DV8

Kings 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

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The Salvation of the people before Jesus Christ’s incarnation

In Chronicles 33: 12-13 In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

Many people agree with that Manasseh was saved by God, but I don’t agree absolutely. The New Testament is clear that only through the death and resurrection of Christ is there forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. There is no other way to earn salvation. If this were not so, the incarnation and crucifixion would be unnecessary. In Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”. The people after Jesus’ death and resurrection are saved through their faith in the Christ who came to the world. And the people before Jesus’ be born were saved through their faith in the Christ who will come. So all the God’s people are saved through Christ, the people before Christ had faith in the coming Christ, but we have faith in the Jesus Christ who has come. Manasseh humbled himself before God, prayed to God, it’s good, and God showed mercy on him, but it is not enough. The Bible don’t tell us he were looking forward to the coming Jesus, just repentance is not enough, repentance cannot save people from sins, God’s people should repent first, but then they must accept Jesus Christ (irrespective He will come, or He has come), as their lord and their savior. Manasseh just repented; he did not know he should believe in the coming Christ. I don’t agree with that he got the salvation, although most of my classmates agree with it.

DV7

2 Kings 2:9 when they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your Spirit.” Elisha replied.

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Heroes in God’s kingdom

 

Elisha set up a good example for us. His ambition is rare in God’s kingdom, in our church. If there were an “Elijah”, after many years, we could not find a “Elisha” who can surpass his precursor, some time we are too “humble” that we almost lose the heart of striving for God’s kingdom, we are lazy. We should imitate Elisha’s aspiration. We should have the desire to be exhausted for God’s kingdom. We should try our best completely, so that we have done the best we have done, we cannot do better. In Luke 12:48, From everyone who have been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. So we cannot be lazy, we cannot belittle ourselves. If God has given us much, but we don’t do enough, how can we face the judgments before Him in the future? God is not only love, He is fearful, “Our God is a consuming fire.” It’s necessary that the successor is better than his predecessor in church. The world is advancing quickly everyday, but our church grows so slowly, maybe the reason is the leaders of the church are not better than their predecessors. It’s the leaders’ responsibility to be better than their predecessors. If you don’t have the strong desire to surpass your predecessors, you should not want to be a leader in the church. In 1 Kings 19:4 Elijah’s reason for asking death is unique, from his words we can find his greatness, he said, “I have had enough, Lord, Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.” Of course, Elijah is a great prophet. But his successor Elisha said “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” He wanted to be much better than Elijah. In our time, in our church, we need the heroes in God’s kingdom who can surpass the great men of church history. We need them to change our church; we need them to change the evil world. Let us prepare our heart, to strive for God’s kingdom. If we are heroes in God’s kingdom, try to imitate Elisha to “inherit a double portion of your spirit”, if we are not heroes, try our best to assist the heroes. So that we can get the same comments from God: “Well done, my good servant!”

DT8

8. Discuss the relationships of the prophets of Ancient Israel with the throne (government), the temple (religion), and the people (society).

The prophets of Ancient Israel were the “spokesmen” of God. By God’s power, they spoke God’s words according to God’s commands. Prophets were very important; the destiny of the Israelites was decided by how they listened to the prophets, their reflection of God’s words. God spoke to the Ancient Israelites through the prophets. God permitted the Israelites (people) to know what He has prepared for human beings, the grace to complete the people. The prophets declared the people’s descent, corruption. They spread the message that the people needed to repent. The prophets rebuked the people according to The Law. When the prophets saw the Israelites worship idols, commit sins; they blamed them including the rulers (government) bravely. The purpose of God’s giving The Law to Israelites is to tell them they have committed sins, but the people didn’t recognize their sins, they violated knowingly. And they were pride because they had The Law other nations didn’t have. So God blamed them through prophets. The most important message of the prophets is to prophesy Jesus Christ’ coming to settle the problem of man’s sins. So the religion should point to the coming Savior: Jesus Christ. But the Israelites made a serious mistake, their ideas about the coming messiah are wrong, they limited God’s plan to their narrow nationalism. Until today the Jewish people believe The Law can save them. Of course The Law is God’s unchangeable words, but the function of The Law is not to save people from their sins; but to tell them they have committed sins, and lead them the Savior: Jesus Christ, so it is almost impossible for Jewish people to believe in Jesus Christ. So the prophets’ words is one of the two foundations of the only true religion: Christianity. From Bible, we can find, if the kings (government) committed sins, the prophets would rebuke them; they spoke with the authority from God, although they didn’t have military, political power, they rebuked the people, the government, the religion in God’s name bravely. The prophets of Ancient Israel was the spokesmen of God to tell God’s words to the throne (government), the temple (religion), and the people (society).

DT6

 

6. Read Dr. Isbell’s article “History and Writing.” According to him, what is the biblical text disclosing? What is the relationship of the Bible with History?

According to Dr. Isbell, the biblical disclosing:

The biblical narrative is not the kind of historical evidence we would use to prove OR disprove such things. The Bibleis less concerned to be used as a source of historythan it is to offer a prophetic, a moral, a Yahwistic interpretation of the true meaning of history! Whenever we encounter biblical stories clothed in the format of historical narrative, this prophetic or interpretative perspective of the Bible can never be overlooked, just as it is essential to know the perspective of the author of any book.

The relationship of the Bible with History:

Certain biblical data are dry facts and figures, at least some of which can be checked and cross-referenced. Thus, the dates of a king’s rule may be synchronized with Babylonian or Assyrian sources, and Isaiah’s account of the siege of Sennacherib can be compared with the Assyrian view of the same incident.

the authors and editors of Scripture did not intend to write what we define as history. If the Bible is read only as a search for facts,then most of its message will be lost, for the authors of the Bible were not interested in gust the facts. which they assumed true influenced people to live. That is why the Bible is so difficult to read and understand. We want to know facts of a kind that the Bible most often does not give. But it does not follow that because their interest in historywas different from ours we may pronounce them at fault, even less that we may accuse them of twisting the truth to create out of whole cloth a piece of writing they themselves knew to be false and did not believe. We may be so arrogant as to assume that we know better than they did what they should have put in their Bible. But I doubt that they were so arrogant as to presume readers would be so gullible that both their present and all later generations [including us] could be fooled by ideas they themselves knew fully well to be mere fiction.

 

DT7

7. Choose a king from the North. Summarize his reign and the evaluation of it. What could have he done different in order to have a positive evaluation from God?

Ahab

According to 1 Kings 16–22

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two year. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

If Ahab wanted to have a positive evaluation from God, he should have a fearful heart before the Lord, he should do what was right in eyes of the Lord his God. He should not marry Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians. From Bible, Jezebel was more evil than her husband, 18:4 “While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets”, 21:25-26, There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel. And in Chapter 21, Jezebel used a trap to plunder Naboth’s vineyard by kill him for her husband. She also persecuted Elijah. So Ahab should not marry Jezebel, he should marry a woman who feared God as his queen.

He should fear God, obeyed God’s commandments. And although he married the evil woman, he was the king, he should not be impacted by his evil wife, he should lived a righteous life to affect his wife.