God Sightings #21, May 23rd – 29nd

As you can see Adam is much better at keeping up with this than I am.  Oh, to have the fortitude of youth once again.  Let me start with a poem you may have seen before but is most appropriate for our theme of God Sightings -

BLESSINGS (author unknown)

The man whispered, “God speak to me,” and a meadowlark sang.

But the man did not hear.

So the man yelled, “God speak to me,” and the thunder rolled across the sky.

But the man did not listen.

The man looked around and said, “God, let me see you,” and a star shined brightly,

But the man did not notice.

And the man shouted, “God, show me a miracle,” and a life was born,

But the man did not know.

So the man cried out in despair, “Touch me, God, and let me know you are here,”

Whereupon God reached down and touched the man,

But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Don’t miss out on a blessing because it isn’t packaged the way that you expect.

OLD TESTAMENT READING

Here we see the transition from one political party to the next – far more bloody than what we see in our nation – but probably just as painful.  Even though God had already set up the transition, ordaining David over Saul, the general population didn’t get the message and so the transition was quite messy.

We see God making a covenant with David, another one of the significant covenants God makes in the Old Testament.  This covenant comes at the same time of a conversation between David and God about David building a temple for God.  In the covenant we can see some very strong allusions to Jesus, the Messiah, who would someday come through the line of David.

In our reading, we see the arrival of Jerusalem as a prominent place from this time forward.  David is the one who picks Jerusalem to be the geographical center of the Jewish faith.

We become very aware in our readings of the strengths and weaknesses of David.  We read about his “great” sin with Bathsheba but also many instances of compassion and commitment to God and to his people.

Lastly, we become aware that the Hebrew nation is not one big happy family.  These divisions will come into play after the death of David’s son Solomon when the Kingdom of Israel splits up for good.

Psalms

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible by far – 176 verses.  This is an acrostic poem.  There are 22 stanzas, one for each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each of the eight verses within each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter named in its heading.

New Testament

Here we see John’s approach to Jesus final moments before and during his crucifixion.  If you have the time, compare how the four gospels record those events.  Although there are a lot of similarities one of the big differences is John’s recollection of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples in the Upper Room.  The final conversations between Jesus and his followers is also much more substantial in John’s gospel.