Reuben

the firstborn son of Jacob... the son of Leah... in the jewish culture, being the firstborn held a lot of weight.. this should have been the most prominent of Jacob's sons.. yet somehow.. as often we find through the bible, this does not turn out to be the case...

when Leah names him, her thoughts are "the Lord has seen my misery, surely my husband will love me now" because it was so important for a man to have a son to carry on his family lineage... so she thought this would make him love her... to give her value.. yet it does not... but she realizes that the Lord has seen her sorrow...

when Reuben was a young boy he brings his mother some mandrakes which were said to cause fertility.. which Leah sells to Rachel for a night with Jacob...

the next thing we hear is that Reuben has slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine.. who was Rachel's servant... this is a horrendous thing to do in jewish history.. to sleep with the same woman as your father has slept with.. it is a form of disrespect.. a form of belittling your father...

Reuben was the one that saved Joseph's life when the brothers plotted to kill him... Reuben's intention was to have Joseph thrown in a well then to go back and get him out afterwards without letting his brother's know he did this... it turned out though that Judah and the other brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites without Reuben knowing it... he was distraught when he came back to save Joseph and he was gone...

later on.. when they take Benjamin to meet Joseph, although they do not know who Joseph is, Reuben tells his father that if Benjamin does not return.. then he can take Reuben's two sons...

Jacob says of Reuben... in his dying days when he is pronouncing the blessing on his family... “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength,the child of my vigorous youth.You are first in rank and first in power.
But you are as unruly as a flood, and you will be first no longer. For you went to bed with my wife; you defiled my marriage couch."

so Reuben lost his standing of firstborn because of having sinned against his father... but when Moses blesses the tribes of Israel later.. his blessing was... “Let Reuben live and not die, nor his people be few.”

so he was blessed or at least his descendants were.. by Moses later on...

I think that Reuben was a good man.. his downfall seemed to me to be jealousy or bitterness.. as it is with so many of us... Reuben may have seen his mother hurt by his father and Rachel for many years.. he surely saw the favoritism that his father bestowed upon the sons of Rachel... and these things caused him, and the other brothers too, to lash out in jealousy...

we have to be careful when we allow feelings to fester into bitterness.. we need to continually lay before God and give up our emotions of having been wronged... that is the only way to remain pure before God... we will all be wronged at some point in this life.. yet somehow we have to give these hurts to God and allow Him to do His will toward people.. for vengence is Mine says the Lord.. we do wrong when we try to go against those who wrong us...

Hezekiah...

Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old... can you imagine running a country when you are only 25 years old.. I am honest enough to admit that I did not have a lick of sense at 25 and would have been NO GOOD in leadership... he was king of Judah and within the first week of his reign he began opening up the temple that had been closed by the previous kings... he appointed priests from the levites to purify themselves then begin to restore and cleanse and purify the temple.. it took only 16 days.. they began again to worship God as they had been taught by their ancestors.. they sacrificed before the Lord... they again began to hold the feasts that were commanded in the law.. they celebrated God as they did in the previous days... he was pleasing to God...

he rebelled against the Assyrian king whom the Judeans had previously paid tribute to... the Assyrian army intended to destroy him as they had done to the previous kings of Judah.. but Hezekiah trusted God and God told him through Isaiah the prophet not to worry.. that God would rescue him.. and surely while the Assyrian king talked much noise about God being unable to rescue them.. they were defeated while they were sleeping by the army of the Lord.. and Hezekiah did not even fight against them.. they went running back home.. and the Assyrian king (Sennacherib) was killed by his own sons...there was peace in the land of Judah while Hezekiah was king because he was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord...

Hezekiah developed a boil and was on the way to death... Isaiah came and told him to get his affairs in order that he was going to die.. and he cried out to the Lord and reminded God how faithful he had been to him.. so God sent Isaiah right back in the room to tell him he would live.. giving him 15 more years... Isaiah told them what to use to make an ointment and Hezekiah was healed... God moved the sundial back 10steps as a sign of his healing.. meaning God moved back time.. (I am unsure how much time is measured by a step on a sundial)

a babylonian king came to visit Hezekiah and to wish him well... Hezekiah took him all through the palace showing him everything that Hezekiah had.. God considered this pride.. and later on.. the babylonians took everything that was in the palace... and Hezekiah was just thankful that it did not happen in his lifetime... (I could see me thinking like that.. but I wouldn't want my sons to endure it either...)

Hezekiah did good in the eyes of the Lord...

Gomer..

well you can't look at Gomer without revisiting Hosea...
Hosea 1: 2 The first time God spoke to Hosea he said: "Find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here's why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God." 3 Hosea did it.

well.. how about if GOD calls you a whore... sheesh... and how about if the FIRST time God speaks to you this is the message you get... imagine THAT!!

okay.. well my heart goes out to Gomer somewhat... let's try to see her side of this whole thing... first of all.. what makes a woman promiscuous? what is it that gives us a 'whore' mentality? I would say.. she is actually looking for love I believe.. but when the world is all our mind knows for love.. our vision is distorted.. our desires are distorted.. and what we THINK makes us happy is distorted...

I would by no means call myself a whore ever in my life.. but I imagine God would have.. as I was so afraid of love.. that all I wanted was sexual satisfaction.. without emotional attachment... now I have issues though.. so me personally.. I have not been with many men.. but I think this is the beginning of that type of thing happening to someone...

so Hosea marries Gomer.. and she has some children by him.. but she leaves him... she goes off with other lovers... and she has children that are not from her husband... Hosea goes to these men who now believe they own her.. which makes me imagine she was literally a prostitute with a pimp.. and he buys her back... because this is what God has commanded him to do...

he makes her stay celibate for a while... before he will be close with her again.. so as not to defile himself.. now while I understand why he had to do that.. can you imagine how she must have felt.. this man buys her back then won't be close to her because she is defiled.. she is dirty.. she is unclean... and we wonder why she would rather be with the street man.. who is also defiled.. so what does he care if she is defiled.. for him it is just a good time... he likes her...

this is the last we hear of Gomer.. when Hosea buys her back and he is commanded to love her as God loves the people of Israel... we don't know what happened.. did she stay.. did she run... did Hosea father these children alone?

as this story is the replica of God loving the children of Israel.. and the people DO return to God and they DO love Him.. they ARE thankful that He is such a loving Husband... then we also have the right to believe that this also happened in the story of Gomer and Hosea... because Hosea was faithful to God and did what God commanded.. I choose to believe that Gomer responded to the love of her husband.. and came to serve her husband's God and also to love her husband... again.. this is not in the bible.. there is no ending in the bible.. this is how I CHOOSE to BELIEVE God's love story ends... as I know God loves me in spite of my past unfaithfulness to Him...

Michal

michal... the daughter of saul.. given to david as a wife.. the bible tells us that she loved david and saul was pleased.. saul.. who was king.. gives his daughter to david as his wife... david must have wanted her pretty badly as he killed 100 philistines and brought to saul their foreskins as the price for the bride... basically.. he bought her with the lives of 100 of the enemies men...she must have loved him in the beginning because she helped him on to escape her father trying to kill him when he was in his jealous rage...

they were separated for a while because david fled.. but he went back for her... I wonder what happened during the time they were separated... because you hear nothing more until David brings the ark into Jeruselum and the bible tells us that michal is watching from the window and she depises him in her heart..

david was in the street... praising the Lord... thankful for the ark being brought into Jeruselum because the ark represented the presence of God.. so this was bringing God back with him.. of course he was praising and very happy... look how we act when we get in the presence of the Lord.. but michal was angry that he was our in the streets taking off his clothes and causing women to look at him... now in the natural.. if my husband were in public drawing attention from females to himself.. of course I can understand her anger.. but this is not natural.. it is spiritual... and he didn't even consider the people around him.. as far as David was concerned.. the only two there were him and God... and he just got caught up...

the cost.. she was never to have children... that was the price she paid for the way she spoke to the man in authority over her...

he was coming home to bless his household... her.. he was coming home to bless HER and she meets him at the door with harsh words and jealousy... and he returns her harsh words.. and she is cursed... we expect the one we love to rejoice with us.. yet sometimes.. they are so caught up in their own thoughts that they cannot see yours...

I wonder what happened during the time of separation that caused her to seem as though she no longer loved him... how often do we harden our hearts toward the one we are in covenant with... and then we divorce.. we walk away.. we take on foreign men and women.. all because we did not keep the love alive within our heart during a time of separation...