In this podcast I deal with the first part of verse 1 of 1 Samuel 4 (the so-called verse 1b).  Translators and commentators place this verse as the final verse of 1 Samuel 3.  This is because we are told that the word of Samuel came to all Israel, but Samuel says not a word.  Plus, he does not even appear in the next story.  I argue that is a rhetorical device to have us read the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4—6) as a “prophet’s pregnant pause” hovers over the narrative.  That strategy intensifies the fact that God had raised up a prophet for Israel, but Israel neglected prophetic ministry for twenty years.  Twenty years later (according to 1 Samuel 7) the prophet Samuel finally spoke!

 In this story the totality of Saul’s reign is recorded.  It is significantly shorter than Saul’s story as narrated in 1 Samuel 9—31.  Plus, the story in 1 Chronicles 10 is uniformly negative.  It tells about Israel’s losing a battle to the Philistines, about the death of Saul’s three sons, and his being wounded by Philistine archers.  Trying to avoid humiliation, Saul orders his armor-bearer to kill him, something that the man is unable to do.  So, Saul kills himself (immediately afterwards, the armor-bearer kills himself).  The Philistines find the corpses of Saul and his sons; they desecrate Saul’s corpse by decapitation.  Eventually, Saul’s and his sons’ bodies are rescued and buried properly in Israelite territory.  1 Chronicles 11 begins the story of King David’s reign.

  In this psalm, which is technically a communal lament, the psalmist asks God several times to save the people (i.e., Israel).  At first, it is unclear from what the people are to be saved.  Eventually, it is either from a severe military defeat or the Exile.  Several times in this psalm, God  is implored to make His face shine, positively on Israel and negatively on Israel’s enemies.  Toward the end of the Psalm, the psalmist points out that should salvation appear in the form of victory, God will be invoked.

The two stories are narrated in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33.  In the Kings account King Manasseh was completely opposite his righteous father, Hezekiah.  In fact, he was an unmitigated disaster for his idolatrous practices, which even included sacrificing his own son.  The incurred God’s wrath and subsequent judgment.  In the Chronicles account, Manasseh’s copious sins are also enumerated.  But in this account after he had been dragged off to Babylon in chains he humbled himself and implored God.  That eventuated in his return to Jerusalem and his fostering Israelite religious practices.  The two stories are impossible to harmonize.  The best we can do is to note that the characterizations suited differing purposes of the editors of Kings and Chronicles, respectively.

 This is the famous dream: “Jacob’s Ladder.”  As he was on the way to his Uncle Laban’s place, he spent the night.  He had a dream in which he saw a ladder with divine messengers (i.e. angels) moving up and down the ladder.  God then spoke, reiterating the promise of numerous descendants and the gift of the land.  Jacob commemorated the occasion by converting a stone which he had used as a pillow into a pillar, upon which he poured oil.  He also responded to the dream by acknowledging God’s presence.  He called the place “the house of God” (=Bethel).  He also made a vow to God.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that he prefaced the vow with a disturbing “if.”

  This is the sole story in which Isaac is the main character and where he shines.  He and Rebekah had to go to Gerar because of a famine.  God warned him not to go to Egypt (as Abraham and Sarah had done).  God also reiterated the promises to the family.  Isaac passed off his wife as his sister.  Because of her beauty, he felt threatened.  Eventually, the king of the city realized that Isaac had lied.  Though the king made sure no one would bother Rebekah, he ordered the whole family to leave.  Isaac did, but did not go far.  While in the nearby valley, he farmed, quite successfully.  This increased his wealth and numbers, which worried the Philistines.  Also, Isaac redug several wells that Abraham had dug but the Philistines had filled with soil.  Eventually, the Philistines and Isaac’s family made a non-aggression pact and lived peacefully.

 Many psalms are laments in which a psalmist complains about various kinds of crises.  Thought the laments are often bitter, typically toward the end of the psalm God either intervenes to deal with the causse of the complaint or God’s intervention is anticipated.  That is not the case in Psalm 88.  In this lament, there is not amelioration or anticipation of amelioration.  The psalmist prays persistently, but there is no resolution.  At the same time, the psalmist refuses to give up.  Regardless of how bad things are—he seems close to death—he continues to cry out to God.  Ironically, laments only make sense if one believes in God.  If there is no God, there is no expectation of how things should be.  They just are!  Laments underscore how profoundly the lamenter holds on to God.  And, the lamenter continues to pray regardless of the answer.  

 Based on 1 Kings 3.  This story begins with a mixed introduction of Solomon.  On the one hand, he is depicted as righteous as King David, his father.  On the other hand, we are told that he married Pharoah’s daughter and engaged in pagan practices.  Still, in a dream God asked him what he would like.  Realizing the arduous task of being king over Israel, he asked for a wise and discerning mind.  God granted this, and wealth to boot.  Solomon’s wisdom was soon tested when two prostitutes claimed ownership of the same baby.  Solomon used his wisdom to figure out who the real mother was.  This decision made his wisdom legendary.  

The story is based on 2 Samuel 20.  In this somewhat obscure story a man named Sheba foments revolt against David.  This was right after Absalom, David’s son, had rebelled against his father.  Though Absalom was unable to stay in power, he had greatly weakened his father.  Because of that, Sheba tried his hand at removing David from the throne.  But this time, David did not have to leave Jerusalem.  Eventually, Joab, a military officer, chased Sheba and found him holed up in Abel.  While threatening the city, a wise woman in the city negotiated with Joab.  Eventually, she agreed to deliver Sheba in exchange for Joab’s withdrawing his troops.  The woman persuaded the people in the city to sacrifice Sheba, which they did by decapitating him and throwing the head to the invading troops!

 Based on 2 Samuel 12.  In this story, in the aftermath of David’s affair with Bath-Sheba and his having her husband murdered Nathan the prophet confronts David.  But he does so indirectly.  Nathan tells David about two men, one rich and one poor.  In this story, the rich man callously exploits the poor man.  David is outraged at the rich man and insists that the man pay fourfold for what he has done.  Nathan lets David know that he is the man in the story.  David, too, will pay fourfold.  Though David’s sins are forgiven, the consequences remain.  Eventually, David loses three sons and has to deal with his daughter’s Being raped.  Even forgiven sins often have consequences.

 This story is based on Numbers 20.  This is a famous incident in which God wants Moses to “speak” to a rock so that Israel will be supplied with water.  Instead, Moses strikes the rock.  Both Moses and Aaron (his brother) were involved.  And, both incurred God’s anger and punishment.  The punishment was that neither would be allowed to enter Canaan, the Promised Land.  As it turns out, though, it seems there was another reason that Moses got into trouble.  This time, at least, Israel did nothing wrong.  But Moses did.  He accused Israel of being rebellious when he was the one being rebellious.

 It is based on Exodus 19.  This story recounts Israel’s first experience as soon as it got into the wilderness after being rescued from Egypt.  Moses makes several trips up and down the mountain to communicate with God.  God wants the people to prepare for a theophany, in which God will come in a thick cloud, accompanied by smoke, fire, thunder, and other phenomena.  Moses is instructed to prepare the people for this by consecrating them.  There are requirements to be observed, since getting close to a holy God can be dangerous.  Eventually, God comes to the mountain and speaks to the people directly.  This is one of the few times that God does not speak through a mediator.  What he says is the ten words, or ten commandments.  This theophany emphasizes the significance of those commandments.  

This podcast deals with Esau, one of the most disliked characters in the Bible.  Famously, Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup and later was cheated out of his father’s blessing.  This outraged him, and further led him to plot his brother’s murder.  Esau had twenty years to wallow in his rage.  Yet, when the time came to meet his brother after two decades he was the model of acceptance, forgiveness, and grace.  There is almost nothing in the story that gives us so much as a hint as to what transformed Esau.  All we have is a detail that when he realized that his parents were upset with his wives, who were outside of the family, he married Abraham’s granddaughter.  There is some ambiguity as to whether this was a move to endear himself to the family or aggravate the situation.  I suggest the former.  Regardless of the reasons for his transformation, though, the scene in which he reconciled with Jacob is perhaps the greatest example of reconciliation in the whole Bible.

The story is found in 1 Samuel 12.  In this incident, the prophet addresses “all Israel.”  Mostly, he calls them to repentance and urges them to live righteous lives.  But the prophet also lies in his address!  He criticizes the people for responding to a threat coming from the Ammonite king, Nahash.  According to Samuel, when this king threatened Israel, they asked for the prophet to anoint a king.  But that was not true.  It was when the people saw that Samuel was old and that his sons were corrupt, that they asked for a king.  In this speech, Samuel does not even mention his sons’ corruption.  Even a great prophet like Samuel has to be discerned when he speaks, since he does not always speak truthfully.

In this Podcast, I explain how the first, foundational part of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, called in Hebrew Torah, was five books instead of four or six.  Some have argued that this foundational part of the Bible should be a Hexateuch—that is, the first six books—because the promise of land is so prominent in Genesis and Joshua (the 6th book) describes Israel’s getting the land.  Others have argued that the Torah is a Tetrateuch, or the first 4 books, because the vocabulary and outlook of Deuteronomy is replete in Joshua through 2 Kings, but is not found in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.  Despite these hypotheses, the canonizing community made sure that the Torah was five books.  In effect, they took the first book of the Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy) and made it the last book of Torah.  Why did they do that?  Because the Torah ended when Israel did not have the land, the monarchy, or the temple, the very situation they experienced in the Exile.  It was in that period that decisions had to be made about how to “shape” Scripture.  

Psalm 91 is the polar opposite of Psalm 90.  This is because, if taken literally Psalm 91 would eliminate any need to complain or lament the way Psalm 90 does.  In Psalm 91, the Lord’s protection makes those who love God immune from injury or death in war, from disease, from being harmed by wild animals, or even from being subject to the effects of gravity!  Clearly, the people who wrote and canonized a psalm like this were not naïve.  They experienced reverses in warfare, were subject to the ravages of disease, did not blithely pretend that there was no such thing as gravity, and did not pretend that wild animals could be dangerous.  This is why the Psalm has to be carefully appropriated.  The Devil made no headway when he quoted this psalm when tempting Jesus.  Psalm 91 is not about whistling by the graveyard; instead, it is about hope.  

 I suggest that these psalms need to be read in tandem, much like Psalms 22 and 23 should be read in tandem.  Psalm 90 purports to be a prayer of Moses.  This is quite appropriate in that it accents Moses’ role as Israel’s mediator.  Plus, Psalm 90 is the beginning of the 4th section of the Psalter.  Curiously, Psalm 89 is a complaint against God for the Deity’s perceived breaking of the Davidic covenant.  In Psalm 90, God asks Israel to “turn back,” or repent, and later Israel returns the favor by asking God to “turn back.”  Though the prayer asks God to take pity on Israel, the gist is that God’s punishment has been sufficient and a change of divine demeanor is requested.

These three stories occur in the Synoptic Gospels; John does not have a temptation story.  The temptation stories in Matthew and Luke are quite similar; Mark is as cryptic as the other two are detailed.  This temptation in the wilderness mirrors Israel’s being tempted in the wilderness after escaping Egypt and being on the way to the Promised Land.  In fact, Jesus’ quotes from Deuteronomy in rebuttal of the Devil come from contexts about Israel’s experience in the wilderness.  In sum, Jesus is tempted to extol power, wealth, and status.  But he rejects this to carry out his God-sent mission.

  In this story, Elijah the prophet tells King Ahab that a divinely-sanctioned drought is on the way.  Of course, this means the prophet needs to get out of town immediately.  The Lord tells him to go to a brook, where he can procure water.  Ravens would supply him with food!  Eventually, the brook dries up.  So, God instructs the prophet to head for Zarephath, a town in Sidon, which is not Israelite territory.  God tells the prophet that a widow will take care of him.  When Elijah finds the woman, she is in the process of preparing a final meal for her and her son.  Elijah nevertheless asks not only for water, but a little food.  The woman protests, but still provides Elijah with food.  As a consequence, her flour and cooking oil do not run out for the duration of the drought.  Before long, though, disaster happens.  The woman’s son falls ill and dies.  This makes the woman lash out at Elijah, who, she believes, has played a cruel trick on her.  However, Elijah is able to revive the child, causing the woman to recognize Elijah as a true prophet of the Lord.  The point of the story is that a woman from Sidon was more responsive to Elijah and his God than an Israelite king.  

In this episode, Abraham and Sarah have to go to Egypt because Canaan has been afflicted by a famine.  When they get there, Abraham urges Sarah to tell everyone that she is his sister rather than his wife.  He was worried that the Egyptians would kill him to get to her.  Sure enough, Sarah was whisked off to Pharaoh’s house.  At that point, the Lord afflicted Egypt with plagues.  An irate Pharaoh demands that Abraham take his wife and leave immediately.  In the meantime, Abraham is greatly enriched because of all the presents that the Egyptians had given him.