2023 Writings Commentary

Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles

Joshua 1, Joshua 2, Joshua 3, Joshua 4

Joshua’s name is Yehoshua, the long-form of Yeshua, the name of our Lord. It is not a coincidence that Yehoshua brought Israel into the promised land in a miraculous way, for with a similar miraculous fashion, Yeshua will bring His people, who trust in Him and keep the commandments of God, into the Kingdom of Heaven. And then we will watch the Lord defeat His enemies in battle all by Himself.

Just as the Lord was with Moses, so He would be with Joshua, and so would He be with us, so long as we heed theise words: “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the Law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may achieve success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will achieve success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Rahab the prostitute is remembered in the Hall of Faith. Though a Gentile sinner in a heathen village, she saw what God did for Israel and she believed. Her faith set her free from her sins and allowed her to be grafted-in as a daughter of Israel, just as our faith in Yeshua does for us today. She didn’t just believe, though. She acted out her faith by providing for the people of God and doing what she could to protect them from the tribulation of man. She kept her word and lived according to the Truth from that point forward. As Steven pointed out to me privately, we recently read together from Ezekiel 36:31-32, which says, “And you shall remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good. And you shall loathe yourselves in your own eyes, for your crookednesses and your abominations. Not for your sake am I acting,” declares the Lord יהוה, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and blush for your ways, O house of Yisra’ĕl!” While saved from sin, Rahab will always be know as a prostitute.

The waters parted for Yehoshua just as they had for Moshe. Israel set up a memorial on the other side, which stood for some time to remind the Israelites what God had done for them. We have similar memorials throughout our country, some of which the enemy has recently torn down. The memorial itself is helpful while the people remain godly, but they lose their effect when parents do not teach their children the commandments of God. Thankfully, mine taught me, and now that I am older, I will not depart from them so help me God, but look around you. How many are there? Despite the formidable enemy mounting all around us, and the hatred that will come our way on account of the name of Yeshua and God’s commandments that we guard, we must follow Yehoshua out onto the waters and watch them part before us. We can’t walk on water until we take the first step outside the boat. The Jordan River doesn’t part until the Levites step into the raging stream. Faith requires us to make the first move.

Joshua 5, Joshua 6, Joshua 7, Joshua 8

Circumcision was a sign for the Old Covenant, which is not the same thing as the Old Testament. The men entering the promised land needed to do this thing to show their commitment to the law written on stone, and there in the land after two victories, Joshua read the whole law of Moses that was written on stone a second time so that they could all hear it. In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit circumcises our hearts, and receipt of the Spirit is the sign of the covenant. It is a seal that guarantees that we are counted among the people of God, and the law of Moses is written on our hearts. The written letter certainly does kill the one who sins and violates it, then and now, but the Spirit, which cuts the sin out of our lives, also helps us to sin no more when we pursue the Lord’s will in all things. Keeping the law, as interpreted in Spirit and Truth through the prism of love, modeled by Messiah Yeshua, ought to be our greatest desire. For to follow Torah is to follow Christ.

The Angel/Messenger of God is Yeshua, and we know this because the Angel demanded Joshua worship Him. This is the Angel who would lead the battles against Jericho and Ai, but the same Angel would defeat Israel when anyone within the camp sinned against the Lord. This is a lesson we need to learn. We cannot allow sin to fester within our Sacred Assemblies, or we will not have success in our battles for the Lord. Sin must be identified and dealt with. The Lord was using Israel to bring judgment on the people of Jericho, and judgment is absolute. Anyone in the city who had not followed Rahab and her family in faith to worship God would need to be destroyed, and so would all of the material things in the city. Anything of value would be preserved for God, and for God alone. What Achan did can be likened to the sin of Lot’s wife. They looked back. They considered the things of the world more important than obedience to God. For this, death was the only possibility. We cannot love God and love mammon.

The defeat of Jericho, a heavily fortified city, could only be done by complete and total faith in God’s plan; it was an insurmountable enemy, but nothing is impossible with God, and God was with Israel when they faced Jericho because they obeyed God fully. Ai, on the other hand, was a small hamlet that could be so easily defeated that Joshua only sent a portion of his men to destroy the city, but they came back running for their lives. Israel was defeated because among them was a man who put the world first before God and they did not call him out. Only when they called him out and dealt with the sin within the assembly did they have a chance to defeat their enemies. God will only come with those who are fully devoted to Him. He will not go with you if you do not love Him and His ways. His commandments are His ways, and Yeshua said to us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We must do more than this. We also have to teach them to all we encounter, especially those who are within our camp.

The fall of Jericho is also a prophetic template for the fall of the world at the end of the age. On each one of seven trumpets, the Lord will bring judgment onto the world, hardening the hearts of those who are rebellious against Him. At the final trumpet, the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of the Lord and of His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever. The battles will not be over when He comes to reign, for there will still be a final battle to defeat all who oppose him on the field at Armageddon. And Satan will still be loosed once more. But victory will come for Yeshua, just as it does or Israel as we read throughout the Book of Joshua. One battle after another, the Lord fights for His people who give Him their whole hearts. These times will try men’s hearts, and that is the point. Only those who endure until the end will be saved.

Joshua 9, Joshua 10, Joshua 11

Understand that God brings judgment on unrepentant and persistent sinners, and for more than 400 years covered by storytelling, we hear that the Canaanites grew worse and worse to the point they were aborting their children and sacrificing them to idols, committing witchcraft and sexual immorality—they were so bad that even their children had become depraved and were committing abominable acts. Frankly, they were doing what you see going on in America today, and without full repentance, we will see the same end unless we repent and come to the Lord for mercy like Rahab or like the Hivites. As you read in Romans 1, God will harden the hearts of those who have already chosen to rebel against Him so that He can show other people what will occur if they do not stay away from sin. And Israel was obeying God, executing His judgment on this evil land, and so the prophesy of Balaam had come to pass: “blessed are those who bless Israel, and cursed are those who curse Israel.” The Hivites acted shrewdly and were rewarded for their willingness to serve God’s people. All the kings and people who came against Israel, no matter how fortified their armies, were utterly destroyed. Israel’s sword was God’s judgment that came down upon them.

But in the very beginning of Israel’s victory, God made it clear through His appearance as the Angel of God that He was not going to remain with Israel if they turned their backs on Him and became like the people in the promised land they had come to possess. Read Deuteronomy 28, and know that it applies to anyone, including you and me who calls on the name of Yeshua! Salvation is available to the humble and contrite in heart who trust in Yeshua for salvation and keep the commandments of God, which shows true love for the savior. God will always keep a remnant of people for Himself, but those who rebel, turn away or refuse to do His will are going to face the same fate as the Canaanites on the Last Day. As Gentiles, we must be like the Hivites, fearful of God to the point that we are willing to be slaves in His Kingdom rather than face destruction. Yeshua has said that those who humble themselves will be exalted. Yes, they lied, but they also repented of this. I do hope many Christians turn away from the lies that have become part of Christianity, the idolatry of Pagan holidays and sun worship, for instance, and return to God. God is merciful on those who repent.

The day that the sun stood still is still discussed today. Faith the size of a mustard seed can do miracles of global proportions when aligned with God’s will. To the Lord, a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years as a day. Time is relative and created for our benefit in this plain, but God IS. There is no time in His reality. What will the Last Day of Judgment really be like? I think it will be a millennial reign that brings all of the enemies of God to destruction and everyone else to the feet of Christ in worship and praise. Then there will be peace. The Heaven and the Earth will be refreshed and Christ will reign forever. This day of Joshua’s conquest is a template for what is to come.

Joshua 12, Joshua 13, Joshua 14, Joshua 15

Oh how I truly wish I had time to investigate the true history of Joshua 12-15; the history of the people groups that lived before Israel destroyed them and the symbology of their names, and the significance of each of the named 31 kings. There is so much meaning here, so much understanding, and I keep wanting to do it but never have the time. God willing, that day will come.

Caleb is the man we all want to emulate. Not only did he never lose faith in God’s promises, but in his old age he still knew God would come through for him. He went for the most difficult task of any that Israel faced. He asked for permission to take out the giants on high ground. He was victorious and inherited some of the best and most fortified land there was. The Lord will be with His faithful, even if they have to wait their whole lives for the victory.

Joshua 16, Joshua 17, Joshua 18

Joseph’s sons, the sons of Ephraim and Manasseh, did not have enough faith in God to drive out all the Canaanites from their inherited, God-given land, so instead they made them slaves in the land. Because of this the Canaanites continued to plague Ephraim and Manasseh and lead them astray until they overcame the sons of Israel with their culture. For this apostasy, God allowed the Assyrians to conquer Ephraim and lead Israel into captivity. If only Ephraim and Manasseh had the faith to drive them out, the Kingdom of God would have been soundly established. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul instructs Christians to drive out sinners from within the church for the very same reason God had asked Israel to drive out the Philistines. We cannot allow sin to spread like a cancer and take out the elect. We must follow the Matthew 18 protocol to remove sinners, but the sinner must be removed if they persist in lawlessness. The goal is repentance and return, as we see all throughout Scripture. Yes, Yeshua ate with tax collectors and sinners, but He did so outside the congregation. We must be diligent in our discernment of the difference, for it informs us how to live as a God-fearing Christians who love the Lord and love our fellow man.

Joshua 19, Joshua 20, Joshua 21

Simeon and Benjamin are part of Judah in these early stages, and remain so, along with the Levites. It interests me that the Lord makes a special mention of the cities of refuge again. Justice is so important to the Lord that He makes special provision for the innocent so he is not punished for murder that was not his intent. Any of the falsely accused should take note that God is looking out for them and ultimately God’s justice system is all that matters. Consider the hardships of Paul and the other Apostles in the New Testament. They counted it joy to be punished for crimes they didn’t commit because they knew God had a city of refuge prepared for them in Heaven.

Remember this: God keeps His promises! “And the Lord gave them rest on every side, in accordance with everything that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; everything came to pass.” Everything the Lord promised to us when He came in the flesh will come to pass. We need only to trust in His promises and live in a way that proves we believe them. The Saints keep the commandments of God and faith in Jesus, no matter what formidable enemies may seem to stand in the way. When they do this, they will inherit the Promised Land.

Joshua 22, Joshua 23, Joshua 24

Today we see the implementation of memorials, which are not idols but reminders, so that Israel will not forget God and His commandments as the generations pass. God had implemented tzit-tzit (tassels) as a memorial, so that all who follow God would remember to keep His commandments in the face of pressure to walk away. These memorials are definitely a cause to be on guard, as we see exhibited by the majority of Israelites when their brothers across the river erected a replica of the altar to remind them of their unity with Israel, under God. However, the thoughts and intents of their heart was not worship, but remembrance. It is hard to pass our faith in to the next generation, but pass it on we must, and any way we can think to teach God’s commandments to our children is good, so long as God is the only one we worship, by the name of Yeshua.

Before he died, Joshua Israel the covenant that we must all partake in: “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” This is no different than Revelation 14:12, that the Saints endure by keeping the commandments of God (fear the Lord) and the faith in Jesus (serve/worship Him in sincerity and truth). We clearly must cast off our pagan ways to do this, as Paul writes in 1 Corinth 10:21: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” We must be able to say Joshua’s words to all, for this is the great commission of Christ in Matthew 28: “choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served … or the gods … in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.” We must teach the Gospel, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach (and keep) the commandments of God.

We see also that Joshua wrote down the words we’re reading and added them to the Torah, just as Moses had written the Torah, as He recorded: “And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.” It is important to note that the Torah and Book of Joshua are a memorial to God’s Truth, which we must live out by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is our instruction manual for life, though we cannot and should not only read the letter literally, though these things did literally happen historically, but we must read the Spirit of the law, understanding the lessons of Truth that God has preserved for us. There is no oral law, no Catechism, no Commentaries, and no Talmud that can ever teach us the Truth like the words in this Torah, plus Joshua. We must always put the Word of God first whenever we are attempting to understand the will of God. He has promised those of us who believe to bring all things to remembrance that we need to live.

Judges 1, Judges 2

As the generation that entered the Promised Land continues to thrive and obey God, we see Judah and Simeon capture Adoni-bezek in Bezek, which means the Lord of Lightening. In an interesting parallel, we see Yeshua say, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from Heaven.” (Luke 10:18). When Adoni-bezek fled, Israel cut off his fingers and toes, a strange act of judgment that is then explained by this Lord of lightening: “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” He then died in Jerusalem. This man knew God, but rebelled against Him. He knew what was right, but he failed to do it. Instead, he lorded over those he conquered and treated them like dogs. As Paul reminds us, in the justice system of God, we will “reap what we sow.” Adoni-bezek has faced the consequences of his sins, which originated in pride, just like in Satan’s rebellion. Israel is acting according to God’s command by doing these things, and bringing the judgment of God to these evil people. Who was once proud was humbled. What about his confession of sin? Was it enough? God will judge.

While Judah and Simeon seem to be fulfilling the Lord’s will, and Caleb continued to show faith until the end of His life, inheriting the fortified Hebron, we still see Judah fail to drive off the inhabitants of the valley; Manasseh did not take Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam or Megiddo; Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites from Gezer; Zebulon did not drive out Kitron or Nahalol; Asher did not drive out Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob; Naphtali did not drive out Beth-shemesh, Beth-anath; and Dan fled from the Amorites on Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim. The Kenites, who were the descendants of Moses’s father-in law, Gentiles who had come with Israel and become a part of them, were given an inheritance among the children of Israel. These men will prove even more faithful than Israel in the long-run, as we will see. These failures of faith will lead to trouble in the days to come. For children to learn faithfulness from their fathers, they must observe their fathers acting faithfully, no matter what challenges arise.

On account of Israel’s faithlessness, the pre-incarnate Yeshua advises Israel that He will never break His covenant; however, Israel is disobeying Him in their part of the covenant, and because of this, the people who they failed to drive out of the land will become “like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.” This is a curse! It was the curse given to Adam when he disobeyed God; see Genesis 3:17-18, the ground would be cursed and it would bring forth thorns and thistles, which are demons, false prophets and ungodly men. As Israel continues to turn their back on the Lord, inviting His judgment upon them, we see right here how the Lord defines the reason that He has allowed this evil: “Because this nation has violated My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice,  I in turn will no longer drive out from them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.”

These thorns and thistles become a test of our faith, on account of our prior sin, to see if we will keep our faith as we go throughout the rest of our lives. We must face evil and suffering in the world on account of our sin. Yes, the Lord forgives us, He pardons us through the blood of Yeshua, and He raises up Judges to speak the Word of God and stand strong in their faithfulness, but He then tests us to see whether we will keep our faith once we have been given the gift of grace. “In this world you will have tribulation,” Yeshua says, “but I have overcome the world.” In other words, this tribulation is meant to test us to see whether we truly have faith that He has set us free from sin. It is meant to see if we will walk in His righteousness despite the suffering of this present age. Many turn away at this point, when the voice of the Lord through His Word has worn off, when His teachings become a secondary interest in our lives. When we raise up other gods beside Him, and give them more value in our lives than our life of faithfulness. This is what stirs up the Lord’s anger most. He is calling us to repent and then endure until the end, and this is the story of Judges.

Judges 3, Judges 4, Judges 5

The Lord left five nations in Israel to test His people; namely the the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. On a Spiritual level, we can see these thorns in side of Israel as demons left to tempt God’s people, a curse they receive on account of their sin. Each has spiritual meaning, and we can certainly read these metaphors into the text. When Israel marries into the families of these nations and worships their gods, or mixes the holy with the profane, God grows angry with His adulterous wife Israel and brings judgment down upon her; the sword, the famine, the pestilence and the evil governments of oppressive nations. When the people complain and groan and call out to the Lord, God’s lovingkindness and mercy come through, and He rescues them using a Godly man who is left among them. While this may or may not have a physical realization in our world today, I think it’s important to recognize that this is how we must fight our spiritual battles. As men and women of God, it is incumbent upon us to turn our hearts fully to God and cast out our idols and the demons who come with them by the name of Yeshua.

Without a strong spiritual leader, Israel keeps falling into sin. Our people are not different than this today. Our shepherds (pastors) must be strongly rooted in the Word of God, fully living it out with all of their hearts, and devoted to putting the Lord first in their lives. In the story of Deborah, we see that Israel has already become so depraved that there is not one man among them who can fill this role, which God has reserved for men in both Old Testament and New. Barak is a weak man, and Deborah’s husband Lappidoth is even worse by allowing his wife to fulfill the role as spiritual head of the household. Don’t we know this problem all too well in America today. So Deborah is the one-time exception that God raises up to lead Israel back to the Lord. Rather than turn to the Lord when Deborah prophesies victory in battle for Israel, Barak says this, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” What weakness and lack of faith! Moses had said this same thing to the Lord in the wilderness, and He was right to do so. Barak is asking to be led by a woman instead of by the Lord.

Because of Barak’s utter failure in faith, the Lord embarrasses him further by handing the enemy over to Israel at the hand of a woman, and what a woman to choose from. Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, thrusts Sisera through with a tent peg, effectively ending the occupation of the enemy. The Kenites are the sons of Moses’s father-in-law Jethro, and so it is powerful to point out that this faithful, Gentile people who never gave up on the Lord are the ones who come to Israel’s rescue in this scenario. Likewise, as Paul has written, the Gentiles faith in Yeshua is meant to bring the Jews to jealousy until the fullness of the Gentiles is brought into the faith, and then the Jews will call out, “Baruch Hashem Yeshua,” meaning “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Here Jael is prophetically representing the Church who will bring the people of God back to their Husband, our Messiah Yeshua. We can only make the Jews jealous if we keep the commandments of God while showing our faith in the Messiah Yeshua. We see in the Song of Deborah a sign that this interpretation is true: “Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, son of Abinoam.” “Most blessed of women is Jael…” until Miriam came along to give birth to our savior. The woman-led Israel and the women-led Gentiles were meant to bring Israel to jealousy, for Israel, which is made up of those who believe among the Jews and the Gentiles, is the bride of Christ.

Judges 6, Judges 7

The story of Gideon, son of Joash the Abiezrite, who is of the tribe of Manasseh, a son of Joseph, is often used to illustrate how the Lord will fight our battles for us when we have faith in Him, and this is a correct interpretation that can be thoroughly examined. However, I think it’s important to focus on something more nuanced than this: It is both good and righteous for us to make sure we are hearing from the Lord and not a deceiving Spirit. It is important for us to wait on the Lord and make sure the steps we take are from Him, and not our own thoughts or intentions. In return, the Lord will test us over a period that is longer than we may be comfortable with to make sure we actually have faith in Him, and when we show that we do, He will be victorious for us in battle for His own glory. He then expects us to give Him 100 percent of the credit for what He has accomplished, so that His name may be glorified.

Israel was in total apostasy. The community had built an altar to Ba’al and a Asherah pole, “the king and queen of heaven,” according to the pagan nations Manasseh was supposed to displace. God appeared to Gideon and accepted his Passover offering of a young goat and unleavened bread, leading to Gideon’s fear that he would die because he had seen God. But God gave him peace, for He is Yahweh Shalom, noting that he would not die. Instead, Gideon, as the least in his father’s house, the smallest house in Manasseh, would be “a mighty man of valor” who would lead Manasseh back to worship Yahweh. First, the Lord asked Gideon to tear down the idols in town and use the wood from the Asherah to offer two bulls to the Lord. Here is the lesson: The Lord has promised great victory for us in Christ, but before we can realize these promises, we must get the sin out of our lives completely and destroy everything that we elevate above God. In so doing prove that Yeshua is truly first in our lives.

Does Gideon act next in fear or wisdom? He obeyed the Lord in tearing down the idols and putting Yahweh first, but he does so at night to avoid the attention of his pagan brothers. At first, this is how Yeshua instructed His disciples, sending them out as sheep among wolves, telling them to be as cunning as serpents but peaceful as doves. Joash has been convicted by the act, for rather than allow his son to face the punishment for destroying the accepted pagan monuments, he tells the community to allow Ba’al fend for himself. This is a spiritual battle and not one between men. If Ba’al is going to stand up against Yahweh, this was the time for him to do it, but we know that Satan could not stand against Yeshua in the wilderness.

Next, likely on account of the civil unrest among his brethren, Gideon sought to test the Lord, to make sure it was truly Yahweh who had asked Him to lead Manasseh into war against the Midianites. In 1 John 4, the Apostle tells us to test the spirits, for many false prophets go out into the world. Gideon is wise again in making sure that he himself is not a false prophet when he asks God to give him a sign via the fleece over two nights. On the third day, he is ready to go into battle for the Lord. This is where the Lord reminds us that our relationship with Him is a two-way relationship. Yes, it is OK to make sure that something is from God. In fact, it is encouraged that we do this. As Saints, we do not want to be deceived. However, when we do this we should expect God to test to make sure that we are of God; in other words, to test our faith.

And so God reduced Gideon’s army from the full multitude of Manasseh’s men of war, which I might add was now listening to the prophet Gideon, to a remnant of 300 mighty men who were fully committed in faith. What might Gideon have said or done to convince the whole tribe to trust in Yahweh instead of Ba’al and Asherah? While the text does not say, it is clear that Gideon had convinced his people via his testimony of what had happened. In other words, he told them the story we are reading in Judges 6. And clearly, Ba’al did not strike Gideon at this time, for Yahweh had put his protection around him. We’re told this directly: “So the Spirit of the Lord covered Gideon like clothing; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.” He was anointed with the Holy Spirit on account of his faith in Yeshua, the Messiah, whom he had met by the Terebinth Tree. The people were following an anointed man who obeyed God and put all of his trust in Him.

After Gideon reduces his army to 300 per God’s command, God offers Gideon an opportunity to increase his faith. This is a free gift that the Lord offers Him, because the Lord knew his heart. Yes, Gideon was faithful, he had tested the Lord to make sure He was being led by God and not a demon. Once convinced, he had acted in faith to obey the Lord and put Yahweh first in his life, and he had even taught others to do this by his own example. He then acted boldly to bring the multitude together in faith, but next God reduced his army to a small group, so that God would be glorified in the victory and Gideon could not take the credit. This was a mercy of God, for God knows our hearts. He knows we are desperately wicked. He knows we have pride in us, that destroys our souls. On account of Gideon’s faith, the Lord gave Gideon what he needed to carry out his mission for the Lord.

The Lord sent Gideon to hear testimony from the enemy to build his faith to its fullness. The enemy knew about God’s primacy and how Gideon’s faith would lead to their destruction. It was enough. Gideon and his 300 men grabbed their torches and trumpets and surrounded the camp, which is not unlike what Israel did in Jericho. The walls of the Midianite camp fell down as each man turned against his neighbor and the battle was won without Gideon striking a single blow. Gideon’s 300 then pursued those who fled and destroyed them, with the help of their brothers from the tribe of Ephraim. The torches represent the Holy Spirit and the trumpets represent the proclamation of the Gospel. They proclaimed the Lord Yahweh and His victory over the battlefield. In a prophetic foreshadow of the End Times, they shouted “Baruch Hashem Yeshua,” so to speak, and the enemy destroyed itself. Every tongue will confess that Yeshua is Yahweh to the glory of God the Father, and the Glory of God is the victory.

Judges 8, Judges 9

Israel was fracturing, and it made the sin of Achon, who hid gold, silver and a forbidden tunic under his tent outside Jericho look like child’s play. Ephraim as a whole was cognizant of the divide, angry that Manasseh had not called them to fight the enemy together. Their concern was valid. Gideon, making peace quickly, advised them that he reserved the best part of the battle for them, leaving them Oreb and Zeeb, the leaders of Midian’s army, and their righteous concern was satisfied. However,  the men of Succoth and Penuel, both contained within the Tribe of Gad, did not have the same heart as the men of Ephraim. Unlike Abraham and Lot, who showed us the meaning of hospitality, even to strangers, these men denied the men of Manasseh assistance when they were doing the work that God had called them to do. This makes them worse than enemies; they are traitors. This is akin to the sin of Achon, who thwarted Israel’s victory with his sin.

To not show love to your brother in his time of need is a sin worthy of death. And Gideon executes God’s judgment against the men of the Tribe of Gad following his victory. To his credit, he continued fighting the battle that God had given him, and he did not rest until he was victorious. This is a man of great faith, not concerned when things don’t go the way they should. He continues to do his part, regardless. To top things off, when Israel offered to make him king, he said most righteously, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.” This is the heart we must all possess. “No king but Christ!” Gideon, in his faithfulness, is truly a “mighty man of valor,” just as God had told him. He is not God, though. When Gideon accepted gifts of gold for what God accomplished through him, he erred and this became a stumbling block for him. This was similar to the sin of Moses when he took credit for bringing water out of the rock. Gideon did nothing the Lord did not give him power and authority to do. All worship and glory belongs to God alone.

On account of the sins of the father, the many wives and fancy lifestyle he took for himself following the victory, complete with a golden ephod (ceremonial jacket) that he made, rather than the more humble and God-focused approach he could have taken, his sons are corrupted. Abimelech murdered his 70 brothers and only Jotham escapes to pronounce God’s curse against his brother. The man assumed a throne over Israel, restored Ba’al worship in Israel, and brought his curse onto all his countrymen, burning down Israeli cities. Any enemy of God necessarily will bring destruction on anything that belongs to God, and we know that unrepentant, unpunished murder will bring destruction on a land. It is not until a woman crushes his skull with a millstone that the mayhem ends, but the nation around him had been corrupted. Sin, left unchecked, can spread like a cancer and destroy everything, like an unquenchable fire. If only Israel had heeded the warning of the prophet Jotham.

Judges 10, Judges 11, Judges 12

Take special note of the judges whose stories are short in this timeframe of Israel’s history. They rose up following rebellion and return, and their time was peaceful. It’s notable that even Scripture holds back details of these times of peace. What does that say about the human condition? When the Lord blesses us with peace and abundance, what do we do with it? Do we praise His name in gratitude and thanksgiving? What does that look like? How much of our time and devotion is given to the Lord? Why do we, even in good times, focus on all the evil in our lives and tell one another all of its details? The answer is simple: The Lord told Israel that He brought them through the wilderness and left enemies in their midst when they got to the land to test them, to see if they would keep His commandments. Our life on Earth has one purpose, and that is to see if we will love God and keep His commandments. If we do this, He will bring us back into the Garden where there is true peace forever.

The story of Jephthah is one of the greatest prophetic templates of our Messiah Yeshua of any in all of the Book of Judges. He was rejected by his brothers so he gathered with worthless men in the wilderness and taught them righteousness. His brothers called him back to them when they were at risk of being destroyed, and He came and vanquished the enemies of God’s people. He pledged his daughter to a life of chastity and spiritual devotion in a “convent,” just as Christ called His followers to throw off the things of this world and devote themselves to Him. The daughters of Israel recognize this daughter once per year on account of her devotion on their behalf. In like manner, Israel today opens their doors to fellowship with Gentiles during the Feast of Tabernacles. Our Messiah will return and judge those who do not join Him, just as Jephthah judged the people of Ephraim because they contended with him. Yeshua will not allow those to enter the kingdom who don’t put their faith in Him.

For clarity, it is critically important that I present the following interpretation of what happened with Jephthah’s daughter, because most people, whether Jews or Gentiles, get this story wrong. It is quite clear from the context of Judges 11 that Jephthah did not sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering, and interpreters who have said this is the proper interpretation have done a great disservice to Scripture and have created an apparent contradiction where there is no contradiction. Jephthah, after all, had just been given the strength and calling of Almighty God to vanquish Israel’s enemies, and God would not have allowed a human sacrifice to result from this. It is against His law, and God does not lie; God does not contradict. So let’s follow the story to make sure it is clear for our understanding:

First, “When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. She was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.” From a human perspective, recall that Jephthah was going to be made judge over Israel, having just been redeemed from his banishment for being the son of a harlot. So when his daughter came out of the house celebrating his victory for Israel, he became sad because he would have to honor his vow and consecrate her to God. That means that He could not marry her off to keep his legacy going as the judge of Israel. Instead, she would remain childless and conceivably—because Scripture does not report otherwise—Jephthah does not have any other sons and daughters and thus does not leave a legacy. This is why Jephthah tears his clothes. He cannot take back His vow that He gave to the Lord, and thus his headship of Israel will last only during his lifetime.

Likewise, the statute created in Israel where the daughters of Israel would go out yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah for four days is not something that outlived her. Israel does not celebrate this today. It seems like the daughters would literally go out to spend four days with her and give her some human contact and comfort. She was consecrated to the Lord, per Jephthah’s vow, which basically means in modern terms that she became a “nun” and lived in isolation praying to God for her entire life. She had visitors for four days of the year.

How do we know this for sure? Consider the verses where she willingly submits to Jephthah’s vow: “My father, you have given your word to the Lord; do to me as you have said, since the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the sons of Ammon.” She said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my companions.” This is critical: She is weeping for her virginity, not for her life. She is doing this with her friends. She is literally spending two months in the mountains with her friends because after that she will need to remain in isolation without anyone. Israel was so grateful for what she did and what her father did for them, that they passed an ordinance that she would spend four days a year with other women, so she was not completely alone at all times.

And then without question, when she returns from her two months with her friends, her father “did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man.” If Jepthah had offered his daughter as a burnt offering to the Lord, why would the text mention that she had no relations with a man? Many young virgins die in Scripture without such a notation. The Word is pointing out that she lived her life and did not ever marry a man to have children. A woman’s value in these days was measured by how many sons she produced for her husband. Jephthah’s daughter spent her years in isolation and prayer, because she was consecrated fully to the Lord, and never bore children. She remained a virgin!

It can be said also that her prayers, along with her father’s prayers, were the burnt offerings made, but it’s quite possible that Jepthah also offered a lamb or a goat as a burnt offering in the process of consecrating his daughter to a life of prayer. Jephthah himself only judged Israel for six years after this (Judges 12:7), so it is quite likely based on this context that he was very old coming back from battle and thus his main struggle was having only lived six years serving the Lord as a Judge of Israel with no one to pass his legacy on to. His daughter was celebrated by Israel for her life devoted to prayer and the daughters spent four days honoring her each year by spending time with her until she also died at a later date. The consequences of Jepthah and his daughter’s devotion to God and to Israel is many years of peace following their victory over the enemy. Prayer is a powerful weapon against the enemy.

Judges 13, Judges 14, Judges 15

We have to understand the story of Samson in context with Judges 13. This man wasn’t a womanizer or a murderer, as many commentators say; he was called by God from before he was born to judge the Philistines, whom God originally told Israel to completely wipe off the map. While the story may appear to give the Philistines access to Samson’s heart, to thwart his ways, this suffering servant of the Lord was gaining access to the Philistines through the Philistine women, and even in his death he conquered sin and death by destroying the Philistine overlords (the sin and rebellion in the world) and restoring peace to Israel (the people of God).

Samson’s parents encounter the pre-incarnate Yeshua, whose name is “wonderful.” Isaiah 9:6 is definitely the correct reference. They remark how they had seen God face-to-face, and yet they did not die. This is because Yeshua is the visible manifestation of God prior to, during and after His coming in the flesh, and through Him we can know God.

Judges 16, Judges 17, Judges 18

As the story of Samson concludes, God gives us a lesson in how our adversary will wear us down until our heart gives up. In Christ, Paul warns us, exhorting us to run the race to win, and John writes in Revelation that we must endure in our faith and obedience. Satan doesn’t stop, and he wants our love to turn away from God and toward him so that he can destroy us. If one thing doesn’t work to distract us, he will try something else. If that doesn’t work, he’ll keep coming. Satan is a prowling lion seeking believers to devour. He wears us down until our faith fails, and then he goes in for the kill. In Judges 16, the story of Delilah represents Satan’s efforts in this way. There is hope. Even though Samson falls prey to the enemy and becomes blind to the Lord as the Spirit leaves him, all is not lost. Samson’s prayer for repentance and his willingness to give everything, even his very life, for God’s purposes is what saves him and all of Israel. Though he dies, yet he will live.

Judges 17-18 shows us how easy it is for Godly men to become confused and believe they are doing the right thing when they are really doing the wrong thing. When we read, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” we know that Israel had turned their backs on God, their King, and they were doing what they believed was right according to their own hearts. We know our hearts are “desperately wicked.” While Micah believed the Lord would prosper him on account of the priest who had come to live with him, the truth is that only faith in God will prosper him, and putting his faith in the priest over God would bring him to ruin. So far as the priest was concerned, he’s interested in the job and the provision, not what God desires for the good of Micah and his family. If the priest actually desired Micah’s good, he would have destroyed Michah’s idols and redirected his heart to the Lord. So many priests or pastors will tell people what they want to hear, but not what they need to hear, and this will ultimately lead to their disappointment and destruction, as it is with Micah.

When the Levitical priest leaves Micah impoverished for the fame of serving the tribe of Dan, we should be asking: What good will it do? Rather than redirect Dan to serve God and turn away from their idols, the priest embraced their lifestyle and affirmed it. This will ultimately lead to their judgment and destruction, and this priest, who was perceived by men to be a blessing would ultimately bring a curse. He is blind and he is leading the blind, right into destruction. Dan will ultimately be left the same way as Micah. Yes, Dan inhabits the land that they set their foot to, but this was not the land God promised them, which was occupied by the Amorites and Philistines. Instead, they attacked and conquered “a peaceful people.” What would become of a tribe that turned their backs on God and turned their hearts to idols, following their own way? In 1 Kings 12:25-33, we see Dan continuing its legacy of apostasy, and King Jeroboam I installed a golden calf in Dan (as well as Bethel) for pagan worship. The Tribe of Dan is not mentioned among Israel’s tribes in Revelation 7:5-8 at the End of Days, but rather the Levities are mentioned as the 12th tribe, and “Joseph” is mentioned with “Manasseh” in place of “Ephraim.” It seems to me that Dan is used as an example in all of Scripture, like Judas, to show how even a saved and consecrated person or people can be destroyed if they fully turn their backs on God.

Judges 19, Judges 20, Judges 21

Gibeah of Benjamin had become like Sodom, and we see the story of Lot and the angels repeated with a variation in Judges 19. Now the Levite whose wife had been raped and murdered would hold all of Israel accountable for their sin, just as God had held Israel accountable for the sins of Achan outside of Jericho. Those who did not come to fight against this abominable sin were held accountable equally with those who defended the rapists and murderers from the Tribe of Benjamin. It’s notable that Israel inquired of the Lord on what to do, and the Lord defended a judgment of “the sword” against Benjamin. What’s interesting is that Benjamin defeated Israel in the first two battles, showing that Israel itself was not blameless, but was also guilty of judgment, for “in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” We must seek God’s way, not our own way.

Only after Israel fasted and prayed, a sign of repentance, did God use them to judge Benjamin. But God also showed His mercy throughout this whole episode. Benjamin, now down to 600 men with no wives or children, would have been lost had it not been for God’s mercy, and the Apostle Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. Importantly, God’s judgment came down on those of Israel who refused to side with their brothers who had brought God’s judgment against Benjamin. It is not OK for us to remain neutral. Yeshua says He will spit the lukewarm out of His mouth. Those who did not take a side in the battle over righteousness were judged to be guilty and destroyed. Their virgin daughters were given to Benjamin to restore them. The balance of the restoration came from the Levite daughters in Shiloh who went out to dance at the feast, a sign that they were looking for husbands. In all of this wrangling, the Lord had brought His judgment down on Israel and reminded all 12 tribes that the one True God is in Heaven, and He will judge all, great and small—all of God’s people will be weighed in the balance.

1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel 2, 1 Samuel 3

As the Book of Samuel begins, we can see a theme introduced right up front that carries its way through Scripture all the way to the New Testament in Matthew 23:12: “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Hannah, whose name means “favored,” brought a humble and contrite heart before the Lord, and we know from Psalm 51:17, “a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” Her rival, Peninnah, whose name means “pinnacle,” tormented her “sister,” treating her poorly in her misfortune. Elkanah, their husband, means “God has created.” This is Man who chooses wisely the path of the Lord’s favor and rejects worldly glamour. On account of this, the Lord uses this man and his favored wife to bring forth a true prophet in Israel, Samuel, “heard of God,” another man who is humble, compared to Eli, whose name also means “lofty,” and his two evil sons, Hophni, meaning “fist” and Phinehas, meaning “mouth of a serpent.”

Hannah, who had a heart like Miriam the mother of Yeshua, writes a song much like the magnificat in Luke 1:46-55. What is most prized to the believer is the statement, “my horn is exalted in the Lord,” for our power truly does come from the Lord and rejoices in His salvation. Not by his own might can a man prevail, but through faith and trust in the Lord, because the Lord watches over the feet of His godly ones—He is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. Though we die, we are made alive; though we go down to the grave, He raises us up. He humbles and He exalts, and gives honor to the meek by offering us His inheritance, while the wicked He silences in darkness.

On account of the sins of Hophni, who uses his own might and a heavy hand to lord over the people of Israel as a priest of God, and Phinehas, who sows lies and deceit to get his own way, instead of teaching the Truth of God’s commandments, the Lord prophesies through Eli the end of the Levitical line as the intercessors before God, and also the coming of an anointed one who will replace them. “If a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” The Lord says to Eli, “Why are you showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded for My dwelling, and why are you honoring your sons above Me?” On account of this, the Lord says, importantly, “I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father was to walk before Me forever’; but now the Lord declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be insignificant. Behold, the days are coming when I will eliminate your strength and the strength of your father’s house…”

The Lord continues by saying He “will not cut off every man of yours from my altar.” In the future, the Lord says, “I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always. And everyone who is left in your house will come to bow down to him…” This prophesy is clearly about Yeshua, who is the new High Priest that lives eternally, and everyone who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them now preaches the Truth of God’s will and our Lord walks before us, because we follow Him. In fact, all who remain committed to the Lord from the House of Levi will come to bow down to Him also, for His house will endure forever. Samuel, though called as a true prophet of God, would not endure forever, walking always before the anointed. In fact, he does not endure long after anointing David King. Only Yeshua can be said to have fulfilled this prophesy.

1 Samuel 4, 1 Samuel 5, 1 Samuel 6, 1 Samuel 7, 1 Samuel 8

Israel treated the Ark of the Covenant as an idol. Rather than worship God, they worshipped the Ark, and believed just by bringing the Ark to the battle lines would help them be victorious. But the True Ark of God is in Heaven, and the Ark of Moses contained the Word of God, which they did not obey. How could the Ark have any power if they didn’t obey the commandments of God and put Him first in their hearts? They wanted what God could do for them, but they didn’t want to do what God had asked of them. This is the reason why the Ark had no power to help the Israelites in battle and why the Philistines were able to capture it. Israel should have known better, for God had clearly commanded them about what is good, and what they were doing was not good.

On the other hand, the Philistines were a people who worshipped idols. …

… They worshipped the demon Dagon and made images of him for their offerings. In this context, God who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them would use the people’s proclivity toward idols to magnify His name and show His superiority over all—they even found their dead statute cut, as if with a tool, for God had likely sent an angel to do this to show His preeminence. He also brought plagues on the Philistines, for they believed their victory in battle showed their demon to be superior to God, and God would not allow that perception to stand. Israel’s defeat was on account of their disbelief in God and faith in idols, not on account of Dagon’s superiority. In 1 Corinthians 9:22, Paul writes, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” In this he is not saying he becomes a sinner or an idolator, but that he will address the people he is teaching at their level so that they can come to understand Truth. This is what God is doing with the Philistines.

When the Philistines returned the Ark to Israel, they did so with offerings according to their own understanding. This was actually a type of worship of God Most High. God had made His point to them. He is the God of gods, Lord of lord, King of kings and He had shown Himself to His people Israel, who were still tasked—and are to this day—with teaching the whole world about the One True God, whether through their obedience or disobedience, and that choice is up to them. They returned the Ark to the people it belonged to, and from that point forward they were defeated and did not rise above Israel. It was God who humbled them, not Israel, and this is such an important point. Israel was defeated by them, but it didn’t matter. God brought them to their knees to the point where they even loved their enemies, and returned the Ark to them.

When Israel received the Ark back to themselves, they were not worthy of it because they still valued the object itself above God Most High. After God had completed His work in a seven-month period, it made its way to Beth-shemesh, where more than 50,000 men died in its presence. These men had not consecrated themselves before God. They had not humbled themselves to follow after God and keep His commandments. Only after the men of Kiriath-jearim brought the Ark to the home of Abinadab, where they consecrated Eleazar to watch over it, was there rest in the land. They set Eleazar apart as holy. He devoted Himself to God, not to the Ark. For this reason, the Ark was able to remain in his presence. Because of his act of humility, all of Israel mourned after the Lord. In other words, they repented of their sins and made themselves of humble and contrite heart, ready to receive the Word of the Lord.

Israel’s prophet Samuel confirms this interpretation when he says, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will save you from the hand of the Philistines.” In other words, turn your hearts away from idols and stop making yourself like the people God has asked you to conquer. Turn your hearts to God and worship Him alone in Heaven! Remember, the Ark was hidden away with Eleazar for 20 years now. They no longer had it as an idol to worship. Samuel was truly calling the people to return to obedience and trust in God Most High. They obliged. They fasted and prayed at Mizpah and said, “we have sinned against the Lord.”

Next the Lord would test their faith by allowing the Philistines to come up against them, and Scripture shows us the importance of having men of God to lead us through these battles. Samuel says to them, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He will save us from the hand of the Philistines!” We must endure in our faith during the heat of spiritual battles or even physical ones. This is not the time to give up from our faith, but the time to dig in and humble ourselves even more. On account of their faith, led by this man of God who encouraged them, the Lord came and fought the battle in their midst and confirmed the faith of all involved. The Philistines were subdued and did not come anymore within the border of Israel. During Samuel’s time of judging Israel, for he was the last judge, there was peace in Israel.

During the time of the judges, the judge was a mediator between God and Man and God was the King of the nation. But in a complicated section (1 Samuel 8…) that can easily be confused by those of us who don’t like government, God is showing us that man cannot mediate between God and man forever, for the sins of the father can misguide the children, or the righteousness of the father may not pass on to the children. Such is the case with Samuel and his sons. God has shown us in the previous chapters how the Levites would not have tacit authority from this point forward, and only those who sought God with all their heart would have the authority of God. It was up to the people to have this discernment, and without the Holy Spirit, how could they? The people, who had humbled themselves before God, see the unrighteousness of Samuel’s son and fear for their future. They ask for a king to rule over them so that such unrighteousness cannot take root.

In so doing, they are looking for a worldly solution to a spiritual problem, and this is where they err. In the same way that God has set up the mediator Moses between Him and the people in the wilderness after the people recognized that they were incapable of perfection and would die with direct communication with the Father, now God was enabling a king to rule over Israel to direct the people toward righteousness. However, in His wisdom, God knew that no king or mediator could forever guide the people in the right way, for only He could truly do that. God is revealing these problems to us that He sees over these generations so that we can come to an understanding of why He would need to come in the flesh Himself. He would become the mediator for us and He would become the eternal King, but He would do so in a way that we could handle, and then He would put His Spirit in us to help us follow Him, knowing that we could not do so on our own.

So far as the human kings are concerned, if they obey the commandments of God in Deuteronomy 17, then the people will have peace and righteousness. However, if the human kings rebel against these commandments, then the people will be judged. The government would become a type of indicator for the morality of the people and the morality of the people would govern what type of government the people would receive. As we read in Ezekiel 14, the “beasts of the earth” are one of the judgments of God when the people persist in unfaithfulness. These beasts, shown by Daniel and Ezekiel in their prophesies to be governments, would be used to measure the spiritual health of a nation. The governments who follow the commandments, especially those in Deuteronomy 17, would rule over a peaceful and successful nation, and God would be known by the people. But if the people sinned, their king would also go down a path of unrighteousness, and this would lead to misery all around.

The Lord’s vision from the beginning was always for the people to live under His rule as King of the universe, but the people proved themselves both unworthy of this but also unable to live like this. They were afraid of His presence and so He could not dwell directly among them, but they fell into unrighteousness without His presence. The Lord’s plan was to solve this problem, and He did so through Messiah Yeshua. Now the Lord is both approachable and He dwells within us. The people of God had to go through many years of struggle to prepare the world for this Truth. The people wanted a king to go with them to fight their battles, and they had that king. God had just shown them multiple times that He would that for them against the Philistines. But they wanted to be able to see their king and follow Him.

God granted their request, setting the stage to come in the flesh as our Messiah Yeshua. Unfortunately, when He did so, they would reject Him again. Why? God is not what we expect. His ways are greater than our ways. Ultimately, the people come up with as many excuses to reject God and His ways as He comes up with solutions to try to work with them to get them to the place He wants them to be. And ultimately, after God had exhausted every possible complaint against Him and answered with blessing and love, coming even in the flesh to die on our behalf, He will make one more ultimate accommodation for us. When He comes again, He will select those who had faith in Him to live, and He will destroy the rest. The lesson in these readings is that we must submit to God in faith and obey Him because we love who He is, and He will help us overcome the difficulties we face, or we will reject God, go after our own ways and suffer hardship and ultimately death.

1 Samuel 9, 1 Samuel 10, 1 Samuel 11, 1 Samuel 12

The Lord demonstrates how He works in 1 Samuel 9-10, for first He sets up a circumstance for Saul to meet Samuel, and at the same time He tells Samuel that Saul is coming and he is the one God has chosen to be king. This is two witnesses to God’s will that Saul be made king. But there is a third witness when Samuel casts lots before the Lord and the lots fall on Saul to become king. The lots weren’t fixed, but God had used them to confirm His calling on Saul to become king. This is the same type of calling I have witnessed from the Lord on multiple occasions and it is how I know that something is from the Lord. He speaks, He confirms and He confirms again. Until He does this, we must wait on the Lord for the major things in our lives pertaining to God’s will for us.

Why did God pick Saul to be king? It’s interesting to ponder. He was taller than everyone else and he was handsome. His father was wealthy and influential. This sounds like the making of a politician in today’s world. Why then did God select this man? I believe the Lord gave the people what they wanted, as He often does. Despite God delivering Israel many times, they desired a man to rule them. Samuel explains how they said, “No, but a king shall reign over us!’,” and replies, “Yet the Lord your God was your king. And now, behold, the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the Lord has put a king over you.” The people’s choice to reject God and go after a human ruler had angered God, but God would still work with them. If they AND their king follow the Lord, all will be well, but if either them OR their king wander away from God, God will bring judgment. They have made things more difficult for themselves in this time, and soon would suffer the consequences.

As Saul is anointed king, it is important to note that he prophesied by the power of the Holy Spirit. We read, “the Spirit of God rushed upon him, so that he prophesied among them,” and the people asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” The answer is yes. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” Saul was saved. He was on his way to heaven. And God had selected him as an anointed king of Israel, to lead His people Israel under His command and His law. Read Deuteronomy 17 again, for this is the commandment concerning the life of Saul. Upon his public inauguration, Saul instantly began serving righteously and called all of Israel together. While the Levite had called Israel together to deal with sin in Judges 19-21 by sending pieces of his murdered wife to each tribe, Saul cut up a yoke of oxen and sent it to all of the tribes to call them to come together to throw off their oppressors. He was lenient on those who did not come, but for those who did, showing the mercy of God, and he prepared to free all from bondage.

1 Samuel 13, 1 Samuel 14

Saul quickly takes a turn for the worse in chapters 13 and 14, putting himself in the position of God, as he first takes the sacrifices into his own hand, not waiting for Samuel in opposition to the commandments of God, and then he himself commands religious ordinances that are not from God; namely, to refrain from eating or face death. Saul’s first act of disobedience was to sacrifice according to His own will, rather than according to God’s will. This is a common religious practice: to invent new ways to worship God that God has not asked us to do. We think we are honoring God by doing them, but instead we dishonor Him and bring separation from God to ourselves. There are religious holidays, for instance, that God has not created or commanded, and many think they honor God by keeping them, but instead they honor themselves and disobey God.

The prophet Samuel explains the result of this behavior: “You have acted foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for the Lord would now have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” When we act presumptuously, the Lord will take His kingdom out of our hand and give it to those who actually keep His commandments instead. The Lord wants us to be men and women after His own heart, not men and women who seek our own way or the traditions of the elders. Saul was acting like a Pharisee here in that he worshiped God in a way that was not right, but as the story continues we see he was also acting like a Pharisee in that he created a law that God did not create and enforced it among the people, despite God not ever commanding such a thing.

When Saul told Israel not to fast prior to battle or face death, this was not from God. God has never commanded such a thing, and He didn’t here. This was a “Pharisaical ordinance, so to speak, and it had no basis in reality. We see contrast between the lie, represented by Saul’s position, and the Truth, represented by his son Jonathan, because Saul had properly given authority to his son Jonathan to lead a garrison, and so Jonathan was acting according to proper authority. In this authority, Jonathan looked to God as His ruler and he waited on God before He did anything. God directed him to go down against the Philistines, and so he went down and achieved victory, despite terrible odds. It was this move of the Holy Spirit that led to the Philistines defeat, and Saul had nothing to do with it.

When Jonathan ate honey in opposition to his father’s command, he didn’t know his father had commanded it. Even if he did the command bore no weight because it was not from God. When Jonathan’s men told him about the “Pharisaical” ordinance, Jonathan rightly said, “My father has troubled the land.“ Our Savior Yeshua complained about men like Saul when He said, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.” And Isaiah prophesied men like Saul, when he wrote, “‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Saul even attempted to execute Jonathan on account of him violating the fast, but the people who had rallied behind God stood up for their brother Jonathan and nullified the king’s fallacious edict. Jonathan, in this way, had led the people to put God first in their lives, and this story foreshadows the reason for David and Jonathan’s friendship.

1 Samuel 15, 1 Samuel 16, 1 Samuel 17

In Exodus 17:8-16, the Amalekites had come out to thwart Israel in the way God was leading them at Rephidim, literally, “a place in the desert.” Moses’s praise of the Lord, with Aaron and Hur, held up Joshua to lead the Lord’s army to victory against the Amalekites. Yahweh told Moses, “I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven,” and Moses made an altar to Yahweh Nissi there, the Lord Our Banner. His Name is written on the foreheads of those who belong to Him, we read in Revelation and elsewhere. Now Yahweh was ready to fulfill His promise, and he was giving Saul another chance to redeem himself from his previous egotism. The Lord of Armies, Yahweh Tzivaot, said: “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, in that he obstructed him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and completely destroy everything that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

This both IS and IS NOT a symbolic act. The people of Amalek were so evil and corrupt that God wanted to wipe them out entirely and leave no remnant. He did this before to the whole world in the age of Noah, when only eight people were saved. He will do it again to the whole world, when only the Saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua will be saved. Our Messiah Yeshua is loving, yes, toward those who trust in Him, but He also will judge the whole Earth—every person who ever lived—and those who do not or did not follow Him will be utterly destroyed. Make no mistake. The story of Saul is intended to make sure we don’t. Because of Saul’s failure, the man Haman, a descendant of Amalek, rose up in Media-Persia and almost succeeded in wiping out the Jews. If it was not for Mordecai and Esther, symbolic of Yeshua and His faithful people of Israel, whether native born or grafted in, Haman would have succeeded. Woe to those like Saul who misjudge the Truth of God’s Word.

Saul spared King Agag of Amalek, as well as the best of the sheep, oxen, lambs and “everything that was good.” What’s worse than this, when he went to Carmel, the Word says, “behold, he set up a monument for himself.” This is not just disobedience to God, this is replacement of God with himself. This is antichrist! He’s acting like King Nebuchadnezzar who set up the golden image or the Israelites who demanded a golden calf to worship in the wilderness at the feet of Mt. Sinai. I missed this before, and this is HUGE! I love how Samuel approaches him, gently giving Saul multiple opportunities to repent. After Saul greets the prophet by claiming that he has “carried out the command of the Lord,” Samuel asks, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the bellowing of the oxen which I hear?” Clearly, Saul had not obeyed the commandments of the Lord, but he picked and chose which commandments he wanted to follow and which ones he didn’t.

Saul also proactively violated the commandment against idolatry and he created another god beside Yahweh; namely, himself. As king of Israel, he decided by his own decree what was right and wrong, just as he had done in the previous battle with the Philistines when he commanded his men not to eat food. Even after Saul sought forgiveness through Samuel further along in the dialogue, consider what he said even as he is asking forgiveness: “I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before all Israel, and go back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” It’s no mistake that Saul says, “the Lord YOUR God.” It’s not Saul’s God. Saul is Saul’s god. But more than this, Saul asked Samuel to worship him by going back with him in the sight of all the people. In other words, Saul was asking Samuel to lend credence to his power and authority, which had just usurped the power and authority from God. This is heinous sin showing a lack of true repentance.

Rewinding, we learn an important truth about what God is seeking by the manner in which He rebukes Saul through his prophet Samuel: “Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, And to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as reprehensible as false religion and idolatry.” I return to Revelation 14:12: “Here is the endurance of the Saints; here are they who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua.” And to John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep My commandments,” Yeshua said. Saul claimed he would sacrifice the animals to the Lord that he defiantly kept alive, but it is plain to see that Saul desired to enjoy the meat from these sacrifices, for the god Saul worshipped was himself and his own stomach (Philippians 3). As Paul says: we must live up to the faith we have attained.

Importantly, God thought so little of sacrifices given for self emolument that He came in the flesh to sacrifice Himself for us so that no further animal sacrifice would be needed. He became the one-time sacrifice for sin. He told us our sacrifice would be in the manner of our living; that we put God first and do what He has both instructed and shown us by example. Saul did all of the other things God calls “evil”: He rebelled, He committed idolatry and created his own religion after his own desires. He rejected the Word of the Lord, in fact, which we know from John 1 is Yeshua, the Son of God. His apparent repentance in the text is false, for he seeks his own glory even in the midst of his pretense. On account of this, the Lord tore the kingdom from Saul; yet Saul continues to be king. This is similar to what happened when Yeshua ascended to Heaven. He cast out Satan defeated forever, and yet Satan continues to reign on the Earth to this day.

When Yeshua returns, Satan’s destruction is certain. And this is where David comes into the picture in our prophetic template. We know he has to wait for 30 years hidden away before he can ultimately take the throne of Israel, and not without a final battle between those who follow Saul and those who follow after the man who is “after God’s own heart.” When Samuel informed Saul that God had stripped the kingdom from him, Saul continues to rebel. He grasps the edge of Samuel’s robe and tears it, to which Samuel repeats, “the kingdom is torn from you” and given to one who is “better than you.” While Samuel rightly speaks, saying God will not change His mind on this, Samuel did change his mind and go back with Saul, enabling his continued rule. We should be mindful that even the best teachers, prophets and God-fearing men will fall victim to the spiritual attacks of the enemy, and they too will need to come to repentance.

God gives Samuel the opportunity to repent for what he did when He asks, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, because I have chosen a king for Myself among his sons.” Samuel feared for His life, saying, “When Saul hears about it, he will kill me,” but the Lord commanded him to go a second time, and Samuel obeyed. Like every man of God to ever live, the Lord must repeat Himself. He even sends His Spirit to help us, but even then He has to remind us: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Samuel was a man of God, despite his flaws, and he knew the Lord to his death. As a man, Samuel had a flawed vision of God’s desires, but if we are patient and wait for the Lord as Samuel did, God will eventually reveal His anointed to us, the humble and lowly shepherd with the power to slay giants.

We see that the Holy Spirit entered David as soon as he was anointed king. The Lord came to help His anointed right at the beginning of his mission, which would take quite some time to fulfill. At one time, when David sinned, he repented truly in Psalm 51, saying, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David, a man after God’s own heart, knew the consequences of falling into the sins of the flesh, and his repentance in the matter of Uriah the Hittite was real, because we know the Lord did not depart from David. At the same time, “the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, and an evil spirit FROM THE LORD terrified him.” The Lord indeed allows Satan to come after His sheep to test them. Did Saul still have a chance at this point? I think he did, but he had opened himself up the enemy and lost his advocate, for the Lord was no longer with him in his unrepentant state. Saul had prophesied, and while he certainly had the Holy Spirit in him before this, he didn’t any longer. His salvation was lost.

To be clear: God would later pour out His Holy Spirit on “all flesh,” so every man and woman who lives following Yeshua’s resurrection has the opportunity to walk fully with the Lord, as Saul and David both did. Before Yeshua came, God’s Spirit entered a few. At the same time, it is clear that we can lose the Holy Spirit, for both Saul and Judas rejected the Lord and lost God’s Spirit and their salvation. We can too, so we must be constantly on guard. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:19: “Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.” And when Satan wanders around like Saul as a prowling lion, seeking someone like David to devour in the wilderness, we must endure and never give up our faith in the Lord. Some, whose faith was as authentic as Saul’s at the first, lose it on account of the cares of the world, the sins of the flesh or the pride of life. We must run the race to win, to endure, and our lives should be full of humility and prayer, helping us to stay on track.

Saul continued to live a moderately good life following this episode. He might have even gone to “church” every week. Through the providence of God, Saul appointed David to be his chief musician. It’s important to recognize that while music can heal the soul from the attacks of the enemy and make us feel like we are on the right track, if we do not have an authentic relationship with the Lord, we are still living under the enemy’s bondage. Unlike Saul, we must throw off the bondage of Satan, the sins of our past and fully rebuke them. We must identify where we sinned and confess our sins to the Lord. In 1 John 1:9, we read: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If we don’t, as Saul did not, we continue to live in bondage, even if the music puts a veil over our eyes. We must repent and turn fully to Christ, obeying His commandments and living our life fully for Him. There is no alternative to obtain life.

The story of David and Goliath is among my favorites of all, and it contains so many nuanced prophetic templates a whole sermon series could be written about it. We often breeze by it, and it’s a shame. It gave me such pleasure to read today, for while the enemy tries to use the Word of God against us, when we have true faith, we can say like David, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you and remove your head from you.” Yes, the Messiah will indeed crush the head of the serpent, and indeed, Satan and his armies will be eaten by the bird of the sky and the beasts of the earth after the final battle. Indeed: “All the earth [will] know that there is a God in Israel, and that this entire assembly [will] know that the Lord does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will hand [the enemy] over to us!” In Christ alone, there is victory!

1 Samuel 18, 1 Samuel 19, 1 Samuel 20

David was blameless, yet Saul hungered for his blood, harboring a murderous spirit of antichrist. His hatred got so dark that he even became a false prophet. Jonathan, who was a brother in the faith with David, knit together by the Holy Spirit to do the Lord’s will, helped David recognize the threat against him so he could flee to the wilderness for safety. Saul betrayed David, and David ultimately would need to disappear for many years. Ultimately, David would return as a conquering king. It’s a prophetic template for Yeshua’s death, resurrection, ascension and return. Saul’s daughter Michal, who became David’s first wife, used household gods to hide David’s escape. She truly did love David, but why the household gods? Saul’s kingdom was depraved, and ultimately, the people would be depraved also as a result. We see a need for the purity that would only come from a righteous king. The Lord had much work to do on David in the wilderness before he could take on that role.

1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 22, 1 Samuel 23, 1 Samuel 24

Did David bear false witness against his neighbor? He told Ahimelech the priest in Nob that he was on a mission from Saul and asked for consecrated bread for him and his men to eat. I believe the answer is “No,” and Yeshua seems to back up the idea in Matthew 12. When our Lord walked through the grainfields on Sabbath, gleaning the heads of the grain, which is lawful according to Deuteronomy 23:25, the Pharisees rebuked him for this as they might have rebuked David for eating the shewbread, claiming they were violating the law, though they were not—they were merely violating the tradition of the elders. Yeshua said this: “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? … But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”

Ahimelech had acted mercifully toward David, and neither sinned, for David and his men were hungry and he fed them. Yes, Doeg reported this to Saul and it leads to the death of Ahimelech and many priests, but this action was not the consequence of David’s actions, which were meant to protect life rather than harm life. We know “love covers a multitude of sins.” Saul was evil enough to murder consecrated priests of God in cold blood, even those who had not aided David, his son-in-law, armor-bearer and harp player. This story gives us the occasion to consider the false choice that often comes up in ethical dilemas. If a murderer says, do this, or I will murder so and so, the response is always to do what is right in the eyes of God. The murderer has power to murder or not murder, and may carry out the act even if you go along with his request to sin. Thank God Saul’s men rejected the command from Saul to murder, but the envious Edomite had no problem destroying God’s people for Saul.

We see David in a second situation where he misrepresents the truth, but again it is to save lives. He scribbled on the doors of Gath and dribbled on his beard to make himself appear insane to Achish king of Gath. On account of this, Achish sent David away. The commandment is to not bear false witness against our neighbor, which certainly extends to not lying to God Most High by violating His commandments. However, in both cases where David misrepresented the truth, he did so to preserve life and no one came to harm because of his actions. We know that God’s Word supports this interpretation because it says in 1 Kings 15:5, “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” These two lies recorded here of David were not sin.

Despite him not being responsible for Saul’s actions, David felt remorseful for the situation and gave shelter to Ahimelech’s son Abiathar. Around this time, David’s brothers, everyone in distress, everyone in debt and everyone discontented gathered to David, and a remnant of about 400 men followed the true king of Israel. David’s experience here is yet another prophetic template; for Yeshua would take on the sorrow of sinners, and He also would heal the sick, the lame, the blind and take in the overlooked and downtrodden. Since His ascension into Heaven, these are the types of people whom Yeshua’s ministry has attracted, while the proud have been cast off. He described this through the parable in Matthew 22:1-14. Many of David’s best and most prophetic Psalms were written during this time. See Psalm 142, particularly, “When my spirit faints within me, you know the way! … I cry to you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my portion in the land of the living.” We must learn to trust like David.

With his remnant army, David defeated the Philistines and rescued the village of Keilah. Before going into battle, David waited on the Lord’s command to go and rescue this land, as we should learn to do before we go into battle. David double checked it, also, showing us how important it is to be certain the Lord is directing our steps. This is not the same thing as putting the Lord God to the test. To put the Lord to the test means to act presumptuously, as Satan had tempted Yeshua to jump off the spire of the Temple so that God’s angels would save Him. To make sure something is from God and not from a deceiving spirit is not only a good idea, it is an exhortation from our brother John the Apostle (1 John 4:1), and it was also the righteous act of Gideon in Judges 6. Sadly, despite God’s will for David to help Keilah, the people of Keilah would be ingrates ready to hand David over to Saul. God also warned David of this, so he could escape, and David obeyed the Lord.

Some people will always put the authority of man above the authority of God no matter what miracles they see, but David is no such man. Despite his opportunity to kill Saul, David knows the Lord’s commandment, “thou shall not murder,” and thus he refuses to take the throne with the sword. I believe this was a test of David’s obedience, and David passed. Even the wicked Saul recognized David’s fielty to God: “You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt maliciously with you. … Now, behold, I know that you will certainly be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. So now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not eliminate my name from my father’s household.” Even though Saul acknowledges the Lord’s work, he refuses to repent. He is looking for worldly protection for his sons rather than repentance before God. The contrast between the two men could not be more stark.

1 Samuel 25, 1 Samuel 26, 1 Samuel 27

Samuel the prophet is dead and Israel mourned. Meanwhile, David is watching Nabal’s shepherds as part of his wanderings on the land. He requested a meal as payment for protecting the sheep with their men, but Nabal was a son of Satan, an antichrist figure, and he refused to show hospitality. His wife Abigail was a woman of great understanding and faith. Her hospitality in the midst of her husband’s depravity saved her husband’s household, and even Nabal, but he was ungrateful. God was so abundantly disgusted with Nabal for his continuous sin that he struck him dead. From the context, it’s possible that Nabal lacked a relative to be a kinsman redeemer, leaving Abigail widowed. David became her redeemer, showing gratitude that she kept him from sin.

 While David was ready to destroy Nabal, but not King Saul who was pursuing him, we ought to ask, “Why?” Saul was God’s anointed king, despite his depravity, and Nabal was just a depraved subject under David’s authority. We are responsible for bringing admonishment on sinners within the church, so it is possible there is some link between Nabal and David that I’m not yet seeing. I don’t have a straightforward interpretation just yet, but David’s restraint a second time against Saul is noble and his obedience to God upon Abigail’s reminder and exhortation not to sin against Nabal is also noble. He shows Saul once again how God calls us to love our enemy, and he shows us, in listening to Abigail, how David is truly a man after God’s own heart, listening to Truth above the lie, no matter who the messenger happens to be. After David spares Saul’s life, the king acknowledged that David will accomplish much and assuredly prevail, but David is no longer taking any chances, so he leaves the land of Israel in exile.

From there David moves to live with the Philistines, apart from the Promised Land for which He was anointed king, but he does not stop serving in his role. While lying once again to Achish, in an attempt to show loyalty, saying he was fighting against Israel, Judah and the Kenites in battle, he actually wasn’t. The Scripture said he attacked the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites, and these are people the Lord commanded Israel to destroy. David was just fulfilling his duty as King of Israel and concealing this from his host to buy time in exile. Again, this is not a type of false witness that harms the recipient of the lie. David is protecting his life and the life of his servants, a noble goal. This is akin to lying to the Nazis when they asked whether any Jews were hiding in your home. A lie in this case is not bearing false witness against your neighbor. Rather, it is putting the love of neighbor first in a bad situation. David remains loyal to God in exile.

Addendum:
This paragraph caused trouble: There is a matter I MUST address, because I believe we need to treat this seriously. GOD does not lie, and GOD said that David did NOT sin except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and GOD said that David was a man after God’s own heart. The only possible conclusion is that David did NOT sin except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, so if we are reading sin into something else David did, the interpretation is not correct. The interpretation needs work. I’ve spent time contemplating this today, and what follows is that contemplation:  End troubling paragraph (Steven).

Abigail kept David from sinning against Nabal. My concern is why did he almost sin there? The story of Nabal is literally in between two stories where David spared Saul when he had a chance to kill him. Why did he not intuitively offer Nabal the same mercy? Both Saul and Nabal had been men of God, but had turned aside to follow after Belial, who is Satan. After further study, I am no longer confused about the disparity between David’s treatment toward Nabal and Saul. The story is meant to teach both David and all of us a lesson in the Truth of God and what God expects from His faithful.

As the story begins, the only thing we can understand that differentiates Saul and Nabal is that Saul is anointed as king and Nabal is not, but their behavior is identical. We know that Nabal is a Calebite, or of the house of Caleiv (See Numbers 13:30). Caleiv (Caleb) was the righteous spy who went up with Joshua; one of two men to survive the wilderness after leaving Egypt. Leb (לֵב) is the root word used for Calebite, also lebab (לֵבָב), an identical word. Both mean the inner man, heart, or will of a person. In other words, this is the place in our lives where either love or hate is rooted, which brings up either righteousness or lawlessness from a person. Thus, I believe the Lord is telling us that we need to pay attention to the heart condition here.

Jewish commentator Ralbag says Nabal’s evil nature was similar to that of a dog; he was stingy and refused to show hospitality. Yeshua had words to say about dogs. Consider Matthew 15:25-27, when Yeshua said “it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs,” but the women said “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” and Yeshua responded, “Your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.”

The moral of the story here, from my perspective, is that it doesn’t matter who your fathers are, whether you are a son of Caleb, who was one of the most faithful people to ever live, or a woman Gentile living in Israel whose fathers worshipped idols, what matters is the heart condition; what matters is the measure of faith we have in the Lord to do His will. Consider Mark 7:20-23: “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” This is Nabal. His heart is full of darkness. The Apostle Paul later teaches us in Galatians 5 that we cannot produce such fruit of the flesh and inherit the kingdom, but instead we must produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is Abigail, and she instructs David in this lesson in righteousness.

Re-read 1 Samuel 25:24-35. Abigail fell at David’s feet, humbling herself before her neighbor. Even though blameless, she took the blame for her husband Nabal. IMPORTANT: Consider that even if David had acted on his impulse to destroy Nabal’s entire house for Nabal’s stinginess, Abigail would have lived and would have been taken into David’s camp, potentially even as his wife. David says very specifically: “there certainly would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male.” The females would have become wives of David and his men. At the end of the story, God arranges this same outcome, but through His own means, and not by David’s hand. I’ll return to this. Abigail, who knows the Lord intimately within the depths of her heart, acknowledges her husband’s evil. She says to David, don’t pay attention to it. Don’t let Nabal’s evil turn you evil, also, as we read in Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

As she continues, she pleads in the name of the Lord Yahweh that David not avenge himself by his own hand, but leave vengeance to the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35). Had David acted to shed innocent blood, he would have become like Nabal, a sinner. (As an important aside: David does not do this later in the land of the Philistines. He actually continues to carry out the work of the Lord by destroying the peoples that the Lord commanded Israel to destroy). Abigail continues in great humility by asking for forgiveness on account of her husband, and she offers David and his men the hospitality that a man or woman of God ought to offer to all who come to them, no matter who they are. This is righteousness at the highest level; it is Christ dwelling in her heart. (Ephesians 5:21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”).

And David reciprocated, showing he is a man after God’s own heart when he says, “Blessed by the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me and blessed by your discernment and blessed be you who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.” Before this conclusion, however, Abigail spoke Truth to him, that later comes into play: “the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house, because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil will not be found in you all your days. Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord does for my Lord in accordance with all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel, this will not become an obstacle to you, or a troubled heart to my Lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my Lord’s having avenged himself. When the Lord deals well with my Lord, then remember your slave.”

David’s conclusion is to listen to this woman after the passionate impulses of his heart, because she spoke the Word of God to him. The Truth she spoke rung out in his heart as Truth, and it didn’t matter who the messenger was. Not only does the Lord honor David’s heart condition here, he brings judgment on David’s enemy Nabal by His hand and David followed through and honored the messenger who brought Him the Truth that saved Him from error by marrying her and making her his wife. David was marrying the Truth that Abigail spoke. He was bringing this Truth and making it a part of Himself. Later, the Lord continues to deliver David’s enemies into his hand in the land of the Philistines and no one can touch him, not Saul, and not the king of the Philistines, because the Lord was fighting his battles.

If there is any answer to the question I’ve asked, and I still can’t totally put my finger on, it is this: The Lord showed us how even the most righteous men are tempted to sin. While Saul’s anointing was a reminder to David not to sin against him, Nabal lacked this anointing, and David was thus overlooking the sin he was being tempted to engage in, potentially by Satan himself, for Nabal was “a man of Belial” according to 1 Samuel 25:25. As God does not show any partiality, we are also not to show any partiality between high men like Saul or lower men like Nabal. Abigail, who was a woman of great wisdom and beauty, because her heart was married to Christ, was sent by God to intercede and keep David from sinning. David, because he was a man after God’s own heart, was convinced by the Truth when he heard the Truth, and he thus turned away from the sin he was about to commit.

In 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, Paul teaches, “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges.” And in Deuteronomy 1:17, God explains how to judge those on the inside: “Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it." Jude gives us one more piece of insight in Jude 1:22-25: “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Conclusion: Abigail pulled David out of the fire, because they were both beleivers, teaching him that God will judge the unbelievers, and He does. David learned that there is no partiality with God and His righteousness grew as a result of Abigail’s intervention.

1 Samuel 28, 1 Samuel 29, 1 Samuel 30, 1 Samuel 31

It struck me today that David, the man after God’s own heart, the prophetic template for our Lord Yeshua, had gone to be with the Gentiles and lead them against all of the enemies of God. At no point did David ever go against his people Israel, but he did give the impression that he would be willing to do so. This is no different than the impression that Yeshua has given to many Christian denominations today, but God has said many times He will not forsake His people Israel, and even Paul wrote about this in Romans 9-11, with the crescendo in Romans 11:28-32: “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

Meanwhile, Saul inquired of the Lord on whether he should go up to battle against the Philistines, but God did not answer him. This is bad news, and it happens to us all. When God does not answer our prayers, it means there is something standing between us and God. This is a time to fall on our knees and repent, to wait on the Lord and to humble ourselves before Him. Saul does not do this. Rather than wait on the Lord and his appointed time, he followed his pattern and turned to evil by seeking the advice of a Medium. He had previously cast these witches out of the land, and he was right to do so. But now he was ready to get the advice from a witch’s dark powers. For this, Saul would die. The witch called up Samuel’s from his sleep in the grave, where we all rest when we die until Christ returns, and Samuel gave one last prophesy that came to pass. Sadly, Saul’s whole family was taken with him, including Jonathan, but we know from all of the rest of Scripture that Jonathan has a place in the kingdom with David. Saul and his armor-bearer are two of very few suicides in Scripture, and the penalty for murder is eternal death—even if we murder ourselves. Saul sealed his own eternity, but at least he left an example of what not to do.

2 Samuel 1, 2 Samuel 2, 2 Samuel 3

After mourning the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, and the spiritual death of Saul—“oh how the mighty have fallen”—David assumes the throne that is rightfully his and forges alliances. David executed the Amelekite (enemy of Israel) who claimed to put Saul to death, even though Saul had taken his own life. He thought David would receive the news and reward him, but after many years of honoring the king, David continued to do so in his death. He then went to work uniting the kingdom, though the two generals Abner and Joab did not accomplish peace at first. It took Saul’s son Ish-bosheth’s foolishness—like father like son—to bring Abner over to David’s side, but Joab was unwilling to accept his conversion. Abner defended his own life by killing Joab’s brother, Asahel, and Joab’s bloodlust was unfounded when he murdered Abner. David took Abner’s side and mourned him, further bringing the people together. Joab, he punished for murder. Remember how Peter first rejected Saul upon his Messianic conversion to Paul, but eventually accepted him. This was a similar situation that ended differently on account of the Holy Spirit, which did not dwell within the two generals. David possessed the Spirit, and through his humble leadership, unity came.

2 Samuel 4, 2 Samuel 5, 2 Samuel 6, 2 Samuel 7

David continues to show the Lord’s favor is before him; he waits on the Lord before he acts, a practice we should learn. David has an innate sense of justice on account of the Lord’s Spirit resting within him. He executes murderers who think they are doing David a favor by taking out Saul’s sons, just as the Lord had commanded. He conquered Jerusalem and the Lord there built him a house by sending foreigners to do this from Lebanon. David also brought the ark up to Jerusalem and set up the Lord’s tabernacle in the midst of the capital. From there, Nathan communicates the Lord’s Word to David: David will not build God a house, for God is not limited by such things. However, the Lord will build for David an enduring house for his Seed, and even David perceived this would be a long way off in the future. The enduring house of David would be fulfilled in Yeshua, who would be the King of kings and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever. David responds with praise.

2 Samuel 8, 2 Samuel 9, 2 Samuel 10, 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 12

David had been fulfilling the Word of the Lord to Israel, He struck all of the enemies of the Lord down with the sword and brought many of the lands promised into Israel’s possession. The Lord was fully with him, and there was nothing he could not accomplish in the name of the Lord. He showed love and kindness to his “brother” Jonathan, bringing his lame son Mephibosheth into his home to dine at his table. Interestingly, the name Mephibosheth means, “dispeller of shame,” and David brought glory back to the house of Saul on account of Jonathan’s faith and love for the Lord. David even tried to extend this same blessing to the Ammonites on account of their kindness toward him when he had run from Saul, but Hanun the son of Nahash did not accept David’s kindness. While “Hanun” means “favored,” “Nahash” means “serpent,” and is the same word used for the serpent in the garden of Eden who had come to tempt Adam through Eve. Does this mean he was favored by the serpent?

It’s interesting to ponder what kindness Nahash, the serpent, had shown to David. In 1 Samuel, 27:2, we know David went out to dwell with Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath, and he had shown David kindness, which is interesting, because Gath was the home of the famous Philistine Goliath. Perhaps they feared him or revered him for conquering their champion? David was also helped by Moab in 1 Samuel 22:3-4 the descendants of Lot’s older daughter: “Then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, ‘Please let my father and mother come here with you, till I know what God will do for me.’ So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.” He was helped by individual Hittites in 1 Sam. 23, 26, 2 Sam. 11, and by Carmel in 1 Sam. 25. The Ammonites, who are descendants of Lot’s younger daughter’s son Ben-ammi, are not specifically mentioned except in our reading today, so we can ponder:

We KNOW that David says Nahash was kind to him in 2 Sam. 10. And much later, we see that Shobi, son of Nahash, helped David when he was fleeing from his son Absalom in 2 Samuel 17:27-30. Some have speculated that Shobi was Hanun’s brother, also viable for the throne in Ammon, and he remained loyal to David throughout as a rival to his brother, while Hanun turned against David as we read. For his loyalty, the speculation is that David set up Shobi as a governor in Ammon to manage the servants who remained from Ammon. We read in 2 Samuel 12: “He also brought out the people who were in it, and put some to work at saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and made others serve at the brick works. And he did the same to all the cities of the sons of Ammon.” And so, we may speculate that Nahash was also kind to David and for this David was kind to his sons.

The significance of Nahash’s name is still worthy to ponder, and perhaps this kindness David showed toward Ammon was an error? We can’t call it sin, because Yahweh had also instructed Israel earlier to spare both Ammon and Moab on account of Lot. Only those Ammonites and Moabites who fought against David were worthy of death, much like we can say about the civil war at the end of Judges against Benjamin. Only when the people of God were rifled with sin were they worthy of death and banishment. Thus, Hanun’s rebellion against David is what prompted the war against them. At the same time, David sought to be kind to Hanun on account of Nahash just prior to his sin that could have lead to his spiritual death. Being that this is the first time we hear of Nahash in the Scripture, outside of his appearance in the Garden of Eden, it’s worthy of note and further contemplation.

The story of David’s life can be summed up, again, in 1 Kings 15:5, “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” In 2 Samuel 11, we read about the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Pastor Daniel Joseph of Corner Fringe Ministries brought some amazing truths to light regarding this story during his sermon series on “The Ten Commandments,” in parts 35-38 (https://www.cornerfringe.com/media/series/ph4jncs/the-ten-commandments), and these parts of the series covered in particular how the sin of adultery, a sin that leads to death, also tends to be associated with murder.

The short version is this: David’s eye saw Bathsheba bathing, and the problem is that he failed to look away. Jesus told us that by looking at a woman with lust, we commit adultery in our hearts. This is where the sin was born, but then he acted on it and she got pregnant. In order to hide this sin, he lied and tried to use deception to cover up the sin. When this didn’t work, he turned to murder to cover up the sin, but the sin could not be hidden from God. Nathan the prophet tells David a beautiful parable that convicts David, and David admits he’s guilty immediately before God, mourning what he had done. Here’s a lesson for us: We may be completely blind to our sins, which lead to death, and unless God sends someone to tell us the Truth, we may never see them. Has God done that for you? Are you listening to God, like David did? Now, David’s repentance (shown to us in detail in Psalm 51) was sufficient to save His soul. The blood of Christ healed Him, for he looked forward to salvation through our Lord and prophesied of Him many times.

David’s humble and contrite heart of repentance saved him, but he would still have to face the consequences of his sin, and he proclaimed his own consequences: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this certainly deserves to die! So he must make restitution for the lamb four times over, since he did this thing and had no compassion.” David would lose four sons, and one of them would commit adultery with David’s own wives in the same spot where David had first gazed at Bathsheba bathing. David’s heart confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Later, God would give David Solomon through this union that began in evil, for the Lord will take what was meant for evil and use it for His good purposes for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Solomon would be another prophetic template for our Lord Yeshua, and our Lord would come from this seed through his mother Mary, showing us a great picture of forgiveness. When we sin, in whatever matter, we must repent and turn back to the Lord. There will be consequences for our sin, but we will preserve our life for eternity with the Lord.

Steven Ryan:
Througout this reading we can really contrast the differences between Saul and David.  God's command to love your neighbor as yourself is on full display.  We see David always seeking the Word of God in every descision, and additionally giving the glory to God in all things outwardly on full display of a united Israel.  We see the differences between the hearts of Saul, and David.  Saul though outwardly proclaimed God, the inward man was prideful, the intent of Saul was to serve his own will.  Conversely, David's heart and desire both inward and outwardly was to serve God and seeks God's heart in all that he did.

We can also find an important difference in the understanding of God between the two kings.  Both men knew God, believed in God, and proclaimed God.  However, only one man TRUSTED God.  David trusted God with all things, absolutely everything.  Even in his sin, David trusted God to the point of true repentence, knowing wholeheartedly that there would consequence paid for his sin. David gives us the true and perfect example of TRUSTING our God.  Trust God in rightesouness and in transgression, trusting God to love us as He said He does.

2 Samuel 13, 2 Samuel 14, 2 Samuel 15

David began to suffer the generational consequences of his sin with Bathsheba. Though God had forgiven him, he would lose his son Amnon to his lustful example, his daughter Tamar to the shame of defilement, and his son Absalom to murder and rebellion, just as David had murdered Uriah and rebelled against God. Despite the horror of this situation, David handles the whole thing with grace, gentleness and forgiveness, just as our Lord commanded. He humbly accepted the consequences, knowing he deserved death, and he fully put his trust in the Lord to help him endure through it.

When Absalom grew in favor in the people’s sight and David’s favor waned, we see a parallel story to when Saul lost favor with the people and David grew in favor. Remember: “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.” While Saul allowed his envy to grow into a murderous rage, David humbled himself and removed himself from the situation to keep his son from the sin of murdering his own father, and then he waited on God to sort everything out. He strategically put people in place to help him orchestrate a resolution. We learn from David’s example how to be a true man of God; a man after God’s own heart, even though we know that we all fall short of God’s glory and fall into sin. With the heart to serve God and seek His grace, our sins are made as white as snow and the Lord helps us through our troubles. David knows this and lives it.

2 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 17, 2 Samuel 18

It’s double rebellion against David. Now Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, whom David had brought in and cared for like a son, believed Israel would restore the kingdom to the house of Saul. Yet, he still provided for David and his men in the midst of this, returning kindness to him. On top of this, Shimei of Saul’s house from the Tribe of Benjamin cast stones and curses on David as he walked. Rather than lash out in anger, David accepted the treatment against him and offered His humility to God, saying, perhaps God will bring blessings on account of his patience and gentleness. He later offers this same gentleness to Absalom, wanting to preserve the life of the one who was seeking him for execution. These traits are not common among men, but they are the traits the Lord Yeshua has asked us to have. Luke 6:27-30 reads, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.…” The heart of our Lord dwells in David indeed, and this is the heart that ought to dwell in us.

2 Samuel 19, 2 Samuel 20, 2 Samuel 21

David shows love toward his enemies, just as our Lord instructed. Joab does not understand this, for he is a man of the world and not a man of God. David showed mercy toward Joab also, however, and did not execute him when any other king would have for his insubordination, rebellion and sin against God. Without the direct Word from God, David leaves vengeance to the Lord. Joab, on the other hand, murders David’s general Amasa who replaced him and was ready to destroy a city of Israel to hunt down one rebel. A wise woman of Abel Beth-maacah was able to redirect Joab’s wrath against the rebel Sheba. She delivered Sheba into Joab’s hands and saved her city. Saul had acted similarly to Joab, and had destroyed some of the Amorites from Gibeon, whom Joshua had welcomed into Israel. On account of this sin, God decided to bring famine on the land. While we are not told this directly, it seems likely that the seven sons of Saul that the Amorites requested for judgment were involved in the slaughter at their father’s hand. Evidence is that God ended the famine after they were hung.

2 Samuel 22, 2 Samuel 23, 2 Samuel 24

We know that the Lord is with those who are with Him, but against those against Him. Praise the Lord. In 2 Samuel 23, we can see that Uriah the Hittite, whom David murdered, was among his mighty men. Oh the riches of God’s mercy for those who truly repent in their hearts and turn back to the Lord! In 2 Samuel 24, we see that Israel, not David, had sinned against the Lord and the Lord used David to bring the conditions for pestilence upon them, for a census taken without a tithe for the Lord brings pestilence on the land. The Lord will use government to bring judgment on a people whose hearts are far from Him. David, as King, was that government. In this story’s counterpart in Chronicles, we see that God allowed Satan to tempt David to take a census, and it is clear from the totality of Scripture that Israel was sinning, not David. Look how easily they abandoned David and followed after Absalom. The people are fickle and most don’t have any root in them. David, a precursor for our Messiah, offers up himself and His own treasure to atone for the people, and the Lord relents from the pestilence. Our Lord died for all of us, so those who trust in Him will be saved. How many continue to turn their backs to Him, rejecting salvation? Judgment is coming and the only way through it is with Christ.

1 Kings 1, 1 Kings 2

Adonijah is the last of four sons that David lost on account of his murder of Uriah the Hittite, and the judgment that he proclaimed against himself was fully realized for his sin. At the same time, he died in peace, being fully convicted and repentant from his sin. Where there is pride, it comes before a fall, and this was the case for this son Adonijah who exalted himself. Solomon, on the other hand stood by humbly and his father exalted him to be king after him, and David instructed Him to keep faith and obedience to God so that he might live. As this transition from David to Solomon gets underway in the early part of this book, Solomon is a prophetic template for the Second Coming of Christ. This second time, Yeshua will not come to bring forgiveness, but judgment. Yeshua will destroy all of the enemies of God forever, while elevating those who were righteous in their obedience and trust in the King. Solomon’s acts to take out the men who had sinned against God in his father David’s kingdom was righteous. David gave them his whole lifetime, representing the time between Christ’s first and second coming, to repent, but they did not repent. Their time was up and judgment was served, bringing peace to the kingdom of Solomon.

1 Kings 3, 1 Kings 4, 1 Kings 5

The greatest thing to ask God for is wisdom and discernment, not power, fame, health or fortune. It is in humility that we ask God for the wisdom and discernment to seek God in all of His ways and to serve Him and His people all the days of our lives. If we do this, the Lord will greatly reward us with every abundance we could imagine, whether or not in this life, certainly in the next. Even those people who are jealous of us or may be our enemies in the flesh will learn the things of God from us when we put God first.

Oh that our desire were to fight for the life of our children, born and unborn, even if it means letting them go off on their own or with those we perceive may not love them as much. God knows what they need more than we do, and in the case of the women before Solomon, the woman who valued the life of her child more than her own way was rewarded with both the care for her living child and her own way, which was aligned with the heart of God.

We see a prophetic reference in 1 Kings 5, that God had given David authority to bring order to all the peoples of Israel, but rest could not yet come “until the Lord put [the enemies of Israel] under the soles of his feet.” Likewise, the Kingdom of God cannot come until all of the people are subjected to the King of kings, our Messiah Yeshua, the Son of David. See 1 Corinthians 15 for this reference. But now that Solomon is king, again representing the second coming of Messiah Yeshua, the Lord “has secured me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune.” Thus, the Lord can come to dwell with the people of Israel in a house that Solomon would build. Likewise, the Lord would build a dwelling place among His people in the New Heaven and New Earth, as we read in Revelation 21:3-4: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

1 Kings 6, 1 Kings 7

Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, now they were in Israel, the land, for 480 years, when Solomon began to build the house of the Lord. That’s 950 years since Jacob went down to see his son Joseph in Egypt until Solomon, the son of David built a Temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem. I’m sure there is significance I’m missing still, but I do know this progression shows us that God’s timing is not our timing and we must wait on the Lord to fulfill His promises, both in our lives, and in the continuum of time as a whole. The Lord has promised that His Messiah would build a third temple, and that temple is now being built as we read in 1 Corinthians 3. We see the New Jerusalem descend from the Heavens into the new Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 21, and God and His Lamb are the Temple, for there is no Temple in this Eternal Kingdom. We know then that the Temple of God are the hearts of saved humans who have given their lives to God through Messiah, and He will dwell with us and within us for all eternity. This is a promise that is sure as the air we breathe, and yet it will be finished at the appointed time. Read 2 Peter 3.

And we see in Solomon’s Temple that the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, contains the Ark of the Covenant. What was in that Ark? It was the tables of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses, the staff that budded, and one golden bowl of manna that fell from Heaven and was preserved by God (Hebrews 9:4). Thus we know what ought to be in our hearts, for we are the Temple of God. We know that God’s Holy Spirit must write the Torah on our hearts, and for this to occur, we must be willing and obedient servants by reading the Word of God day and night, as commanded, so the Holy Spirit can do His work on us. We know that the manna that fell from Heaven is Christ, and so too we must have Messiah dwelling within us, our God who came in the flesh. The staff that budded is the resurrected Lord, and so our faith must be that He rose from the dead, and we too must produce the fruit from the olive branch so that the olives can be pressed into oil to burn in our lamps, for we are to be the light of the world in Christ. All of the treasure that we have must be invested in this, without exception, just as Solomon brought them into the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

1 Kings 8, 1 Kings 9

1 Kings 8-9 ought to be bookmarked as two of the most powerful chapters of Scripture. Here’s a few notes to highlight what hit me:
All Israel gathered for the dedication of the Temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles in the Seventh month of Ethanim (Called Tishri today), which means “steady flowings.” The Lord brings steady flowings of spiritual prosperity to His people who are devoted to doing His will.
The Lord tabernacles with Israel in the Temple Solomon built, the place where the Lord had chosen to put His name, but even Solomon acknowledges that this building cannot contain God, who created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them. He filled the Temple with a thick cloud, and shone His glory from the Holy Place, but He was not only in that place. Today, the Temple of God is literally the hearts of His people, and He has put His name upon those of us who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, but He likewise is not contained within us. God sits on the throne of Heaven as the Father, He intercedes at the right hand as the Son, forgiving all sin through His blood, and He dwells within us as His Holy Spirit, teaching us and guiding us according to His will, when we desire to pursue Him and put Him first in our hearts.
When Solomon prayed to the Lord, Scripture indicates “the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel…” Look at how he begins that prayer: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel…” It is critical for us to recognize that when we seek blessings for ourselves, we ought to show thanksgiving, praise and worship to the Lord, who is blessed, before we do anything else.
Solomon prophesied that the people would turn toward Jerusalem to pray for all things, whether they are praying in thanksgiving or praying for repentance. He explored the four judgments of God and noted that even when the Lord would judge the people on account of their future disobedience, the people could turn toward Jerusalem and pray to God and He would forgive them and end the judgment. Even the Gentiles from all of the nations could turn toward Jerusalem to worship the Lord, so that “all the peoples of the earth may know Your name.” All the people of the world would come to know the name of the Lord, Yeshua, and He would set up His New Covenant from Jerusalem, where He was crucified, died, and rose from the dead.
The Lord responded to Solomon’s prayer and accepted it, saying, “I have consecrated this house … putting my name there forever and My eyes and My heart will be there always.” While today we worship God “in spirit and in truth,” we may still turn toward Jerusalem to pray, for the Lord said we could do this forever.
When we live according to God’s commandments, with integrity of heart and honesty, we will be blessed by God and inherit His kingdom. When we turn away from God to follow our own way or demon-gods, the Lord will cut us off from His promises. This is the case for the New Covenant or the Old Covenant, but thank God we have Yeshua’s blood to wash us clean, because the blood of bulls and goats could never make us pure as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Nation of Israel will serve as a testimony to God’s promises, and they do even to this day. When they turn toward God, He rewards them and preserves them in their own land. When they turn their backs on Him, He makes them into an example. The Temple remains destroyed to this day as a witness to Israel’s rejection of Messiah Yeshua, but the Temple’s foundation still stands in Jerusalem, as does our foundation in Christ, on which the third Temple is built.

1 Kings 10, 1 Kings 11

The Queen of Sheba said of Solomon, “You have exceeded in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. Blessed are your men, and blessed are these servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to put you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loves Israel forever, He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.” Solomon was certainly a prophetic template for Yeshua, but he never fully realized the heavenly kingdom here on Earth. It was truly the best man could ever experience here on Earth, but it was not the full realization of the Kingdom of God. As Yeshua was walking in the flesh, he condemned the children of Israel who rejected Him by recalling this time, and importantly, indicated that He was the greater realization of God’s prophesy given to David concerning his son and also the realization of the words of the Queen of Sheba. In Matthew 12:42, Yeshua said, “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”

Thus, the Queen of Sheba knew the wisdom of God and will dwell in Heaven, judging the wicked among the company of all the Saints. Solomon, who fell, was still preserved on account of repentance, which we read about at the end of his life as he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” Let this be a lesson to us, for Solomon had fallen on account of multiplying wives for himself, a sin violating Deuteronomy 17 that caused him to fall into idolatry. He repented, but he was not the son that God was talking about when he spoke to David in 2 Samuel 7:12. Yeshua would be the full realization of this prophesy: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” Thank God a heavenly kingdom awaits that will make the Kingdom of Solomon a distant memory, burned in the fire of judgment. Solomon, a son of Adam, would have a son who would rule over a fallen kingdom, for only the obedient and faithful will dwell in the kingdom of God.

1 Kings 12, 1 Kings 13, 1 Kings 14

Both Rehoboam and Jeroboam were fools, ignoring the commands of God and instead going their own way. Rehoboam ignored the wisdom of his elders and all of His father’s legacy and instead listened to ignorant youth, dividing the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and bringing civil war to the land all the days of his life. Jeroboam fulfilled the prophesy given to him on account of Solomon’s sin, but then turned his back on the Lord and worshipped idols. He set the stage for Israel to remain an idolatrous nation all the years it lasted until the Assyrian conquest, and the worst thing he did was set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel, much like Israel had done in the wilderness at the foot of Mt. Sinai. God would bring ruin on his house on account of this.

The story of the prophet of God from Judah who preached judgment to Jeroboam is meant to show us an early warning against wolves in sheep’s clothing. God had told this true prophet of God to return to Judah so that he did not eat food sacrificed to idols in Israel, but a false prophet lied to him and said God changed His mind. God does not lie! Because he believed the false prophet over the Word of God, the man who had once been saved fell to his death at the hand of a prowling lion that was seeking for one to devour. Later, in the time of Josiah, the righteous king fulfilled the prophet’s prophesy completely, as we will soon read, and burned the bones of the house of Jeroboam on the altars built for idol worship. Sadly, the sin was ingrained in the culture and got worse and worse; only a remnant remained in Israel. Meanwhile, Judah was also languishing, but God would keep His promise to David to have a man to sit on the throne in Jerusalem to continue David’s line all the way until the birth of Yeshua.

1 Kings 15, 1 Kings 16, 1 Kings 17

For the sake of David—the man after God’s own heart who sinned on one occasion his whole life, who sought after God with all humility and repentance all his days, not looking to his own righteousness, but to the righteousness of Christ—God allowed a handful of evil kings to live in Judah, only so they could raise up a son after them to continue the line toward Messiah Yeshua. Asa was a good king like his forefather David, but he trusted in Ben-hadad of Damascus over God, handing the foreign king the treasuries from the house of God. Thus he fell away. If we read the counterpart story of Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:12, we see Asa also trusted in the doctors over his faith in God and he died on account of this. This was a second witness to Asa putting God second in his life. It was a sad end to an otherwise righteous king, and it gives us a lesson on how we ought to get through difficulties with our health or anything else. If we trust in our own righteousness or thinking, we die, for only the righteousness of God can bring life. At the same time, we are duty bound to serve God and put Him first in every circumstance, and when we fail to do this, we fail at life. The end of anyone who puts anything above God is eternal death.

Now Israel’s kings went from bad to worse. Jeroboam’s house was eliminated and Baasha’s house was eliminated, but now Omri would build a stronghold to sin by concentrating the rebellious power in a new city called Samaria (Shomeron), which was named after Shemer, the owner of the hill he bought for 150 pounds of silver. The word shamar from which the name is derived means “to keep watch or to preserve.” Were they preserving the Word of God there or were they preserving the sin of the world? Were they watching for God or against Him? Was it another tower of Babel? Interestingly, Omri comes from the Hebrew word “amar,” which means to bind sheaves, as in sheaves of wheat. It’s almost like Omri has gathered all of the chaff together into once place so that at the appointed time it could be burned. Ahab comes from Omri, and Scripture relates that it is almost like he was in a competition with Jeroboam to be more evil. We read: “And as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.” There is no one like Jezebel in all of Scripture who is used more often as a metaphor for evil.

It seems like the name Jezebel means “not to dwell,” as in, not to dwell in the land of the living, or not to dwell with God. It also could mean not lofty, which I see as having the same meaning. The name is from 'iy and Zbul; Izebel, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. The Hebrew “iy” means “not.” The Hebrew “Zbul” is derived from zabal, which means “to dwell” or “zebul,” meaning “lofty, elevation or height.” She is of a worldly mind, one focused on the flesh, the world, the pride of life. She knows nothing of the Word of God, and not only rejects it but rebels against it and causes others to reject it. Meanwhile, Ahab means “father’s brother,” and he was also a “false prophet.”

We know Solomon’s sins were derived from his many wives who pressured him to set up idols throughout the land so they could worship other gods. Did Solomon practice syncretism also, or just enable it. Ahab didn’t just practice syncretism, though, but he put God behind him and worshipped Satan, instead. Which is worse, the lukewarm syncretism of Solomon or the solid evil of Ahab? Yeshua said he will spit the lukewarm out of his mouth. He said the lawless ones will be destroyed. Does it matter whether we are lukewarm or plain evil? In this time God enabled Elijah the Tishbite, one among a remnant who devoted Himself fully to God, to show God’s power with great signs and wonders. In a time when faith in God is being crushed all around, God’s light can shine the brightest. It was through faith that Elijah relied fully upon God to bring him food and water in the wilderness. It is through faith that God used Elijah to multiply oil and flour for a widow, providing for himself and for the widow and her son, and also raise her son from the dead. We rely on God for the increase of His Spirit and the nourishment of His Word, which brings life everlasting, even in the darkest hours.

1 Kings 18, 1 Kings 19, 1 Kings 20

Elijah is an obedient servant to the Lord, but my favorite part of this whole story is this: When Elijah has shown Yahweh’s glory over the prophets of Ba’al and had slain all of the prophets of Ba’al and Asheroth, he said this, “Enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” This is the right attitude for us all. Elijah is not suicidal here, but humble. He recognizes that it was not by his own strength, might or power, but by God’s strength might and power that the prophets of demons were defeated. Elijah is trusting in the righteousness of God rather than in his own righteousness. For this, the Lord sent an angel to care for him and help him nourish his body, mind and spirit for his next journey, which took him 40 days and 40 nights, just as the journey of Moses up to Mt. Sinai and Yeshua in the wilderness, when he was tempted by Satan. Elijah too faced temptation, for he ran away from the battle instead of toward it. He went to be alone with God when God expected him to face his enemies. The Lord inquired what he was doing there at the Mountain of God, and this is where Elijah’s humility turned into pride, a deadly sin.

The prophet brags, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.” The Lord has preserved for himself 7000 prophets in Israel who are loyal to him, and Elijah was one of them, the Lord replied. The Lord sends the prophet on a final mission to anoint Hazael king of Aram, Jehu king over Israel instead of Ahab, and Elisha to take his place as prophet, thus answering his prayer from earlier to conclude his mission here on the Earth while also testing his faith one last time on account of his discouragement. Discouragement is the enemy of us all, and the Lord will test us when we are discouraged and come back to Him, to make sure we are still in His camp. Elijah obeyed the Lord, proving his faith.

Some might be confused as to why God is backing the evil King Ahab in his next battle against Ben-hadad and the Arameans, but the answer is spelled out in the text. First, Israel had turned back to God on account of what Elijah had done for Him on the mountain, and when Yahweh accepted the sacrifice of Elijah, the people testified, Yahweh is God! Now the Lord is seeking Ahab’s heart as well. Yahweh explains this to Ahab by saying, “I am going to hand them over to you today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” Finally, the Lord is going after the heart of all the world, for we see that the Arameans said that Yahweh is the God of the mountains but not the valleys, but God is the One who created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them, and so He gives Israel the victory again to testify about His great name: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Since the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of mountains, but He is not a god of valleys,” therefore I will hand over to you all this great multitude, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” God brings victory to Israel for His own glory, and all the world would know that it was by God’s righteous judgement alone that Israel was victorious. Likewise, we must know that it is God’s righteousness that makes us righteous, and it is on account of our humility and trust in Him that we ought to obey Him.

1 Kings 21, 1 Kings 22

Jezebel, the queen of darkness, had a man framed and murdered so her husband the king could possess a vinyard, but what wine would come from such a place? Ahab did not know about this plot, and so when Elijah revealed it to him along with the judgment, Ahab repented. His repentance seems authentic, for the Lord relented from destroying him at that time. However, God did not want Ahab to lead His people Israel any longer, and thus arranged for Ahab’s death in battle. God knows the appointed times of our birth and our death and He also knows the condition of our hearts. It seems from the context that Ahab’s heart never fully turned to the Lord, because his wife’s evil prevented it. His blood was licked up by the dogs, a sign of disgrace. We must be very careful not to be unequally yoked with the wrong type of people in this life, for their hearts of darkness can affect us and lead us to destruction. It takes a special kind of person to stand alone for God among so much evil, and Ahab was not that man. Our eyes must remain on the Lord always, trusting in Him, not fearing His Word as Ahab did, but embracing it and all of its blessings and challenges.

2 Kings 1, 2 Kings 2, 2 Kings 3

It is one thing for Elijah to give a Word of prophesy declaring the death of Ahaziah from afar, but when the Lord sent the prophet to stand before the king and he gave the same prophesy, we know without question that Elijah feared God more than he feared men. In any pagan nation, a Word against the king was a death sentence, and Israel had become a pagan nation. Elijah trusted in the Lord to the end, showing the boldness that we all need to have in the face of worldly danger to speak the Word of the Lord without fear. Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind, one of four people whose deaths were surrounded with wonder; namely, Enoch, Moses, Elijah and Yeshua. Outside of Yeshua, whose role we know, what role do these three prophets yet have to play? Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing prior to his ascent, and he received it. What wonders there are to come in our reading. To start us off, we see that Elisha split the Jordan just as God had done for Joshua and for Elijah right beforehand. Then, some boys with evil hearts were destroyed by the Lord and a battle against an enemy was completed in victory because Israel and Judah obeyed the voice of the Lord.

2 Kings 4, 2 Kings 5

The Gospel of Yeshua comes to life in the stories of Elisha, and we see that much of what our Lord taught us can be found in these stories. When we trust in the Lord, that which cannot possibly be enough brings abundance. We must be hospitable to the stranger and kind to the widow, and the Lord will reward us with His eternal Holy Spirit and bring us blessing in this life. When horror and tragedy come our way, we ought to look only to God and we will be delivered from it, if not in this life, then in the next and we ought to accept our lot in this life and be content in it while we wait on the Lord. When there is an opportunity to influence those who are powerful and have positions of grandeur in the world, even though we are lowly, we ought to proclaim the greatness of God and the Gospel. Who knows what will come of our words, what seeds will be planted and what faith will bear fruit for the Kingdom. Our ministry here in this place is not meant to bring a reward in this life, but we ought to build up treasure in Heaven. When we bear false witness against God, He knows our hearts and we will bear our shame forever. When we give, we give for the sake of God and not for ourselves.

2 Kings 6, 2 Kings 7, 2 Kings 8

When God is for us, who can be against us? Angel armies stand around the enemies of God’s faithful people, and all we need to do is trust God that He will deliver us. There is no insurmountable challenge for God. And then when He does deliver us, He expects us to be merciful and love our enemies, pouring heaps of coal on their heads so they will come to repentance. Meanwhile, Israel fell to a point where Samaria was facing famine so severe that the people were resorting to cannibalism. Deuteronomy 28 explains what stage of depravity the nation had fallen to. And yet, when the people trusted in the Lord on account of four unclean lepers, they were fully delivered. The King did not trust in the Lord’s provision, but discerned wrongly a trap from his enemies. On account of this, the Lord became His enemy and allowed him to be trampled underfoot. On the contrary, Israel was saved from their famine because they believed in the Lord’s provision. We must learn to trust in the Lord for everything we need.

2 Kings 9, 2 Kings 10, 2 Kings 11

Both Israel and Judah were completely purged of the seed of Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and all of Ba’al worshippers and their holy places were destroyed. The Lord promised this would happen, and it came to pass. This is a prophetic template for the end of days, when all the enemies of the Lord will be utterly destroyed. There will not be one left alive. God will accomplish all of this at His appointed time. It will be marvelous to live in a place where everyone alive worships the Lord.

2 Kings 12, 2 Kings 13, 2 Kings 14

The story of Jehoash is sad, for he “did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his days that Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” Afterward, he was a ship without an anchor and went astray. This is a warning to me that I cannot rely on the teachings of any one man, but I must develop my own relationship with the Lord, so that when my brothers who taught me are gone, I will be a stable part of the Lord’s building, providing faith and support for those who come after me. We must all build and cultivate our own relationship with the Lord. In fact, this is why He is said to be our eternal High Priest who we all have access to at all times. When we have unity with Christ, there is peace in our faith and confidence in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

With Jehoahaz in Israel, we have one in a long-line of evil Israeli Kings and the Lord’s judgments against the Land we’re getting more frequent and severe. But the Lord so loves His people Israel that even when the evil king simply appeased the Lord—perhaps he was going through the motions—the Lord accepted this on account of the People, because the Lord saw the oppression they suffered under the hands of the Arameans. Nevertheless, the king never fully turned to God and the Land continued to suffer.

Meanwhile, Amaziah in Judah obeyed the Lord’s Word to such an extent that he no longer wiped out entire families for treason, but only the offenders.

Even the kings of Judah err, but their general fidelity to the Lord seems to be holding the nations together, so much so that Satan brought an evil king of Israel to civil war against Judah. Would this lead to further decline or would it solidify their faith? The Lord commands us to accept adversity with joy knowing that in loving one another through it all we are sealed for a place in His eternal Kingdom.

2 Kings 15, 2 Kings 16, 2 Kings 17

In some of these accounts of kings, either for Israel or Judah, I get the sense that there wasn’t really anything to record. They did evil. They didn’t change their ways. The people continued to fall into depravity. Nothing is new under the sun. I understand that we are all sinners, and we all fall short of God’s glory, so I do not write this in any way to boast. It almost seems like these were a people who were lukewarm, who went through the motions and had temple service but they also worshipped their idols. It was life as usual. It might be quite similar to life over the past 40-70 years in America, where Christians have gone to church or stayed home even and gave lip service to God, but they went about their lives to accumulate wealth, raise their families and all in all forgot about God. It’s sad in a way, but particularly with 2 Kings 15, I get the sense that the historians were tired of writing all the details, because there was really nothing remarkable to write about. It was just blah. God does not like blah. Yeshua said he would spit the lukewarm out of his mouth.

It really isn’t a surprise then that the next thing we read about is how King Ahaz literally put a pagan altar in the Temple in Jerusalem and made the altar to Yahweh subordinate, and the priests were submissive to the king. This at least was a great evil worthy of reporting. It’s almost like when we read about Pharma companies harvesting live-born children to make their vaccines. Yes, that’s an evil worth reporting. It is so in your face evil that it has to be mentioned. And the priests of our day went right along with it and said taking the vaccine is moral, and “Jesus would have done it.” No, NO! He absolutely would not have! This type of evil is meant to get our attention, to look introspectively and say, wait a minute, where am I in my relationship with God? How am I putting Him first in my life, or am I not doing that? Because Judah has such a long history of doing what is right with the Lord, it will take longer for Judah to fall, but this is definitely Ahab-Jezebel-level depravity.

Meanwhile in Israel, God had had enough. The King of Assyria conquered Israel in Samaria and led the 10 tribes into exile. God allowed this to happen on account of the evil that they did for generation after generation, even though prophets had warned them over and over again. They did things secretly against the Lord that were not right, but the Lord searches the hearts and knows them. They sacrificed their children to demons. They worshipped idols. They had cult prostitutes. Their culture devolved into total depravity, and there was nothing separating them from the people of the Land that God sent Israel there to defeat. Now, God wasn’t even going to bring in a people He set apart to overthrow them, but He allowed pagans to come in and conquer His people Israel, and then He continued to judge the pagans who inhabited the land after Israel by sending in lions to attack them. When the people paid lip service to God, God calmed down the judgment against the people, and so the people who inhabited Samaria and the lands of Israel never fully returned to the Lord, and they still haven’t to this day.

2 Kings 18, 2 Kings 19

Hezekiah was the best king of Judah since David, and there was none after him until Yeshua that was as godly. Not only did he turn back to the Lord, but he removed all idols from the land and restored the commandments of the Lord. Know that when you do this—when you repent and turn fully toward the Lord—Satan is coming with his adversaries to test you and try to break you from your loyalty to God Most High. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent Rabshakeh to taunt Judah and blaspheme the one true God, saying that no other nation’s “gods” had helped them as they moved forward on their path of conquest. Hezekiah turned to prayers and fasting, and the Lord heard his prayer. The prophet Isaiah explained that God would preserve Judah on account of Hezekiah’s faith, and Assyria would be rebuked by the circumstances of war; the king himself would be assassinated when he returned to deal with the distracting issues. Historians might say Assyria was fighting a war on two or more fronts and this saved Judah, but we know that the Lord orchestrated Assyria’s rise to judge Israel and its fall because Assyria failed to give Yahweh the glory. Judah stood as a sole remnant at this time.

2 Kings 20, 2 Kings 21, 2 Kings 22

Hezekiah asked for more time, and God gave him 15 more years, but what disastrous years. Perhaps God’s appointed time for Hezekiah’s death would have been better? The king in his pride showed the Babylonians his treasure, which they later seized. We are told repeatedly that God hates pride. Was this worse than David’s sin against Uriah? Manasseh assumed the throne after him. This is the son who would provoke the Lord to such anger that there was no reversing the judgment on the land of Judah. Manasseh began to reign at 12 years old and reigned for 55 years. His son Amon reigned another two. That’s 57 years of total Satanic evil being promoted in Judah. Even though Josiah reigned afterward and restored a heart for the Lord to Judah, the culture was completely corrupted by this point and the damage was irreversible—the judgment could only be delayed. This fall came from a time when God held back the Assyrians from conquering Judah when they had conquered Israel, and brought dominion to Judah and declared the land his remnant. Now God was ready to bring his remnant into captivity to teach them (as well as all of us and everyone who observed) the consequences for turning against God.

I wish Scripture told us how Manasseh was so corrupted, for he truly was the height of evil, but he followed such righteousness. Scripture says that “Manasseh encouraged them [the people of Judah] to do evil, more than the nations whom the Lord eliminated from the presence of the sons of Israel.” Later prophetic writings indicate that God looked even more angrily at the sins of Judah, because she had her sister Israel as an example. How could a nation fall like Judah did after watching Israel fall for the same reason? Was it willful ignorance or open rebellion? Witchcraft, Satanic worship, abortion, murder, full-on idolatry and desecration of the Temple. These are just some of the things this king did. 2 Chronicles 33 indicates the Babylonians led Manasseh to Babylon with fish hooks in his mouth, and this judgment brought him to repentance. The Apocrypha includes the “Prayer of Manasseh” that records his repentance, and it certainly is possible that God forgave this evil king, for all men who repent and humble themselves before God will be saved. This is important for us, because if God can forgive Manasseh, he can forgive all of us who repent.

Josiah was only eight when he became king, taking over just two years after his father was assassinated (Source in Chronicles for timeline). Had his grandfather Manassah, now repentant, taught Josiah how to right his wrongs? The text does not say, but we have the situation of Adonijah and Solomon as a potential parallel. Was Amon this generation’s Adonijah and Josiah this generation’s Solomon? This speaks to the repentance and ultimate salvation of Manasseh as well as God’s redemptive work, and so I think it’s worth contemplating. Under Josiah’s rule, the law was rediscovered and reestablished, the evil of the land was suppressed, but not vanquished. Because Josiah turned his heart fully to the Lord, the Lord was willing to allow him to go down to his grave in peace, where he would await eternal life at the resurrection of the dead. However, God does not change his mind about judging Judah. Again, I believe this is because they should have known better having watched what happened when Assyria conquered Israel. The prophets later make this connection, particularly in Jeremiah 3.

2 Kings 23, 2 Kings 24, 2 Kings 25

On top of cleansing all the land of idolatry—Josiah even removed idols created by Solomon—Josiah dug up the bones of the earlier idolaters and burned them, just as prophesied many moons ago. To me, this is significant. It is the reason I decided I want to be buried instead of cremated when I die. If it is a disgrace for bones to burn, then I want mine buried. The prophesy of Ezekiel 37 indicates the Lord will resurrect bones on the Last Day and put new sinews and flesh on them and bring them back to life by blowing breath into them. Now, Yeshua does say that God could raise up a new people to worship Him from the rocks, and so I do know nothing is impossible with God. However, I personally don’t want my body disgraced as Josiah disgraced the bodies of the idolators, and so I do believe burial is the proper disposition of the flesh.

Josiah, following his great-grandfather Hezekiah, was an island of a king, the only righteous king surrounded by evil. The culture was corrupted, and while many may have restored their hearts to God during his reign, it wasn’t hard for the next generation to fall away again, for the depravity was ingrained in the culture. Judah fell to Egypt first and then Babylon, and the city was destroyed. Nothing for or against God remained there for worship. The best and brightest and all of the landowners were taken to Babylon as captives, and only the meek remained to work the land. Is there a parallel here to Yeshua’s beatitude, “the meek shall inherit the Earth”? In any case, a remnant would come out of Babylon and be restored to the Land and this people would make a way for the Lord. First Babylon, then Media-Persia, then Greece, then Rome would remind the people that God’s Kingdom is not of this World, but was a Heavenly Kingdom that was yet to descend onto the Earth on that Last Day when Messiah comes.

1 Chronicles 1, 1 Chronicles 2

We are told that genealogies ought not to become matters of dispute by several apostles in the New Covenant Scripture, and it is indeed true that we should be mindful not to cause dispute over these matters. Even the genealogies of Matthew and Luke differ slightly, but there is likely good reason for this, and both are true. Such is the case for Chronicles and the rest of Scripture. Is it worth studying? I think yes, and I can’t even imagine the numbers of stories that would come out of learning as much as we can about each name listed. If your name is in Scripture, it is either a really good thing or a really bad thing, but the one book we must be mindful about above all is the “Lamb’s Book of Life,” and only Yeshua Himself has a copy of that. Thus, as we study these stories, it is incumbent on us to understand that God wants two things from us: our love/trust/faith in Him and our obedience out of love to the things He has commanded us. We must internalize God’s Word and Example as much as possible so as to live a life that showcases this fruit in our hearts.

1 Chronicles 3, 1 Chronicles 4, 1 Chronicles 5

The Lord is faithful, even when we wander, but He will dwell with those who are faithful with Him.

1 Chronicles 6

The Lord has well documented His people, and He knows even the hairs on our heads.

1 Chronicles 7, 1 Chronicles 8

Despite Saul being taken out by God as king, on account of his rebellion and doubt, he had sons that persisted from the Tribe of Benjamin. I wonder if Saul, who became the apostle Paul, had common lineage with King Saul, whom he was named after? Both from the tribe of Benjamin, both proceeded from Rachel, Jacob’s favored wife, while Yeshua came from Judah, who Jacob fathered with Leah. It is pleasant to see Saul’s lineage persist, despite his sins, for Ezekiel 18 makes clear tha the sons shall not perish for the sins of the father, and this is one proof of that.

1 Chronicles 9, 1 Chronicles 10, 1 Chronicles 11

We read in Chronicles 10, “Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against the Lord, because the word of the Lord which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of her, and did not inquire of the Lord. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom over to David.” It was persistent unfaithfulness that did Saul in, for we know from Messiah Yeshua that those who say “Lord, Lord,” but “practice lawlessness” shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and that goes for Christians today, too, who rebel against the Lord and His commandments, which He said will endure beyond the heavens and the earth. Grace saves, and obedience, which is faithfulness, endures.

When Saul sinned, the Lord said through 1 Samuel 15:22-23 “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.“ Saul persistently rebelled against God’s commandments, seeking his own way instead, creating laws and customs that God did not command, and failing to listen to the voice of the Lord. This rebellion was akin to witchcraft, God Himself said. It should be no surprise, then, that Saul’s last act of defiance was to go and see a witch, whom God said shall not live within the confines of Israel. The man had to go out to seek her, away from the Lord. Rebellion against God’s commandments, read Exodus 20:1-17 and John 13:34, is akin to witchcraft, and living in the darkness of rebellion leads to actual witchcraft, for God will not abide with the lawless, and the lawless seek aimlessly to fill the God-shaped hole in their heart that can only be filled with God and obedience to His Way. The only Way is to turn to Messiah and live in Him.

And so when God turned to David to lead His people, we might wonder how this man could persist in relationship with God until the end, even though He committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah the Hittite, who was one of his Mighty Men, a part of his inner circle. And when we read the story of Uriah in 2 Samuel, we know that he was a noble man of God, devoted to God in all of his ways. This was betrayal of the highest order, and yet God forgave David on account of his humble and contrite heart (see Psalm 51). David sought the Lord in all His ways, but suffered from a temptation of Satan and failed to look away. This sin is devious and it almost destroyed him; it certainly brought the curse of God upon him, but David looked to Christ and continued the rest of his life in righteousness, epitomizing for us what true repentance and obedience looks like. Even in the midst of great testing, trial and tribulation, David remained faithful the rest of his life and never again stumbled in his faithfulness. This is why David was a man after God’s own heart. We ought to be encouraged by David, and likewise “go and sin no more.”

1 Chronicles 12, 1 Chronicles 13, 1 Chronicles 14

David, as a prophetic template for our Messiah Yeshua, was the captain of Mighty Men who declared in 1 Chronicles 12, “peace, peace to you, and peace to Him who helps you; indeed, your God helps you!” We also read, “For day by day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army like the army of God. From the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do,” This is today’s army of Messiah Yeshua, those mighty men and women of valor who understand the times with knowledge of what Israel should do, those men and women who strive after God and obey His commands—who keep the faith in Yeshua and follow His Way.

David and these men of Israel were even willing to stand up against the defiant and rebllious king of Israel, the fallen one, the man who put the world before God as the Philistines prepared to battle against Israel and David with them, but God prevented this at the appointed time and would not allow it, for He will always protect His people Israel. And then God put David at the helm, just as Yeshua will sit on the throne of Israel after being chased away for 2000 years. His kingdom will be highly exalted above all others, for the sake of His people Israel, and there He will bear fruit for eternity. From there, He will destroy all the enemies of God, for God has ordained it from Creation. “Then the fame of David spread in all the lands; and the Lord brought the fear of him on all the nations.” Then the fame of Yeshua will spread in all the lands, and the Lord will bring fear of Him on all the nations. This describes the Millennial reign of Christ.

1 Chronicles 15, 1 Chronicles 16, 1 Chronicles 17

To praise the Lord is not enough, for we ought to magnify His name with our every breath; we ought to worship Him with music, with art, with words, and with our every thought and action. He will gather His people from every corner of the globe when He comes, and He will bring us into His Kingdom to dwell in His house forever. In fact, He has gone to prepare a place for us. How could we make a place for Him other than open up the throne in our heart and offer Him the seat? Do we blow the trumpets continually to the Lord, offer prayer continually, with every thought, word or action? We ought to, for this is what David did in Jerusalem. The Lord will establish His throne forever through Messiah Yeshua, the seed of David, and His Kingdom alone will endure. When we put our faith and trust in Him, He blesses us by His grace, and what the Lord has blessed is blessed, and it will be blessed forever when we endure in it.

1 Chronicles 18, 1 Chronicles 19, 1 Chronicles 20, 1 Chronicles 21

In 1 Chronicles 21, we see that “Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.” We see the parallel verse in 2 Samuel 24, where “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” The verses are not contradictory, because “God does not lie,” so how do we parse this? First of all, it’s critical to note that even though David humbly confesses sin before the Lord, it was not David that sinned, because God’s own Word indicates that David sinned only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5). We too ought to search our hearts daily like David for any darkness in us so God’s light can shine upon us and cleanse us of iniquity. The Lord will restore all things, as He has promised, to those who are humble and contrite in heart. But again, David did not sin, even though he confesses sin. This is humility! There is only one conclusion that we can make, then: The people of Israel had sinned, and God was bringing judgment upon them for it. Perhaps they had backslid into idolatry as was their pattern, perhaps they failed another way, but God is using David, the king of Israel, to bring judgment upon them for their sin. This is consistent with Scripture.

Look at Exodus 30:12:  “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.” Taking a census is not a sin, but failing to give tribute for each man does violate Torah, and the Lord actually required this through the altar that He ordered David to build in Ornan’s orchard. The priests, not David, would bring this tribute. Were the priests failing in their duties? Ezekiel 14 says that “when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness” He will send pestilence on the land in judgment, among three other judgments. Pestilence was the judgment the Lord had indicated would come from numbering a land without tribute. David, being the King, would be used by God to bring judgment on the people of Israel, who were sinning. Look to 1 Samuel, where the Lord explains this very thing. God uses kings and governments to judge sinful nations over and over again. So in 1 Chronicles 21, God allowed Satan to tempt David according to this Torah law to bring on judgment, which is the plague, upon a sinful people.

What I want to focus on is David’s heart, for when God commanded David to build an altar in Ornan’s land to make sacrifices for the census and the people’s sin, Ornan was going to give him the land, but David refused, saying this: “I will certainly buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” Remember from Romans 12:1 that we are to become “a living sacrifice” for the Lord, so that everything we do for the Lord must cost us everything, even up to and including our own lives. If our faith does not cost us anything, it’s worthless. If we are not willing to give up everything for the Lord, what sacrifice exactly do we offer? Yeshua, who gave up everything, said “pick up your cross and follow Me.” Yes, Yeshua died for our sins, and without His sacrifice, we would have no hope. However, He said we would need to follow Him, to do what He did, to offer up what He offered to live by His example so that God would then reward us greatly in His Kingdom. David knows that sacrifice must cost us something, or it has no value. If we are not willing to give up everything we have for the Lord, we aren’t worthy of being His disciple.

It is David’s heart like this that led to David’s successes over the enemy in battle, for with a heart like this, “the Lord helped David wherever he went.” When we are willing to give up everything, the Lord will give us back everything we gave up and abundance on top of it. He said in John 14:15-18, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” In fact, Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:12, “if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;” It should not surprise us that we read in 1 Chronicles 18: “So David reigned over all Israel; and he administered justice and righteousness for all His people.” Is this not what the Lord calls for us to do also, to reign with Him, to teach His commandments to all people, and in doing this to love one another as He loved us, administering and sowing justice and righteousness for all of His people? First we have to love Him by keeping His commandments, and then He will help us.

1 Chronicles 19 reminds us that there will be people who rebel against God no matter how much He and His Messiah accomplish for good. Some people desire darkness more than the light, and they will persecute God’s people, shame them and even put them to death. The sons of Ammon represent this heart today. But even if the rebellious ones hire all the armies of the world to go up against the Lord and His people, they will be defeated. They cannot stand before God and His righteous ones, for God will bring the victory. In our story, the people went to work with pick axes, and other tools of hard labor in service to David, but in the time of the end, these people will be destroyed and sent into outer darkness forever. This is an image of the Last Battle, and Yeshua, the Son of David, will be victorious over the armies of Satan and his minions. The end is already written, and any temporary rebellion today is simply chaff that will be cast away into the wind and separated from us as far as the east is from the west. What a blessing to have hope in this.

Dad: O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word.  Psalm 118

Addendum:

When Yeshua began His ministry, He said “repent and hear the good news.” This repentance is not a one-and-done situation, but it is a daily exercise.

See Psalm 139: 23Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

This ought to be our prayer daily. As Paul said, “I die daily.” We allow our desires for the worldly/fleshly things to die, so that Christ can increase in us. It is His righteousness that covers us, His sacrifice that redeems us, His mercy that overwhelms us, but He calls us to approach Him with humble and contrite hearts, ready for His chastening. God chastens His sons; the ones He loves (Hebrews 12). A Christian should experience this chastening every day, because every day we ought to be serving the Lord and His purposes. The enemy hates this; thus he will use anything he can to drag us down into our old ways, which lead to death. Psalm 27 is the anecdote.

We repent and are sanctified daily—we press on to the upward calling, as Paul said, so we can obtain the prize. Our heart condition is what matters; love of God is reflected in desire to obey His Word, which then leads to love toward others and disciple making.

Study Romans 7-8 with their context and very carefully. While confusing, Paul writes the whole Truth there. Don’t miss Romans 8:12a: ““Therefore, brethren, we are debtors…” You might say, but I thought Christ paid for my sins? You are right. He did. How then are we debtors? We are debtors to Him who saved us and we owe Him our whole lives and everything in them. On account of this, when He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” the only acceptable answer is “yes.” And we cannot say “yes” out of obligation, but out of a desire to please our Lord, because we love Him. We are debtors, and loving Him is how we pay back our debt, by keeping His commandments. We may even have to pay with our lives, but if we don’t, our hearts must be willing. To the fleshly mind, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, this sounds like foolishness. Why would I want to give up everything to follow Christ? To what end? The answer is simple: To live in freedom with total joy! This can’t be accomplished through blind obedience, but must be accomplished with desire. We must desire to please our Lord, to whom we are debtors. We literally own Him everything, and He has told us, if we aren’t willing to give it to Him, we can’t be His disciples.

1 Chronicles 22, 1 Chronicles 23, 1 Chronicles 24

The Lord would not allow David to build a house for Him because he had shed blood, but His Son would be a man of peace, whose blood would be shed for all. Solomon or שְׁלמֹה (Shilmoh, pronounced shlo-mo), is derived from שָׁלַם (shalam), which means completeness, derived from שָׁלוֹם (shalom)—complete peace. While Solomon was certainly a near-term fulfillment of prophesy, in Isaiah 9:6, the Lord prophesied a child that would be born who would be called the “Great Everlasting God and the Prince of Peace.” That is Sar (שַׂר) prince, and Shalom (שָׁלֽוֹם) complete peace. 1 Corinthians 3 notes, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” The foundation is Messiah, He writes above, and all who follow Him add a stone to the Temple, and whether gold, silver, precious stones, wood, or hay, and only the precious stones will remain in the End. You see, Yeshua, who said, “destroy this temple (the one that followed Solomon’s temple) and I will rebuild it in 3 days,” would be the Sar Shalom, the Son of David, who would build up a Temple for God that would endure forever, and that temple is still being built; it’s foundation is Yeshua. The Temple Solomon built was only a template for the one that would come.

Note that David gave orders to gather the strangers who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to cut out stones to build the house of God. As the prophetic template for Messiah Yeshua, David Himself would make the nails for the doors of the gates and for the clamps, and timbers of cedar beyond number, among other things. Yeshua, who is the Door, was nailed to the timbers and clamped there, so that all the people who turn to Him and walk in Him, whether strangers who lived within Israel or the children of Israel herself, would be saved. He gave orders to gather the strangers to cut out stones to build the house of God, and these stones that last will be a part of the Temple of God on that Last Day, when Yeshua returns to bring us to the place He has prepared for us. This Son of David would build the Temple for God, and He would have discretion and understanding, wisdom if you will, to keep the law of Yahweh Elohim, and He would prosper in the work that He was sent to do, for the Lord would give Him rest on every side when He took His place back on the throne at God’s right hand, for He is the visible action of God in the world. The Temple would be built to hold the ark of the covenant, which contains the commandments of God, the holy vessels, that illuminate the darkness in the world, and the name of the Lord, which dwells within every stone that would make up the temple.

David called for the priests to pray and worship continually within the House of God, and Paul wrote to us that we must “pray without ceasing.” We ought to keep the appointed times of God, the Sabbaths, the new moons and appointed festivals, because these are a template for the eternity that awaits us, and God Himself keeps these feasts in the Tabernacle of Heaven. How could we not desire to keep the commandment of our God because we love Him? Can we say we love Him if we do not celebrate the way He asks us to? But it’s not just these appointed times we must offer thanks and praise to the Lord, but “They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at evening, … continually before the Lord.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Yes, and, let us obey the commandments of the Lord, for even Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:8: “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

In 1 Chronicles 24:7-19, Scripture lists the different orders that the priests would keep within the Temple service. Perhaps these have significance in other areas, but I find the greatest significance in verse 10, where it says the eighth service would go to Abijah. Why so critical? Because Luke 1:5 says, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah.” This is there for a reason, for it tells us when Yeshua was actually born. If John the Baptist was conceived directly following the course of Abijah in June, and born 40 weeks later around Passover in late March, then Mary would have conceived, per the text, six months later around Hanukkah (the festival of lights) in December and Yeshua would have been born 40 weeks after that during the Feast of Tabernacles in late September. As John writes in John 1:14, the “Word became flesh and “dwelt” among us.” The Greek word skénoó (σκηνόω), meaning to dwell in a tabernacle, is derived from skéné (σκηνή), which means “tabernacle.” The Word of God, Yeshua, came to tabernacle with us as a man during the feast of tabernacles. Peter Himself refers to His own body as “a tent,” or a tabernacle, in 2 Peter 1:14, meaning that this understanding was well established by the apostles. This year Tabernacles begins at sundown on Sept. 29, when we ought to be celebrating our God “Emmanuel” who came to dwell among us, and will come to dwell with us again.

1 Chronicles 25, 1 Chronicles 26, 1 Chronicles 27

Read 1 Corinthians 12, for it speaks to 1 Chronicles 25-27 beautifully, and it explains what is actually going on in this prophetic story of how God’s Kingdom will be. I think it’s really powerful to note that some of the sons of Asaph et al “prophesy” or (נָבָא) “nava” with lyres, harps and cymbals, and likewise of Jeduthun, others “prophesied” in giving thanks and praising the Lord. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:5, said he would rather that all Christians “prophesy” than exercise any other spiritual gift. Many of us might think of prophesy as foretelling the future, but that is not the only understanding of this word, and prophesy rarely takes this form. As I see it, the most powerful form of prophesy is when we take God’s Word and apply it to our present situation in a way that is meaningful and true so we can act on God’s will in our lives. This can only occur when directed by the Holy Spirit, and with total faith in Yeshua. Per 1 Chronicles 25, we see that in creating music, we prophesy when it aligns with God’s Word and uplifts the heart to consider God. In praising God, we prophesy in that we take Him at His Word and thank Him for His blessings and His promises. This ought to be at the heart of every song of worship and every prayer.

As the reading continues into 1 Chronicles 26, we see the parts of the Body of Christ come to light. There are gatekeepers, who guard the house from those who might disrupt the worship or praise of God. There are those who manage the treasures, to ensure they are spent frugally and wisely for God’s purposes. There are officers and judges who go out into the community as missionaries to apply God’s Word to every day life, and put His Word into action. In this group there are teachers and evangelists, and overseers, who serve as pastors in the community or people who spread the Gospel to those who need to hear it. We also ought to cross the river, the boundaries that might seem too difficult for us, and go to places far off and bring the Word with us when we go.

Continuing into 1 Chronicles 27, we see that every community needs commanders of thousands, of hundreds, and as the divisions decrease, of fifties and tens, to cite Numbers, and these men are leaders of different houses of God at different levels of leadership, the elders who lead the battle against darkness while bringing the light of Christ. We see that the age of majority according to God is 20, and that anyone younger than this is not yet mature enough to be counted among the people of Israel. Finally, we see that even the leaders, even David himself, needed counselors, for in proverbs we read, “a wise man has many counselors.”

1 Chronicles 28, 1 Chronicles 29, 2 Chronicles 1

King David said to his son Solomon, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act.” What has the Lord instructed us to do other than to love justice and righteousness, and to seek God’s face with humility all the days of our lives. He has commanded us to make disciples, to baptize them when they are ready to acknowledge the Lord Yeshua and throw off their sins, and teach the commandments of God. As David said to Solomon, Yeshua says to us today: “Be courageous and act,” for as James 1:22 said, “be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. We must offer Him our whole lives with willing hearts.

As David prayed in 1 Chronicles 29, so too should we pray. He follows the same model as the Lord’s prayer from Matthew 6 here: “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion, Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.” From here, we might humbly petition the Lord for something that is according to His will, as Solomon did in 2 Chronicles 1. I might say: Who am I, that you have considered me worthy to teach your people, and who am I that I would deny your command for me to do so? Please Father keep me humble and focused on you so that I might teach your Word and not my own, and help me to willingly offer my time and effort to serve you in this way and lead your people to repentance. Give me your wisdom so that I might properly direct my brothers and sisters, and lead them in your Ways everlasting. My hope is to spend my days in the land of living and to direct as many as I can to you on my way. May your name be forever and ever praised and glorified.

2 Chronicles 2, 2 Chronicles 3, 2 Chronicles 4, 2 Chronicles 5

What an amazing work that was done for the Lord, and God Himself showed His approval by dwelling within the Holy Place as a thick cloud with all of His glory. When I think of all of the congregation coming together for the Feast of Yom Teruah, the coronation of the king, and for worship and prayer and offering to the Lord in unison, I think of the day when Yeshua returns. It will be a day much like this one. What’s of significant note is that Haggai 2:9 reads, “‘the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of Hosts (Yahweh Tzvaot). ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Yeshua Himself, the Lord of Hosts and Prince of Peace, walked in the Second Temple, giving it greater glory than the first. We read about the first: “then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not rise to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” Think about the ramifications of this. Yeshua, by walking in the Second Temple, which did not have this thick cloud of God’s glory, brought greater glory to the Temple. One day, when He comes again and establishes His Kingdom forever, there will be no temple, for God Himself will provide the temple, which is the communion of Yeshua with His Saints. What kind of celebration will this be and how glorious? Can we even imagine? Today’s reading gives us just a glimpse.

2 Chronicles 6, 2 Chronicles 7, 2 Chronicles 8

In 2 Chronicles 7, we see that “the Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.” This is a highly significant statement, for in the beginning, we know, “darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” We know that “God IS light,” so He did not create light. When He said, “Let there be light,” this is akin to saying, “God smiled.” On the first Day, God created the Heavens and the Earth and separated the light from the darkness, for where there is light there can be no darkness. When Solomon finished praying and offering up prayers for the Temple to the Lord, “the glory of the Lord filled the house,” and this is the light of God. This is another creation story, celebrated during the Fall Festal season, when it is said God created the Heavens and the Earth. Now, God has shone His glory, His light, over the thick darkness that preceded it, and not just Israel but all the nations of the Earth would be blessed by this place in Jerusalem where God chose to put His Name. This is an eternal reality, not a temporary one, for even Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem from Babylon, and at that time, there was no Temple. We too ought to pray facing the place where God has chosen to put His Name.

Solomon’s prayers are powerful, and they ought to be contemplated as part of our understanding. Whenever we pray toward Jerusalem, in Spirit and in Truth through our relationship with Him by the blood of Yeshua, the Lord has confirmed that He will hear us. If someone sins against his neighbor, if Israel is defeated on account of sin, when there is drought, famine, plague, blight, or mildew, a locust or grasshopper infestation or any other judgment of God on account of sin, when the people repent and turn toward Jerusalem, to the Lord in prayer, He will hear and forgive and welcome us back into His fellowship. When we as foreigners pray before the Lord in Jerusalem, or anywhere in the world with our hearts in Yeshua pointed toward Jerusalem and the Lord’s people, the Lord will hear us by His outstretched arm, who is the Messiah. When we go to battle against the enemy, for we are the People of God through Messiah Yeshua, and we turn to the Lord, He hears us. When we sin and do wrong and repent and turn toward Him, He hears us. Let the people of the Lord rejoice in His holiness and what is good, and we know that the Lord is good and His Torah is good.

2 Chronicles 9, 2 Chronicles 10, 2 Chronicles 11, 2 Chronicles 12

In Deuteronomy 17:16-17, God said a king “shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses …Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.” Solomon violated all three of these laws, and he did not obey the positive command to copy the book of the Torah for himself. He had even acquired 666 talents of gold, a symbolic number indicating that he achieved the maximum amount of wealth that a human could possibly accumulate; in other words, he was the richest man to ever live. And yet, as we know from Ecclesiastes, even Solomon knew that this was all vanity. He had put military strength, wealth and women before God, and his kingdom would suffer for it. God would divide his kingdom from his son Rehoboam on account of Solomon’s sins.

When Yeshua spoke about Solomon, he said, “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation [that crucified Jesus] and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” It took God Himself to come as a man to impart perfect wisdom and actually live up to it. Solomon used his wisdom to gain fame and fortune and this would ultimately bring division and judgment. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, was the opposite of Solomon’s wisdom. He brought hardship on his servants rather than give them honor as his father and grandfather had done. The Lord would ultimately use this to drive a wedge and separate Israel from Judah. Only the Messiah, who is the Wisdom of God, will rectify this situation. He will reunite Israel, for His wisdom is oriented by His love and self sacrifice for His chosen people. Solomon ultimately returned to the Lord, acknowledging that the fear of God and obedience to His commandments was everything, but not before causing God’s judgment to fall.

2 Chronicles 13, 2 Chronicles 14, 2 Chronicles 15, 2 Chronicles 16, 2 Chronicles 17

Abijah spoke a word of truth over Israel, and separated Judah from Israel spiritually, stating, “ But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not abandoned Him…” He exhorted the Sons of Israel not to fight against God, because anyone who does this will fail. He defeated the rebels among Israel and many from among Israel defected and became a part of Israel. In the days of Asa his son, in particular, we read: “And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.” And God was with Judah, for Asa like Abijah had put God first and forsook the ways of the world. Because Asa trusted in God before anything else, God helped him annihilate the Ethiopian enemy to the point that the nation of Ethiopia, which had been very wealthy, never recovered from this.

After this destruction against Ethiopia, Azariah the son of Oded came as a prophet to encourage Asa, explaining very clearly: “the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you abandon Him, He will abandon you.” This is an exhortation for us today, also, and this same thing is true today. For 35 years Asa lived in peace because he lived by these words and sought the Lord in all things, tearing down the idols in Judah and in the lands he conquered. But Asa’s life is a warning to all of us today, for even if we know the Lord our entire life, if we turn from Him in the end, we will be lost and will not make it into Heaven. When Baasha, the king of Israel came up against Judah, instead of turning to the Lord, Asa turned to the King of Aram for help. The effort was successful, but it came with a great cost. The Lord spoke through Hanani and said that Asa would face war the rest of his life because he put his worldly concerns first before his faith. This is terrifying, but we also ought to recognize the underlying truth here: Judgment comes upon a rebellious people, or those with luke-warm hearts.

When judgment comes, there are two ways for us to respond: We can turn against God and perish, or we can repent and turn back to God and live. Sadly, Asa turned against the Lord, so the Lord sent a disease to his feet, and once again Asa denied God. He put the physicians first before asking the Lord what to do. This is akin to what we saw many Christians did during Covid when they put the Devil’s potion into their bodies (the Vaccine), which was complete with aborted fetal tissue and immune suppressive sorcery. It’s possible to recover from this, but only with deep and true repentance for forsaking the way of the Lord can anyone be saved from such a decision. In Asa’s case, the judgment was the final straw. God had enough with Asa’s rebellion and killed him. We read: “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa lay down with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign.” He had three years to turn back to the Lord, but he did not, and he met with the final judgment: death. Let this be a lesson to those today who have taken the vaccine. Today is the day to repent.

Asa had lived long enough following after the Lord, because he left His former faith as an impression on his son Jehoshaphat. Perhaps Jehoshaphat even recognized his father’s rebellion and the turn of events against him, and learned from this lesson. I pray that all men and women learn from these lessons in Scripture and don’t repeat the same errors as our forefathers in Israel. We see that Jehoshaphat understood the lessons of his fathers and he turned fully to the Lord. He sent men out to teach the Torah to everyone among the people, and the dread  of the Lord came on all kingdoms around Judah because of this, and he lived in peace during these days. Our obedience to the commandments of God is what brings peace to our lives today. We don’t have the excuse of not having access to the Word of God, as many in Jehoshaphat’s days did. We have Bibles in our homes, sometimes many more than one, and Bibles on our phones, tablets and computers. We must both read and obey the Word of the Lord, for there will be peace when we do this and the enemy will feel dread when we are near. We must let the light of Christ shine in us, and we shine this light by living out the Word of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 18, 2 Chronicles 19, 2 Chronicles 20

Whenever we seek the Lord first and obey Him, good will come from it—if not in this world, then in the next. When Jehoshaphat sat with evil Ahab, he sought the Lord for an answer on whether to ally with the king and go against Ramoth-gilead. The Lord said yes, and used it as an opportunity to take out Ahab and judge Ramoth-gilead. When sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Ammonites came to make war against Jehoshaphat, the king prayed to the Lord in the Temple and asked for His help. The Lord defeated this army before Jehoshaphat lifted a finger. All the king had to do was send worship singers to lead the battle, and the Lord took care of the rest. Jehu, the son of Hanani, then warned the king, explaining that he should not help the wicked and those who hate the Lord, but after this he went up and allied with King Ahaziah of Israel without first going to the Lord for guidance. The Lord destroyed this alliance and all the works of it on account of this. We might think we are doing good, but our own hearts are desperately wicked without God and we cannot know what is right when we do not seek Him first. The Lord brought judgment on the righteous king because of this error. We must always seek the Lord first in all things.

2 Chronicles 21, 2 Chronicles 22, 2 Chronicles 23, 2 Chronicles 24

It was a sad time in Judah; a time of conspiracy and witchcraft, of demon worship and rebellion. It reminds me of what we’re facing today in the United States. There was still a remnant worshipping the Lord, but the majority of people had gone astray. The Lord would prevail in this situation. Even though a few righteous kings were yet to come, Judah would be destroyed and the people exiled for their sin. When society degrades to this point, only judgment can bring them back to God, and this judgment would only bring a remnant back to God. Yeshua asked about the time when He returns, “will I find faith on the Earth?” He also said He would come as “a thief in the night.” How great will the darkness be when He returns. Will there be a remnant, or will we all be martyred by then? We’re looking at the present day world as we read these chapters, and we ought to learn from them. We must fight for the Truth of God’s Word and the faith in Yeshua, and excommunicate any false preachers who are siding with the ways of darkness. Our light must shine, even amidst the darkness, until the Lord comes.

2 Chronicles 25, 2 Chronicles 26, 2 Chronicles 27

The historical accounts of Amaziah and Uzziah both give the same message, and it is a simple one: Those who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. The Lord warned against what these two men did in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, and it’s worth contemplating. Here’s an excerpt: “But Jeshurun (Israel/Judah) grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who fathered you. “And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith.” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:21: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.”

Pride is the cause of the fall of these two kings. They followed after the model of King Saul, who was exalted to the highest place in all Israel, and then fell completely to destruction, not just in body but in soul, because he put his own ways first before the Word of God. Both kings excelled when they obeyed God, and they fell when they disobeyed. It may sound simple, but the Lord explained this would happen to all of us who either obey or disobey His Word.

The historical account of Jotham presents itself as another historical lesson of us. Jotham did what was right and he prospered. The Word says: “So Jotham became powerful because he directed his ways before the Lord his God.” It really is that simple. It wasn’t Jotham’s power. It was God’s power in Him, because He put the Lord first. This is true for us, also.

In a bit of foreshadowing that cannot be missed, we read “But the people continued acting corruptly.” Once a culture begins to rot, one good leader isn’t going to solve the problem. A systemic, cultural change is needed, and judgment is the only way to bring a whole people to repentance. Judgment is certainly coming for all rebellious peoples, though the Lord is longsuffering so that His people can repent.

2 Chronicles 28, 2 Chronicles 29, 2 Chronicles 30, 2 Chronicles 31

From Amaziah and Uzziah’s lukewarm faith, we see King Ahaz turn completely against the Lord toward pagan rites and rituals. He was evil, and God judged him and Judah using the sword of surrounding nations, including Israel. But in this apostasy, the depravity that necessarily followed made way for revival under King Hezekiah, the righteous king, who sought the Lord with all of His heart. The Feasts He prepared for the Lord were righteous, but we learn that only a remnant from among Israel participated. He was still leading a people who were rebellious against the Lord on account of their prior leadership. Once an evil king gets a foothold, much of the nation will not recover, but will continue down the wrong path. Additionally, many people were following along per the king’s leadership, but did not share his heartfelt faith. Yet, there was a remnant that truly repented and turned back to the Lord. Such will it be in the time of the End, when Messiah will rescue out a remnant from among a rebellious and lukewarm people. Let us be among the remnant, by the name of Yeshua, who do what is “good, right, and true before the Lord [our] God.“ Let us seek Him with all of our heart, so we can inherit the place He is preparing for us.

2 Chronicles 32, 2 Chronicles 33, 2 Chronicles 34

The story of Sennacherib’s assault on Israel is akin to the spiritual warfare that comes against Christians authentically following the Word of God, as a test for us. The enemy might tempt us, and try to cause us to fear, or lead us astray, but we must remain strong like Hezekiah and turn to prayer, fasting and dedication to the Lord in order to overcome these attacks.

Manasseh was among the worst sinners, embodying the height of depravity. He sacrificed his sons to demons, practiced witchcraft and even brought idols into the Temple of God, but when He was judged, He repented and God forgave him. This evil king enables us to witness God’s great Mercy and forgiveness and makes it clear that even the worst people can be saved, but they must be saved.

Josiah is a great restorer, who likely watched his forefather’s repentance and saw the good that came from it. How could he not follow after the Lord who restores all things to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

2 Chronicles 35, 2 Chronicles 36

Josiah, the last king of Judah to give his heart fully to the Lord who honored Him greatly with obedience, failed to recognize that God might speak through Neco, King of Egypt. How could God speak through a Gentile? On account of this presumptuous sin, He died in a battle he was never called to fight in. Beware: don’t repeat this error. Following him, Judah fell into bondage to Egypt and then Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s temple. It grieves me greatly to read about how this once great nation fell into depravity and then destruction. This verse in particular shows the Lord’s great mercy, but also the limits thereof: “Yet the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, until there was no remedy.” Let us not fall into this same pattern, but rather let us repent and turn fully to the Lord, and live. The account ends showing prophesy’s fulfillment, and Cyrus, the King of Persia, another Gentile, being used by God to restore God’s people to their land and restore His house. This is the house that would have more glory than the first, because Yeshua, God in the flesh, would walk in it.