The Talking Donkey

from K

In Revelations 2, I came across the church of Pergamos and was digging into exactly what it was the Christ was warning that church about. He talks about Balaam and Balak and thought it'd make sense to review that story. It takes place during the wanderings in the wilderness during those 40 years. Balak was a Moabite king who was freaking out because he saw all those Israelites coming near. He called upon Balaam, an Israelite prophet, and asked him to curse the Israelites so that the Israelites wouldn't destroy the Moabites. He offered money to Balaam for it.

The rest of the story is this struggle of Balaam a prophet, saying he can only do what God asks him to do, but clearly being enticed by the offer of money.

Then there's this funny story about how Balaam actually starts to head for Balak's home (not sure if it's a palace or whatever), and how his donkey won't cooperate. Stops dead in its tracks. Balaam beats the donkey for it and finally the donkey talks to him, pointing out-- hey dummy, I'm just a donkey and even I see the angel standing in my way, and you're a prophet and can't even see him? That isn't the exact words, but that's the gist of it. Balaam finally recognizes he has to do only what God says and the rest of the story is pretty cool.

Since you were so bored with the audio on bibletracks, I thought I'd try a cute way to help you get the story of Balaam and Balak - a kids cartoon. You might think it childish, but I happened to like the presentation…

Click here for the video (11 minutes)

That is only half the story of Balaam (in Numbers 21 and 22). Later, after all this being tempted to curse Israel for money and then doing God's will instead and blessing Israel, Balaam went on to conspire with Midianites and Moabites by having their woman sexually entice the Israelite men and lead them that way to worship their pagan gods. This is in Numbers 31, 32.

Anyway--- the point of reviewing the story of Balak and Balaam is that Christ uses that example to warn the church at Pergamos that just like Balaam later used the Moabite women to entice Israelite men to sin and stop following God, the people of the church at Pergamos were being enticed to sin and stop worshiping Christ.

Hope that helps shed some light on one of the seven churches!

God Deals with Eli

by C

Ironic how God was trying to speak to Samuel and Samuel kept thinking it was Eli calling him. Also ironic that one of the first things he said was that he was not finished with Eli and his family. A good lesson in that you just can't ignore your sins and think they are automatically forgiven. We all sin daily some worse than others but those sins should be recognized and truly addressed when praying for forgiveness. Eli chose the path of ignorance and it looks like he will pay for it.



* * *

by K

You meant you can't expect God hasn't noticed our sins and won't decide at some time to discipline us for them, right? I'm pretty sure that's what you meant when you said we can't expect to ignore our sins. Of course I don't think we can ignore our sins, but when we are saved, our sins are covered- past present and future-- as if it doesn't matter.

I was reading in a Bible study I'm doing with a friend called "Search for Significance" that if you picture sitting next to Jesus in front of God, try to imagine what God sees when He looks at the two of you. Do you really get that He loves Jesus and loves you equally?

That just blew my mind. I don't think I feel like I'm seen as righteous as Jesus is, but it's not my righteousness that makes me clean, so it IS possible, because of Jesus-- wiped clean-- the sins are completely gone. So actually, once you are surrendered to Christ, it IS as though you are automatically forgiven.

I think the discipline that God dishes out to Eli is interesting. First the way he delivers it-- communicated through Samuel- a boy. I like how Eli doesn't fight it- says something about him that he recognizes God power and surrenders to it.

I had to sneak ahead and check the next chapters of samuel because I got curious-- wait until you see what happens with the ark! It's like Indiana Jones.

Hey Jude

C

I had no idea that the bible spoke so much of False Teachers? Obviously something very important to watch out for.

My bible says to contend describes the battle that the faithful believer must fight in defense of the faith. It means literally to "struggle" "suffer" "be under great stress" or "fight a fight"

We must exert ourselves to the utmost in the defense of Gods word!

* * *



K

Rob did a MSG recently on Jude. He called it He Jude. You can download it here if you're interested.


http://southbrookchurch.com/multimedia

Hannah Looks Up

by K

The following presentation was used to teach the story of Hannah to preteen girls on a Sunday at church. The idea was to demonstrate to young women a total trust and reliance on God, and how the willingness towards obedience to Him goes hand-in-hand with being faithful and receiving His blessings.

This is not prosperity doctrine as Hannah never expected to prosper--only asked one small blessing, that she have a child. Her response of gratitude demonstrated she would have easily accepted having no more children even after giving her only son, Samuel, up for a lifetime of service to the Lord. Total trust.

Story of Hannah

* * *


by C

It must have been so important for women to have children in those days. I know how important it is now because I can't imagine not having my kids!

So Hannah prays and tells God that she will give her child's services to the lord if he lets her conceive and have a child! When she does give birth I notice it was important to point out that she would never cut his hair.

Well looks like Hannah was perfectly willing to honor her vow to god. Having such a hard and long time to conceive a child then sending him away when he reached age.

I see a lot of parenting lessons in this chapter. Even though Hannah sent Samuel away she was dedicated in her love to him. Interesting how it describe how she made him a robe every year and took it to him when she went to visit him.

It's to bad that she had to leave him in the hands of Eli.
Now talk about bad parenting skills! Eli knew his children were wicked. Stealing from the burnt offerings to God. Sexual inappropriateness etc. corrupt ministers in Gods house.
Eli being told that his sons were corrupt did nothing more than scold them.

As parents I think that you and I know that there has to be consequences for bad behavior. Our example and leadership skills show the children that they must and are expected to do the right thing. Nobody likes to punish their kids ( I hope) but lessons need to be taught.
Eli was not willing to go the distance for his children and I am sure it will cost him in the end!


* * *

by K

I think about the incredible sacrifice by Hannah and the trust to give her son to Eli without really knowing whether Eli had good parenting skills! Yipes!

I think letting go of children is a very hard thing for a mother to do.


* * *

by C

I have a hard time letting go. But I want them to spread their wings and use what I have taught them.

I have seen mothers walk away and can't understand it?

Hate the World; Love the Father

Interesting that John's use of the word anti-christ is to mean anyone who opposes Christ - i e  a false prophet.  The Antichrist as we talk about nowadays is actually called The Beast in Revelation.

On loving the Lord and hating the world, I found an interesting illustration in a book titled Real World Parents: Christian Parenting for Families Living in the Real World, by Mark Matlock.  It shows God's storyline as a continuous line with no beginning and no end.  That's the storyline we want our children to hang onto, because the world's story line is a segment with a beginning and an end.  And everything we do that invests in the world's storyline will end-- completely disintegrate, with the world. But everything we invest in related to God's storyline will continue to live forever.

It's our jobs as parents to help kids recognize the permanency of God's storyline and how their investments will be locked in forever.  It's a hard sell if we try to push it with behavior-- it has to be from heart.

Sometimes, I wonder how pure my heart is.  Just yesterday on the way home from the WWRC, with 3 of the boys in the car, one of them asks me, "Mom, do you really like to worship?"  I thought, what a weird question.  "I suppose so," I said.

"No," he asked again.  "I mean, like do you really love it like you don't want it to end?"

I have to admit, there are moments during worship time at church where I feel so filled with love for the Lord that I really feel emotional and I raise my arms and I enjoy it.  But there's always that bit of me that thinks about the stuff I have to do that day..  Do I really love it?  Well, maybe not as much as my boys' do.  Just listen to their answers.

"Because, I really love it, Mom," he says.  "Like when we're worshiping, I wish it could go on forever!"

Another of my boys agreed. "Yeah, Mom.  Like at the summer camp when they have two hour worship times, I could go on for hours after that." 

Wow.  I wonder how much loving worship is related to loving the Lord.

The third son in the car seems more like me.  "Sometimes I love it, and sometimes, I kind of want to go and do something else."

Maybe this son's just practical.  But he's also at that ripe age of Jacob's struggle -- more on that later...

What Goes Around...

by J

Looks like Micah  did whatever he wanted to. Stole silver from his mother, made one of his sons a priest, made idols to worship, hired a Levite to be his personal priest!

Why do they continue to turn their back on God. No where does it say that any idol saved them from anything but when they really need him, God is there to deliver for them. 

Even the priest was corrupt, willing to serve as a priest to idols and other gods for money. I think the verse that sums it up best is 17:6  - "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." kind of sad!

* * *

Yes, Judges 17:6 sums it up perfectly!

Interestingly, the entire book of Judges ends with the identical words. (Judges 21:25)  "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

Another interesting fact I learned is that the tribe of Dan, who stole and used Micah's idols, is notorious for their use of idols.  Later in Revelation Chapter 7 John (the author of Revelation) lists the 144,000 witnesses that come from the twelve tribes of Israel and he lists the twelve tribes.  He omits Dan, instead putting Manassas, the son of Joseph, in Dan's place.  Some scholars believe that this omission is intentional and rooted in the Dan tribe's prevalent use of idols.

Another interesting note I learned from the bibletrack.org website is that the location of the city of Dan is way north of the Sea of Galilea, and that nine times in the Old Testament, writes used the phrase "from Dan even to Beersheba" as a way of telling us they are describing the entire nation of Israel.

The Hot Buffoon

from K

So Samson was appointed to lead Israel from out of Philistinian domination but did everything he could to abandon what God's mission for him was--even to marry a Philistinian woman.  But God used that very act of disobedience to further His plan-- creating disharmony right from the start of the week  of his wedding to her.  

I'm imagining the foxes tied together by their tails with fiery torches to tear through the Philistinian villages.  Seems like Hollywood would have a field day with a scene like that - they should make a movie!

* * *


from J

I agree the foxes tied together would be interesting to see. 

I know the combination of Samson and Delilah, do I am looking forward to diving deeper in that. 

My bible said that even though Samson lead Israel for 20 years, he never delivered them from the philistines. 

* * *

from K

I had never heard of the jawbone weapon but 1000 men?  

Sometimes when I read about Samson I think of the big hunk of a football player in high school that all the girls liked.  He was so handsome and rugged and cool and popular that he just got drunk on himself and stepped all over everyone around him without even noticing.  Buddy Shivel (name changed for this blog).  He was hot. My sister was two years older than me and a popular cheerleader (she had the Susan Dey hair!!!!).  And even she felt uncomfortable around Buddy-- like she didn't exist-- he was in his own dynasty and people just flocked around him.  But if Edie (my sister) felt uncomfortable, you can imagine I really wanted nothing to do with being around Buddy-- I was pretty cool and cute, but I enjoyed a few friendships and preferred being a bit of a loner-- the crowd looked like a bunch of bafoons to me.  Still though-- Buddy was hot, and when he approached me at a party, half drunk, and looked me up and down with approval, I thought I was about to run!  He said, "who are you?"  I couldn't answer him--- he was like a Samson-- big, powerful, high on himself-- anything I'd say would be ignored anyway.  All I could get out was…. "Edie's sister."  Can you imagine?  What worse thing could I have thought of to say to the most popular football player in school but to identify myself as Edie's sister--- like I was nobody without the cheerleader sister!!!  You laugh now, but I about died on the spot when he just laughed at me!!!

That's how I see Samson-- so powerful and blessed but such a bafoon (is that even a word?  I don't  know but if it's not, it should be-- it would mean the popular high on himself football player who doesn't care about anything but his next social conquest).  So when I read about Samson, I see someone who should have been so in awe of God choosing him to be blessed with a purpose and with all the physical means to carry out God's purpose, but so high on himself he just wields his power in stupid football player at a beer keg party style antics which do nothing but kill and mame and cause others to kill and mame.  Still though, just like the drunk football players are fun to watch, a movie with the fox tails burning would be fun to watch!

Side note… really sad.  I later had some real estate dealings in Richmond while wrapping up my father's estate.  The commercial real estate agent I worked had the last name Shivel  I had to ask.  Turns out it was Buddy's older brother and he gave me the story about Buddy.

While in college, Buddy continued his drinking binges, and at one party hopped on a hood of a car that was backing out from a keg party. He was drunk and hooting.  The driver was drunk, and all his football buddies were laughing and hooting and drunk. Buddy slid off the hood of the car and suffered a permanent head injury and has lived mentally disabled with his parents ever since.  He's my face book friend now, and seems he spends nearly all his time on the social network.  Thank God for fb-- what else would someone like Buddy do with his time?