Luther & Isaiah 45

All glory to God the Father

It has been a couple of weeks now since the end of October and I just now have had time to think. What I was thinking about is how things were, compare to how they are now. Back in the day, the end of October meant the start of fall and hunting season. I love the fall with cooler temperatures and trees quite often glorious with reds and golds. It also meant a pretty good haul of candy, when you were younger, on the last day of the month, Halloween. If you are interested in how Halloween started, there is quite a bit of history online about it.

Another thing that happened, way back in the day of 1517, was Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle. 

Luther as you might know was a monk, living the austere life that monks tend to have, and studied theology at the Erfurt University in Wittenberg. He received his doctorate and became a professor of Biblical studies. 

It was during this time that some theologians and scholars were beginning to question the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the reasons that became an issue is the translations of the original texts of the Bible and writings of an early church philosopher Augustine became more widely available.

Augustine lived around mid 300 AD and had emphasized the primacy of the Bible rather than Church officials as the ultimate religious authority. He also believed that humans could not reach salvation by their own acts, but only God could bestow salvation by His divine works. The Catholic Church taught that salvation was possible through good works of righteousness.

Let’s check and see what the Bible says

Galatians 2:16

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Romans 3:28

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 5:1 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The New Testament is loaded with references to this topic. 

The Old Testament also talks of this.

Habakkuk 2:4

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Genesis 15:6

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

One has to wonder what the Catholic Church had read to make them believe that works of man would impute righteousness and please God.

A topic for another time, perhaps. Luther was bothered by the practices of the Catholic Church, such as selling indulgences to provide absolution for sinners. The practice had been banned in Germany but still continued, unabated. A friar named Johann Tetzel  began selling indulgences in Germany to raise funds to renovate St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 

A medieval friar was a special kind of monk who was considerably different from the other monks. This special friar followed a kind of lifestyle which was based on the concept of penance as laid down in the Gospel and travelled to spread the word of God. 

Basically he was a traveling salesman for the church in Rome. Did some preaching, aligned with the practices of the Mother Church of course, but my overall impression of them was not favorable. Men of flesh teaching that the church and only the church would save you. And since most people back then could not read, they were prone to fear them and believe them. The favorite form of disciple from the church was burning at the stake. 

So Luther comes to the conclusion that something has to be done. He posts his theses on the door and it was not meant to be a provocative act. Lots of things were posted on these doors. It was a place where people posted things like “will take 2 chickens for splitting wood.” A local bulletin board for the middle ages. It is sometimes hard for us to remember that the Middle Ages did not have a very sophisticated communication method. Word of mouth or nailing a paper to the castle’s massive wooden door was about it. That is assuming, of course that you could read and write, which should not be taken for granted back then, or even now. I read a study recently that stated 80 percent of 8th graders have trouble reading. People are people, back then as now. When I was in 6th grade, I think I had read most of Mom’s Agatha Christie novels and had started to go to the library to find some English history novels, which earned my a scowl from the Librarian. And I was not unusual at all. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to why we are having this trouble now. 

Getting back to Luther, what happened and why I am talking about this now is some boys that had a new fangled printing press grabbed the paper and printed more than a few copies and posted them everywhere. Keep in mind that only people with an education could even understand that chicken scratching, so in effect, this was preaching to the choir.  I am not sure of their intentions, but it is very possible that the Holy Spirit was involved. 

This theses, the name Luther gave to it was “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,”  also known as “The 95 Theses.” Basically a list of questions and propositions for debate. That is what Luther wanted, a debate, but when the Church found his little paper posted all over Germany, they were not amused. One of the reasons was found in the 95 Theses: 

“Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”

A side note as to what a Crassus is:

The famous Roman politician Marcus Crassus was thought to be among the republic’s wealthiest, with a net worth of 200 million sesterces. So to be VERY general, a Roman sesterce in about AD1 would be worth “about” 2 US dollars.

By now, Luther’s list of debate topics had found its way to Rome. Luther was summoned to Augsburg, which is located in Southern Germany, and made to defend his opinions before an imperial diet, which is an assembly. The debate lasted three days between Luther and Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, and notably produced no agreement. Cajetan defended the church’s use of indulgences, but Luther refused to recant and returned to Wittenberg.

On November 9, 1518 the pope condemned Luther’s writings as conflicting with the teachings of the Church. One year later a series of commissions were convened to examine Luther’s teachings. The first papal commission found them to be heretical, but the second merely stated that Luther’s writings were “scandalous and offensive to pious ears.” Finally, in July 1520 Pope Leo X issued a papal bull, which is a public decree, that concluded that Luther’s propositions were heretical and gave Luther 120 days to recant in Rome. Luther refused to recant, and on January 3, 1521 Pope Leo excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic Church.

On April 17, 1521 Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms in Germany. Refusing again to recant, Luther ended his testimony with the defiant statement: “Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other.” On May 25, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V signed an edict against Luther, ordering his writings to be burned. At this point, they were actively trying to kill Luther and he hid in the town of Eisenach for the next year, where he began work on one of his major life projects, the translation of the New Testament into German, which took him 10 years to complete.

Now, I am sure you are thinking “This is fascinating, but what’s your point?”

Let’s have a show of hands of how many of us are, or have been Lutheran at some point in their life. Even if you are not, this is kind of a big deal that we didn’t grow up Catholic and thinking we could buy our relatives out of purgatory with the right amount of cash. And that whole Mary worship.

 My point is this, what became of Luther’s original complaint now becomes the 5 Solas which are: 

  1.   Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”): The Bible alone is our highest authority.
  2.   Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
  3.   Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.
  4.   Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
  5.   Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone. 

It also broke a significant portion of people that would been Catholics into Lutherans and Baptists and Methodists and so on.

After doing the research on this, build on research I had done in the past, I, my opinion, consider the Catholic Church to be apostate. They have not changed to any appreciable degree. Their Bible is not like our Bibles. I am not saying that there are not Christians in the Catholic Church, but it is like the general public, few and far between. They, for all intents and purposes, do not agree with the 5 Solas. That was the hardest thing to find out. Lots of humming and hawing around the bush. Some Luther hate, and a “Of course we can not condone the damage that Luther did to the Mother Church” Nobody wanted to come right out and say it, but impression is they do not agree with what was said.

Point 3 if we are still keeping track: 

My immediate family, my extended family no longer recognize that day as Halloween. It is now Reformation Day.

Let us now turn to Isaiah 45

God Uses Cyrus

1 Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed,

Whom I have taken by the right hand,

To subdue nations before him

And to loose the loins of kings;

To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

I find again to my chagrin that you can not trust anything written by the secular world when it comes to Bible history. I am sure I read something, somewhere that Cyrus was not a believer. Now, the statement above does not mean that he definitely was a believer, but being anointed by God is not a bad position to be in. 

The open doors are a reference to the many gates that were in the walls of Babylon in which Cyrus entered with ease. They apparently were so sure of their power that a watchman did not see the danger. The most applicable scripture is this Psalm 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.

Also in:

Micah 5:4 

4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock

In the strength of the Lord,

In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.

And they will remain,

Because at that time He will be great

To the ends of the earth.

2 “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth;

I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.

3 “I will give you the treasures of darkness

And hidden wealth of secret places,

So that you may know that it is I,

The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

God intended Cyrus to be aware that the God of the Jews was giving him victorious conquests. The early church historian Josephus indicated Daniel influenced Cyrus with the prophecy in Isaiah. The King did know that the God of Israel was with him.

4 “For the sake of Jacob My servant,

And Israel My chosen one,

I have also called you by your name;

I have given you a title of honor

Though you have not known Me.

5 “I am the Lord, and there is no other;

Besides Me there is no God.

I will gird you, though you have not known Me;

Twice God, Elohim, has said that you do not know me. It’s not like they hadn’t been told again and again by God’s prophets and during Isaiah’s timeline, of the 4 kings, only Ahaz was bad king, a very bad king. They should have known, but they had eyes to see, but could not:

Jeremiah 5:21

‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.

And it is the same today as it was back then. Eyes to see, but do not. Our Christian Churches cannot agree on what the Bible says. They refuse to either read or understand Romans 1:18-32. It is possible that these churches have had their eyes dimmed by God, like these people. Even the 5 Solas would be an argument. Fear the Lord, serve the Lord, reap the blessing of our Lord, or be judged.

6 That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun

That there is no one besides Me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

7 The One forming light and creating darkness,

Causing well-being and creating calamity;

I am the Lord who does all these.

God’s Supreme Power

8 “Drip down, O heavens, from above,

And let the clouds pour down righteousness;

Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit,

And righteousness spring up with it.

I, the Lord, have created it.

Eventually the Lord will cause righteous goodness to prevail throughout the world. Just like He promised Israel He would. 

Hosea 10:12

Sow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with kindness;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the Lord

Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

9 “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—

An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!

Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’

Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?

Today we have, as a culture, a very vocal group telling us that children are wiser than we, the adults and we should listen to them. Much like the clay (Us) telling the potter (God) it is by our own conniving works that we will be saved.

Job 15:25

Because he has stretched out his hand against God

And conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.

10 “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’

Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”

11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:

“Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons,

And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.

The Lord commands Israel to seek information about what He will do for the nation in the future, for he will reveal it.

12 “It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it.

I stretched out the heavens with My hands

And I ordained all their host.

As our Creator, God can save the nation through Cyrus, as he had promised.

13 “I have aroused him in righteousness

And I will make all his ways smooth;

He will build My city and will let My exiles go free,

Without any payment or reward,” says the Lord of hosts.

14 Thus says the Lord,

“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush

And the Sabeans, men of stature,

Will come over to you and will be yours;

They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains

And will bow down to you;

They will make supplication to you:

‘Surely, God is with you, and there is none else,

No other God.’”

These countries are primarily pagan and idol makers. They will be made to be in submission to Israel during the Messianic age. 

15 Truly, You are a God who hides Himself,

O God of Israel, Savior!

Psalm 44:24

Why do You hide Your face

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

At times, for Israel then and for us now, God seems to have hidden his face from us. Is that so, or is it that we are in sin and will not receive His blessing until we follow his will? A father will discipline his children and that’s never a pleasant place to be. There are many references in the Bible of God hiding his face. 

Micah 3:4

Then they will cry out to the LORD, But He will not answer them Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.

That pretty much sums up why it seems like God is not paying attention to us, don’t you think?

16 They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them;

The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation.

Idols, idols, idols. We know how God feels about idols.

Exodus 20:3

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

Pretty much the first commandment and one that got ignored too many times to count.

17 Israel has been saved by the Lord

With an everlasting salvation;

You will not be put to shame or humiliated

To all eternity.

Romans 11:26

and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,

He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”

Here we have the New Testament going back to the Old Testament because it is God’s Living Word. What was true then, is true now, and we can use His Living Word to go back to then to prove it now. Just like they did. Neat how that works.

18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),

“I am the Lord, and there is none else.

If by now, that is not obvious… but there are still people with eyes that cannot see. The non-elect will not hear nor understand the message. We are asked to examine ourselves, to make sure you are on the right path, aligning with God’s will.

2 Corinthians 13:5 

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you– unless indeed you fail the test? 

However, when you converted to Christ, believed and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior…

John 6:4

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

So take heart, you’re going to have bad days. Days when you worry that you are not worthy to be a child of God. Remember that the Father drew you, the Holy Spirit is within you and you will be convicted at times, but also sanctified and on that last day, our Savior will raise us up.

19 “I have not spoken in secret,

In some dark land;

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

‘Seek Me in a waste place’;

I, the Lord, speak righteousness,

Declaring things that are upright.

Our God is a God of light and order, not darkness and chaos.

20 “Gather yourselves and come;

Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;

They have no knowledge,

Who carry about their wooden idol

And pray to a god who cannot save.

We are talking to idols again. Dead, inanimate things that the people turned to time and time again.

21 “Declare and set forth your case;

Indeed, let them consult together.

Who has announced this from of old?

Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.

23 “I have sworn by Myself,

The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness

And will not turn back,

That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

Hebrews 6:13

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.

Romans 14:11

For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,

And every tongue shall give praise to God.”

24 “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’

Men will come to Him,

And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.

25 “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel

Will be justified and will glory.”

Let us end with this Psalm:

Psalm 16:8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

 

Wednesday Bible Study Isaiah 44 & 1 Kings 8-9

All glory to God our Father

Let us turn now to Isaiah 44 and read it together.

The Blessings of Israel

1 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant,

And Israel, whom I have chosen:

2 Thus says the Lord who made you

And formed you from the womb, who will help you,

‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant;

And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

Jershurn is yet another name, and an honored one, for Israel. It means righteous or straight and is in contrast to Jacob, which means over reacher or deceiver. Possibly even trickster. 

Lest you think this is a one time use of this new name, not so. While you were perusing Deuteronomy, you would have encountered it first in: – You were perusing Deuteronomy weren’t you?

Deuteronomy 32:15

“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—

You are grown fat, thick, and sleek—

Then he forsook God who made him,

And scorned the Rock of his salvation.

Also in:

Deuteronomy 33:5

“And He was king in Jeshurun,

When the heads of the people were gathered,

The tribes of Israel together.

Let’s go back up to the first one, Deuteronomy 32:15 and consider that for a moment. 

Deuteronomy was written by Moses, in Moses’s day, around 1400 BC. The book is right after Numbers, in case you didn’t happen to read it yet. The Hebrew translation is “These are the words”, from the first 2 Hebrew words in Deuteronomy. When the Greek Septuagint translated this book, they got the name wrong. Their version means “Copy of this Law.” A better description of it is “a record of Moses’ words of explanation concerning the Law.”  It is a bit legal and dry to read, but instructive all the same.

Moses wrote that Jeshurun had grown fat and kicked. Meaning that Israel had gotten quite happy with itself and started to rebel against their God. Elohim, and we are dealing with the Hebrew word for God now, because they are all Hebrew and this was well before the Middle Ages came and started dropping J’s all over the place. So Elohim had brought his people out of Egypt and blessed them, because they were his people and He was their God. I keep bringing this up because it is important. This is where God’s plan for bringing salvation to his people, through is Son, Jesus Christ into fruition. And from the word Go, those Jeshurunites, those sons of Jacob were not buying into the program. And as of this day, those stiff necked Jews are still not buying into the program. 

Getting back to Deuteronomy, the book itself does not advance chronologically from the last 2 books and takes place in one location and for a period of about a month. And that month is the last month of Moses’s life. Elohim had told him he would not be crossing over to the promised land. He and his people were encamped in the rift valley, on the plains of Moab, near Jericho. This book is Moses last words of divine revelation from God to the people of Israel. 

Like an ox who has gotten fat and intractable, the people of Jacob were not living up to God’s Law. A more valid question would be, when did they live up to God’s Law? We will have to chase that down another day.

3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land

And streams on the dry ground;

I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring

And My blessing on your descendants;

4 And they will spring up among the grass

Like poplars by streams of water.’

5 “This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;

And that one will call on the name of Jacob;

And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the Lord,’

And will name Israel’s name with honor.

6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

‘I am the first and I am the last,

And there is no God besides Me.

7 ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it;

Yes, let him recount it to Me in order,

From the time that I established the ancient nation.

And let them declare to them the things that are coming

And the events that are going to take place.

We have heard this same argument from God 2 or 3 times now in Isaiah. God is, quite reasonably, asking “Who is like me? Let them come forward and state their case.”

There must have been a very uncomfortable silence when that was asked.

8 ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid;

Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?

And you are My witnesses.

Is there any God besides Me,

Or is there any other Rock?

I know of none.’”

The Folly of Idolatry

9 Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. 

10 Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? 

11 Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.

12 The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 

13 Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. 

14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 

15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. 

16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 

17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 

19 No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” 

20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Another talk about idols, that we have heard, again, many times. These Jews had a thing choosing poorly. But we must not laugh at their expense. Are we any different? Since Hollywood came into existence, we have had our own idols. In fact it has become so pervasive that now it has just about overtaken our culture. You have a favorite movie star or more modern media personality, maybe a sports team? Would you rather watch your favorite movie, tv show or sports game than read the Bible, go to Church or do the Lord’s work? These media personalities or sports stars that so capture our attention, we now have them telling us how to live, how to be more virtuous. Telling young women that you no longer have to be a slave to a family, raise kids and all that. No, get an abortion, live your own life. And young women are listening. From the Census in 2016, of the 11 million families in America without spouses, 8.3 million of them were single mothers. If the trend continues, single parent homes will eclipse traditional family homes in the not too distant future.

From 1970 to 2015 there were 45.7 million legal abortions in our country.

Hitler only killed about 6 million Jews. Our country, following the lead of satan, has far surpassed that. Stalin said “a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.” And that is how people are treating it. A mere statistic, not the horror that it is. God is watching and there is a very strong possibility that He has removed his blessing from the USA. I recommend that you all read Romans 1:18-32 later today.

Out of all that bad news, we can take heart that we have a Merciful and Loving God.

God Forgives and Redeems

21 “Remember these things, O Jacob,

And Israel, for you are My servant;

I have formed you, you are My servant,

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.

22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud

And your sins like a heavy mist.

Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!

Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth;

Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,

O forest, and every tree in it;

For the Lord has redeemed Jacob

And in Israel He shows forth His glory.

24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,

 and the one who formed you from the womb,

“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,

Stretching out the heavens by Myself

And spreading out the earth all alone,

25 Causing the omens of boasters to fail,

Making fools out of diviners,

Causing wise men to draw back

And turning their knowledge into foolishness,

26 Confirming the word of His servant

And performing the purpose of His messengers.

It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’

And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’

And I will raise up her ruins again.

27 “It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’

And I will make your rivers dry.

28 “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!

And he will perform all My desire.’

And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’

And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”

1 Kings 8 to 9

When last we left Solomon, everything was going well. The Lord’s Temple was done but for the details and so was his Palace. Let us turn to 1 Kings 8 and pick up the story.

The Ark Brought into the Temple

1 Kings 8

1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion. 

2 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 

3 Then all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 

4 They brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils, which were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought them up. 

5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered. 

6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. 

7 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above. 

8 But the poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day. 

9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 

10 It happened that when the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, 

11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

Then Solomon faced the crowd and addressed the people.

12 Then Solomon said,

“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

13 “I have surely built You a lofty house,

A place for Your dwelling forever.”

He then blesses the people and gives a prayer of dedication and benediction. What do you do after you’ve built the Lord’s Temple, thanked the Lord and blessed the people? Sacrifices, of course. They now had a beautiful temple to do the sacrifices in and this was something they had waited for a long time. In Israel today, they have all the material to build the Lord’s temple anew, just waiting for someone to give them permission to start building. It is thought that it will be the antichrist that will be that person. As I said before, the Jews have still not gotten with the program.

Getting back to Solomon and sacrifices, they offered to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And I imagine it must have taken more than a day to get that done. 

While all the Levite priests were hip deep in blood, Solomon observed a feast with all Israel, and that was quite a feast. 

1 Kings 8:65-66

65 So Solomon observed the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, for seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days. 

66 On the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king. Then they went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people.

Seems like a good time was had by all. One of the few times Israel was happy and aligned with the Lord. 

Let us now turn to 1 Kings 9 and see that God gives a promise and a warning.

1 Kings 9

God’s Promise and Warning

1 Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do, 

2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 

3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 

4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 

5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 

8 And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 

9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”

A quote from the 80’s “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” I imagine that’s how Solomon was thinking. And could you blame him? God made him the wisest, wealthiest and pretty good looking to boot. Everything is coming up roses. 

Next week, the Queen of Sheba comes a callin’ to see just how dang smart ole Solomon is.

We will find out then.  Let finish this with:

Psalm 145:1-3

1 I will extol You, my God, O King,

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,

And His greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.

5 On the glorious splendor of Your majesty

And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.

6 Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts,

And I will tell of Your greatness.

7 They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness

And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful;

Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

9 The Lord is good to all,

And His mercies are over all His works.

10 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord,

And Your godly ones shall bless You.

11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom

And talk of Your power;

12 To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts

And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

14 The Lord sustains all who fall

And raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look to You,

And You give them their food in due time.

16 You open Your hand

And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways

And kind in all His deeds.

18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He will also hear their cry and will save them.

20 The Lord keeps all who love Him,

But all the wicked He will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

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Wednesday Bible Study Isaiah 43 & 1 Kings 3-7

All glory to God our Father

Revelation 21:5: “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

Our King Jesus told John this from His throne in Revelation, but it holds for the whole book. Keep that in mind when you hear that this Bible is too old and outdated to be of use.

Let us turn to Isaiah 43 where we find El Shaddai, that is Hebrew for Mighty One, speaking to Israel, about to redeem them with these words from his prophet.

1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob,

And He who formed you, O Israel,

We are going to pause right here and find the first reference of Jacob as Israel.

Genesis 32:28

He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

This was right after Jacob wrestled a man till daybreak. That man was Jesus. Jacob had been concerned over meeting his brother Esau again after so many years, remembering that he stole Esau’s birthright and ran off to live with Laban and gain 2 wives. He was thinking it might not go well so he sent his 2 wives, 11 children and all the rest that he had, across the stream and then went back across to spend the night alone, brooding over the coming day. God arranged that for Jacob, just like he arranges our lives for us. Have you ever had something happen at just the right time and place, that you wondered at it? I believe we would call serendipitous, works of God we are too self absorbed or just plain clueless to understand. Never discount how God works in our lives and put it down to luck.

So Jacob gets named Israel and those 2 names become interchangeable and used many times in the Bible. Isaiah uses it this way 21 times in his book of prophecy. And in that form, it is God’s special attachment to the seed of Abraham.

Back to the verse at hand:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name; you are Mine!

This is the best thing that could ever be said to a people, “You are Mine! This redemption God is talking about will not be complete until Christ returns to reign over his faithful remnant, all those who believed and accepted Christ.

Verse 2:

2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame burn you.

This is symbolic of all the travails that we will be confronted with throughout the centuries. God promises them, they, the remnant, will survive it all.

3 “For I am the Lord your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I have given Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your place.

God delivered his chosen from Egypt and will also deliver them from Babylon and all future exiles. Cush was Ethiopia and Seba is in Southern Arabia, across the Red Sea. They became compensation, so that God could spare Israel.

Verse 4

4 “Since you are precious in My sight,

Since you are honored and I love you,

I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.

5 “Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

And gather you from the west.

6 “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’

And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring My sons from afar

And My daughters from the ends of the earth,

We saw this in 1948 when the Jews came back home. Called from the ends of the earth.

Verse 7

7 Everyone who is called by My name,

And whom I have created for My glory,

Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Israel Is God’s Witness

8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes,

And the deaf, even though they have ears.

This speaks of them having their spiritual eyesight and hearing restored.

Back in chapter 6, Isaiah was talking to a people that could not see or hear the word of God.

Jeremiah 5:21 said the same thing:

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not.

Verse 9

9 All the nations have gathered together

So that the peoples may be assembled.

Who among them can declare this

And proclaim to us the former things?

Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified,

Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”

Those smooth talking idolatrous soothsayers could not predict Cyrus would deliver Israel from Babylon. The gods of those nations showed no ability to predict anything at all. They had no witnesses to accredit their gods that they could speak prophetically. 

Verse 10

10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“And My servant whom I have chosen,

So that you may know and believe Me

And understand that I am He.

Before Me there was no God formed,

And there will be none after Me.

On the other hand, Israel’s God was able to not only predict the future, but could make the present do what He wanted. Thereby enabling Israel to witness accurately that their God was real and a Mighty God!

Verse 11

11 “I, even I, am the Lord,

And there is no savior besides Me.

12 “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed,

And there was no strange god among you;

So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“And I am God.

El Shaddai!

Verse 13

13 “Even from eternity I am He,

And there is none who can deliver out of My hand;

I act and who can reverse it?”

Deuteronomy 32:39

‘See now that I, I am He,

And there is no god besides Me;

It is I who put to death and give life.

I have wounded and it is I who heal,

And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

Babylon to Be Destroyed

Verse 14

14 Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,

“For your sake I have sent to Babylon,

And will bring them all down as fugitives,

Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice.

Babylon was very proud of those ships and now the fugitives of the conquering arrny of Cyrus left in those very ships to escape Judgement. 

Verse 15

15 “I am the Lord, your Holy One,

The Creator of Israel, your King.”

The Lord was King over Israel from the very beginning, but the people asked for a human King.

1 Samuel 8:4-7

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.

From king, small caps, to KING, all caps

Luke 1:31-33

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;

33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Verse 16

16 Thus says the Lord,

Who makes a way through the sea

And a path through the mighty waters,

17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse,

The army and the mighty man

(They will lie down together and not rise again;

They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick):

18 “Do not call to mind the former things,

Or ponder things of the past.

Deliverance of the nation in the past will look small in comparison to the future deliverance that the Lord will give his people.

Verse 19

19 “Behold, I will do something new,

Now it will spring forth;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.

20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me,

The jackals and the ostriches,

Because I have given waters in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert,

To give drink to My chosen people.

21 “The people whom I formed for Myself

Will declare My praise.

Elohim, that is God in Hebrew, is telling His people that He is God over all, which seems obvious to us, well some of us in this age, but not so much to his people back then. They had a notoriously short memory and a what have you done for Me lately attitude. Idolatry was rampant back then. As evidenced by how many times God asked rhetorically for the idols to come up with something, anything at all. Which of course they could not.

1 Kings 18:21

Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. 

450 prophets of Baal and they could not get a response from their god, even after cutting themselves and becoming hoarse from shouting to get Baal’s attention. 

Elijah’s God not only burned the sacrifice, but the stone altar and the water that was in the ditch. That’s a great story and I encourage you to investigate it on your own.

God has a grievance with the people.

The Shortcomings of Israel

Verse 22

22 “Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;

But you have become weary of Me, O Israel.

23 “You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,

Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings,

Nor wearied you with incense.

24 “You have bought Me not sweet cane with money,

Nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;

Rather you have burdened Me with your sins,

You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

Can you imagine what God thinks of us today??? We no longer have to sacrifice or follow the Law. We merely believe and accept His Son as our Savior and Lord. Elohei Chasdi, which is The God Of My Kindness, in Hebrew. For God is my stronghold, the God (Elohim) who shows me lovingkindness (Chasdi). Psalm 59:17.

Today, with all the pull of our modern life style, looking up from our phones takes more willpower than many people have. Our Merciful God has offered us a wonderful gift. He wants our worries, all of them, so that we might not be burdened. And he wants the details of our life, the good things, the bad things, the mundane things. A Father is interested in His children.

Verse 25

25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.

God hates sin and He won’t remember ours. The only thing better than that is eternal salvation.

In spite of Israel’s absolute unworthiness, the turning away, wanting their own king, idolatry and all that, God is still offering His hand and will not remember their sins. A merciful God indeed.

Verse 26

26 “Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together;

State your cause, that you may be proved right.

27 “Your first forefather sinned,

And your spokesmen have transgressed against Me.

Sins of their patriarchal ancestors, like Abraham, kept them from claiming personal merit. 

Verse 28

28 “So I will pollute the princes of the sanctuary,

And I will consign Jacob to the ban and Israel to revilement.

Even though God will forgive the nation in the messianic age, she must still suffer in the intervening interval.

Let us now turn to 1 Kings Chapter 3, and pick up where we left off last week.

God had blessed Solomon with great wisdom and here we find that he is judging a complaint made by 2 women. Harlots living in the same house and had babies within days of each other. One woman slept upon her baby son and smothered it. On finding this she took her dead son and swapped it out with the other woman’s live son. The other woman, waking in the morning and trying to nurse her son, found it was dead. But looking closely, she was able to tell it was not her son at all. So now they are standing before their King and Judge. 

Turn now to verse 23 and let us read how Solomon judged.

1 Kings 3:23

23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” 24 The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” 27 Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” 28 When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

A very well known story, I think I heard a more sanitized version of it in Sunday school. We didn’t talk about harlots in those days, possibly just women living together and we were left to draw our own conclusions as to why women did things like that. I still wonder sometimes.

Solomon had indeed been given great wisdom. He now acquired much wealth and power to go with that, like bookends. The scripture talks of how many horses and chariots he had, how much stuff it took to run the kingdom from day to day. A staggering amount of provisions that were brought in from all over the kingdom. Everybody shared the burden of keeping the King and his people well fed and happy. While this was going on, Solomon was said to have spoke 3000 proverbs and over 1000 songs. He was known far and wide as the wisest King. 

1 Kings 4:34

Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Solomon now forms an alliance with King Hiram of Tyre, which is just North of Solomon’s Kingdom. Hiram had been a friend of King David and was happily surprised that Solomon turned out to be a chip off the ole block, so to speak. Hiram lived in the hill country with all the trees and his people were known for their skill in lumbering and shipbuilding. 

1 Kings 5:3-6

3 “You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. 5 Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.’ 6 Now therefore, command that they cut for me cedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

And Hiram was pleased…

1 Kings 5:7

7 When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”

So Solomon starts work on the house for the Lord. A big job like that takes a lot of people. The conscription of forced labor, malcontents, people conquered and captured in war, 30,000 of them were levied from all across Israel. He sent them in relay, 10,000 a month. They worked 1 month in Lebanon and 2 months at home. This project required a tremendous amount of skilled labor also.

1 Kings 5:15-18

Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, 16 besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. 17 Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. 18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.

It was the 480th year, since they walked out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, taking a slight 40 year detour in desert for bad attitudes and now the Lord’s house is being built. So far, so good. Solomon is getting busy, building things, astounding all with his wisdom. He seems to have his head in the game. This is where pride lurks, when you are doing well and feeling good about it. I’ve felt it, back in the day when I rebuilt an entire School District’s technology backbone. Basically stuff I learned and I have always been good at learning on my own. Came up with a plan, gave it to my Boss and he said make it so, and I did. The best part was, it was free. I used technology that they already had and made it work my way. I actually felt pride flowing through my fingertips as I typed this. Dangerous stuff.

1 Kings 6:11-14

Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. 13 I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”

I think God had seen in Solomon, the beginnings of the corrosive agent of pride and gave him a little pep talk. “You’re doing good Son, keep up the good work and I will not have to take off my belt and give you a whoopin.”

1 Kings 6:37-38

In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.

The Lord’s House is done and it is beautiful! Gold and Cedar, it must have smelled wonderful, until they started sacrifices again. Now Solomon starts on his palace, because what good is it to be King if you don’t have a super swell palace to lounge in. He also hires a skilled bronze craftsman named Hiram from Tyre. It must have been a common name, either that or the King of Tyre named Hiram, moonlighted in bronze for walking around money. Whoever this Hiram guy was, he was good at what he did. He outfitted the Lord’s house, gave it all the bells and whistles it needed. A very handy guy to have around.

We finish it out here with Solomon being just about done with the Temple.

1 Kings 7:51

Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

Everything is going well. The Temple has a few details left to get done. Solomon’s house is also about done. What is Solomon going to do with his time now? We will find out next week.

Let us end with a couple of proverbs from Solomon about pride. 

Proverbs 11:2

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 27:2

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;

A stranger, and not your own lips.

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Wednesday Bible Study Isaiah 42 and 1st Kings 1-3

All glory to God our Father.

Let us turn to Isaiah 42. I want you to keep in mind while we go through this scripture that the Holy Spirit was speaking through Isaiah about Our Savior Jesus Christ 600 years before Christ was born. Imagine if we were given an important message 600 years before the event. How would we as a people react? 600 years ago was 1419. That was before the printing press, which was still a couple of decades to come, and even before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. A very large chunk of time, and the amazing thing to me is this book spans 1500 years, written by around 40 authors. A consistent story of the Grace and Mercy of God and the coming of His Son Jesus Christ. I have had people tell me that the Bible is a fairy tail, couldn’t be true. 

How could it not be? People generally can’t agree on the color of the sky, but this Book, written by many different men, over a really long period of time, and they kept the message? How does that happen except by the hand of God. Yet the unbelievers scoff, can’t understand, it just don’t make sense to them. It does to us and that in itself is proof of God’s hand. Just something to consider…

1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

    and he will bring justice to the nations.

An interesting observation of content and meaning between different versions of the Bible. I primarily have used the NIV version because it is a bit easier to read and I really get tired of all those Thees and Thous. However, the NIV version has been known to condense or paraphrase the Word of God down to something that changes the meaning, at least for me. We keep a King James version, in fact my wife uses it, to check on things now and then. This is one of those times. The King James version of verse 3 is this:

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,

My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him;

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

 

Did you notice the difference? Just one word, will over have, put a gnat in my orange juice, so to speak. Does it change the meaning for you? It did for me. The NIV states that God will put His spirit on Jesus. The King James states that He did put His spirit on our Savior. Both are true. When Isaiah was speaking it was a future event, where God will do this thing. But God is everlasting, meaning that there was never a time when God was not around. And He knew that we, the people of this day would be reading it and His spirit had already been placed on Jesus.

Now, in the big picture view, where we all hold hands and sing Kumbiya, I suppose it doesn’t change all that much, but it sort of bugged me.

Getting back to verse 1 of Isaiah 42, I think we will go with the King James version at least verse one.

1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,

My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him;

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

Matthew 3:16-17

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

2 He will not shout or cry out,

    or raise his voice in the streets.

3 A bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

4  he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on earth.

    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Our Lord Jesus is the servant that our Heavenly Father delights in. So gentle that he does not break a bruised reed.

 Matthew 21:7-9

7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’

Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 20:28 Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus rode a donkey when he came the first time. 

Yet when he comes back the second time, He will be riding a white horse and come as a conquering King. 

Revelation 19:11-16

11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 

12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 

13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 

14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 

15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 

16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

5 This is what God the Lord says—

the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,

    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,

    who gives breath to its people,

    and life to those who walk on it:

6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;

    I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

    to be a covenant for the people

    and a light for the Gentiles,

7 to open eyes that are blind,

    to free captives from prison

    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!

    I will not yield my glory to another

    or my praise to idols.

9 See, the former things have taken place,

    and new things I declare;

before they spring into being

 I announce them to you.”

10 Sing to the Lord a new song,

    his praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

    you islands, and all who live in them.

11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;

    let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy;

    let them shout from the mountaintops.

12 Let them give glory to the Lord

    and proclaim his praise in the islands.

13 The Lord will march out like a champion,

    like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;

with a shout he will raise the battle cry

    and will triumph over his enemies.

14 “For a long time I have kept silent,

    I have been quiet and held myself back.

But now, like a woman in childbirth,

    I cry out, I gasp and pant.

15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills

    and dry up all their vegetation;

I will turn rivers into islands

    and dry up the pools.

16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

    along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them

    and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

    I will not forsake them.

What a wonderful message, the mighty hand of God stretches out and gives us breath. He opens the eyes of the blind and frees captives of their prison. Our enemies are but dust before Him. He will smooth the rough places and will not forsake us. 

That was the good news part of the scripture. God will do and has done all these things, but we must fear our Creator too. Those who do not accept his Son as Lord and Savior and walk in righteousness will suffer His wrath.

17 But those who trust in idols,

    who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’

    will be turned back in utter shame.

18 “Hear, you deaf;

    look, you blind, and see!

19 Who is blind but my servant,

    and deaf like the messenger I send?

Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,

    blind like the servant of the Lord?

20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;

    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”

21 It pleased the Lord

    for the sake of his righteousness

    to make his law great and glorious.

22 But this is a people plundered and looted,

    all of them trapped in pits

    or hidden away in prisons.

They have become plunder,

    with no one to rescue them;

they have been made loot,

    with no one to say, “Send them back.”

23 Which of you will listen to this

    or pay close attention in time to come?

24 Who handed Jacob over to become loot,

    and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord,

    against whom we have sinned?

For they would not follow his ways;

    they did not obey his law.

25 So he poured out on them his burning anger,

    the violence of war.

It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;

    it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

God the Father will shower Blessings upon us if we do as He asks. And as our Holy Father, He will discipline us when we stray and we will stray. The price of sin is death but He has given us His Son, our High Priest and Savior, that we might live.

Let us now step back a bit further and turn to 1 Kings 1 and see just how God’s children, those brothers of Joseph, who became very fruitful on the plains of Goshen, why had they become the idol worshipers of Isaiah’s day. 

This is one of the great stories of the Bible. David, the King of Israel is now an old man and could not keep warm. So his administrators searched the land and found a beautiful virgin named Abishag to nurse him and keep him warm. I think this is where the saying “It’s good to be King” arose from. It was during this time that one of his sons decided that he would now be king. It appears that David was a father that spared the rod and spoiled the child. You will recall that this had happened before with another Son. Absalom was another who exalted himself, and he had great hair. 

2 Samuel 14:25-26

25 Now in all Israel was no one as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no defect in him. 

26 When he cut the hair of his head (and it was at the end of every year that he cut it, for it was heavy on him so he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels by the king’s weight.

That’s almost 5 pounds of hair. He tried to be king but it didn’t work out. You could say his hair did him in.

2 Samuel 18: 9-15

9 Now Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. For Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. And his head caught fast in the oak, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him kept going. 

10 When a certain man saw it, he told Joab and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.” 

11 Then Joab said to the man who had told him, “Now behold, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? And I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.” 

12 The man said to Joab, “Even if I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Protect for me the young man Absalom!’ 

13 Otherwise, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.” 

14 Then Joab said, “I will not waste time here with you.” So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. 

15 And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor gathered around and struck Absalom and killed him.

David’s sons thought much of themselves and now while David is an old man, just trying to stay warm, another son, Adonijah, decides now is the time to be King. But God makes the decisions here, not man and it was such that Solomon was made King. Because it was promised to Solomon’s Mother, but mostly because God wanted Solomon to be King. Much like God chose David to be King, instead of his handsome brothers.

1 Samuel 16:6-13

6 When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” 

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 

9 Next Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 

10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 

11 And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are these all the children?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.”

David Anointed

12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” 

13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

Another would-be king finds that his aspirations did not meet with God’s approval.

So now David now charges Solomon to walk in the Lord’s way…

1 Kings 2:1-4

1 As David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, 

2 “I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. 

3 Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, 

4 so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

David now goes to be with the Lord and Solomon starts to get busy with running the Kingdom. His father, David, left him a bucket list of people needing attention.

Adonijah the would-be King was executed. He asked for Abishag as a wife and Solomon did not find favor with that request.

Joab the bloody and traitorous head of David’s army is executed.

Shimei is executed for leaving his home when Solomon had told him not to. Shemei had cursed David mightily and David had told him that he would not put him to the sword. Never said anything about his son not doing it.

Solomon marries the daughter of Pharaoh and gets asked a question from God.

1 Kings 3:1-15

Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 

2 The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.

3 Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 

4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 

5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.”

Solomon’s Prayer

6 Then Solomon said, “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 

7 Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 

8 Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. 

9 So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

God’s Answer

10 It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. 

11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, 

12 behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. 

13 I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. 

14 If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”

15 Then Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

What a deal! Solomon only wanted discernment and wisdom enough to run his kingdom. God was delighted with that humble request and said yes to that and MORE. Which we will find is a double edged sword in a sense. Get everything you didn’t even ask for and see what a mere sinful man will do with it. And we will pursue that next time.