Dv6

1 kings 19:10, 14, He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your convenent,  broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. 16, Also , anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 18, Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/185/413286898_a14acd65d8_m.jpgThe attitude of God’s servants
God’s plan will never change. No one can change God’s plan. No one was so important that if he don’t serve God, God’s work will be stopped or collapsed. Of course, Elijah is a great servant of God, a great prophet; but in 19:10,14, he looked himself too high, he said the words, just like he was the only one who can serve God, if he didn’t serve God, or he was killed, God’s work should be stopped. But this is his own wrong opinion. In 18, God told him to response his wrong viewpoints. I reserve seven thousand in Israel all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him. And probably because of Elijah’s pride. God raised up Elisha to replace him. Nowadays, every servent of God should understand, you are not so important that you cannot be replaced. It’s God’s mercy and grace that we can be his servants and take part in His eternal plan. We should be fearful before him because the grace is not the one we deserve. If we don’t serve God. God’s plan or God’s work abosulately will not be impacted, he will raise up other people to continue his work. So if we don’t serve God. It’s not God’s loss, God will loss nothing. But we will loss the treasure in heaven, forever! God is everything, we are nothing, I cannot understand the mystery that why God permit we to take part in His eternal love. So we should be thankful, worship God with awe and reverence, May God use us, because we absolutely don’t deserve being used by Him. It’s His great mercy and grace.

DV5

2 Samuel 13: 1-2 In the course of time, Ammon son of David fell in love with Tarmar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David. Ammon became frustrated to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her. 14-15 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her. The Ammon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Ammon said to her, “Get up and get out!”

 

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Holy Love

Men are false, only our God is faithful. Men know us by our appearance, but the Lord knows our heart. In verse 1-2, Ammon fell in love with Tamar, it is normal. But from the continued verses we can find that Ammon was only a lustful person, he was only interested in Tamar’s beauty, he just wanted to fulfill his own prurience by having sexual intercourse with Tamar. So he set a trap and raped Tamar. after his lust being fulfilled, he didn’t want to be with responsibility to what he had done. In the beginning, he fell in love with Tamar and hated her more than he had loved her. God is love, His love is absolutely different with the love of human’s. His love is holy, only his love never changes. His love is for the benefit of anyone else who cannot be helpful or useful to him. Of course, we are the creation who has the image of God, we have feelings , one of them is love. But we should get rid of the fleshly love, because it is always ignorable, superficial, selfish and impermanent. We should aspire and try our best to establish a love just like Jesus Christ. We should love other people, even though they are not lovable, they are not beautiful, they have no possibility to benefit us. we love them just becaue it’s God’s order: You should love your neighbors, just like love yourself. And all of us are not lovable before God.We should love people, just because they are the creations who have the image of God. Let our wandering feeliings go back to the Holy love of God. This is the way through which God is pleasure with us.

DT5

Is David the first King of Israel? why or why not?

David is the first king of Israel.

Saul,first “king” of Israel (c. 1021¨C1000 BC). According to the biblical account found mainly in I Samuel, Saul was chosen king both by the judge Samuel and by public acclamation. Saul was similar to the charismatic judges who preceded him in the role of governing; his chief contribution, however, was to defend Israel against its many enemies, especially the Philistines.

David,second of the Israelite kings (after Saul), reigning c. 1000 to c. 962 BC, who established a united kingdom over all Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital. In Jewish tradition he became the ideal king, the founder of an enduring dynasty, around whose figure and reign clustered messianic expectations of the people of Israel. He was a symbol of fulfillment in the future.

So David is the first real King of Israel, He establish a kingdom, and his government had a good organization. This is the symbol of a real kingdom, in 2 Samuel 8:15-18 David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people. Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were royal advisers.

Saul, only he was called a king, but he was not a real king. he was similar to a judge, his “kingdom” didn’t have organization, just like 1 Samuel 13:1-2 Saul was thirty years old when he became king and he reigned over Israel forty two years. Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Micmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes. He has no officialism, he was more like a tribe leader than a king. so he was not a real king, just was called a king.

Reference:Bible;Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DT4

4. Is the book of Samuel pro-monarchy or anti-monarchy? Why/Why not?

 

The book of Samuel is neither pro-monarchy nor anti-monarchy.

 

The key character of the book is not Saul or even the favorably presented David, but Samuel. Samuel’s function is to highlight the central theme of Yahweh’s kingship. As Yahweh’s representative, he is the king maker and the king breaker. As prophet, his word is the king’s word – to disobey Samuel is to refuse Yahweh’s rule.

 

The structure highlights Samuel’s central role. The book begins with Samuel’s birth, and even though he dies half way through the book, Samuel still gets the last word, making a dramatic curtain call just before the end (Chap 29). The book closes with the fulfillment of his prophecy – Saul’s death in chapter 31.

The Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel are best understood together. The story moves from Israel worshipping God in a tent at Shiloh, to the temple promised and all but built; from Israel virtually a vassal of the Philistines and under threat from other nations, to the stability of the Davidic Empire; and from the unstable rule of the Judges, to the monarchy and the promise of an everlasting house. In short, the two books were taken together move from apostasy, to the golden era of the Old Testament.

 

Most probably written during the Exile, 1 and 2 Samuel ask the question: “what went wrong?” There are seemingly both favorable and unfavorable reflections on kingship intertwined (e.g. 1 Samuel 8 anti-monarchy, 1 Samuel 9 pro-monarchy). However, the institution of Israel’s monarchy is not judged as either good or bad. The real issue is Yahweh’s kingship. 1 & 2 Samuel are book-ended by Hannah’s song (1 Sam 2) and David’s song (2 Sam 22), and the theme of both is Yahweh’s kingship. Monarchy is OK, provided the monarch understands that Yahweh is the real king. This is the obvious lesson in both Saul’s failure and David’s rise. The exilic writer is pointing out that what has gone wrong is that Israel has always been a nation that has refused to submit to Yahweh’s kingship. The big application for us today is the importance of obedience.

 

 

Reference: Perspective online: 1 Samuel—quest for a king.

 

DV4

1 Samuel 13:14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.

 

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A servant after God’s heart

 

In Samuel 13:14, apparently, the man after God’s heart points to David. But in the Bible, we can find at least two serious sins David have committed: the first one is in 2 Samuel, chapter 11, David committed adultery with a very beautiful woman—Bathsheba, and set a trap to kill Bathsheba’s husband—Uriah, so that he can marry Bathsheba. Another one is in 2 Samuel, chapter 24; David counts the fighting men of Israel for his own glory, not because of God’s command. David committed serious sins, in 2 Samuel, chapter 11:27, after David’s adultery, “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord”. Why God called him “a man after his own heart” before He selected David? God is omniscient, He never makes something wrong. In Isaiah 64:7 “No one … or strives to lay hold of you” But from Bible we can find: although David committed sins, but he always grasped God, his life always looked God as the Lord. Isaiah 42:1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” Luke 3:22 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am very pleased.” In the two verses, the servant and the son is Jesus Christ, who is the only one after God’s heart completely. But Jesus is God, He is not a sinner. In the Bible, David is the only sinner God commented him as “a man after God’s heart”. God was the center of David’s life, he never had exceptions on God’s decision, and he always obeyed God. After he committed sins, always he was conscience-stricken and repentant before God. He looked God as God, so God gave him a fabulous comment. We should imitate David’s attitude toward the sins, toward God, so that we can have possibilities to be a person after God’s heart. And we should be watchful every minute, because from David’s weakness of committing sins we can learn a historical lesson written in blood: his secret adultery and murder caused his four sons’ death, his ten concubines were raped by his son Absalom in the sight of all Israel; his counting the fighting men caused seventy thousand Israelites’ death.

DT3

3. Discuss and analyze the concept of Kinsman Redeemer in the book of Ruth.

The “kinsman redeemer” is a Goel. The word means to redeem, receive or buy back. Provision was made in the Law of Moses for the poor person who was forced to sell part of his property or himself into slavery. His nearest of kin could step in and “buy back” what his relative was forced to sell (Leviticus 25:48f). The kinsman redeemer was a rich benefactor, or person who frees the debtor by paying the ransom price (Leviticus 25:25; cf. Ruth 4:4, 6).

The nearest of kin had the responsibility of redeeming his kinsman’s lost opportunities. If a person was forced into slavery, his redeemer purchased his freedom. When debt threatened to overwhelm him, the kinsman stepped in to redeem his homestead and let the family live. If a family member died without an heir the kinsman gave his name by marrying the widow and rearing a son to hand down his name (Deuteronomy 25:5; Genesis 38:8; Ruth 3-4).
One of the most beautiful passages where the word Goel is found is in the life of Naomi in the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is a story about Naomi’s Goel. Naomi (Pleasant One), a picture of Israel, had wondered away from Bethlehem (house of bread). She was the poorest person in Israel, but her kinsman was the richest man in Israel. Because of the death of her husband, Elimelich (God is my king), and two sons Mahlon (sick) and Chilion (pining), she and her daughter-in-laws lost all income and their homestead. Naomi was living in a foreign land and sensed the loss of her homeland and relatives. She became bitter. The secret of all her daughter-in-law Ruth had was in union with Boaz (In him is strength). The nearer kinsman, a picture of the law) had the first right to the property and Boaz came next after him. If Ruth’s closer relative would not redeem or purchase it, Boaz was prepared to do so. The man who was nearest of kin agreed to redeem the piece of land until he found out there was a young widow involved. He graciously backed out because it would mar his own inheritance (Ruth 4:6)! That left Boaz as the rightful nearest of kin who had the privilege of redeeming her land and her with it. The Moabitess and the Jew became one.
Boaz was nearest of kin to her deceased husband (Ruth 2:1). He was able to redeem by paying the price of redemption (2:1), and he was willing to redeem the land (4:4). That is what makes this epic so beautiful. Four things were required in order for a kinsman to redeem:

 

He must be near of kin. (Leviticus 25:48; 25:25 Ruth 3:12–13) 

He must be able to redeem (Ruth 4:4–6).

He must be willing to redeem (Ruth 4:6ff)

Redemption was completed when the price was completely paid (Leviticus 25:27; Ruth 4:7-11).

Jesus Christ is my Goel.

Reference: www.hopeofisrael.net 

 

 

 

DV3

1 Samuel 2:12 Eli’s sons were wicked men, they had no regard for the Lord.

8:1-3 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

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The church leaders’ responsibility of educating their children

Eli and Samuel were the priests of God; they lived a life of worshiping God, especially Samuel. In 1 Samuel 3:18 when Samuel told Eli the Lord’s words about the prophecy against the house of Eli, Eli said, “He is the Lord, let him do what is good in his eyes. From this verse, we can find that Eli is a pious person by and large, although in 1 Samuel 2:29 the Lord said Eli honored his sons more that the Lord. In 1 Samuel 3:19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. So we can get a conclusion that Eli and Samuel were devout persons before God. But their sons were wicked men, they had no regard for the Lord, they did not walk in their fathers’ ways.

Nowadays, there are some similar things in the church. Some pastors and elders are good servants of God, but their children had no regard for the Lord, they don’t like their parents, they live a life far form God, their life bring shame to their parents and church, even the Lord. What is the reason for this abnormal phenomenon? In my opinion, Eli, Samuel, the pastors, the elders should answer for this problem. I think they neglected their duties on disciplining their children when their children was young, maybe because they were very busy, or they were not aware of the importance of their children’s education, or their methods were not suitable. The parents, especially the leaders of the church have an indispensable responsibility on teaching their children. Just like 1 Timothy 3:4-5 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? So we can get a lesson: The leaders of the church must not ignore your responsibility on your own family, your own children, even though you are very busy, or you have many other reasons. Do not find any pretexts for yourself.