“Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel…But David stayed at Jerusalem.” (2 Sam. 11:1).
You probably know what happens next. David engages in the 1000 B.C. version of watching porn (roof-gazing), gets to know Bathsheba in the Biblical sense, and then has her husband killed.
This was the worst series of events in David’s life, and on top of that it all got written down so people for the last 3,000 years could read what he did and lawyers masquerading as bloggers could blog on it.
This is not something one would hope for, but it all started because at the time when kings go out to battle David stayed home where it was safe and comfortable. David was a king. His calling was on the battlefield leading his people. When David stepped out of his calling, he stepped into temptation.
If you are a Christian, your destiny is like a flowing river. Sometimes you will be tempted to step out of it onto the shore just to get your feet dry for a little while, but when you do, you can never step back in at the same place because the water you stepped out of has moved on, and worse, what waits on the shore is your anti-calling, all the temptations that would lead you away from the river.
This year I’m doing something I’ve never done: I’m reading the entire Bible through in historical order, the order the events in the Bible happened, not when they were written.
It’s been a fascinating journey, one that has enabled me to see things in the Bible I had never noticed. I made one such discovery last week in the Book of Daniel.
Daniel is a fascinating book for me because it describes broad swaths of world history. There is prophecy pertaining to the Babylonian Empire, the coming Persian, Greek and Roman empires.
There is mention of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great and prophecies regarding Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes IV, major historical figures and objects of study for even secular historians.
It is in the context of this setting and description of historical world-dominating empires that something peculiar emerges regarding the coming kingdom of God.
The Book of Daniel essentially starts with the story of Daniel interpreting the prophetic dream of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, which concludes with a description of the kingdom of God, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed…it will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44)
Later Nebuchadnezzar, after having an interesting encounter with God, praises Him and states in a written declaration, “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.” (Daniel 4:3).
Then during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, Belshazzar, Daniel has a vision, at the end of which he declares “His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)
After that Darius the Mede ascends to the throne and seeing the miraculous delivery of Daniel from the lions’ den proclaims, “For He is the living God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever.” (Daniel 6:26).
It’s almost as if God placed this repeating theme of the enduring nature of the kingdom of God in the midst of this book of great earthly kingdoms and rulers to make a point: All these earthly kingdoms, the greatest the earth has had to offer, ultimately were conquered by others, but the kingdom of God will never be left for another people and will endure forever. The Lord even has two non-Jewish earthly rulers proclaim this truth so that we don’t miss the point.
And there is one last point. The enduring nature of the kingdom of God is not merely a result of the promise of an afterlife, but it is a characteristic of the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of God has endured and will continue to endure, not only because it offers life after death, but before it. GS
So, when Jesus spoke to an audience of Jewish people and told them the kingdom of God was a mustard seed that becomes like a tree so that birds nest in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32), I want to know what the Jews would have thought he meant by such a tree. I want to know what image and meaning Jesus was trying to evoke in his audience, and to understand that I need to understand His audience.
The Jews knew the Old Testament. They were taught to memorize it as children and write it on their doorposts. They heard it recited repeatedly in the synagogue. When Jesus told them the kingdom of God was like a tree, He was using a popular Old Testament metaphor for earthly kingdoms that Jesus knew his Jewish audience would recognize and understand.
In Ezekiel 31 the Lord, referring to the Assyrian Empire calls it a tree “loftier than all the tress of the field” and that “[a]ll the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs” and “all great nations lived under its shade.” (Ezekiel 31:5-6).
In the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar has a prophetic vision wherein the Babylonian Empire is represented as a tree that “grew large and became strong” and the “beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” (Daniel 4:11-12).
Then, referring to King Jesus and the kingdom of God, in Ezekiel 17 the Lord, through Ezekiel, says He will take a tender twig from the top of a cedar and plant it “on the high mountain of Israel and that it will “became a stately cedar…And birds of every kind will nest under it; they will nest in the shade of its branches.” (Ezekiel 17:22-23).
So, when Jesus told His Jewish audience the kingdom of God would become like a tree and birds would nest in its branches they would have understood He was talking about an earthly kingdom under whose covering the nations of the world would enjoy protection and provision. GS
One thing being a trial lawyer has taught me is how to ask questions, lots of questions. This skill is particularly helpful when it comes to studying the Bible. The good news is you don’t have to be a lawyer to use this skill. Here’s how you can apply it to get more out of your Bible study time.
When I read a passage in the Bible I ask the questions, Who? What? When? Why? Where? How? Take, for example, Acts 17:19 which recounts part of Paul’s visit to Athens: “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what his new teaching is which you are proclaiming.'”
Who took him (Paul)? Why did they take him to the Areopagus? What is the Areopagus? Where is the Areopagus? When did this take place? How long did it take to get to the Areopagus? What did Paul do when he got there? These are some of the questions I would ask.
Answering questions like these make the story come to life by eliciting context and details from which you can derive meaning and instruction. Sometimes answers to the questions are found in the surrounding scriptures. Sometimes you must resort to Bible study aids. But asking questions is where it starts.
I studied Acts 17 Sunday before heading out to the Areopagus in Athens. One of the questions I asked as I read these verses was “How long did it take Paul to get from the market place to the Areopagus?” If I had done some research I probably could have found out, but I was going there anyway.
So, I walked from the ruins of the market place to the Areopagus. It’s a good walk up a steep incline toward the Acropolis, and it took about 15 minutes. This surprised me because I always assumed these men just took Paul across the street. In answering this question, though, I realized that Paul probably had some time to think about what he was going to say and contemplate the potential danger of before he preached to the Athenian Supreme Court (“What is the Areopagus?”), yet he didn’t back down. He was one tough dude. It inspires me to be bolder and more strategic in sharing the Gospel.
So, next time you study the Bible, just go Denny Crane or Perry Mason on the text. You might be surprised at what you discover. GS
Have you ever watched one of those nature documentaries where they show lions chasing down, killing and eating zebras or wildebeests or some other animal? The narrators talk about this savagery like it’s something beautiful and natural; they call it the “wonderful balance of nature” or some other euphemism designed to make us feel better about murder in the animal kingdom. I watch and think there is something very unnatural about animals killing and eating other animals.
The Book of Genesis provides support for my perception. God’s revelation of how things were in the beginning paints a picture of animals in perfect harmony with man and each other. It shows God assigning for both man and beast a diet of fruit and plants. (Genesis 1:29-30). All that changed when man rebelled against God, thereby introducing the curse and corrupting influence of sin into creation.
Isaiah 11 promises the reconciliation of nature in these particulars during the Kingdom Age:
“And the wolf will dwell with lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
Dogs and cats living together, children putting their hands in a viper’s den and playing next to a cobra yet “they will not hurt or destroy.” (Isaiah 11:8-9). This is a picture of the reconciliation of the animal kingdom with itself, man and its creator.
If animals aren’t eating one another, what will they eat? They will eat what they were intended to eat from the beginning (Genesis 1:29-30), e.g., “the lion will eat straw like the ox.” (Isaiah 11:7).
Don’t be fooled into thinking what is is what was intended or that what is is what will be. The transformational power of King Jesus and His Kingdom are game-changers. GS
“Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel…But David stayed at Jerusalem.” (2 Sam. 11:1).
