1 Samuel 5-6 and Romans 3

"Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them and smote them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories." - 1 Sam. 5:6


"[The death and resurrection] was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." - Rm 3:25-26


"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." - Rm 3:28

This morning the Philistines were under several plagues because they stole the Ark, but God forbears from judging us similarly not because of what we've done, but entirely because of His mercy toward us.

Mercy and vengeance don't seem compatible.

1 Samuel 5-6 focus almost entirely on the Lord's vengeance.  It even gives a figure - by the end of chapter 6, "he  struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter." - 6:19b.  A Great Slaughter.  It was really funny reading about the tumor and mice plagues on the Philistines, and how the Ark single-Arkedly tore down and humiliated the statue of Dagon in its own temple, and then going to read about the Lord's abounding mercy for us despite our sin.

God is a God of justice, and His character has not changed despite the mood swing between these two books.  He blighted the Philistines in repayment for their sin, but he forgives us for our sin.  The only difference between sin in the OT and sin in the NT is the sacrifice of Jesus.  The conspicuous absence of violent retribution now and in Paul's time is entirely attributable to Him.  His death placated and placates God's wrath today, and thank God for that.

So to reduce this down to some principles,

1) God is just
2) God is merciful
3) God doesn't like being screwed around with and having his Ark in somebody else's temple
4) Faith in Jesus justifies us because we are incapable of justifying ourselves

Powell

1 Samuel 3-4 and Romans 2

Eli died this morning. He had a brief but depressing biblical career.

It seemed to me at first that God was playing favorites with Eli and Samuel, and clearly Eli was not his favorite. Not only did God say in chapter 2 that He was going to bring the hammer down on Eli's house, but then He spoke to Samuel about how He was going to do it! And Samuel was just a kid! There were two prominent things I learned from the three-way exchange between the Lord, Samuel and Eli.

1) Bad parenting hurts.

2) Eli had the best possible attitude when he said, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him."

So I thought that God was playing favorites in the OT reading, but then I got to Romans and Paul expressly says, "there is no partiality with God." That's pretty clear; it doesn't leave a whole lot of room to be questioned. I think our definition of partiality is different from God's, though. Modern fairness means equality; I think God deals in justice rather than equality. Prior to the "no partiality" verse, Paul said, "There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

So I also learned two things from the NT reading:

1) God is concerned with justice over equality

2) Obeying the law is consonant with glory, honor, peace and the Lord's favor. See Psalms 119:24 - "Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors."

Introduction

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." - John 1:1-5

We believe that the Bible is the inherent word of God. This means that it was inspired by God, that He oversaw its authorship and that He intended it for us to read. In a world of uncertainty, where almost everything is subject to reinterpretation and deconstruction, we believe that the Bible stands firm.

This site is dedicated to glorifying God by getting into His Word. I expect that as we read the Bible, the Lord will speak to us and teach us more about himself. As it is the glory of kings to search out a matter (Prov. 25:2), we will search after Him together.

An author once said that writing is the evidence of thought, and your thoughts bring Him glory, so as the Lord speaks to you write your thoughts down! I can't wait to see what the Lord does through you and your contributions here.

Powell