Jun 6, 2022
2SAMUEL 1:
David returned from being sent home from the
battle with Israel only to find that his town had been ransacked by
the Amalekites. He found strength in God, asked for God to direct
him, and succeeded in retrieving everything, and even much more.
However in Israel, Saul and his three sons died, and the Israelite
army was completely defeated.
PSALM 107a:
We
come to another of my favorite psalms. In E.C. Olsen’s book on the
psalms (which is a transcription of his radio programs) he said
that this psalm has a message for America. That message is in the
repeated refrain found in this psalm. Then Olsen gave examples of
the Great Depression starting in 1929, the Dust Bowl plagues in
1933-34, and the drought of 1936. Olsen observed, “Do you think we
heeded [God’s warnings]? Indeed not. … Did we cease our wicked
doings? Indeed not.” And I similarly ask about the increasing pace
of disasters right now. My observation is that we as a nation
turned to God when we confronted the first disasters. But our
turning to God lasted only a few days. Now, even as natural
disasters multiply, we steadfastly talk of Climate Change and never
talk about God. Consequently, we do NOT do like the people we hear
about in this psalm.
ROMANS 11a:
As
Paul said in his topic sentence in this book (Rom. 1:16-17), the
way God has revealed for making people right with himself is— from
start to finish, by means of fully believing. In chapter 10 we have
a great and succinct summation of the content that we are to ‘fully
believe’. Our confessing the belief that is in our hearts is also
important. At the end of chapter 10 there are a series of Old
Testament quotes. Two of those quotes are about the non-Jews. Paul
was not changing his topic. He is still talking about Jewish
rejection of the Gospel. The two Old Testament prophecies about the
non-Jews (19-20) are quoted as a powerful sign to the Jews. This is
the topic Paul continues with in chapter 11.
NLT Translation
notes:
Rom
11:11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course
not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the
[non-Jews//Gentiles]. But he wanted his own people to become
jealous and claim it for themselves.
12
Now if the [non-Jews//Gentiles] were enriched because the people of
Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater
a blessing the world will share when they finally accept
it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you
[non-Jews//Gentiles]. God has appointed me as [an//the] apostle to
the [non-Jews//Gentiles]. I stress this,
14
for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you
[non-Jews//Gentiles] have, so I might save some of them.
16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs
were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire
batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering [to
God] is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches
will be, too.
17
But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people
of Israel—have been broken off. And you [non-Jews//Gentiles], who
were [like] branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in.
So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and
his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of
God’s special olive tree.
21
For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you
either [if you turn from your belief].
25 I
want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so
that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people
of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full
number of [non-Jews//Gentiles] comes to Christ.
28
Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and
this benefits you [non-Jews//Gentiles]. Yet they are still the
people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
30
Once, you [non-Jews//Gentiles] were rebels against God, but when
the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you
instead.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.