Jul 16 2012

Ezra 1 – The Proclamation of Cyrus

Cyrus Cylinder. Terracotta, Babylonian, ca. 539-530 BC. From Babylon, southern Iraq. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ezra begins in 539 BC with the proclamation of Cyrus. This was prophesied hundreds of years before he was even born – in Isaiah 44:28-45:1. Verse 1 says that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,” affirming that the proclamation was the Lord’s doing. The reference to the words of Jeremiah is about Jeremiah 25:11-14 and 32:36-38, wherein the prophet predicts the exile to Babylon as well as their return. The leaders of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, along with the priests and Levites, gather money and material for the temple – as Cyrus decreed it to be rebuilt. Cyrus also brings the treasures that were taken from the temple in 586 b.c. for them to take back to Jerusalem (verses 7-11).

Side note: The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam. Cyrus conquered the Babylonians and captured Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king. He details the restoration of exiles and the return of temple “gods” to their sanctuaries. There is a great story about this cylinder in this article from BibleArchaeology.org.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog. All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility. When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com. For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Jul 4 2012

2 Kings 25 – Fall and Captivity of Judah

The events of this chapter are recounted in Jeremiah 52, as God’s judgment on Judah comes to pass. Nebuchadnezzar and his army besieged Jerusalem for two years. There was severe famine, and no food was left. So Zedekiah and his men of war managed to escape through the exit in the wall that is probably referred to as the “Fountain gate” in Nehemiah 3:15. But the Chaldeans overtook him in the plain s of Jericho. They slaughtered his sons in front of him, put out his eyes, put him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

Two panels of Babylon gate relief by Nebuchadnezzar II (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Then, a servant of the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan (the captain of the bodyguard) came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the Kings house, and all the great houses down (verse 9). Verse 10: “And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.” The rest of the people were carried into exile, leaving the poorest as vinedressers and plowmen. They took the majestic pillars of bronze that Solomon had made; and many were slaughtered. Nebuchadnezzar made Gedeliah his vassal governor over those left behind in Judah, but he was murdered. A more complete account of Gedeliah and the circumstances connected with his murder can be found in Jeremiah 40-41.

We close out the Books of Kings with verses 27-30. After 37 years, Nebuchadnezzar’s son (Evil-merodach) freed Jehoiachin. He dined at the king’s table and was given a regular allowance. Thereby, there was hope for the Davidic line and the promises of God to David in 2 Samuel 7:15-16.

Side note: Excavations of Babylon have yielded thousands of inscribed tablets with a wealth of information for scholars. Among many other things, they list the kings of other nations who were captured and living at the palace of the Babylonian king. Four of those tablets list “Jehoiachin, king of Judah” and his family as receiving rations from the king. An excellent article with photos, originally posted in the Summer 2007 issue of “Bible and Spade” can be found at this link.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 22 2012

2 Kings 17 – Fall of the Northern Kingdom

English: The capture of the city of Astartu by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III about 730–727 B.C., as depicted on a palace relief now kept on display at the British Museum – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1 Kings 15:29-30, the Bible tells us that Pekah was king over Israel when Hoshea killed him, and took his place. This was during the reign of the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser III, who captured much of Israel’s northern and eastern territory. The Assyrian king’s son, Shalmaneser, succeeded him; and Hoshea became his vassal, paying him tribute. But he reneged on this tribute and sought help from the king of Egypt; and Shalmaneser had Hoshea thrown in prison – and besieged and captured Samaria (verses 4-6) around 722 BC. Verses 7-23 summarize in detail the many reasons why God brought this downfall upon them. After God had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, he had brought them to the promised land to expel the wicked Canaanites that occupied it. Now, the Israelites were just as bad, practicing idolatry of all kinds, and even performing the same types of child sacrifice (verse 17, 31) as the Canaanites had!

So after refusing to heed the warnings of one prophet after another, God’s judgment fell on them, and the northern kingdom of Israel was no more. The people were taken captive into Assyria, and in verse 24, the king brought people in from Babylon and other places to take their place. The intermarriage with these people would result in the Samaritan people, which we will see that the Jews in the New Testament scripture will despise (Jesus shocked both sides of this equation by venturing into Samaria, and even having fellowship with them – for such was simply not done – see John 4:1-9). But God did not make life easy for these interlopers either (verse 25); and the Assyrian king had a Jewish priest brought in to teach them the law of “the god of the land” (verse 27). So the worship to God himself was still further perverted and polluted by the pagan idol worship, as verse 41 summarizes.

Tiglath-Pileser III. Stone panel, Assyrian artwork, ca. 728 BC. From the Central Palace in Nimrud. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Side notes:

A seal was found, dating to the 8th century, with the inscription “Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea” – pictured in this link from Biblical Archaeology Review. More information can be found in this article from Truth Magazine.

Some of the tablets found from Tiglath-pileser III are housed in the British Museum . An inscription on one tablet has that king boasting credit for Hoshea becoming king. The translation of the inscription reads:

“Pekah their king they had overthrown, I placed Hoshea over them. From him I received 10 talents of gold and 1000 talents of silver.”

This blog usually is hesitant to link to Wikipedia articles, but at the time of this writing, this one appears to be pretty true to the facts about this subject.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 20 2012

2 Kings 9 – Jehu Anointed King of Israel

English: Jezabel and Ahab Meeting Elijah in Naboth’s Vineyard Giclee. Print by Sir Frank Dicksee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God has ordained that Elisha will anoint Jehu (son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi) as king over Israel. The servant of the prophet, at Elisha’s instructions, anointed him in secret chambers (reminiscent of Samuel’s anointing of Saul in 1 Samuel 9:27-10:1). As he anointed him, the servant gave him the instructions of the Lord as given to Elisha (verses 6-10). He is to carry out the prophecy of 1 Kings 21:21-4 that Elijah had spoken to Ahab, declaring the death and destruction of Ahab’s house, that Jezebel would be eaten by dogs (we learn later that this is for killing the Lord’s prophets), and that Ahab’s blood would be shed in the very same place where he and Jezebel had caused Naboth to be stoned to death for his vineyard (1 Kings 21:19). Because of Ahab’s repentance in 1 Kings 21:25-29, the Lord relents on Ahab himself, and has Elijah wait for his son to come to power.

Jehu wastes no time in assuming power (verses 12-13), and heads to Jezreel to deal with Ahab’s son, Joram and his mother Jezebel. The tension of the story mounts while Jehu furiously approaches, as one by one, messengers sent to inquire of Jehu’s intentions fail to return – instead turning to ride with Jehu! Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had come to visit Joram, so at first reading, one might think that it was just his bad luck to be there. But another account of this event with more details is in 2 Chronicles 22 (especially 2 Chronicles 22:7-9), making it clear that Ahaziah’s death was ordained by God.

English: Jehu was king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat [1], and grandson of Nimshi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After Jehu, kills Joram, he has his body taken to be thrown on the ground of Naboth’s vineyard. He then pursues Ahaziah and has him shot near Ibleam; and Ahaziah makes it to Megiddo before dying. Back in Jezreel, he had Jezebel tossed out the window; and when he sat down to eat, he gave instructions to have her buried. But when they went to get her, there was not much left of her body (verses 35-37), just as God had said.

This chapter shows us once again that when God’s will is made known, you can count on it coming to pass – in His time.

Side notes:

This link to an interesting article about excavations in Tel Jezreel has a lot of great information and pictures, and interesting bits of history, such as a reference that “shortly before Jehu’s revolt in 842 BCE King Joram and the dowager Queen Jezebel were in residence in Jezreel.”

Also, this link to the British Museum is about an Assyrian exhibit of a find in an 1846 excavation containing the Black Obelisk of Shalmanesar III (a public monument erected about 825 BCE), which both mentions and pictures Jehu (the earliest known picture made of an Israelite) and Ahab’s father Omri. It has an inscription about tribute the Assyrian king received from Jehu when he was king (dated about 841 BCE) written in Assyrian cuneiform:

“The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king [and] spears.”

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 17 2012

Trouble in the Northern Kingdom \ Week 23 summary posted

We will begin this weeks reading tomorrow with Elisha demonstrating God’s sovereign power, while a succession of kings in the northern kingdom accompanies trouble because of the wickedness and idolatry of the people. Change is in the air.

English: Kurkh stela of Shalmaneser that reports battle of Karkar, of 853 BC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As or schedule has left first 1 Kings behind and has skipped over some of the wicked king Ahab’s story (some will be revisited next week), we thought it appropriate to include another interesting bit of archaeological evidence of Ahab’s rule from the Assyrian empire, which was on the rise at the time. This article from Bible and Spade contains a picture and account of a monolith found in 1861 in southeastern Turkey, which inscriptions record the Assyrian kings first six military campaigns. The battle in 853 BCE listing 2,00 chariots and 10, 000 soldiers received as aid from “Ahab, the Israelite” is not mentioned in the Bible because it is not relevant. A bit ironic that Israel provided aid to the rise of an empire that would come to crush them later.

Summing Up

Each weekend, I am now posting a small PDF of one week of chapter summaries (on the website’s “Summaries” page), current to the beginning of the previous week. I have posted the summary for Week 23 (June Week 1) of the schedule I am following. This short PDF document contains condensed comments about 1 Kings 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8:1 – 9:9, with hyperlinks to the ESV version of each chapter for listening or reading, and joins the summaries for other weeks already posted there.

/Bob’s boy

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image © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Feb 20 2012

Genesis 44 – Joseph Tests His Brothers

When Joseph sends them away, he has his steward once again place their money in their sacks. But this time, he has his silver cup placed in Benjamin’s bag and he has them followed, accused of theft, and brought back. The brothers who have carried the burden of their guilt for so long are convinced that God himself has brought this on them for what they did to Joseph so many years ago.

Joseph tells them that the rest of them can go, but Benjamin will remain as his slave. The brothers are purposely placed in the position of losing their younger brother – and facing Jacob’s (Israel’s) devastation. Judah begins a passionate plea of repentance in verse 18, offering himself in his younger brother’s place. Remember, it was Judah’s idea to have Joseph sold instead of killing him in Gen 37:26-28.

The change that has taken place in his brothers is no doubt what Joseph was looking (and hoping) for.

(Side note: Here is a link to a lengthy, but very interesting article from the publishers of “Bible and Spade” magazine called “The Joseph Narrative (Genesis 37, 39–50)” that includes information about Egyptian captives from Canaan)

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

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Jan 12 2012

Genesis 11 – The Tower of Babel

So God commanded the people to go forth and populate the earth after the flood, and what do they do? They do what they want instead, as usual. They congregate in one place and they build the Tower at Babel. They are full of themselves and their abilities, and not following God’s plan for them. So He confuses their language so that they cannot understand each other. This has the intended consequence of getting them to move on and spread out away from each other.

The genealogy of Shem’s line is told. The most important part is when it gets to Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, who God will later rename as Abraham, and his brother Haran, who fathers Lot. This means Lot is Abram’s nephew; and their stories will become important, especially the story of Abraham.

(Side note: The ancient city of UR in v 28 has unquestionably been found, and was the site of major excavations in the late 1920’s and early 1930s by Sir Leonard Wooley. It lays less that 200 miles southeast of modern Baghdad, and has been found to have been the site of highly developed urban culture. Some pictures of artifacts can be found at this link)

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

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Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog. All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility. When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com. For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.
/Robert