Category: Insights

So Abab summoned all the people of Israel and prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waiver, hobbling between to opinions? IF the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent. (vv. 29-21, NLT)

Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal,” You go first, for there are may of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.”

So they prepared one of the bulls and placed on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” They danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.

About noontime Elijah began mocking them , “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, ‘for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be awakened.!

So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. (vv. 25-29, NLT)

Sometime later the woman’s son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. Then she said to Elijah, “O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?”

But Elijah replied, “Give me your son.” And he took the the child’s body from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, why have You broght tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?”

And he stretched himself out over the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, please let this child’s life be returned to him.” The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer and the life of the child returned, and he revived! Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. “Look!” he said. “Your son is alive!”

Then the woman told Elijah, “Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.” (vv. 17-24, NLT)

As the time of King’s David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son, Solomon.

“I am going where everyone must someday go. Take courage and be a man. Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all His ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you do. If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise He made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.'” (vv. 1-4, NLT)

Then David died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. David had reigned for forty years, seven of them in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. Solomon became king, and sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. (vv. 10-12, NLT)

After this, David asked the Lord, “Should I move back to one of the towns in Judah”
“Yes,” the Lord replied.
Then David asked,”Which town should I go to?”
“To Hebron,” the Lord replied.
David’s two wives, were Ahinoam from Jezreed and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel. So David and his wives and his men and their families all moved to Judah, and they settled in the villages near Hebron. Then the men of Judah cam to David and anointed him king over the people of Judah.

When David heard that the men of Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul, he sent them this message: “May the Lord bless you for being so loyal to your master Saul and giving him a decent burial. May the Lord be loyal to you in return and reward you with His unfailing love! And I, too, will reward you for what you have done. Now that Saul is dead, I ask you to be my strong and loyal subjects like the people of Judah, who have anointed me as their new king.” (vv. 1-7, NLT)

Then Boaz said to the elders and to the standing crowd standing around, “You are the witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Killion, and Mahlon. And with that landI have acquired Ruth, Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.”

The elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses! May the Lord make this woman who is coming to your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you prosper in Ephreathah and be famous in Bethlehem. An may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.” (vv. 9-12, NLT)

Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord has blessed His people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law go ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland. With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.

But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.” The she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept.

“No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.”

But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what” Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? Of course not, my daughters! Things are for more bitter for me than you, because the Lord Himself has raised his fist agains me.”

And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. “Look,”Naomi said,” your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; where ever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where ever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more. (vv6-18, NLT)

The Philistine rulers held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising their god, Dagon. They said, “Our god has give us victory over our enemy Samson!”

When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has delivered our enemy to us! TRhe one who killed so many of us is not in our power!”

Half drunk by now, the people demanded, “Bring out Samson so he can amuse us!” So he was brought from the prison to amust them and they had him stand between the pillars supporting the roof.

Samson said to the young servant who was leading him by the hand. “Place my had agains the pillars that hold up the temple, I want to rest against them.” Now the temple was completely filled with people. All the Philistine rulers were there, and there was about 3,000 men and women on the roof who were watching Samson as they amused them.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held the temple. Pushing against them with both his hands, he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than during his entire lifetime.

Later his brothers and other relatives went down to get his body. They took him back home and buried him between Zora and Estaol, where his father, Manoh was buried. Samson had judged Israel for twenty years. (vv. 23-31, NLT)

While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a Cushite woman. They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t He spoken through us too? But the Lord heard them. (Now Moses was very humble-more humble than any other person on earth.)

So immediately the Lord called to Moses, Aaron and Miriam and said, “Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you! So the three of them (they were all siblings) went to the Tabernacle. Then the Lord descended in the pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam!” he called, and they stepped forward. And no the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say:

“If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal Myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to Him face to face, clearly , and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as He is. So why were not afraid to criticize Moses?”

The Lord was very angry with them, and he departed. As the cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, there stood Miriam, her skin as white as snow as from leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her, he cried out to Moses “Oh, my master! Please don’t punish us for this sin we have so foolishly committed. Don’t let her be like a stillborn baby already decayed at birth.”

So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, I beg you, please heal her!”

But the Lord said to Moses, ” If her father had done nothing more than spit in her face, wouldn’t she be defiled for seven days? SO keep her outside the camp for seven days, and after that she may be accepted back.

So Miriam was kept outside the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back before they traveled again. Then they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran. (vv. 1-16, NLT)

But the famine continued to ravage the land in Canaan. When the grain they had brought out from Egypt was almost gone, Jacob said to his sons, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

But Judah said, “The man was serious when he warned us, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you. If you send Benjamin with us, we will go down and buy more food. But if you don’t let Benjamin go, we wont’ go either. Remember, the man said, ‘You won’t see my face again unless your brother is with you.” (vv. 1-5, NLT)

So their father, Jacob, finally said to them, “If it can’t be avoided, then at least do this. Pack your bags with the best products of this land. Take them down to the man as gifts-balm, honey, gum, aromatic resin, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Also take double the money that was put back n your sacks, as it was probably someone’s mistake. Then take your brother, and go back to the man. May God Almighty give you mercy as you bo before the man, so that he will release Simeon and let Benjamin return. But if I must lose my children, so be it.”

so the men packed Jacob’s gifts and double the money and headed off with Benjamin. They finally arrived in Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the manager of his household. “These me will eat with me this noon. Take them inside the palace. Then go slaughter and animal, and prepare a big feast. So the man did as Joseph told him and took them into Joesph’s palace.

The brothers were terrified when they say that they were being taken to Joseph’s house. It’s because of the money someone put in our sacks last time were were here,” they said. “He plans to pretend that we stole it. Then he will seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.” (vv. 11-18, NLT)

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted,

“Just like this, the great city of Babylon will be thrown down with violence and will never be found again. The sounds of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets will never be heard in you again. No craftsmen and no trades will every be found in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries. In your streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people slaughtered all over the world.” (vv. 21-24, NLT)