It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Reflection on readings for July 15

In you, O Lord, I take refuge.
For you are righteous.
You love righteous deeds.
The upright shall behold your face.
(adapted from Psalm 11:1a, 7)

1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30
Different times, different experiences, different editors, differing versions of history. For example, Chronicles omits details of David's experiences that spring that he got to know Bathsheba. Note that there's also a different giant being killed--but not by a young David but instead by David's nephew.

Another difference: Satan is a character in the story (the first time that name is mentioned in the Bible.) Satan tells David to conduct a census. God was unhappy and sent a plague. The census incident in 2 Samuel is presented more ambivalently: the Lord tells David to do it then David realizes that counting the people is a great sin.

Romans 2:25-3:8
Be judged by the name that you claim. If you present yourself as somebody who knows what God wants people to do, then do those things. As John Gager puts it in his Reinventing Paul, Paul is not denying the law; rather, he is asserting that God will reward the non-Jew who does the law and punish the Jew who doesn't.

Psalm 11:1-7
Psalm 11 asserts that the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and that it is the righteous that will behold the Lord.

Proverbs 19:10-12
It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
much less for a slave to rule over princes.
Those with good sense are slow to anger,
and it is their glory to overlook an offense.
A king's anger is like the growling of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass.

Prayer for Today: O Lord, help us to follow your intentions for us. Cleanse from us the practice of hypocrisy and substitute for it genuine love for you and your commands. Amen.

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