"Shall I offer my firstborn for my sin,
My body's fruit for the wrongs of my soul?"
So Micah voiced Israel's remorse and chagrin,
In response to God's indictment of old!
They well knew He cared not for sacrifice,
To atone for many years of cold hearts;
What He wanted, they hated most precise:
Humble obedience on all their parts!
The Lord asks but little of any man;
To do even-handed justice; to love
And show mercy, insofar as one can;
To walk humbly with their God above!
What God wanted, proud Israel would not do;
The things He despised, they would not subdue!
Micah lived in southern Judah near the border with Philistia in the latter part of the 8th century B.C., at the same time as Isaiah. David's great nation of Israel had been long divided into two nations, named Israel and Judah. Both nations had stubbornly drifted into disobedience to God, breaking their duties under His covenant with Moses. His and Isaiah's messages to Israel were similar, warnings of judgment to come followed by restoration. It was a short time before the destruction of Samaria (Israel) in 701 B.C. by the Assyrians, and more than a century before the Babylonians demolished Jerusalem and Judah in 586 B.C. Micah's prophetic message took the form of a court trial---God acting as prosecutor, Israel the defendant, and the surrounding nations as judge and jury. Micah's written words conveyed both God's charges and a generalized defense from Israel. The poem highlights Israel's petulant plaint that perhaps God would be placated for its sins if the people would slay their firstborns in atonement. This was far from pleasing to the Lord, who had used the plague of slaying firstborn Egyptian children to force Egypt to free Israel from slavery; He had also used the threat of it to test Abraham's obedience. Both of these events were about as far removed from substitution for atonement of sin as anyone could imagine; their use by Micah as coming from Israel was at least sarcasm, and at worst insulting to God.
"Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:7-8)
God knew the future as well as the past; how do you suppose it made Him feel to hear from these obstreporous sinners a sarcastic, insincere parody of giving the lives of their firstborns to have their odious sins forgiven when in a few short centuries His own firstborn Son would in stark reality be nailed to a cross and killed for nothing less than their sins and ours? Nevertheless, He calmly responded with a prescription for forgiveness remarkably similar to that given by Jesus in Matthew 22:34-40. He was asked what the most important commandment of God's 10 was. His answer was "To love the Lord your God with all your might, mind, body and soul", followed by the second greatest commandment, "To love your neighbor as you love yourself". Micah's formula for God's approval and Jesus' prescription for keeping the Ten Commandments in reality mean the same: To act justly and to show mercy is a good interpretation of loving your neighbor as yourself; and to walk humbly with your God is the same as loving Him above all others or anything else! Either mantra would make an excellent memory prompt for you and me to keep continuously in mind every day.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Before The World Began
The great Caruso remains mute in awe;
Mozart rejects first-composed notes for new;
Sistene's artist, aghast, discerns the flaw,
Blots his ceiling, as too marred for men's view!
What, pray tell, is this paragon of worth
That humbles giants and makes great art mundane?
It's God's master plan for man and Earth;
How the Kingdom of Heaven to attain!
No detail's too minute to be left out;
Not one chance act or word of man or beast
Takes place whose role's unplanned or creates doubt;
Each outcome's foreknown, if famine or feast!
Alpha to Omega, God made His plan,
Man's history complete, before he began!
The grandeur and beauty of God's master plan for man and his world stem not from its wondrous perseverance or ingenuity or any heroic effort of its protagonist; they arise from the spectacular success in preserving God's even-handed justice and credibility, despite the endless sordid exhibitions of gross failures and incurable carnality of the creature made in His image. All of it was planned by God in advance of any act of creation, even before the angels. The foreknowledge of Lucifer's rebellion and dark obstructing presence throughout also adds luster to the plan and its divine Author; instead of detracting from God's unmatched stature for giving evil life, even knowing in advance the tragedy it would do to His beloved human creation, Lucifer becomes the essential deus ex machina that justifies His bequest to man of unbribed free will!
"The Lord possessed me ['wisdom'---God's omniscience (foreknowledge)] at the beginning of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth." (Proverbs 9:22-29) [Brackets added]
No, God did not wind up the earth like a clock and retire, watching to see how it developed; nor did He haplessly flounder about, fixing breakdowns and putting new wrinkles in his original plan when first initiatives or covenants failed to work. Though from afar the history of man may appear as a patchwork quilt revealing man's failures and God's repairs, its every twist and turn, nook and cranny, whitewater rapid and millpond smooth, it has worked precisely as God knew it would; His original outcome is marching inexorably closer, matched to His expected finis.
Mozart rejects first-composed notes for new;
Sistene's artist, aghast, discerns the flaw,
Blots his ceiling, as too marred for men's view!
What, pray tell, is this paragon of worth
That humbles giants and makes great art mundane?
It's God's master plan for man and Earth;
How the Kingdom of Heaven to attain!
No detail's too minute to be left out;
Not one chance act or word of man or beast
Takes place whose role's unplanned or creates doubt;
Each outcome's foreknown, if famine or feast!
Alpha to Omega, God made His plan,
Man's history complete, before he began!
The grandeur and beauty of God's master plan for man and his world stem not from its wondrous perseverance or ingenuity or any heroic effort of its protagonist; they arise from the spectacular success in preserving God's even-handed justice and credibility, despite the endless sordid exhibitions of gross failures and incurable carnality of the creature made in His image. All of it was planned by God in advance of any act of creation, even before the angels. The foreknowledge of Lucifer's rebellion and dark obstructing presence throughout also adds luster to the plan and its divine Author; instead of detracting from God's unmatched stature for giving evil life, even knowing in advance the tragedy it would do to His beloved human creation, Lucifer becomes the essential deus ex machina that justifies His bequest to man of unbribed free will!
"The Lord possessed me ['wisdom'---God's omniscience (foreknowledge)] at the beginning of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth." (Proverbs 9:22-29) [Brackets added]
No, God did not wind up the earth like a clock and retire, watching to see how it developed; nor did He haplessly flounder about, fixing breakdowns and putting new wrinkles in his original plan when first initiatives or covenants failed to work. Though from afar the history of man may appear as a patchwork quilt revealing man's failures and God's repairs, its every twist and turn, nook and cranny, whitewater rapid and millpond smooth, it has worked precisely as God knew it would; His original outcome is marching inexorably closer, matched to His expected finis.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
This Doomed World
Sodom's debris with righteous anger shakes
Beneath its desolate brimstone covers,
That God sustains this evil world who breaks
His laws of sex, her men of men lovers,
Yet oddly withholds His avenging hand!
Where is the Abraham that beseeches
Him His awful judgment to countermand
For sakes of who do as His Word teaches?
Even now His angels of impending doom
Are spreading alerts to the righteous few,
To prepare for this world's dark night of gloom
That must come before He makes it anew!
Ask Gomorrah, Egypt, Canaan, Babel,
If to respond, anyone is able!
Homosexuality is a sin, according to the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. There is no excuse; no equivocation; no obfuscation; no symbolic puzzle; no misinterpretation. Of course, however, it is forgivable; it is not unpardonable. No person is born with an unquenchable attraction for same-gender sexual gratification; none with an unbreakable proclivity. Should there be such impulses, and there are with almost every individual, God expects those impulses to be successfully resisted, and the Bible says He will not test a person beyond his ability to refuse.
The principal cause for the deliberate obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 17 was homosexuality and its derivative practices. The Bible makes clear that if various sins were ranked according to the detestation of God homosexuality would be at or near the top. Modern psychology, sociology and formal governing authority have established toleration of homosexuality to unprecedented levels of respectability that encourage its increasing practice; indeed, its advisability, in certain mental and emotional aberrations from misguided cultural norms. Correspondingly, Christian marriage and the institution of heterosexual monogamous family are nosediving to levels dangerous to a healthy society.
This phenomenon is not surprising in a world whose occupants are born with inherent sinful natures, even before the takeover of world culture by postmodernism. Now our guiding philosophy is obsessed with hostility to absolute truths, especially Biblical, and the cultural demand for diversity in all things. Before, there was always more evil behaviors in the world than righteous; now, however, sin is a tidal wave threatening the very existence of Christianity. The abominations of abortion and same-sex immorality are potential rivals to the cultures of Canaan before Israelite took over and the pre-flood world, both of which God destroyed because of the stink of sin. The Bible forecasts the same destruction for today's earth and people, and for the same reason. Christianity, however, will not be extinguished, no matter how powerful its enemies become.
Beneath its desolate brimstone covers,
That God sustains this evil world who breaks
His laws of sex, her men of men lovers,
Yet oddly withholds His avenging hand!
Where is the Abraham that beseeches
Him His awful judgment to countermand
For sakes of who do as His Word teaches?
Even now His angels of impending doom
Are spreading alerts to the righteous few,
To prepare for this world's dark night of gloom
That must come before He makes it anew!
Ask Gomorrah, Egypt, Canaan, Babel,
If to respond, anyone is able!
Homosexuality is a sin, according to the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. There is no excuse; no equivocation; no obfuscation; no symbolic puzzle; no misinterpretation. Of course, however, it is forgivable; it is not unpardonable. No person is born with an unquenchable attraction for same-gender sexual gratification; none with an unbreakable proclivity. Should there be such impulses, and there are with almost every individual, God expects those impulses to be successfully resisted, and the Bible says He will not test a person beyond his ability to refuse.
The principal cause for the deliberate obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 17 was homosexuality and its derivative practices. The Bible makes clear that if various sins were ranked according to the detestation of God homosexuality would be at or near the top. Modern psychology, sociology and formal governing authority have established toleration of homosexuality to unprecedented levels of respectability that encourage its increasing practice; indeed, its advisability, in certain mental and emotional aberrations from misguided cultural norms. Correspondingly, Christian marriage and the institution of heterosexual monogamous family are nosediving to levels dangerous to a healthy society.
This phenomenon is not surprising in a world whose occupants are born with inherent sinful natures, even before the takeover of world culture by postmodernism. Now our guiding philosophy is obsessed with hostility to absolute truths, especially Biblical, and the cultural demand for diversity in all things. Before, there was always more evil behaviors in the world than righteous; now, however, sin is a tidal wave threatening the very existence of Christianity. The abominations of abortion and same-sex immorality are potential rivals to the cultures of Canaan before Israelite took over and the pre-flood world, both of which God destroyed because of the stink of sin. The Bible forecasts the same destruction for today's earth and people, and for the same reason. Christianity, however, will not be extinguished, no matter how powerful its enemies become.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Prayer 2009
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for every beat of my heart,
And for the hope of new life with you
when you let it stop.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for my soul that will never die,
that will return to you when my body
returns to dust.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for planet Earth, the only safe place
for me in the universe.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for family who love me,
who encircle, protect , and sustain me;
Thank you for loving friends, who care
and uplift prayers on my behalf;
And thank you for all people, that I may
love them for you.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good, so good to me.
Every human being has an almost-irrepressible trait of self-pride in what he/she is or has achieved in life. Frank Sinatra expressed this well in his popular and powerful hit song, "I Did It My Way". Heroic as the lyric seems, it is misguided and the greatest of all sins of mankind---taking credit for oneself in what God has made possible, allowed and assisted one to do.
Pride stands like an impenetrable wall between man and his Maker. How can most humans ignore the God that created them? How can sincere Christians, incredibly fortunate to have received and responded to the revealing truth, claim credit for any good thing they has received? If we conquer, or if we struggle, it is because of what God has set before us. We must learn humility, and it must be absolute and abject.
You're so good to me.
Thank you for every beat of my heart,
And for the hope of new life with you
when you let it stop.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for my soul that will never die,
that will return to you when my body
returns to dust.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for planet Earth, the only safe place
for me in the universe.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for family who love me,
who encircle, protect , and sustain me;
Thank you for loving friends, who care
and uplift prayers on my behalf;
And thank you for all people, that I may
love them for you.
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good, so good to me.
Every human being has an almost-irrepressible trait of self-pride in what he/she is or has achieved in life. Frank Sinatra expressed this well in his popular and powerful hit song, "I Did It My Way". Heroic as the lyric seems, it is misguided and the greatest of all sins of mankind---taking credit for oneself in what God has made possible, allowed and assisted one to do.
Pride stands like an impenetrable wall between man and his Maker. How can most humans ignore the God that created them? How can sincere Christians, incredibly fortunate to have received and responded to the revealing truth, claim credit for any good thing they has received? If we conquer, or if we struggle, it is because of what God has set before us. We must learn humility, and it must be absolute and abject.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Paul Corrects Peter
"You really must not do that," scolded Paul
To Peter, aloud at the supper meal.
"Salvation by faith is now free to all,
For Gentiles and Jews; Jesus died to heal
The breech! You dine only with fellow Jews,
A man-made rule, not a part of the law!
Moses' ways are no longer any's dues;
Belief in Jesus saves men from hell's maw!
"What I have made clean, do not call unclean!"
God once told Peter, and which he'd forgot.
When Jew-Christians from the law would not wean,
They forced it on saved Gentiles; Paul said not!
God's free grace, not men's works, is the one way
For them to escape death on Judgment Day!
"When Peter came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong. Before certain men [Jewish Christians] came from James [Jerusalem church pastor] , he used to eat with the Gentiles [members of Antioch church]. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcism group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by his hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray," (Galatians 2:11-13) [Brackets added] (Please read the remaining verses of Chapter 2 for further explanation)
What a man was Paul! He was not afraid to upbraid the chief apostle of Jesus for behaving in mistaken prejudice! What a great contribution to just-born Christianity! Had it not been for Paul, Christian churches might be a movement within Judaism, and we Christians would have to be circumcised and who knows what else!
Paul first appeared in the Bible after the ascension of Jesus to heaven as Saul, a fierce persecutor of the new faith. He was a Jew, a Pharisee; super-intelligent, he was needed to correct the shortcomings of the uneducated apostles in making sure the doctrine of Jesus Christ followed the true meaning of God's plan. He was needed especially to open the door to heaven for all races and all men, else it might have been closed to all that did not become Judaic. The first Christians were all Jews; Jesus was a Jew, but it was never God's intention to save them only. There was a large percentage of Jewish Christians who fiercely resisted admitting Gentiles unless they submitted to outdated Judaistic rules and rites. Called "Judaisers", these elements followed Paul over the Roman Empire attempting to change his teaching that salvation was free to those who had faith in Jesus; not a single "work" was required!
Judaism had developed many rules of behavior that strayed from God's law given Moses in the desert. They had tried to keep God for their exclusive benefit; therefore, they had become pompous and deemed themselves the most important tribe in all the world. Everyone else was a Gentile, unclean and contemptible, not fit people for Jews to be with. God had taught Peter earlier that he was not to consider Gentiles beneath Jews, by sending him into the house of Cornelius, a Roman, who was converted (See Acts 10). For a time Peter championed the equality of Jew and Gentile, but the outdated opinions of stubborn brothers influenced him to backslide.
To Peter, aloud at the supper meal.
"Salvation by faith is now free to all,
For Gentiles and Jews; Jesus died to heal
The breech! You dine only with fellow Jews,
A man-made rule, not a part of the law!
Moses' ways are no longer any's dues;
Belief in Jesus saves men from hell's maw!
"What I have made clean, do not call unclean!"
God once told Peter, and which he'd forgot.
When Jew-Christians from the law would not wean,
They forced it on saved Gentiles; Paul said not!
God's free grace, not men's works, is the one way
For them to escape death on Judgment Day!
"When Peter came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong. Before certain men [Jewish Christians] came from James [Jerusalem church pastor] , he used to eat with the Gentiles [members of Antioch church]. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcism group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by his hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray," (Galatians 2:11-13) [Brackets added] (Please read the remaining verses of Chapter 2 for further explanation)
What a man was Paul! He was not afraid to upbraid the chief apostle of Jesus for behaving in mistaken prejudice! What a great contribution to just-born Christianity! Had it not been for Paul, Christian churches might be a movement within Judaism, and we Christians would have to be circumcised and who knows what else!
Paul first appeared in the Bible after the ascension of Jesus to heaven as Saul, a fierce persecutor of the new faith. He was a Jew, a Pharisee; super-intelligent, he was needed to correct the shortcomings of the uneducated apostles in making sure the doctrine of Jesus Christ followed the true meaning of God's plan. He was needed especially to open the door to heaven for all races and all men, else it might have been closed to all that did not become Judaic. The first Christians were all Jews; Jesus was a Jew, but it was never God's intention to save them only. There was a large percentage of Jewish Christians who fiercely resisted admitting Gentiles unless they submitted to outdated Judaistic rules and rites. Called "Judaisers", these elements followed Paul over the Roman Empire attempting to change his teaching that salvation was free to those who had faith in Jesus; not a single "work" was required!
Judaism had developed many rules of behavior that strayed from God's law given Moses in the desert. They had tried to keep God for their exclusive benefit; therefore, they had become pompous and deemed themselves the most important tribe in all the world. Everyone else was a Gentile, unclean and contemptible, not fit people for Jews to be with. God had taught Peter earlier that he was not to consider Gentiles beneath Jews, by sending him into the house of Cornelius, a Roman, who was converted (See Acts 10). For a time Peter championed the equality of Jew and Gentile, but the outdated opinions of stubborn brothers influenced him to backslide.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
From Whence The Big Bang?
Two friends were talking, as friends sometimes do,
About whether God exists, or does not.
One said, "Of course not! We die; we are through!
The grave is the end, where our bodies rot!"
"Without God, there'd be no life; random chance
Could have never formed this earth safe for man.
The Big Bang could not have been happenstance;
What was here before the cosmos began?
God was here; the energy He supplied
Became matter; made the bodies in space;
Only earth is safe for life to abide!
It was planned just for the human race!
God must have done it for some good reason,
Which He will reveal to us in due season!
Matter cannot be unless it is made of energy! Why is it so hard for human reason to accept that an eternal body can be made from a human soul? If matter comes from energy, and returns to energy, why cannot the supernatural come from the natural? Both the natural/supernatural phenomenon and the energy/matter were devised by God.
Albert Einstein first proposed the theory that matter is created from pure energy. The thesis has now been proven and is widely accepted in the scientific world. The basis for the rapidly exploding technology of the past seventy years is owing to Einstein. Scientists have traced the origin of the universe back to a single instant in time 13.7 billion years ago, when a silent but huge burst of energy was released into the void of space. As to what caused the Big Bang, or what was there before it, they are totally stumped! The Bible says God was there. Here's what I believe: It was His energy that was released---His spoken command! It was programmed from the beginning with the entire plan of development, creation of earth, and the details of the lives lived by every man, plant, and animal that ever lived.
Georges Lemaitre proposed the theory leading to Big Bang discoveries in 1927, followed by Edwin Hubbell's finding that all galaxies are speeding away from each other at ever-increasing speeds, in 1929. This means that the original "explosion" of energy is still exploding; we're racing away from ground zero as well as everything else!
Einstein was a Jew who didn't believe specifically in God, but he did believe in a "superior spirit" that allowed man to discover bits and pieces of the world. I believe that spirit to be God. He created all this just so He could create man and prepare a safe place to exist---for a time. He must consider us to be very special. Why do so many of us ignore Him?
About whether God exists, or does not.
One said, "Of course not! We die; we are through!
The grave is the end, where our bodies rot!"
"Without God, there'd be no life; random chance
Could have never formed this earth safe for man.
The Big Bang could not have been happenstance;
What was here before the cosmos began?
God was here; the energy He supplied
Became matter; made the bodies in space;
Only earth is safe for life to abide!
It was planned just for the human race!
God must have done it for some good reason,
Which He will reveal to us in due season!
Matter cannot be unless it is made of energy! Why is it so hard for human reason to accept that an eternal body can be made from a human soul? If matter comes from energy, and returns to energy, why cannot the supernatural come from the natural? Both the natural/supernatural phenomenon and the energy/matter were devised by God.
Albert Einstein first proposed the theory that matter is created from pure energy. The thesis has now been proven and is widely accepted in the scientific world. The basis for the rapidly exploding technology of the past seventy years is owing to Einstein. Scientists have traced the origin of the universe back to a single instant in time 13.7 billion years ago, when a silent but huge burst of energy was released into the void of space. As to what caused the Big Bang, or what was there before it, they are totally stumped! The Bible says God was there. Here's what I believe: It was His energy that was released---His spoken command! It was programmed from the beginning with the entire plan of development, creation of earth, and the details of the lives lived by every man, plant, and animal that ever lived.
Georges Lemaitre proposed the theory leading to Big Bang discoveries in 1927, followed by Edwin Hubbell's finding that all galaxies are speeding away from each other at ever-increasing speeds, in 1929. This means that the original "explosion" of energy is still exploding; we're racing away from ground zero as well as everything else!
Einstein was a Jew who didn't believe specifically in God, but he did believe in a "superior spirit" that allowed man to discover bits and pieces of the world. I believe that spirit to be God. He created all this just so He could create man and prepare a safe place to exist---for a time. He must consider us to be very special. Why do so many of us ignore Him?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM
"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want;
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters;
He restores my soul;
He leads me in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death,
I will fear no evil; for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me;
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
David wrote this poem about 1000 years before the birth of Jesus. He was Israel's second king, and he led Israel during its greatest time in history. It is David's kingdom that the Jews dream of and want Israel to be again. Much of the Bible concerns the history and future of the Jewish people. The future is primarily spiritual, which for the Jews themselves is still an enigma because of the curse announced by Isaiah. God dulled their spiritual insight so that He could cause them to reject Jesus as Messiah and offer salvation to the entire world rather than to Jews alone. They brought the curse upon themselves by gross obstinacy toward obedience to Him. God had meant salvation for this whole world from the beginning, but they didn't see it that way. They deemed they were better than every other race.
Many of the psalms were written by David. The Jews used them in worship, singing them to their Creator as praise hymns. They are regarded as excellent and elegant poetry. C. S. Lewis praised Psalm 19 as "the greatest lyrics ever composed by man." This 23rd Psalm is the favorite of more people than any other. I have quoted it aloud during surgeries I'm sure to the astonishment (and chagrin) of the medical personnel.
Each of Israel's kings was required by God to copy the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible written by Moses---Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) by hand and spend time reading it every day. The many kings of Israel were vastly different---some God-fearing and faithful, most evil and disreputable.
Israel is now a free nation in a sliver of the land which God promised them. According to the Bible, they will always be free and their spiritual insight will be restored.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters;
He restores my soul;
He leads me in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death,
I will fear no evil; for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me;
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
David wrote this poem about 1000 years before the birth of Jesus. He was Israel's second king, and he led Israel during its greatest time in history. It is David's kingdom that the Jews dream of and want Israel to be again. Much of the Bible concerns the history and future of the Jewish people. The future is primarily spiritual, which for the Jews themselves is still an enigma because of the curse announced by Isaiah. God dulled their spiritual insight so that He could cause them to reject Jesus as Messiah and offer salvation to the entire world rather than to Jews alone. They brought the curse upon themselves by gross obstinacy toward obedience to Him. God had meant salvation for this whole world from the beginning, but they didn't see it that way. They deemed they were better than every other race.
Many of the psalms were written by David. The Jews used them in worship, singing them to their Creator as praise hymns. They are regarded as excellent and elegant poetry. C. S. Lewis praised Psalm 19 as "the greatest lyrics ever composed by man." This 23rd Psalm is the favorite of more people than any other. I have quoted it aloud during surgeries I'm sure to the astonishment (and chagrin) of the medical personnel.
Each of Israel's kings was required by God to copy the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible written by Moses---Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) by hand and spend time reading it every day. The many kings of Israel were vastly different---some God-fearing and faithful, most evil and disreputable.
Israel is now a free nation in a sliver of the land which God promised them. According to the Bible, they will always be free and their spiritual insight will be restored.
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