I Peter 1:13-2:3

Dear RTB’ers,

…conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed … with the precious blood of Christ (vv. 1:17b-19a). Exile. [NOTE: The NASB translates “exile” as “stay on earth”.] Peter sees our born-again life here on earth as an “exile”, a time when we are living where we do not belong.

Perhaps he had in mind his forefathers’ captivity in Babylon, a time that we know as “the Exile”. With leaders like Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel the Jewish people were able to hold on to their faith. I can remember reading that this time in Babylon may have been the beginning of Jewish synagogues – building/locations/activities through which the Israelites could maintain their faith in the absence of Temple activities in Jerusalem.

Whether Peter had Babylon in mind or not, he clearly is telling his audience that they, themselves are “exiles”, that they are living in a temporary earthly home and that they should live in this home as if their real home is elsewhere. A good message for us today!

Blessings!

I Peter 1:1-12

Dear RTB’ers,

Back to the New Testament, the first of Peter’s two epistles. It’ll be a long while before we see the second!

I have two general reflections on Peter writing these two letters. The first is that many scholars have argued that Mark’s gospel could well be called Peter’s gospel, that Mark’s gospel reflected Peter’s teachings, with Mark effectively serving as Peter’s scribe (https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/marks-relationship-with-peter-was-the-foundation-for-his-gospel/). Second, today’s first verse has Peter writing to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia… (v. 1b) Three of those locations (emboldened above) are mentioned by Luke as part of Peter’s audience in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:9-11). So in today’s reading Peter is writing to many of those people to whom he preached on the day of Pentecost. Interesting.

I was taken by Peter’s words (as I applied them to myself): He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, … to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you… (vv. 3b-4) Imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept. If that inheritance is all these things, then that “living hope” should be the essence of our daily thoughts and activities. A future inheritance is a now promise. We should be living a “Heaven on Earth” life.

Blessings!

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See also:

• November 15 (2021) / I Peter 1:1-25
• December 23 (2023) / I Peter

Judges 21

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we end Judges on a happier note that we’ve had the past two days. Although Israel has conjured up a plan to save the tribe of Benjamin, in the process they are losing a “sub-tribe”, a family from across the Jordan River, in their destruction of all the men and their wives from Jabesh-Gilead. But with that action Benjamin is partially restored and remains one of the twelve tribes. We see the importance of this decision twice down the road. First, in the Old Testament: Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? (1 Samuel 9:21) Paul the apostle in the New Testament also claims his Benjaminite heritage: …circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews… (Philippians 3:5)

A few days ago I quoted a verse from earlier in Judges (Jg. 17:6) that provides a good summary of the book of Judges. We see that verse repeated today: In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (v. 25) A good, continuing caution for all of us today…!

Blessings!

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See also: March 19 (2023) / Judges 19-21.

Judges 20

Dear RTB’ers,

Civil war in Israel, this time clearly involving all of Israel, eleven tribes from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead… (v. 20b) arrayed against their “brother”, Benjamin. Apparently this incident from yesterday and the battle today occurred early in the days of Judges, since we still have Phineas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron still around (v. 28). Three items struck me in this reading. First, the Israelites tried to “negotiate”: And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” (vv. 12-13a) A good effort on their part, but a stubborn refusal from Benjamin in the very next verses: But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities to Gibeah to go out to battle against the people of Israel. (vv. 13b-14) To me this is the most shocking item in today’s reading, that the people of Benjamin would not deliver up those “worthless fellows”.

The final item that struck me today was that the people of Israel called upon the Lord – and not just once, but three times. Even when the first two battles had horrible results, through Phineas they ask again: “Shall I yet again go out to battle…” (v. 28b). “yet again!” When things aren’t going well, are we inclined to give up on the Lord? To turn tail and walk away…? Or do we go back and “do battle” a third time, a fourth time, countless times…? That person you’ve been praying for – don’t stop! That promotion you’ve been seeking – keep working! God, the Holy Spirit will let you know when it’s time to move in a different direction. Until then, “yet again!”

Blessings!

Judges 19

Dear RTB’ers,

If you are reading the book of Judges for the first time (or maybe the first time in a long time), rest assured that this “story” is not yet ended. We still have two more chapters to go. So, read ahead if you must, but don’t expect much of a happy ending.

Repeating myself here: If you are reading this incident for the first time (or maybe the first time in a long time), it might sound oddly familiar to you. If so, go back to the story of God delivering Lot from the men of Sodom:

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door.

Genesis 19:4-10

Wicked. Evil. The men of Gibeah demand homosexual relations with the Levite. Instead, the man of the house offers his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine. Not a good story. More tomorrow…

Blessings!

Judges 17-18

Dear RTB’ers,

Two chapters today, two independent sets of activities – neither of which is praiseworthy – that come together and leave us wondering where God is in these activities, or more correctly, why the characters in these activities are not seeking the Lord in what they do.

So first, Micah and his mother in Judges 17. Micah steals his mother’s silver, she utters a curse, he returns the silver, and she has the silversmith make two household idols. An itinerant Levite happens along and accepts Micah’s offer of a salary, clothing, and living expenses. Two verses summarize this whole chapter. First, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (v. 17:6) Here in one sentence we get a sense of how far the Israelites have fallen during the period of the judges. They do as they wish, failing to seek the Lord as they move forward. The second verse is equally condemning, Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.” (v. 17:13) Micah sets up idols and hires a Levite as his priest and claims prosperity as his “reward” for this idolatry.

Then the Danites in Judges 18. The tribe of Dan is allotted an inheritance just west of Judah and south of Ephraim, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, with the Amorites as the original inhabitants of that land and the Philistines composing their southern border. Sadly the Danites are not able to occupy their inheritance. Their alternative to seeking the Lord is to appoint five men as “spies” (similar to the twelve spies in Numbers 13) and 600 warriors and they make a plan to move north. On their way they make a better offer to Micah’s Levite (backed up by their military force) and he becomes their priest, taking along the ephod and the household idols. They then destroy a peaceful people and settle as the most northern tribe in Israel.

So, where is the goodness, the righteousness in these two chapters? Admittedly the Danites ask the Levite to seek the Lord for them and the Levite gives them God’s blessing. (vv. 18:5-6, 10) Beyond that, I don’t find much to cheer about in today’s reading. The peoples’ intentions in these two chapters are well-stated in the verse quoted above: In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Blessings!

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See also: March 18 (2023) / Judges 17-18.

Judges 16

Dear RTB’ers,

I am thankful for John’s comment yesterday (as always!), but I think he misunderstood me. I didn’t say that I did not believe the stories or the numbers written in Judges 14-15 (30, 300, 1000). Yes, our God, “the Creator of the entire universe” can do anything He wants. But how He does what He wants is often a mystery to me.

Samson had great strength and a certain level of invincibility, not unlike so many of our “superheroes” today. My issue comes from non-believers reading these stories and rejecting the possibility that these events could have happened as written. Taken to that logical extreme, they would easily reject Jesus’ Resurrection, the central event on which our faith hangs. But I don’t have my own explanations as to how these events unfolded. I suggested yesterday that conservative scholars probably had reasonable explanations for these events and these numbers. I did not disavow the possibility; I simply meant that I could not explain to a non-believer how Samson could have done what he did. But God can do what He chooses to do.

I have no problem with Samson slaying 30 men from Ashkelon, especially given my sense of his invincibility. The same goes for the thousand slain with the jawbone of a donkey. But the 300 paired foxes and the torches on their tales. My earthly mind has a problem envisioning that. However, the God who created those foxes could have tamed them to house-pet level and let the story run as written. The number 300 was not a problem for me, but even two foxes tied together and torching the grain field is difficult for me to comprehend. But as I said yesterday, our task is not to fully understand every sentence, but to use what we read to God’s glory.

Today I have no problem with Samson taking down the pillars and having some 3,000 Philistines killed. But for me, there’s a warning in this story about moral decisions, about temptation and the seeming attractiveness of sinful pleasures, of disobedience and my mis-use of the gifts with which God has gifted me. A phrase comes to me from my childhood Catholic catechism instruction, “to avoid the near-occasion of sin”. Samson could have benefited greatly from this simple childhood wisdom!

Blessings!

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See also: March 17 (2023) / Judges 13-16.

Judges 14-15

Dear RTB’ers,

And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD … And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, … And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. (vv. 15:18-20) The ending paragraph of chapter 15 tells of a good and righteous, spirit-filled man. How to reconcile these few verses with all that went before?

What to make of the earlier 37 verses? And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town… (v. 14:19a) He, thirty men? Or So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines… (vv. 15:4-5a) 300 foxes tied tail-to-tail, bearing lit torches into the grain fields? And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.. (v. 15:15) 1,000 men, single-handedly, with a donkey jawbone?

30, 300, 1000. What do we do with numbers like that? Let’s not immediately discount them; I’m sure conservative scholars have worked around these numbers with reasonable explanations. Our task is maybe not to fully understand, to comprehend every sentence, but to use what we read to God’s glory. All Scripture is God-breathed [inspired] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17, slightly edited)

And we’re not finished with Samson yet…!!

Blessings!

Judges 13

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we begin the story of Samson, the final judge in this book of Judges, the sixth major judge. We’ll spend three days and read four chapters for this one character. Fundamentally Samson is setting the stage for what comes next in the history of Israel – Samuel, Saul, and finally King David.

The wife of Manoah… We never learn her name. We know of three other barren women for whom divine intervention resulted in their motherhood: Sarai (Sarah, Abram/Abraham’s wife and mother of Isaac), Rebekah (Isaac’s wife and Jacob’s mother), and Elizabeth (Zechariah’s wife and John the Baptist’s mother), but we never learn Samson’s mother’s name. Interesting. She is clearly the hero of today’s reading. The angel appears to her twice (not to her husband) with the same instructions each time; she has wisdom that her husband is lacking (“If the LORD had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things…”, v. 23a); and (left unsaid) she delivers her child in due time. And we never learn her name.

Maybe it’s OK if I have done something “substantial” (in my own estimation), and not received the credit that I thought I deserved. Maybe that’s OK. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory… (Ephesians 3:20-21a)

Blessings!

Judges 11:29-12:15

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we close the book on Jephthah – unless you read ahead yesterday! What a tragic ending to an otherwise redemptive story. Here we have a man, the son of a harlot and a noble father, driven from his homeland by his own half-kin and surrounded by “worthless fellows”, then recalled to be their leader. He then (with the Lord, see Jg. 11:29) brings about their “salvation”, but in the process sadly making a horrible promise to the Lord and sacrificing his own daughter. Then his long-distance kin, the Ephraimites trouble him with a complaint that points to their own failure to respond when called. [NOTE: Jephthah was from east-Manasseh; recall that Manasseh and Ephraim were brothers, Joseph’s two sons.] Jephthah tries to reason with them, accuses them rightly of their failure to come to his aid, then defeats them in battle. He then judges Israel (Gilead?) a few more years and dies peacefully.

Yes, Jephthah is a story of redemption, and possibly one close to home for a lot of us. How many of us have been mistreated or misjudged by our own family or by our nearby kin or by very dear friends? How did we react? Or maybe that mistreatment has been made right. Have we then moved on, or do we live with smoldering resentment? I believe we could write a good Sunday School story about Jephthah – but how would we deal with his vow and that tragic result? A good challenge for us! What are your thoughts?

Blessings!

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See also: March 16 (2023) / Judges 11-12.