BibleScribbler

Half-Beards, Honor, and Retaliation

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4 So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. 5 When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.”

2 Samuel 10:4–5 (ESV)

This half-beard stuff. Men would swear by their beards. The only clean-shaven men were slaves and little girls! Some criminals would also be shaved like being flogged or branded.

They, of course, didn’t just trim their beards to be shorter, they cut off half. So you’d look like this silly lop-sided freak. In your own humiliation, you’d have to shave off the other half of your beard yourself for it all to grow back and look right sooner.

There are several instances in the bible where a new, young king is shown kindness and his old advisors are untrusting and start a war! [[look these up for examples]]

David didn’t use these guys as marketing or propaganda. He helped them hide their shame. Everywhere they ran, their butts were exposed, and the fact that they were circumcised Jews would be shown off too. They would be outcasts among any other foreign people until somebody showed them mercy or they made it home.

Talk about feeling weak and vulnerable! 

These are David’s servants, so he’s going to take care of them wherever they go. Putting them up in a distant town until their beards grow back is a big deal. Let’s just say, they needed 4 weeks to grow a beard. It doesn’t look like David retaliated or went to war over this.

2  It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)

As far as we know, David was going to let it be. Sure, he probably wouldn’t make any peace with the Ammonites, but no aggression comes up until they attack him. 

There are a lot of places where David shows that he really did have a heart after God. This whole thing started with him wanting to honor that old king and become allies with his son. David proves for a lot of his kingship that he is quite sovereign but retaliates hard. 

Go Find Me Outside the Camp

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13Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 

14For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Hebrews 13:13–14 (ESV)

If we aren’t going to follow the law (which we know has now been made completely unnecessary from Romans 10:4 and a lot of previous chapters of Hebrews), we go where all of the lawbreakers go, outside the camp.

The wild part is, there is a tent of meeting out there where anybody can go meet with God whenever they want — without a sacrifice!

7Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

Exodus 33:7 (ESV)

So even if you are clean, if you ‘sought the Lord’ you would go outside the camp, among all of the other people that were outside of the camp, and meet Him there.

My Sermon on 1 Samuel 20

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I love preaching through 1 Samuel. The way God worked in the hearts of evil and good people to bring about His king — then tried and did it all over again!

This is where Jonathan and David make a covenant with one another. This is hesed at it’s finest. Jonathan puts loyalty to his father and his own rise to the throne aside to accomplish what God wants. David has the choice to run off on his own, or to receive that hesed from Jonathan.

David enters into the covenant and they would stick up for each other and defend each other even after the death of Jonathan.

Non-Linear Look over David’s Life – 2 Samuel 20-24

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The end of 2 Samuel is chronologically wonky. It’s not meant to be in order, but it’s like the forgotten highlights that didnt’ make into the chronological part.

Another way to look at it is as an overview of his legacy. We all know King David is about to die, so let’s look over some of the great people he affected and is going to leave behind that are standing around and haven’t been mentioned yet.

Numbers Part 3 – Aaron, the Priest Line between Life and Death

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This section is one of my favorites from the whole Bible. God is teaching Moses and Aaron to represent Him with self-sacrificing compassion. He Himself is going to die for people who grumble against Him, and here He is doing a little bit of that kind of training on Moses and Aaron.

More than Numbers: Part 1

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The book of Numbers has several of my favorite parts of the whole Bible. Andy Gries said that everyone thinks Numbers is just the same as what Deuteronomy is, but it’s not that at all! Here are the rough notes I preached from.

Download: Numbers Part 1 – 05072017 or subscribe to the Podcast.

Intro to the Book of Numbers (In the Wilderness)

Census was all men over 2
Army was men over 20
Levites that could work were men 25 or 30 up to age 50. After age 50 they keep guard, they help and attend to things, but they don’t do the priestly work that goes on inside.

There were 8,580 total Levites, 30–50 years old, that could work with the Tabernacle.

Aaron’s sons would cover everything up. Kohath’s sons would come in and carry it all, but even they weren’t allowed to look under the blue covers over the equipment.

Numbers 5 – Unclean and Restitution

Numbers 5:1–4 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous1 or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.” 4 And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.

This begins the explanations of order in the camp. What is good and what is bad and what to do about it.

They start off with laws about a jealous husband and the very sad and difficult process of proving a woman’s guilt.

Next they talk about a Nazirite vow, which is a set-apart time dedicated to the Lord.

These are short-term versions of what Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist did for their entire lives.

Men or women could take a Nazirite vow for any amount of time, and their shaved heads would show that they were in the middle of it! When they were done, here is what sacrifice they had to bring:

Numbers 6:13–15

[13] “And this is the law for the Nazirite, when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, [14] and he shall bring his gift to the LORD, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, [15] and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. (ESV)

This was what Paul paid for 4 men when he was arrested in Acts.

Priestly blessing Numbers 6:23–27

[23] “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
[24] The LORD bless you and keep you;
[25] the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
[26] the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
[27] “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (ESV)

Moses sets up the tabernacle and people are moved to give things to the Lord’s service.

Numbers 7:1–3

[1] On the day when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle and had anointed and consecrated it with all its furnishings and had anointed and consecrated the altar with all its utensils, [2] the chiefs of Israel, heads of their fathers’ houses, who were the chiefs of the tribes, who were over those who were listed, approached [3] and brought their offerings before the LORD, six wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two of the chiefs, and for each one an ox. They brought them before the tabernacle. (ESV)

Moses divides up all of the six wagons and twelve oxen among all of the Levites…except for the Kohathites. The Kohathites had to carry the temple furniture by hand, not by carts.

Numbers 9 – first Passover in the wilderness

Numbers 9 they celebrate their first Passover in the wilderness. There are some unclean guys that come and ask Moses, “We’re unclean, what do we do?” They don’t want to celebrate it if they aren’t allowed to, but they don’t want to miss it if they are!

Moses asks the Lord and the answer: No matter if you are unclean or not, keep the Passover!

The Cloud that followed them

When the clouds stopped, they stopped.

Numbers 9:22

[22] Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. (ESV)

When they set out for Canaan Numbers 10:33–36

[33] So they set out from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey. And the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. [34] And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.

[35] And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” [36] And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.” (ESV)

Moses, Joshua, Jesus and a Good Time to Take off Your Shoes

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Moses, Joshua, Jesus Take off your shoes (download)

The sound quality of this is a little scratchy, but the content is really good. I forget where I did this, maybe when I was Pastor at the Evansville Rescue Mission.

In this blurb, I talk about times when people in the Bible took off their shoes. There were certain things going on with them, going on with the Lord, and going on with the nation of Israel and God’s people.

Check it out, I hope it helps you appreciate the Lord and the Bible more.

Nehemiah Viewing the Ruins

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I’m reading through Nehemiah with a group of guys from OneLife West and the thing that hit me yesterday was that Daniel was taken away and the city was destroyed around 605 BC.
Nehemiah was going back and viewing the destruction around 450 B.C. That would be like me going and touring the battle of Gettysburg, but it not being restored until now.

This shows me more than ever that we need to read the Bible in context. Just imagine how overgrown and desolate that broken down wall would have been! Rocks would easily be lost under erosion, entire trees would be growing over boulders that vaguely resembled cut rock for a wall!