Year One Week One

I bought a new devotional study bible and it has a 2 year reading plan. I'm planning on tracking my reading here. Day 1 looks fairly light: Read Genesis Introduction and Key Verse. The reading suggests that to know where we are going, we need to know our origins and heritage. The key verse is Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Those who walk in pride

Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Nebu was a great and powerful king and God showed him some amazing things but one day 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” And then it all fell apart. He spent time living humbly- a great king. Until he could see the pride. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Do we see all the pride we have? Are we looking? Are we dealing with it before God has to?

unity

Nehemiah, in the book of the same name, is rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He has God's favor. He rallied the people and work began. But was there unity? Neh 3:5 gives us a glimpse of that "The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, buttheir nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors". I am glad that they show that even when moving under God's direction everything is not unicorns and rainbows.

The stump

Isaiah 6:13 "The holy seed will be the stump in the land".
This phrase has been going through my head for the last few days.
I see people who have a background with Christ but have turned away. I see that the holy seed is the stump in their land.
I see the Christian background of the country as a stump in the land.
A stump is always there- unless you take real effort to remove the stump and the roots, it's going to stay. It will always be there as a reminder.

Jehu

One of my favorite Bible characters is Jehu.
In 2 Kings 9, he is anointed king by a prophet in a closed room.
When his buddies as him about it, he's just like - you know the guy and the sort of things he says.
His friends don't buy it and he tells them about the anointing.
I like that he's a jokester even when something super serious happened to him.

I also like his determination to do what was right by God. Eliminating Jezebel. Tricking the prophets of Baal by pretending to be one of them but instead to kill them all.

He must have been quite a character!

Seeing with God's eyes

2 Kings 8: 7 Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” 8 he said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

10 Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless,the LORD has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” 11 He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.

12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”

13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?”

“The LORD has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha.
Elisha is seeing with God's eyes what will happen with Hazael. And he was right. Was it destined to be that way when he saw it - que sera sera- or was there still option to change. Or was Elisha seeing the character of Hazael and that could not be changed. Knowing that if he told him he would be king would result in him killing the current king? Are some human choices predestined by who we are?

Daily provisions

1 Kings 4:22 Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour and sixty cors of meal, 23 ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl.

That is a lot of meat! He must have been providing for a lot of people. And had a lot of cooks! Interesting that it differentiates between stall-fed and pasture-fed cattle.