Lest we forget: 1&2 Kings is the Word of God!

The call to heed the covenant of Moses burns through the pages of 1&2 Kings. Two major concerns of this covenant stand out, the first of which is the worship of other gods. Bedrock to Israel's faith is the assertion that "The Lord is our God, the Lord alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4). And yet the kings and people of 1&2 Kings worship the gods of their neighbors. They also practice idolatry in other ways, placing their trust in the "gods" of treasuries, armies, and alliances.

Injustice is the second concern. The law teaches that all must receive equal justice (e.g. Deuteronomy 16:18-20) and that the weak and undefended must be protected (Deuteronomy 15:1-18; 24:10-22). As Coogan points out in reflecting the old ways of Israel before the kings, when tribal life was based on more on a equal rights for all mentality, the law also teaches that kings must not elevate themselves above others (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). And yet the kings of 1&2 Kings amass great power and wealth, enslave their own people, steal their land, and spill innocent blood. It is no wonder the DTHR writers put their own spins on the happenings written at a later date based on tradition and history.

Although the prophets and DTHR writers of these biblical texts wrestle with the tension between the unconditional Davidic covenant and the conditional Mosaic covenant, they come down time and time again on the side of God's judgment. But even here they have no simple answers. They testify thank goodness, that divine judgment is never rigid. God sees signs of human repentance and human suffering and responds with compassion, second chances, and delayed judgment. They also testify to the difficulty of discerning and implementing God's desires and will in a nations public life. In this story, political policy, self interest, and moral certainty shape and reshape one another in ways that are sometimes ugly and morally open up to the unstable varying and ever-changing view points of DTHR writers.

Nonetheless, 1&2 Kings as a whole announce that loyalty to God and obedience to the law must not be compromised. Standing in Babylon, remembering a history of compromise, the writers of 1&2 Kings point to the exile as the inescapable testimony to God's judgment on Israel.

God Bless,

Deacon Jim

(Foster, J., Willard, D., Brueggemann, W., Peterson, E., The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible Reflections)

Ahab: Addicted to Sin?

Scriptures account of Ahab begins: “Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all before him” (1 Kings 16:30). Now why in the world would the Deuteronomistic Historians pick on poor old Ahab? After all, in our readings this week we go through chapter by chapter depicting king after king, leader after leader and they all did evil in the sight of the Lord. Even those who followed the ways of the Lord in certain things fell short in others. So why did Ahab stick out as the worst sinner of all and the Deuteronomistic Historian writers take a greater effort in explaining his pilgrimage in ancient Israel’s dynasty over the others?


We must turn to Coogan and try to discover why this may be so and I am also sure Lester will give us further insight on Ahab in his lecture. Coogan states first off that the Deuteronomistic Historians were actually writing in Judah after the fall of the northern kingdom, and their presentation of that northern kingdom is almost entirely negative. Coogan also states that the history of the divided monarchies is highly selective and poor old Ahab seems the chosen one to talk about. So while the reigns of some kings are treated only perfunctorily, while considerable space is devoted to material that coincided with the ideological perspective (which I brought up last week but had not dug deep enough to explain myself when questioned by Lester as to what I meant) of the Deuteronomistic Historians (Coogan text, pg. 287). More on this ideological topic to follow.

Coogan also brings up the point that in organizing their narrative the Deuteronomistic Historians used a dominant theme: The obligation of Israel to observe the requirements of the teachings of Moses, especially the worship of Yahweh alone. So as with Ahab one of the worst offenders according to the Deuteronomistic Historian writers the result was divinely imposed punishments so the Deuteronomistic Historians interpretation of the internal and external events of Ahab was an important factor to share about the history of the kings of Israel and Judah (Coogan text, pg. 288).

Back to this ideological review of what the Deuteronomistic Historians are doing here is somewhat easy to follow because as Coogan states that closely related to the negative assessment of the northern kingdom are repeated positive statements about the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem. The divine promise of an enduring dynasty (2 Samuel 7:11-16) will be kept, “for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:13; 11:36; 15:4; 2Kings 8:19; 19:34). So we can plainly follow according to Coogan that the Deuteronomistic Historians are ideologically writing a biased story in which they have revised older prophetic legends (Elijah & Elisha) to express their negative view of the northern kingdom of Israel (Ahab) and their essentially positive view of the southern kingdom of Judah.

Another purpose that the Deuteronomistic Historians were inspired to elongate their text on Ahab was as Coogan points out and interestingly enough coincides as I stated earlier in the blog the purpose of fulfilling the promises of Moses through the folkloristic traditions in the case of the Elijah narratives. The historians develop a theme that Elijah is in fact the new Moses and of course Ahab has rather important encounters with Elijah that the Deuteronomistic Historians seem to focus on even more than his kingship. These ordeals begin with the drought threatened by Elijah and continue with episode of the vineyard of Naboth. In this ordeal as Coogan states the abuse of royal power by Jezebel to gain control of a privately owned property desired by her husband, King Ahab, was, for the Deuteronomistic Historians, a telling example of the problems with the monarchy. Among the “ways of the king” against which the prophet Samuel had warned the people when they requested a king is that “he will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards” (Coogan text, pg. 305).

So why did the compiler of 1-2 kings judge Ahab so Harsh? After all in all of my research the reality is that Ahab probably did not abandon the worship of Yahweh; but he permitted Jezebel his wife to patronize the cult of Baal of Tyre. He did not commit the crime of Naboth’s murder, but was willing to accept its profits. He seems to have been religiously indifferent; to him Elijah was the “troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17), because he made an issue of whether Israel should worship Baal or Yahweh.

In conclusion, as my title states was Ahab worst than any other king in Israel? May be or may be not, but he truly seemed to be “addicted to sin” and his story is very familiar in the history of the Divided Monarchy. Ahab was a powerful ruler who continues the evil practices instituted before him, marries one who encourages further evil, and has significant opportunity to repent and turn to God, but continues in disobedience, bring much suffering to his nation and his own untimely death. The story is all too common, yet the specifics are anything but common. Despite all he saw God doing, Ahab remained bent toward sin One of the Scriptures most amazing displays of power God ever gave was Elijah’s triumph over the priests of Baal (1 Kings 20-40) the story of the fire from heaven of which all the people fell on their faces before God yet Ahab seems to have remained unmoved, and the event only invoked the anger of his wife, Jezebel, who was zealously committed to Baal. Ahab was at the very least if not the worst of sinners before the Lord as the Deuteronomistic Historians chose to write about he truly was addicted to sin!

God Bless,
Deacon Jim

Grab a shovel and let's dig together!!

O.K. class I am the first to admit that the information dissected by Lester and Coogan go a step beyond the (hermeneutics and exegesis) of what I am used to in my previous Scripture studies to this point. I truly find myself trying to dig for a buried treasure in a very deep sand pit. The sands of my human experience and the knowing of “the rest of the story” fills back in every shovel full I grab! This for me is a very real and frustrating problem, it is not intentional but as I look at my blogs (which serve as course writings for this course) Dr. Lester is right I always divert to as he says what would make a good homily. I have sincerely tried to fight this temptation, as I know others of you have also by our conversations. So we must challenge each other here to dig a little deeper in these materials together so we can find the treasure not only faster but more of it.


Besides the very obvious human fact that I graduated in my theology B.A. with a 3.9 G.P.A. and my over whelming fear to receive a sub par grade in my first masters level class abhors me. Even more important than that is the reality that when I become stretched to the point of fear and the unknown I become very aware of the fact that God has a treasure waiting for me on the other side of the fear and doubt and sometimes my own laziness to do the extra hard digging in the sand that keeps filling in the hole that hides the true treasure.

I see it in Dr. Lester’s eyes and tone as we as a class meander through several weeks of this class falling prey to what we know and are familiar with and yes probably most comfortable with! Yes, we know that all of Scripture leads to the truth, which is found in Christ Jesus. But Dr. Lester’s passion and Coogan’s determination to help us dig a little harder and a little faster and if we proceed to this together we will reach the treasure that lies deeply hidden within the soft sands of our comfort levels. It is good that our comfort levels are rooted in Christ and the “Rest of the Story” this is truly why we were created to find such truth. That being said if God brought us here to this moment and this class then God has a hidden treasure of which Lester and Coogan want us to find so that we will truly become the ministers of God’s people that we were created to become. After all we all know no cross, no crown!

So let us all take something each week and dig beyond the soft sands of our realities to unveil the historical and literal function and purpose of the Hebrew Scriptures. We can do this by each taking one of the things presented to us in this course and dig beyond the surface. As with anything we can dig much deeper and farther if we accomplish this together through the use of our course tools such as blogging, class discussion etc.

I will now take the first spade full and attempt to uncover the true treasure of what Dr. Lester so passionately wants us to discover not for himself, but for ourselves and our future ministries. So here it goes: A separate blog will follow attempting to dig beyond the surface of this week’s assignment. Wish me luck and good luck to you all; remember anything worthwhile is usually hard to do!

God Bless,
Deacon Jim

Solomon Wisdom That Waned

Pelachan,




The prayer for wisdom made all the difference in Solomon’s life. It is very interesting how such wisdom reaches all the ends of the earth. However, as with all things in the temporal world, Solomon’s single-minded focus on God and his spiritual leadership of the nations began to wane as he became increasingly engaged with the various building projects, his wealth, his notoriety, and his relationships with hundreds of foreign wives. His success became too much for him, and Solomon’s passions overwhelmed his commitments to the one true God. Any love he first had for God was nearly smothered by all of his competing earthly temporal loves.



So in the end we too must be reminded as we share the stories of wisdom throughout the centuries, no matter the culture, that we must remain faithful to God and his commandments because human wisdom no matter how great is temporal. There is a saying that I live by and it is this: “true spiritual wisdom can never be obtained through intellect but only by obedience!”



God Bless,

Deacon Jim

Samuels Life of Prayer

Prayer stood at the center of Samuel's entire life. Before Samuel was even conceived, his mother Hannah, dedicated him to God. "O Lord of hosts, if only you will... give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazarite [one designated to the service of God] until the day of his death" (1 Sam 1:11). From the time Samuel was weaned he lived with Eli in the temple and there as a young boy, he responded in prayer to God's call: "Speak for your servant is listening" (3:10). because of Samuel's prayer life he was to become an important prophetic voice of God in this period of Israel's life.

Toward the end of his life of prayer Samuel directed and led Israel to serve God wholeheartedly and rid themselves of all foreign gods: "If you are returning to the Lord with all of your heart (through prayer) then put away the foreign gods... direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines" (7:3). When Samuel cried out to the Lord on behalf of his people in prayer, "the Lord answered him," and for the remainder of Samuel's life, God resrained the Philistines, and the Israelites lived at peace with them (7:12-14).

At the end of Samuel's life before the reign of Saul began, Samuel spoke with people about Israel's lack of prayer and unfaithfullness and because of their lack of prayer and their need now for fearing God and serving him. To emphasize God's anger at their unfaithfullness and the strength of Samuel s prayer life, Samuel called on God to bring thunder and rain on an early summer day when such rain was unusual. The rain came. As the Israelites begged for mercy, Samuel said, "far be it from me that I should sin against the lord by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way" (12:23)

After Saul became king and disobeyed the Lord: "Samuel was angry; and cried ou to the Lord all night" (15:11). Samuel grieved until God told him to stop (again in prayer). And in the end because of Samuel's faithfulness to prayer he would annoint a new king, a son of Jesse. King David would serve as a forerunner to Christ, the ressurected and eternal king. In anointng David (16:13), Samuel performed a fitting duty to end his service to Israel. David would walk in Samuel's footsteps, living a life of prayer and intimacy with God.

God Bless,
Deacon Jim

The Rest of the Story! Sorry I had too!

Prophesying on the Prophet Haggai! Sorry I had too!


I am fully aware that we are in an Old Testament class and the mindset is to attempt and go about our studies in the spirit of not knowing, as Paul Harvey would say “The Rest of the Story.” But for me when the Prophet Haggai is proclaiming an Exhortation to rebuild the temple and its future glory (Haggai 1:1-2:10) one cannot help but get excited about “The Rest of the Story!” In my daily prayers the Liturgy of the Hours today Cyril of Alexandria, bishop makes a beautiful commentary on Haggai’s prophecy.

So here is “The Rest of the Story” When our Savior came, he appeared as a divine temple, glorious beyond any comparison, far more splendid and excellent than the older temple. Haggai declares that a gift will be made, a gift from heaven given by the Savior. The gift is Christ himself, the peace of all men; through him we have access in the one Spirit to the Father. Haggai goes on to say: I will give peace to this place and peace of soul to save all who lay the foundation to rebuild the temple.

Haggai therefore declares that peace will be given to all who build. The results of these efforts will profit such men/woman so that each will be able to gain his/her own salvation without difficulty. Once a man/woman has been found worthy of Christ’s peace, he/she can easily save his/her soul and guide his/her mind to carry out exactingly the demands of virtue, which leads to true holiness.



God Bless,

Deacon Jim

Ezra faced problems similar to today.

Two of the major problems that faced Ezra is that during the exile many of the Israelites married Gentiles which would prevent them from keeping the law. Plus as culture was slowly and methodically changed by the same forces that have done so today (Satan) the people had grown to have a general disregard for the regulations about sacrifice, worship, purity and special Jewish customs. (Sounds and looks familiar) Ezra attacked these problems head on first by invalidating all marriage to pagans. This could not have been an easy thing based on that through the exile these marriages were done in good faith and of course their was now children involved.
Can you imagine as scripture shows us that Ezra called a great assembly and Ezra had them confess their sins and faults publicly (sounds like a huge altar call) it resulted in the men agreeing to actually giving up their foreign wives. They also agreed to observe the weekly sabbath day of rest and to support the temple with a yearly tax. This could not of been no small undertaking considering these people practiced their own thing (much like today's world) at home. Ezra stressed Israel's election by God as a chosen people and as a community that needed to to return to holiness and give witness to other nations. Unity of faith and practice was essential to achieve this goal.
This in today's society is no different. There are over three hundred thousand different Christian denominations bent on proving who is right by tearing each other down. Why do we not all unite on our similarities which is Jesus Christ the Lord. We all have the same God let us come together on that commanility as God's people.
Ezra's second problem is no different than our own over time culture and society have been cunned into lowering our standards of morality and holiness. In Ezra's day the development of all kinds of different practices and belief systems were brought about. Ezra brought them back by reminding them of the book of the law of God and he read it to the great assembly. Calling them all to repentance and again they renewed their promise to obey the covenant in everything.
In modern times we still have the law, the law is not there to have us all follow a bunch of rules, but it is their to remind us of how we all fall very short of the law and our dire need for a Savior. This reality is put deep within our hearts. So Ezra is speaking to us all as the great assembly of the people of God for all of eternity to repent and and become unified by the law through the law and for the law.
God Bless,
Deacon Jim