If you don't
have a One Year Bible or prefer something online, this link will take you to
the day's reading, http://oneyearbibleonline.com/daily-oyb/. This
site allows you to select from several languages and several English
translations.
JULY 7
1
Chronicles 4:5-5:17
1 Chronicles 4:5-43
Vs. 5-23 Ezra is tracing again
the descendants of Judah. There are a few famous names here so I would guess
that Ezra wants to show the returning Israelites where some of their folk
heroes came from.
Vs. 5-8 You have to be dedicated
to keep going back and forth to make connections in all of this, but it is
possible. Earlier, Ezra was tracing the lineage of one of the descendants of
Judah through his son Perez, then Perez's son Hezron. So far this is all in the
lineage to David and to the Messiah. Hezron had three sons and Ezra immediately
developed the lineage of Ram, who develops the line of David. Now, Ezra wanted
to show the significance of one of Hezron's other sons, Chelubai, who here is
called Caleb, but not the Caleb we all love who was a good spy. That Caleb will
come later. This Caleb, the son of Hezron, (through the wife of his father) had
a son named Ashhur. That brings us to today. Ashhur was the father of Tekoa.
Tekoa is a famous town in Israel.
So you're reading all of these
names and suddenly you come to 4:9-10. Before, when I used to preach on Jabez,
I would have someone read 4:1-10, because you could hear the monotony break
when you got to v. 9. But then I stopped doing that because no one could really
read those hard-to-pronounce names anyway.
Vs. 9-10 When I returned to the
States in 2001, I was stunned to hear that BW had written a book called The
Prayer of Jabez. This portion had been one of my favorite sermons in
English and German, and now people were telling me that everyone was sick of
hearing sermons on Jabez. I've never read the book. You might already know all
this information, but here are some notes.
Jabez is from the tribe of
Judah. You can see this if you look back at the beginning of this chapter.
The time of his prayer appears
to be the beginning of the conquest of Canaan. One of the ways to find this is
to read your Bible every year. Another way is to use a search program. I found
this by reading every year. If you look at the words enlarge my border, you'll see them again next year in Deuteronomy
12:20. This was what Moses said to the people just before Israel crossed the
Jordan.
The promise was made to all of
Israel. You can picture all the soldiers of Israel standing there, sword in
hand, ready to take the land, but Jabez prayed. He prayed according to God's
promise, and he prayed because he had learned to go to God because of the mark
his mother had put upon him, in punishment for his painful birth. His adversity
taught him to go to God. That is why Jabez was more honorable or "of greater
substance" than his brothers. All the people were ready to go and claim
the land, but Jabez humbled his heart before God, having learned, and knowing
now, how much he needed God. Adversity doesn't always lead you to God, but it
did in Jabez's case.
I've heard some people preach
this saying that God was so happy to have anyone pray, that He was willing to
answer even a selfish prayer, as long as it was a prayer. How silly. Everything
Jabez prayed was a promise of God.
As disciples, the Father prunes
us through adversity to be fruitful in His harvest. The promises of God do not
relate to our comfort or bank accounts, but to His mission. That is where Jabez
found God's blessing, doing God's work, and that is where we find our blessing,
following Christ in the harvest.
Vs. 11-23 All this seems too
hard to follow, but there are some interesting names. After Jabez, you have
Othniel, the first judge of Israel. This also helps to establish the time of
Jabez. In this lineage you also have our hero, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
Vs. 24-43 These are the
descendants of Simeon. A possible reason for their mention here is that their
land was south of Judah's land. When the nation became divided, it wasn't just
divided by tribes, but also by geography - north and south. The ten tribes
north became Israel, and the two tribes south (Judah and Benjamin) became
Judah. The land of Simeon became the possession of Judah and the people either
remained in Judah or went north. Notice in v. 41 that in the days of Hezekiah,
before the exile, some of the tribe of Simeon became registered citizens of
Judah.
To understand the focus of this
section of Chronicles, look for any mentions of genealogies or registers. Ezra
was making sure everyone knew to whom they were related.
1 Chronicles 5:1-17
Vs. 1-10 This is the genealogy
of the sons of Reuben. This is an interesting note regarding the giving of the
birthright to Joseph. Judah, it appears, was blessed in spite of missing the
birthright; although Judah would have been next in line, after Levi and Simeon
were disqualified. Do you remember all of that?
Vs. 11-17 These are the sons of
Gad.
It is too bad that this chapter
is divided between today and tomorrow. Here, Ezra was dealing with the 2.5
tribes that were located on the east side of the Jordan, who they were and why
they went into exile. Apparently, as of the writing of Chronicles, they were
still in exile.
Acts
25
Vs. 1-5 The success of any Roman
governor over Israel was in the hands of the Jews, so a wise governor was kind
to them. Notice that one of the top things on the Jews' "list of
favors" was Paul and trying to kill him. Maybe after two years those guys
still hadn't eaten and really, really needed to kill Paul.
Vs. 6-12 We don't see all of the
detail of who Paul interacted with these two years. The temptation would be to
see this as wasted time, particularly because of Festus. In v. 9 it is clear
there would be no real help from this conniving ruler. You could think that
Paul should have appealed to be tried before Caesar much earlier, but the Lord
had a plan in all of this. Apparently Paul had enough to do in ministry to stay
content and busy. Only when Festus was ready to put Paul into the hands of his
enemies, did Paul use his right to appeal to Caesar.
Vs. 13-27 Here is one of the
purposes for Paul's stay. Notice v. 23; this was a gala event. Everyone was
invited to hear Paul give his testimony. This would not only be hugely public
and help in Paul's future release, but, as we'll see tomorrow, Paul was very
persuasive.
Look at Festus' words in vs.
24-27. This is Festus saying "See how smart I am?" NOT! Had he been
anything but a favor-seeking politician, he would have had the guts to let Paul
go. God was using the guile of this crooked man to accomplish His own purpose.
He forced Paul to play the "Caesar" card, again, accomplishing God's
purpose. Now there was a big, public event.
So, when they would send Paul to
Nero, the letter of accusation would say, "Dear Nero, we think he's
innocent, but he wanted to talk to you."
Once again too, in Luke's
writing, a Roman official is saying that there is nothing wrong with Paul or
Christianity.
It is good for us to observe
that in this portion of Paul's work in the harvest, it was chaotic and
frustrating, but God was completely in control.
Psalm
5
I can imagine that as this hearing was being set up, Paul
was praying something like this. Reading this psalm and the letters that
follow, you get an idea of how well Paul knew the OT. Compare v. 9 to Romans
3:13, Their throat is an
open grave, they use their
tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Paul definitely knew his psalms.
Vs. 1-3 What is interesting is that David was not only well
acquainted with crying out to God, but v. 3 sounds like, "It's morning and
here I am again, Lord." God was training David.
Vs. 4-6 Whatever David was facing from his enemies, it was
deeply affecting him every day. David was reminding the Lord that the Lord
can't tolerate such people.
Vs. 7-8 This is good for us to learn. Rather than stress and
obsess over his enemies and keep thinking about what they said, etc., David
focused all of his attention and trust on the Lord.
Vs. 9-10 This is a cry for justice.
Vs. 11-12 I wonder if Paul prayed something like this when
he was taken in before Agrippa and Bernice and all the leaders and officials of
Caesarea?
Proverbs
18:19
And unfortunately this is just
as true among believers, as among those who don't understand the grace of God
or our mission here for Christ. Or actually, maybe it is only true among
believers who don’t understand the grace of God or our mission here for Christ.
We are all bound to offend
people. Among believers, it is the love of Christ that saves us and covers a
multitude of sins, and offenses. Quarreling is just something we all need to
get over for the sake of our Lord and the harvest.
Please Read
the Following Disclaimer
I'm writing the Reading Notes to and
for those who are following a One Year Bible and are interested in growing
deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the
growth of a discipleship culture in the church, that is, groups of 3-4
disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to
reach out and make disciples, who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most
universal and important discipleship manual we have and it is the key to our
growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here,
or what we are to be doing, or whom we are to be following. My comments are
only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of
God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are
designed to keep us, as disciples, focused on Christ and our role in His
harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be
willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their
growth as disciples, making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive
commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC).
I read the BKC in doing background for the Reading Notes and refer to it quite
often. I also make reference to maps or charts in the BKC, though I will only
note where those resources can be found. Often you can do a search for these
and find them in Google books. Buying both volumes of the Bible Knowledge
Commentary would be a good idea.
I am not endorsing any particular One
Year Bible translation; in fact, I read something you probably don't, Die
Revidierte Lutherbibel, 1984. Unless noted, all Scripture quotes are from the
ESV Bible.
Anyone reading along with us is
welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own
observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition
or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any
point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as
I understand it. Often there is a breadth of opinion on certain events, both
historical and prophetic. Many of my views come from my church background,
theological training and my personal study.
I'm
doing this with discipleship in mind, meaning, I'm writing out thoughts that
will keep discipleship and our growth as disciples applied to what we are reading.
Remember,
the real focus of the Reading Notes is to be a supplement, a disciple’s
commentary, giving motivation and insight so that we will keep following our
Lord in the harvest, reaching the lost and making disciples, who make
disciples. Being in the Word every day,
sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning directly from Him, is the essential essence of
being and making disciples.
May the Lord bless you as you follow Him in the
harvest, reaching the lost and making disciples, who make disciples. Dan
If you would like documents
containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
If you would like a full
presentation of discipleship read Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples.
Or if you are struggling with
insomnia and would like a long boring dissertation on disciple making, these
can both be found on https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
Reading Notes ©, Dan Kachikis
2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
The One Year Bible © by Tyndale
House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois 60189
The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers.
All charts/graphics/outlines
from the Bible Knowledge Commentary are used with the permission of David C.
Cook.
© 1983, 2001 John F Walvoord and Roy B Zuck.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary is published by David C Cook.
All rights reserved. Publisher permission
required to reproduce.
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