ADAM’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE

ADAM’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
The Hebrew word ‘adam is used over 500 times in the Old Testament in the sense of “human being” or “humanity.” Only in early Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1:1 is ‘adam the proper name of Adam, the first man. Early Genesis defines Adam’s role in history. Any insight we’re given into Adam as an individual is found there.
The significance of Adam’s creation by God (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7–25.) Some argue that Genesis 1 and 2 are two contradictory creation accounts, spliced together by ancient editors. In fact, what we have in these two chapters are “establishing” and “close up” views of creation.
We see this same technique used daily on television. The camera gives us a look at the outside of an apartment building—and then shifts inside to focus on the featured individuals. The view of the building is the establishing shot; it tells us where the action takes place. The view focuses our attention on the hero and heroine of the writer’s tale.
Genesis 1 is God’s “establishing shot.” Genesis 1 overviews the universe in which the action will take place. That brief overview establishes the fact that the material universe is the work of a Person. All that exists was consciously designed and brought into being by One whose power and wisdom are utterly awesome. That brief overview also establishes that all living creatures owe their existence to Him, yet draws our attention to “man.” Only man will God fashion “in Our image, according to our likeness.” And only to man will God give “dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26–27).
Genesis 1 provides the framework in which we understand the universe and man’s place in it. No one who ignores Genesis 1, God’s “establishing shot,” can hope to understand human nature or the meaning of human life.
Then, with the framework fixed, Genesis 2 takes us “inside.” We’re led to one spot on the surface of the earth, a place called Eden, and introduced to the pair who became the parents of our race.
Grasping the teaching of these two chapters is essential if we are rightly to understand the men we meet in the Bible—as well as any human being. What, then, do these chapters teach us?
Man was created in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26–27). In this text, two Hebrew words, image and likeness, are linked to convey a single powerful truth. Human beings, and human beings alone, have been given the “likeness-image” of God. The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (1985) notes:
The creation story makes it clear that the likeness-image is not of physical form: material for man’s creation was taken from the earth. It is the inner nature of human beings that reflects something vital in the nature of God. Thus theologians generally agree that the likeness is rooted in all that is required to make a human being a person: in our intellectual, emotional, and moral resemblance to God, who has revealed Himself to us a personal being.
It is this likeness-image that sets human beings apart from [the rest of] the animal creation, and it is transmitted through the process of reproduction to succeeding generations (Gen. 5:1–3). It is this likeness-image of God that makes each human life so precious that nothing of however great value can possibly be offered in compensation for the taking of another’s life (Gen. 9:5–6)(p. 351).
According to Genesis then, human life is unique, and each human being is special.
Man was given dominion (Gen. 1:26). Three Hebrew words convey the idea of rule or dominion. Masal, found over 80 times in the Old Testament, is a general word denoting authority. Sapat and mispat are translated either “rule” or “judge,” and are linked with various functions of human government. But the Hebrew word in Genesis 1 is radah. Its twenty-five uses in the Old Testament refer to human’s governance of nature, and particularly animal creation, as God’s surrogate. In stating His intention to give man dominion over animal creation, God charged human beings to care for what He has made. The gift of God’s likeness-image carries with it the responsibility to guard God’s handiwork rather than to exploit it.
Adam’s creation was intimate and personal (Gen. 2:7). In Scripture’s close up of Adam’s creation, we note a striking departure. In describing the creation of the universe and the shaping of earth, Genesis 1 repeatedly records, “Then God said … and it was so.” In describing Adam’s creation, Genesis 2:7 says “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
What a difference! “Then God said … and it was so” suggests emotional distance. The picture of God stooping to form Adam’s body from the dust of the earth and then breathing life into his still form is warm and personal. God was emotionally involved. He stepped into His creation; He fashioned Adam’s body and held it in His arms; He gently breathed His own breath into Adam’s nostrils that Adam might become a living soul. God watched as Adam stirred. When Adam sat up, we can imagine God stepping back, deeply satisfied with this being who is the crown of His creation.
Adam was something totally new. His body is from earth, and in his possession of biological life Adam shared his earthly nature with the animals. But his life is from God. As a “living soul” Adam shared something of the nature of his Creator. In time, Adam’s body would grow old and die. But Adam himself, a self-aware and unique individual in whose essence God’s breath had planted eternity, would exist for evermore. Adam would forever be an object of God’s love.
In Genesis 1 and 2, we are taught foundational truths about man’s essential nature, and we catch a glimpse of man’s relationship with God.
• Man [both male and female] was created by the God who brought the universe into being.
• Man [both male and female] was given God’s likeness-image, and in this gift was set apart from the animals.
• Man [both male and female] has been granted dominion over God’s creation. We are God’s caretakers.
• Man [both male and female] is a living soul, possessing biological life but also destined for eternity.
The men we meet in Scripture have been called to live their earthly lives in relationship with the God who created them. No human being’s achievements or character can be rightly evaluated without considering how well his life reveals a whole and healthy relationship with the Lord.
ABRAHAM
Scripture references:
Genesis 12–24; Romans 4;
Galatians 3
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Date: 2100 B.C.
Name: Abram [AY-bruhm; “exalted father”]
Abraham [AY-bruh-ham; “father of a multitude”]
Main
contribution: Abraham stands in Scripture as the prime example of saving faith, and the covenant promises given him reveal God’s plans and purposes.
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ABRAHAM’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Abraham is a towering figure in history. God chose Abraham to receive a unique revelation of Himself and gave him a series of stunning covenant promises. And Abraham responded to God with faith. These two themes–covenant and faith—sum up Abraham’s unique role in Scripture’s story of people’s relationship with God.
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BIBLE BACKGROUND:
THE COVENANT PROMISES FULFILLED
In a companion volume in this series, Every Covenant and Promise in the Bible, the significance of the Genesis 12 promises and their fulfillment is traced through the entire Bible (pp. 23–27). This chart summarizes how God has or will fulfill His ancient promises.
The Promise Stated: I will The Promise Fulfilled
… make you a great nation Millions (both Arabs and Jews) have descended from Abraham.
… bless you Throughout Abraham’s long life God protected and cared for him.
… make your name great Millions in three world religions—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—revere Abraham as founder of their faith.
… you shall be a blessing Abraham’s faith-response to God revealed the key to personal relationship with God (Gen. 15:6).
… bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you Ancient and modern history shows that nations that have persecuted the Jewish people have paid a terrible price.
… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Both the Scriptures and the Savior have been given to humanity through Abraham’s descendants.
… and to your descendants I will give this land. The promise was partially fulfilled in Israel’s history, and according to Bible prophecy will be entirely fulfilled at history’s end.
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God’s Covenant promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3, 7). God spoke to a man named Abram, a citizen of Ur in what is now Iraq. Genesis 12 records what God said to him, revealing in a series of “I will” statements what God intended to accomplish in and through this wealthy but otherwise ordinary man.
The covenant promises stated (Gen. 12:1–3, 7). Here are God’s statements, understood as promises and later confirmed by the making of a formal covenant [a legally binding agreement]:
Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed. (Gen. 12:1–3)
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Abraham’s first great act of faith was to leave the city of Ur for an unknown land at God’s command.
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Later, when Abraham had obeyed God and arrived in the land God showed him, God added this promise: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).
Starting in chapter 12, the Book of Genesis tells the story of Abraham and the story of his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons. While their stories are rich in spiritual lessons, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons are significant primarily because the covenant-promises God gave Abraham were passed on to them, and through them to the Hebrew people. In a real sense, the rest of the Bible is a demonstration of God’s faithfulness to the covenant promises He gave to Abraham long ago. As the Bible’s story unfolds, we understand more and more of God’s plan for the redemption of humankind, a plan stated first in the promises He made to Abraham.
The covenant promises expanded and explained. As the Bible unfolds, the covenant promises made to Abraham are both expanded and explained. Later, God promised David that a ruler would emerge from his descendants, who would establish an everlasting kingdom. Still later, God announced that one day he would make a new covenant with Israel that would make Old Testament law obsolete. In that covenant, signed and sealed by Jesus’ death on the cross, God promised complete forgiveness of sins and inner transformation. Each of these historic events—giving of covenant promises to David, and the formal entry at Calvary into what Scripture calls the “New Covenant”—reveals more of how God intended to keep His original covenant with Abraham.
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BIBLE BACKGROUND:
THE NEW COVENANT
God revealed to Jeremiah that one day He would make a new covenant with His people (Jer. 31). That covenant, instituted by Jesus’ death and resurrection, tells us God’s plan for reversing the impact of the Fall by the transformation of those who have a personal relationship with God. The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah, showing us this plan for the blessing of all the families of earth in Abraham’s greatest descendant, Jesus Christ:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Heb. 8:10–12)
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Nearly a hundred times Scripture refers to God as “the God of Abraham” or to Abraham as the father of the Hebrew people. Each reference looks back to Abraham as the man to whom God made covenant promises. Each reference reminds us that what we know of God has been channeled to us through Abraham and his descendants.
The covenant promises: a foundation for our hope (Heb. 6:13–18). The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the significance of the promises to Abraham is not merely historical or theological. In looking back to Abraham and the promises made to him, we discover a firm basis for our own faith in God. In the promises given to Abraham and in their working out in history, we see a God who is utterly faithful to His word. The writer of Hebrews said:
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it with an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus (Heb. 6:13–29).
In looking back to Abraham and God’s promises to him, the writer of Hebrews reminds us that God made an absolute and immutable commitment. All that we know of God, we know through events that unfolded through millennia, and these events have demonstrated that God keeps His promises. It is unthinkable that the God who kept His promises to Abraham would go back on the promises He made to us in Jesus Christ.
Summing up, Abraham’s significance in Scripture is rooted first in the fact that he was the recipient of covenant promises made to him by God. Those promises give shape to salvation history, and indeed the rest of Scripture is the story of how God has kept commitments first made to Abraham. That God is still keeping those ancient covenant promises serves as a revelation of God’s character. God is ever faithful to His Word. And because God is faithful to His commitments, we who look to Jesus for salvation can be utterly confident that we are secure in Him.
Abraham’s faith in God (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4). Abraham is also significant in Scripture for his modeling of saving faith. Abraham followed God’s instructions and traveled from Ur to Canaan. Some ten years after he arrived, God spoke to Abraham again, repeating and expanding the promise of many descendants (Gen. 15:5). Although Abraham was old, and his wife Sarah had gone through menopause and was no longer fertile, Scripture says that Abraham “believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Abraham’s need for righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Unlike hagiographies, the Bible never glosses over the sins and failures of its heroes. In saying God counted Abraham’s faith “for [or as] righteousness,” the Bible makes it clear that Abraham had no righteousness of his own.
This is clear to anyone who reads the Bible’s account of Abraham’s life. Originally Abraham was a pagan who, with his family, “served other [pagan] gods” (Josh. 24:2–3). In Canaan, Abraham twice was so terrified of what strangers might do to him that he had Sarah lie about being his wife. While some have attempted to explain away Abraham’s moral failures, it is important to see that Abraham was as flawed by sin as any human being.
Why is this important? In three places the New Testament portrays Jesus refusing to permit His opponents to take comfort in the notion that they have Abraham as their father (Matt. 3:9; Luke 3:8; John 8:33, 39). While the claim by Jesus’ opponents that Abraham is their father rests on acknowledged physical descent from Abraham, far more is implied. First-century rabbinic Judaism, like Judaism today, tended to glorify Abraham. One modern Jewish commentary on Genesis stated:
God Himself was indebted to Abraham because, until he proclaimed Him as Master, the purpose of Creation had been frustrated.… What was more, he would be father to a nation that would carry on his mission of standing up to skeptics and enemies until the day when all would acknowledge its [creation’s] message and accept its teaching. Of course, Abraham could be called master of mankind because, whether they realized it or not, they owed their existence to him. But that was not all. God called him My master, because he had presented God with a gift that even He, in His infinite power, could not fashion for Himself. For even God cannot guarantee that man’s mind and heart would choose truth over evil, light over darkness, spirit over flesh, love of God over love of pleasure, recognition that the Master is God and not whatever inexorable force happens to find favor in the eyes of any current generation of non-believers (Bereishis, Vol. 1, p. 376 [1988])
The glorification of Abraham led to the doctrine that personal salvation was possible through keeping Moses’ Law and participation in the merits of Abraham. That is, God owed such a great debt to Abraham that Abraham’s merits were endlessly available to make up for any personal failures on the part of his descendants!
Christ decisively rejected any such claim, for Genesis clearly teaches that Abraham was saved by faith rather than by works. God accepted the sinner Abraham’s faith in place of a righteousness he did not have, and his faith was credited to him as if it were righteousness.
Abraham as the prototype man of faith (Rom. 4). In arguing for a salvation won for us by Jesus Christ and appropriated by faith, the apostle Paul pointed back to Abraham.
What shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification (Rom. 5:1–5, 19–25).
Paul’s point is that faith in God’s promises has always been the key to a personal relationship with God (see also Gal. 3:6–14). This truth, lost in first-century Judaism, is clearly established in Abraham’s experience with God. Abraham’s true offspring are not his biological descendants but rather those who have an Abraham-like faith in the God who makes wonderful promises to humankind.
Abraham’s role as one of Scripture’s greatest—in the sense of significant—men is firmly established. Abraham received covenant promises that revealed God’s fixed purposes and plans. In responding to God’s promises with faith, Abraham showed us the way to a personal relationship with God.
A “contradiction” (James 2)? One passage in Scripture seems to contradict Paul’s emphasis on salvation by faith. The apostle James also looked back to Abraham, but he emphasized Abraham’s works! In chapter 2 of his New Testament book, James wrote,
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only (James 2:21–24).
The apparent conflict is resolved when we realize that James was contrasting two kinds of “faith,” one of which exists as mere intellectual assent. James pointed out that the demons also believe in God—and tremble (2:19). No, the kind of faith the Bible calls for is trust, a true commitment of oneself to God.
The question James asked is how can one justify a claim to have this kind of faith? Indeed, how can God Himself show that Abraham had a “trust” kind of faith so that He was right in counting it for righteousness? The answer James gave is simple: true faith works. A true trust in God will be expressed in the believer’s daily life.
Here James pointed to one incident in Abraham’s life—his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac in response to God’s command—as evidence that Abraham’s faith was real. A claim that any man has faith, whether the claim is made by God or by the individual, is justified [vindicated, shown to be true] by his actions. For faith produces works.
In this brief paragraph, James gave us a key to use in studying Abraham’s life. Abraham, the prototype man of faith, had to learn faith’s walk step by step. He had no Scriptures to refer to, no believing parent to serve as a model. And so day by day, event by event, Abraham had to learn how to live out his faith. This is exciting for us, because you and I as men today do have a model—in Abraham! We can walk with him and learn from him how to build a faith lifestyle of our own.
ABRAHAM’S LIFE OF FAITH
First steps of faith (Gen. 12–15). Faith usually isn’t something that springs into existence full-blown. This was certainly true in Abraham’s case. Abraham’s first steps of faith were faltering.
Abraham left Ur (Gen. 12:1–5). Genesis 12:1–3 harks back to a time when Abram lived in Ur, then a major and cosmopolitan city. There God had given Abram His wonderful covenant promises, and there God had commanded:
Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house
To a land that I will show you.
(Gen. 12:1)
Abram did leave Ur. But Genesis 11 tells us that rather than go “from your family,” Abram brought his family along (11:31)! And rather than go directly to the land God would show him, Abram settled in Haran until his father Terah died. Even then when Abram set out for Canaan, he brought his nephew Lot along.
Abram’s first steps of faith were faltering ones, and his obedience to God was incomplete. Abram simply could not find the courage to set out alone in complete dependence on God. Abram tried so hard to hold on to the dear and the familiar.
Letting go is hard for us, too. What do we struggle to hold on to despite God’s call? What are we afraid to release—that we might learn to rely on God alone? Whatever it is, the day will come when we, like Abram, do set out to complete our journey of faith. How good to see that despite Abram’s failure, God’s commitment to him remained firm. However long you and I may delay, God will remain committed to us, too.
God added promise to promise (Gen. 12:6–8). It is significant that the promise “to your descendants I will give this land” was not added to the covenant until Abram actually arrived in Canaan. God has more for us than we can imagine. Yet, we’ll not discover the full riches of His provision until we act in faith and respond to God’s call.
Abram responded to circumstances rather than wait on God’s Word (Gen. 12:10). God had sent Abram to Canaan. But when the rains ceased to fall and a famine developed, Abram hurried off to Egypt in search of food. Abram reacted to circumstances rather than inquire concerning God’s will.
God may guide us through circumstances. However, God expects us to use common sense in making decisions. God had specifically led Abram to Canaan, and God had not told Abram to leave.
We’re naturally tempted to wonder, should things go wrong, if God has really led us into a difficult situation. But such situations are often intended to increase our faith, and it is important for those learning to walk by faith to discover that God has a solution already planned.
In this case, Abram relied on himself rather than God. And this led him into potential disaster.
Abram was gripped by fear (12:11–20). When Abram entered Egypt he became afraid. His wife Sarai was still beautiful, and he feared that some powerful Egyptian would kill him in order to possess her. Abram’s solution was to beg Sarai to lie about their relationship, and claim that she was merely his sister.
Unrealistic fears are one sign that we have strayed away from God’s will. Another is a strong temptation to do wrong—whatever our motive may be.
In this case, God protected Sarai and Abram from the possible consequences of his lie. God may well protect us as well. But how much better to remain in our Canaan rather than hurry to some Egypt when troubles come.
Abram risked being gracious to others (Gen. 13). When Abram was still in Ur, he built up the herds and flocks that were the wealth of nomads. As Abram and Lot now wandered through Canaan, it became clear that their herds were simply too large for them to remain together. As the eldest, Abram had the right to take his pick of the land when they separated. Instead, Abram gave Lot first choice. Lot selfishly (and foolishly) chose the verdant Jordan River valley where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah lay.
Abram had risked offering Lot first choice, and his nephew had taken advantage of him. But shortly afterward God appeared to Abram and promised, “All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (13:15). Abram learned that making himself vulnerable was no risk at all, for God was for him. Whatever he lost, God would repay many fold.
This is an important lesson to learn early in our Christian life. We, too, can trust God. Rather than act in a self-protective way, we can risk showing concern for others. Even should others take advantage of us, God will bless.
Abram rescued Lot (Gen. 14). Archaeology has documented the route taken by the raiding kings described in this chapter, and documented the natural resources they sought to obtain. In this case, the kings also stripped Sodom and Gomorrah of their wealth and their populations, taking Abram’s nephew Lot captive as well.
Abram immediately set out to rescue Lot, and succeed in retrieving all the goods and people of the fallen cities. When the king of Sodom offered to turn the recovered wealth of his city over to Abram, Abram refused. “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing … lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’ ” (Gen. 14:22–23).
Abram showed himself not only ready to depend on God completely, but he was also concerned for God’s reputation. Abram wanted the world to see that any blessing he experienced came from God, not from favor shown by others.
The promise formalized (Gen. 15). God’s response to Abram’s fresh affirmation of faith was to appear to Abram again, telling Abram not to be afraid and saying, “I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward” (15:1). In turning his back on Sodom’s wealth, Abram had lost nothing. God would guard him. No reward on earth could compare with what God had planned for him.
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Abraham failed as a husband when he begged Sarah to pretend that they were not married and then let her be taken into the king’s household.
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Abram’s response was a complaint. What could possibly have any value to Abram, seeing he still had no son? God made an utterly amazing promise to this aged, childless man. “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.… So shall your descendants be” (Gen. 15:5). And Abram responded with total and complete trust in God. He believed God.
In this we see how much Abram has grown in his walk of faith. From a man hesitant and uncertain about relying fully on God, Abram has been freed by his trust in God to be vulnerable to his nephew, bold in confronting danger, and more concerned with God’s glory than with earthly wealth. Abram has come to have complete faith that God can and will do the impossible for him!
The message for us is a wonderful one. Our young faith may falter as Abram’s did. But as the years pass and we experience more and more of God’s goodness, our faith, like Abram’s, will grow. The doubts that trouble us will dissipate, to be replaced by an unshakable confidence in the Lord.
Challenges to a mature faith (Gen. 16–24). One of the things that we learn from Abraham’s life is that faith is no guarantee of a stress-free existence. In fact, men of faith experience just as many if not more trials than others. This was certainly true for Abram.
The challenge of awaiting God’s timing (Gen. 16). When Abram and Sarah had been in Canaan for ten years, Sarah began to urge her husband to seek a child through a surrogate. It was common in Mesopotamia two thousand years before Christ for marriage contracts to include a provision that should a wife not produce an heir within as little as two years, she should procure a servant girl who would serve as a surrogate to be impregnated by her husband. Sarai had waited ten years, and she had ceased menstruating. So Abram gave in to her urgings, and had sex with Sarai’s maid Hagar, who almost immediately became pregnant.
The child Hagar bore Abram was named Ishmael, and although Abram loved him, he was not destined to inherit the covenant. Once again Abram had run ahead of God, and the consequences were disastrous. For the Islamic peoples trace their roots back to Ishmael, and the conflict between Arab and Jew has been bitter indeed.
Even those whose faith is great need to learn to wait on God. Sensing His timing, and resisting the temptation to run ahead of Him, is a challenge indeed.
The challenge of testifying to the impossible (Gen. 17:1–9). Thirteen years passed before God spoke to Abram again. This time He promised specifically that Sarah would bear Abram a son. At that time God also told Abram, “your name shall be called Abraham” (17:5).
It must have been difficult enough for the childless Abram to bear a name that meant “exalted father.” But to have his name changed to Abraham, “father of a multitude,” must have seemed a burden. In a culture where a man’s name was expected to reflect something of his essence, for a childless man nearly a hundred years old to be called Abraham was an object of ridicule. Yet from this point on, Abram is Abraham. We can imagine him returning to his tents and announcing the change to all. Abraham believed God. And He was willing to bear the ridicule in the firm confidence that God would vindicate him in due time.
Today, we live in a world that laughs at the most basic truths taught in Scripture and at Christians’ moral commitments. Like Abraham we are called to testify boldly to what seems impossible to most, in the sure and settled belief that God will vindicate us too, in His own time.
The challenge of maintaining unity (Gen. 17:9–27). On this occasion, the last statement of His covenant promises, God instituted the rite of circumcision. Throughout the Old Testament era, circumcision remained a vital symbol of membership in the covenant community.
Abraham’s challenge and that of his offspring was to see himself as a member in a community of faith. Relationship with God, while personal, is not merely individual. The faith that bonds us to God bonds us to all others who profess the same allegiance. If we are to grow to maturity we need to commit ourselves to develop nurturing relationships with other believers, for worship, fellowship, and ministry.
The challenge of appropriate prayer (Gen. 18). When God next visited Abraham, this time as the Angel of the Lord and accompanied by two angels, it was to inform him that within the year Sarah would bear the promised son. God also informed Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be judged. For fascinating insights into the role of investigator angels and the place of angels in carrying out divine judgment, see the companion volume, Every Angel and Demon in the Bible (1998).
The announcement troubled Abraham. His concern was expressed in a series of prayers. Abraham did not object to God judging sin, but Abraham was worried that some who were innocent might die with the guilty. This would tarnish God’s reputation. Abraham won a promise from God that if even ten good men could be found in Sodom and Gomorrah, God would withhold judgment. In fact, only one good man could be found in the cities: Lot. God saw to it that Lot and his family were brought out before He destroyed the cities.
We’re reminded of several things about prayer in this incident. We’re reminded that our prayers are to be driven by a desire to see God glorified. And we’re reminded that our prayers for others are welcome. God has a far deeper love for them than we do.
The challenge of continuing temptation to sin (Gen. 20). Abraham’s faith had matured. But Abraham remained a sinner, subject to the pull of his old nature. This is revealed in another incident. Again, fearing that he might be killed for the sake of his wife, Abraham asked Sarah to lie about their relationship. Again, God protected Abraham. But Scripture records Abraham’s confession—and his weakness. “I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place” (20:11).
How easy it is for us to look away from God for a moment and be overwhelmed by circumstances. Had Abraham taken a moment to consider, he would have realized that whether or not the people he feared respected God, God was present there. We are not to be confident because others believe in God but because we know God is ever present with us.
The challenge of personal heartbreak (Gen. 21:1–14). Isaac, the child of Abraham and Sarah, had now been born and, at age three or four, was being weaned. At the celebration marking this transition from infant to child, Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael teased Isaac. Sarah exploded and insisted that Abraham send Ishmael and his mother away.
Abraham refused, not only because such an act was morally wrong and legally wrong in that culture, but also because Abraham loved his son Ishmael (Gen. 21:11). Only when God confirmed that this was His will as well as Sarah’s did Abraham consent to send Ishmael away.
The separation from his son broke Abraham’s heart. All too many today, in our age of broken families, share Abraham’s pain. Yet, God’s words to Abraham can comfort us. God promised, “I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed” (Gen. 21:13). Abraham could no longer care for his son, but God would take care of Ishmael. When events beyond our control shatter a precious relationship, we need to remember those words. We may not be able to be with our loved one, but God is with him or her. If for no other reason than that the loved one is ours, God will care for him or her.
The challenge of surrendering all (Gen. 22). All Abraham had left was his son Isaac. But when Isaac was a young teenager, God claimed Isaac too. He commanded Abraham to take his son to Mount Moriah [later to be known as Mount Zion], and to sacrifice Isaac there.
The text tells us that Abraham “rose early in the morning” (22:3) and set out with his son. How stunning! Despite the awful import of the command, Abraham did not wait to obey. What a difference from the man whose reluctant journey to Canaan had taken so many years!
Years later, the writer of Hebrews recalled Abraham’s words to two servants who accompanied father and son on their journey: “The lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Gen. 22:5). The New Testament interprets this in a fascinating way. Abraham’s faith in God’s promise that “in Isaac your seed shall be called” was so firm that he concluded “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Heb. 11:18).
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Abraham was willing to offer his son Isaac because he was convinced that God could raise Isaac from the dead if that were necessary to keep His promises.
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At times, we too are called to surrender what is nearest and dearest to us. Faith reminds us that, no matter how great the loss may seem, God will never take away more than He gives.
The challenge of the death of loved ones (Gen. 23). Sarah, who had shared Abraham’s life for well over half a century, now died. Abraham went about the sad task of arranging for the burial of this one he had loved so long. Of all the ills human beings are subject to, the loss of loved ones may be the most painful. Yet faith looks beyond the loss to a grand reunion in God’s future, dawning day.
The challenge of relying on others (Gen. 24). It was now time for Isaac to wed. Abraham, unwilling for his son to marry one of the women of Canaan, sent the most responsible servant in his household on a mission to find a bride for Isaac. Quieting the servant’s doubts, Abraham quietly said, “The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family … He will send His angel before you” (24:7).
It’s hard for most men to delegate responsibility. We feel confident in what we do ourselves but less sure of others. Abraham’s example helps us understand how to approach situations in which we must rely on others. First, choose the right person. Abraham selected “the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had” (Gen. 24:2). Second, instruct him carefully. Abraham made his expectations clear (Gen. 24:3–4). And third, Abraham trusted God to work in and through the man he had chosen (Gen. 24:7).
We need to be wise in who we select to take on responsibilities for us, and careful to prepare them. But then we need to trust God to work through them.
The challenge of aging and death (Gen. 25:1–11). Abraham’s last challenge was to face his own mortality. As Abraham drew near the end of his life, he was forced to realize that his day was past. His descendants would play their part in fulfilling God’s purposes, but Abraham’s moment on history’s stage was drawing to an end.
It’s hard for men of action to come to grips with inactivity. It’s hard for those who have done great things to realize that nothing remains for them to do. As life draws near its end, each of us must focus anew on our relationship with God, and realize afresh that knowing Him is the most significant thing of all.
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CHALLENGES TO A MAN’S MATURE FAITH
• Awaiting God’s timing
• Testifying to the impossible
• Maintaining unity with others
• Praying appropriately
• Resisting continuing temptations
• Trusting despite heartbreak
• Being willing to surrender all
• Loss of loved ones
• Relying on others
• Facing personal mortality
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EXPLORING ABRAHAM’S RELATIONSHIPS
As we read the chapters in Genesis devoted to Abraham, we can clearly see that he had several significant relationships.
Abraham’s relationship with Lot (Gen. 12–14; 18; 19). Lot was Abraham’s nephew, the son of Abraham’s brother Haran. Haran had died years before in Ur (Gen. 11:27–28); it’s likely that Abraham looked on his nephew almost as a son. It’s no wonder that despite God’s command to leave family behind, Abraham took Lot with him when he came to Canaan.
Competition develops (Gen. 13). In letting his emotions rather than God guide him, Abraham did his nephew no favor. Lot had inherited his herds and flocks along with servants to care for them. The trouble was that when Abraham and Lot traveled together, “the land was not able to support them” (Gen. 13:6). The conflict began with the herdsmen as they competed for grass and water, but soon the hard feelings infected Lot’s and Abraham’s relationship too (Gen. 13:8).
Lot’s selfish choice (Gen. 13). Abraham took the initiative to restore peace. In doing so, he surrendered his rights as eldest and offered Lot first choice of the whole land. Lot looked over the land and selfishly chose the best for himself: “all the plain of Jordan … well watered everywhere” (Gen. 13:10). This left the less desirable highlands for Abraham, but Abraham neither complained nor resented Lot’s choice. What neither grasped then was that the men of the cities of the plain “were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD” (13:13). In disobeying God and bringing Lot with him to Canaan, Abraham had inadvertently placed his nephew in a danger neither could imagine.
Abraham’s loyal love (Gen. 14). The first hint of danger came when raiding kings overwhelmed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and took their populations captive. When Abraham heard that Lot was among the captives, he quickly organized a nighttime raid that startled the enemy into flight. Lot was rescued from the most obvious danger, and then he returned to Sodom!
Lot’s compromise (Gen. 18; 19). The real danger, however, was moral. Lot had settled among a wicked and immoral people. He was wealthy and comfortable, but the society he lived in was corrupt. Yet Lot, knowing the character of the men of the land, chose to remain among them, not imagining that God was about to destroy the wicked cities.
Abraham’s intercessory prayer (Gen. 18). When God told Abraham of His intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham must have thought immediately of Lot. Although not stated in Scripture, Abraham’s concern for Lot must have been in Abraham’s mind as he pleaded with God on behalf of any “righteous” among the wicked men God was determined to destroy. God too was concerned for Lot, and the angels sent to investigate Sodom’s sins carried Lot and his family to safety. Yet in the process, Lot lost his wife and all his wealth. The riches Lot had compromised his convictions to enjoy were burned to ashes, and he was reduced to poverty, living with his two daughters in a cave.
Genesis makes it clear that Abraham was intensely loyal to Lot and remained loyal to the end. Even when Lot behaved selfishly, Abraham was committed to his nephew. Loyalty is an admirable trait in any man, but in this case, Abraham’s loyalty to Lot had moved him to disobey God’s command. In the end, Abraham’s loyalty did Lot far more harm than good.
You and I may be so loyal to our sons or daughters that we act protectively even when we know deep down that we should release them to mature on their own. Should God lead us to release our loved ones to find His path for them without us, we need to let them go.
Abraham’s relationship with Sarah (Gen. 13–21). Sarah was Abraham’s companion for many decades. Yet only four incidents involving her directly are recorded in the text.
Abraham’s shocking requests (Gen. 13; 20). We’re told of two incidents in which Abraham asked Sarah to lie about their relationship. In each case, the lie resulted in Sarah’s being taken from Abraham’s tents and installed in a pagan ruler’s harem. In each case, God protected Sarah’s virtue despite Abraham’s betrayal of their relationship.
It is hard to view Abraham’s actions, motivated as they were by fear, as anything but betrayal. Husbands are supposed to love their wives, to protect and sacrifice for them. Abraham asked his wife to sacrifice for him. Surely Abraham’s actions damaged their relationship, robbing Sarah of trust in her husband, and burdening Abraham with a load of shame.
Sarah’s suggestion of a surrogate (Gen. 16:1–6). After years of childlessness, Sarah urged Abraham to give her a child through a surrogate, her maid Hagar. This was common practice in the ancient East, and any child Hagar bore would legally be considered Sarah’s (see 16:2).
Strikingly, this incident is reported immediately after the account in Genesis 15 in which God reaffirmed His promise of descendants to Abraham. Did Abraham share what God had told him with Sarah? If he had, wouldn’t the two have found grace to wait for God to act, rather than taking matters into their own hands? We cannot know, but the juxtaposition of these two stories is suggestive indeed. Sarah, without the reassurance God had given Abraham, panicked. But rather than relate his experience to his wife to give her perspective, Abraham “heeded [her] voice” (16:2).
Nothing turned out as expected. When Hagar became pregnant, she showed contempt for Sarah, as the couple’s childlessness was clearly not due to Abraham’s impotence. The hostility between Sarah and Hagar poisoned any possibility that Sarah might love and accept Hagar’s child as her own. And Sarah blamed Abraham, saying, “My wrong be upon you!” (16:5).
Sarah’s angry demand (Gen. 21). When Ishmael, the son Hagar bore Abraham, was a teenager, Sarah had her own son, Isaac. When Ishmael teased [NKJV “scoffing”] Isaac, Sarah demanded that Ishmael and Hagar be sent away. This time Abraham refused. Abraham truly cared for his son Ishmael. Only when God intervened and told Abraham to do as Sarah had said did Abraham agree.
In this case, despite Sarah’s selfish motives, she was in harmony with God’s purposes. Isaac and Ishmael represented two contrasting principles: promise, which depends entirely on God’s work in and for us; and works, which rely on what human beings can do for themselves. Only the miracle-child Isaac could truly symbolize the outcome of Abraham’s faith in God.
Ultimately Abraham’s relationship with Sarah can only be described as flawed but fruitful. We cannot doubt that a true love existed between these two saints, or that their love enabled each to overlook flaws in the other. However, we cannot explain away Abraham’s cowardly sacrifice of Sarah to his fears. Yet, Sarah out of love was willing to risk herself to protect her husband. Concern for his childless wife as well as his own desire for offspring led Abraham to have sex with Hagar. Sarah had desperately wanted a son; Abraham was willing to take this means to give her one. Yet Abraham was wrong not to share more openly with Sarah about his meetings with God.
As in most marriages, each spouse hurt the other, not intentionally, but nevertheless painfully. And as in most marriages, each forgave, and Abraham and Sarah continued to build a life together. Perhaps this is the most basic message for us from Abraham’s relationship with Sarah. Their marriage wasn’t perfect, but they remained committed to each other. The life they shared was a fruitful one indeed.
Whatever our spouse’s flaws, we need to remember that we, too, are imperfect, and trust that through mutual forgiveness and commitment our marriages will be fruitful too.
Abraham’s relationship with Ishmael (Gen. 21; 25:7–8). Our insight into Abraham’s relationship with Ishmael comes first from chapter 21. Abraham was eighty-six when Ishmael was born (Gen. 16:16) and had fourteen years to bond with his boy before Isaac’s birth. And bond Abraham did! When Sarah demanded that he send the then nineteen-year-old Ishmael away, Abraham was distressed “because of his son” (Gen. 21:11). When God confirmed Sarah’s demand and told Abraham to send Ishmael away, Abraham must have been heartbroken. Yet, he did as God said. And God promised that He Himself would watch over Ishmael and make him a great people for Abraham’s sake.
In this day of easy divorce and broken homes, many fathers share Abraham’s pain. They are separated from their children, for whatever reason. And not only do many of them hurt; many must wonder whether their children will ever understand or forgive. In such cases one can only follow Abraham’s course and trust the children into God’s loving hands. And this is good. Yet Scripture adds a word of additional comfort.
Years later, when Abraham died, the Bible tells us that “his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah” (Gen. 25:9). Ishmael had understood after all! In the years after Sarah’s death, father and son must have been reconciled. What a relief to know that if we continue to love our children, in time they will understand.
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Abraham paid in pain for the lack of faith shown when he fathered a son by Hagar, Sarah’s maid. Later his heart was broken when he had to send this son, Ishmael, away.
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Abraham’s relationship with Isaac (Gen. 22). Genesis tells us that God tested Abraham telling him to “take now … your only son Isaac, whom you love” (Gen. 22:2). Abraham was to take Isaac to Mount Moriah (Zion) and sacrifice him there.
The description of the incident records touching words exchanged by the two. After reaching the foot of the mountain, Abraham and his son set out together, bringing wood for the burnt offering and a knife. Isaac looked up at his father trustingly and asked, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham could only reply: “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”
Reaching the top of the mountain, Abraham built an altar and then bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar. Isaac trustingly let his father tie him, and then looked up as Abraham picked up the knife. Only then did a voice from heaven call Abraham and point out a ram caught in a nearby thicket. God had provided the sacrifice. Abraham had demonstrated his trust in God—and Isaac had demonstrated trust in his father.
We can find many lessons in this brief story. Abraham had shown himself willing to surrender what he loved most should God require it. Only as complete a trust in God as Abraham’s will enable us freely to give up to God what we love, confident that He has something better in mind for us.
Isaac also demonstrated a remarkable trust in Abraham. Isaac knew his father loved him. A healthy father-son relationship marked by love and trust makes the son’s transition to trust in God a natural and easy one.
But the story of these two tells us even more about God. In the end, God could not ask Abraham to sacrifice his only and dearly loved son. Yet, one day God would lead His own beloved Son to Calvary’s cross, and Jesus Christ would die there for us. For Christ there would be no reprieve. God the Father would fully experience the pain that for a few brief days Abraham had looked forward to but from which he had been spared.
ABRAHAM: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Abraham is truly one of Scripture’s towering figures. Yet he lived his life as a nomad far from any ancient seat of power. What made Abraham so significant was not, as some have suggested, his “invention” of monotheism, but the fact that the God of the universe spoke to Abraham—and Abraham responded with faith.
Abraham’s long life was marked by challenges that required him to exercise faith. At times, Abraham’s faith failed. Yet, we can see the growth in his faith as Abraham experienced more and more of God.
Abraham’s relationships involved long-term commitments to the others in his life. While Abraham may not have been wise in his relationships with either Lot or Sarah, he most surely was loyal. Perhaps considering our many failings, loyalty and commitment are the most important gifts we can give to those we love.
All in all, Abraham was a man to be respected and admired. We can hardly describe him more appropriately than did the writer of the Book of Hebrews, who said in chapter 11:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11:8–10).
What lessons can a man take away from a study of Abraham’s life? Certainly the following:
• Trust in God and His promises is the only sure foundation on which a man can build his life.
• As we meet each new challenge, we need consciously to rely on God for guidance and for strength.
• We need to remain aware of our fallibility, and live humbly in the sight of others and of God.
• Like Abraham, we need to invest in our long-term relationships with spouse, family, and friends. We must set aside time and energy to nurture our relationships with those who are important in our lives.

MOSES
Scripture references:
Exodus-Deuteronomy;
The Gospels, Hebrews 2; 11
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Date: About 1520–1400 B.C.
Name: Moses [MOH-zuhs; “drawn-out”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Moses was God’s agent in delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and in giving them His Law.
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MOSES’ ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
We cannot praise Moses’ significance too highly. Moses’ name is mentioned some 850 times in the Old Testament in 787 verses. His name is found 80 times in the New Testament, in 79 verses. He is the traditional author of the first five books of the Bible and the dominant figure in four of them. His ministry during a definitive period of Old Testament history is absolutely unique.
Moses’ role in Scripture can be summed up under four headings. Moses was a miracle worker, a channel through whom God’s power was revealed to Israel, to Egypt, and to us today. Moses was the prototype prophet, a spokesman for God through whom God revealed Himself and His will. Moses was the lawgiver, who at Sinai recorded God’s commandments and the precepts that were to shape the lives of the Israelites. And Moses was a leader, whose struggles with the Israelites and whose prayers to God for them both have encouraged and guided those in spiritual leadership ever since.
Without question, Moses is one of the dominant figures of the Old Testament and remains the central figure in Judaism to this day.
MOSES IN JUDAISM
In The Book of Jewish Knowledge, Nathan Ausubel writes of Moses:
To the persecuted Jewish people—rootless human beings feeling the need for emotional as well as physical security—Moses appeared as a powerful father-image. He was the indomitable, the wise, the righteous, the comforting father who had been protectingly, in times of crisis, like a shield and a buckler for their ancestors, the children of Israel, and had led them into freedom when they were slaves in Egypt. And whenever God had lost patience with them on account of their backsliding, Moses had stood between them and His wrath and had pleaded their wretched cause for them—his straying sheep.…
To this day, after thirty-two centuries, Moses remains an exemplar of social morality, law, and justice not only to the adherents of three world religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—but also to countless millions of the religiously uncommitted or even downright skeptics and unbelievers. His greatness transcends the sectarian limits of theological dogma or institutional separation. By his intellectual power and moral will, and with his organizational genius to serve both, he was able to hammer a self-respecting people out of a brutalized conglomeration of former slaves. He taught them to abide by a system of morality and law—not a philosophical or utopian system like that described in Plato’s theorizing blueprint for an ideal Republic of superiors, but one realistic and practical enough to enable a people who lived by it to cope with the daily problems of living; working, suffering and striving to create under it a happier and more just society of equals. Therein lies his achievement in the history of human progress (p. 306).
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Boats made of bundles of papyrus reeds carried cargo on the Nile River from before the time of Moses well into New Testament times.
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MOSES’ LIFE AND TIMES
Moses was born into a family of Hebrew slaves. Some twenty years earlier, about1540 B.C., West Semitic peoples known as the Hyksos had finally been driven from Egypt by Ahmose I. Before that, the Hyksos had supplanted the Egyptian rulers and had governed as pharaohs some one hundred years. Perhaps partly because the Hebrews were also a Semitic people, Pharaoh intended to take no chances that the Israelites would support his enemy (see Ex. 1:10). Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and set them to forced labor. He also determined to limit severely the Hebrew population, and ordered the midwives of Egypt to kill any male children born to the Israelites. When this attempt at population control failed, Pharaoh commanded “all his people” to see that every male Hebrew infant should be thrown in the River Nile.
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Was this the princess who rescued Moses? The Nelson Illustrated Bible Handbook comments on the possibility:
It is possible that the daughter of Pharaoh who finds him is Hatshepsut, only living child of Thutmose I…
As a woman, Hatshepsut could not take the throne in her own right. So she married a brother, born to one of her father’s lesser wives. On his death, the throne passed to one of his younger brothers, who was then about 10. Hatshepsut seized the throne and ruled for another 22 years. After her death the long suppressed and bitter king, Thutmose II, ordered every mention of Hatshepsut obliterated. Throughout all Egypt her statues were defaced and her name chiseled from stone inscriptions. Undoubtedly Thutmose, who went on to become the greatest ruler in Egyptian history, would have hated Moses, and welcomed any excuse to kill him (p. 73).
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Moses’ childhood (Ex. 2:1–10). When Moses was born about 1520 B.C. his parents obeyed Pharaoh’s command. Only they first placed their boy child in a basket-boat, woven of papyrus reeds! Every Sunday school child has heard the story of baby Moses found floating in his basket boat by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses was adopted by the princess, who hired Moses’ own mother as his wet nurse. As children in biblical times frequently were not weaned until age four, Moses would have heard the stories of his people from his mother during his most impressionable years. Later when Moses was an adult, he identified himself with the Israelites rather than the Egyptians and dreamed of freeing them from slavery.
Moses’ education. As the adoptive child of an Egyptian princess, Moses would have received the best education Egypt had to offer. Interestingly, attendance records from the royal schools of the era list the names of other Semitic boys being trained for roles in Egypt’s bureaucracy.
Moses’ formal education would have lasted for about twelve years. Afterward, he would probably have received additional training in diplomacy and the military. Some have suggested that Moses was probably fluent in some four or five languages of the time.
A reference in Hebrews 11:24 speaks of Moses as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Some have speculated that this is in fact a title, reflecting the fact that in Egypt the royal line was passed through the daughter, rather than directly to the son. If Moses was considered the “son of Pharaoh’s daughter” and was in line for the throne, we can understand why Moses would have received the best education Egypt had to offer!
Moses’ rash act (Ex. 2:11–22). When Moses was forty, he noticed an Egyptian taskmaster brutalizing a Hebrew slave. Looking around to see that he was unobserved, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body.
Later when Moses tried to intervene in a dispute between two Hebrews, he discovered that the killing was known! Before long, word of what Moses had done came to Pharaoh, and the text says that Pharaoh “sought to kill Moses” (Ex. 2:15). It may well be that Moses’ rash act had given the Pharaoh an excuse to rid himself of someone he already hated! At any rate, Moses realized his only hope was to flee. And he did.
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Moses wandered in the Sinai desert as a shepherd, and later he led Israel to Mount Sinai, modern Jebel Musa.
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Moses in the Sinai (Ex. 2:15–25). In the time of Moses, the Sinai Peninsula was largely uninhabited, although the Egyptians had long mined it for semi-precious stones. In that desolate wilderness, Moses found a small group of Midianite shepherds whom he joined. In time, he married the daughter of Jethro, the Midianite clan and religious leader. Moses himself became a shepherd, and the text tells us that for the next forty years Moses “was content to live” there (Ex. 2:21).
For forty years, Moses lived the quiet life of a wilderness shepherd, so different from his life in the court of Egypt. During that forty years, Moses’ dream of delivering his people died. His grand vision of himself gradually shrank until, finally humbled, Moses was fitted for the task God had in mind all along.
Moses’ call by God (Ex. 3–4). When Moses was eighty years old, God appeared to him in a burning bush and commissioned Moses as His people’s deliverer.
Reading the text, it’s clear that Moses didn’t want to go. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (3:11) was Moses’ immediate response to the Lord. Rather than being unwilling, Moses was uncertain. He had at last become fully aware of his own inadequacies, and seeing his limitations more clearly, Moses was understandably hesitant. Even though God promised to go with Moses, Moses still made excuses. Moses wouldn’t know what to say (Ex. 3:13). He didn’t know enough about God to represent Him (Ex. 3:13). Moses was sure that even the Israelites wouldn’t believe him (Ex. 4:1). He was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex. 4:10). Despite the fact that God had an answer for every excuse, Moses begged, “O my LORD, please send by the hand of whomsoever else You may send” (4:13).
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Pharaoh’s response to Moses’ demand for freedom was to increase the workload of the Hebrew slaves.
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In this, Moses was very much like many of us today. We hesitate when called by God to act for Him; we fix our eyes on our inadequacies rather than on His sufficiency. The later accomplishments of Moses, who finally did obey the Lord, are a healthy reminder to you and me. We may be utterly correct in our assessment of our weaknesses, but to those whom God lends His strength, weaknesses are irrelevant. We are not to plead, “Send someone else.” We are to respond, and set out in faith to obey.
Moses’ confrontation of Pharaoh (Ex. 5–15). Moses finally responded to God’s commission and did confront Pharaoh. The biblical text tells us that those who had sought Moses’ life were now dead (Ex 4:19). The arrogant Pharaoh with whom Moses had to deal was likely a young man, filled with himself and with the foolish confidence of youth.
The familiar story of the miracle plagues that finally drove Pharaoh to his knees is told in chapters 7–13. In the end, Pharaoh changed his mind once again about his slaves, and set out with his army to recapture the Israelites. This choice doomed the Egyptian forces, for they followed the Israelites into a sea whose waters God had parted, only to have the same waters close on the pursuing Egyptians.
For a detailed study of the plagues and associated miracles, see the companion book in this series, Every Miracle and Wonder in the Bible.
Moses as Lawgiver (Ex. 18—Deut.). Moses had succeeded in bringing some two and a half million Israelites out of Egypt (see Num. 1:46, which numbers only males of military age). God Himself provided a cloudy-fiery pillar that led the Israelites deep into the Sinai peninsula to Mount Sinai. It was there that Moses was given not only the Ten Commandments but also the various regulations that would govern the daily lives of the Israelites from that time forward. It is a mistake to think of “the Law” only as the Ten Commandments, for it also details worship regulations, criminal law, and civil law, defines acceptable sexual relationships and diet, and much more. Moses’ role in the giving of the Law is so central that both Testaments frequently refer to the Sinai revelation as the “Law of Moses.”
In this context, Moses is not only called a prophet, but He serves as the model prophet. Simply put, a prophet serves as God’s spokesman, delivering a message from God to human beings. Deuteronomy 18 forbade Israel to consult with any occult source. There Moses promised that God would “raise up for [Israel] a Prophet like [Moses] from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth” (Deut. 18:18). The Prophet like Moses to whom this verse refers is Jesus Christ. Yet the verse also relates to the many prophets who, throughout Israel’s history, appeared at critical times to serve as God’s spokespersons.
In what way, however, were the prophetic ministries of Moses and Christ parallel? The revelation given through these two set sacred history on a new and unexpected course. The revelation given through Moses served as the basis for the founding of a people and a nation; a basis that established the identity of Old Testament Israel as God’s own people. The revelation given through Jesus Christ, which supplanted the Mosaic revelation, served as the basis for the founding of another people of God; not a nation, but the very body of Christ in which we Christians find our identity as God’s Own.
Moses as leader (Ex. 16—Deut.). In the Pentateuch, we discover a Moses who was a leader as well as a miracle worker, lawgiver, and prophet. In these aspects, Moses proved very human indeed. The people whom Moses led were troublesome and rebellious, and Moses felt all the frustration, anger, and pain that can accompany the struggle to lead an unresponsive people. Yet, Moses remained faithful to his task, and frequently interceded with God on the Israelites’ behalf. Moses’ prayers on Israel’s behalf merit intense study on their own, as a challenge and an encouragement for pastors and for parents.
For forty years, Moses led two generations of Israelites. Those who failed to respond to God and rebelled against Moses’ leadership died in the wilderness outside the promised land. Moses then led their sons and daughters, a purified and responsive people, to the borders of the land God had promised to Abraham’s offspring. There, finally, Moses died, but only after seeing from a distance the land he had dreamed of from childhood. Moses’ dream had come true in the most unexpected way.
For forty years, Moses was a privileged prince of Egypt, picturing himself as his people’s deliverer. For the next forty years, Moses was a humble shepherd isolated in an empty wilderness, finally aware of his own inadequacies. And for his last forty years, Moses was an agent of God on earth, accomplishing far more in his old age than he could ever have imagined. By God’s grace and sovereign choice, Moses had become the miracle worker, lawgiver, prophet, and leader who towers over every other Old Testament character, the greatest of the Old Testament’s great men.
EXPLORING MOSES’ RELATIONSHIPS
The biblical account describes several sustained relationships maintained by Moses. Moses’ mother had a significant impact in shaping Moses’ sense of personal identity. He grew up seeing himself as a Hebrew rather than as a member of Egyptian royalty. Yet, we have no description of the interaction between mother and son. It is also clear that Moses’ sister Miriam played a significant role in his life, not only during Moses’ infancy but also in his later ministry as a leader. [Miriam is discussed in depth in the companion volume in this series, Every Woman in the Bible.] We have much more information on Moses’ relationship with his older brother, Aaron. That relationship is explored in the chapter on notable priests of the Old Testament (see page 140). Similarly, Moses’ relationship to the young Egyptian Pharaoh of the Exodus will be explored in the article on that Pharaoh, on page 134. The two most important relationships, each of which receives extensive attention in the biblical text, must be examined here. These are Moses’ relationship with God, and Moses’ relationship with the Israelites.
MOSES’ RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
The relationship begins: the burning bush (Ex. 3:1–4:17). We might argue that Moses knew God before the incident at the burning bush. The stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and of their God that Moses had heard from his mother had such an impact on Moses that he identified with the Hebrew people despite his privileged position in the Egyptian royal family. Yet Moses’ personal relationship with God clearly began when he was some 80 years old and was caring for sheep in the Sinai wilderness. There God spoke to him from a bush that burned yet was not consumed. And there three significant things occurred.
God commissioned Moses for his mission (Ex. 3:6–10). When God had identified Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord told Moses He had seen the oppression of His people and heard their cries. God revealed Himself to Moses at this time because He intended to deliver the Israelites and bring them home to the Promised Land. Moses must have been utterly nonplused when God told him, “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (3:10).
God revealed His personal name to Moses (3:11–22). The forty years Moses had spent in the wilderness had taken away his native arrogance and pride as well as his early dream of being Israel’s deliverer. Now when God appeared to commission Moses for the task he had once yearned to accomplish, Moses resisted. His self-effacing “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh” (3:11) revealed a man who had come to face his inadequacies and to know himself all too well. The depth of his humbling is further revealed in the series of objections he raised during this conversation with God:
• “What shall I say to them” (3:13).
• “But suppose they will not believe me” (4:1).
• “O my Lord, I am not eloquent … I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (4:10).
• “O my Lord, please send … whomever else You may send” (4:13).
God’s initial response to the hesitant Moses was to promise to be with him, and then to reveal His personal name, Yahweh, which is represented in our English versions by “LORD.” That most significant of God’s biblical names, rendered “I AM” in our English text, may be better translated as “The One Who Is Always Present.” Moses and all Israel were about to come to know God as the Ever-Present One whose closeness guaranteed their release. The events about to take place in Egypt and at the Red Sea would forever shape Israel’s and the world’s image of God. No wonder God told Moses, “This is My name forever” (3:15). [For a thorough exposition of the significance of the name Yahweh, see the companion volume in this series, Every Name and Title of God in the Bible.]
Moses would succeed, not because of his personal gifts or endowments, but because God was with Him. The humility Moses had learned during the forty years he had been in the desert would enable him to remain completely dependent on God. That dependence on the Lord was the key to Moses’ greatness.
What a wonderful lesson here for each of us. Spiritual significance is not a matter of our abilities, our talents, or even our gifts. God can and will use those who have learned humility and who as a consequence remain totally, trustingly dependent on Him.
God equipped Moses for his ministry (Ex. 4:1–17). The essential equipment for any successful ministry is a dependence on God, expressed as a ready response to His leading. Moses however was given two unusual gifts.
The first was knowledge of what God intended to do. The Lord plainly told Moses that Egypt’s Pharaoh would resist releasing his slaves and that the Lord would then “stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders” (Ex. 3:19–20). It is fascinating that with both Abraham and Moses God announced His intentions beforehand. Just as fascinating is that through Abraham and Moses God announced His intentions to us. The great “I will” statements to Abraham set the course of redemption history, and God’s promise of a Prophet like Moses set the stage for the coming of Christ and His totally unexpected revelation of the cross and Christianity.
But God also equipped Moses with two simple “signs.” This word for miracles emphasizes that such interventions by God authenticate both His presence and His prophet. The word reminds us that when God so chooses, He can intervene in our world in ways that simply cannot be explained by reference to either trickery or to natural law’s reliance on cause and effect. The two simple signs God gave Moses—the ability to turn his staff into a snake and back to staff again, and the ability to turn his arm leprous and restore it to health—were enough to convince both Moses and the Israelites of God’s presence. It would take far greater and more devastating signs to convince Pharaoh, but these signs, too, would be present when the occasion required.
This is worth meditating on. God goes with His own. He equips us with whatever we need to accomplish His purpose in our lives.
Moses’ relationship with God is tested (Ex. 5:1–7:7). Moses’ first approach to Pharaoh on behalf of Israel proved to be a disaster. The young Pharaoh was understandably contemptuous of Moses and of his God. In the ancient world, one measure of the power of a people’s deities was assumed to be that people’s relationship with other nations. At the time Egypt was not only wealthy but also the dominant power in the region. The Hebrews were an oppressed population of slaves. Weighed in Pharaoh’s balance, the God of slaves seemed weak and feeble indeed.
In utter contempt, Pharaoh increased the burden placed on the Hebrews, causing the Israelites to accuse Moses of putting “a sword” (5:21) in Pharaoh’s hand to kill them. Moses, stunned by this turn of events, turned to God with a complaint of his own. “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all” (Ex. 5:22, 23). The pattern seen here would be followed throughout Moses’ last forty years. When things seemed to go wrong, the Israelites would murmur and complain to Moses. Moses would take his own frustrations and uncertainties to God (see Ex. 17:1).
In this, the Israelites sinned, while Moses showed respect for God. The Israelites failed to look beyond circumstances and realize that a sovereign God had His hand on every event. Moses understood that however he might feel about an event and however in the dark he might be about God’s purposes, God was at work in the situation. The Israelites’ failure to look to God as Moses consistently did is a stunning revelation of their spiritual insensitivity, while Moses’ immediate acknowledgment of God’s responsibility for what was happening demonstrated a true faith in the Lord.
Here, too, is a vital lesson for Christians today. Events will often test the quality of our relationship with God. It will be so easy to complain about others or about our circumstances. All too often we complain to others. This is an ungodly response. The godly follow Moses’ example, recognize God’s hand in events, and bring their complaints to Him.
God responded to Moses’ complaint by giving him the perspective he needed. Pharaoh would resist, but God would “multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt” (Ex. 7:3) and so convince Israel, Egypt, and future generations that He, the Lord, surely is God.
Moses’ relationship with God is revealed (Ex. 7:8–15). Moses had been called by God and given a mission. He was to win the release of the Israelite slaves. In a most significant interchange the Lord told Moses, “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you” (7:1–2).
This statement was made in response to yet another of Moses’ expressions of inadequacy: “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me” (6:30). God’s answer was that Moses would represent Him to Pharaoh. Through Moses’ words and actions, God would be revealed to the disbelieving Egyptians.
Moses did represent God before Pharaoh, and when Pharaoh ridiculed the God Moses represented, devastating plagues struck Egypt at Moses’ word. Those same plagues departed at Moses’ word. The reality of Moses’ relationship with God was displayed in the works God performed through Him. The reality of Moses’ relationship with God was revealed. Through His relationship with Moses, God revealed Himself.
This remains true today. God will communicate His reality through the walk and the words of believers who love Him and live close to Him. Spiritual power and effectiveness are as dependent today on maintaining a close relationship with the Lord as they were in Moses’ time. When we maintain this relationship, God will be able to use us as He did Moses. He will use us, not to carry out Moses’ mission, but rather to fulfill His purpose in our lives. The reality of our relationship with God will be revealed in the works God does in us; works that in truth will reveal Him.
Moses’ relationship with God transforms (Ex. 32:1–14). Moses led the Israelites away from Egypt into the Sinai peninsula. When they reached Mount Sinai, God gave Israel the law through Moses. Exodus 32 tells one of the darker stories of the period. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites camped on the plains below Sinai. They came to Aaron, Moses’ brother, and demanded: “Make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Ex. 32:1). Aaron gave in to them and fashioned a golden calf. The Israelites imagined an invisible deity sat astride this calf. God informed Moses of what was happening below, and said, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation” (Ex. 32:9–10).
What is significant for us here is not any theological questions the verse raises, but rather Moses’ response. For Moses pleaded with God, saying:
“LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever’ ” (Ex. 32:11–13).
There are several things to note about this prayer. First, Moses expressed a concern for God’s glory. To turn against the Israelites at that point would have exposed God as a failure, unable to accomplish His stated purpose (32:12). Second, Moses reminded God of His Word. Surely the Lord would not go back on the covenant commitments He had made to the patriarchs.
In this prayer, we see into Moses’ heart. Whatever His motives were as a youth when he dreamed of freeing the Israelites, His motives at this point were pure. Moses sought not fame for himself; rather, he sought glory for his God.
This same motivation was expressed in a similar prayer uttered just after the Israelites rebelled at Kadesh Barnea and refused to enter the promised land (Num. 14). There, too, Moses prayed for a rebellious people, and there, too, Moses’ intent was to glorify God.
The text adds a fascinating insight. After Moses’ prayer was granted on Mount Sinai, he went down the mountain. But when he saw the golden calf idol and the “dancing” [orgy] taking place around it, “Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets [stones, on which the Ten Commandments had been recorded] out of his hands and broke them” (32:19).
God had preserved Moses’ perspective by reporting what was happening while Moses was still on the mountain. Isolated from the awful offenses, Moses retained his perspective, and was able to plead with God. If Moses had first seen the people sinning, in His anger He might well have responded as God had, and determined on extermination.
It’s hard for us, being human, to be balanced in our responses to sin. On the one hand, the godly feel revulsion and anger at humanity’s inhumanities. On the other hand, we are to be concerned for the honor of God who is glorified as much in His displays of grace as in His righteous judgments. All we can do is keep our desire focused on glorifying God, and our thoughts purified by a knowledge of His Word.
Scripture’s own evaluation of Moses makes it clear how completely his relationship with God transformed Moses. The Bible tells us that “the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11). Hebrews 3:5 praises Moses as a man who was “faithful in all His [God’s] house as a servant.” Moses, at times referred to as “the man of God” (Deut 33:1; Josh. 14:6), had been transformed indeed by his personal relationship with God.
Moses yearns to know God better (Ex. 33:13–23). Despite Moses’ godly response to the Israelites’ sin with the golden calf, the incident shook Moses to his core. Yet, Moses prayed that the people’s sin might be forgiven. God did announce that He would punish the individuals who had engaged in the idolatry. He forgave the rest and promised that despite the Israelites’ sins He would bring them into the Promised Land. Moses warned the Israelites that God could easily destroy them, and Moses himself continued to meet with the Lord. This intimate relationship with God sustained Moses during the difficult years ahead—years during which the Israelites again and again revealed a hostile and angry spirit and caused Moses, as well as God, intense pain.
God sustained His prophet with a promise: “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:14). To Moses it was increasingly clear that God’s Presence was Israel’s only hope—and his own only support.
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Israel worshiped at the portable tabernacle for some 400 years after the Exodus.
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Eager to know God even better, Moses begged the Lord, “Please, show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18). Here “glory” refers to the divine essence. Moses yearned to see God as He truly is, fully revealed. God refused, for “no man shall see Me, and live.” But God did promise to “make all My goodness pass before you” (33:19). The Lord then placed Moses in a fissure in the rock wall of Mount Sinai until His glory had passed by. And then God allowed Moses to see His back, not His face.
The imagery here is metaphoric, not anthropomorphic. God’s “face” stands for His essential being; His “back” for that which He reveals of Himself to human beings. With this, Moses had to be—and surely was—content. For God showed Moses more of Himself than he had revealed to any human being up to that time. This revelation by God of Himself sustained Moses through the difficult and painful years that lay ahead. Moses could not imagine the stress he would experience in trying to lead God’s obstinate people. But through it all, God’s Presence would go with Moses. And through it all, Moses would learn more about the grace and goodness of God.
This thought is important to you and me today. We need God’s presence in our lives if we handle the pressures that stress all people. For us, as for Moses, the ultimate revelation of God’s essence awaits. In the meantime, we can learn more of God, both through Scripture and by responding to His revealed will. As we follow Him closely, we will experience His presence. And this will enable us, as it did Moses, to overcome.
Flaws in Moses’ relationship with God (Ex. 34:29–34; Num. 20:1–12). Whether or not the first incident constitutes a flaw is debatable. But the second kept Moses from entering the promised land.
The veil on Moses’ face (Ex. 34:29–34). God spoke to Moses in the Israelite camp as well as on Sinai. When this happened, the cloudy-fiery pillar that accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness came down and hovered over the tabernacle, which the text also calls the “tent of meeting.” Moses entered the tabernacle to converse with the Lord, and when Moses left the divine presence, his face literally shone.
Exodus tells us that after exiting the tabernacle following his meetings with the Lord, Moses would come out and speak to the Israelites, who were clearly impressed with the radiance that shone from his face. Moses would then put a veil over his face until the next time he met with the Lord. Again Moses would exit the tent unmasked, but soon once again slip on his veil.
Nahum M. Sarna, in the Jewish Publication Society’s commentary on Exodus, rightly notes that the shining face “functions to reaffirm and legitimate the prophet’s role as the peerless intimate of God, the sole and single mediator between God and His people”(p. 221). And certainly, in view of the Israelites’ intransigence, such a symbol must have been comforting to Moses. But why did Moses put on a veil? Why not simply leave it off? The answer is provided by the apostle Paul, who told us that Moses “put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor” (2 Cor. 3:13, R.S.V.).
While each meeting with God seemed to recharge the supernatural effulgence, Moses truly was merely a man. He did not wish the Israelites to see the splendor fade and be reminded of his humanity. Strikingly, the apostle urged Christians to abandon similar efforts to mask our mortality, and thus our flaws. He urged us in 2 Corinthians 3 to be bold, “not like Moses,” and to remove the masks. Yes, people will see our flaws. But as we live open and honest lives, people will also see Jesus’ face, for “we are being transformed” (2 Cor. 13:18) by God’s Spirit. Witnessing the process of our transformation—not a pretense of perfection—convinces others that God is in our lives and that He is real!
Was Moses wrong to veil his face so that the Israelites would not realize that the radiance faded away? Certainly given the characteristics of the people whom Moses led, his actions were understandable. Yet, it would seem that Moses might have better glorified God and better set us an example if he had chosen simply to be himself, without any pretense or deceit.
Striking the rock (Num. 20:1–13). The Israelites had rebelled against God, and God had condemned them to wander in the wilderness until the entire unbelieving generation died out. In their wanderings, they came again to the region of Zin [called “Sin” in Ex. 17:1]. The land was parched and waterless, and as at the earlier time, the people were desperate for water. As usual, they complained bitterly against Moses and Aaron and against [but not to] God. And as usual, Moses went immediately to God.
This time God told Moses to “speak to the rock” before the eyes of the Israelites and the rock would produce water for humans and animals. “The rock” is undoubtedly the same rock which, at an earlier time, Moses had been told to strike with his staff and had at that time produced water (Ex. 17:5–7). But this time Moses, upset and angry with the Israelites and undoubtedly worn down by their unresponsiveness, failed to heed God’s words. Rather than speak to the rock, he struck it twice, angrily complaining to the rebels and asking, “Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”
The rock did produce abundant water. But God was displeased.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Num. 20:12).
God had told Moses to speak to the rock. Moses failed to heed God’s word, and struck the rock instead.
Some have felt that the punishment God decreed hardly fit Moses’ crime. But there are two possible reasons why such critics are wrong. The first reason is theological; the second is practical.
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Because Moses disobeyed God by striking rather than speaking to the rock to produce water, he was not allowed to lead Israel into the promised land.
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The theological reason is based on Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that the Rock represented Christ. When Moses struck the rock, the first time on the way to Mount Sinai, the rock provided life-saving water, even as when Christ died on Calvary He provided a life-giving salvation for all who believe in Him. Jesus died once for all for sins: His sacrifice was complete and fully efficacious. Hebrews says that by His one sacrifice He perfected forever those who are sanctified (cf. Heb. 10:10). In striking the rock on this second occasion, Moses distorted the typology, for Christ was smitten once for all. It was not necessary for Jesus to be stricken twice or three times.
The practical reason is expressed in the Numbers text. Moses had failed to believe God. This statement rests on the principle that trust in God leads to obedience, a theme developed in Hebrews 3 and 4. Israel had disobeyed God through unbelief and rebelled at Kadesh Barnea; in a similar way Moses disobeyed God through unbelief and failed to follow His instructions. We might argue that Moses’ failure can hardly be compared to that of the Israelites in degree, but we must admit that Moses’ failure was the same in kind. The consequences to Moses and to the Israelites were the same. Like the Israelites, Moses died outside the promised land, unable to set foot on territory God had promised to Abraham’s seed.
Before we assume that God was overly hard on Moses, let’s consider. Moses was an intimate of God’s. Moses knew far more of the Lord than did the Israelites he led. With Moses’ privileges, there came weighty responsibility. As James reminds us, “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1).
Unlike the Israelites of the Exodus generation, however, God did permit Moses to stand on heights across the Jordan and see the promised land. There Moses died, and God Himself buried His faithful prophet and His friend.
MOSES’ RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ISRAELITES
One might almost say that Moses had a love-hate relationship with Israel. His early dream of delivering God’s people was shattered when an Israelite rejected Moses’ intervention in a quarrel and revealed that people knew about Moses’ earlier murder of an Egyptian slave-master (Ex. 2:11–15). Forty years later when Moses returned to Egypt he was first welcomed by the Israelite community, but with the very first setback the Israelites turned on Moses and blamed him for their misfortunes (Ex. 5:1–22). This pattern was repeated for most of the forty years that Moses led Israel, with almost all hostility in the relationship expressed by the Israelites.
Yet through the years, Moses not only remained faithful to his mission; he also remained committed to care for and to pray for the Israelites. What an example he set for parents of strong-willed children and for shepherds of God’s sometimes-contentious flock.
The pattern of the relationship foreshadowed (Ex. 5). When Moses first appeared in Egypt, he went to the Hebrew community’s leaders with the good news that God intended to win their release from slavery. When Moses performed the signs God had given him, the Israelites expressed thanks to God for the prospect of freedom (Ex. 4:31). However, when Moses delivered God’s demand to Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler’s response was to increase his slaves’ workload. Understandably, the Israelites blamed Moses (Ex. 5:21). Puzzled, Moses turned to God for an explanation. When Moses understood that God would use Pharaoh’s hostility as an occasion to display His power, and would win Israel’s freedom in time, Moses believed God. But when Moses reported God’s intentions to the Israelites, “they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage” (Ex. 6:9).
In this initial story, we can see elements that would mark this generation of Israelites’ relationship with God and with Moses for the next forty years. Moses obeyed God. Difficulties arose. The Israelites criticized Moses. Moses prayed. God acted.
While the nature of the difficulties, the intensity of the criticisms, the content of the prayers, and the nature of God’s responses varied, these elements remained constant.
The character of the relationship displayed (Ex. 16–17). It was one thing for the Israelites to react with unbelief after the setback described in Exodus 5. Their reactions as they left Egypt and traveled toward Mount Sinai were much more difficult to explain.
Before that journey had begun, the land of their servitude had been devastated by a wondrous series of judgments through which God had unmistakably demonstrated His power. On that journey a massive cloudy-fiery pillar that hung in the heavens above them led the Israelites. Even more, the Israelites had seen God part the waters of a sea so they might pass safely through and then had seen the waters close to wipe out their pursuers. God was obviously, unmistakably with them, and Moses was marked as God’s appointed spokesman and leader.
Yet, just three days after being led safely through the sea, when confronted with undrinkable water, “the people complained against Moses” (15:24). Moses prayed, and God responded by showing Moses how to purify the waters so the people could drink.
Some days later, food ran out and again, rather than look to God to provide, the Israelites “complained against Moses and Aaron” (Ex. 16:2). Again the Lord provided. Yet when the water ran out once again, “the people contended with Moses” and demanded water, continuing to “complain” against him.
What the English text does not reveal is that in the original languages the intensity of the complaints increases incident by incident. We can sense Moses’ increasing frustration as we read Exodus 17:4: “Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!’” Once again God provided water.
The sequence of events in these chapters is striking and significant. With each difficulty the hostility of the Israelites toward Moses and their insensitivity to God increased—despite the fact that God continued to meet their every need immediately. In this we see both the pattern and the consequences of “permissive parenting.” In permissive parenting, wrong behavior is not corrected nor are the children disciplined. Rather, they are given whatever they demand. The product is not a mature, self-disciplined and responsible adult, but an individual or a people ever more selfish and insensitive.
All this however was about to change. For the Israelites were journeying toward Mount Sinai. Soon they would become subject to a law that not only set standards but also called for sin to be disciplined.
The rebelliousness of the Israelites unveiled (Num. 11). It is striking to compare the events of Numbers 11 with those recorded in Exodus 16–17. The circumstances are parallel, the responses of the Israelites are the same, but God’s actions are totally different. We see it in the very first verse of Numbers 11:
Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp (Num. 11:1).
This incident introduced Moses’ role as an intercessor, for “when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was quenched” (Num. 11:2).
But the Israelites did not learn from discipline any more than they had learned from unmixed grace. They craved a change in diet, and soon the spirit of dissatisfaction and complaint swept through the camp. Again the Lord was angry, and Moses began to feel the weight of leading an unspiritual and selfish people. We can sense Moses’ frustration in his prayer:
So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, and You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian caries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers? … I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too great for me” (Num. 11:11, 12, 14).
Despite the tone of Moses’ prayer, and Moses’ failure to remember that God was with him so he did not “bear all these people alone,” Moses was right to bring his complaint directly to the Lord. In this, Moses showed a great respect for God and acted quite differently than the Israelites, who directed their complaints against Moses.
God’s response was to provide the meat the Israelites craved, but with it He sent a “very great” plague that must have killed thousands of Israelites. The psalmist commented on this event:
So they ate and were well filled,
For He gave them their own desire.
They were not deprived of their craving;
But while the food was still in their mouths,
The wrath of God came against them,
And slew the stoutest of them,
And struck down the choice men of Israel.
In spite of this they still sinned,
And did not believe in His wondrous works.
Therefore their days He consumed in futility,
And their years in fear. (Ps. 78:29–33)
Here too we find an important lesson. God had provided in manna all that the Israelites needed to sustain life and health. Yet, they craved what God had not seen fit to provide. Rather than be thankful and satisfied with God’s gracious provision, they were dissatisfied and focused on what they did not have. Finally, God gave them what they craved—and it destroyed them. How foolish not to find satisfaction in the gracious gifts God has given us, and how foolish to crave more. Should God give us what we crave rather than what He chooses for us, we too might be destroyed.
The ultimate act of rebellion (Num. 14). When the Israelites reached Canaan, a representative of each tribe was sent to explore the land and bring back reports. Ten of the explorers emphasized the military strength of the Canaanites. This terrified the people. Despite the miracles of deliverance and the terror of the divine judgments they had experienced, they still refused to take account of God’s power or to trust Him. Numbers 14:2, 3 tells us:
All the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?
Despite the urgings of Moses, Aaron, and the two faithful explorers Caleb and Joshua, the Israelites rebelliously refused to obey God’s command to go up and take Canaan. The Israelites’ response is described in verse 10: “All the congregation said to stone them with stones.”
At this point God again threatened totally to destroy the Israelites and begin anew with Moses. Moses again interceded for the Israelites, pleading God’s glory and reminding the Lord of His covenant commitment to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. [See the discussion of this similar prayer, page 35.]
Moses’ prayer for pardon was granted (Num. 14:20), yet the disobedient and unbelieving Israelites would have to face some consequences. The Israelites had proclaimed that they would rather die in the wilderness than face the Canaanites. God would give them what they had chosen. God announced through Moses:
“Just as you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you: the carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above” (Num. 14:29).
And so it was.
We can learn several lessons from this incident. First, leaders, like Moses, are both to represent their people before God and represent God before their people. On the one hand, faithfulness in ministry calls for earnest prayer on behalf of others even when they sin. On the other hand, faithfulness calls for announcing God’s judgments even when we know they will be unpopular. In each of these aspects of spiritual leadership, Moses provides us with an exceptional example.
The second lesson is that our choices have consequences. When we refuse to follow God’s Word, we can be sure that disaster will follow—whatever our motives for disobedience may have been. Whether it is a fleshly craving or fear that moves us to disobey, abandoning God’s will provides neither satisfaction nor security.
The Israelites’ unbelieving hearts further revealed (Num. 16). The Israelites’ rebellion at Kadesh Barnea destined the Exodus generation to decades of wandering in the wilderness until God’s sentence had been carried out. Yet, clearly the Israelites still failed to understand or to trust the Lord. This is made abundantly clear in the story of Korah’s rebellion.
Korah and his followers argued that in a faith community where each individual had been redeemed and set apart to God, it was inappropriate for Moses and Aaron to exalt themselves “above the assembly of the Lord” (Num. 16:3). They felt that this was especially true for them, for they were Levites, set apart to serve God at the tabernacle. So Korah and his followers argued that where all are holy [in the sense of being set apart to God], no individual should be responsible to a mere human leader.
In this, of course, Korah and his followers totally ignored the fact that God Himself had commissioned Moses to lead His people and that while Moses had consistently been faithful to the Lord, Korah and all the rest had proven rebellious and unbelieving. So Moses proposed a test: let Korah and his followers appear before the Lord ready to lead in worship, and let the Lord decide.
But Korah’s coleaders in this rebellion, Dathan and Abiram, refused to listen to Moses. They accused Moses of being responsible for the failure to take Canaan, and they blamed him for the wilderness death they now faced. Whatever Moses suggested, they would refuse to do! Angry then, Moses prayed against these rebels, asking God not to respect their offering. How could they treat Moses in this way; Moses who had never done one thing to exploit his position as a leader or to harm a single individual (Num. 16:15)?
When the day of the test came, Korah with Dathan and Abiram and their followers, some 250 men in all, marched up to the tabernacle bearing censers filled with incense to offer to the Lord. They were followed by the entire congregation of Israelites, who supported them in their stand against Moses!
Again, God threatened to destroy the Israelites. Again, Moses prayed for the people. This time, however, Moses made a distinction in his prayer between the congregation and the leaders of the rebellion. God then told Moses to warn the Israelites to get away from the tents of the rebel leaders. Moses then established the parameters of the test: The people would know that God had chosen Moses as their leader if the ground opened and swallowed the tents and families of the rebels. A great chasm opened and swallowed the households and possessions of Korah’s clan, and fire blazed from the tabernacle and consumed the 250 men who had arrogantly violated God’s Word and taken on themselves the priestly role reserved for Aaron’s descendants.
The terrible fate of Korah and his family and followers was unmistakably the result of an act of God. Yet “on the next day” all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron and accused them of killing “the people of the Lord!” (Num. 16:41). Again, God threatened to wipe out His rebellious people, and a plague struck. This time Moses sent the true priest, Aaron, to make atonement for the Israelites, and the plague was stopped.
The incidents reported in this chapter fully demonstrate why the Lord had no choice but to replace the Exodus generation with their children. The adults who left Egypt simply refused to respond to the Lord, no matter what God did. This generation could not enter the promised land, for only people who trusted God enough to obey Him would win the victories that would establish the Hebrew’s dominance of the Holy Land.
Moses leads the new and responsive generation (Num. 26–36). Taking the census described in Numbers 26 marks the passing of the Exodus generation. The census revealed that just as some 600,000 men of military age had left Egypt four decades earlier, there were now some 600,000 men of the new generation, ready to succeed where their fathers had failed.
These last chapters of Numbers tell of Moses’ travels with the new generation, travels marked by military victories and preparations for entering the promised land. What a relief and joy it must have been for Moses, now well over a hundred years old, at last to be able to guide a people who were respectful, responsive, and willing to trust the Lord. It is so much easier for leaders when those they lead willingly follow! The Lord had given Moses a wonderful gift near the end of his life.
At the same time, we must appreciate that Moses’ travails are more instructive for us. Moses’ experience with the Israelites remind us that leadership is burdensome, a ministry not to be sought lightly or for self-aggrandizement. A person who accepts the mantle of leadership must accept with it the care of persons who will often misunderstand, criticize, and complain. A person who accepts the mantle of leadership must faithfully pray for the hostile, and just as faithfully honor and communicate God’s Word, regardless of whether others accept that Word. Yet, a person who accepts the mantle of leadership will find in that ministry great and wonderful rewards. Leadership’s challenges will drive the leader closer to God. When at last the leader sees God’s people respond and grow, it will all seem worthwhile.
MOSES: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
We rightly hesitate to compare ourselves to the greatest or even great men of faith. Yet, we can learn much from their lives. Perhaps the most significant quality Moses modeled was humility. No person full of himself would have been so totally dependent on God or so patient with the Israelites. Both these aspects of humility are required in anyone who aspires to spiritual leadership. Only the person who acknowledges and who acts in total dependence on the Lord will experience God’s full working in and through his life. And only the truly humble person will remain loving despite the unmerited complaints and hostility that seem so typically associated with leading God’s people.
It is striking that in a world where people assume that the self-confident, assertive individual is the leader type, that in God’s economy it is the humble and self-effacing who achieve great things. It took Moses forty years in the wilderness to learn humility. May we learn humility from him, in far less time, and far less painfully.
There are also other lessons a person can take away from a study of Moses’ life.
• Moses was eighty years old before he was ready to be used by God. Never despise the time it takes to prepare yourself for ministry. And never assume that it’s too late to serve. The church and the world are well able to wait until God has fully equipped you.
• Moses performed miracles—and even so those God called him to lead abused him. Few of us will ever perform miracles, so we should not be surprised when we are treated unfairly.
• Moses brought his complaints to God, not to the neighbors. We will often be tempted to tell friends and fellow believers when we feel we have been mistreated. This will only make matters worse. We need to recognize God’s hand in all that happens and honor Him by bringing our complaints as well as our praises to Him.
• Moses continued to pray for his congregation, despite their lack of spirituality and the personal abuse he suffered. We are not called to treat others as they treat us, but rather to treat others as God for Christ’s sake has treated us.
• Moses remained obedient to the Lord, even when obedience seemed to lead to disaster. The “success” of what we do does not indicate God’s pleasure. What pleases the Lord is our obedience, whatever may come.

DAVID
Scripture references:
1 Samuel 16-2 Samuel;
1 Chronicles; 1 Kings 1;
Numerous psalms
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Date: Reigned 1010–970 B.C.
Name: David [DAY-vid; “beloved”]
Greatest
accomplishment: David built a powerful Hebrew kingdom, greatly expanded Israel’s territory, and instituted major religious and political reforms.
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DAVID’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Moses is Scripture’s prototype prophet; David is Scripture’s prototype king. Christ fulfilled the promise of a Prophet like Moses in His first coming when He introduced the new covenant era. In Christ’s Second Coming, He will fulfill the promise of a King like David, of David’s line, destined to rule over all. The Old Testament prophets spoke of the coming of a promised Ruler to spring from David’s line who would fulfill the promise implicit in the historic reign of Israel’s greatest king.
In his own day, David had a powerful impact on the political life of the Hebrew people. Prior to David, the Israelites had remained loosely associated tribes governed for centuries by charismatic judges, and then for a time by a flawed king, Saul. During these centuries, the Israelites were an oppressed minority in Canaan, squeezed into a narrow strip of the broad land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When David finally won the allegiance of the twelve Hebrew tribes, he was able to weld them into the most powerful Middle Eastern kingdom of his era. The Nelson Illustrated Bible Handbook summarizes David’s accomplishments as Israel’s ruler:
The years of David complete Israel’s transition from a loose tribal structure, under which God’s people lived in the days of the judges, to a monarchy. A number of important aspects of the transition are accomplished under David’s leadership:
• Transition from government by judges to an established monarchy.
• Transition from a loose confederation of tribes to a united nation.
• Transition from anarchy to a strong central government.
• Transition from bronze-age poverty to iron-age economy and wealth.
• Transition from a subject people to conquerors. David expanded Israel’s territory some ten times!
• Transition from decentralized worship to centralized worship, with one city as both political and religious capital.
While David proved to be a military and political genius whose accomplishments in Israel are unmatched, David’s contributions to Israel’s spiritual life are just as impressive. David himself was deeply committed to God and spiritually sensitive. The passion and intensity of David’s personal relationship with God are revealed in the seventy-three poems in the Book of Psalms attributed to him. In these psalms, David fully exposed his inner spiritual life, freely expressing his hopes and fears, his failures and his abiding confidence in the goodness of the Lord. David’s psalms, along with the others in this book of 150 religious poems, have served believers ever since as a pattern for praise and worship. They have led untold millions of people into a deeper relationship with the Lord.
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DAVID’S SHEPHERD PSALM
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green
pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.
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David also expressed commitment to worship by desiring to construct a temple in Jerusalem. While God did not permit David to fulfill this dream, David spent his declining years laying out plans for its design and developing detailed organizational plans for the duties of the priests and Levites who would lead worship there. David also committed his personal wealth and much of the kingdom’s income to stockpiling the materials his son Solomon would use to build the temple of which David had dreamed.
David fell short in many ways, particularly in his family life. Yet, David’s military, political, and spiritual accomplishments cannot be overstated. David founded a dynasty that ruled in Judah, the southern Hebrew kingdom, from 1010 B.C. to its fall to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. And, as the prophets announced, Israel’s Deliverer and future Ruler of all was to emerge from David’s family line.
And so He did, when the babe destined to be both Savior and King was born to Mary in Bethlehem, the hometown of David, nearly a thousand years after David died.
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SAMPLING “DAVID” IN PROPHECY
“Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” (Isa. 9:7)
“In mercy the throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
Judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness.” (Isa. 16:5)
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.” (Jer. 23:5)
“But they shall serve the LORD their God,
And David their king,
Whom I will raise up for them.” (Jer. 30:9)
“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.” (Ezek. 37:24)
“Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king.” (Hos. 3:5)
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David … ” (Matt. 1:1)
All the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matt. 12:23)
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” (Rev. 22:16)
See the companion book in this series, Every Covenant and Promise of the Bible, for a complete explanation of this theme.
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DAVID’S LIFE AND TIMES
David was born at a time when his people’s fate hung in the balance. Israel’s primary enemies at the time were the Philistines, who dominated their weaker neighbors. The Philistines had mastered the secrets of smelting iron, and they carefully guarded this new technology. When David was a youth, only King Saul and his son Jonathan carried iron weapons; the other members of Israel’s citizen militia were forced to use bronze knives and farm implements when they fought. During David’s lifetime, and largely due to his own efforts, this situation was transformed, and all of Israel’s neighboring enemies were subdued.
We can trace the transformation by looking at the differing period of David’s life.
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The stone in slings used by Israelites in David’s time were about the size of tennis balls, plenty large enough to fell even a giant like Goliath.
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David’s early life as a shepherd (1 Sam. 16:11). David was the youngest son of a man named Jesse, who lived in Bethlehem, a small town about six miles from the future site of David’s capital, Jerusalem. As the youngest, David was assigned the task of guarding his father’s sheep. Alone in nature, David experienced a growing awe of God as Creator. David’s sense of wonder is frequently expressed in the psalms. As David would one day write,
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
(Ps. 19:1–3)
As David cared for his sheep, he listened to nature’s testimony. During those quiet years, David developed a sense of God’s greatness that never left him. David’s later confidence in God’s power rested in large part on the lessons David learned as a shepherd.
David also learned to act on his confidence in God. Later, when asked how he dared challenge a giant Philistine warrior, David replied simply:
Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God (1 Sam. 17:34–36).
When Saul, Israel’s first king, proved weak and untrusting, God sent the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint David as his successor. At first, Samuel assumed that one of David’s older brothers, impressively tall, was God’s choice. But God pointed out David, who was handsome but rather small of stature, as His choice. In one of the Bible’s most telling verses, the Lord reminded Samuel that “the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). It was David’s heart for the Lord, nurtured during his shepherd years, that more than anything else equipped David for greatness.
David’s emergence as a military hero (1 Sam. 17–19). An invasion of Israelite territory by the Philistines created the opportunity for David’s emergence from obscurity. As the two armies lay camped on hillsides opposite each other, a Philistine warrior some nine feet tall strode out each morning to challenge the Israelites to send out a champion to fight him. Saul, the tallest and most powerful man in Israel’s army as well as king, cowered in his tent, promising to reward anyone who would venture out to do battle.
When David, then a teenager, came to camp to bring provisions to his brothers, David was shocked that no one was willing to fight the giant. In David’s eyes, the Philistine’s challenge demeaned the living God who would surely give victory to anyone who stepped out to represent Him and His people. So David volunteered, and the cowardly king permitted a stripling to attempt what no soldier in Saul’s army was willing to try.
As every Sunday school student knows, David killed the giant, Goliath. He was quickly accepted into Saul’s army as a junior officer, and immediately began to display the courage and brilliance that marked his entire military career. David was so successful, and so honored by the Israelites, that Saul grew jealous. Saul undoubtedly recognized in David that true faith and courage that he himself lacked. In the end, when several plots to rid himself of David failed, Saul attempted to kill David whom he now saw as a rival to the throne. David, although at the time the king’s son-in-law as well as a military officer, fled for his life.
David’s outlaw years (1 Sam. 20–31). David was alone when he fled from Saul; however, others soon joined him. Before long, David had assembled a band of some 600 fighting men and their families; fierce warriors, many of whom became the core of his army after David became king.
During these outlaw years, Saul often pursued David. Saul was determined to see David dead. Many close calls and last-minute escapes are described in these chapters. Particularly notable however is David’s refusal to assassinate Saul on two occasions when he had the opportunity. Saul had been anointed king by the prophet Samuel and thus appointed by God. God, not David, must remove him.
Only once during these years did David become discouraged. Convinced that sooner or later Saul would massacre his little band, David moved into Philistine territory and offered himself and his men as mercenaries to the king of Gath. God overruled however, and David was preserved from fighting against his own people when Philistia and Israel went to war again. Despite this one lapse, David generally maintained his confidence in God and realized that in time he would fulfill his destiny as Israel’s king.
David’s rule over Judah (2 Sam. 1–4). When at last Saul was killed in a battle with the Philistines, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin invited David to become their king. A son of Saul, Ishbosheth, was propped up as king of the other ten tribes by Abner, who had been Saul’s commanding general. For seven years the north [the ten tribes] and the south [David’s two tribes] skirmished. In the end, a perceived insult moved Abner to make peace with David and unify the nation under his rule. Even though David’s general, Joab, assassinated Abner, the transfer of power took place. David was king of a united Israel, and at last was in a position to fulfill his destiny.
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David ruled Judah and Dan for seven years before the other Hebrew tribes acknowledeged him as king.
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David builds a nation (2 Sam. 5–10; 1 Chron. 11–16). David’s first act as king was to establish a new capital. He chose Jerusalem, a city that lay between north and south and had been occupied by neither. David drove out the Canaanites who held the heights. David also set out to break the power of the enemy nations that surrounded the Israelites. In a series of wars, many of which were started by the enemy, David defeated all of Israel’s foes. In the process, David expanded Israelite-held territory ten times. During David’s reign, God’s people occupied nearly all the lands promised to Abraham long before.
With his borders secure, David organized his government, setting up an efficient administrative system. David also instituted religious reforms. Since the conquest of Canaan, some four hundred years earlier, the Israelites had offered their sacrifices and worshiped at the tabernacle, the portable worship center constructed under Moses’ supervision. Now David brought the ark of the covenant, the most holy object in Israel’s religion, to Jerusalem, and laid plans for the construction of a magnificent temple in which to house it. In this, David provided a third unifying symbol for his nation. Israel now had a common capital, a common king, and a common faith. The Israelites were at last a unified nation, no longer merely a loose confederation of tribes who shared a common heritage.
David’s declining years (2 Sam. 11–24; 1 Chron. 20–29). David’s faith and energy had enabled him to build a powerful and stable kingdom. But with this accomplished, a strange lethargy seems to have gripped David. All of life’s challenges seemed to have been met successfully; David had arrived at the top. Now David would face a different kind of challenge, a moral and interpersonal challenge.
David’s moral challenge (1 Sam. 11–20). One spring when David’s armies went out to do battle, David stayed in Jerusalem. There he chanced to see a beautiful woman bathing. Inflamed with desire, he sent for the woman and took her, and then tried to hide what was essentially a rape. David’s detour into sin caused him real anguish; likewise, it harmed others and outraged the Lord. David’s anguish is clearly expressed in Psalm 32, as well as being reflected in his great prayer of confession recorded in Psalm 51. When the prophet Nathan finally confronted David, he confessed his sin and was forgiven. But David’s moral failure had a terrible impact on his family. When his son Amnon followed his father’s example and raped his half-sister, Tamar, David did nothing. Robbed of moral authority by his own sins, David seemed strangely silent over the crimes committed by his children. Later Absalom, the brother of Tamar, murdered Amnon and fled the country. Again David said and did nothing. Still later Absalom returned to Jerusalem. Again David said and did nothing, despite the fact that Absalom sought to alienate the northern tribes from David. Absalom succeed in fomenting a rebellion, but he was killed in the battle between north and south.
David, so brilliant in building the nation, was strangely helpless to guide or govern his own family. How tragic when our sins impact our children so. We need to learn from David’s mistakes and guard our hearts against the attractions of sin.
David’s enthusiasm restored (1 Chron. 17–28). The challenges of kingdom building had all been met successfully. David had learned by painful experience that however attractive sin might appear, its consequences could be devastating.
In his declining years, David found a better way to invest his energies, and his enthusiasm for life was restored. Essentially David turned his thoughts and his efforts to preparing for the construction of God’s temple and to working out the details of how temple worship would be conducted. David also dedicated his own personal wealth to temple building and urged the wealthy in his kingdom to follow his example. First Chronicles describes in detail David’s plans; and, here again, we see David’s organizational genius displayed.
It is striking that the emphases in Second Samuel and 1 Chronicles, which cover the same periods of David’s life, differ so significantly. But there is a good explanation. The Books of Samuel and the Kings are historical reports of events in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The books of Chronicles are divine commentary on those events. Second Samuel emphasizes David’s failure and its impact on David’s family, faithfully reporting conditions in the kingdom. But 1 Chronicles skips over David’s sin and its consequences to focus on evidence of his interior life with God. His sins like ours had been forgiven; his service remembered and celebrated.
Whatever else can be said of David, he was a human being who truly had a heart for God. Yes, David was flawed, as we all are. Nevertheless David loved and trusted God, and those qualities enabled him to use his many gifts to the fullest and mark him as one of the Old Testament’s greatest men.
EXPLORING DAVID’S RELATIONSHIPS
DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Scripture testifies that God chose David to succeed Saul because David was a man after God’s “own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). This does not mean that David was perfect. Far from it. It does mean that with all his flaws, David loved the Lord and was responsive to him.
David was responsive to God’s revelation of Himself in nature. David was deeply moved by the evidence of God’s greatness in nature and profoundly awed that God could care about human beings. His pondering is reflected in Psalm 8:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him? (Ps. 8:3–4)
In praise and wonder David exclaimed,
O LORD, our LORD,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth.” (Ps. 8:9)
David displayed confidence in God’s promises (1 Sam. 17). While all in Saul’s army quaked before the Philistine champion, Goliath, young David was merely surprised. Why hadn’t anyone been willing to fight Goliath? The Philistine wasn’t simply challenging men; he was challenging the forces of the living God. David was utterly convinced that the God of the covenant, the God of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, would fight for His people. Only David counted on God’s commitment to His people and looked beyond the giant foe to Israel’s far greater and more powerful God. All David’s life he displayed confidence in the Lord and counted on Him to keep His promises. As a result, He won great victories for his people.
David looked to God for guidance (1 Sam. 23:2). The historical books that tell the story of David’s life report some eleven times that David “inquired of the Lord” when facing difficult decisions. In David’s day this typically involved an appeal to the Urim and Thummim held by the high priest, as described in Exodus 28:30. It is significant that although a brilliant strategist and a decisive leader of men, David was also a humble believer, deeply aware of his need for divine guidance. David’s dependence on God is reflected in Psalm 31:3–5:
For You are my rock and my fortress;
Therefore for Your name’s sake
Lead me and guide me.
Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.
David encouraged others to honor and worship God. We see this ministry of David’s reflected in several ways.
David set a personal example (1 Sam. 26:1–12). On one occasion when King Saul pursued David and his band, David had an opportunity to assassinate Saul. Abishai, one of David’s men, urged him to kill Saul, arguing that God had delivered Saul into David’s hand. David refused: “The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed.” God would remove Saul in His own time. David had too great a respect for God to kill a man the Lord had appointed to royal office.
David emphasized the importance of worship (2 Sam. 6). As soon as David had established himself as king and made Jerusalem the capital of a united Israel, he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. David himself led the celebration honoring God, again setting an example for his people and demonstrating his own passionate desire to honor and worship the Lord.
David devoted himself to producing a worship liturgy for his people. David’s psalms expressed his personal relationship with God. They also were intended to serve as guides to personal and corporate worship for David’s people. David knew it was vitally important for the Israelites to become a worshiping people. Many of the psalms David wrote have in their superscription the phrase “to the chief musician.” The “chief musician” was responsible for leading worship. David intended these psalms to become part of Israel’s worship liturgy.
David committed his later years to prepare for constructing the temple (1 Chron. 21–27). David’s deepest desire was to encourage worship of God. In his later years, he committed all his energies to raising the money and assembling the materials needed to construct a temple to the Lord in Jerusalem. While Solomon actually built the temple, David drew up the temple plans, organized the tasks of the priests and Levites who would ministered there, and energized the nation to undertake the project.
DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD REFLECTED IN HIS PSALMS
Psalm The relationship expressed
3, 4 David finds inner peace during Absalom’s rebellion.
5 David begins his day with prayer.
6 David entreats God for mercy.
7 David examines his own heart before the Lord.
8 David expresses awe at God’s concern for people.
9 David rejoices in the Lord and sings His praises.
11 David expresses trust in God.
12 David calls on God to judge the wicked.
13 David expresses trust despite unanswered prayer.
14 David ponders the foolishness of the wicked.
15 David describes the ways of those who fear God.
16 David rejoices in the blessings of knowing God.
17 David begs God to intervene.
18 David praises God as his rock and salvation.
19 David rejoices in God’s revelation in nature and Scripture.
20 David prays for others and encourages trust.
21 David expresses trust in God’s sovereign control.
22 David laments over God’s seeming silence.
23 David rests in God as his shepherd.
24 David looks forward to the coming of the King of glory.
25 David trusts God to guide and to deliver.
26 David begs God to vindicate him.
27 David praises God as an antidote to fear.
28 David urgently seeks God’s aid against enemies.
29 David worships.
31 David expresses trust in God as rock and fortress.
32 David contemplates sin, forgiveness, and guidance.
33 David calls on the righteous to praise God.
34 David praises God and urges all to trust Him.
35 David calls on God to defend him against enemies.
36 David praises God’s loving kindness and mercy.
37 David encourages delight in the Lord.
38 David shares his pain when God disciplined him.
39 David expresses frustration and begs for relief.
40 David praises God for His loving kindness.
41 David honors God for his mercy and goodness.
51 David confesses his sin with Bathsheba.
52 David warns the wicked.
53 David ponders the foolishness of the wicked.
54 David affirms God as his helper in a time of great stress.
55 David turns to God when fearful and pained.
56 David begs for mercy when captured by the Philistines.
57 David cries out to God when pursued by Saul.
58 David calls on God to judge the wicked.
59 David calls on God to scatter his enemies.
60 David cries out for help.
61 David expresses trust in God when overwhelmed.
62 David commits himself to wait for God.
63 David longs to know God better.
64 David expresses confidence that God will preserve him.
65 David praises God’s awesome deeds.
68 David reviews history in praise of God.
69 David begs God’s help against those who hate him.
70 David appeals to God to deliver him.
86 David cries out to God “all day long” for help.
101 David praises God for His mercy and justice.
103 David blesses God for his mercy and love.
108 David reaffirms his commitment to the Lord.
109 David seeks God’s help against enemies.
110 David foresees the work of God’s Messiah.
122 David rejoices in the privilege of worship.
124 David praises God for past deliverance.
131 David bows as a child before the Lord.
133 David affirms the blessings of unity.
138 David praises God with his whole heart.
139 David sees his life totally exposed to God’s scrutiny.
140 David begs God to keep him from the hand of the wicked.
141 David expresses commitment to God in evening prayers.
142 David contemplates answered prayers.
143 David expresses reliance on the Lord as he prays for deliverance.
144 David sings God’s praises.
145 David meditates on God’s splendor and works.
David repented when he sinned (2 Sam. 12). The Old Testament records more than one sin committed by David. Although David’s love for God was real, he was a fallible human being whose sins seem as great as his accomplishments. While Scripture records David’s sin in numbering Israel (2 Sam. 24), the sin all remember is his sexual assault on Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah. Even remembering that these actions were out of character, there is no excuse for David’s actions.
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David refused to strike when King Saul was in his power, for God had made Saul king and David believed only God should remove him.
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However, David’s deep sense of guilt, revealed in Psalm 32, and his public repentance, expressed in Psalm 51, remind us that David truly responded to God. In repentance, David relied on God’s grace to create in him a clean heart and restore the joy of his salvation. God restored David, encouraging each of us to turn quickly to the Lord when we sin. Even in David’s great failure God used David to teach transgressors God’s ways and to convert sinners to Him.
David was a man after God’s own heart not because he was sinless but because David trusted how God responded to Him. For most of his life, David sought to honor and obey God. His psalms remind us that David freely shared his inner life and emotions with the Lord and was as eager to commune with the Lord as to depend on Him. Even when David sinned, he relied on God’s grace and forgiveness to restore him to a right relationship with the Lord. In all this, David is an example of true godliness.
DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP WITH SAUL
In many ways, Saul was the opposite of David. Saul had been anointed king of Israel, but the pressures of leadership revealed that Saul was unwilling to trust God. As Saul became more and more alienated from the Lord, he grew erratic, fearful, and paranoid. All of Saul’s weaknesses are displayed in David’s relationship with the unworthy king.
David as a musician in Saul’s court (1 Sam. 16:14–23). After Saul had been rejected by the Lord and condemned by Samuel, he was frequently depressed. David was called to court to play the harp for Saul and cheer him. Saul liked the young man and made him his armor bearer, an official court position.
David as victor over Goliath and as an army officer (1 Sam. 17:1–18:16). David, a teenager, was at home from court when the Philistines invaded. His father sent him to carry supplies to his brothers, who were with the Israelite forces. There David volunteered to meet Goliath in single combat, and Saul reluctantly agreed. Saul’s question to his general, Abner, “Whose son is this youth,” (17:55), has been taken to contradict the story that David was already known to Saul. However, Saul’s question related to David’s lineage. Saul had promised his daughter in marriage to whoever killed Goliath, and understandably, he wondered about David’s family.
After David killed Goliath, Saul failed to give David his daughter, but he made David an officer in his army. David proved himself a gifted and successful military man, and rapidly became a hero to the people of Israel. David’s popularity aroused Saul’s resentment. Saul was both jealous and fearful, for Saul sensed that God, who had deserted him, was with David.
David as the king’s son-in-law (1 Sam. 18:17–19:24). When Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love with David, Saul saw a way to rid himself of the young army officer. He set David to earn Michal’s hand by killing Philistines, hoping that David would be the one killed. When David succeeded, Saul permitted the wedding, but soon was asking his servants and even his son Jonathan, David’s friend, to murder David.
During this time, David simply could not credit the reports that Saul was out to kill him. David had proven himself loyal to Saul, and he was the king’s son-in-law! Finally Saul moved openly against David, and David was forced to flee.
David as a fugitive (1 Sam. 20–30). For a number of years, Saul, who was still intent on seeing David dead, harried David and those who joined him. Twice while David and his men were being pursued, David had opportunities to kill Saul. Each time, David refused, but took tokens from Saul that revealed how close to death the king had come. Each time, Saul was forced to acknowledge that David was more righteous than he was, and each time Saul promised David a pardon. David, however, was too wise to trust Saul, and he continued to live as a fugitive. During those years Saul served as a grindstone, whose pressure strengthened David’s faith and honed his trust in the Lord.
Even so, it is not surprising that after years of narrow escapes even a person with as much trust in God as David displayed should become discouraged. Convinced that sooner or later Saul would take him, David left Israelite territory and enrolled his men as mercenaries with the king of Philistine Gath. David pretended to the Philistine ruler to lead raiding parties into Israelite territory, but instead David raided Israel’s enemies. This lapse of David’s faith created a serious situation. When the Philistines went to war with Israel, David, now a subject of the king of Gath, was expected to battle his own people! God extricated David from this situation, and in the battle that followed, Saul and his son Jonathan were both killed.
Saul had been God’s instrument to test David’s faith and his loyalty. David had passed the test; now it was time for a maturer David to lead God’s people.
How often God uses those who make themselves our enemies to strengthen and mature us. We need to be sure, however, that we follow the course David took, refusing to strike back, and treating our enemies with consideration and respect (see Matt. 5:44).
DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS WIVES
While David maintained an exemplary relationship with Saul, the same cannot be said for his relationship with his wives. We shall explore his relationship with three of the women David married.
David’s relationship with Michal, Saul’s daughter (1 Sam. 18–19; 2 Sam. 3, 6). Saul’s younger daughter, Michal, fell in love with the young and handsome army officer who had killed Goliath. Her father saw her love as an opportunity to strike at David. Saul established a dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins, hoping his enemies would kill David. When David brought Saul the required dowry, Saul permitted the marriage. Later when Saul’s hostility became open and the threat to David’s life became clear, Michal helped David escape. After David fled, Saul married Michal to another man. In this manner, Saul callously used his daughter, showing no concern at all for her feelings.
There is no evidence that David tried to contact Michal during his fugitive years. But much later, when David was offered the throne of Israel, he demanded that Michal be returned to him. The Israelite general who was negotiating turning the northern tribes over to David went to Michal’s home and simply took her away from her husband and brought her to David.
To suppose that David was eager to have his first love restored to him would be romantic. However, the text suggests that David’s insistence on the return of Michal was a political rather than a loving act. Marriage to Saul’s daughter would help to legitimize David’s rule over the northern tribes that had remained loyal to Saul’s family. Michal’s expression of hostility toward David seen in 2 Samuel 6:16–23 reveals no affection between them.
David’s relationship with Michal reveals him to be as much an exploiter of women as Saul had been. The text tells us that Michal loved David; it never suggests that David loved Michal. Many years later when David demanded her return without consulting her, David showed a callous disregard for her feelings.
While some might excuse David’s actions by noting that women in the royal houses of the ancient world were universally regarded as pawns of public policy, such a heartless disregard of the feelings of a woman who had shown David such love and loyalty was inexcusable.
David’s relationship with Abigail (1 Sam. 25). Once when he was a fugitive, David’s men camped near the land of a wealthy rancher named Nabal. David’s men never stole a sheep to eat, but rather helped the shepherds guard the flock. Yet, at harvest time when David sent a delegation to ask Nabal for a gift, Nabal insulted David and sent the delegation away.
David’s anger flared, and he set out with his men to kill Nabal and his herdsmen. Warned by the herdsmen, who were appalled at what Nabal had done, Nabal’s wife Abigail quickly assembled some supplies and set out to intercept David.
Not only did Abigail intercept David, but she spoke so wisely that David realized his intent to take revenge was both wrong and politically unwise. He accepted Abigail’s gifts, and returned to his camp. When Nabal suffered a stroke and died a few days later, David sent for Abigail and married her. David recognized and appreciated Abigail’s strength of character and her wisdom.
Too many men today are threatened by strong women. David, a strong man himself, realized that a woman of strength and character is of great worth, and he took the opportunity to join her life to his. In this relationship, at least we can admire David’s choice and seek to emulate him.
David’s relationship with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11–12; 1 Kings 1). David’s initial attraction to Bathsheba was purely sensual. She was beautiful; David wanted her; David took her. The fact that Bathsheba was another man’s wife was something that David, driven by passion and power, simply ignored.
The text of 2 Samuel makes it clear that Bathsheba was a victim here; she was not the temptress some in their efforts to excuse David have tried to cast her (see 2 Sam. 11:1–6). It was night when Bathsheba was bathing in the privacy of the inner court of her own home, when David looked down from the palace roof and saw her. He “sent messengers and took her” and when she arrived at the palace, “he lay with her.” And then David simply sent Bathsheba home. Weeks later when she let him know she was pregnant, David called her husband home from the war, hoping to mask his responsibility for her condition. In the end, David arranged to have Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle, and then he married her himself, perhaps to further hide his rape of a young woman who was helpless in the hands of Israel’s king.
David and Bathsheba’s marriage was likely not a loving one at first. David’s lust, so shocking in a king who had a reputation for godliness, must have shaken Bathsheba. When she discovered she was pregnant by David, she clearly had lost control of her own life and was utterly powerless.
Yet we learn in the Chronicles that she later bore David four sons, and that one of those sons, Solomon, was David’s successor. Even more fascinating, as David lay dying and one of his sons acted to usurp the throne, the prophet Nathan enlisted the aid of Bathsheba to appeal to the king. Bathsheba reminded David of his promise to see Solomon crowned, but it was her reminder that after David died the lives of both herself and Solomon would be in danger (1 Kings 1:21) that moved David to act.
Something had happened to transform a relationship initiated in lust into a loving commitment of these two to each other.
In Psalm 51, we learn what happened. After David was confronted by the prophet Nathan and acknowledged his sin to the Lord, David took another significant step. David penned a confession and delivered it to the chief musician to be used in public worship. That confession, Psalm 51, is headed by a superscription that bluntly describes the occasion of its writing: “A psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
In this public confession David took full responsibility for what happened, and wrote: “I acknowledge my transgressions” (51:3).
The public confession not only restored David’s relationship with the Lord, but also laid a foundation on which to build a loving relationship with Bathsheba.
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David showed himself a truly strong man when he listened to the advice of Abigail and changed his mind despite publicly stating he would take revenge.
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All too many women today are in abusive relationships. The first reaction of most victims is to hide the abuse out of a sense of guilt and shame, while the first reaction of the abuser is to his victim. Typically these relationships are marked by repeated expressions of contrition and promises never to do it again—all too soon followed by repeated abuse. Such relationships can be healed in only one way: David’s way. The abuser must take full responsibility for his actions and publicly exonerate the abused—just as David did in writing Psalm 51.
When we examine David’s relationships with his wives, what we find is not pretty. David showed a disregard for women that we rightly find repugnant. And yet, David also showed appreciation for the strong woman who repels rather than attracts so many men today. And in his relationship with Bathsheba, David did display a willingness to accept responsibility for the wrong he committed. In this, David pointed the way to the healing of many relationships today.
We can never study David without realizing how complex human beings are. And how greatly we need the grace, forgiveness, and guidance that can be ours through a personal relationship with David’s God.
DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS CHILDREN
It was not unusual in the ancient Middle East for kings to have a number of children. Nor was it common for kings to be close to their children while they were young. We know that David had a number of sons and daughters (cf. 1 Chron. 3:1–9). We also know that several of David’s children featured in Scripture came to a tragic end.
David’s relationship with Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. 13). David’s son Amnon developed a consuming lust for his half-sister, David’s daughter Tamar. Amnon feigned illness and asked for Tamar. When Amnon got Tamar alone, he raped her. As soon as he had sex with her, his lust changed to hatred, and he sent her away, weeping bitterly. The text tells us that “when King David heard of all these things, he was very angry” (13:21). But David did nothing.
According to Old Testament law, Amnon should have married Tamar, a marriage she herself suggested before the rape. Surely David, whose relationship with Bathsheba had begun the same way and yet had been healed, could at least have advised his son. Yet rather than deal with the situation, David remained silent. Tamar hid herself in her brother Absalom’s home, and the pain and the anger the rape created festered. David’s failure to act made a tragic situation worse and made resolution impossible.
David’s relationship with Absalom (2 Sam. 13–15). Tamar was the full sister of Absalom, and her rape by Amnon kindled Absalom’s hatred. Absalom waited for two years, pretending to remain Amnon’s friend, and then arranged for Amnon to be assassinated. Absalom then fled to a friendly nation, where he remained in exile for some time. Finally, David was prevailed on to recall Absalom, but even then the king refused to see him. In this, David neither judged Absalom for his fratricide, nor confronted him as Nathan had confronted David, nor forgave him as God had forgiven David.
Nor did David act when Absalom set out on a carefully crafted campaign to win the allegiance of the northern Hebrew tribes. Soon it was too late: Absalom and a group of David’s old advisors led rebel forces into Jerusalem, forcing David to flee.
In the civil war that followed, Absalom was killed, and David wept inconsolably over his son. David had loved Absalom. But David’s failure to deal with the sin contributed to the tragedy and deaths that followed.
David’s relationship with Solomon (1 Chron. 29). Like many a dad whose children go into the family business, David had his doubts about Solomon’s readiness. Near the end of his life David commented in public, “My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced” (29:1). This may explain in part why David held on to the throne long after he was physically and mentally unable to rule. Even on his death bed David failed to confirm Solomon as his successor until another of his sons, Adonijah, took a chance and attempted to have himself crowned Israel’s ruler. Only then did David act and fulfill his pledge to see Solomon, God’s choice, crowned.
How easy it is to see our children as “young and inexperienced,” never realizing that until we let them step out on their own they will never gain the experience they need.
Yet David’s relationship with Solomon clearly mirrors his relationship with his other children. David was at best a passive parent. David cared deeply but he was never willing to step forward. David neither disciplined nor counseled. He neither confronted nor forgave. David’s inaction seems to have been perceived by David’s children as indifference; an indifference that left them free to cross the boundary between right and wrong.
David’s failures as a father warn us all. More than anything else our children need us to be involved in their lives. They may rebel as they grow up; they may seem to reject our values. But loving involvement gives a father an influential role in shaping a child that detachment never can.
Why did David detach himself from these intimate family matters? Some assume it was the press of great affairs—for David had a kingdom to manage. But I suspect that the underlying reason was David’s earlier failure with Bathsheba, which despite God’s forgiveness and her forgiveness too, robbed him of that moral authority that every parent needs. Seeing his own flaws repeated in his children, David seems to have drawn back, feeling helpless.
DAVID: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
The more closely we examine David’s life, the more we realize how complex an individual David was. On the one hand, David was a mystic, deeply in awe of and in love with God. On the other hand, David was a military genius, a gifted leader.
On the one hand, David was deeply committed to the Lord, so concerned with doing right that he remained loyal to King Saul even when Saul betrayed David again and again. On the other hand, David was a man who casually exploited a woman who loved him, and who surrendered to lust for another man’s wife.
On the one hand, David was consumed with a desire to honor God and to lead his people to worship the Lord. On the other hand, David was a failure as a father; he proved unable to control, guide, or discipline his children.
Perhaps the best we can say of David was that he was a human being, writ large. Both David’s sins and his sanctity come across boldly, so much greater than either our sins or our meager efforts to nurture our relationship with the Lord. And so from David the lessons we can learn are great ones, too.
• David came to know and love God early in life. The earlier we can introduce our children to God, the more significant their lives will be.
• David was responsive to God’s self-revelation. David not only wished to honor God; David was eager to know God better and to glorify Him. A passion for the Lord will not keep us from sin by itself, but it will bring us back to Him should we fall.
• David gave significant attention to worship. If we would know God better, we too will spend time in personal and corporate worship.
• David’s flaws stand as warnings, signposts erected by God for our benefit. We are not to succumb to lust, nor are we to demean or exploit women. And we are not to withdraw from involvement with our children.
• Yet David’s sterling qualities also point us toward significant lives. We are to be loyal to God and to others, faithful under persecution, trusting when things go wrong, captivated by the vision of serving God in whatever way He chooses. We are to be ready to confess our sins and quick to turn to the Lord when in need. In these things David can be our example. And for these things we rightly honor him today.

ISAAC
Scripture references:
Genesis 17:19–21; 21:3–12;
22; 24–28; 31; 35
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Date: 2066 B.C.
Name: Isaac [I-zik; “laughing”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Isaac inherited God’s covenant promises from Abraham and passed them to his son Jacob.
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ISAAC’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Isaac is significant primarily as a transitional figure. He inherited the covenant promises God gave to Abraham, and he passed those promises on to his son Jacob. He is frequently named where the Bible speaks of patriarchs, and for generations the Israelites knew God simply as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
ISAAC’S LIFE AND TIMES
Isaac lived his life as a nomad in the Promised Land, living in tents, leading his flocks and herds to pasture as the seasons changed, and now and then pausing to plant and harvest grain. By the standards of the time, Isaac was a wealthy person.
Most references to Isaac portray him in a passive role, being acted upon rather than acting. God predicted his birth and gave him his name (Gen. 17:19–21). When Isaac was weaned, his mother insisted that his older half-brother Ishmael be sent away to protect Isaac’s inheritance rights (Gen. 21:3–12). Perhaps as a teenager, his father took Isaac to Mount Horeb where Abraham prepared to offer him as a sacrifice at God’s command (see pages 19–20). When Isaac was forty years of age, his father sent a servant to find a bride for him (Gen. 24). Later when a dispute with local peoples over water rights erupted, Isaac’s response was to move again and again rather than engage in conflict (Gen. 26). And, like his father Abraham, Isaac got his wife Rebekah to pretend they were not married out of fear that he might be killed by a king of the Philistines who desired her (Gen. 26).
Isaac is not known for bold actions or great achievements. Yet, Isaac played a vital role in God’s plan and His calling into being a people through whom He intended to reveal Himself and through whom Christ would come.
EXPLORING ISAAC’S RELATIONSHIPS
The relationships developed in the text are Isaac’s relationships with his family members.
Isaac’s relationship with his wife. The text tells us that Isaac loved Rachel (Gen. 24:67). Certainly she was a strong woman as well as a beautiful one, as displayed in her willingness to leave her homeland for an unknown future with a man she had just met. Yet, the relationship between Rachel and Isaac apparently was not especially close. Each of the two had a favorite son, and Rachel plotted to trick Isaac into giving his blessing to her favorite rather than his. Perhaps Isaac was rigid and unwilling to dialog with his wife, but whatever the reason for Rachel’s actions they suggest that husband and wife were not as close as they might have been.
It is tragic when spouses feel they cannot discuss significant family issues with each other but must go behind one another’s backs to gain a personal “win.”
Isaac’s relationship with his sons. Isaac and Rachel both fell into the trap of having favorites—and favoring them. It may not be humanly possible for a parent not to feel more affection for one child than for others. However it is possible, and right, to refrain from showing favoritism. Isaac liked the outdoorsman Esau, even though he was a materialistic individual with no spiritual sensitivity. Rachel liked the quiet and contemplative Jacob, who felt more comfortable staying near the family tents. How much better it is for parents to praise the strengths of each child rather than to favor the child whose strengths we appreciate most.
Isaac’s relationship with God. Surprisingly, little is said of Isaac’s personal relationship with God. We know that Isaac was a believer who worshiped the Lord (Gen. 26:23–25). Jacob once referred to “the LORD your God” when addressing his father (Gen. 27:20). At the same time nothing in the text suggests that Isaac’s relationship with the Lord was as close as that of his father Abraham.
However, one action indicates that Isaac chose to submit to God’s will despite his own desires. Jacob had come to his blind and aged father, and, pretending to be Esau, tricked Isaac into blessing him. In Old Testament times, this final parental blessing had legal as well as prophetic force. When Esau himself appeared before his father, Isaac realized that Jacob had tricked him. Jacob, whom God had indicated before his birth would be preferred over his older twin Esau, now had the old man’s blessing even though it was stolen. Realizing what had happened, Isaac said, “and indeed he shall be blessed” (Gen. 27:33). This simple statement, seemingly an afterthought, is significant. Isaac accepted that God had chosen Jacob and that his favorite, Esau, had been set aside. At last Isaac was willing to submit to God’s will.
ISAAC: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Isaac reminds us that it’s not necessary for a son to be as great as his father to have a significant role in God’s plan. Nor is it necessary for a father to be as great as his son. In a real way, both his father Abraham and his son Jacob overshadowed Isaac. Even so, we have much to learn from him.
• Isaac is a model for the quiet among us who neither want nor need the limelight. He reminds us that it is less important to be great than to be faithful and that the apparently insignificant people play a greater role in God’s plan than we imagine.
• Isaac encourages us to love our wives—but also to share with them. Neither children nor any other thing should be permitted to divide us in our willingness to do God’s will together.
• Isaac reminds us that it is better to submit to God’s will later than never. Isaac truly favored Esau and loved him much better than he loved Jacob. But Jacob was God’s choice as the one to whom the covenant should pass. In the end, Isaac submitted to God’s will and so decreed, “Indeed, he shall be blessed.”
JACOB
Scripture references:
Genesis 25–35; 48–49
Romans 9:6–13
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Date: About 2006–1859 B.C.
Name: Jacob [JAY-kuhb; “supplanter”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Jacob, renamed Israel, fathered the twelve men from whom the Jewish people sprang.
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JACOB’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
It’s tempting to skip over Jacob in our discussion of great men of the Old Testament. Jacob is hardly a savory character. Yet, in God’s economy Jacob fathered twelve sons who are the source of the twelve tribes of Israel, and thus of God’s Old Testament people. Jacob’s significance is reflected in the fact that his names (Jacob, and later Israel) are found 2,549 times in our Bible!
Yet, it simply is because Jacob gave his second name, “Israel,” to a people that his name is mentioned so often. Both Isaac and Jacob are significant primarily because their histories permit us to trace the passage of the covenant God made with Abraham from Abraham to the Jewish people as a whole. The covenant passed from Abraham, to his son Isaac, and then to his son Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.
In Romans 9, Paul made an important point concerning the passage of the covenant to these sons. Isaac had an older half-brother, Ishmael. Yet the covenant promises were passed to Isaac. Jacob had an older twin brother, Esau. Yet the covenant promises were passed to Jacob, and God decisively rejected Esau. According to the apostle Paul, this demonstrates an important truth. God is Sovereign, and is free to act as He chooses without reference to human conventions. While in ancient culture the older son was to inherit the tangible and intangible property of the father, God saw fit to do things His way. That Jacob was in many ways an unsavory character simply reminds us that the bestowing of God’s gifts do not depend on our righteousness but rather on the grace and unmerited favor of our God.
JACOB’S LIFE AND TIMES
Jacob spent his youth living a nomadic life with his parents and twin brother Esau. A rivalry developed between the two brothers, fostered by the fact that their father favored the outdoorsman, Esau, while their mother favored Jacob. The rivalry and the parents’ favoritism introduced discord and hostility into the family.
Jacob supplanted his brother (Gen. 25:27–34; 27:1–41). In biblical times, the oldest son inherited twice the amount of younger sons, as well as family headship. Despite the fact that Esau was minutes older than Jacob, and thus the eldest, God intended Jacob to inherit the covenant promises He had given to Abraham, which were the family’s true legacy. Rather than be patient and wait for God to work this out in His own way, Jacob took matters into his own hands.
One day when Esau came in from hunting and was hungry, he asked Jacob for some stew Jacob was cooking. Jacob proposed a trade: the stew for Esau’s birthright. Esau’s easy acquiescence showed how little concern he had for spiritual things; Jacob’s proposal showed how little Jacob cared for integrity.
Years later, when Isaac felt that his death was near, he determined to bless his boys. In that era, the “blessing” of a father had the force of a will and was also thought to fix the future of the sons he blessed. When his wife Rebekah learned that Isaac intended to give his blessing to Esau, Rebekah urged Jacob to pretend to be his brother. Jacob deceived the now blind Isaac, who gave Jacob the blessing he had intended for Esau. When Isaac learned what had happened, he bowed to God’s will and confirmed passage of the covenant promise and other blessings to Jacob.
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Jacob’s offer to trade his stew for Esau’s birthright provides significant insight into the character of each.
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Rebekah and Jacob’s deceit gained their objective but at a terrible cost. Esau now hated his brother and planned to kill Jacob when their father died. When Rebekah learned what Esau intended to do, she sent Jacob away, ostensibly to obtain a bride from her own family back in Haran. Little did Rebekah realize when she plotted with Jacob that once her best loved son left home, she would never see him again. Jacob was gone from Canaan for twenty years, during which time his mother died.
Jacob in Haran (Gen. 28–31). In Haran Jacob located his uncle Laban’s family. There he fell deeply in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel. However in Laban, Jacob found his match as a trickster. Lacking a dowry, Jacob promised to work for Laban for seven years for Rachel. Documents from the period show that an exchange of service in place of the payment of money as a bride price was not unusual. But at the wedding Laban substituted Rachel’s older sister Leah. When dawn came, Jacob discovered the trick, and stormed out to confront his uncle. The slippery Laban made excuses, and Jacob was forced to work an additional seven years for Rachel.
With this obligation met, Laban, realizing that God had blessed him because of Jacob, worked out other agreements to keep Jacob in his employ. To Jacob’s frustration Laban kept changing the terms of the agreement. Jacob learned by experience the frustration his brother Esau must have felt when Jacob tricked Esau! Finally, after twenty years, God directed Jacob to return to the promised land.
The journey home (Gen. 32–35). During his years in Haran, Jacob had sired eleven boys and one girl, and through God’s intervention had gained large flocks and herds. On his way home, Jacob was terrified of the possible reaction of his brother, Esau. Jacob sent gifts of sheep and cattle on ahead to pacify his brother. When Esau met Jacob, however, he greeted him gladly. During the years Jacob was away, Esau had become rich. To Esau, the original “material man,” all he had ever cared about were material possessions. Since he was now wealthy, Esau cared nothing about Jacob’s possession of God’s covenant promises.
The Genesis text tells us of several adventures of Jacob’s family in Canaan, but the essence of the story is that Jacob was again in the land that God had promised to Abraham and his offspring. There Jacob was content to live a nomadic lifestyle as his father and grandfather before him.
Jacob’s great tragedy (Gen. 37). For many years Jacob’s great love, Rachel, had remained childless. Finally she had a son, Joseph, who became his father’s favorite. Just as favoritism had ruined the harmony of Jacob’s childhood family, so the favoritism he now showed toward Joseph destroyed his happiness. Jacob’s other sons grew to resent Joseph. They plotted to kill him, but instead sold him as a slave to traders bound for Egypt. They then took Joseph’s distinctive coat, sprinkled it with goat’s blood, and let Jacob conclude that wild animals had killed his son.
Jacob’s resettlement to Egypt (Gen. 39–50). Jacob mourned for years for his lost son, never dreaming that Joseph was alive and had risen to head the government of Egypt. When a famine struck Canaan, and Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain, the family was reunited. Jacob and the seventy-five members of his clan were welcomed in Egypt, where their offspring remained for several hundred years, multiplying to a population of some two million persons.
Jacob ended his life in Egypt, content to be reunited with Joseph and Joseph’s two sons. But when Jacob died his body was returned to Canaan, and he was buried there beside Abraham and Sarah, with his parents Isaac and Rebekah, and his wife Leah.
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ESAU: THE MATERIALISTIC MAN
Jacob and Esau were twins, but they were quite different individuals. We rightly criticize Jacob for defrauding and cheating Esau of his birthright; yet we need to be aware of Esau’s total indifference to spiritual realities.
The “birthright” in ancient times was the right of the eldest son to leadership of the family, to the bulk of the tangible and to all of the intangible family assets. Isaac’s intangible asset was the covenant of promise God had given to Abraham and his descendants. When the hungry Esau readily traded this birthright for a bowl of Jacob’s stew, he showed his contempt for spiritual realities and for God. Esau was a truly material man; for him this world of sight and touch and taste and feel was all that counted.
Later, after Jacob stole Esau’s blessing by tricking their father Isaac, Esau planned to murder his brother. Esau was angry with his brother for defrauding him, but what moved Esau to consider murder was the fear that Jacob would now take possession of the bulk of the family’s wealth.
Years later, when Jacob returned to Canaan from the land to which he had fled from Esau’s wrath, Esau met his brother graciously. The threat to Esau’s wealth had not materialized; Esau had in fact taken possession of their father’s entire estate! Esau’s remark, “I have enough, my brother” (Gen. 33:9) explains his lack of rancor. All Esau had ever wanted was to be wealthy in this world’s goods. And Esau, the material man, was wealthy indeed. Jacob could keep God’s covenant promises, and even keep the little flocks and herds he had offered as a gift to win his brother’s favor. Since Jacob did not ask the one-third of the family estate to which he was entitled, Esau could afford to be generous!
How tragic is the fate of the materialistic man. Like Esau, he may gain wealth beyond his dreams. But like Esau, he will never grasp the significance of the spiritual and will enter eternity as a truly poor man.
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EXPLORING JACOB’S RELATIONSHIPS
Jacob’s relationship with God. The biblical text traces the development of Jacob’s personal relationship with God.
God’s choice of Jacob (Gen. 25:19–26). The apostle Paul made it clear that Jacob was God’s choice to inherit the covenant promises. This choice was announced to his mother, Rebekah, before Jacob’s birth. The apostle drew an important lesson from this fact. He wrote in Romans 9:10 that “when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls).” Paul’s point is simply that God’s choice of Jacob did not depend on what Jacob had done or would do, or on Jacob’s character. God was and is free to choose. And, when He chooses, God intends to do us good, no matter how flawed our nature might be.
God was involved in Jacob’s life before Jacob was born as He is in ours.
Jacob’s desire for Esau’s birthright (Gen. 25:29–34). It would be wrong to suppose at this point that Jacob had a conscious personal relationship with God. What Jacob did have was enough faith to see the value of the spiritual. In this he contrasts with Esau, to whom the notion of a spiritual realm beyond what he could see and taste and feel seemed nonsense. Today, too, some seem more aware of and open to the spiritual, while others are utter materialists who are blind to every spiritual reality. How important it is to cultivate spiritual sensitivity, for such may prove to be the door though which God enters our life.
Jacob’s initial meeting with God (Gen. 28:10–22). When Jacob was forced to flee from his home he had an experience with God at a site he named Bethel [“house of God”]. In a dream, Jacob saw angels passing back and forth between heaven and earth. The vision stunned Jacob, and before he left the next morning he made a pledge:
If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God (Gen. 28:20).
For Jacob, this was a first step in welcoming God into his life. Like our own first steps, this one seems to have been taken for selfish reasons. Jacob was willing to commit himself to the Lord in exchange for protection, food, clothing, and a safe return home. One day, Jacob would learn that the greatest benefit of any relationship with the Lord is His presence and that the greatest reason to seek Him is to praise and enjoy Him forever. But for now, this was as far as Jacob could see.
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Jacob’s vision of angels at Bethel convinced him to trust himself and his future to the Lord.
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This first step was acceptable to the Lord, even as our first faltering steps of faith are acceptable to Him.
God’s intervention on Jacob’s behalf (Gen. 30:25–43). During the years that Jacob worked for Laban, God blessed Jacob’s every effort. Laban was becoming rich!
When Laban schemed to defraud Jacob, God taught Jacob how to transfer much of Laban’s wealth in herds to himself, while always dealing honestly with his uncle. In time, Laban and his sons saw their wealth dwindle and Jacob’s wealth increase. At that point, God told Jacob it was time to return to the Promised Land.
Jacob prayed to God (Gen. 32:1–12). Despite his fear of Esau, Jacob set out for home. When he reached the borders of Canaan, Jacob saw an encampment of angels waiting to accompany him home. Despite this vision, Jacob was afraid. He took all the precautions humanly possible to secure his family should Esau attack, and then turned to prayer. Jacob’s prayer showed a maturity and spiritual depth lacking in his early years.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, “I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude” (Gen. 32:10–12).
This prayer demonstrated an appreciation for the Lord and a reliance on His promises of which Jacob was not capable earlier in his life.
Jacob wrestled with God (Gen. 32:22–32). That night, Jacob sent his herds and family across the river while he remained behind. There he wrestled with a “Man” whom Jacob identified as a theophany— a pre-incarnation appearance of God in human form. Jacob refused to release his hold on his supernatural opponent, and the Lord blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel. The nature of this encounter remains a mystery, but the new name God gave Jacob echoed throughout Old Testament history.
Jacob/Israel’s mature faith (Gen. 48:15–16). The last incident in which we gain a sense of Jacob’s relationship with God occurred in Egypt. Jacob was near death, and he called for his sons and grandchildren. He blessed Joseph’s two sons, and said:
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads. (Gen. 48:15, 16)
To Joseph he said, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers” (Gen. 48:21).
Jacob, who began life relying on tricks and on his wits to gain spiritual ends, had finally come to the place where he acknowledged God’s hand in all, and where he encouraged his son to wait, trustingly, on the Lord.
It took a long journey to bring Jacob/Israel to this point. May you and I accomplish that journey from self-reliance to complete reliance on God more quickly.
Jacob’s relationship with his wives (Gen. 29, 30). Jacob had children by four women. Two were wives, Rachel and Leah. The other two, Bildad and Zilpah, were surrogates forced on Jacob by the two wives in a competition to give their husband sons. Little is said of the impact of this arrangement on Jacob, but the text reveals much about its impact on the women. [For a study of that impact, see the companion book in this series, Every Woman in the Bible.]
Clearly, Jacob had a deep and abiding love for Rachel, and just as clearly, Jacob put up with, but did not love, Leah. We sense Leah’s pain in the names she gave her sons, names that reflect her dwindling hope to win her husband’s affection.
Reuben: “now therefore, my husband will love me” (29:32)
Simeon: “because the Lord has heard I am unloved” (29:33)
Levi: “now this time my husband will become attached to me” (29:34).
At last, Leah realized that whatever she did, her husband would never truly care for her, so she named her next son Judah: “Now I will praise the Lord.”
We can sense something of the pressure on Jacob that his wives’ competition for sons caused. But the real tragedy is that in this polygamous family one wife was loved and the other unloved, and the two slave girls the wives forced on Jacob were treated as objects, with no say in what happened to them.
For those who imagine that God’s intent that marriage involve one man and one woman somehow limits human beings, a study of Jacob and his wives is revealing indeed. How tragic for the man who seeks relationships with many women, to be deprived of the blessings of growing toward oneness with his wife. And how tragic for the women, to be in a relationship which at best depersonalizes and devalues them as human beings.
Jacob’s relationship with Esau. See the sketch of Esau on pages 70–71.
JACOB: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Jacob is honored as one of the patriarchs through whom God’s covenant promises were transmitted to His Old Testament people, the Jews. In a sense Jacob is most significant as a conduit of both revelation and grace.
At the same time, Jacob’s experiences can teach us much about ourselves and our relationship with God. How clearly we see in Jacob our own tendency to take matters into our own hands, even when God has promised to act in His own time. How clearly we see our own willingness to cut corners when we think it will bring us closer to some goal. Yet Jacob also reminds us of our potential for spiritual growth and transformation. If we are spiritually sensitive and value a relationship with God, as Jacob did, God will speak to our open hearts. God will graciously and gradually work within us, until like Jacob we reach a point in which we have learned to value grace.
What specific lessons can we learn from Jacob?
• Jacob teaches us to look past material gain and value the spiritual. We must never lose sight of the fact that God is there and that the reality He inhabits is far more important than the shadow world we know through our senses.
• Jacob reminds us that God intends to correct our character flaws. Often, He does this by making us victims of the same kind of hurt we inflict on others. God is not willing to leave His chosen ones unchanged. We can correct ourselves. Or He will correct us.
• Jacob reminds us that the purpose we serve is greater than we are. Jacob was the conduit through which God intended to bless the world. That God uses us to bless others is far more important than that we live happy and prosperous lives.
• Jacob’s life journey reminds us that God never deserts His own. God was with Jacob before Jacob knew him. He ventured with Jacob on all his travels. He stayed close to Jacob as his life drew to an end. There is no place we can go, no time we can inhabit, where God is absent. His presence is, and will ever remain, our hope.
JOSEPH
Scripture references:
Genesis 37–50; Acts 7:9–18;
Hebrews 11:22
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Date: About 1880 B.C.
Name: Joseph [JOH-suhf; “may God add”]
Greatest
achievement: Joseph rose to become vizier of Egypt and preserved the Israelites by settling his family there.
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JOSEPH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Joseph played a vital role in the preservation of the Hebrew people. His little family lived in Canaan, the land bridge and buffer between the great powers of the north and Egypt in the south, and Canaan frequently became a battleground. There was no way the Israelites could have built the population needed to inhabit the Promised Land had God’s people remained in Canaan. But resettled by Joseph in one of the richest of Egypt’s agricultural areas, the Hebrew people multiplied greatly. Despite being later enslaved by the Egyptians, the sojourn in Egypt was an essential part of God’s plan for fulfilling his promise to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation” (Gen. 12:2).
Joseph is also one of the most attractive of Old Testament characters. He maintained a steadfast trust in God, and despite suffering unjustly, he consistently made choices that honored the Lord. Some have suggested that Joseph is the single most Christlike figure in the Old Testament, a man whose life mirrors that of our Lord in significant ways.
JOSEPH’S LIFE AND TIMES
Joseph’s early years (Gen. 37). Joseph was the son of Jacob and of Rachel, Jacob’s best-loved wife. Unfortunately, his father showed him such obvious favoritism that Joseph’s brothers resented him deeply. Joseph seems to have been naively unaware of their jealousy. When Joseph related two dreams that suggested that one day his parents and his brothers would bow down to him, he only deepened their animosity. While Joseph was still a teenager, his brothers sold him to merchants traveling to Egypt.
Joseph’s suffering in Egypt (Gen. 39–40). In Egypt, Joseph was sold to a high official named Potiphar. Joseph soon became Potiphar’s most trusted agent and was put in charge of his estate. When Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, Potiphar imprisoned Joseph. In prison, Joseph’s organizational gifts and trustworthiness again led to advancement. Soon he became the warden’s agent, and ran the prison. This prison housed the king’s prison, and when two high officials of the royal court were housed there, Joseph correctly interpreted their dreams. As Joseph had predicted, one official was hanged, while the other was restored to his office. Two years later when Pharaoh had disquieting dreams no one could interpret, the official whose dream Joseph had explained told Pharaoh about him.
Several things are significant about the decade or more during which Joseph lived first as a slave and later as a convict. First, Joseph made the most of his opportunities. Rather than become despondent, Joseph went to work. There is no better way to prepare for great things than to be faithful in small things.
Second, Joseph remained committed to God and godliness. We see this in Joseph’s response to Potiphar’s wife’s attempts to seduce him: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God” (39:9). It’s all too tempting, when life treats us unfairly, to take detours into sin. Joseph maintained his integrity through it all.
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The symbols of office with which Pharaoh invested Joseph were those traditionally worn by the vizier of Egypt, as shown on ancient reliefs.
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Joseph’s exaltation as second ruler of Egypt (Gen. 41). God showed Joseph the meaning of Pharaoh’s disquieting dreams. Joseph explained that Egypt would experience seven years of abundant crops, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph advised Pharaoh to prepare for the famine by storing grain during the seven good years. Pharaoh, impressed by the dream interpretation and the advice, made Joseph “second ruler” in Egypt. The symbols of Joseph’s office described in Genesis 41:42 can be seen in wall paintings from the era. They suggest that Joseph was made vizier of Egypt, the highest administrative position in the kingdom. Applying the organizational skills he had developed in Potiphar’s house and in the king’s prison, Joseph set out energetically to prepare Egypt for the coming famine.
Joseph’s reunion with his family (Gen. 42–46). When the famine struck, the entire Middle East was affected. Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to purchase grain so the family might survive. On each of their two trips they met with Joseph, but did not recognize him. Finally Joseph revealed himself, and wept with happiness. He forgave his brothers and invited the whole family to settle in Egypt.
The review in Acts 7 of Joseph’s life reminds us that while Joseph is a fascinating individual, what is truly significant is the role Joseph played in God’s plan. Joseph clearly understood this plan. Joseph explained his gracious attitude toward the brothers who had sold him into slavery by saying, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
EXPLORING JOSEPH’S RELATIONSHIPS
The most significant relationship in the Joseph story is that which he had with his brothers. Joseph’s relationships with his brothers was complex, even though he was with them only during his youth and later as ruler of Egypt.
Joseph’s early relationship with his brothers (Gen. 37). As a child and young teen, Joseph basked in his father’s affection. He was dad’s favorite and accepted the love lavished on him as his due. Not surprisingly, Joseph was naively unaware of the effect this obvious affection had on his older brothers. Joseph hardly understood how his brothers would feel when he related dreams that suggested he would be exalted above his parents as well as them.
But the dreams made his brothers even more hostile toward him. The hostility was so great that one day when Joseph was sent to find his brothers and their flocks, the brothers decided to kill Joseph. Instead of such drastic action, Joseph’s brother Judah suggested that he be sold to a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants. Later, they led their father to believe wild beasts had killed Joseph.
When the brothers saw how utterly devastated their father Jacob was, they were sorry. By then, it was too late. In the coming years, witnessing their father’s unresolved grief deeply troubled their consciences. But their sorrow—or ours over the wrong choices we make—could never repair the damage caused by their sin.
Joseph’s later relationship with his brothers (Gen. 42–50). Joseph immediately recognized his brothers years later when ten of them came to Egypt to buy grain.
The first trip to Egypt (Gen. 42). When Joseph’s brothers arrived in Egypt they failed to recognize him. Joseph at first accused them of being spies, and questioned them closely. Joseph had a younger full brother, Benjamin, who had remained in Canaan. He demanded that they bring Benjamin to him.
The brothers, deeply disturbed and unaware that Joseph could understand their language, exclaimed that the present disaster was a just consequence of their wickedness in selling Joseph into slavery. Joseph kept Simeon in Egypt, but gave the others grain and sent them home. First, however Joseph had the silver they had paid him slipped into their grain sacks. When the money was later discovered, the brothers were terrified, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” (Gen. 42:28).
The second trip to Egypt (Gen. 43). When the purchased grain was gone the brothers simply had to return to Egypt, the only source of food in the region. Joseph welcomed his brothers, told them not to worry about the money they had found in their sacks, fed them, and sent them away. But this time Joseph had his staff hide a valuable cup in the sacks carried by Benjamin’s donkey. Joseph’s men then pursued the brothers, found the sack, and brought them back to Joseph. When Joseph threatened to keep Benjamin as a slave, Judah begged Joseph to enslave him in place of Benjamin, pleading that their father could not survive the loss. “He alone is left of his mother’s children,” Judah pled, “and his father loves him” (Gen. 44:20; see v. 31). This selfless act by Judah, who was willing to give up his own freedom and family, is in striking contrast to the earlier actions of the brothers. (Judah was also the one who had suggested selling Joseph into slavery instead of killing him.)
At this, Joseph could no longer restrain himself. He revealed himself to his brothers, weeping and hugging them, and urging them to bring their father to Egypt where Joseph would provide for them all.
Many have wondered about Joseph’s motives in testing his brothers as he did. Was he simply taking revenge? Or did he have another reason? Knowing Joseph, we must assume that his motive was honorable. Joseph wanted to know his brothers’ hearts before making himself known. Their actions revealed their hearts. On their first visit, Joseph learned that they still felt guilt for what they had done to him. On the second visit Joseph saw in his brother Judah’s actions an inner transformation that was wonderful indeed. By the time Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he knew that he could trust them at last!
Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. But often it is not enough to heal a relationship. The person who is offered forgiveness must be repentant, willing to acknowledge his fault and ready to accept the gift offered to him. Joseph’s “tests” revealed that his brothers truly were ready to receive what Joseph had always been willing to extend—a full and complete forgiveness which put the past behind and restored trust and confidence for the future.
Perhaps it is this grace of forgiveness that most reminds us of Christ and makes Joseph a Christlike figure. Both Joseph and Jesus were treated unjustly by their own people. Both suffered great loss. Both were later exalted to a position of power. Both, through their suffering, were enabled to deliver their loved ones from certain death. And both chose to forgive.
JOSEPH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Joseph is one of the few—and perhaps the only—biblical character who seems to have had no flaw. His actions as a young teen that so provoked his brothers reflect a certain naïveté, not arrogance. His behavior in the house of Potiphar, his industriousness and integrity, are beyond rebuke. As the second most powerful man in Egypt, Joseph selflessly dedicated himself to the well being of that land. And, as an abused brother, Joseph showed such grace in forgiving those who had injured him that we cannot help comparing him with Jesus Christ. No wonder we have much to learn from Joseph, one of the truly godly men of the Old Testament.
• Joseph teaches us to seek excellence in whatever situation we may find ourselves. What we achieve in life’s small things will train and equip us for the greater challenges ahead.
• Joseph teaches us to live morally pure lives. We, too, live in a world filled with temptations. Keeping ourselves pure honors God and shows respect for others.
• Joseph teaches us to maintain a positive attitude when treated unfairly. Others often abused Joseph, but he never gave in to despair. He continued to do his best in every circumstance, and in so doing, he prepared himself for the future God had in mind.
• Joseph reminds us that while it is divine to forgive, we must also be wise in our relationship with those who have harmed us. We are always to be willing to forgive, but this does not mean we must foolishly trust ourselves to others who have proven untrust-worthy before. Joseph’s test of his brothers’ character was not undertaken to help him decide whether they were worthy of forgiveness, but rather to determine whether they were worthy of trust.
• Joseph reminds us that fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives is more significant than our experiences along the way. Many Christians have suffered for God’s greater good, and found joy in doing so. We need to look beyond ourselves—beyond our own wants and desires–and take satisfaction in serving Him.
• Joseph reminds us of the wonder of forgiveness and its healing power. As God has forgiven us, so we are to forgive others, freely and completely. To the extent that others will receive the forgiveness we offer, the hurts of both culprit and victim can be heale

NATHAN
Scripture references:
2 Samuel 7, 12; 1 Kings 1;
1 Chronicles 17, 29
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Date: About 1000 B.C.
Name: Nathan [NAY-thuhn; “gift”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Nathan served as court prophet to King David.
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NATHAN’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
We know little about Nathan’s origins or background. When we first meet him, Nathan is already serving in the royal court, delivering God’s messages to King David. Nathan announced the Davidic covenant in which God promised to confirm David’s family line as the royal line in Israel and which would ultimately produce a King who would rule Israel forever. Nathan also confronted David after he sinned with Bathsheba and brought about David’s repentance. And, when David was near death, Nathan rallied Solomon’s supporters and made sure that Solomon succeeded David as king. On each of these occasions, Nathan’s ministry helped shape Old Testament history.
Nathan clearly portrays the challenging role of the Old Testament prophet. Old Testament prophets most often delivered God’s message to kings. While some prophets like Ezekiel ministered primarily to the people, most were sent by God to guide or to confront the rulers of His people. While a few kings, like David, heeded the prophets sent to them, most rulers rejected the message and persecuted the prophet.
The relationship between David and Nathan shows us the ideal: prophet and king function together to carry out God’s will.
EXPLORING NATHAN’S RELATIONSHIPS
Nathan was court prophet, and his primary relationship was with King David. Each of three major incidents involving the two men reveal much about their characters.
Nathan reported God’s promise (2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 17). When David had defeated all the surrounding nations and Israel was at peace, David told Nathan his dream of building a temple for the Lord. At first, Nathan encouraged the king. But that night “the word of the Lord came to Nathan” (2 Sam. 7:4). The prophet had to return and tell David that he was not allowed to build a temple, but that God would build David a “house”—a permanent dynasty.
Any disappointment David felt at being denied the privilege of constructing a temple was swallowed up in his joy and wonder at God’s promise. David accepted Nathan’s message as the very word of God Himself. David had such confidence in Nathan that he trusted his words completely.
Nathan confronted David (2 Sam. 12). David had sinned with Bathsheba and had arranged for the death of her husband. He had then married Bathsheba. For some time afterward David lived with these sins, although Psalm 32 suggests that he suffered intense guilt. God sent Nathan to confront David. Nathan told David a story of a wealthy man who had taken a poor man’s only lamb to feed a guest. David was furious over the injustice. (Like us, David found it far easier to be angry over another’s sins than his own!) Nathan than denounced David, saying, “You are the man!” and delivering the Lord’s blunt and harsh condemnation (12:7–12).
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Nathan fulfilled a major role of Old Testament prophets when he confronted David concerning David’s sin.
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David immediately confessed to Nathan: “I have sinned against the LORD.”
The incident tells us much about the courage it took to serve as a prophet in any royal court. Court prophets were charged not only with delivering good news but also with confronting men who had the power to punish or even kill them. In this case, we are amazed by Nathan’s boldness, for his message was harsh indeed. But we are also impressed by David’s reaction. David immediately humbled himself and confessed his sin. God’s Word through the prophet had its intended effect.
All too often, as we read the Old Testament we meet rulers who ignored the words of God’s prophets or who tried to kill the prophets. While Nathan models the ministry of prophets in the royal court, David models the appropriate response of kings to the messages delivered by God’s spokespersons.
Nathan acted to preserve Solomon’s rights (1 Kings 1). When David was near death one of his sons attempted to usurp the throne. Nathan, aware of God’s intent that Solomon succeed David, acted. He enlisted the help of Bathsheba and others and appealed to the king to crown Solomon immediately.
In this Nathan was not acting as a prophet but rather as an ordinary man who had been a trusted associate of the king. Through his years with David, Nathan had become a trusted advisor as well as a respected spokesman for God.
The respect that Nathan showed David, as revealed in the dialog in this chapter, makes it clear that Nathan did not confuse the roles of prophet and adviser. Too many of us would have presumed on our calling by God and, puffed up by our own importance, would have expected the king to give the same weight to our words as to God’s. But not Nathan; he was aware that while he was a prophet he was also an ordinary man.
NATHAN: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Nathan was able to live near the center of power and remain uncorrupted. His close relationship with David was not only displayed in the incidents noted above, but Nathan also helped David reorganize Israel’s worship (1 Chron. 29:25). Nathan also wrote a book, now lost, that may have been used to compile the record of David’s life found in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. Throughout his years in David’s court, Nathan was utterly faithful to God, while at the same time being a loyal supporter and friend of David the king.
• Nathan reminds us that to be a true friend we need to be as willing to confront as to encourage.
• Nathan reminds us that we need to be willing to speak out for God even when that course might involve risk.
• Nathan reminds us to remain humble, especially when we have been given spiritual gifts that others recognize and honor.

ELIJAH
Scripture references:
1 Kings 17–19; 2 Kings 1–2;
Malachi 4; Matthew 11, 17;
Mark 9; Luke 1, 4, 9;
John 1; James 5:17
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Date: About 875 b.c.
Name: Elijah [ee-LI-juh; “Yahweh is my God”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Elijah checked the efforts of evil King Ahab and his wife Jezebel to replace the worship of Yahweh with worship of Baal in the northern Hebrew kingdom.
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ELIJAH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Elijah lived at a critical time in the history of the northern kingdom, Israel. From its origin in 930 B.C., Israel had been ruled by kings who refused to submit to God’s will. The first ruler of the north, Jeroboam I, had designed a counterfeit worship system to keep his citizens from going to Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah, to worship. In the 850s, King Ahab, encouraged by his wife Jezebel, initiated an active campaign to wipe out the worship of Yahweh in Israel and replace it with worship of Baal. Jezebel had imported some 850 pagan prophets from her homeland and at the same time had set out to exterminate any prophets of the Lord who remained in Israel. It was then that Elijah appeared, and demonstrated the power of the Lord first by bringing a three-and-a-half-year drought that devastated Israel, and then by defeating 450 prophets of Baal in a contest on Mount Carmel. The outcome was that the people of Israel, who had been wavering, affirmed that “the LORD, He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). The efforts of Ahab and Jezebel were stymied, and while the counterfeit religious system existing in Israel was not changed, the Israelites were turned back to the Lord.
This confrontational ministry of Elijah and its great national impact serve in Scripture as a model for the ministry of a prophet predicted in Malachi 4:5–6.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
Elijah and the Malachi prophecy are referred to frequently in the Gospels. A prophet with an Elijah-like ministry (or, some say, Elijah himself!) will appear before the Messiah sets up His kingdom. John the Baptist had this kind of ministry, but Israel did not respond, and so the Elijah prophecy was not fulfilled in John.
James 5 also contains a significant reference to Elijah. James encouraged his readers to pray and declared that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17–18). The inspired author focused on two matters: Elijah’s humanity and his prayer.
EXPLORING ELIJAH’S RELATIONSHIPS
Elijah’s relationship with Israel’s rulers (1 Kings 17–19; 2 Kings 1). Elijah dealt with rulers who were utterly hostile to God and thus to him. Four incidents illustrate the antagonism that existed between the rulers and God’s prophet.
Elijah announced a drought (1 Kings 17). God sent Elijah to Ahab to announce that for three years there would be neither rain nor dew in Israel. For those three years the prophet was hidden from the king, who searched for him as the land withered under the drought. Ahab had the largest chariot army in the region, and he was unable to find provisions for his horses.
Elijah proposed a test (1 Kings 18). After three and a half years, God sent Elijah to confront Ahab again. Elijah proposed a test of God’s power versus Baal’s power. Ahab, who seems actually to have had some confidence in Baal’s powers, agreed. For hours, the prophets of Baal called on their deity with no response. But as soon as Elijah prayed, fire fell from heaven and consumed the offering Elijah had laid out. The people, who had been wavering, were convinced. At Elijah’s words, the people killed the prophets of Baal. Elijah then prayed for rain, and the drought was broken.
Elijah pronounced Ahab’s doom (1 Kings 21). Ahab’s wife Jezebel arranged the judicial murder of Naboth, a man whose vineyard Ahab coveted. Although Ahab had not conspired to commit the murder, he gladly went down to inspect the property when Jezebel told him what she had done. Elijah confronted Ahab there, and announced God’s judgment on the wicked pair. Ahab put on sackcloth, fasted, and wept to demonstrate his repentance. God put off the punishment He decreed on Ahab’s dynasty. Later the king ignored the warning of another prophet and was killed in battle.
Elijah announced the death of Ahaziah, Ahab’s son and successor (2 Kings 1). When King Ahaziah was injured, he sent messengers to inquire of a foreign deity whether he would survive. Elijah intercepted the messengers and announced that since Ahaziah had not seen fit to inquire of the Lord, he would surely die. The king sent several troops of soldiers to bring Elijah to him. Elijah called down fire from heaven on two of the companies, but when the captain of the third squad showed respect for the Lord and His power, God told Elijah to accompany them to the king.
In each of these situations Elijah was called to a ministry of judgment. Each placed Elijah in potential danger at the hands of a hostile king. Yet, Elijah faithfully carried out each mission and was protected by the Lord.
Elijah’s relationship with Elisha (1 Kings 19:19–21; 2 Kings 2). Near the end of his ministry Elijah became despondent and discouraged. It seemed to him that everyone had abandoned the Lord. At this point, God selected Elisha as a companion and an apprentice for Elijah.
When God took Elijah into heaven, Elisha became the premier prophet in Israel. While Elijah’s ministry had been one of confrontation and judgment—as demonstrated in the miracles attributed to him—Elisha benefited from his predecessor’s impact on the average Israelite. Elisha’s ministry was marked by miracles that aided both the nation and godly individuals.
Elijah’s relationship with the Lord (1 Kings 19). When we read of Elijah’s accomplishments, he comes across as a fierce and fearless individual. Whatever God called Elijah to do, he did boldly. Yet, James reminded us that Elijah was a “man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17).
God provided for Elijah (1 Kings 17). During the years of drought when Elijah was hiding from Ahab, God provided for him in supernatural ways. Ravens provided his food by the brook Cherith, and later God miraculously extended the supply of food of a widow with whom Elijah stayed.
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Elijah’s victory on Mount Carmel convinced the wavering Israelites that the Lord truly was God.
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God ministered to a despondent Elijah (1 Kings 19). Elijah’s humanity came through most clearly after his victory on Mount Carmel. When Jezebel heard that Elijah had ordered the prophets of Baal killed, the queen sent a death threat to the prophet. Elijah was terrified, and ran for his life.
While terror gripped Elijah, the Lord supplied him with the strength he needed to flee. Finally exhausted after a forty-day journey, Elijah stopped running at Mount Sinai [called Horeb here]. God spoke to him there, and Elijah shared his despair:
“I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life” (1 Kings 19:10).
Often emotional highs are followed by emotional lows. This was surely Elijah’s experience. In the grip of depression, Elijah could not see matters clearly.
Rather than rebuke Elijah, God ministered to His prophet in specific and gracious ways.
• God spoke to Elijah in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). Elijah needed to know God cared and the gentle response of the Lord communicated this reality powerfully.
• God gave Elijah a task to complete (1 Kings 19:15–17). Elijah was sent to anoint two future kings who would bring an end to Ahab and his line. A depressed person often feels overwhelmed. Elijah needed to have a clear and obtainable goal set for him.
• God gave Elijah a companion, Elisha (1 Kings 19:16). A depressed person typically feels isolated and alone. This certainly describes Elijah, who had complained, “I alone am left.” Elisha would become Elijah’s friend and companion as well as his successor.
• God gave Elijah perspective (1 Kings 19:18). Elijah was wrong in his belief that all except him had abandoned the Lord. God told him, “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.”
Truly Elijah was “a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17), and just as surely God graciously ministered to Elijah. Elijah had given his life to serve God, but God also was dedicated to serve Elijah.
ELIJAH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Elijah provides us a picture of the prophet as a lonely man—a man dedicated to God in a hostile society. Elijah was bold and brave, but Elijah was merely human. His dedication to God placed strains on him that led to the recorded bout of fear and depression. Elijah’s experience reminds us that while commitment to the Lord may increase the stress in our life, the Lord is committed to us and will meet us in our need. From Elijah we discover much about the cost and the rewards of commitment.
• Elijah reminds us that we may find ourselves in situations where we feel that we alone have remained faithful to the Lord. Should this happen, we are to be bold and speak up for Him as Elijah did.
• Elijah reminds us that when we feel weakest God may be the closest to us, ready to whisper to us in a still, small voice.
• Elijah reminds us that God is never critical of our human limitations. God understands us, and cares. He knows how to provide what we need to go on with life.
• Elijah reminds us that we need God’s perspective always. However alone we may feel, many others love God equally and share our experiences.
• Elijah reminds us that we, too, need the companionship of like-minded believers. Today, you and I can find this companionship with others in the church, the body of Christ. Let’s seek fellowship there, that we might offer and receive support.
ELISHA
Scripture references:
1 Kings 19; 2 Kings 2–13;
Luke 4:27
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Date: About 850 B.C.
Name: Elisha [ee-LI-shuh; “God is salvation”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Elisha was the successor of Elijah whose ministry confirmed God’s active presence in Israel.
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ELISHA’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Elisha had a very different ministry from that of Elijah. Elijah’s role as a prophet of judgment was to display God’s power in a time of apostasy. Elisha, his successor, seems to have focused his ministry on a display of God’s grace toward those who would trust Him.
The Old Testament records fourteen miracles of Elisha compared with seven miracles performed by Elijah. These miracles help us sense the healing nature of Elisha’s ministry and their promise of overflowing grace should the Israelites simply turn to Him completely. Here is a list of Elisha’s miracles as reported in 2 Kings:
1. Elisha separated the waters of the Jordan (2:14)
2. Elisha healed bitter spring waters (2:21)
3. Elisha cursed young men who ridiculed God (2:24)
4. Elisha won a battle for Israel (3:15–26)
5. Elisha multiplied a poor widow’s oil (4:1–7)
6. Elisha promised a good woman a child (4:14–17)
7. Elisha raised the good woman’s child from the dead (4:32–37)
8. Elisha made poison stew edible (4:38–41)
9. Elisha multiplied loaves to feed many (4:42–44)
10. Elisha healed a Syrian general’s leprosy (5:1–19)
11. Elisha made a borrowed ax head float (6:1–6)
12. Elisha trapped an Aramean army (6:8–23)
13. Elisha showed his servant an angel army (6:15–17)
14. Elisha predicted an excess of food for starving Samaria (6:24–7:20)
These miracles were certainly less spectacular than those performed by Elijah; they were also different in nature. Yet, each prophet’s miracles displayed different aspects of God’s character. God reveals himself in judgment; He also reveals Himself in gracious acts to nations, individuals, and even to enemy generals.
ELISHA: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Elisha replaced Elijah as God’s premier prophet in Israel. When we compare Elisha with his mentor, we come to appreciate the lessons he has to teach us.
• Elisha had a less spectacular ministry than that of Elijah, but one that was as significant in its revelation of God’s character to His people. He reminds us that we each have our calling and are not to measure ourselves or our mission against that of the great people of our time. The role we play in God’s plan is the role He has designed for us, and this makes us significant indeed.
• Elisha had a ministry to common people as well as to kings. In every context, Elisha displayed God’s grace and showed that the Lord cares about every detail of our lives. This is important to remember as we serve others. We should bring our ordinary needs to the Lord as well as the big things.
JONAH
Scripture references:
2 Kings 14:25; Jonah;
Matthew 12:39–41; 16:4;
Luke 11:29–32.
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Date: About 775 B.C.
Name: Jonah [JOH-nuh; “dove”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Jonah predicted the resurgence of Israel and warned Assyria of impending judgment.
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When told to go north to Nineveh, Jonah boarded a ship going west! It took a storm and a great fish to set Jonah back on God’s path.
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JONAH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Jonah lived in Israel and predicted the triumphs of Jeroboam II that led to a resurgence of the northern kingdom in the eighth century B.C. His little book relates the story of his reluctance to carry a warning of divine judgment to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and what happened when he did deliver the message. Jonah’s famous three-day stay in the belly of a great fish is referred to in the Gospels as a symbol of Christ’s stay in the tomb after His crucifixion.
JONAH’S LIFE AND TIMES
Jonah was a patriot who predicted the victories won by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). This king of Israel, who is given little space in the Old Testament, was one of the most successful rulers of the northern Hebrew kingdom. During his forty-year rule, Assyria was weak and Israel became the dominant power in the Middle East. Jeroboam II expanded his borders almost to the extent reached in Solomon’s days, and, like Solomon, dominated the trade routes that ran through Damascus.
When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and announce the destruction of the capital of Israel’s most powerful enemy, he chose to run away instead. Jonah explained his motivation in the little four-chapter book that bears his name.
Ah, LORD, was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm (Jon. 4:2).
Jonah’s attempted flight was thwarted, however. God sent two unusual elements: a storm that nearly destroyed the ship on which Jonah had taken passage and a great fish to return the fleeing prophet to land. The next time God spoke, Jonah obeyed. He went to Nineveh, and announced the coming judgment. As Jonah had feared, the people of Nineveh did repent! Jonah sat on a hill outside Nineveh waiting to see what would happen until it became clear that God had chosen to delay the judgment Jonah had announced. Angry and miserable, Jonah begged God to end his life.
Instead, Jonah rebuked his prophet, reminding him that the Lord had pity on “Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock” (Jon. 4:11).
Jonah missed the significance of God’s warning and subsequent relenting. Amos, a prophet from Judah, would soon come to Israel and issue God’s indictment of Israel’s sins and call on His own people to repent. Nineveh’s repentance and God’s gracious failure to punish that city was an object lesson for Israel. Surely, if God would be gracious to an enemy of His people, God would be gracious to His own people if only they would repent! However, Israel did not repent. They persisted in their sins. The judgment of which Amos spoke came when Israel fell to Assyria and its people were carried away as captives and were swallowed up in that mighty empire.
JONAH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Jonah is a prime example of a patriot who knew God well but whose first loyalty was to his nation. He was unwilling to do God’s will when he feared that what God had in mind might conflict with his own hopes for his nation’s future. We have much to learn from Jonah today.
• Jonah warns us against confusing God’s purposes with our own political or national agendas. We are to be loyal to God and responsive to Him. We must avoid any temptation to “use” God to advance our own purposes.
• Jonah reminds us that we are to view others as God views them, being as gracious and merciful toward them as He Himself is. Compassion is a quality God values and which we are to nurture as well as express in our relationships with others.
• Jonah encourages us, in that God overlooked His prophet’s rebellion and gave him a second chance to do His will. God is gracious to us as well as to others. When we rebel, we need to remember that we too can safely return.
WRITING PROPHETS
The ministry of the speaking prophets is described in narrative passages of Scripture. The ministry of the writing prophets, although several are mentioned in Old Testament narrative, is known primarily through the books of the Bible that bear their names. In most cases, we know little about the lives or personalities of the writing prophets other than what their books reveal. This may be little, indeed. For instance, we know that Amos was a rancher of Judah who was sent to Israel with a call for social justice and for Israel to return to the Lord. Aside from what we can sense from the concerns expressed in his little book, we know little about Amos as a person. We know more about other writing prophets, notably Daniel and Jeremiah.
ISAIAH
Scripture references:
2 Kings 19–20; 2 Chronicles 26:22;
32:30–32; Isaiah 20:2–3; 38:21
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Date: Isaiah prophesied about 739–681 B.C.
Name: Isaiah [I-ZAY-yuh; “Yahweh is salvation”]
Greatest
achievement: Isaiah penned the great Old Testament book bearing his name, filled with messianic prophecies.
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ISAIAH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Isaiah was a prophet of Judah, who ministered to the people of the southern kingdom. During his time Assyria’s expansionist policies seriously threatened Judah. This threat, combined with the preaching of Isaiah and Micah and the leadership of godly king Hezekiah, led to a religious revival in Judah. God intervened to turn back the Assyrian forces after Judah was invaded and severely battered. Many of Isaiah’s messages recorded in his book focus on Judah’s sin and injustice and show how greatly the spiritual renewal was needed in Isaiah’s time.
Isaiah’s messages however looked beyond the immediate situation, and portrayed a future in which God, after punishing His people’s sins, would restore and bless the redeemed. Because so many of Isaiah’s images of the future feature the coming Messiah, Isaiah has rightly been called the evangelist of the Old Testament. His significance can be seen in the fact that Isaiah’s words are quoted or referred to some 13 times in the Gospels, three times in Acts, and five times by the apostle Paul in Romans.
ISAIAH’S LIFE AND TIMES
Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Handbook comments on how little we know of Isaiah the man.
He is often mentioned in Kings and Chronicles, and his name occurs several times in his own book. But his family background and social status remains a mystery. The fact that his great personal vision of God took place in the temple (Isa. 6) suggests he may have been a priest, as only priests were to enter the holy place. Isaiah was an intimate of King Hezekiah—probably a sort of court preacher. His mastery of Hebrew is as rich and great as Shakespeare’s grasp of English, and shows he was a highly educated man (p. 282).
While Isaiah at times writes of events in which he played a significant part, Isaiah, unlike Jeremiah, does not go into detail about his emotions. For instance, Isaiah describes the following experience, but makes no comment on his emotions:
“Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “… My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia.” (Isa. 20:2, 3)
As Isaiah remained silent about his own feelings, he revealed little about his personal life. We know that Isaiah was married to an unnamed prophetess and that he had children (Isa. 7; 8), but we know nothing about them. Isaiah is the proverbial silent man, who although a very public figure, is at the same time a very private man.
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Today Bedouins still live in tents much like those that housed Jacob and his family 4,000 years ago.
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ISAIAH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Isaiah’s prominence in his own time and in Scripture contrasts sharply with his reticence. He was a great man but one who felt no need to put himself forward. He had no need for public accolades or to be the center of attention. To serve God faithfully and selflessly was enough for him. We have much to learn from Isaiah.
• Isaiah reminds us that modesty is a virtue. Serving God is reward enough, without seeking or demanding public acclaim.
• Isaiah reminds us that while some freely share emotions, others are private individuals. Each personality style is valid and acceptable, and we are not to force others into a way of relating that may be uncomfortable for them.
• Isaiah encourages us to keep Christ in focus. We should seek to impress others with Him—not with ourselves.
EZEKIEL
Scripture references:
Ezekiel
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Date: Prophesied between 593–571 B.C.
Name: Ezekiel [ee-ZEE-kee-uhl; “God strengthens”]
Greatest
accomplishment: Ezekiel ministered to Jews in Babylon before the fall of Jerusalem.
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EZEKIEL’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Ezekiel was taken to Babylon with many other Jews in 597 B.C. He was God’s spokesman to the captive community before the final fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and he warned the captives that Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed. After the fall of Jerusalem, God gave Ezekiel a message of hope and described a great new temple to be constructed in Jerusalem in the days of the Messiah (Ezek. 40–48).
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At their greatest extent the Assyrian and the Babylonian empires dominated the ancient Near East.
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One of the most striking aspects of Ezekiel’s experience is the stunning visions of Himself that God granted to this prophet. These visions of a transcendent God, glorious and all-powerful, strengthened Ezekiel for the many personal trials that lay ahead.
EZEKIEL’S LIFE AND TIMES
Only two verses in the Old Testament identify Ezekiel by name. Each is in the prophet’s own book (1:3; 24:24). At the same time many passages in Ezekiel’s book describe his experiences. Ezekiel was not only given towering visions of God; he also was called to act out God’s messages to the Jewish captives. While some in Babylon held out hope that Judah might be preserved and that they might return home, God’s words through Ezekiel emphasized the depths of Judah’s sins (see Ezek. 8–11), and the certainty of divine judgment. While God would restore His people to the Promised Land in the future, there was no hope for the present generation.
Two incidents reflect ways in which Ezekiel’s experiences were to mirror the fate God had in store for the people of Judah.
Ezekiel acted out the siege of Jerusalem (Ezek. 4; 5). God told Ezekiel to build a model city and lay siege works against it. Ezekiel then was to lie on his side for a fixed number of days and for over a year was to live on a daily ration of some eight ounces of food and a pint of water. Ezekiel’s diet represented the starvation diet of those trapped in Jerusalem by the Babylonian forces.
At the end of this time, Ezekiel shaved his head and beard, and divided it into thirds. Each third represented the fate of Jerusalem’s inhabitants when the city fell.
Ezekiel’s wife died suddenly (Ezek. 24). The prophet was called to do more than act out the fate of others. He was also called to experience the pain of judgment. Ezekiel was warned that his wife, “the desire of your eyes,” would die. God told His prophet, “you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips, and do not eat man’s bread of sorrow” (Ezek. 24:16, 17).
This strange behavior at the death of a loved one provoked the wonder of the Jewish community, and Ezekiel explained that this fate—a disaster so great that it was beyond mourning—awaited the Israelites as God’s judgment on His people for their sins.
EZEKIEL: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Ezekiel reminds us that believers who live in times of national disaster will not be protected from the suffering associated with divine judgment. We may, in fact, be called to speak to our generation out of the pain of personal loss.
• Ezekiel challenges us to be faithful to God when everything in our life seems to go wrong. God guarantees us an eternity of blessing but not a life of ease or pleasure in this world.
• Ezekiel reminds us that we are citizens of heaven and of earth. We will not escape suffering when our nation undergoes a purging judgment, but God can use us to speak to our contemporaries at such times.
• Ezekiel encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord. Only a clear vision of Him will give us the courage to face our own difficult times with peace and hope.
DANIEL
Scripture references:
The Book of Daniel;
Ezekiel 14:14, 20; 28:3;
Matthew 24; 25; Mark 13:14
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Date: About 600 B.C.
Name: Daniel [DAN-yuhl; “God is my judge”]
Greatest
Accomplishment: Daniel rose high in the government of two world empires and had a personal impact on at least three of their rulers.
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DANIEL’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Daniel is perhaps best known to Bible students for the prophecies that compose the last half of the Book of Daniel. Fulfilled prophecies in this section outline the history of the East until the appearance of Jesus, and one stunning prophecy even relates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Daniel’s prophecies concerning events associated with history’s end are yet to be fulfilled (Matt. 24 and Mark 13).
Boys and girls in Sunday School are more familiar with Daniel the man whose adventures, such as being thrown in the lion’s den, have captured children’s imaginations for centuries. As a young teen, Daniel and three Jewish friends were taken from Judah to Babylon and enrolled in the school where future administrators of the Babylonian empire were trained. Daniel and his friends remained faithful to God’s law while in Babylon and excelled in their studies. After Daniel successfully interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel became an influential advisor and administrator in his kingdom. Daniel also was influential when the Medo-Persians supplanted the Babylonians as rulers of the vast eastern empire.
Throughout his long life, Daniel remained totally committed to God despite serving a secular state. He was mentioned by Ezekiel, a contemporary, as one of three men noted for their righteousness (Ezek. 14:14, 20), an unusual accolade for a still-living person. In a sarcastic remark addressed to the king of Tyre (Ezek. 28:3), Ezekiel also held up Daniel as the premier example of a truly wise man.
EXPLORING DANIEL’S RELATIONSHIPS
Daniel’s relationship with pagan rulers (Dan. 1–6). Daniel served three different rulers of what was initially the Babylonian Empire.
Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 1; 2; 4). Nebuchadnezzar’s first recorded exposure to Daniel was when Daniel and his friends graduated from the king’s school. Graduation involved an interview with the great ruler himself, and Nebuchadnezzar found Daniel and his friends “ten times better” (Dan 1:10) than not only the other graduates but also his official advisers.
In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream. When he awoke, he had forgotten it. The king demanded that his wise men tell him both the dream and its meaning. When none could, the king determined to put all of his advisors to death. When Daniel heard of the king’s decree, he prayed and God revealed the dream and its meaning. Daniel gave full credit to the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar was deeply impressed, affirming that “your God is the God of gods” (Dan. 2:47). Nebuchadnezzar then “promoted Daniel and gave him great gifts. He made Daniel ruler of the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon” (2:48).
Some time later Daniel interpreted another dream that warned Nebuchadnezzar against arrogantly giving himself credit for what God had done in exalting him. Nebuchadnezzar ignored the warning and God drove the ruler mad. For a time, he lived as a wild beast eating grass. When Nebuchadnezzar recovered he “blessed and honored the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever” (Dan. 4:34). Many see this response of Nebuchadnezzar as evidence of a true conversion to the Lord—a conversion in which Daniel’s faithful witness played the critical part.
Daniel and Belshazzar (Dan. 5). After Nebuchadnezzar’s death, Daniel’s influenced waned. Belshazzar was regent in Babylon under his father Nabonidus when Medo-Persian forces attacked the city of Babylon. When writing miraculously appeared on a wall during a banquet, Belshazzar was urged to send for Daniel to interpret it. Daniel did interpret it, though it was a message of doom. That night the city fell to the invaders, who diverted a river that flowed through Babylon and entered it through the riverbed.
Daniel and Darius (Dan. 6). Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, but the Bible identifies a man named Darius subsequently governing the empire from Babylon city.
Darius reorganized the administration of the empire into 120 districts and set Daniel over these high officials. The honest Daniel frustrated the governors, who traditionally relied on graft to enrich themselves, and they set out to rid themselves of Daniel. Through a clever trap they maneuvered Darius into ordering Daniel thrown in a den of lions. The deep concern Darius obviously felt for Daniel indicated how close Daniel had become to the ruler. When God delivered Daniel, Darius ordered all those who had plotted against Daniel to be thrown to the lions.
What is significant about these stories is that we see in Daniel a person of great integrity and faith whose utter honesty and loyalty won him the respect and affection of powerful pagan rulers. Daniel modeled one who lived his faith in the political arena.
Daniel’s relationship with God. Daniel’s story clearly reflects a lifelong and total commitment to the Lord.
Daniel in the king’s school (Dan. 1). Daniel and his friends were Jews and thus subject to the Old Testament dietary laws. Daniel refused to eat the nonkosher diet served in the school, and respectfully requested the privilege of eating only that which was lawful. His commitment to God while still a young teen set the course of the next eighty or so years of Daniel’s life.
Daniel and the king’s dream (Dan. 2). When Daniel heard that all the kings’ advisors were to be executed, he asked Nebuchadnezzar for time. Daniel returned to his three Jewish friends, and they went to prayer. When the secret was revealed, the first thing Daniel did was to praise God. Only then did he go to the king.
Daniel’s confidence that God could do the humanly impossible, Daniel’s reliance on prayer, and his emphasis on praise tell us much about the man. They also help us understand how Daniel could have functioned so effectively in a pagan environment.
When Daniel revealed the answer to the king, he made sure that God received all the credit. This true humility was part of the secret of Daniel’s success.
Daniel’s concern for Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4). When Daniel interpreted the dream that warned Nebuchadnezzar against his pride, Daniel was deeply concerned. Daniel’s expression and his words showed that he cared about Nebuchadnezzar as a person (Dan. 4:19). Daniel also showed his concern by taking the risk of giving unsolicited advice to the king, something most rulers did not welcome (Dan. 4:27). Nebuchadnezzar accepted this from Daniel, for he knew that Daniel was not trying to manipulate him for personal gain but did truly care about him.
How important to care about people who have the power to benefit us—not because of what we can get from them, but because the Lord loves them.
Daniel’s faithfulness in prayer (Dan. 6). Daniel made it a practice to pray three times daily with his window open facing Jerusalem. As his religion was the only possible “flaw” his enemies could find, they tricked Darius into promulgating a decree that no one could make a request to any god or man other than Darius for 30 days. The decree did not deter Daniel. Daniel continued his practice of daily, faithful prayer. He was rightly convinced that God could and would deliver him, and was unwilling to abandon time with the Lord for even a few days.
Daniel’s prayers and prophecies (Dan. 9; 10). These chapters show a close link between prayer and prophecy. They make it clear that Daniel, intent on understanding Scripture, dedicated himself to “make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (9:3). The most striking of Daniel’s prophecies were revealed as responses to the prophet’s commitment to prayer. Daniel’s prayer recorded in 9:4–19 is one of the most beautiful and powerful in the Bible.
DANIEL: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Daniel was an exceptional individual. Throughout his life, he was a powerful and influential individual, unusually close to mighty rulers. Yet Daniel remained a humble believer whose honesty and integrity were unalloyed with greed or a lust for personal power. The intensity of Daniel’s relationship with the Lord enabled him to live uncorrupted at the very center of worldly power.
Daniel was a man with essential lessons to teach us.
• Daniel teaches us to put God first, both privately and publicly. Daniel’s commitment to the Lord and to nurturing a healthy relationship with Him was indispensable to the role he played in the government of world empires.
• Daniel reminds us to view every person as an individual, however exalted a position he or she might have. Much of Daniel’s influence resulted from the fact that mighty rulers were aware that Daniel cared about them rather than what they could do for him.
• Daniel inspires us to remain faithful to the Lord whatever the difficulty. If our relationship with God is the only basis on which others can attack us, let them do so. But we are to remain faithful to the Lord in deed and in word.
• Daniel encourages us to be involved in government. True believers can have a role in politics without compromising their convictions. Such a person may impact an entire nation as well as influence many who need to know the Lord.
• Daniel encourages us to give prayer a central role in our lives. Daniel did not pray only in emergencies. Daniel prayed daily. Daniel not only brought his requests to the Lord; Daniel brought praise. When we see the impact Daniel had on those of his own time, we can hardly discount the role of prayer in his life or in ours.
JEREMIAH
Scripture references:
The Book of Jeremiah;
2 Chronicles 35
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Date: About 652–567 B.C.
Name: Jeremiah [JAIR-uh-MI-uh; “Yahweh lifts up”]
Greatest
Accomplishment: For the last forty years of Judah’s existence, Jeremiah urged kings and people to submit to the Babylonians.
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JEREMIAH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
Jeremiah was born during the forty-four-year reign of Manasseh, Judah’s most wicked king. God called Jeremiah to his prophetic ministry during the reign of Josiah, who led the last great religious revival in Judah. For forty years, until the Babylonians swept into Judah to destroy both Jerusalem and Solomon’s beautiful temple, Jeremiah waged a lonely and futile crusade to turn God’s people back to the Lord and to urge the people to submit to the Babylonians whom God would send to discipline them.
During his lifetime, Jeremiah was persecuted as a traitor and his life was frequently threatened. Yet, he lived to see his predictions of judgment come true. Tradition says that after the destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah found his way to Babylon, where he wrote the haunting poems of the Book of Lamentations.
Despite the dark cast of most of Jeremiah’s prophecies, he was also given the privilege of recording God’s promise that one day God would make a new covenant with the house of Israel (Jer. 31). Twice Matthew quoted Jeremiah’s prophecies that related to the Savior’s birth and death (Matt. 2:17; 27:9).
EXPLORING JEREMIAH’S RELATIONSHIPS
Jeremiah’s relationships with his people (Jer. 16). Jeremiah is rightly known as the weeping prophet. He was called to live among God’s people but to isolate himself from them. In summarizing chapter 16, the Nelson Illustrated Bible Handbook sums up this theme:
To communicate the grim reality of the approaching disaster, Jeremiah is told not to marry and have children. Children born in his day will only die of deadly disease and lie unburied in the streets (1–4). Also, the prophet is not to mourn the death of friends, for God has no compassion left for Judah. Nor is he to take part in any feasting (5–9). Instead, Jeremiah is told to speak words that condemn, and hold up the sin and faithlessness of God’s people (10–13). A distant generation will know God’s blessing once again (14–15). But for this people there is only death (16–18): disaster is assured (p. 323).
It is hardly surprising that the people to whom he ministered shunned Jeremiah, or that he felt isolated and alone.
Jeremiah’s relationship with God (selected Scripture). Without human companionship, Jeremiah constantly turned to God as friend and confidant. Jeremiah often expressed his pain and anguish to the Lord, and looked to him for strength to continue his unpopular mission.
Jeremiah’s call (Jer. 1:5–19). When God first spoke to Jeremiah, He informed Jeremiah that before his birth God had set him apart for a special purpose. The Lord warned Jeremiah that his ministry would be unpopular, for he would announce the coming judgment of Judah. “ ‘They will fight against you, / But they will not prevail against you / For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘To deliver you’ ” (Jer. 1:19).
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The wooden yoke the false prophet Hananiah broke off Jeremiah’s neck was replaced with a yoke of iron, and shortly afterward Hananiah died, as Jeremiah had predicted.
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Jeremiah’s neighbors (Jer. 11:18–23). Jeremiah grew up in Anathoth. The Lord revealed to Jeremiah that his friends and neighbors were plotting to kill him because of his preaching against idolatry. Deeply shaken, Jeremiah called on God to judge them even as they threatened to kill him if he did not stop prophesying. God told Jeremiah that in the coming Babylonian invasion “there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth” (11:23).
Jeremiah’s wounds (Jer. 15:15–21). The prophet would not have been human had he not felt the antagonism of his people intensely. He cried out to the Lord:
Why is my pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream,
As waters that fail? (Jer. 15:18)
God responded not by relieving the pressure but by assuring Jeremiah of His protective care:
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you. (Jer. 15:20)
Jeremiah’s only solace (Jer. 20.) Jeremiah lived under intense pressure for the forty years of his ministry in Jerusalem. His situation is summed up here: “I am in derision daily; / Everyone mocks me” (v.7).
Jeremiah tried to stop preaching, but “His word was in my heart like a burning fire / shut up in my bones; / I was weary of holding it back, / And I could not” (v. 9). Yet when Jeremiah spoke out, his listeners reported his words to the authorities and plotted revenge. The intensity of Jeremiah’s pain is powerfully expressed in chapter 20:
Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
“A male child has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.
… … … …
Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame? (Jer. 20:14, 15, 18)
Through it all, only Jeremiah’s relationship with the Lord sustained him, and he kept his heart and mind focused on God: “But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. / Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail” (Jer. 20:11).
To the people of Jerusalem Jeremiah must have seemed harsh and bold, yet Jeremiah was a painfully sensitive person who suffered intensely. What sustained Jeremiah was that he was able to share his emotions with the Lord and in God find both reassurance and strength.
JEREMIAH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Jeremiah lived in a time of apostasy. His society had abandoned the Lord and deeply resented Jeremiah for confronting their sins and affirming God’s standards. Jeremiah’s contemporaries not only rejected Jeremiah’s message; they ridiculed and hated the man. Jeremiah couldn’t help being deeply hurt by all the antagonism focused on him.
Despite the hostility of those around him, Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed God’s Word and warned of judgment for forty years. Without human companionship for most of this time, Jeremiah was forced to turn to the Lord. Jeremiah poured out his heart to God, expressing his anger, his sorrows, and his anguish. God encouraged Jeremiah, but did not let the prophet draw back from his painful ministry.
In the end, Jeremiah’s predictions of doom and destruction all came true. The prophet was vindicated, but never appreciated. Only after his death was Jeremiah given the respect and appreciation he always deserved. How striking that when the crowds of Jesus’ day were asked who they thought Christ might be, their first response was that He was possibly Jeremiah or one of the other great prophets (Matt. 16:14)! What, then, do we learn from Jeremiah’s example?
• Jeremiah reminds us that we too may be called to face opposition. If we are, we need to be as faithful in our ministry as Jeremiah was in his.
• Jeremiah challenges us to speak out against the evils in our day. We are likely to be labeled “intolerant” and our words may evoke hostile responses. But we are to be true to God whatever pressure others may bring to bear.
• Jeremiah prods us to share our inner life with the Lord. God understands and cares, even when no one else seems willing to listen. God will not only listen, but He will encourage and support us in our labors.
• Jeremiah encourages us to look beyond the present time to envision a future in which God’s will is done. However dark the present may be, the future that God will bring is bright indeed.

PAUL
Scripture References
Acts 9; 13–28; Paul’s epistles
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Date: About A.D. 1–67
Name: Paul [PAWL, “little”]
Greatest
Accomplishment: Paul led the first-century expansion of the church and was its greatest theologian and minister.
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To some, the apostle Paul seems the corrupter of Christianity, a man who took the “simple” religion of Jesus and made it something entirely different. To the student of Scripture, however, the apostle Paul is history’s premier theologian and missionary, the man God chose to reveal the deepest significance of the new covenant instituted in Christ’s death, and the nature of the life to be lived “in Christ.” As the writer of thirteen of the twenty-one New Testament letters, Paul is undoubtedly the most influential Christian of our era.
PAUL’S LIFE AND TIMES
Paul, the zealous (Acts 9:1–2). The apostle Paul was a Jew from the city of Tarsus. As a young man, he came to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), perhaps the most notable of first-century sages. Paul, known then as Saul, was totally committed to the Law as interpreted and understood by the rabbis, and was a member of the sect of the Pharisees. When Stephen, the bold Christian evangelist, was stoned to death in Jerusalem by a mob, Saul stood watch over the cloaks of the killers, fully supporting their action (Acts 7:58). Later, when official persecution developed, Saul took a leading role in rounding up Jesus’ followers. To this young persecutor, the followers of Christ were heretics, and their faith an affront to the God he served, an aberration that must be purged from Judaism.
Saul’s conversion (Acts 9:3–30). Saul was on his way to Damascus with a commission from the high priest charging him to return Christian Jews to Jerusalem when his conversion took place. This event was so significant that the story is repeated three times in the New Testament (Acts 9; 22; 26).
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SAUL’S COMMISSION
In the Roman Empire each national and ethnic group was granted the privilege of living under its own laws. This meant that the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem had authority over Jews living anywhere in the Roman Empire insofar as Jewish law was concerned. Pairs of rabbis from Jerusalem typically traveled to Jewish communities in foreign lands to adjudicate difficult cases according to Mosaic and rabbinic law. Saul’s commission, which allowed him to capture Jews who followed Christ and return them to Jerusalem, was an extension of this legal principle.
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As the party traveled, Saul was blinded by a flash of brilliant light and heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him from heaven. Saul was totally stunned, and realized that those he had been persecuting were right: Jesus was the Son of God!
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Before his conversion, Saul—later the apostle Paul—showed his zeal for God by binding Christians and bringing them before the court at Jerusalem.
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Saul, still blind, was led to a house in Damascus. The Lord sent a Christian named Ananias, who prayed for Saul and restored his sight. Immediately, Saul became as bold and zealous in preaching Christ as he had been in persecuting Christians! Saul’s aggressive preaching soon aroused so much hostility that the believers in Damascus were able to save his life only by lowering him over the wall of the city in a basket. Apparently, angry Jews lay in wait at every exit to the city, eager to kill Saul.
Saul returned to Jerusalem, where at first the believers were fearful of approaching him. Although they had heard of Saul’s conversion, they feared he had simply gone “undercover” to identify them. Even when the Christian community accepted Saul, he was a problem for them. Saul remained totally zealous and bold. He so outspokenly preached Christ that he further aroused hostility in Jerusalem too. Finally, Paul had stirred up such opposition that a delegation of Christians took Saul to Caesarea and put him on a boat for Tarsus. He was simply too contentious to keep around!
Saul’s maturing (Gal. 1:17). Later, in reference to Saul’s years after leaving Jerusalem, he spoke of spending his time in Arabia. Whether the apostle was speaking literally or using “Arabia” as symbolic of a desert experience, the years Saul spent isolated from the church in Jerusalem were critical ones. It was during these years that Paul, immersing himself in the Old Testament and open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, began to work out the overwhelming significance of Christ’s death and resurrection. Later, Paul asserted that the gospel he proclaimed, while the same gospel as that preached by Peter and the other apostles, he had “neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:12).
Some years later, Barnabas, who had befriended Saul in Jerusalem and was then a leader of a predominantly Gentile church in Antioch, looked for Saul and recruited him to join the Antioch leadership team.
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Paul founded churches in each of these New Testament cities, and quite probably in Spain as well.
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Paul’s missionary ministry (Acts 13–28). Around AD. 46, approximately a decade after his conversion, Saul set out with Barnabas to carry the gospel to the major cities of the Roman Empire. For the rest of his life, Saul, soon to be known by his Roman name of Paul, would plant churches throughout Asia Minor and Europe.
Paul developed a simple but effective missions strategy. He would go to one of the major population centers located along established travel routes. He would first go to the Jewish synagogue and present Christ as the Messiah. Not only Jews would hear his message, but also many Gentile “God fearers” who had been attracted to Judaism’s high vision of God and of morality and who attended synagogue services heard him. From this group of listeners, a core of converts would be won. At times, this core represented a mixture of Jew and Gentile, but all too often it was predominantly Gentile. Paul would then instruct this core of believers in the faith, and, after a time, move on to another city where he would repeat the process.
Paul kept in touch with the congregations he founded. His associates would often visit the young churches, and Paul wrote letters of instruction to the churches. When possible Paul would return to visit the churches himself, and give official sanction to the leaders who emerged in these congregations. Paul himself, however, kept on the move, leaving the task of evangelizing the districts beyond central cities to the Christians there.
This process is beautifully reflected in words Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica:
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place (1 Thess. 1:6–8).
In Paul, God had chosen not only a man who was totally committed to sharing the gospel, but a man who was a true innovator and missions strategist.
Paul, the theologian (the Epistles). Paul, while a profound theologian. was essentially a practical theologian. He wrote his letters to real men and women struggling with real-life issues. Thus, Paul’s challenge was to explain the great truths about God and His relationship to humankind in such a way that their implications for daily life would be clearly understood.
In Romans, which has rightly been called the greatest theological treatise of all times, Paul took the theme of righteousness. He pointed out that human beings are sinners who lack righteousness, but that God has chosen to give human beings righteousness as a gift, made possible by Jesus Christ in His death on Calvary. Cloaked in a righteousness that God provides, human beings now have peace with God. But the righteousness God provides is no mere legal fiction. It has dramatic and life-changing potential. For God gives believers the Holy Spirit who works within to enable Christians to live righteous lives here and now. Paul explains how this is possible, and in the last chapters of his letter describes how a people of God infused with the righteousness of God will live in society and in the faith community.
In each of his letters, Paul taught truths that shape lives—realities about knowing and walking with God that put every relationship in fresh, transforming perspective. As a theologian and a pastor Paul was without peer.
EXPLORING PAUL’S RELATIONSHIPS
Paul was a complex individual. His complexities are clearly seen in the various relationships he maintained.
Paul’s relationship with young Christians (1 Thess. 2; 2 Cor.). In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul recalls the time he spent with his converts and speaks of the relationship he had with these new Christians.
But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children (1 Thess. 2:7–11).
Clearly the best way to describe Paul’s relationship with young Christians is “nurturing.” Taking the role of both mother and father, the apostle totally invested himself and his love in new believers.
The New Testament book that best displays this investment throughout is 2 Corinthians. There we see Paul’s willingness to be open and sharing (chap. 1), his heartbreak over misunderstandings (chap. 2), his commitment despite disappointments (chap. 4), and his deeply rooted confidence that God will keep working in the believers’ lives until they mature in righteousness (chap. 5).
While some have miscast the great apostle as a legalistic and harsh man, his own words, written to those who know him well and could not be deceived, reveal a man with a great and tender heart. He loved and kept on loving, nurtured and kept on nurturing, however his loved ones might respond to him.
Paul’s relationship with his coworkers. Despite the fact that we tend to view Paul as a towering individual, he was in the best sense of the phrase a “team player.” From his first missionary journey through the end of his life, Paul traveled with a team of believers. While Paul was the acknowledged leader, he was never without companions whom he valued as fellow-workers and partners in ministry.
Paul as a team player (Acts 13; Rom. 16). The team that set out from Antioch on the first missionary journey (Acts 13) was initially led by Barnabas, since his name was mentioned first (Acts 13:2). Soon, however, Paul’s great gifts made him the accepted leader of the team (13:46), which included Barnabas and several others. Along the way, Paul was quick to recruit others to travel with him, notably Timothy (Acts 16:1) and Luke, who wrote Acts as well as the Gospel that bears his name.
What is particularly notable is that as new churches were planted, Paul drew others into his inner circle to share his ministry. Romans 16, in which Paul mentioned a number of individuals by name, makes it clear that Paul saw both men and women as “fellow workers in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 16:3).
Paul as a demanding leader (Acts 15:36–41). While Paul was a nurturing individual, he was also a demanding leader. Paul never spared himself in his commitment to reach, win, and equip men and women for Christ. Paul had little sympathy with others who were unwilling to make a similar commitment. This trait was illustrated when Barnabas wished to bring John Mark along on their second missionary journey. Paul refused. John Mark had abandoned them on their first missionary venture, and Paul had no room on his team for a quitter. The disagreement between the two long-time friends and teammates was so great that Paul and Barnabas parted, with Barnabas taking John Mark along on a missionary journey of his own.
History proved Barnabas wiser than Paul. Years later, Paul wrote from prison asking that Mark be sent to him, “for he is useful to me for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11).
Paul’s relationship with those he mentored (Acts 16:1; 1, 2 Timothy). While Paul had little sympathy with quitters, he had infinite patience with those who were willing to keep trying. Paul had recruited Timothy in Lystra on his second missionary journey and invested years in training Timothy to be among the next generation of church leaders. Paul’s mentoring style followed a classic pattern: Timothy spent years traveling with Paul and learning from him; Timothy was then given assignments to carry out on his own under Paul’s tutelage. In time and after Paul’s death, Timothy would himself follow the same pattern with others, as described in 2 Timothy 2:2: “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
Paul’s two letters to Timothy reflected Paul’s deep affection for his “beloved son” (2 Tim. 1:2) whom he urged to “be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). While the letters suggest that Timothy was far from being bold and in some instances had been ineffective, Timothy was a committed Christian. Paul was willing to invest whatever it took to shape Timothy into the leader Paul was sure he could become.
Paul’s relationship with the Roman Empire (Acts 16; 22–28; Rom. 13). The apostle Paul was a complex individual. Although a Jew and a Pharisee, Paul was also thoroughly trained in secular philosophy and was a Roman citizen.
In the first century, Roman citizenship was not common outside of Italy. Wherever the various peoples in the empire might travel, they retained citizenship in their homeland. They were subject to its laws and its courts. Roman citizens were subject to Roman laws and might bring civil and criminal cases to Roman courts. Roman citizens also enjoyed many other privileges. For instance, Roman citizens could not be examined by torture or condemned without trial.
In Paul’s travels, he never hesitated to identify himself as a Roman citizen or to claim the rights of a citizen when brought before Roman authorities. When the Jews accused Paul in the court of the Roman governor of Judea, Paul exercised his right as a citizen and appealed to the emperor’s court in Rome to avoid being taken back to Jerusalem, where Paul knew he would be assassinated (Acts 28:17–19).
While Paul never hesitated to assert his rights as a Roman citizen, he also fully accepted a citizen’s responsibilities. Paul taught and urged Christians to be good citizens, “subject to the governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). Paul saw government officials as God’s servants who had been placed in office to maintain an orderly society. Paul was deeply concerned that Christians live as good citizens, for they were to represent Christ and carry His message to all. Paul agreed wholeheartedly with Peter, who also urged submission to “every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,” that through the Christian’s honorable conduct “they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).
During most of Paul’s lifetime, the Roman government viewed Christianity as a sect of Judaism, and thus as a licit (approved) religion. Later, Christians would come under persecution for no other reason than their commitment to Jesus Christ. Even then, for conscience sake, most Christians sought to live as good citizens under oppressive regimes. Like Christ Himself, they chose to suffer for doing right rather than for doing wrong.
Paul’s relationship with God. Before his conversion to Christ, Paul, then known as Saul, was both zealous and dedicated. He lived as a Pharisee, dedicated to following the most minute commandments as interpreted and defined by the rabbis. Paul, intensely hostile to all who seemed to him to violate God’s will, was undoubtedly a fiercely religious individual.
The totality of Paul’s commitment (Phil. 3). When Paul became a Christian, all his zeal was poured into his commitment to Jesus Christ. His own words perhaps best convey the totality of his dedication.
If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:3–10).
The expression of Paul’s commitment (1 Thess. 2:19). Earlier, we looked at Paul’s loving, nurturing relationship with new converts. In his early life, Paul’s expression of commitment to God was a rigorous attention to keeping the law as interpreted and expanded by generations of rabbis. After his conversion, Paul changed. While we might correctly say that his commitment was expressed in preaching the gospel, it is more accurate to say that Paul suddenly began to care about people. Paul realized that God loves all people. The Holy Spirit quickened this same love in Paul’s heart. Paul could write early in his missionary ministry: “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as His coming?” (1 Thess. 2:19).
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Paul’s life as a missionary was filled with hardship and danger, as in the three shipwrecks he experienced.
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This passion for seeing people saved and growing in Christ is beautifully expressed in prayers recorded in Paul’s letters. One of the most beautiful is found in Ephesians 3:16–19, and expresses the yearning of the great apostle for his converts. Paul prayed:
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The cost of Paul’s commitment (2 Cor. 10). In this passage, Paul compares himself to some who had come to Corinth claiming to be apostles and contradicting his teaching. Even though Paul was the founder of the church and had lived among the Corinthians for some three years, a number of believers were deceived by the intruders who made much of their supposed credentials. In his response, Paul briefly revealed how foolish the Corinthians had been. In the process Paul mentioned some of his own credentials.
Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:23–28).
Paul was not so foolish as to think that such things are true credentials of an apostle (2 Cor. 3:1–3). But the terrible personal cost Paul had gladly paid to share the gospel and serve God’s people gives unmistakable witness to the sincerity and depth of Paul’s commitment.
PAUL: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY
Paul was a truly unique man. He possessed great intellectual gifts and an unusually strong will. Paul also was fully dedicated to God even before his conversion to Christ. The biblical text suggests that in his first years as a Christian he also possessed an abrasive personality. Yet as God worked in Paul’s life, the great apostle grew into an individual motivated by a passionate love both for Christ and for people. It is most unusual to find a person with both absolute strength of character and a capacity for tenderness and nurturing. In a significant sense, Paul may be viewed as a primary example of a “real man.”
• Paul shows us that a real man has a commitment to God that gives direction and focus to his life.
• Paul shows us that a real man will face opposition with courage, taking stands for what is right no matter how powerful the opposition.
• Paul shows us that a real man can be tender and nurturing. Too often, we view nurture as a woman’s role, and picture real men as emotionally detached. Paul reveals how wrong this impression is.
• Paul shows us that a real man is willing to pay a price to serve God and others—even when that price is personal suffering and pain.
• Paul shows us that a real man has deep convictions and is committed to live by them. A real man will not compromise his convictions but will stand up for them when he is convinced they are right.
• Paul shows us that real men will invest themselves in others, building a mentoring relationship with those younger than themselves.
• Paul shows us that a real man is a team person, not a rugged individualist. A real man links his energies with others who have similar goals, builds a close relationship with them, and works together with them.
• Paul shows us that a real man is a people person, committed to the task but ever sensitive to the concerns of others, ever encouraging to draw the best from them.
Paul shows us that a real man models what God wants all His people to become. Paul had lived the faith, becoming an example that others gladly followed.