Through the Bible in a Year: Song of Solomon 5-8

Posted on 06/22/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here. That plan will change by one week again, as I’ve decided that going through the Gospel of John in a week is too fast. I’m going to do 3 chapters per day and take 7 days. We’ll fill in the rest of the week with Psalms and Proverbs, then return to our schedule the week after.

Song of Solomon 5

I forgot to point out yesterday that chapter 4 is the first time that the Shulammite is called bride (or spouse, KJV). I noticed the word in verse 1 of this chapter.

Commentaries I read said that they got married in chapter 4 (and 5). I had never caught that reading on my own. I didn’t read any explanations of how the commentator interpreted that, but I’m guessing it’s because of the use of bride and spouse in those chapters.

5:1 is the last use of the word bride, interestingly enough.

I’m going to borrow the comments of others for the rest of this chapter.

Clarke’s Commentary:

sleep, but my heart waketh – This is a new part; and some suppose that the fifth day’s solemnity begins here. Though I sleep, yet so impressed is may heart with the excellences of my beloved, that my imagination presents him to me in the most pleasing dreams throughout the night. I doubt whether the whole, from this verse to the end of the seventh, be not a dream: several parts of it bear this resemblance; and I confess there are some parts of it, such as her hesitating to rise, his sudden disappearance, etc., which would be of easier solution on this supposition. Or part of the transactions mentioned might be the effects of the dream she had, as rising up suddenly, and going out into the street, meeting with the watchmen, etc., before she was well awake. And her being in so much disorder and dishabille might have induced them to treat her as a suspiciovs person, or one of questionable character. (ref)

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:

Christ and the church having feasted together at his invitation, she soon after fell asleep, as the disciples did after a repast with their Lord; yet not so fast asleep but that she was sensible of it; for this was not the dead sleep of sin, in which unconverted men are, and are insensible of; nor a judicial slumber some are given up unto, and perceive it not, yet a frame of spirit unbecoming saints, and displeasing to Christ; though consistent with grace, which at such a time is not, or very little, in exercise; they are slothful in duty, and backward to it. (ibid.)

Keil and Delitzsch:

To sleep while the heart wakes signifies to dream, for sleep and distinct consciousness cannot be coexistent; the movements of thought either remain in obscurity or are projected as dreams. … Shulamith thus dreams that her beloved seeks admission to her. (ibid.)

Once we get past the fact that all commentaries say she was dreaming, at least before she left the house and perhaps even leaving the house was dreamt, then the comments drift into speculation that you can do as well as they or I.

Verses 10 through 16 are remarkable praise, even though we don’t use terminology like that much. If you read it just as a love poem, it’s remarkable praise for the girl’s beloved (and now spouse). If you read it about Christ, then you are going to have to do some interpreting, but it is interpretation with good precedent in Scripture. In Revelation 1 Jesus is described in terms that are not far different from the sort of terms used here. In Daniel 10, Daniel sees an angel that glows and shares much of the color descriptions we see in Songs 5.

Song of Solomon 6

What I really like in this chapter is the praise of the queens and concubines that begins in verse 10. That praise is for the bride, the church.

Who is this that grows like the dawn,
As beautiful as the full moon,
As pure as the sun,
As awesome as an army with banners?

Now that’s the church! Growing like the dawn until we come to the fullness of day (Prov. 4:18). As beautiful as the full moon because like the full moon we are reflecting as much of the glory of the sun/Son as is possible. A full moon will light the night well enough even to drive, and it does it without any of its own light, just the reflected light of the sun. The church is as pure as the sun because it is the light of the Son that we reflect, not our own light.

The result, when the church is a full moon, is that it is as awesome as an army with banners!

Song of Solomon 7

Okay, here my thought is that the best spiritual lesson we can learn is that God is not embarrassed to talk about things we are embarrassed to talk about. This entire chapter is very sensual. Even the reference to mandrakes is a sensual reference, for mandrakes were considered an aphrodisiac. (In Genesis 30:14-16 & 22, it appears that Rachel saw mandrakes as a fertility herb rather than an aphrodisiac.)

In fact, the Hebrew word for mandrake means "love plant."

The writer of Hebrews tell us that "marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled." This passage really needs to be rated R, but I don’t think that ancient Israel, nor many societies at all, was as bashful as we are talking about sex and reproduction.

When we get to the prophets, you will find that God is very blunt in charging the nations of Israel and Judah with adultery and harlotry. Some of the rebukes from the prophets are quite graphic.

As a side note, Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, apparently believed some legends about mandrakes. In the Harry Potter series mandrakes scream so loudly when their roots are pulled out that it’s dangerous. Josephus, who wrote over 1900 years before J.K. Rowling, wrote:

A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this the root can be handled without fear. (BibleStudyConnection.blogspot.com)

I’m bashful enough not to comment more on what the words of Song of Songs 7 say. They speak for themselves for those old enough to be reading them.

Song of Solomon 8

In verses 5-7, commentators don’t seem to be able to agree who’s talking. Keil and Delitzsch believe that Solomon is talking and is remembering stirring her to love under the apple tree. Most others believe that the Shulammite is talking, and she stirred him to love. They even compare this to Christ and the church, that the church in adoration stirs Christ to love.

I think this passage hails the virtue of "true love." It’s romantic, and it’s worth so much that if a man gave all his riches for it, then love would be despised. Love is priceless.

It is true that the ultimate love that matters is the love of God. The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. However, I don’t believe verses 5-7 are talking about those commands. I believe they are talking about love and marriage, and God has a very positive view of that love.

Do we need to keep that love under control?

We’ve already seen the Song say four times not to awaken love before its time. The next verses, 8-12, talk about not giving in to improper advances.

I had to read some commentaries to find this out, but the reference to a wall and a door in verse 9 concerns self-control. A "little sister" who is a wall is unmoved when seduction shows up. One who is a door is open to seduction.

The speakers, starting in verse 8, are her older brothers. If their sister is a wall, they will adorn her with silver. If she is a door, they will barricade her with planks of cedar. (Cedar was considered a very strong tree and very strong wood.)

A good lesson for today and the raising of our daughters. Adornment is for walls, not doors. I want to teach my daughter to be a wall, so that praise can be poured out on her. A door must be barricaded by others, older brothers and parents usually, since the girl is not fortifying her own defenses.

Verses 10 to 12 continue in the same vein. Solomon had a caretaker to bring a thousand shekels of silver for "the fruit of the vineyard." She refuses the thousand shekels and says she’ll keep her vineyard for herself, thank you.

That passage is one more indication that the beloved is not Solomon. (I found a web site today that interprets the Song of Solomon as a poem written by a woman in Solomon’s harem, one of his concubines, who resists his advances so that she can go to her shepherd lover.

The chapter, and the poem, end with a couple verses that I do think are allegorical. She steps back to the time when she was waiting for her beloved. She calls him to hurry. That is the state the church is in. We await our Beloved, and we cry, "Maranatha! Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus."

"Hurry, my Beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the Mountains of Spices."

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Through the Bible in a Year: Song of Solomon 1-4

Posted on 06/21/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Song of Solomon

The very thought of trying to comment on the Song of Songs, as it is also known, is frightening to me. So I did some looking at other commentaries, not to just take their word for proper interpretation, but to augment mine as much as possible. I don’t claim to have any deeper insight into the Song except to be certain that it is an allegory of love between Christ and the church as well as between the Shulammite and her beloved.

My favorite introduction to the Song that I found was a short .pdf written by Sherwood Eliot Wirt, an author of 42 books and a traveling companion of Billy Graham for 40 years.

It appears that many modern authors are like Mr. Wirt, rejecting the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon and suggesting that it is primarily a literal love poem. Older commentators, however, approach the Song primarily as allegorical. John Wesley, for instance, writes:

The most excellent of all songs. And so this might well be called, whether you consider the author of it, who was a great prince, and the wisest of all mortal men; or the subject of it, which is not Solomon, but a greater than Solomon, even Christ, and his marriage with the church; or the matter of it, which is most lofty, containing in it the noblest of all the mysteries contained either in the Old or the New Testament; most pious and pathetical, breathing forth the hottest flames of love between Christ and his people, most sweet and comfortable, and useful to all that read it with serious and Christian eyes. (ref)

Matthew Henry agrees:

This is “the Song of songs,” excellent above any others, for it is wholly taken up with describing the excellences of Christ, and the love between him and his redeemed people. (ref)

There were a number of others I ran across, but they were similar to these. We will read it both ways. With this Dr. Peter Pett agrees:

At first sight the song appears to be a simple love song between a young maiden and her beloved. But when we consider it in more depth there are indications that it goes deeper than that … This suggestion is accentuated by the fact that God elsewhere speaks of His relationship with His people in similar terms.
     For example in Jeremiah 2.2 He says, ‘Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD, I remember in regard to you the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, how you went after me in the wilderness … Israel was holiness to the Lord, the firstfruits of His increase.’ Here we have the initial idea of Israel as a young maiden seeking her Lord as a lover in the wilderness with a view to marriage, which is the theme of Solomon’s song (chapters 1-2). (paretheses his, emphasis his)

Augustine once described the early Christian approach to the Hebrew Scriptures, which I agree with:

In all the sacred books … In the case of a narrative of events, the question arises as to whether everything must be taken according to the figurative sense only, or whether it must be expounded and defended also as a faithful record of what happened. No Christian will dare say that the narrative must not be taken in a figurative sense. For St. Paul says: Now all these things that happened to them were symbolic [1 Cor. 10:11]. And he explains the statement in Genesis, And they shall be two in one flesh [Gen. 2:24], as a great mystery in reference to Christ and to the Church [Eph. 5:32]. (The Literal Meaning of Genesis I:1, brackets mine, emphasis mine)

When it comes to the Hebrew Scriptures, we should be looking for the allegorical meaning first, says Augustine. It’s possible that there is also a literal interpretation, but the figurative is what the Christian cannot deny, for the reasons given.

This applies to the Hebrew Scriptures, not the apostles writings. The apostles were already preaching the Gospel, by the Spirit and not by the letter, and their letters are the fullness of the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was written for an earthly people in an earthly kingdom, and God had to hide the spiritual law inside of the physical one. Carnal men cannot walk in the spiritual law, and God was not going to put such rules on men who could not possibly fulfill them. As Jesus said, new wine is for new wineskins. Old wineskins will burst.

Thus God tucked away the spiritual law in the words of the law of the letter, and we who are spiritual must learn to find it.

Song of Solomon 1

Despite the fact that I said modern commentators seem more likely to lean toward a literal interpretation, no one denies that the Song applies to Christ and the church as well. I’ve heard verse 4 made into a song that we sang to God.

I have to agree with Mr. Wirt on one thing. I don’t think this letter is really addressed to Solomon. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and it is very unlikely he was ever a shepherd. I think the Shulammite simply calls him Solomon because it’s a song! Poetic license towards the one she not only loves, but adores.

Also, figuratively or literally, the Holy Spirit inspired this book. God has things to say in it, and addressing this to Solomon the king helps seal the pattern that this applies to Christ and his church.

Song of Solomon 2

We sing songs about Jesus as "the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley," but it’s really the Shulammite, who represents the church, who is called the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. Perhaps we should sing, "We’re the rose of Sharon." According to Songs, that is how Christ sees his church.

We don’t tend to think of God or of Christ this way, but we should. In Zephaniah 3:17 we read:

Yahweh your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save; he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love; he will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

It’s strange to think of God that way, isn’t it? Yet that’s what we’re taught in the Scriptures. The love of our great God is amazing. The prophets compare God’s love for Israel to romantic love or the love of a father for his daughter over and over again.

Verse 7 is great advice. "Do not awaken love until it pleases." Some translations have "Do not awaken my love until she pleases" (e.g., NASB), but I don’t think this is right. The "my" has to be added, and the "she" is there because love is a feminine word in Hebrew.

Today we awaken love all the time with movies, songs, and suggestive advertising. The result is children without two parents, mothers struggling to juggle making an income and raising a child (or children). This comes from awakening love and leads to women marrying men they ought not to have married rather than waiting for someone worth being married to. Men treat women as cheap, and women drop their valuation of themselves.

A missionary once told a story of a very wise businessman on a set of islands. The missionary went to see him, but before he got there he found out that most of the people on the island the businessman was from thought he was a fool. The reason they thought that was because he had paid eight cows as a dowry for his wife, which they all said he could have gotten for one cow. Her father was not that important, and she was not that pretty.

When the missionary went to see the businessman, he found him with his wife, who was beautiful and glowing. If ever there was a woman worth eight cows, it was this woman. What were those people from his home island talking about?

The businessman explained that at the time he could have gotten his wife for one cow. But the businessman didn’t want a one-cow wife; he wanted an eight-cow wife. Further, he didn’t want any other wife but this woman. So he paid eight cows for her because she was the only wife for him, and he wanted an eight-cow wife.

He treated her like an eight-cow wife, too, and as she grew in confidence, her eyes lit up and her face glowed. She saw herself differently because he saw her differently, and she had become the eight-cow wife that he had envisioned.

Fathers, teach your daughters that they are not one-cow wives. They need to see themselves as children of God, honest, upright, hard-working, and beautiful just because they are young women. They need to pass on the man who is willing to offer his own lust in return for her hand and wait for the man for the man who will bid the high price of respect, love, solid character, and care.

Finally, this chapter shows the love of the shepherd and the Shulammite for each other. They long to spend time with one another and even to get a glimpse of one another.

I really hate the Gospel presentations that picture Jesus as some jilted lover pining over those who have turned their back on him. Jesus is the king. He doesn’t follow those who neglect him around begging for their attention. He commands from heaven and through his earthly messengers that all men everywhere should repent (Acts 17:30).

But for those who do repent, the Beloved calls come with him, to see his fields, and even to hide with him in the secret place of the steep pathway, which is figurative of the secret prayer to which our Father calls us.

If we will give Jesus our time, he will respond by the Spirit, and we will find that the Spirit of God really is the Comforter/Encourager/Exhorter. (Parakletos means all those things. You’ll find it in John 14:26 as well as other verses.)

Song of Solomon 3

Don’t let my comments get in the way of enjoying this beautiful love poem for just what it says. I’m hoping to add to it, not make so much noise that you don’t just enjoy the song.

The first few verses of this chapter give us a picture of what we all go through, having trouble finding our Beloved. Sometimes it really is "night after night."

Here, the Shulammite goes to the watchmen, and after she leaves them she immediately finds her beloved. The watchmen represent those who take the lead among us in the church. Paul tells us to know who those people are and to esteem them very highly in love (1 Thess. 5:12-13). They can help you get to the Beloved when you cannot find him yourself.

Song of Solomon 4

There are some beautiful, well thought out compliments in this chapter. I think, though, that some of them wouldn’t fly in the modern world. Can you imagine telling your wife, "Your hair is like a flock of goats that have climbed down a mountain"?

One thousand seven hundred and fifty years ago, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, quoted verse 12 of this chapter and applied it to the church. It was an interesting argument for why Christians must be in the church, not on their own. Generally, I use verses like Proverbs 18:1, which says that a person who isolates himself rages against all wisdom. Or I use Hebrews 3:13, which says that without the exhortation of brothers and sisters, we are in danger of deception. Or I use Ephesians 4:11-16, which says that we all grow together as we speak the truth to each other in love. And so on.

Cyprian, however, used Song of Songs 4:12, and he used it this way:

For it has been delivered to us, that there is one God, one Christ, one hope, one faith, one Church, and one baptism, ordained only in the one Church, from which unity whosoever will depart must necessarily be found with heretics. … The sacrament of this unity we see expressed also in the Canticles [another name for the Song of Solomon], in the person of Christ, who says, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, a garden with the fruit of apples." But if His Church is a garden enclosed, and a fountain sealed, how can he who is not in the Church enter into the same garden, or drink from its fountain? (Letters of Cyprian 73:12, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5)

There are so many beautiful verses in this chapter. I just want to point out the last one, verse 16, and ask you to think about what it’s like to be able to say this to our Lord Jesus.

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Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 9-12

Posted on 06/20/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes in General

As I’ve been saying, all of this is written from a temporary (earthly) perspective. This is Solomon looking at life without any eternal or divine perspective. He finds life pretty depressing.

Matthew Henry (a very popular commentator) describes Ecclesiastes in this way:

We here behold Solomon returning from the broken and empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water; recording his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the lessons he had learned. … If this world, in its present state, were all, it would not be worth living for; and the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much, are not enough to make us happy. (ref)

In his introduction to Ecclesiastes he writes:

At the close of [Solomon’s] life, being made sensible of his sin and folly, he recorded here his experience for the benefit of others, as the book of his repentance; and he pronounced all earthly good to be “vanity and vexation of spirit.” It convinces us of the vanity of the world, and that it cannot make us happy; of the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable. It shows that no created good can satisfy the soul, and that happiness is to be found in God alone; and this doctrine must, under the blessed Spirit’s teaching, lead the heart to Christ Jesus. (ref)

I don’t know if he’s right that this is a book of repentance, but he is certainly right that this is a look at life from a non-eternal perspective. Contrast what we have been reading and are reading today with the hopeful, joyful message in the apostles writings.

A blogger named Keith Mathison recommends some simple commentaries on Ecclesiastes. For further study, I would turn you to his recommendations, and I’m going to pick up one myself. I wish I had thought of getting one of those before getting to this section of Scripture, because as he says, "Ecclesiastes [is] one of the more difficult books of Scripture to interpret and apply."

Yeah, that’s what I’m finding, too.

By the way, Mathison’s statement that the author of his first recommended commentary is an expert on Old Testament Wisdom literature matters to me. There’s a lot of it. Ecclesiastes and Proverbs are real early ones, but the early Christians were familiar with several others written later. The Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and the Wisdom of Solomon (or just Wisdom) were quoted heavily by the early Christians. They’re in Roman Catholic Bibles.

In fact, the Wisdom of Solomon contains a prophecy of Christ so clear that I’m surprised any secular scholars are willing to admit it was written before Jesus was born, but it’s generally accepted to have been written in the first or second century BC. Here’s a portion of the passage I’m referring to:

He professes to have the knowledge of God and calls himself the child of the Lord. … He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is not like other men’s. … He … makes his boast that God is his Father. Let’s see if his words are true … for if the righteous man is the Son of God, he will help him … Let us examine him with spite and torture so that we may know his humility and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death. (Wisdom ch. 2, KJV)

Ecclesiastes 9

Okay, back to our text. We wandered pretty far afield there.

There is a flash of something positive in the last half of this chapter. He commends a couple things and even admits that wisdom is good, though he has usually called it vanity through most of the book.

Solomon, unfortunately, becomes an excellent example of the fact that earthly wisdom is useless. Heavenly wisdom, the one that calls out on the street corner trying to deliver fools from their folly, which we read about in the first few chapters of Proverbs, provides life, righteousness, joy, and a prosperous life. She delivers from death. That Wisdom is a heavenly being, the Son of God, and his rewards are eternal.

Earthly wisdom can’t see through the veil. It sees only this realm, not the heavenly one, and it can produce the gloom that we see in the first few verses of chapter 9 and throughout most of this book.

James, the earthly brother of that heavenly being who is Wisdom, wrote:

If you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, do not boast, and do not lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but it is earthly, sensual, and demonic. … The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without pretense. (Jam. 3:14-17)

Ecclesiastes 10

There’s some interesting advice from a ruler about rulers in verse 4. If a ruler gets angry with you, don’t abandon your position, he says. He says that "composure allays great offenses" (NASB).

Every parent feels Solomon’s words in verses 8 and 9.

He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them. (NASB)

We parents have to have a heavenly perspective. We have to have some trust that our children are in the hand of God, or we aren’t going to let them experience any risk, and we are going to rob them of a real life. I often have to remind myself of all the stupid things I did as a child and teenager (we won’t talk about the stupid things I do now) through which God kept me safe. Sometimes the reminder works, and other times I’m on my knees praying, "God, please don’t let me be a fool for letting those kids go down that river and jump off those rocks. Please keep them safe."

I know this next comment is another about the whole of Ecclesiastes and not just this chapter, but here it is anyway. Solomon is writing from an earthly perspective, so he complains that the righteous and unrighteous all die alike. From a heavenly perspective, the prophet Isaiah writes:

The righteous die, and no one takes it to heart. Merciful people are taken away, none considering that the righteous are taken away from evil. They shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds; each one walking in his uprightness. (57:1-2)

Solomon tells us in this chapter that the fool multiplies words. Proverbs tells us that in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking. James calls us to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (1:19). Let us measure our words, for we will be judged by our idle ones (Matt. 12:36).

Finally (for this chapter), verse 20 is the source of that odd response we give to questions about how we knew something: "A little bird told me."

Ecclesiastes 11

Verse 1, telling us to cast our bread on the waters, has always been taking as a picture of giving. Give and it will be given back to you (Luk. 6:36). Cast your bread on the waters, and it will return to you after many days. That definitely is not true as a literal statement, but it is an excellent picture of giving and trusting God to provide a return.

The one that gives to the poor lends to the Lord, Proverbs tells us (Prov. 28:27).

Verses 4-6 give some excellent advice about diligence. I’m in the process of trying to start a couple small businesses, with a lot of help from others, and I really feel those words. You have to press past some "what ifs," and you have to knock on doors that you’re almost certain will be closed to you.

If it takes that for an earthly business, yet we give that effort for the sake of an income, how much more do you think God will require of us the same effort to reap eternal rewards?

Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge … for if these things are in you and are increasing, they will cause you to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. … Be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. (2 Pet. 1:5-10)

Verses 8-10 are excellent advice, and Solomon even brings the judgment of God into these verses. We should rejoice in all our years. Young men should take advantage of their strength and rejoice in their youth as long as they are remembering the judgment and commands of God. (Solomon will drive that point home in the last two verses of the next chapter.)

I had a year spent mostly in the hospital or visiting it almost daily. That year just ended in May. I’m 50, so I had already lost some of the speed and stamina of my youth, despite being an avid exerciser. This last year stripped most of the rest of that strength and stamina (though I’m slowly getting it back). Yet it’s a year I rejoiced through, felt close to God in, and look back on with gratefulness.

We should rejoice in all the years of our life, even the ones spent in adversity. Let us learn now, before adversity, to place our trust in God, to know him, and to find our rest in him, so that we are ready when we no longer have our own strength.

Ecclesiastes 12

Solomon acknowledges here that the spirit (or breath) returns to God who gave it (v. 7). He calls it all vanity anyway because he is still suggesting that those in the grave are unfeeling and unknowing.

There’s truth in this. We are all used to the idea that every soul, righteous or unrighteous, is immortal, an idea that I believe came from Plato, not the prophets or apostles of God. Immortality is the promise of the Gospel, not of being born on earth. Paul writes:

[God] will repay everyone according to their deeds. To those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by patiently continuing to do good, [he will repay] eternal life. But to them … that do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, [he will repay] indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. (Rom. 2:5-7)

Later he tells us that if we live according to the flesh, we will "die." We will live only if we put to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12-13).

Sorry for addressing such an entrenched way of looking at things in passing at the end of a commentary on Ecclesiastes. It is worth looking through the apostles writings, though, at what they and Jesus had to say about the unrighteous perishing. Even John 3:16 tells us that those who believe will have eternal life, so that they will not perish.

Romans 2 talks about "seeking" immortality. It is not simply the natural state of the soul.

Ecclesiastes 12:10 (back to Ecclesiastes) tells us that the Preacher sought out "delightful" words (NASB). The KJV has "acceptable" words, but when I looked up the Hebrew word, it appears the NASB is undoubtedly accurate.

These were delightful words? I’m not sure I agree with that. A lot of them were dark and depressing.

On the other hand, if we look at them as words to learn by, a wisdom from below that we should supplant with Wisdom from above (which God gives freely to all who ask – Jam. 1:5), then they can be delightful, even if they depress us a bit along the way.

Verse 11 is so well said that I’m going to repeat it here:

The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. (NASB)

Personally, when my words are like goads, I get nervous. If someone gets angry at me, I start to doubt what I said to them. A wise man’s words are like goads (prods used to direct cattle), so he should expect that he is going to occasionally (or often) make others angry.

I remember reading once that Charles Finney, a 19th century evangelist preaching mostly in New York state, was preaching to a congregation that was steadily growing restless and obviously angry with what he was saying. Unbeknownst to him, his chosen text for his sermon, concerning Lot and Sodom, had been applied to their town before, and they didn’t appreciate his poking an old wound. Undeterred, Finney reported that as he saw their restless state, "I thrust at them with the sword of the Spirit."

I have a great appreciation for such boldness. May God grant me grace to imitate it.

Verses 13-14 are Solomon’s conclusion, even from a standpoint of earthly wisdom:

Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (NASB)

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Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 5-8

Posted on 06/19/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes 5

Now Ecclesiastes becomes a lot like Proverbs and is full of advice. If you’ve never memorized any verses out of Ecclesiastes before, now is you chance to do so. A lot of the proverbs and instructions in Ecclesiastes are well worth remembering.

Have you ever been told to keep your words few when you pray? That is the instruction verse 2. Prayer should be two way communication with God.

Many Christians have no experience with this kind of prayer. They simply offer up petitions to God, sometimes with thanksgiving as well. However, to purposely keep your words few in the presence of God and purposefully listen, this is the instruction of Solomon and the Holy Spirit. After all, if you can be talking or God can be talking, who should get first priority?

If you have no experience with this kind of prayer, don’t give up on the first day. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6). Finding out how to hear God and how to be still before God (Ps. 46:10) is part of diligently seeking him.

I don’t mean that you will hear a voice or that you will be able to recount words. However, you should be able to enter his presence with thanksgiving and praise (Ps. 100) and with confidence because of the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 4:16). As you diligently seek him in this way, you will begin to learn to listen not just in prayer but all the time, and you will learn to recognize the voice of the Shepherd of your soul.

Ecclesiastes 6

Solomon asks questions that he himself answers in the book of Proverbs. "What advantage does a wise man have over a fool?" Read Proverbs, it deals with that subject over and over again.

Solomon is still working through a thought process that is pretty depressing. (This is not the chapter I was recommending memorizing!) However, it is a process that builds to chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 7

This is the sort of chapter I was talking about memorizing.

Solomon’s words about feasting and pleasure versus mourning and sorrow are very true. I heard Barry McGuire sing a song once that expressed Solomon’s thoughts very pertinently:

I walked a mile with Gladness
She chattered all the way
But nary a thing learned I
For all she had to say

I walked a mile with Sadness
Nary a word said she
But oh the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me

The rest of this chapter is very thought-provoking. It’s ironic that Solomon talks about the snares, nets, and chains of a woman’s heart and hands since his wives were his downfall.

Read this chapter’s words remembering that inspiration is spiritual, and you, being born again, are spiritual as well. God has things to say through words like this that are figurative and that we should look for as spiritual beings.

Ecclesiastes 8

Solomon’ laments are true … for the natural man. Much of what he has to say explains why Jesus came to die and rise again, triumphing over death and delivering us from our sins, and we have read today that everyone sins.

From a natural, human standpoint, there is much futility and striving after wind. What profit is there in all we do? Just try to labor and enjoy your few years upon this earth.

But Jesus has made us children of God, partakers of immortality. God can make us full of joy with his presence, and his right hand will give us pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).

An eternal perspective allows us to live in joy and hope, especially when we have already received a deposit on our eternal inheritance, that deposit being the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).

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Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 1-4

Posted on 06/18/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes 1-2

Solomon wrote this book, as is evident throughout and stated in verse 1.

I put chapters 1 and 2 together in this commentary because I think they need to go together. Chapter 1 gives us an introduction to who "the Preacher" is, and it gives a basic overview of what he’s going to be talking about. "What can we change?" he asks. He suggests that there’s nothing anyone can change, which makes wisdom and insight into life simply depressing.

In much wisdom there is grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain. (1:18, NASB)

This directly contradicts what the same person, Solomon, has said about Wisdom in the beginning of Proverbs.

Ecclesiastes is a thought process. Most of the verses are not conclusions; they are thought experiments and life experiments leading toward a conclusion that he will give us at the end of chapter 12.

Fortunately, we get a brief, less depressing glimpse at the conclusion at the end of chapter 2.

At the start of chapter 2 we are introduced to a life experiment that Hollywood and sports stars provide us with on a regular basis. Being fabulously rich, being able to obtain all you want, and living in profligacy (that big word will allow parents to explain what it means in their own words and with their own care) does not bring happiness.

‘Futility, striving after wind, and no profit’ is how Solomon describes it (v. 11).

Verses 24-26 are the positive end of his depressing reasoning of the first two chapters, though he still calls it useless striving after wind. I’m not sure why.

Ecclesiastes 3

The section on a time for everything is very famous, and songs have been written about it. Going through the list of things that there are a time for is serious food for thought.

I want to apply a "time for everything" to Scripture interpretation, however. We humans love to have exact answers to all our questions. Mystery and doubt scare us. We want prophets to tell us the rules and give us the answers.

God provided Israel a framework in the Law, and he provides Christians guidance through the Spirit and the church. However, I hope it’s becoming evident as we read through the Scriptures that not many answers and rules apply in every situation. Exceptions abound, and at the heart of what matters to God is that we rejoice in him and acknowledge him.

We have looked at Romans 4 … twice. There are people to whom the Lord will not impute sin. We have seen examples of such people: Abraham, David, Samuel, and others. They are people who faithfully take God at his word. They may have weaknesses, even severe weaknesses, but refusing to believe God is never one of those. They’re courageous, and they’re excited about God.

When we read the Scriptures, we need to remember that. When we begin to feel that Pharasaical attitude rising up in us, wanting to demand that others give in to our interpretation of Scripture and the Law of God, let us remember what matters, and let us remember there is a time for everything. Sometimes, the Scripture we read and are applying to every situation in all time, applies only in certain situations and at some times.

Verses 11 and 14 imply that Solomon understands eternity and that God offers eternal life to the righteous. But in verses 19-22 Solomon questions all that and expresses doubts about it. "Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of beast descends downward to the earth?"

Jesus knows. He’s been there.

Ecclesiastes 4

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. (v. 6)

This rest is an emotional and spiritual rest. Being lazy is nothing Solomon would recommend. To live in a state of rest is the call of God in Christ because Christ is our Sabbath rest. If we feel that we are constantly striving and overwhelmed, it is time for us to labor a different way. We need to labor to enter the rest of God that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Sabbath which cast the shadow that was the Jewish weekly Sabbath (Heb. 4; Col. 2:16).

Solomon’s words on two being better than one have been often quoted. When God speaks of Israel going to war, he says that one will put a thousand to flight, and two will put ten thousand to flight. The power of two is not just double, but ten times what the power of one is.

That is a spiritual principle. We need each other (1 Cor. 12). Together we are much more powerful than we are alone.

Finally, the statement that a cord of three strands is not easily broken is often applied to marriage. I strongly agree with this. A marriage tied together not just with husband and wife, but with Christ as well, is a marriage that is not easily broken.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 21-25

Posted on 06/15/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Little Apology

Um … oops. I’m supposed to have a blog up this morning. I’ve been moving back into my home in Selmer, TN, and now I’m moving back into my job at the warehouse and my job as a homeschooling father. I just forgot and taught a "Life Prep" class last night instead of doing this blog.

I’ll put it up chapter by chapter as I get it done. I just give you what I think God is giving me to give, so I’m never sure how long one of these will take.

The Bible’s the more important read anyway, especially now that you’ve got some foundation in it.

Does anyone look up the references I give when I refer to other Scriptures in my commentary? Those are like the stitching that holds the Book together. Scripture’s commentary on Scripture can be really amazing if someone shows you the references.

2 Kings 21

Manasseh was very evil, and that is all that is recorded in this chapter. 2 Chronicles 33 reports, however, that he was captured by the Assyrians at one point, repented, and was restored to his throne, where he began to serve the Lord, getting rid of the idols in Jerusalem.

The prayer of Manasseh is famous, though I’m sure no one knows if it’s genuine or not. It was put at the end of 2 Chronicles in the Latin Vulgate by Jerome. You can read about the prayer of Manasseh and read a couple translations of it at EarlyJewishWritings.com.

The Latin Vulgate and the Canon

There’s lots of rumors about how the Protestant church became settled on the 66 books that make up our Bible and the Roman Catholic Church settled on the 73 that make up theirs. Many claim that the Synod of Hippo in A.D. 393 established the Canon. (Others claim that the Council of Nicea established the Canon in 325, but there’s not even a grain of truth to that story.)

The Synod of Hippo did give a list of books to be in the Bible, but they had no authority to enforce it. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo, and a few years after the synod, he wrote:

Prefer those [books] that are received by all the catholic churches to those which some do not receive. (On Christian Doctrine II.8.12)

Clearly, the bishop of Hippo did not think the Synod of Hippo settled anything concerning the books of the Bible.

In fact, the only council in history that authoritatively dictated what books should be in the Bible was the Council of Trent that began in 1546 and ran for a number of years. Their authority carried only to the Roman Catholic Church, not to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which have never officially set a canon in a council.

So why do Protestants use the 66 books they use? It is because the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome in the early 5th century, was the only Bible translation used by western churches for nearly a thousand years. It had our 66 books in it, plus the extra 7 "apocryphal" books the Roman Catholics approved at the Council of Trent in the 16th century (but in an appendix). Custom has always been more powerful than law, and a thousand years of custom is what established our canon of 66 books.

Manasseh reigned 55 years. It has always been interesting to me that an evil king reigned longer than any other king. Perhaps it was because of his repentance at some point in his life. In fact, perhaps his repentance happened late in life. Peter tells us that God is patient, giving time for everyone possible to come to repentance because he wants everyone to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9).

2 Kings 22

There is no telling how long the book of the Law had been shut up in the temple. It seems likely that it was only since Hezekiah’s reign, since Hezekiah was a diligent follower of Yahweh. Further, Isaiah was a prophet during Hezekiah’s reign, and Isaiah makes some clear references to the Law:

To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)

This is a rebellious people, lying children, who will not listen to the Law of the Lord. (Isaiah 30:9)

2 Kings 23

In this chapter we see that the repentance of Manasseh could only have been a mild one. God is still intending to judge Israel for Manasseh’s sins, and Josiah had to remove altars that had Manasseh had put in the court of the Lord (v. 12). Manasseh hadn’t removed them himself.

The Jeremiah that was the maternal grandfather of Jehoahaz was not Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was prophesying during the reign of the sons of Josiah, and he mentions Jeremiah of Libnah as the grandfather of Jehoahaz, too (Jer. 52:1). Two different Jeremiah’s.

2 Kings 24

Jehoiachin came out of Jerusalem to surrender after being besieged by the Babylonians. In surrendering, he probably hoped to secure more favor from Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps even keeping his reign as Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal. It didn’t work, though the king of Babylon did not kill him. He was taken prisoner, and his uncle was installed in his place.

His uncle is also listed as the son of Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah because he was Johoahaz’ brother (and thus Jehoiakim’s brother, too).

Also, when it says that Jehoiachin was taken captive in the eighth year of "his" reign, it means Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Jehoiachin only reigned three months. Historically, the timing is correct that this was the eighth year of Nebuchadenezzar’s reign, though for some of those years he was co-regent with his father.

2 Kings 25

This is the account of the final destruction of Jerusalem. When we get to the prophet Jeremiah there will be a more detail because he was there for all of it. His perspective of these events is very interesting. Verse 11 mentions "the deserters" who "deserted" to the king of Babylon. Jeremiah was encouraging everyone to desert, promising them in the name of the Lord that this would spare their lives and and that they would eventually return to Jerusalem. This made Zedekiah, who was in rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, very angry.

More about that in a few weeks.

Zedekiah failed because the Lord was not with him. It’s not a good idea to take on other armies and great forces without God on your side.

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Through the Bible: 2 Kings 16-20

Posted on 06/14/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 16

Elath, which Rezin captured, sits at the top of the Dead Sea close to the Jordan. Thus it is about 30 miles from Jerusalem.

The Arameans are the same as the Syrians. (Some translations have Rezin as the king of Syria and others as the king of Aram. Aram is the Hebrew word for Syria.) Their land is east of the Jordan, north of the Sea of Galilee. The land east of the Jordan between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea had already been taken by the Arameans (2 Kings 10:32-33), when Hazael was king, and thus Gad, Asher, and the half tribe of Manasseh had already lost their ancestral lands.

Ahaz turns to Assyria for deliverance from Rezin and Pekah, and in the end he turns to the religion of the Assyrians as well. The Scriptures don’t say that he was worshiping an Assyrian god, but he had a copy of the Assyrian altar made at the temple, and he set things up so the Assyrian king would be pleased.

We will see the contrast when the Assyrians run into Hezekiah, Ahaz’ son.

2 Kings 17

This chapter records the fall of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. The three-year siege of Samaria began in 724 B.C. and ended in 721 B.C. King Hoshea was already in Assyrian captivity while this siege went on.

The first king of Israel, when the kingdom was united, was Saul, who began his reign c. 1020 B.C. The first king of the divided kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam, who began his reign c. 922 B.C. Thus, the ten tribes had a kingdom for 300 years total, 100 united with Judah and 200 split from them. Actually, it’s 98 years and 201 years for a total of 299 years, but I thought 100, 200, and 300 would be easier to remember. And since most of those dates, outside of the fall of Samaria, have a "c." for circa (meaning about or near), rounding by one or two years is not a stretch.

The king of Assyria brought people from Babylonia and Cuthah (two Babylonian cities), Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (probably all Syrian cities, but that’s only certain for Hamath), and he settled them in Samaria. These forced immigrants, along with Israelites left in the land are the ancestors of the Samaritans whom we read about in the Gospels 700 years later.

It’s ironic that the Samaritans were despised by the Jews, probably because of their "half-breed" status and because they were descendants of a nation that constantly worshiped idols and provoked God to wrath, but now, because of Jesus’ parable, the name "Samaritan" has become synonymous with kindness to strangers.

The last verse of this chapter gives you an idea of how long after the fact this history was written and also by whom it was written. The comments about how these Samaritans serve and don’t serve Yahweh make it probable that a scribe/historian in Judah is writing this part of the history, and he is at least two generations removed from the time of Samaria’s conquest because he’s able to comment on the behavior of the Samaritan’s grandchildren.

Judah began to fall about 120 years after the fall of Samaria, though they hung on as vassals of the Babylonian king (who had overthrown the power of Assyria by then). By the way, I’m getting all these dates from crivoice.org. I like lists of the Israelite and Judah kings that come with dates. Very helpful in picturing this history.

2 Kings 18

Jehoshophat had to break apart the bronze serpent that Moses had made to heal Israel from the poisonous snake bites they received in the desert. They had been worshiping it on and off since the exodus some 700 years earlier. (Solomon is said by the Scriptures, in 1 Kings 6:1, to have begun his reign 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt.)

It’s a little humorous that the Scripture adds here that the Israelites were calling it "Nehushtan." The note in the NASB (and several sites I checked online) says that Nehushtan means "piece of bronze."

Verse 5 says there was none like Jehoshaphat among the kings of Judah, not before or after him. This is not the only place you’ll read something like that. That’s because the sentence was written by a human historian who died at some point. He means, "Among the few other kings I’ve seen in my lifetime after Jehoshophat died, there have been no others as righteous as Jehoshaphat."

Later, after this historian died, another historian wrote about Josiah, and he said that Josiah was more righteous than any other that was before or after him (2 Kings 23:25). The person writing about Josiah was correct for all of Israel’s history, though, for after Josiah, Israel had no other righteous king at all.

The story of Assyria’s attack on Hezekiah and Jerusalem is told three times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Chronicles repeats the story, and it is in Isaiah as well, who is the prophet involved in this story. Perhaps it is important to God!

In this chapter, we find Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sending messengers to the gate, and Hezekiah gives excellent advice to his people: Don’t answer them.

I tell you based on 30 years of experience as a Christian that answering in such a situation is a waste of time and worse than a waste of time. The messengers of Sennacherib—or in our case, the messengers of satan and the world—are not going to listen to answers even if they’ve present arguments. Arguing with them, attempting to refute them … these are just opportunities for these people to present their blasphemies all over again or find new blasphemies and ignorant scoffing to spew.

They’re not listening to you, why waste your breath! If you must instruct your friends, or in Hezekiah’s case, the people on the wall, then do so after the deaf, blind, and careless scoffers leave. And they’ll leave faster if you don’t answer them.

On top of that, you can trust God that he will answer them. His answer to Sennacherib is powerful and doesn’t involve exchanging words at the wall.

I am not saying you should not try to help and convert those for whom there is hope. However, it is Jesus who said not to throw holy things to dogs and pearls to pigs. He was calling close-minded, hard-hearted, purposefully ignorant, careless people animals, and he was comparing their behavior to animals.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him. (Prov. 26:4)

2 Kings 19

In verse 9, the king of Cush is the king of Ethiopia.

This is another great story to memorize and tell to kids. There is nothing that is too hard for God.

2 Kings 20

Speaking of there being nothing too hard for God. In this chapter, God causes the sun to go backwards in the sky (v. 11).

There have been numerous objections to this event by unbelievers. If the earth stopped rotating, the oceans would race across the planet, wiping out all life, and that’s in addition to all the problems of orbit and relation to the moon that such an event would cause.

God is the Creator. There is nothing too difficult for him, and laws of the universe are not out of his control.

Those of you who have experienced miracles from God, which I assume is most of the people who read this blog, know what it feels like. In some cases, the results are so obvious and so powerful that you just rejoice at God’s intervention or his answer to prayer. In many cases, though, you just look and think, "Did that just happen? No way. That did not happen." You doubt yourself, even if you just prayed for the miracle to happen. Then you start wondering if maybe it was just coincidence or if you didn’t understand what happened correctly.

From July, 2011 to May, 2012 I was in Nashville being treated for leukemia. I spent three of those months in the hospital (four stays, the longest being six weeks). During the most difficult of those times, we felt somewhat like we had text-a-miracle as an app on my wife’s iPhone. She would text, "Shammah’s blood pressure is down, if it’s not back up by tomorrow they’re putting him in ICU." Friends would pray. At the next check, it would be up. One prayer after another prayer after another.

I can imagine that ‘the shadow going backward ten steps’ was similar. It should have been a huge miracle, blowing their minds, but when the shadow began moving the wrong direction, it probably seemed as natural as sunset, even a little unbelievable, except for the strongly spiritual, like Isaiah.

People forget and explain away and doubt. If we could remember all God has done for us. If we all together trusted God enough to take risks, we’d have so many stories that we’d laugh at a skeptic’s suggestion that the sun moving backward in the sky couldn’t happen. It could happen without scoffers even knowing it happened.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 11-15

Posted on 06/13/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 11

Athaliah is the only queen to reign over Judah or Israel. She reigned for six years.

She had to kill all her grandchildren to do so. The fact that she was so easily overthrown with no one to stand by her suggests that she as evil a queen as she was a grandmother.

The Carites that Jehoiada called upon were probably the same as the Cherethites, who were David’s palace guard.

The fact that Joash became king at seven lets us know that Jehoiada was making all the royal decisions for several years until Joash at least became a teenager.

2 Kings 12

Jehoash did right only as long as Jehoiada was advising him. But despite the fact that Jehoiada gave righteous advice, he was apparently plagued by the same problems a lot of modern religious organizations are plagued by. He and the other priests were unable to account for money in the building fund!

Despite doing right while Jehoiada advised him (and we’re not told what wrong he did afterward), Joash did not turn to the Lord when he was attacked by the king of Aram. Instead, he gave away Judah’s wealth and the wealth of the house of the Lord to buy him off.

It’s strange that the king of Aram was attacking Gath. Aram was on the other side of the Jordan, to the north near the sea of Galilee, while Gath was a Philistine city, near the Mediterranean coast west of Jerusalem.

Finally Jehoash is assassinated, though his son still managed to keep the throne.

2 Kings 13

I heard a sermon once on the prophecy of Elisha to Jehoash. The teacher talked about the importance of zeal in our obedience to God. Jehoash gave a half-hearted response to the prophet’s command to beat the floor with arrows, and so he got partial results rather than everything God had for him.

2 Kings 14

The prophet Jonah mentioned in this chapter is the same one that was swallowed by the great fish and taken to Nineveh. Though the king was evil, it appears that occasionally God would deliver Israel because of the righteousness of the prophet or prophets who spoke to Israel and because of his promises to the fathers of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David).

2 Kings 15

This chapter details all the assassinations and turning over of the throne that happened in the northern kingdom during that time.

The city of Tiphsah that Menahem attacked was far north, on the Euphrates river. He must have made some real progress in expanding Israel because Tiphsah is north even of Syria and its capitol, Damascus.

The Uzziah that is mentioned is Azariah.

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and Rezin of Aram (v. 37) are talked about in Isaiah chapter 7 as well. There God gives a prophecy that he would deliver Judah from these two kings in the time of Ahaz. That prophecy is a dual prophecy, applying in Ahaz’ time, but also applying to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ as well. We will talk more about dual prophecies when we get there, though we discussed this some when we went through Genesis as well.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 6-10

Posted on 06/12/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 6

The Lord was apparently giving the king of Israel (probably Jehoram) an opportunity to choose the right path. The first time the king of Aram came to Israel, God helped the king through Elisha even without the king asking. The next time, the king got no help at all. Amazingly, he wanted to blame Elisha for that!!!

The circumstances of the siege were horrifying. I won’t repeat any of them here.

2 Kings 7

God delivers Samaria again through Elisha. In this case, the king had to go to Elisha and appeal to him. He appealed in an unusual way, threatening Elisha’s life, but God decided to answer.

2 Kings 8

God answered the king in chapter 7, but he put a 7-year famine on the land in this chapter. It didn’t cause Jehoram of Israel to repent at all.

Ahaziah of Judah starts his reign in this chapter and reigns for one year. The year is 843 B.C. or something very close to that. Just over 150 years have passed since David began to reign.

2 Kings 9

It’s interesting to note that the captains who were with Jehu referred to the prophet as a madman (v. 11). I have always wondered about the appearance of Israelite prophets. We simply see black and white words on a page, printed in a professional font and professionally bound. The Israelites saw prophets who laid on one side for almost a year (Ezekiel 4:4-6) and walked naked for three years prophesying that Israel would go into captivity "with their buttocks uncovered" (Isaiah 20:4).

Jehu assassinates both the king of Judah and the king of Israel, but he only ascends to the throne of Israel.

2 Kings 10

Jehu calls himself zealous for Yahweh, and he kills all the worshipers of Baal. He destroys the temple of Baal. But he kept the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. He’s the closest thing to a righteous king that Israel had, despite the vast amount of assassinations at the start of his reign.

In ancient Jewish culture, the word "zeal" or "zealous" is tied to violence. Jehu was zealous for Yahweh by killing Yahweh’s enemies. The Maccabees (from the Apocrypha, found in Catholic Bibles) were zealous by fighting against Greek kings. Even Paul said that before he was a Christian he was zealous because he persecuted the church (Php. 3:6).

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 1

Posted on 06/11/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings: General Comments

At the end of this week, you will have completed most of the history of Israel as it is known in the Hebrew Scriptures. Chronicles is the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, and it covers the same time period as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings do. In fact, in many languages, those books are not known as Samuel and Kings, but they are 1, 2, 3, and 4 Kings.

Kings ends with the capture of Judah by the Babylonians. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the return from Babylon, and Esther describes a small period during the Babylonian captivity. Several of the prophets address either the Babylonian captivity or afterward as well.

After Ezra and Nehemia, there is no Biblical history of Israel until the Gospels, a 400-year gap. Protestants know this period as "the 400 silent years," but that’s not accurate. There are 4 books of the Maccabees giving the history of Israel during the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. Two of those are in the Roman Catholic Bible, and some Orthodox versions of the Bible have all four.

It appears that all Christian teachers of the period immediately after the apostles were familiar with the Maccabbees, as well as with Tobit and Ecclesiasticus, books that are found only in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament Scriptures. It’s likely they were familiar with all seven books that are called "the Apocrypha" and are contained in Roman Catholic Bibles, but not Protestant ones.

I’m not going to discuss whether they ought to be in the Bible. Even Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate which the Roman Catholic Church used throughout the middle ages, set those seven books in their own category separate from the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. However, Christian teachers should be familiar with them. If it’s worth it to know the history of Israel up to and immediately after the Babylonian captivity, it’s worth knowing it all the way to the time of Christ. Maccabees gives great insight into the culture of the Gospels because the Pharisees were basically trying to carry out the reforms that the Maccabees instituted, though their attitude was such that they made God mad, while God was with the family of the Maccabees.

So whether we consider the seven books of "the Apocrypha" to be Scripture or not, we who consider ourselves students of God’s word—and especially if we consider ourselves teachers—should at least be familiar with them. Our predecessors, including Martin Luther, John Calvin and the Anabaptist leaders, were deeply familiar with them.

2 Kings 1

At the end of 1 Kings, Ahab was shot by an arrow in battle even though he was disguised. You can hide from men, but you cannot hide from God. Ahaziah his son is now king, and Jehoshaphat is still king of Judah, having survived the battle that killed Ahab.

Also, Ahab’s evil wife, Jezebel, is still alive, though God will rectify that eventually as well.

The reigns of Jehoshaphat, and the two Jehorams, the king of Judah and the king of Israel, are wickedly difficult to reconcile. Verse 17 of this chapter says that Jehoram of Israel became king in the second year of the reign of Jehoram of Judah. Yet 2 Kings 3:1 says that he became king in the 18th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat. 1 Kings 22:51 gives us basically the same time frame as 2 Kings 3:1 because it says that Ahaziah became king in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, and he only reigned two years. Taking into account that two years doesn’t mean "two years exactly to the day (or month)," it makes sense that Ahaziah’s son Jehoram would be king in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years. How could his 18th year also be the 2nd year of the reign of Jehoram of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s son?

We get a clue in a few chapters. 2 Kings 8:16 says that Jehoshaphat was still king when his son Jehoram began to reign.

Here is the general understanding of Biblical scholars:

When Jehoshaphat went with Ahab to fight against the Syrians, the battle we just read about in which Ahab died, he left the administration of the kingdom in the control of his son Jehoram. Thus Jehoram became a viceroy or co-regent with his father starting in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat’s reign.

Later, in the 23rd year of his reign, Jehoshaphat retired and turned the kingdom completely over to his son and died two years later. It’s in the 23rd year of Jehoshaphat’s reign that Jehoram, his son, marks the beginning of his reign, except right here in 2 Kings 1:17, where the historian, for some unknown reason, marks Jehoram of Judah’s first year as the year he became co-regent with his father.

Understand, I am no defender of Biblical inerrancy when it comes to science and history. I don’t have any problems with spots where it is basically impossible to line up two Bible passages historically. I call those contradictions because I don’t believe that God feels any obligation to divinely enhance the memory of certain events so that Gospel writers and Jewish historians get every detail and conversation correct down to the word. For example, even skilled commentators are at a loss to explain why the Gospel of John says that the Pharisees stayed out of Pontius Pilate’s court so they could be clean to eat the Passover (18:28). According to the other Gospels, Jesus and his disciples had eaten the Passover the evening before. Various explanations are given by commentaries, none of which I find satisfactory. My explanation? John wrote his Gospel late in life, in the A.D. 90’s, about 60 years after the events transpired. Because Jesus’ death was so associated with the Passover, and perhaps also because John was by then used to reckoning days by Greek time rather than Jewish time, he remembered the day wrong.

But in the case of 2 Kings 1, I agree with the commentators. I think the historian gives the dates he does because of Jehoram’s co-regency with his father. I don’t think there’s a Bible contradiction or historical error here.

Bible Contradictions?

Some you may be in shock at my suggestion that there might be historical or scientific errors in the Bible. I’m not sure what to do about that because they’re undeniable. Job 37:18 says the sky is as hard as a metal mirror. 1 Samuel 2:8 says the earth is set on pillars. Genesis 1:7 says there’s a "firmament," a word that means something hard, separating waters above from waters beneath, and the creation account in Genesis 1 really doesn’t match the creation account in Genesis 2, even if you try to say that Genesis 2 is only talking about creating the Garden of Eden.

There are plenty of numbers that don’t line up between Kings and Chronicles and the list of those who came from Babylon to Jerusalem in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are similar, but not the same.

Apologists (people who defend a religion, in this case Biblical inerrancy) have explanations for the things I’ve written above, but I find most of them not just dissatisfying, but often embarrassing.

I have simply never understood why the inspiration of a spiritual book requires ancient people to understand modern science or nail down small nuances of history without any errors or contradiction. In modern courts, the testimony of two witnesses who tell exactly the same story down to the smallest detail is considered suspect. The court assumes they’ve collaborated. Contradictions between witnesses on minor details enhances their credibility, it does not detract from it.

The earliest Christian writing outside the Bible is called 1 Clement, and it’s a letter from the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. Some in the early church considered it inspired, and it was attached to the New Testament in a codex that dates from the fourth century. It’s a beautiful, encouraging writing. In it, however, the author uses the Phoenix bird as an illustration of resurrection. We now know the Phoenix bird does not exist, but should we ignore the powerful spiritual truths in 1 Clement because he didn’t know that the Phoenix bird was just an Egyptian legend?

2 Kings 2

This is another example of the kind of shape Elijah was in. The trip from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho was at least 50 miles. Crossing the Jordan would have added a couple miles to that.

Elisha cursing the children is shocking to us. I have no explanation that would stop it from being shocking, but perhaps the following explanation by Augustine will make it less so. This is taken from bible.cc in the Keil & Delitzsch section:

"The insolent boys," [Augustine] says, "are to be supposed to have done this at the instigation of their parents; for they would not have called out if it had displeased their parents." And with regard to the object of the judicial punishment, he says it was inflicted "that the elders might receive a lesson through the smiting of the little ones, and the death of the sons might be a lesson to the parents; and that they might learn to fear the prophet, whom they would not love, notwithstanding the wonders which he performed."

John Wesley adds this, from the same page:

If any of these children were more innocent, God might have mercy upon their souls, and then this death was not a misery, but a real blessing to them, that they were taken away from that education which was most likely to expose them not only to temporal, but eternal destruction. In the name – Not from any revengeful passion, but by the motion of God’s Spirit, and by God’s command and commission. God did this, partly, for the terror and caution of all other idolaters and prophane persons who abounded in that place; partly, to vindicate the honour, and maintain the authority of his prophets; and particularly, of Elisha, now especially, in the beginning of his sacred ministry.

2 Kings 3

A notable miracle happened in this chapter, and God delivered Israel, Judah, and Edom through the words of Elijah. However, I want to point out the role of the minstrel in this chapter. It was as the minstrel played and Elijah got into God’s presence that the word of God came to him.

Verse 27 is another horrifying occurrence. It’s impossible to tell just by looking at the verse whose wrath is being discussed. The Keil & Delitzsch commentary says that the Hebrew phrase used here is always used of divine wrath in every other occurrence in the Hebrew Scriptures. So they understand it to mean that God was angry with Israel for occasioning such a sacrifice.

If that’s true, there’s still no way to know in what way the Israelites felt that divine wrath. The result was that they went home. It’s possible that they were simply sickened by the sight, for the king burned his son to death on the wall.

Rabbinic tradition teaches that the king of Moab was told by advisors that the Israelites had power against him because their founder, Abraham, had offered his son as a burnt sacrifice in quick obedience to God. (Of course, we know that God supplied a replacement, but the king of Moab didn’t know.) So the king of Moab did the same, hoping for the same power the Israelites had.

I’m pretty sure that in this case, rabbinic tradition is just the speculation of rabbis centuries later.

2 Kings 4

Shunem was near Jezreel, some 30 miles northeast of Samaria, which was the king of Israel’s capitol. Abishag, the young maiden who kept King David warm in his old age, was also from Shunem.

Note that when the Shunammite came to Elisha, he said that the Lord had hidden her problem from him. It seems that this was unusual and that in most cases, Elisha would have known what it was that was troubling the people who came to him. Powerful prophet!

The rest of this chapter is devoted to miracles that Elisha performed.

Make sure you’re reading the Scriptures and not just my commentary. These are great and inspiring stories.

Don’t think they can’t happen to you. If you listen to God, there are many opportunities to witness your own miracles. Maybe they won’t be as spectacular as some of Elisha’s, but spiritual Christians can normally list numerous places where they have seen the intervention of God in their lives or the lives of others after prayer.

I remember once being prompted by God to ask the church to pray for a drought to end here in Tennessee (spring, 2008, I think). When I asked the church to pray, one of the sisters in the church asked if we could pray for the rain to start on Tuesday because she was taking many children to the zoo on Tuesday. We laughed, but we prayed, and the rain started while they were in the parking lot leaving the zoo on Tuesday.

We had of course all been praying for an end to the drought, but on that day God was ready to do something about it, and he let us have a hand in seeing something special. This sort of thing can be ordinary life for a church of disciples, who love God, believe in his Son, know his promises, and who rely on his mercy daily.

2 Kings 5

Jesus uses Naaman as an example in his preaching. He points out that there were many lepers in Elisha’s day, but the only one that he healed was Naaman the Syrian. It made the Jews so mad that they tried to kill him (Luke 4:27-30).

There’s lessons for us in that story. We have to beware of excluding people. (Of course, we also have to beware of including people that we shouldn’t, as Jehoshaphat found out when he was rebuked by a prophet for going to war with Ahab.)

Gehazi’s greed is also a lesson to us. How many of us, given the opportunity, would have followed in his footsteps? He wasn’t stealing. He was just greedily taking advantage of an opportunity that wasn’t his to take advantage of.

There’s a lesson to be learned from Naaman as well. He had an expectation of how he was to be healed, and he almost missed his healing because of it.

I’d sum up those lessons this way: A spiritual person is flexible, brave (standing up to and against the wicked), merciful (open to all who come to God honestly), and trusts God strenuously.

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