadad responds with an oath, vowing Samaria’s complete and total annihilation (v. 10). And Ahab responds with one of the best trash-talking lines of all time (v. 11).

12-22 Know That I Am the Lord

The Syrians do not take the threat too seriously. They are busy getting drunk in their tents (v. 12 and v. 16). Meanwhile, God sends an unnamed prophet to Ahab to let him know that this victory will come from God, leaving Ahab without excuse before God. The army is to be lead by the “youths / servants of the leaders of the provinces.” The point is that God is not sending out the seasoned leaders, with the exception of Ahab. Just as in the last chapter God had Elijah appoint the next generation of leaders, here also God is sending a new crop of leaders out to see his hand deliver Israel in battle. What is weird is that the army that is sent out is 7,000. (cf. 19:18). These are the men that God had reserved for himself.

The Syrians are over confident. Their leaders are drunk back in their tents. And the men are sent out with orders to capture these men alive (v. 18). It’s important to note that the command to take them alive is not a mercy. The only reason to take them alive is so that they can be taken back to Syria and be made an example of. But God is with the Israelites and they slaughter the Syrians. Ben Hadad has to run.

23-34 Ben Hadad Tries Again

Ben Hadad tries to figure out what went wrong. And he decides that the God of the Israelites must be good at fighting in the mountains and not good at the plains. It is this boast that provokes God to once again deliver Israel mightily. Ahab disobediently spares Ben Hadad, who was a moment ago his Lord (v. 4) and is now his brother (v. 32).

35-43 Ahab Rebuked

The disobedient prophet who was devoured by the lion is a picture in miniature of Ahab’s disobedience. God used lions often at this time to judge men who failed to serve him (1 Kings 13:34, 2 Kings 17:25). In this instance, the prophet failed to strike the one that God sent him to strike. This is hard for us to stomach, because it seems severe to us.

We are all guilty of sin and under the penalty of death (Rom. 3:23 and 6:23). In the ultimate sense, there is no such thing as an innocent victim. The problem is not that we don’t deserve death. It’s that we aren’t just executioners. We don’t have the right to take one another’s lives, except where God has given it. This is the right there are a host of restrictions that God puts on him as well. But since we are all guilty, there is no ultimate injustice in our deaths. What can’t be explained by justice is our living.

When we talk about the problem of appearing before God, we are talking about this – the just sentence of death that hangs over us when we stood before a perfectly holy God. And this is why we are so grateful for Jesus. The grace of Jesus Christ is God’s sovereign interruption into justice, to save us. We are talking about the wonderful mercy of God that set aside his righteous anger against us by sending us a Savior.

Ahab is now judged by his own words. He knew what justice looked like when applied to others. Because of this a curse is pronounced on Ahab (v. 42), a curse that is fitted according to Ahab’s own judgment (Mat. 7:2).

Two Closing Thoughts

First, Ahab confused his own glory for God’s and misunderstood what the worship of God was about. The point of conquering Ben Hadad was to bring glory to God’s name. But Ahab quickly began to think that the point of conquering Ben Hadad was to bring wealth and glory to Ahab. When God answers our prayers, the point is to teach us to trust in him.

But what often happens is that we begin to put our trust in the relief that he has brought us. We trust in our financial security, the last clear results that the doctor gave us, the family and friends that surrounded us. But these are all the result of trusting in God. They are not things to be trusted in themselves. They say that there are no atheists in foxholes. But there are very few theists in palaces (Heb. 11:24-26 and Mat. 19:24).

Second, we need to be clear on grace. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. Without understanding this, we don’t really get what Jesus did for us on the cross.

The David Chronicles 37: Lord of the Bursting Dam

Joe Harby on July 7, 2013

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Introduction

If God is not establishing a work, or a house, or a kingdom, or a nation, then it cannot be established. And if God is doing so, then nothing whatever can prevent it—however mighty that opposing force might be.

The Text

“Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh . . .” (2 Sam. 5:1-25).

Summary of the Text

The tribes of Israel come to David and present three arguments for making David king. They are related to him (v. 1), David has proven himself in battle (v. 2), and God has promised the shepherding/kingship to him (v. 2). And so the elders, representing the tribes, come to David in Hebron and make a pact with him (v. 3), and anoint him king over all twelve tribes (v. 3). David was 30 when he first became king in Hebron, reigning for 40 years total, 33 years over a united kingdom (vv. 4-5).

David starts by conquering a capital city from the Jebusites, a city that would not be part of any tribe—just as D.C. is not part of any state. At the same time, the city was in the territory or region of Benjamin, some consolation to the tribe of Saul. The Jebusites do a little trash talking from the wall, the meaning of which is ambiguous. The best guess is that they were saying that an army of blind men and cripples could defend this place against you all (v. 6). But David captured the city anyway (v. 7). They did it by climbing up a steep water tunnel (which archeologists have found and identified), and that is how David got saddled with Joab (v. 8; 1 Chron. 11:6). That water course was about fifty feet tall. David then consolidated his rule (v. 9), and God blessed him greatly (v. 10), and which David saw clearly (v. 12). Hiram of Tyre made an alliance with David (v. 11), and David had many more sons (vv. 13-16). From all these sons, the only two which receive subsequent mention are Nathan and Solomon, both sons of Bathsheba (1 Chron. 3:5). Nathan is an ancestor of Joseph (Luke 3:31).

At this the Philistines invaded, and David retreated into a stronghold (v. 17). The Philistines set up in the valley of Rephaim, a valley named after giants, just a couple miles west of Jerusalem, easily within sight (v. 18). David inquired of the Lord, and was told to go out (v. 19). He went and was victorious, like the breaching of a dam (v. 20). They captured the Philistine idols and burned them (v. 21). These idols were so pathetic that they weren’t even capable of running away like their worshipers could. The Philistines tried again, in the same place again (v. 22). When David inquired of God again, he was told to attack the Philistines from behind this time (v. 23), and to follow the lead of the Spirit in the tops of the trees (v. 24). The botanical identification of the trees is uncertain (mulberry, balsam, aspen?). This David did and struck down the Philistines decisively (v. 25).

Constitutional Government

When Samuel established the monarchy, he wrote down a constitution, and placed it before the Lord (1 Sam. 10:25). When David became king, the Lord had anointed him (through Samuel), but the people also established him as king through anointing him. He was the king-in-principle from the moment Samuel anointed him, but he was not installed until the people anointed him. This is contrary to the whole “divine right of kings” approach, and it is utterly contrary to the arrogant attitude of our current ruling elites. This is something which the Reformers saw very clearly, and was the basis of their understanding of government. We owe our republican forms of government to that understanding.

When David was anointed by them, he also made a covenant with them (v. 3). Israel was governed by the law of God (Deut. 17:14-20), of course, but it was also governed by a written constitution. This is because written constitutions are a great barrier to dishonest men, not to mention the cowardly men who let them be dishonest.

Big with Mercy

The last verse of Cowper’s great hymn (God Moves in a Mysterious Way) expresses a very biblical truth in an altogether lovely way:

“You fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessing on your head.”

God’s deliverances often are given to us in bursts. The first victory here against the Philistines was at Baal- perazim, Lord of the Outburst. David said that the Lord broke forth on the Philistines like the breaching of water. In 1 Chronicles (1 Chron. 13:11), and in 2 Samuel, the time of this victory is followed by “the breach of Uzza,” or Perez-Uzza. This breach was a judgment, but also a mercy. Although Uzza died, the people of Israel were taught to receive back the ark of the covenant in reverence (carried by Levites, as the law required), and not hauled on a cart, the way the Philistines did it.

And David is the descendant of Perez, so named because he “breached” before Zarah, who had been marked and identified by a scarlet cord tied to his wrist (Gen. 38:28-30). Achan, who died for his treachery, was descended from Zarah. Rahab, who was the mother of David’s great-grandfather Boaz (descended from Perez), completed the breach when she let down a scarlet cord from her window at Jericho. Here is the line of blood red redemption, found always in the unlikely places! This is the line of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. What was His death and resurrection but the bursting of death’s dam?

And Then Pentecost

After the Lord breaks through, like the breaching of water, He delivers Israel in another unlikely way. He tells David to go around behind the Philistines, and to wait for the sound of the wind (think of the Spirit) in the tops of the trees. The text says explicitly that the Lord was going before them (v. 24). And then attack, following the Spirit. Never run ahead of the Spirit. Wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high. This second victory over the Philistines was just about a couple miles from where the Spirit was poured out upon the disciples centuries later.

This is how we are to fight giants in the valley of giants. We pray for the Lord to make a breach, like a dam bursting. We pray for the Lord to rush before us, like the wind in the top of the trees.

What are You Doing Here, Elijah?

Joe Harby on June 30, 2013

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1-8 Back to the Desert

Elijah returns to the gates of Jezreel, running ahead of Ahab, to find Jezebel waiting for him. After having heard about what he did to the prophets of Baal, Jezebel sends him a death threat. And so Elijah runs for his life once more, to Beersheba, far to the south.

Elijah is beyond frustrated with his predicament. His ministry appears to have been no better than any of the prophets that have gone before him. And so he asks to die. A century later, Jonah will give us a reverse image of Elijah’s attitude (Jonah 4:8). But notice Elijah’s resilience. While it apparently takes nothing for the Israelites to go from serving God to serving Jezebel once again, it just takes two meals and a nap for Elijah to be ready to head back into the desert. Here he goes forty days and forty nights, fasting all the way, just as Jesus would (Mt. 4:1). Now Elijah is being prepared for something greater than anything he has yet experienced.

Elijah is going to Mt. Horeb, which is another name for Mt. Sinai, where he has one of the strangest encounters in the Old Testament. Now when Jonah was unsure about his mission, he ran from the presence of God. But Elijah, when he gets discouraged, he runs to God’s presence, he runs to Mt. Sinai. Here God renews Elijah’s strength by revealing himself to Elijah.

There is a theological puzzle here. First, we know that God is invisible. We are told this throughout Scripture (1 Tim. 1:17, 6:16). There are two parts to our inability to see God.

1. God is spirit and therefore he cannot be seen by human eyes ( John 4:24, Luke 24:39). Jesus was God the Son, who became a man so that he could inhabit this physical world in a way that he could reveal God to us (Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:15, John 1:18, 14:9).

2. God’s glorious holiness is of such an intensity that standing before God and beholding him in all his goodness would destroy us (Ex. 33:20, Is. 6:5).

Theophanies

Throughout the Old Testament, there are many places where God appeared to men. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 3:8-10). He appeared to Abraham a number of times (Gen. 12:7, 17:1, 18:1-2). He appeared to Isaac (Gen. 26:2, 24), Jacob (Gen. 28:13, 32:1-2, 24, 28-29, 35:9, 48:3), Moses (Ex. 3:2, 24:9-11, Num. 12:6-8), Samuel (1 Sam. 3:21), Manoah ( Jud. 13:15-23), David (2 Chron. 3:1), and Solomon (1 Kings 3:5, 9:2, 2 Chron. 7:12). The theological term for these is theophany. These are moments when God the Son, before his incarnation, took on the form of a man to speak with men. It was God that they were speaking to. But he was veiled and his glory was hidden.

But there a couple of moments in the Old Testament where something a bit stronger happens, where a much more powerful encounter with the glory of God happens. One would be when Moses was on Mt. Sinai. Moses asked if he could see God’s glory. God places Moses in a cleft of the rock and causes his glory to pass pay with his hand covering Moses.

He then pulls away his hand and allows Moses to see his back, because no one can see his face and live (Ex. 33:18-23). The other most memorable example of this kind of encounter would be our text, where Elijah stands in a cave on Mt. Sinai and the Lord passes by. But first there is a wind, then an earthquake, then a fire, and then finally the Lord passes by. We are easily distracted by displays of power. But that is not where God is. If God had been in the fire, wouldn’t everything have been fixed on Mt. Carmel? God’s power is in an easy word. The “still, small voice” is such a great phrase, but the Hebrew indicates something even quieter “a small, silent voice.”

9-12 Elijah’s Discouragement and God’s Presence

Seeing God

13-18 What Are You Doing Here, Elijah?

Elijah gives his complaint “It doesn’t look like it’s working.” God corrects him and sends him back out again. But he has to see that God’s plans for Israel are larger than just Elijah’s generation. The Apostle Paul quotes this section (Rom. 11:3-4). But God answers that a remnant is preserved by grace, preserved by the power of his voice. When we find ourselves tempted to despair, we need to hear God asking us “What are you doing here, __________?”

19-21 The Call of Elisha

Elisha is plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. This is an indication of Elisha’s great wealth. Upon receiving his call to follow Elijah, Elisha hesitates for a moment and Eljjah confronts him with the question he got from God. Elisha’s response of killing the oxen demonstrates that he is now all in.

The Vision of God

The way that God related to his people in the period of the Old Testament portrayed the distance between God and man. The coming of Christ changed all this so that we now declare the nearness of God. But we should understand that just as the Old Testament situation was a picture, so too we are just picturing a much greater reality. Elijah and Moses’s encounters with God were just a faint shadow of the glory that awaits us on the other side of this life. When mortality is swallowed up by immortality, we will come face to face with an incomprehensibly joyful glory. That is what all of this is aiming towards. We live now by faith. But there is a time when faith itself will tear away as the wrapping paper holding a much greater gift ( Job 19:25-26, Ps. 17:15, 1 Cor. 13:12-13, 2 Cor. 5:7, 1 John 3:2).

The David Chronicles 36: Dismembered Members

Joe Harby on June 23, 2013

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Introduction

In this chapter, we have assassination, intrigue, execution, dismemberment, and so on. Let us see what we can do to make an edifying sermon out of it. The fact that we might even think there could be trouble with it is testimony to how we have reinterpreted what it means to be “spiritual.”

The Text

“And when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled . . .” (2 Sam. 4:1-12).

Summary of the Text

When news of Abner’s death came to Ish-bosheth, his hands became feeble. We would say he lost his grip (v. 1). There were two brothers, captains of raiding parties, named Baanah and Rechab, who were naturalized Benjaminites (vv. 2-3). We are then introduced to Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son. He was twelve at this point, and being lame, it is made plain that he was not a contender for the throne (v. 4). These two brothers came to the house of Ish-bosheth during the heat of the day, stabbed him, beheaded him, and then got away (vv. 5-7). They brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David, and proclaimed it as the vengeance of God (v. 8). David answered the two with an oath (“as the Lord liveth”), and appealed to God as the one who had delivered him from all adversity (v. 9). He pointed to what had happened to the Amalekite who had lied about killing Saul, thinking to ingratiate himself with David (v. 10). How much more would he execute men who had killed a righteous man in his own bed (v. 11)? So he gave the order, and the two assassins were executed. Their hands and feet were cut off for display (v. 12), and Ish-bosheth’s head was buried in Abner’s tomb.

There is one manuscript issue here to note – the Septuagint mentions a woman at the doorway of Ish-bosheth’s house, who had fallen asleep. In the Hebrew text, there is something of an ambiguity at that point.

Striking Parallels

Both Saul and his son died as the result of a wound to the belly, and both were beheaded (1 Sam. 31:4,9; 2 Sam. 4:6-7). David receives the report of their respective deaths in a similar way, by executing the messengers, messengers who were expecting a reward. The executions are carried out by David’s “young men” (2 Sam. 1:15; 2 Sa. 4:12). David himself notes some of the parallels.

Ish-bosheth and Abner die in similar ways too. They both die from stabbing, both as the result of deception, and brothers were the perpetrators (2 Sam 3:30; 2 Sam. 4:2).

David Falters

The deaths of Saul, Abner, and Ish-bosheth all have eerie similarities. The narrative flows straight past all three. David wreaks immediate and hard vengeance for the first and third one, and this means his failure to do anything about Joab stands out in high relief. What is different in this picture?

David’s failure to deal rigorously with Joab is book-ended with two incidents that show David doing just the opposite. This failure will haunt David in years to come.

Vengeance that Wasn’t, Vengeance that Was

At the same time, David does what is right in this instance. Baanah and Rechab took what they claimed was vengeance. They were saying, in effect, that they were the hand of God on Ish-bosheth, and that what they did to him was a just recompense for harm done to David. But David refers to Ish-bosheth as a righteous man—this is a fallen world, and there will be times when there are noble men on the opposite side. So these two assassins claimed to be bringers of vengeance . . . but they were not.

On the other hand, what David did to them was true vengeance. He was the anointed king of all Israel, and he made a determination to deal righteously with the murderers of a righteous man—who condemned themselves with their own confession, and by the fact that they had Ish-bosheth’s head with them.

Vengeance is the Lord’s

The Bible does not teach that vengeance is bad, but rather that vengeance is the Lord’s. There are many Christians who misunderstand this, in two different directions. Some think that vengeance is good, and that anybody can execute it. Some think that it is necessarily bad, and that no one can, including God.

The first problem is why God gave Israel the lex talionis, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. The magistrate was to enforce strict justice so that the people would not be tempted into vigilantism. Without strict justice from the magistrate, it soon becomes a life for an eye, a life for a tooth.

The second problem is why pacifism will ultimately result in universalism. The unfortunate thing about this perspective is that it collides, quite heavily, with what the Bible actually teaches.

The Bible teaches that vengeance is good, and righteous, and holy, and that it belongs to God, and to those that He grants it to. This is why the souls of martyrs, slain for their testimony, can cry out from under the altar of God in Heaven . . . for vengeance (Rev. 6:9-10). There is no holier place than that, and so this is no unholy prayer.

Look again at the transition between Romans 12 and Romans 13. The tail end of Romans 12 sounds very much like the Sermon on the Mount (Rom. 12: 14-21), and the spirit is very much like what some of our more pacifistic brethren might like. Peace out, man.

God is the one who takes wrath and vengeance, and it turns out that He does not just do this in some distant eschatological future. He does it when somebody calls the cops. The magistrate is God’s agent of wrath. The “cops” in this instance were part of the pagan Roman state, what John the apostle identified as the great beast in the book of Revelation. So our approach here is not simplistic, or perfectionistic.

Again, Read the Story

Read the story you are in, and try to do it better than Baanah and Rechab did. They appointed themselves as the hand of God, declared and executed a judgment in His name, went to David full of confidence—despite what David had already done to the Amalekite—and were brought up short. When we read our stories wrong, we are not usually killed or dismembered as they were, but this is given as a warning for us. It is not given so that we might disclaim any resemblance.