Through the First Ten
Well, hip hip hooray! We are through asking the questions for the first ten books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, and II Samuel. Hopefully you have been able to post a few answers of your own, or even perhaps you were able to post a question that you felt should have been asked but was not.
Now we will continue our journey with the questions for the book I Kings. As always, if you wish to post an answer please do so, and if you utilize a Bible verse for reference please be sure to note the passage location so that I may look it up.
1. I Kings 1:11-14
11 Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king and David our lord does not know it?
12 Now therefore come, let me give you advice, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
13 Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then is Adonijah king?’
14 Then while you are still speaking with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words.”
Questions
1) Wow! Well, alright for plotting and planning in the Old Testament, right? Quite the interesting conspiracy that is going on here, wouldn't you say?
2) If the LORD already promised David that his descendants would establish a lasting dynasty why is there so much worry here? Why the deception? Why the lies? Wouldn't the LORD make sure everything would go just as He said it would?
2. I Kings 1:29-31
29 And the king swore, saying, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity,
30 as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ even so will I do this day.”
31 Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”
Questions
1) May my lord King David live forever? Sooo...uhmmm, Bathsheba does know that David is on his deathbed, right? Why say something so useless? Because it sounds pretty and loyal? Why?
3. I Kings 2:33
33 So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever. But for David and for his descendants and for his house and for his throne there shall be peace from the LORD forevermore.”
Questions
1) Sooo...peace for David and his descendants forevermore? Well, chalk that up as one more thing that just never comes true, right? Forget show me the money. Show me the peace, right? Maybe the LORD meant pieces and it was just a jacked-up translation, you think? Could be. I mean, that region of the world and the people of the LORD are just about always in pieces or scattered...or in the process of being made into pieces to be scattered. I think they totally got the short end of the stick, right? LOADS of promises with nothing to show for it but a dusty strip of land that is a sliver of what God supposedly promised it would be, a bunch of sorrow and suffering, and seemingly never-ending bickering over whose imaginary friend is the best friend. Lovely.
4. I Kings 2:44-46
44 The king also said to Shimei, "You certainly remember all the wicked things you did to my father, David. May the LORD now bring that evil on your own head.
45 But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD forever.”
46 Then, at the king's command, Benaiah son of Jehoiada took Shimei outside and killed him. So the kingdom was now firmly in Solomon's grip.
Questions
1) May the LORD bring that evil on your head? The evil that this guy supposedly did to his father, David, eons back? Is THIS the true golden rule from God? Do unto others according to the horrible things they have done?
2) If it is Solomon ordering the killing of this man then the idea of the guy's blood being on his own head/hands is an aberration of stupidity, right? Wouldn't the blood be on Solomon's hands?
3) Sooo...Solomon believes the lie of David's throne being established forever? David's throne was never established forever, right? Sure, God did a really great job convincing people otherwise, but the truth is that the so-called throne that was established had nothing to do with man and everything to do with God, right? Where is the proof of David's throne being established forever?
It all comes down to Jesus. Sure, Jesus is supposed to be the descendant of David, the lion of the tribe of Judah, and that is the fulfillment of God's promise. This is a ruse. It is not David's lineage...it's God's lineage. God only told the people involved that it was David's lineage so people would go for such a thing. It is NOT David's seed...no man had lain with Mary. David's throne went the way of the dodo a long ass time ago.
Sooo...again, where is the proof of David's throne being established forever?
4) Verse 46 mentions the guy being taken out and killed and THEN it says the kingdom of Solomon was firmly established, right? Is this how the LORD/God intends to establish HIS kingdom? With blood and violence? Seriously, think about it. How are people supposed to get to heaven when they die? Well, they have to accept the blood of Christ and recognize that they cannot partake of the kingdom of God without the blood of Christ, correct? Do you REALLY think that lasting peace can be established upon blood?
5. I Kings 3:1
1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the LORD and the wall around the city.
Questions
1) Uhmmm...I'm just wondering if by this time the Pharaoh ruling Egypt had forgotten the whole Moses/Aaron/Let My People Go thing? Do the Egyptians really have that short of a memory?
2) Do you really think that the Egyptians would ever have allowed the leader of the very people who were responsible for the deaths of all the firstborn in the land to marry the Pharaoh's daughter?
3) Tell me again why these kings of the people of Israel who supposedly loved the LORD/God so much consistently married people who worship many gods and who are for all intents and purposes...enemies?
2) Do you really think that the Egyptians would ever have allowed the leader of the very people who were responsible for the deaths of all the firstborn in the land to marry the Pharaoh's daughter?
3) Tell me again why these kings of the people of Israel who supposedly loved the LORD/God so much consistently married people who worship many gods and who are for all intents and purposes...enemies?
6. I Kings 3:4-5
4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
5 That night the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, "What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!"
Questions
1) A THOUSAND burnt offerings? Goodness gracious that is a lot of animals, isn't it? What is the precise origin of these burnt sacrifice rituals? Is there anything in the Bible that can verifiably show the origin of God's request/apparent need for blood sacrifices?
2) Being as though God is supposed to know all and see all, why did He bother to ask Solomon what he wanted? Didn't He already know?
3) If God/the LORD is everywhere WHY does He persist to appear to people in dreams and visions and talking burning bushes, hummm? Why doesn't He simply talk? I mean, for Christ's sake...He IS supposed to be everywhere, right?
3) If God/the LORD is everywhere WHY does He persist to appear to people in dreams and visions and talking burning bushes, hummm? Why doesn't He simply talk? I mean, for Christ's sake...He IS supposed to be everywhere, right?
7. I Kings 3:6
6 Solomon replied, "You showed faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued your faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
Questions
1) David was honest and true and faithful to the LORD even through he broke a whole bunch of God's commandments when he coveted Uriah's wife, slept with Uriah's wife, murdered Uriah, stole Uriah's wife, lied/tried to hide his deed when he tried to get Uriah drunk to sleep with Bathsheba...do you wish to start over here, because is sure as hell seems David is most certainly NOT honest and true and faithful, right?
8. I Kings 3:8
8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!
Questions
1) A nation so great that it cannot be counted? And HOW MANY times was a census taken of the people of Israel that gave definitive numbers, hummm?
2) At this point in the Bible the people of Israel STILL do not number as the stars in the heavens, do they?
3) Since we are talking numbers for the moment do you think it appropriate to remind God/the LORD how many of His people were murdered in WWII? What was that number? About...ohhh...SIX MILLION, right?
3) Since we are talking numbers for the moment do you think it appropriate to remind God/the LORD how many of His people were murdered in WWII? What was that number? About...ohhh...SIX MILLION, right?
4) If God keeps killing off His people there will not be a nation left to become great and no one will have to worry about counting anything but the headstones, right?
9. I Kings 3:9
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
Questions
1) Discern between good and evil? Are we talking about the real world version of good and evil, or God's version of good and evil that seems to change with whatever purpose best serves God?
2) Like I mentioned before, how can this group of people become or continue to be a great people when God consistently kills them off?
10. I Kings 3:22-28
22 Then the other woman interrupted, "It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine." "No," the first woman said, "the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours." And so they argued back and forth before the king.
23 Then the king said, "Let's get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other.
24 All right, bring me a sword." So a sword was brought to the king.
25 Then he said, "Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!"
26 Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, "Oh no, my lord! Give her the child--please do not kill him!" But the other woman said, "All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!"
27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
28 When all Israel heard the king's decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice.
Questions
1) Isn't this one of the more twisted stories in the Bible?
2) The people were in AWE? Seriously? They saw this as wisdom in rendering justice?
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