Bible Survey Archives - Page 18 of 25

What are You Doing Here, Elijah?

Joe Harby on June 30, 2013

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.

The David Chronicles 35: A World Class Curse

Joe Harby on June 9, 2013

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Introduction

The affairs of state are flowing in David’s direction but, as any leader can tell you, there’s always something. As soon as the division between Saul and David is healed, the division between David and Joab appears.

The Text

“Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker . . .” (2 Sam. 3:1-39).

Summary of the Text

In the extended civil war between the house of Saul and the house of David, things went badly for Saul (v. 1). In the next verses, we are given the names of the six sons born to David in Hebron (vv. 2-5). At the same time David was growing stronger in all Israel, Abner was growing stronger in the house of Saul (v. 6). Ish-bosheth made the bad move of accusing Abner of taking Rizpah, a concubine of Saul, for himself (v. 7). This was the last straw for Abner (v. 8), who then swears to give the whole kingdom to David (vv. 9-11).

Abner is true to his word (v. 12), and yet David is ready for him with a demand for Michal (v. 13). David then makes the demand of Ish-bosheth, whose compliance reveals him as a spent force (v. 14-16). Abner then meets with the elders of Israel and persuades them to give their allegiance to David (vv. 17-18). The tribe of Benjamin was obviously a special case (v. 19), which Abner has to give additional attention to. So Abner comes to Hebron with 20 men, and is received with a feast (v. 20). The deal is closed (v. 21).

Joab comes in from the field, and Abner was gone (v. 22). He finds out what had happened, and registers a strong protest with David (vv. 23-25). Without David’s knowledge, Joab then sent messengers after Abner (v. 26), and when he returned, he stabbed him in the city gate (v. 27). When David heard about it, he disclaims all responsibility and curses the house of Joab (vv. 28-30). David forces Joab to lament the death of Abner (v. 31). David mourned the loss of Abner, and composed an elegy for him (vv. 32-34). He mourned in a high profile way (v. 35). The people were pleased with David’s response and knew he had not had Abner killed (v. 36-37). And David praises Abner again, confesses his own weakness, and the hardness of his nephews (vv. 38-39).

Too Many Princes

We have yet another biblical sampling here of what a bad idea polygamy is. With multiple woman, a man is easily able to beget more children than he can be a father to. Some men are even able to do that with one woman. Amnon, the first born, later raped his half-sister, Tamar. For that, her full brother took his revenge (2 Sam. 13:28-29). Absalom is the grandson of a king, and a Gentile king at that. Chileab, with a name that combines Caleb and Abigail (also called Daniel, see 1 Chron. 3:1), is not heard from, perhaps because he was given the estate of Nabal, and perhaps because he had such a shrewd mother. Adonijah made an ill-fated play for the throne when David was on his death-bed, and was later killed by Solomon (1 Kings 1:5-53). Shephatiah and Ithream were not major players, and other sons are born later in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:13-16).

Conquest and Concubines

Saul was paranoid, and Ish-bosheth was a little that way himself. He accuses Abner, and Abner’s anger shows his innocence. If Abner really were making a play for the throne, there would be no sense in denying the relationship with Saul’s concubine. It should be noted that while politics and sex were both involved, the political element is foremost. A concubine was a slave wife, or a second-tier wife. At the same time, concubines were influential enough that to claim the concubine of a king was to claim the prerogatives of royalty. We see this with how David inherited Saul’s concubines (2 Sam. 12:8), with Absalom’s treatment of David’s concubines (2 Sam. 16:21-22), and with Adonijah’s request for Abishag (1 Kings 1:21-22). Ishbosheth accused Abner in a slanderous (not to mention idiotic) way.

A World Class Curse

Joab killed Abner ostensibly because Abner had killed his brother (v. 30), but don’t forget that in a united Israel, Abner would have been a formidable rival to Joab. At the same time, Joab had enough “societal cover” for his actions to make them “debatable.” But they were not debatable among righteous men—Abner had killed Asahel in honest battle, after repeatedly trying to avoid doing it. Moreover, even when it was a case of true manslaughter, a man could take refuge in one of the cities of refuge. Hebron was one such city, and Joab murdered Abner in the very gate of that city.

This means that while David could not bring a murder charge, he could identify Joab as a wicked man, which he plainly does. He does this through the curse he pronounces, and through his lament for Abner. The curse is bad enough on the surface—may every man in Joab’s house have a running discharge, or be a leper, or have to work with a spindle, or fall in battle, or have to go without bread. Note that the first two would exclude such a person from approaching the Lord in worship. He also laments that Abner fell the way he ought not to have—in the hands of the wicked (v. 34).

The Peril of Passivity

At the very moment when David is coming into his kingdom, we see some ominous signs. Through the course of his life, David’s great failures were sins of omission. He failed to deal with Joab at the beginning of his consolidation of power, and he has to charge Solomon to finish that particular business for him. He failed to go to war with the army, which provided him with the temptation to adultery with Bathsheba. And he failed to be the kind of father he needed to be, and he soon had a palace full of princes who were themselves full of a sense of entitlement.

But the Lord who was with him on the field of battle so many times could have been with him in the realm of domestic politics. The hard things close to home are often the hardest things of all. Instead of trusting God the most there, we often trust Him the least.

The Prayer of a Righteous Man

Joe Harby on June 6, 2013

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18:1-2 Three and a Half Years

Elijah was introduced in the last chapter, receiving a word from the Lord telling him to run and hide. Now this chapter begins with a word from the Lord saying that rain is on the way and so Elijah should go and show himself to Ahab. The passage here says three years, but in the New Testament (Luke 4:25 and James 5:17), we are told more precisely that the drought would last exactly three and a half years. The time is significant because it is the customary length of time that God allows for Gentiles to trash his house before he drives them out (see – Daniel 7:25, 9:27, 12:7 and Revelation 11:2, 12:6, 12:14, and 13:5). 18:3-15

Obadiah and the Famines

There is no reason to not think that this is Obadiah the prophet, whose short book we also have, although the book of Obadiah is aimed at the nation of Edom. There were two famines in the land – a famine of God’s word (Amos 8:11) and a famine of food. Ahab, unconcerned that the prophets have been “cut off,” is scared that the livestock might be “cut off ” (18:5). This is the opposite of what Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 9:9 and 1 Tim. 5:18 (citing Deut 25:4).

18:16-19 The Troubler of Israel

So Elijah shows up before Ahab and Ahab calls him the “troubler of Israel.” Ahab is attempting to scapegoat Elijah, to make him the problem in Israel. Just as when he tried to kill Elijah at the beginning of the plague, he still credits it to the preacher instead of to God. Elijah corrects him. Ahab is the troubler of Israel. But the question of who is the troubler is, more fundamentally, a question of who is God.

18:20-40 Victory on Mt. Carmel

Mt. Carmel is a peak on the northern boarder of Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Because of its height it was a prominent place for pagan sacrifices. Egyptian Pharaohs from centuries before the time of Ahab listed it as favorite location for sacrifices. The Phoenicians had altars on it. And apparently, the Israelites had their own high place to Yahweh on it. Since it was on the border between Israel and Phoenicia and since it appears to have had a number of different worship services on it, it made a perfect place for a showdown between the one true God and Baal.

18:20-24 – The Israelites gather to watch and Elijah rebukes them for their hopping back and forth between two opinions. He challenges them to pick between Baal and Yahweh. But they remain silent (21). So he proposes the terms of the contest and now they are ready to say something (24).

18:25-29 – The priests of Baal offer their sacrifice and nothing happens. Elijah enjoys himself and taunts them. They begin cutting themselves. Self-mutilation was one of the ways that pagan mourners indicated their grief. This was also common in the worship of Baal. They then began prophesying around the altar and did so until evening. And it had no effect.

18:30-40 – Finally the people, having seen the failure of Baal to answer, respond to Elijah. He repairs an altar that had once been used to worship Yahweh. The people bring twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. This was done in –

Ex. 24:4 At Mt. Sinai as Israel made a covenant with God

Josh. 4:1-9 – As Israel crosses Jordan into promised land, twelve stones were set up as a testimony to Israel.

The effect is to call attention to the fact that these tribes belong to God, they are in covenant with him. He re- enacts moments from Israel’s history when they were called out as a nation to serve him. Notice that he calls attention to Jacob having been renamed Israel (18:31). And this is emphasized again (18:36) with the formula “Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.” Jacob’s name was changed to Israel right after God tells Jacob to put aside all foreign gods (Gen. 35:2-4, 10). Israel, above all else, is the name of a nation that does not serve foreign gods. He is saying to them, “You are all Israel, my twelve tribes. You serve Yahweh and not these false gods.”

18:38 – And fire fell from heaven, confirming that Yahweh is God. Why would Elijah now sacrifice on a high place, in what seems like a violation of Deut 12? Some just say that this was an emergency exception. But consider this. The temple fire was lit by God (Lev. 9:24, 2 Chron. 7:1). The priests were required to keep this fire perpetually burning (Lev. 6:9, 12-13). Nadab and Abihu were judged because they brought in their own strange fire (Lev. 10:1-2). So a likely explanation would be that the problem with offering sacrifices on the high places was that it necessitated using strange fire. Elijah does not use strange fire here, but God lights the sacrifice just as he did in the inauguration of the tabernacle and temple sacrifices.

18:39-40 – When the people see the fire, they finally move. The prophets of Baal are seized and executed.

18:41-46 The Prayer of a Righteous Man

Covenant ceremonies usually conclude with a meal. That’s why we finish our worship service here with the Lord’s Supper. The same thing happens in this passage. Elijah sends Ahab up to the meal. Meanwhile, Elijah give himself to prayer. Now the strange thing is, James later saw this prayer as proof of the power of prayer (James 5:17).

Into the Desert

Joe Harby on May 26, 2013

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1. After the death of Solomon, the son of David, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. Only the southern tribe of Judah continued to follow the rightful king Rehoboam. The rest of Israel rebelled and began a new line of kings. But because the temple was in Jerusalem, which was in Judah, and the Jews were only supposed to sacrifice to God in the temple, the political divide between Judah and Israel separated Israel from the right worship of God. This led the Israelites to either continue worshiping and sacrificing to God, but on the high places and not at the temple in Jerusalem, or to outright worship of other gods. 1 Kings 12-16 describes the very swift decline of Israel, culminating in Omri and Ahab.

1 Kings 16:29-34 describes how Ahab led Israel to worship Baal, a storm god who brought rain and fertility. His wife Jezebel, a princess from Sidon and the great aunt of Dido, led him into this. If Jesus was the second Adam, then we might think of Ahab as Adam 1.5. Here is a king who has been given a land to guard and to tend. But he is led astray by his wife to forsake the one true God (1Kings 21:25). The culmination of this is at a tree (1 Kings 16:33). And this sin brings his land under a curse.

Then, to drive home how wicked the nation has become, the author points out what happened in Bethel (1 Kings 16:34). Hiel’s actions were a fulfilment of Joshua’s prophecy ( Josh. 6:26). The land has turned to worship Baal, the god of rain and fertility. And look at what happens – the rain stops and they start killing their own children. Into this scene, Elijah enters.

2-7. Immediately, Elijah must flee to the desert. Ahab falls into the ancient mistake of thinking that shooting the messenger will accomplish something. God likes to take his people into the desert, usually being chased by someone who wants to kill them. Moses fled to the desert as a young man after he had killed the Egyptian (Ex. 2:15). All of Israel fled to the desert with the Egyptian army chasing them.

In the book of Revelation, the church is described as a woman, being chased by the beast. And God takes
her to the desert to protect her (Rev. 12:14). And notice that at the beginning the curse on unfaithful Israel and the trial for faithful Elijah look very similar. Israel is being turned into a desert because of her sins. And Elijah is led into the desert. But there is a difference. When we are in the desert, God takes us through temptations, trials, and suffering. It is hard, but it is how God purifies us.

8-16. Elijah is received by the widow of Zarephath, a city in the region of Sidon. The irony is that this was where Jezebel was from and would have been a city given to the worship of Baal. But the widow has faith in God and gives her last morsel of bread to Elijah. Jesus later cites this story to illustrate how the hard- heartedness of Israel will mean the spreading of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Luke 4:25-26).

17-24. After Elijah’s arrival, the widow’s son dies and she blames his death on Elijah, who isn’t exactly a good luck charm. Elijah’s resurrection of the boy looks a lot like Jesus’ resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11). In the end, what looks like things getting worse and worse for Elijah, is just God preparing and equipping his prophet for glory.