Month: October 2017

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10/10 Reading (1 Samuel 10-12; 1 Corinthians 13)

1 Samuel 10: Saul is anointed king by Samuel. Samuel explains some of the signs he will see and tells Saul to wait 7 days for him. Samuel brings all of the tribes together and initially admonishes them again for selecting a human king over God. He then brings forward the Benjamin tribe, then the Matri family, and then selected Saul. Not everyone was happy with this decision, with some refusing to give him any gifts of appreciation.

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10/9 Reading (1 Samuel 7-9; 1 Corinthians 12)

1 Samuel 7: After 20 long years of the Ark remaining in Kiriath-jearim, Israel ā€œyearned for the Lordā€ (CEB Study Bible; 1 Sam 7.2). Samuel told the people to stop worshipping the foreign gods and they did. He told them to assemble in Mizpah so we could pray to God for them. Upon hearing of everyone gathering in one location, the Philistines decided to attack everyone there and defeat Israel once and for all. Iā€™m guessing 20 years made them forget what happened when they possessed the Ark, because this was a bad idea!! While Samuel prayed to God for help, he struck down the Philistines. The Israelite soldiers attacked and killed the Philistines. This led to the return of the various towns the Philistines had captures from Israel.

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10/7 Reading (1 Samuel 4-6; Psalms 41-44)

1 Samuel 4: This is the beginning of a troubling time for Israel. They lose in a massive battle to the Philistines. Remembering that bringing the Ark of the Covenant along to a battle worked in the past, Israel did this again. However, they lost and actually lost the Ark to the Philistines. Eliā€™s sons are both killed in battle and Eli falls out of his chair and breaks his neck upon learning of the death of his sons and the loss of the Ark.

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10/6 Reading (1 Samuel 1-3; 1 Corinthians 11)

Introduction to 1 Samuel: After reading the introduction to 1 Samuel in the CEB study bible, Iā€™m excited about reading both books of Samuel. Iā€™m finally getting into King David. The overview of Samuel from the CEB study bible is interesting. I will actually touch on it when I get to 2 Samuel as the introduction is the same. I think one reason it is the same is because according to the notes in the CEB version and the NRSV version, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel used to be one book. The original book was split into two books ā€œin the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible and grouped together with the book of Kings (also divided in two) to form 1-4 Reigns or 1-4 Kingdoms. These divisions were later introduced into Hebrew Bibles and subsequently became standard.ā€ (NRSV, p. 399)

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10/5 Reading (Ruth 1-4; 1 Corinthians 10)

One thing Iā€™ve learned during this experience is that itā€™s challenging to reflect on individual chapters in each book. Sometimes itā€™s more appropriate to reflect on the three readings from the OT as one statement. Thatā€™s what I will do from time to time.

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What do I believe?

I was running earlier today with a good friend of mine and we were talking about the Bible study. We started talking about what people believe when it comes to the Bible. I mentioned how most in the Episcopal Church view the Bible (not as a literal document) and he said something along the lines of I didn’t have to just believe what the Episcopal Church says I should believe. That got me thinking and led to this post: What do I believe? I anticipate that my answers to this question will change throughout this experience, but I thought I’d take a crack at it now.

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10/4 Reading (Judges 19-21; 1 Corinthians 9)

Judges 19: Just as with Judges 18, this chapter starts with the same phrase: ā€œIn those days there was no king in Israelā€ (Judges 19.1). This chapter was disturbing. We see a Levite who marries a second woman (heā€™s already married), who then gets mad and heads to her fatherā€™s house. The man goes to her and brings her home after several days. On the way they have to stay in a town. They are taken in by a foreigner. While there, the men of this town surround the house demanding to have sex with the Levite. He ends up sending his wife out and they proceed to rape and abuse her all night. She dies from this treatment. The husband sees her the next morning, throws her over his donkey, gets back home, cuts up her body into twelve pieces, and sends the pieces of her body into all of the areas of Israel. Um…what!!!!!!!!!!!

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10/3 Reading (Judges 16-18; 1 Corinthians 8)

Judges 16: Now we get to the story of Samson and Delilah. Delilah was a Philistine woman. The leaders get her to seduce him and see how they can overpower his strength. He gives her three different explanations and each fails: tie him up with 7 fresh bowstrings, tie him up with new ropes, and weave the 7 braids of his hair into one. After the third failure, Delilah says ā€œā€˜How can you say, ā€˜I love you,ā€™ when you wonā€™t trust meā€™ā€ (CEB Study Bible; Judges 16.15)? Wait, what? That makes no sense. Finally he tells her that if his hair is shaved off, he will be weak. That works! Idiot! The Philistines take him captive and poke out his eyes. But…his hair starts to grow back while in captivity.

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10/2 Reading (Judges 13-15; 1 Corinthians 7)

NOTE: I had a lot to say about this reading.

Judges 13: Now we get to the Israelites again doing bad things. Dang, youā€™d think they learn from their mistakes. Although when I said that to a friend of mine, he said it kinda reminds him of society now. Iā€™m not going to go there today, but thatā€™s an interesting perspective. I digress. This time the Israelites are ruled for 40 years by the Philistines.

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9/30 Reading (Judges 10-12; Psalms 38-40)

Judges 10: Some more information about other judges who helped the Israelites. After two judges, Tola and Jair, led the people for 45 years total, the Israelites fell back into their routine of worshipping other gods. The initial difference this time is when they called out to God for help after many years of living under the rule of the Philistines and the Ammonites, God says he doesnā€™t want to help them because they keep doing the same thing over and over again. Eventually God relented and provided a ruler who could defeat the Ammonites.

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