Tag: Hard passages

Digging in Deeper: 2 Samuel 1:14-16

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“David said to him, ‘How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord ‘s anointed?’ Then David called one of the young men and said, ‘Go, execute him.’ And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, ‘Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, “I have killed the Lord ‘s anointed.”’”  (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

I’ll be honest: I’ve been wrestling with this little story. I’m still not totally sure what to do with it. There are several different things to consider when trying to make sense of it. The truth is, though, sometimes even after we’ve considered all the different factors, we still can’t fully get our heads and hearts around a particular hard passage, and that’s okay. Here’s what I have so far. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Samuel 15:3

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“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
(ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

And here I’d thought we had dealt with all of this nonsense in the narrative of Joshua leading the people to inhabit the Promised Land. How can we trust as good a God who issues a command like this? Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 1 Samuel 2:25

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“‘If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him,  but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?’  But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is one of those verses that’s hard to get our minds around at first read.  And second read.  And third too.  The Lord willed to put them to death?  What happened to mercy and compassion and grace?  Who can survive if the Lord deigns to destroy them? Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 10:40

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“So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings.  He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

I’ve said it before and let me say it again here: If we don’t get the character of God right, we won’t be able to make sense out of the Scriptures.  This is important all the time, but it is especially important in the narrative of Joshua where we find this verse, which, along with the other verses similar to it in this chapter and the next, gives people more trouble than just about any other portion of the Old Testament. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 5:13-14 Part 2

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“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.  And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’  And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.  Now I have come.’  And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?'”  ( ESV – Read the chapter)

Now, in the first part of this commentary, I talked about Joshua’s response to the commander of the Lord’s army and our need to submit our plans to the Lord if we want to have any hope of meaningful success.  I said something in that first commentary, though, that bears unpacking here.  I said the appearance of the commander of the Lord’s army changed not just Joshua’s response and the way the rest of the story played out, it also changed our whole framework for understanding it.  Let me explain. Read the rest…