Psalm: 104 Meditation Judith: Please read the introduction (included with the passage) before beginning. THIS IS A JEWISH NOVEL! This is not intended as Scripture; the story and events are fictitious. The intent here is to remember the events of the past century, i.e., the revolt of the Maccabees and the significance of religious reform …
Tag: Israel
Thursday, August 5
Psalm: 45 Meditation Judges: Most people find the Book of Judges rather troubling. I don’t see it myself. The Judges ruled in Israel from the death of Samson until Samuel (the last Judge) a period of about 400 years. The prevailing philosophical premise was: “There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right …
Thursday, March 11
Psalms: 217, 122 Meditation Genesis: Such a pity that we did not look at Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. Anyway, the eleven of them hurry off to Israel to tell him 1) Joseph is alive (a resurrection of sorts) and 2) they will all be off to Egypt. God visits with Israel and tells …
Friday, July 30
Psalm: 37 Meditation Joshua: The land of Canaan was not a unified entity but rather a collection of what might be called city-states; each city with its own king. Gibeon was one such city-state. Israel’s reputation had preceded it even to the point of Moses’ dictate that Israel shall have all the land. The Gibeonites, …
Wednesday, July 21
Psalm: 21 Meditation Joshua: The LORD will witness to the Hebrews, in a spectacular way, His confirmation of Joshua as leader of this “Chosen People”. The pity is that we, God’s own people for, I think, our memories are just as short as the ancient Hebrews, but we have less of an excuse. There were …
Tuesday, June 22
Psalm: 143 Meditation Numbers: We can begin to appreciate the LORD’s lovingkindness. It goes like this: if the cloud moves, so do you. This is oft repeated through the remainder of chapter 9. This is how the LORD led Israel through the wilderness until they reached the Jordan. In chapter 16 Moses pleads with his …
Friday, July 9
Psalm: 69 Meditation Numbers: Still Balak wants Balaam to curse Israel. This is the third time. Perhaps Balak thinks “the 3rd time’s a charm”. Not so The Scripture says, “Then the Spirit of God came upon him.” (v. 20) As in the other instances, Balaam blesses rather than curses Israel as the LORD had directed. …
Tuesday, July 6
Psalms: 82, 84 Meditation Numbers: We are now introduced to a new face – Balaam, apparently a “world famous” prophet. Balak, king of Moab, sought out Balaam to curse Israel for a hefty price. Balak and the Moabites were terrified of Israel. The Moabites were distant relatives of the Hebrews through Abraham’s nephew Lot. Balaam …
Saturday, July 3
Psalm: 105 Meditation Numbers: Two more episodes are unfolded here. First, Edom. Moses referred to Edom as Israel’s brother. That is literally true. Israel and Edom were twin sons of Isaac. We know them better Jacob and Esau. So, here we are centuries later still living out that family feud (review Genesis 25:23, 29-34; 27:1-40). …
Monday, February 22
Psalm 41 Meditation: Genesis – Joseph’s reaction to his dreams is puzzling. Why, if you know that your brothers already are jealous and hate you, would you tell them about dreams you had where they are metaphorically bowing down to you? Most people would call that taunting or bragging. If you had a younger sibling …
