3/29/2009

Goliath Loses His Head

1 Samuel 17:51 - David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

Where was Goliath's shield bearer? Perhaps he had no weapon of his own and fled from David when Goliath fell.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

Goliath's Shield

1 Samuel 17:4-7 - A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

If Goliath was over 9 feet tall, I wonder how big his shield was. And how big was his shield bearer who had to carry it to help protect Goliath?

Looking ahead, I wonder just how good of a shield bearer he really was.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I wont' publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast

1 Samuel 16:15-16 - Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will feel better."

I wonder why the attendants decided that music would be the cure. Did they consider medicine?

Was it hard to find a good harpist? Was harp music common or rare in those days? If the one attendant hadn't known David, it sounds like they would have had to go searching for someone who could play.

Why did they decide on harp music? Was it the most soothing kind they knew of? Was a flautist considered?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

3/25/2009

Agag

1 Samuel 15:8 - He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.

I wonder why Saul spared Agag. Wouldn't the leader of an enemy nation be one of the first you'd try to get rid of -- especially if you were getting rid of the entire nation anyway? What did Saul intend to do with Agag after bringing him back home?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

Using an Ephod

1 Samuel 14:18-19 - Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God." (At that time it was with the Israelites.) While Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the Philistine camp increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand."

Whether it was the Ark or an ephod that is meant in these verses, I wonder where it was that the priest was supposed to withdraw his hand from. It seems unlikely that he would have touched the Ark. So if it was an ephod that he had his hand in, what did you do with your hand inside an ephod? How was an ephod properly used?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

My Kingdom for a Blacksmith

1 Samuel 13:19-22 - Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!" So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads.

So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

Did the Philistines take all of the tools of the blacksmiths too? Was there no one who could learn the trade (well enough) and work in secret? Did the Philistines take all but 2 of the weapons in the land? Did no one else try to hide one from the enemy?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

3/16/2009

Dagon Down

1 Samuel 5:1-5 - After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

I wonder what explanation the people of Ashdod came up with for what happened to Dagon. Did they think the God of Israel was responsible? Did they blame vandals? Did they call it an accident and/or coincidence?

If they blamed God, did it bother them that God was more powerful than Dagon?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

3/14/2009

Samuel Given to Eli

1 Samuel 1:20-28, 2:11 - So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."

When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always."

"Do what seems best to you," Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.

How old was Samuel when Hannah gave him to Eli? He could have been less than a year old, perhaps only a few months old. It sounds like this was the order of events:
  1. Annual sacrifice; Hannah prays for a child
  2. Hannah conceives
  3. Hannah gives birth to Samuel
  4. Annual sacrifice; Elkanah and family attend while Hannah and Samuel stay home
  5. Samuel is weaned
  6. Hannah and Samuel join the family at the sacrifice
  7. Elkanah (and family) return home, but Samuel stays with Eli
If Samuel was only a few months old, I wonder what Eli thought when Hannah presented him with a baby.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Ruth 1:19 - So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"

I wonder how many people lived in Bethlehem. I think there weren't very many since, after 10 years, virtually everyone still knew Naomi and was stirred by her return.

I wonder how many children had been born in those years that would have been new faces to Naomi. I bet she got to know each and every one of them.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

On the Road Again

Ruth 1:6-10 - When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband."
Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."

I wonder how much they packed up to carry with them on the trip. It doesn't sound like they had any animals and were probably just going on foot, but they must have at least taken some food with them. Did they sell everything else they had in Moab?

Did Naomi have a sudden change of heart regarding her daughters-in-law? Surely she didn't plan to pack up, start the trip, and only then tell them it was a waste of time. What made her change her mind only while on the road and not sooner before they had decided to make the trip in the first place?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

Famine

Ruth 1:1-6 - In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

Did the famine last 10 years? Was there no lack of food in Moab, Israel's next-door neighbor? Maybe there was a food shortage but not as severe as that in Israel.

I wonder how many other Israelites moved to Moab.

I wonder how the 3 men died. Diseases? Accidents? Natural causes?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

A Levite from Bethlehem

Judges 18:1-4 - In those days Israel had no king.
And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking a place of their own where they might settle, because they had not yet come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. So the Danites sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out the land and explore it. These men represented all their clans. They told them, "Go, explore the land."
The men entered the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah, where they spent the night. When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?"

He told them what Micah had done for him, and said, "He has hired me and I am his priest."

I wonder how these men recognized the Levite's voice. Where had they heard him before?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

3/04/2009

Slow Manoah

Judges 13:8-23 - Then Manoah prayed to the LORD : "O LORD, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born."

God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!"

Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?"
"I am," he said.

So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?"

The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her. She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her."

Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you."

The angel of the LORD replied, "Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD." (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.)

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?"

He replied, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.

"We are doomed to die!" he said to his wife. "We have seen God!"

But his wife answered, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this."

Apparently Manoah wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Perhaps that's why God patiently listened to his prayer and decided it was best that he make a second visit. Isn't it good that he does the same today when we're a little slow on the uptake?

I wonder what more Manoah expected to hear about how to raise the child. God really only repeated the directives that his wife was to follow and didn't even mention the child specifically. In other words, the directions were simple, and nothing more needed to be added. Aren't most of his commands like that? Nothing complicated. Do this. Don't do that. So why do we make them so hard to follow sometimes?

I wonder why Manoah thought they would die before their time, so to speak. How would they have a child if they died too soon?

I wonder how many people they told about this incident. I wonder if they waited till after Samson was born.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.

A Nazirite

Judges 13:2-5 - A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

I wonder if Manoah's wife knew what a Nazirite was. Did she wonder if a Nazirite was what God was describing to her or if it was something else in addition to the rules her son would need to live by?

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.