The Lord Is Our God!

Day 207: Zechariah 9-14

Whenever Jesus is prophesied about in the Old Testament, I find myself becoming giddy. I'm excited that I am almost finished with my OT reading and that I will be moving on to the New Testament soon. But I also get excited because of the way that these people who lived in a time before Jesus waited in anticipation of their coming Messiah. Jesus was coming soon, and these prophets were preparing the minds of the Israelites for this to happen. Zechariah describes Jesus as righteous and victorious, yet humble, someone who rides on a donkey. And the Lord God is contrasted somewhat with Jesus. The accounts aren't contradictory, but they merely show that one of the dominant characterizations of Jesus is humility and that of God is power. And our God becomes powerful through humility.

Zechariah 13:9 says:
"I will bring that group through the fire
      and make them pure.
   I will refine them like silver
      and purify them like gold.
   They will call on my name,
      and I will answer them.
   I will say, ‘These are my people,’
      and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

God is good, and He is sending Jesus soon to save these people and to save us. The Lord is our God!

Let God Out of the Box

Day 85: 2 Chronicles 27-31

I'm curious why most of the kings in the Old Testament who followed the Lord became powerful and successful. For example, King Jotham walked steadfastly with the Lord and he grew powerful. King Hezekiah restored the temple and God blessed him with financial wealth, glory, and honor. The Bible even says that since everything he undertook was for God, he prospered.

On the other hand, those kings who did not walk with the Lord and were unfaithful to him were punished. They were taken prisoner, like King Ahaz, were struck down with a disease, or were killed in war.

One generation was faithful and the next was not. This story is repeated over and over again. What we can learn is that even when one generation was unfaithful to the Lord, the Lord was still faithful to his people--even if he still disciplines and punishes the faithless.

Nevertheless, what I still perplexes me is the message that this pattern sends: if you are good, you will be blessed; if you are "bad" (or unfaithful), you will be punished. And these consequences aren't something that happen "when you get to heaven"; they happen here on earth (at least in the case of the textual examples). So, I don't understand it.

Did good things always happen to good people in the Old Testament? Or did bad things happen, too, but because the person was faithful to the Lord, the biographer/narrator of the books reflects back in a postive way (and likewise for the "bad" people)?

Or maybe the words "blessing" and "prospered" meant something different in OT times. They sure have various meanings today. I don't know. But I don't think we can equate doing good with blessing and doing bad with harm and pain. If we do so, we put God in a box and when trials comes, God cannot get out of that box because we won't let him.

Instead, I think we should try to live in the moment so that we feel what God intends for us to feel at any given time. Sometimes, we are supposed to cry. Other times we are supposed to rejoice and be glad. Still other times call for anger, frustration, and disappointment. God wants us to feel what we feel, but He also wants us to realize that He is working for the good for those who love him, even if "good" people have to go through pain and suffering. If we recognize this when we are not experiencing pain, then when we do experience it, God will not be in a box, and during the midst of our suffering, we will, Lord-willing, not lose our faith.

Grappling with the Relevance of the Old Testament

Day 84: 2 Chronicles 23-26

I have another confession to make. Here it is: I feel in a rut with this whole reading thing. I've read the passages for the day and don't have anything to write about them. Everything I've been reading for the past few weeks has already been told in the books of Samuel and Kings, and so I'm not hearing about new stories or learning different things about the nature of God (at least that's how I feel, which is why I'm in a rut). Now I realize when I write that how arrogant that sounds, and I really don't mean it that way. I know there is much more for me to learn. I guess what I mean is that this stuff is a little boring. I learn about kings and battles and how God was involved in them, but I end up asking, "So what?" What does all this matter anyway? Why is it important that I learn about Joash, Amaziah, and the armies of Israel and Judah? What should Christians today take away from these passages in the Old Testament that seem so outdated and ancient?

I recognize the historical significance of the Bible and how Christians today find our identity by connecting our lives to our ancestors. I also realize that we learn about God and about his nature. This is no small thing either. However, often times God is merely referenced and only in rare occasions (at least from what I've been reading) is he the center of the story. Rather, God is only mentioned when the author is summing up the king's life: King ____ did not follow the Lord's commands as his father King ___ did, or King ____ followed the Lord's commands as his father King ___ did, too. Is there something to be learned from that? I'm sure I could post something about it, but that statement doesn't really tell me much. How did he follow the Lord? What did he do specifically that resulted in the author writing this about him? I'm just a bit more curious about the "so what" of it all.

There's also a connection between success in battles and following of God. If the king follows God and keeps his commandments, then God is with him and allows him to gain power and glory. However, in spite of this connection, I know from living life that today good things do not always happen to good people. While this may be true in the Old Testament (and I'm not sure it was), it's not true today. So I'm not sure how to reconcile these differences between our lives today and theirs from long ago.

What can we learn today from the stories of the Israelites so long ago? 

What is God trying to teach us--teach me--through the Old Testament scripture? 


These are questions I'm pondering right now because I feel in a bit of a rut with the scripture of late.
Have you ever grappled with these same questions? What are your thoughts, dear reader? How do you get out of a scripture rut? How do you find meaning when the text seems more historical than applicable and relevant? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Confessions of a Distant Descendant

Day 44: Joshua 22-24

I have to confess something. I have been reading the Bible for several weeks now and although I have learned a lot about God--his nature and character--I don't feel that I have grown closer to Him. I don't quite understand why not because of how much I have learned about this, and I find this rather frustrating.

My reading so far has taught me a lot about several things: the church, values of God, God's commands and His will, the stories of God's people, sin, obedience, and discipline. However, I'm struck by how our modern notion of "a personal relationship with God" was not evident--or realized--with the vast majority of Israelites. Moses and Aaron had a relationship with God. Joshua and Caleb did, too. Adam and Eve. Cain. Jacob. Joseph. And a few others here and there.

In spite of these few mentioned "personal" relationships with God, the majority of Israelites are not reported to know God in this same way--personally. Rather, they knew him as a group. Israel was God's people. God knew Israel, and "Israel"--not individuals--knew God.

This concept is extremely different from today's widespread views that Christians can and should have a personal relationship with God and that Christians are saved individually through salvation and not as a whole. While I have some thoughts on both of those topics (which I'll save for later when we get to the NT), I mostly want to point out this difference.

I'm not sure from where the contrast originates, but I have a few ideas. It could be a difference between the old law and the new law--the old law that Moses handed to the Israelites and the new law that Jesus instigated. Or it could be a difference between cultures--the Israelite culture and an American culture that emphasizes the individual.

Regardless, the fact that I do not feel I have grown in "my personal relationship with God"--despite reading scripture every day and learning a lot about God in general--troubles me. I'm not sure where the answer lies or when in the Bible this concept of individual/personal relationship with God originates (or if it's in there at all or more the result of church tradition). But I am going to be watching out for it as I continue to read. I'm going to pay special attention to the contact that humans do have with God--in the OT and the NT--so that I can learn more about what this means and grow deeper in my relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Growing closer to God is one of the reasons I'm doing this. I don't just want to know about God; I want to know Him, and I want Him to know me. I pray that God will continue to show me how to use my imagination to envision a different relationship with God than I have now and to see the possibilities that exist when what now seems distant comes nearer.

Forever Yours, Faithfully

Day 33: Numbers 31 to 36

Do you remember the song "Faithfully" by Journey? It was very popular when I was growing up. In fact, it was mine and my high school boyfriend's "song." :) The lyrics are about a musician on the road who asks his girl to stand by him and he'll be "forever yours, faithfully."

Well, my boyfriend and I broke up. We were not forever faithful. It was just a song we liked to sing to each other dreaming about our lives together. (Eventually, I did meet a man to whom I will be forever, faithfully--my husband Shane.).

When thinking about the book of Numbers, what strikes me the most is how God is continually faithful to Israel. Notice the contrast between God and Israel. God is holy, while Israel is not. God is faithful to Israel, while Israel is repeatedly unfaithful to God. God loves Israel, and Israel only seems to love God when they want or need something from him. God is faithful, while Israel is faithless.

The lesson here: God  remains faithful to Israel--and to us--even when they/we turn away.

Even though God is to be feared because he punishes and destroys, he's also the one who remains by our sides. He remains faithful even when we walk away from him. That's pretty powerful, actually. God is faithful when we are faithless. God is holy even when we are not. God is forever yours, faithfully--no matter what you do.

This God does seem to be the same God of the New Testament, the same God who offers us Jesus, the same God who offers us grace. A God that I didn't think existed in the Old Testament. But He's there. He is the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament. He loves Israel, and he continues to show them this again and again. They are His people, and He is their God. We, too, are his people, and He is our God. Will He be forever yours, faithfully like you will be to him? I hope so.

Delivered

Day 14: Exodus 1-4

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for a long time. They must have been wondering where God was during this entire time. They groaned and cried out to God. God heard their pleas and remembered his covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Over this past year, I have felt like the Israelites—-groaning and crying out to God, wondering when he was going to listen to my prayers. I prayed and prayed that God would lead us to a new job—and do so quickly—but he didn’t. Shane and I were both in very low emotional states—depressed, actually—-and for the first time we both got on depression medication (I feel a little awkward admitting that, even though I know it’s common.). I wondered when God was going to take care of us (Technically, I know He always was, but I still wondered where his hand was in all this and why he wasn’t answering our prayers for a new job).

Dreams lost.

Faith tested.

Souls scarred.

What comes next for the Israelites—-God calls Moses to delivery them from slavery in Egypt-—offers me hope. While I can’t see into my future, I do know that God is taking care of me. He has already provided us a new job. Now, I’m hopeful that he will start re-casting our dreams, firming our faith, and healing our souls. And just like the Israelites do at the end of Genesis 4, I, too, will believe in God and bow down and worship him.

Side Note: I’m learning more why these Bible stories (and the Old Testament) are important. They can guide us as we live our lives.

Are you there God? It's me, Kara.

Day 11: Genesis 40-41

After I wrote that post yesterday—in which I was obviously feeling a little crabby—I decided to talk to my husband and get his take on the OT and the purpose of all these stories. He gave me several good ideas about how to think about the stories. One of them is that if you know the stories, you can make connections in the rest of the Bible and see how God often parallels various stories and lives.

One of the things he said that resonated with me the most was that as I read the OT, I should consider what the reading is telling me about God. In a way I have been doing this. God’s absence, for instance, from so many of the stories I’m reading is one of the things that was frustrating me. I expect God to be present and active in much of the reading. I mean, this IS the Bible! But you know what? The same way God is conspicuously absent from places in the Bible is the same way it often seems in our own lives. God seems absent. Sometimes it seems as if He’s not acting at all, at least not in any obvious way. After thinking about the OT in this way, I realize that it’s nice to know that sometimes God appears absent in the Bible, too. We know he’s there, of course, but the extent to which he seems involved ebbs and flows. I find this fact comforting. If he were always mentioned with every single story, I might feel even more distant from God because it would seem that he never acts in the same way he did in the Bible.

I wish that God would speak to me like he spoke to people back then. I mean, Joseph was able to interpret dreams in the name of God and even predict the future through them. Jacob wrestled with God, and with each encounter with God, He grew and changed. Others encounter God and hear his voice. Why did God change the way He communicates with people? Why can't He speak to us like He did back then? I would really like to hear him talk to me is all. To hear him talk back. to have a conversation. To not wonder if he's listening but to really know that he is there and that he cares.

I realize that one of the ways he talks to me is through scripture, which is one of the reasons I'm reading the Bible now. This experience has led me to appreciate

I'm glad to be learning more about God and how he speaks to his people. I like to actually "hear" (read) his voice--what he has to say back then and think about how it applies to me now. I hope you will consider listening to his voice, too.

The Old Testament: What's the Point?

Day 10: Genesis 36-39

The Bible is full of such wicked people. People no different than we are today. I wonder why God thought they were important enough to include them in the Bible. Joseph’s brothers are pretty bad. They want to kill him but instead sell him off to who knows where and then lie to their father Jacob by fabricating this elaborate scheme about Joseph being killed by animals. Then Judah, one of the brothers, sleeps with a prostitute who, unbeknownst to him, is actually his daughter-in-law Tamar. Contrast these people with Joseph, who has values and morals that are quite unnatural for his time. (Apparently it was quite normal to sleep with a prostitute if you were a man—Judah seemed to make this obvious to everyone when he tried to pay the prostitute with a goat. And, when he found out Tamar had slept with someone she wasn’t married to, he wanted to put her to death. Needless to say that I don’t like the double standards here.)

On the contrary, the Lord was with Joseph and everything around him prospered. Joseph was even put in jail because of his values when he wouldn’t succumb to the advances of his master’s wife.

So many people from the line of Abraham behave so badly. I’m not sure what we are supposed to think about these people. I do know that God is sticking with this family. He has not left them. But these chapters just aren’t what you expect from people of God. It just seems like stories about people who have no relationship with God. Really, the only mention of the Lord is in reference to Joseph. The rest of the time, it’s just stories about this family, stories that are mostly full of evildoing.

What is the purpose of the Old Testament in relation to Christians today? This is a question I have been asked and asked myself on numerous occasions. I don’t quite know yet. I hope it’s more than just thinking these people are so evil. Because that’s really all I’m getting out of it right now. Except with Joseph. His story resonates with me in a different way. God watches out for him even when faced with difficult situates.

What are your thoughts on the Old Testament? Why or how do you think it’s relevant for us today? I’m really interested in hearing what you think.