recently... someone preached a sermon about Michal... I honestly almost walked out of the service because I really feel the preacher was twisting the word of God... but regardless... some points were brought out that I didn't think about... (take away what you can receive and leave the rest in the trash file folder)

it was pointed out that Michal was in love with David when she married him.. often in bible times love was not really mentioned.. I believe many times that people fell in love over time... but it did not always start out that way because these were arranged marriages... David on the other hand.. killed 200 Philistines and brought her father back the foreskins... now in my opinion... this is something that had a deeper meaning.. something symbolic because the philistines were ungodly and circumcision was part of the covenant with God.. so while she felt David was showing off his warrior skills.. I do not really agree with this..

now I do feel sorry for Michal.. she has no voice.. is passed to another man by her father whether she wanted to or not.. and apparently this man actually wanted her quite badly.. he followed her as she left to go back to David.. my opinion is that David should have let her go.. but you know that possession thing lives very strong within a man... so he didn't...

it was said that Michal remained barren because of her bitterness toward David.. I disagree with that too... Michal was barren because David cursed her and said she would be childless and she was... she stated that David never slept with her again.. there is nothing biblical to back this up..

I agree we often hold on to bitterness and it ruins our lives... David was king because God said he would be.. not because of Michal being Saul's daughter... David did not need Michal... Michal actually needed David because without a husband a woman had no worth... she needed a husband and children to give her value.. and while we say it is not the case now... it actually still is... even if it should not be... 

if Michal had the relationship with God that she needed.. then her life would have been a positive experience despite the hardships she went through.. who of us does not go through hardship?? we all do.. it is our relationship with God that walks us through this life with a positive attitude.. really.. this was a woman that was the daughter of a king.. then a wife of a king... don't you think if she was the godly woman she was called to be and bringing glory to God rather than wallowing in self pity and bitterness that God would have changed her situation and given her her heart's desires? the bible says He would have... and I believe the bible... (matt 6: 33)

aaron is the brother of moses... he is the one that was with moses from the time he went into egypt to free the people... all the way to the edge of the promised land... it is from aaron's line that all priests come... he was the first high priest for israel...

 

it is strange to me.. that he is the one that built the golden calf that the people worshipped while moses was on the mountain getting the 10 commandments... he was not punished by God for this act... another time, him and miriam their sister rebel against moses because he has married a cushite woman... miriam becomes covered in leprosy... aaron does not... moses intercedes for miriam and she is healed and allowed back into the camp after 7 days.. but why didn't aaron get punished too?

 

there were great rituals about what he could or could not do.. what he could or could not eat... rituals about the sanctuary tents... rituals of cleansing and of purification to make him holy enough that he would not be destroyed when he stood before God to offer up the different offerings the people gave to the Lord..

 

aaron's two oldest sons were consumed by fire because they tried to offer up to God 'strange fire'.. now I don't really know what strange fire would mean.. but because everything was laid out very clearly about what could or could not be done.. I would guess they knew that what they were doing was wrong... aaron was unable to mourn his sons because he is in the service of God as high priest... that would have made him ceremonially unclean.. so he had to not mourn them...

 

he had two more sons who then became the sons that worked closely with him along with the entire levite tribe..

 

when the people are complaining over and over and over and over... this particular time for not having water... God tells moses to speak to the rock... moses whacks the rock and the water comes out... God determines that moses had taken His glory in his anger... moses and aaron are both punished at this time.. neither of them will ever enter into the promised land...

 

after aaron dies, his son eleazar becomes the next high priest... aaron is mourned for 30 days after his death...

Dinah revisited

you know in Genesis 34 the bible tells the story of dinah.. who was the daughter of jacob and leah and a man who was a prince of a place called shechem saw her and raped her... after that he loved her... and wanted to marry her... he begged them to let him marry her...

well she couldn't marry him... he was a heathen for one thing and he raped her for the other! so the brothers devise a plan... they tell him that if the whole encampment will be circumcised, then they will allow him to marry her.. but she couldn't marry him while he is still considered a heathen and ungodly...

so these men.. the whole town or encampment or whatever... they all get circumcised... while they are not healed and in pain... the brothers of dinah come in and kill them all...

I feel like this was harsh... well.. not that I condone the rape.. really... that is probably one of my greatest fears in life is to be raped... so I am not really on his side.. I just think that afterwards.. he realizes he is an idiot.. he wants to marry her and love her... and what else is left for her in this life? no other man would want her.... and they not only killed the man that did it.. the kill ALL the men....

as I had stated the first time I wrote about dinah... there is writing out there that states that dinah became the second wife of job.. the one that would have experienced double with him.. while we don't know if this is true or not.. I would like to believe that it is.. that God still gave her a good life after the terrible start that she had had....

I am thankful God will give us all a good ending after a rough beginning...

Jesus

 I say to my daughter last night... who is your favorite bible character?.. her response? Jesus.. I was stunned into silence... how many times have we talked about or heard about a favorite bible character.. yet I have never heard someone respond with Jesus..........

Jesus is the human born son of God.. he knows no beginning and no end.. just like God.. but he was willing to come to this earth in the human form so that we could be saved by his blood and his life shed... previously to his life.. the israelites would sacrifice animals hoping to be forgiven by God of their sins... as we are all flawed and sinful.. everyone sinned and still does... but we no longer have to sacrifice anything.. Jesus paid the ultimate price.. he laid down his own life.. that we may have ours...

mary was a young girl who was a virgin.. she was engaged to be married but not yet married.. the Holy Spirit came upon her and she became pregnant.. so the Father of Jesus is God... of course there are those that don't believe this... I believe it completely.. without reservation... I have seen too many supernatural things happen for me to not believe....

Jesus had all the divinity of God.. yet all the humanity we do... he lived his life much as we do until he turned 30 years old.. then he took his ministry on the road.. showing others the love of God.. the power of God.. the ways of God.. people didn't like him even though everything he was doing was good.. he hurt no one at all... yet many despised him and came after him...

eventually they killed him... hung him on a cross on a hill called calvary... but amazingly.. as his blood was shed.. it poured out over those of us who believe in him.. and because of his sacrifice.. we who believe in him are saved.... we still die a physical death.. but our spirit are released into the kingdom of God in heaven... where we live in peace for all eternity......

of all the bible characters... he is the most important.. he is the most righteous... he is the most loved.... he is my family.... my ancestor.. my best friend.. the love of my life...  and yours too if you want him to be........
you wonder.. who wouldn't know about Jesus? yet the more I get into the 'church'... the more I find that not everyone believes he is the son of God.. or that mary was a virgin..  many many people can't wrap their head around that so they instead determine he was a prophet... nothing more...

my question to them is this: if that is the case.. then what blood is it that is saving you from your sins? what blood is being used for your sacrifice?

Micah...

this is not Micah the prophet... this is a man from the days before Israel had a king...

his mother had some money stolen and spoke a curse on the person who stole the money... so he comes to her and tells her that he took the money and gives it back.. she uses this money to have an idol created.. in honor of her son.. but supposedly a representation of who we know as God.. who we all know HATES idolatry... so first he sets one of his own sons up as a priest in his house... then a levite from bethlehem was traveling and he hires this priest to be the priest for his home... the levite agrees.. later on.. the tribe of dan comes and takes the idols and the priest and set them up in the temple for the tribe...

the bible states twice in this reading (judges 17-18) that this was a time when there was no king and so all men did whatever they thought was right... I find it strange that they felt they needed a king to lead them to what was right... why wouldn't the word of God be what was used to lead them on the right path... why wouldn't you follow a priest rather than a king in the things of God...

I imagine a piece of this issue would be because the towns were far apart.. the houses and land large.. so if you didn't have a priest on your own land.. then you wouldn't be likely to be able to travel to the temple more than once or twice a year...

strangely though.. the entire tribe of dan forgets the teachings of moses and worships this idol... I wonder how often this happens to us.. although of course we would say never... how often are we pulled off course by someone else's thoughts and ideas.. yet we know what God really said to us... yet we follow someone else...

I heard someone say that they thought people want a god they can control.. I don't think that is the majority of the issue.. truly.. you cannot control a wooden idol anyways.. it has no power.. there is no control in that... I feel it is about a god we can touch... I think that is how we are so often led astray.. we want a god we can touch and feel.. one we can hear the voice of in an audible way.. one that leads us and guides us... I think that is how kings got so much love and respect from the people.. maybe they couldn't touch him themselves.. but they know someone could.. and they could see him.. and they could hear his voice...

is this why we need a priest? need a head? need a ruler?

some of our greatest issues are the fact that God is unseen... if we can get past that.. we will surely be further ahead... but just because we cannot see God.. cannot feel Him.. we cannot allow ourselves to be mislead.. to go down the wrong path.. to worship someone or something other than the Living God... we must instead be sure that we go to God in prayer.. be sure that we spend time in His word.. know Him... Love Him... receive His love for us... spend time in the temple.. under a true priest.. one who worships the only Living God.. a true and righteous man of God...

this is how we walk the right path while we cannot see or feel our God... know that He leads us daily.. despite the fact that He is unseen...

Sarah 2

I think that many times when we think about bible characters.. we think about stories.. not real life.. not that we don't believe they are true.. I know I do.. but we don't really put our own emotions on them.. instead we think of them as these super spiritual people who always were able to hold on to God's word or God's thoughts.. always believing... not really looking at them as we feel ourselves..

the example I am thinking about it sarah.. and her giving the maid to her husband because she couldn't have kids.. that is really not all that unrealistic... look how many couples do surrogate mothers.. and nowadays they don't have to actually sleep with them.. but it really wasn't that long ago that they did...

and my thought was.. like all of us.. if you have ever had someone cheat on you.. you think about how mad you are at that man... how you are really not sure you can overcome this.. and true to form for us females.. she hated this woman for sleeping with her husband... she is mad at him.. but thinks if the woman is not in her face then she can get over it about him...

and I was thinking.. man.. she really must have cried and felt all that we feel... she must have felt betrayed and unloved... think back to our own circumstances.. what did it take for us to get over it.. or did we never get over it at all...

I think with me.. I didn't get over the betrayal.. I mean.. I forgave him... I couldn't continue in the relationship though... it takes a very special woman to be able to really stay with a man after that... it's not about the sex part.. it is the emotional thing.. the idea that he may have loved her more than me.. and in my own situation.. that was reality... she really was the woman I believe was his soul mate.. the one who really connected with him... or look at my situation when I was with a married man... he stayed with her because I left.. but he really did love me... that is really hard to swallow or accept...

I can absolutely see some of sarah's thinking.. she is 90 years old... even if their years aren't the same as ours.. it said that her body was dead.. meaning she had been through menopause... so since God had promised her a child... I can see her saying to him.. that she is too old to have a child so sleep with this younger woman to have a child that I have been promised.. I can admit in real life that thought has also crossed my own mind.. not that I would tell him to do it.. just that maybe it would happen and that would be where the baby came from... LOL! that is so crazy... LOLOLOL!!

Herodias

3 For Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias (the former wife of Herod’s brother Philip). 4 John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry her.” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot, because all the people believed John was a prophet.

6 But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, 7 so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted. 8 At her mother’s urging, the girl said, “I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray!” 9 Then the king regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. 10 So John was beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.

this is a woman.. who marries her husband's brother... truly.. that type of thing happens even today... how many of us have been caught up in such a thing?
so John the baptist tells the new husband to be... the brother of the current husband.. that he cannot marry her.. that it is against God's law for you to marry her... (it is incest and adultery all rolled into one... and it would surely make a person defiled in God's eyes...)
Herodias... instead of recognizing her sin when God exposes it.. decides she wants the messenger dead.. (there comes the saying "don't kill the messenger"...)
so she enlists her daughter... the daughter of Phillip.. who is the first husband... to dance for the new husband... that by itself isn't quite right to me... I have a 20year old daughter who is very beautiful.. I promise you I will never want her to dance for my new husband who is not her father... anyways.. the daughter is pleasing to the new husband.. alarms and bells should be going off at this point.. but instead.. all Herodias is thinking about is wanting John the baptist dead... so she has the daughter say that what she wants for her dance is John's head on a platter...
Herodias is willing to sacrifice her daughter's honor in my opinion by allowing her to dance for this man.. and then what is she teaching the girl by having her want a man's head on a platter??? what young woman should be so filled with hate that she would even utter the words? what kind of mother is this.... all because John pointed out her sin...
Herod Antipas as the new husband was called felt bad to kill John but had said it in front of all these people... so now his pride is on the line... and he has John beheaded...

look at how Herodias affected just these two closest people in her life.. instead of being a light shining in their lives.. she was a sword and a dagger.. she was death from the pits of hell.. she allowed the enemy to use her to destroy all of these lives.. including her own...

because of Jesus death on the cross.. all of these people had a chance to get their lives right with God and be forgiven of their sin.. there is no record of this in the bible... they are remembered for the wrongs that they lived... not the rights...

we will all be remembered for something... what will you be remembered for? are you a light? or a cloak of darkness and evil?