[Forty-Eighth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Blog Post: At first glance, Mary and Elizabeth do not seem to have much in common — other than King David as their common ancestor. Mary was a very young woman, barely out of childhood. Elizabeth was very old and had no children. Mary lived on the outskirts of the Holy Land, out in small town Galilee. Elizabeth is at the center of Jewish life, the wife of a priest, living in the bedroom communities of Jerusalem. It is clear that the women knew of each other, but not that they knew each other. Elizabeth’s pregnancy is an obvious blessing from God. Everyone knew her to have been barren until old age, like mother Sarah. Mary was a teenager pregnant outside of marriage. Likely, everyone assumed Joseph was a bit too eager and frowned upon it.
One thing is sure. A prompt visit to a distant relative was a wise thing, — it allowed the community a chance to calm down about something they didn’t approve of. So imagine the joy of yet another miracle. The Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth. The baby John the Baptist, still in her womb, recognized the presence of the Messiah, still in her cousin’s womb, and leaped for joy. Elizabeth suddenly knew the whole truth — that God had become a man in the womb of her young relative. Mary was the God Bearer, the Mother of God. God had kept his promise — the Messiah had come to save His people from their sin.
Mary responded to Elizabeth with thanksgiving to God. She sings the first song in Luke’s musical. Called the Magnificat, which we sing in Vespers services. In this song, she marvels God has so richly blessed a poor girl. She remains with Elizabeth for three months.
The early church fathers saw something special in the faith of these two women. Both of them believed what God revealed to them from the very start. Their husbands, Zechariah and Joseph, at first doubted. In the end, all four of them firmly trusted in God, who finally came to save — and did so through two very unlikely women, neither of whom should have conceived, one very young and one very old.
Encore Post: After the defeat of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, had gained sole control of the Roman Republic. With a combination of political skill and military power, he unified a badly divided empire. Having the Roman Republic declare him its first citizen and bestow upon him the titles Augustus and Son of God (meaning “Son of Julius Caesar”), he gained absolute power while retaining the trappings of the Republic. This political unity would more or less hold for two hundred years. Successfully pushing warfare to the edges of the Empire, Augustus established the Pax Romana — the Peace of Rome.
This peace was a great blessing in the Mediterranean world. Travel was free of political barriers. A network of durable roads was constructed from Rome to the edges of the empire. Many of these are still in use today. Roman culture bestowed status on rulers and wealthy individuals who constructed public buildings, such as aqueducts, baths, theatres, and temples, resulting in a sustained construction boom. A unified currency made trade relatively easy to conduct.
Rome was justly proud of its unified legal code, which, except for the highest levels of society, was stable and, for the most part, objectively enforced. Being a practical people, the Romans adopted and adapted Greek culture and language. Where possible, Rome preferred to allow local nations to rule themselves, as long as they paid their taxes, were politically loyal, raised troops when needed, and bowed to Roman law when it conflicted with their traditions.
God prepared the way for his Son by establishing this common government. It allowed the apostles to fan out quickly across the entire Mediterranean world with the Gospel. It protected St. Paul in Jerusalem and allowed his appeal to the Emperor. The census of Caesar Augustus led the Holy Family to Bethlehem. It assured the fulfillment of prophecy by sending the true Son of God to the cross rather than to death by stoning. It placed objective guards at his tomb to bear witness to his resurrection.
Note: This series of blog posts is available as a Kindle book and eventually as a print booklet at: Amazon.com: Preparation for the Gospel. Please note the author makes a small profit on the sale of this book.
Campus Ministry Sermon 1 Samuel 8 September 27, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Jesus is the King of all.
As we begin this sermon series together, every campus ministry night and every Advent and Lent midweek service is going to focus on the Kings of Israel. We know about David and Solomon, or at least we know the books they wrote, Psalms and Proverbs. But we probably know about their lives at least a little bit.
We know David was a shepherd boy and that he slayed Goliath. We know he sinned with Bathsheba and that he killed Uriah. And we probably know that Solomon was wise and that he built the temple for the Lord. We know Solomon married 700 wives, and that caused so many problems.
But this year, I want to teach and preach about all the faithful kings of Israel. This year, we will cover kings that maybe you have never heard of, like Asa. Or maybe you have heard about Jehoshaphat, but you know nothing about him.
But even more, we will learn about the Fourth Commandment, about honoring authorities. We learn that Jesus Christ is the King of all, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We will learn more about that part of the Lord’s Prayer, Thy kingdom come.
It’s quite a project, quite a sermon series. And there is much to learn. So where do we start? Today’s reading starts where the whole kingdom began: Israel demands a king.
Our reading begins with these words: When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
First, we need to talk about Samuel. Samuel was a priest, a holy man, and not a king at all. Samuel was given to the Lord by his mother, Hannah, to be a priest in the church of the Old Testament. Samuel was a good guy in our stories, a faithful man leading the church and the nation to obey God in all things.
But his sons turned aside. Though they were raised in the church and knew God’s Word, they thought that they knew what was best and they did their own thing and disobeyed God and Samuel, their father.
This is a pretty common thing; to go to church as a kid with mom and/or dad, but when we leave for college to skip church and do our own thing. Freedom is wonderful for a time, but faith is far more important. Making money is a great feeling, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Samuel’s sons took bribes and relied on money instead of God. What is more important to you? Making lots of money or believing in the Savior?
What happened in Israel is that the people forgot God and wanted a king to rule over them. Rather than relying on God, the people wanted a king like all the rest of the world. Our reading says, Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Israel wanted to become like all the other nations around them.
This is something that I think we all understand, too. We think, “I want to be like so-and-so.” Boy, this is everywhere in our culture. Support this perverted idea or be silenced. Support that country or our own country will be in peril. Watch out, or you might be cancelled. It takes great courage to stand up for what you believe in. It takes great faith to be a Christian today. The pressures of campus, the pressures of friends, and the pressures of the internet all try to discourage us and to be like Israel, wanting a king, anybody other than God to rule over us.
But look at what Samuel did. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
First things first. Samuel prayed about this problem. He prayed about his nation and his people and his church. He prayed just like his mother Hannah had prayed for a son to be born for her. Samuel knew that prayer was necessary, that God’s kingdom would come and God’s will be done.
And the Lord reluctantly grants the request of Israel. Much like Jesus says in the Gospel, “Those who reject you are really rejecting me,” so here the Lord says to Samuel, “They do not reject you, but they reject me.” The people of Israel want a king, anybody other than God.
This is exactly how it is in our world. The world wants money, the world wants to do its own thing. The world wants to tempt us and mislead us. The world wants the church to fail. We experience this on campus, we experience this in our homes, we experience this on the news, we experience this in our own country.
But this is not how it is in the church. In the church, Jesus is the King of all. In this church, we obey God rather than man. In the church, we walk in God’s ways and not in the ways that the world wants us to go.
As we begin to move through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings this year, we will learn so many things. We will realize just how our world worships anything other than God Himself. We will learn about leaders of nations, the godly ones, and yet we will recognize that they are sinners just like us.
But most importantly, let the Gospel ring true, Jesus Christ is the King of all. This is the whole point, and this is the comfort. That no matter who cancels us, no matter what the world does, no matter how hard it is at times, Jesus Christ is our King and this world is not His country. No, Christ rules heaven, that world to come, for which we yearn and about which we believe.
Nobody can take our King away from us. And nobody can kill Him anymore. Our King Jesus lives and reigns to all eternity. And we His subjects will live with Him forever.
Encore Post: When Christians think of the Herods, Herod the Great comes to mind first of all of them. He is, after all, the villain of the Christmas story. But the story of the Herods begins with his father, Antipater.
Antipater was an Idumean (Edomite; descendants of Esau) noble. When the Hasmonean rulers of Judah expanded into Edom, they forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism. When the royal descendants fought over the throne, Antipater convinced Roman General Pompey to support Hyrcanus II. With Roman assistance, his prince won the dynastic conflict and reigned in Judea — now a Roman client state. Antipater sent his son to Rome for education and then appointed Herod as governor of Galilee and his brother as governor of Judah. During Rome’s civil wars, Antipater first supported Pompey, then Caesar, who made him a Roman citizen, then Cassius. The result was to place Judea within the Roman orbit, yet as a self-ruling, prosperous, and growing entity.
At his father’s death, Herod the Great assumed the throne of Judea and married into the Hasmonean family. He became a loyal supporter first of Marc Anthony, then of Octavian (Augustus). He maintained the peace in Roman fashion — through cruel and violent action. He was an avid builder, whose works enhanced the lives of his subjects — Jew and Gentile. His unwavering support of Rome brought numerous advantages to Judea. His people both loved and loathed him. In his later years, he had to root out one plot after another, leading him to become quite paranoid about his throne. Convinced his wife Mariame, and their sons plotted to kill him, he had them executed.
His greatest building accomplishment was rebuilding the Holy Temple into a wonder of the ancient world, which was beautiful and magnificent. God used him to prepare for his son with the bringing of Roman peace to Judea, improving its infrastructure, rebuilding the temple, and by his killing of the infants of Bethlehem, propelling the Holy Family to move to Egypt.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Note: This series of blog posts is available as a Kindle book and eventually as a print booklet at: Amazon.com: Preparation for the Gospel. Please note the author makes a small profit on the sale of this book.
[Forty-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories] In the years and generations following the initial return from exile, Jerusalem was still a shell of its former self. The city had few inhabitants. The evidence of Jerusalem’s destruction was everywhere. Jerusalem was still a dump of rubble. To make it worse, the city had no continuous wall around it.
Nehemiah was a descendant of the tribe of Judah, who still lived in Susa and worked for the Persians some generations after Cyrus decreed the Jews could return to Jerusalem. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign, Nehemiah received his brother Hanani, along with other men who had returned from Judah.
Their message was stark: “Those who went back are in trouble and great shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” That news cut Nehemiah to the heart, and he broke down into prayer. Nehemiah took on the role of mediator. Like Moses many centuries before him, and Daniel of more recent memory, Nehemiah confessed the sins of the people of Israel to God. He acknowledges how horrible Israel had acted against God and asks Him for mercy (Nehemiah 1:7-11). After his prayer, Nehemiah writes, “Now I was cupbearer to the king.”
Serving as cupbearer gives Nehemiah unrivalled access to King Artaxerxes. The king could see Nehemiah’s feelings on his face. Nehemiah requested permission to inspect Jerusalem. He wanted to rebuild it. Similar to Cyrus, Artaxerxes not only allows him but also sends him with proper letters and orders to cut wood for the gates of the temple and the walls. In fact, Nehemiah became the governor of the region.
However, life was not easy for Nehemiah. He faced opposition from Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite from the very beginning. These men desired to see Jerusalem continually in a state of disrepair. However, Nehemiah trusted the Lord was with him in the work he desired to accomplish. Nehemiah says it this way: “The good hand of my God was upon me.” Under Nehemiah, the wall was rebuilt, but it was not easy. They faced opposition the entire time. In the fourth chapter of his book, Nehemiah describes how the workers carried a sword on their side and took shifts, working or holding spears in case of an attack.
Nehemiah’s book is not simply about the wall, though; Nehemiah also discusses the efforts he made to care for the poor in Jerusalem. The nobles were committing the same sins as their fathers, or worse. The poor were being sold as slaves. Nehemiah put an end to that. He did not exact the food allowance usually granted to a governor.
The book ends with Nehemiah’s last reforms, one of which probably sounds harsh to our modern ears: the Jews divorcing foreign wives. However, from a theological perspective, we might be able to understand this. Nehemiah feared the people might fall into the idolatrous past of their ancestors. This concern seems valid as the priesthood had become corrupted, for one priest was the son-in-law of Nehemiah’s opponent, Sanballat the Horonite.
Now you might wonder what is “Christian” about Nehemiah? There is plenty. We can and should see Nehemiah as a Christ-figure. He is zealous for Jerusalem. He wants the city to be secure. He also faced great opposition. He even faced false witnesses who said that Nehemiah had set himself up as king. Nehemiah was not a king, though he was from the tribe of Judah. He was also a very devout follower of the LORD. Nehemiah helped Jerusalem celebrate the Feast of Booths, and Nehemiah 9 is one of the most thorough “creeds” found in the Old Testament.
Finally, the wall itself needed to be built so that Jesus could die outside its gates. One of the charges against Jesus was that he was a rebellious son. Deuteronomy 21 tells what should happen to a rebellious son: he should be brought to the elders at the gate, and there they shall stone him. While Jesus was not stoned, he was hung on a tree. That tree was outside the gates of Jerusalem.
[Fortieth in a series of posts on Bible Stories; First in a series of posts on Zechariah] The prophet Zechariah may not be as well-known as Isaiah or Jeremiah, but the authors of the Gospels in the New Testament frequently allude to Zechariah. In fact, scholars argue that Zechariah, after Psalms and Isaiah, is the next most alluded to book of the Old Testament.
Zechariah’s ministry is a full-throated proclamation of the coming Messiah, though you might not catch all the images that Zechariah draws upon to speak of Him and His coming. Let’s start at the beginning and work through the book and acknowledge some of the images that proclaim the work of Jesus.
The very name Zechariah bears great meaning: YHWH (The LORD) Remembers. Zechariah begins his book by telling us when the Word of the LORD came to him. It was in the days of King Darius, following Cyrus’s call for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23). Ezra tells us that Joshua, the High Priest, and Zerubbabel, the appointed governor (and descendant of David), oversaw the rebuilding of the altar (Ezra 3). Yet, it appears that at the time of Zechariah’s ministry, the temple rebuilding was not yet complete.
The Lord God called two men to serve as His mouthpieces during those days: Haggai and Zechariah. They both speak about the rebuilding of the Temple. Zechariah’s book begins with the people acknowledging they were falling into the same temptations and sins of their fathers. Zechariah recalls the very words of 2 Kings 17:13 and exhorts the remnant to differ from their fathers and believe the Word being spoken in their hearing.
Zechariah served the Lord when much of the Old Testament was already written, meaning he had many of the books (save for Malachi, who follows his ministry) at his disposal. I will do my best to highlight when Zechariah alludes to or quotes other passages of the Old Testament. I will also mention when the NT authors dive into Zechariah.
[Twenty-Eighth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: In ancient times, people poured oil on themselves for various purposes, including as perfume, medicine, and to signify that something or someone was dedicated to serving God. Doing this was called anointing.
Anointing was a part of the ceremonies to make a king the ruler of Israel or a priest to serve God in performing sacrifices. The word “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew word that means “anointed one.” It was translated into Greek with the word “Christ.”
Before Jesus was called “Messiah,” the title pointed to another anointed one: David. When God chose him to be king, the prophet Samuel anointed him with oil—not simply to crown him, but to mark him out as someone set apart for God’s purpose. Though David was the youngest son, overlooked by others, God saw his heart. That moment of anointing wasn’t about politics or ceremony; it was about calling. From then on, David became the pattern—a king with flaws, yet deeply loved by God—through whom the promise of the true Messiah would come.
As the prophets God sent to Israel predicted more and more about the coming of Jesus, they began to use these words as the title for God’s Son. When the prophet Nathan promised that a descendant of David would be the Messiah, they also came to call this promised savior “The Son of David.”
Jesus is the Messiah promised. He did not come to be served, but to serve others and give his life for us. In this way, he truly is the man after God’s own heart.
[Twenty-Seventh in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: David was a good man. He was a soldier who defended his king and his country. The people loved him and loved King Saul because of him. Prince Jonathan was his best friend. Princess Michal loved him and married him.
Yet King Saul was jealous of him. Like most kings, he was afraid of anyone who might take his kingdom from him. Because Saul saw David as a threat, he missed out on the good things a loyal and talented son-in-law could bring him. So, Saul tried to kill David. Jonathan and Michal warn David and help him escape Saul’s grasp. The future king seeks Samuel, and together they hide in the wild areas near Bethlehem. For a while, he hid in various Philistine cities and eventually returned to caves near Bethlehem. Members of his family and four hundred fighting men gathered with him there.
Soon, Saul would send an army to look for David and eventually led them. They played a cat-and-mouse game for some time. Twice, David snuck into Saul’s camp and took a personal item from him. Each time, he would display the item to Saul in the morning to prove his loyalty. Eventually, Saul gave up the effort to catch David and went after the Philistines. Saul, Jonathan, and most of Saul’s sons died in battle with them.
David would have been justified in taking the throne from Saul. No one would blame him if he killed Saul. But David loved God and Saul. He remained loyal until the day Saul and Jonathan died. Even when he had chances to kill Saul, he spared the king. After their deaths, he assumed the throne of Israel. For the rest of his life, he protected the disabled son of Jonathan.
[Twenty-Sixth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: When Saul and David lived, war was very personal. Most of the fighting was done with swords, shields, and other weapons in hand-to-hand combat. Sometimes it was very hard to predict who would win a battle. Yet everyone knew hundreds to thousands of soldiers on both sides would die. To spare the armies from such losses, the two sides would sometimes agree to have their two best soldiers fight the battle for their armies. These soldiers were called champions.
Goliath proposed to fight for the Philistines. If he won, Israel would surrender to them. If he lost, the Philistines would surrender. All of Goliath’s strength did him no good, since he couldn’t reach David with his sword. David used his sling. Men from the tribe of Benjamin were known for their marksmanship with a sling. Like them, David learned his skill with the weapon in fending off animals that attacked his sheep. God guided David’s stone, which killed the giant. He finished Goliath with the Philistine’s own sword. However, the Philistine army did not honor the agreement; instead, it broke ranks and fled. The army of Israel followed them, killing many as they ran.
Saul recognized talent when he saw it. He kept David with him and sent him out on military missions. As David won victory after victory, the people came to love him. David became a good friend of Saul’s son, Jonathan. Saul would eventually give his daughter Michal in marriage to David. Soon, Saul would become jealous of David’s fame and see him as a threat to his throne.
David’s descendant, Jesus, is our champion. He fought sin, death, and the devil for us on the cross, suffered and died for our sins, and rose from the grave to defeat them. Because our Champion died for us, we now will live with Him forever.
[Twenty-Fifth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: After Joshua’s death, God let each tribe of Israel rule their own lands. When needed, God appointed judges to settle disputes and lead them into battle. However, the tribes did not act as a single people. They were not impressed with the sons of their greatest judge, Samuel. So the people asked God for a king to unite them, fight their battles, and give them a sense of pride. What the people did not see was the downside — kings do whatever they want and take whatever they want. If they do not serve God, then the people would become slaves in their own country. They did not listen, so God granted their wish.
He sent to Samuel a handsome, tall, and charismatic young man named Saul. He was the son of a rich man from the tribe of Benjamin. Samuel anointed him king over Israel. At first, Saul was very successful. He raised a large army and liberated some Israelites from the Ammonites. He won a few victories against the Philistines with inferior weapons. He defeated the Amalekites and killed every one of them, yet spared their king against God’s command.
Ultimately, King Saul disobeyed God and did as he pleased. So God took the Kingdom of Israel back from him and gave it to a shepherd boy, David. A thousand years later, Jesus, the Son of David, served God and His people. He suffered and died for our sins and rose again to defeat sin, death, and the power of the devil. One day, he will return with the armies of Heaven to defeat these forces forever. On that day, we will live under the King of Kings forever.
