I, the Prophet
First-person Transcriptions from Prophets
and Other Notable Figures in the Old Testament
by Edwin Walhout
Published by Edwin Walhout
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout
Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Deborah
2 Samuel (4 sessions)
3 Nathan (3 sessions)
4 Elijah (5 sessions)
5 Micaiah (2 sessions)
6 Elisha (6 sessions)
7 Amos
8 Hosea
9 Jonah
10 Micah
11 Isaiah I (2 sessions)
12 Nahum
13 Zephaniah
14 Habakkuk
15 Obadiah
16 Daniel
17 Ezekiel (2 sessions)
18 Isaiah II
19 Haggai
20 Zechariah
21 Mordecai
22 Nehemiah (3 sessions)
23 Malachi
24 Joel
25 Salome Alexandra
26 Simon Zelotes
The West Michigan Institute for Time Travel has been in business now for several years. Readers may recall my reports on Jeremiah, Abraham, David, Moses, and Paul. What began as an effort to contact all the writing prophets of the Old Testament expanded to include a few non-writing prophets as well as several persons who can hardly be classified as prophets at all. The net result of all this effort is a cross-section of Jewish history during Old Testament times, through the eyes of important people in that history.
* * * * *
Deborah
We chose Deborah as a good example of one the Judges in early Jewish history. She lived during the period after Joshua led the twelve tribes of Israel to settle in among the peoples of the land of Canaan. I found her at home near the town of Bethel where the desert tabernacle of Moses was kept. I came from Michigan with a comfortable collapsible tent and all the provisions necessary for a stay of a week or two. I also came with a gift of a bolt of cotton cloth, deep purple, which she could make into a robe for herself, with some thread and needles.
(Based on Judges 4)
Deborah: Welcome to my tent, friend from foreign lands. You look strange and you talk strange and you dress strange. I do not understand what country you have come from. Nevertheless, you are welcome and I am happy to talk with you this morning.
Question: Thank you for your hospitality. I would like to know first, if I may be so bold, how you, a woman, became such a person of importance in Israel. It is unusual, is it not, for a woman to exercise authority as you do?
Answer: Yes, it is unusual. The Lord Yahweh has brought me to this position. I suppose it is because no man around here has shown much interest in public affairs. Years ago people simply began coming to me for advice, and I did the best I could to help them solve whatever problems they had.
Q: Do you have scrolls available, the scrolls of the Torah?
A: Yes, I learned how to read them from my father who was a priest serving from time to time in the tabernacle. I came to understand very well what the Law of God was saying, and I was very insistent that when someone came to me for advice we would ask what the Lord required.
Q: So, you were never formally appointed to be a judge or a prophet or any other office? Just that it happened gradually? People saw that the Lord gave you special gifts of insight and wisdom?
A: Yes, that’s the way it happened. There have been others who became judges for the people. Not necessarily appointed by the elders, but simply exercising the gifts that the Lord God of Israel gives. There was Joshua a long time ago. Othniel after him. Ehud. Shamgar. I suppose there will be others from time to time as the need arises.
Q: That’s interesting. So there is no one person in all the tribes of Israel who has authority over all the people? No government, for example, to make decisions for all Israel?
A: No, we are a theocracy; we are ruled directly by God and we do not need any centralized authority such as other countries do. We have the Law and we have elders and priests and prophets and judges and we think that should be enough to keep us faithful to the Lord our God.
Q: Does it work? I mean do people actually remain faithful, without a central government?
A: Yes and no. We know we are God’s people. We all give honor and obedience to the covenant and the law. The priests and the elders of the people do try to keep the people obedient. Still, if people do make idols, there isn’t much to stop them. What’s worse, however, is that we do not have an army to fight off enemies. And from time to time that happens.
Q: Doesn’t the Torah have any provision for defending yourselves from such enemies?
A: No. When we have to fight a battle, someone will call the men of Israel to come fight the enemy. Maybe the elders of the tribe would choose someone, or maybe a prominent man would take the responsibility. You may have heard of the battle in which I became involved a few years back.
Q: Yes, I heard some mention of it. Would you be so kind as to tell me what it was like?
A: Well, there was a king up north who began oppressing the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. His name was Jabin and he lived in Hazor. He had an army whose general lived in a town farther to the west, close to Mount Carmel. The general’s name was Sisera and he had a powerful army of horses and chariots, hundreds of them. He kept sending squadrons of these chariots and soldiers to the towns of Israel, demanding tribute money, taking Israelite children as slaves, carrying off harvests. That lasted year after year for a long time, until the people were so angry that they decided to do something about it.
Q: They came to you?
A: That’s what they did. The elders from Naphtali and Zebulun came to me and asked for advice. They knew the only way they could do it was to fight.
Q: I suppose they were wondering whether the other tribes would be willing to send soldiers to help them?
A: Exactly. They asked me to persuade the other tribes to help them. We held conversations with the elders of the southern tribes in my area, Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim. In the end Ephraim and Benjamin agreed to supply soldiers to add to those from Zebulun and Naphtali. However, other northern tribes such as Reuben and Dan and Asher were reluctant to send help. It was very disappointing. But we thought we had enough men to defeat the Canaanites.
Q: How would you do that? I presume the Israelites did not have any chariots. Wouldn’t it be difficult to defeat chariots and horses?
A: We devised a strategy that we thought would work. Get the chariots to come to a place where there was a river or stream that would make it difficult to maneuver. If we could catch them in such a place we could attack and gain an advantage.
Q: Will you tell me about the battle? I heard that Israel won a great victory, but I would like to hear the story.
A: The elders from Naphtali and Zebulun recommended a man named Barak to lead the soldiers into battle. So I summoned him to come to consult with us here in Bethel. He was a capable man, but he did not want to take on the responsibility to lead an army into such a difficult battle.
Q: But you did persuade him to be the general. How?
A: He agreed only if I would go with him. He did not trust himself, and wanted me to help make decisions.
Q: And you agreed?
A: That’s the way it was. I told him that if he was so reluctant someone else would probably be more important in defeating Sisera than Barak himself. Actually, it did turn out that way. A woman got the glory, not Barak.
Q: Will you tell me about that?
A: Yes. The battle went like this. We had an army of some ten thousand men, and we camped near Mount Tabor. King Jabin sent his army, under General Sisera, to meet us there. We were camped on one side of a small river named Kishon, and the enemy on the other side. During the night God sent a massive rainstorm that sent water rushing down from Mount Tabor into that Kishon River. Sisera sent his chariots across the river, but the water was so violent that the horses could not pull the chariots through. That is when we attacked them. The Canaanite soldiers were so preoccupied with their plunging horses and chariots that they could not fight. So we defeated them. God gave us a marvelous victory and we thank him to this day for it. No longer do Zebulun and Naphtali have to worry about the Canaanites intruding into their lives.
Q: You were going to tell me why Barak did not get the credit for victory.
A: Of course Barak got credit for victory, but the most important part of the victory was how Sisera, the general of the enemy army, was killed. Barak did not do that. A woman did.
Q: A woman?
A: Yes, a woman named Jael. While Sisera was fleeing toward his home, chased by Barak and his army, he came to the tent of this woman who he thought was a friend. He asked for shelter for a night, and to be warned if any Israelite soldiers came by. Jael fed him and gave him a bed for the night. Sisera trusted her and went to sleep. After a while, when the general was in deep sleep, Jael took a hammer and struck a tentpin through his head, killing him. So, in the end, it went just as I had predicted. Jael, not Barak, got the credit for killing Sisera.
Q: Thank you, Judge Deborah, for your kindness in telling me about your work. I hope you can make a fine robe with the cloth and sewing materials I am leaving with you. May the Lord Yahweh guide you forever.
* * * * *
Samuel
Samuel was the last of the long line of Judges in early Israel. We wanted to find Samuel rather late in his life, at a time after his break with King Saul, and after informing David that he would eventually become king. As it turned out, we needed four sessions with Samuel to get the main parts of his story.
Session 1
In this session Samuel tells about his childhood in the home of High Priest Eli.
(Based on 1 Samuel 1-4)
I never knew my mother and father very well. They came to visit me once in a while, my mother Hannah anyway.
Eli told me about it. My mother was so thankful to have a baby that she devoted me to the Lord. That meant she brought me to live with the High Priest and help work in the tabernacle. So that is the only life I ever knew.
But as I grew up I watched how the others in the priest’s household were behaving. Eli had a couple of sons who were much older, and I soon discovered that they were not very serious about serving the Lord faithfully. They went through the motions of officiating at the altar, but they were very selfish men. More than once I saw them pick out the choicest cuts of meat from the pot, when they were supposed to reach in with the skewer and take whatever came. Even worse, whenever an attractive woman came along they would do their best to seduce her, and often they succeeded.
Their father Eli suspected it, but he had never controlled them well when they were boys. And now that they were grown men they simply deceived Eli into thinking all was well. It wasn’t.
Let me tell you about an incident that happened just about that time, that is, when I was old enough to realize what was going on in the tabernacle.
I was sleeping in my bed one night when I heard the High Priest Eli calling me. He was an old man and sometimes needed help in the middle of the night. So I went to him and asked what he needed. He said he did not call me. So I went back to sleep.
But then I heard him again. And again he told me he had not called me.
It happened a third time that same night. Then Eli realized what must be happening, that it was God calling me. He told me if it happened again I was to say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. It did happen again. I heard a voice calling me, Samuel, Samuel. I replied as Eli instructed me.
I was frightened by what I heard the Lord say to me. He told me that because Eli had not been able to control his sons, and because all that evil was happening right in the tabernacle, God was going to destroy the whole family of Eli and give the priesthood to someone else.
I was terrified to hear this, and when Eli asked me the next morning I tried to avoid telling him. But he insisted, and, godly man that he was, he sighed and said, Let it be as the Lord wills.
Shortly after that the Philistines attacked Israel. Eli’s sons took the ark of the Lord into the battle, but it did not do any good. God would not do magical things for such wicked men. In fact the opposite happened. When the Philistines saw the ark they attacked all the harder and captured it. In the process both of Eli’s sons were killed.
When Eli heard this bad news, not only that his sons were dead but that the ark of the Lord was captured, he had a stroke, toppled over backwards, broke his neck, and died.
I stayed on at the tabernacle, helping as much as I could, and eventually everyone recognized that the spirit of the Lord was with me and that I would explain the will of the Lord to them honestly and truthfully. So in time I became a judge in Israel, one through whom our God could lead his people in the way they should go.
I can talk to you some more if you wish, but let it be tomorrow, I’m a bit tired now.
Session 2
In this session Samuel tells how the Israelites acquired a king, Saul, son of Kish.
(Based on 1 Samuel 8-10)
We did not have a king at the time I told you about yesterday. We do now, as you may know. Saul is king.
But that incident I told you about yesterday persuaded the elders that we needed a better form of government. We need a king, they said, who could gather an army to defend against our enemies. They saw how it worked among neighboring countries and they thought it would work better for us also.
So they came to me and asked if I could arrange for Israel to get a king. I did not really like the idea. Mainly, I suppose, because we ought to have enough confidence in God that he would take care of us.
But I promised to consult the Lord and eventually agreed that, if the people really understood what having a king involved – such things as taxes, armies, diminished freedoms – I would see what I could do about it. So I continued to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance, and then one day I heard the Lord say to me in a vision, Tomorrow I will show you the man I have chosen.
Selecting a king was a tricky business. If I chose a man from one tribe, what would the other tribes think? If I chose a well-known man who was controversial or opinionated, how would that be accepted? But as it turned out, the man God chose was an unknown young man from an ordinary family and from the smallest tribe, the tribe of Benjamin.
When I met him he was searching for some animals that had wandered away from the family pastures. He could not find them and came to me asking for help. Could I help him find his lost donkeys?
Actually I understood from the Lord that the animals had already been found, but I needed to talk with the young man. I invited him to attend a banquet and gave him the best seat at the table and the choicest cuts of meat. Then next day, before I sent him on his way home, I took him aside in private and told him God had chosen him to be the new king over all Israel. I anointed him with holy oil as a sign that it would come to pass.
The young man’s name was Saul and he was the son of Kish. Nobody had heard of him, of course, but he was a very handsome and stalwart man, standing almost a foot taller than the average Jewish man. You could not help noticing him in a crowd.
I notified the elders that I had selected the new king – that God had selected him – and we held a solemn gathering to make the appointment official.
There were several men who were disappointed with my choice. They had hoped that one of them would have been chosen. So there was a lot of grumbling and dissatisfaction at first.
Soon King Saul received a desperate call for help from Jabesh-Gilead. The Ammonites were besieging them and were threatening to put out the right eye of all the men. King Saul immediately raised a large army, insisting that men from every tribe come to fight, and he succeeded in driving off the Ammonites. There was not so much complaining about him after he showed how he could protect the people.
So King Saul has reigned a long time, and on the whole has done a good job of protecting the people from the enemies around us.
But I am afraid that his power eventually went to his head and in time his entire attitude changed for the worse. But let that story wait until next time.
Session 3
Samuel now tells about his disappointment with King Saul.
(Based on 1 Samuel 13-15)
In some ways Saul did a good job of being king. He protected the people against our enemies, though he does have a hard time with the Philistines off there to the west.
But I want to talk about how King Saul gradually slipped away from true dedication to the Lord. I could sense after he had been king for a number of years that he was getting to be too concerned about himself and his own power. Not very sensitive to the way the Lord wanted him to govern the people. Not trusting the Lord completely in times of difficulty or war.
Let me mention two separate incidents that demonstrate his insensitivity. The first instance. King Saul had asked me to come to him at Gilgal where he was trying to hold off the Philistines after a bad defeat. The soldiers were discouraged and afraid, and Saul wanted me to come and make a burnt offering to the Lord and to pray for victory. I was at the time a long distance away and could not come immediately, so I sent word that I would be there in seven days.
However, the seventh day came and King Saul thought he could not wait any longer for me to come. For all he knew, I was sick or dead. His soldiers were deserting and going back home. Anyway he decided that he himself could officiate at the sacrifice. So that is what he did. He took the lamb, killed it, and burnt it whole on an altar.
I was hurrying as fast as I could, knowing how desperate the army was to have the Lord’s assurance that victory could be won. I arrived at Saul’s camp later that same day and discovered that the burnt offering had already been made. Saul himself had officiated instead of a priest. He had taken upon himself the function that only a priest was authorized to do.
I chastised him severely. Then and there I knew that he was no longer the man to lead the nation of Israel. I told him bluntly that by doing this he had forfeited his right to the throne, and that his son would not inherit the throne because of his failure to serve the Lord with all his heart.
Well, that was one thing. Another incident occurred a few months later. A small band of nomad people down south kept making trouble for our people. They kept making raids on our people whenever they felt they could get away with it. Amalekites. Our people hated these bandits, so finally the Lord led me to see that they had to be eliminated entirely. We could no longer allow them to make their dastardly raids, killing our people, raping our women, stealing our sheep, burning our crops.
So I instructed King Saul, next time a raid like that happens, take your army and destroy that entire band of Amalekites. Wipe them out completely. Spare no one and destroy everything. Everyone knew it had to be done to remove the constant threat.
But instead of destroying the Amalekite band entirely, Saul kept their leader alive as a prisoner. And he kept a lot of their plunder also, food and animals and weapons and tools and tents – anything that could still be useful for us.
Saul’s instructions were to destroy the Amalekites, including every person in their camp, burn everything that will burn, and kill every animal they found. Israel was not to think that they could do the same to them as they did to us. We could not allow ourselves to become rich at the expense of the enemy. We do not do it to benefit from it ourselves, but to remove the danger from our borders.
Saul, of course, had all kinds of excuses. Why destroy all those good things when they could be of use to us? Why kill their leader when we can take him as a hostage and show others how powerful we are? But God had ordered complete destruction and Saul had not obeyed. It was clear that the spirit of the Lord was no longer motivating and guiding this man who had held so much promise of being a fine king.
Not only did I express my displeasure – God’s displeasure – to King Saul, but I resolved never to talk to him or see him again for the rest of my life. Which promise I have kept. Saul knows very well that it is not so much I, but God himself, who has rejected him as king. Rejected him because he has rejected God.
Session 4
Here Samuel explains how he found David and anointed him to be the next king.
(Based on 1 Samuel 16:1-13)
It was a great disappointment to me that Saul proved to be less than totally committed to God. For a long time it was on my heart and mind every day. How can he lead the people to be a nation under God when he himself did not live that way?
Then I heard the Lord say to me, Samuel, you can’t keep up this grieving for Saul forever. Remember, he will someday die and someone else will become king. I began to concentrate on the future, after King Saul. So, after praying much about it, the Lord led me to look for someone to take Saul’s place after he died.
Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, and the Lord led me again to the south, this time to the tribe of Judah. I really cannot say how God led me to the family of Jesse, a man I had met earlier in Bethlehem, but I suspected one of Jesse’s sons would be the man chosen by God. I went to Bethlehem and interviewed Jesse’s sons, starting with the oldest. None of them seemed right. None of them had the approval of God to be the next king.
So I asked Jesse, Are these all of your sons? He replied, Well, no. The boy is out there in the fields taking care of the sheep, but I don’t suppose you would want to talk with him. But I insisted, wondering whether God would be interested in a teenage boy at this point.
When this boy arrived from the pasture, and I began to talk with him, I was sure this was the person God had selected. So I did what I came to do, I told his father that this youngest son of his, named David, would become king of Israel after King Saul died. The older brothers were all present when I then poured holy olive oil on his head, anointing him the next king.
Afterwards, when I returned to my home in Shiloh, I did wonder what effect this might have on David. Would he take it seriously? Five years later would he even remember the incident, and if he did, how would it affect him as he grew up and became more aware of the larger problems of the country? Would he become inwardly proud and conceited? Or would he sense the great responsibility and opportunity that God was giving him?
From the news that occasionally reaches me, it appears that David is responding well, taking seriously his duties before God and man, learning not only to get along with people, but how to take leadership.
At the present time, however, it all looks rather bleak. King Saul, as I heard just a few days ago, has taken his army and is hunting David as an outlaw. If he captures him David will be as good as dead. Did I make a mistake in anointing David? Will it actually happen? Only God knows. I do not expect to live long enough to see how David actually becomes the next king, but I have full confidence that God will somehow arrange it, all in good time.
* * * * *
Nathan
David has become king and has ruled for about forty years. The time in our years is approximately 960 BC. Nathan is a a prophet who has been a long-time friend of King David, and seems the best person to interview to get some glimpse into David’s character. I brought him a nice folding chair as a gift. I wonder sometimes if our gifts would ever be found by archaeologists millennia later.
Session 1
In this session Nathan describes his long friendship with King David.
(Based on 1 Chronicles 17)
Most of us prophets of Israel live rather unspectacular lives. Mostly we spend our time working our fields and flocks for a living, and then when required spend some time copying manuscripts that the king or the priests need. Or maybe inscribing the letters that someone wants to send to a foreign country. Or making scrolls to record important transactions. Sometimes we are referred to as scribes rather than as prophets, but it comes down to much the same thing. I myself have spent much time writing the stories of Saul and David and now recently of Solomon.
One of the functions we prophets do have is to give advice. We are expected to know the documents that have been written, especially the Torah, and to pray to discover what God wants us to do.
It is interesting that most of the time we prophets are pretty much safe from punishment, even if we criticize the king or his government officials. We may become unpopular or forfeit some advantages when we do that, but seldom is our life in danger. We speak for God and usually that is honored.
So my life is mostly uninteresting, but there are two or three things that stand out in my memory that you may think important.
I was with David all through those difficult years before he became king. Of course I was very young then, part of his little army of outlaws when King Saul was chasing him all over the countryside. So I knew him well and understood how thoroughly he wanted the people of Israel to be true children of God. I knew it was not personal ambition that drove him to become king, but willingness to follow wherever the Lord led him. David remains my friend. He trusts me and I admire him.
Several years ago, after he established the throne of Israel in Jerusalem, and after he had built a new home for himself, David decided to build a temple in Jerusalem as well. He had spent much effort getting that little village of Jerusalem ready to be the central city for the nation, and now he wanted the city to become the central place of worship for all the people.
Nobody had ever heard of Jerusalem before David conquered it and made it his capital. But David did not want the country to be united simply around himself. He wanted it to be united around God, and so he wanted to build a beautiful temple where people could come and worship the Lord.
When he first talked it over with me I thought it was a very good idea. I encouraged him to make plans. So David contacted King Hiram of Tyre, the same neighbor who had helped him build his palace and throne, to help with plans for a temple.
In short order the designs were ready. David began assembling the stone and lumber and other materials for the work, and then I began to have doubts about the whole project. The Lord had been laying on my conscience that the time was not quite right for the project to go ahead.
David had been a man of war and I began to think that it would be better for a king who had not been such a violent soldier to undertake the project. Besides, there was in my judgment another very serious problem for David.
He was indeed king over all Israel, but many people in the north did not trust him. They had to admit he was the only person around who could protect them from the Philistines and other enemies, but that did not mean they liked him.
So there was an undercurrent of criticism of David, and if he built a temple in Jerusalem people might interpret it as his attempt to control their religious life also. If David completed the project it might do more harm than good. Who does David think he is, trying to run our religious life too?
Thoughts such as these kept running through my mind until the Lord made it clear to me that I must try to stop the project. I did not particularly want to go against the advice I had made earlier, but I felt I had to do it.
One day I went up to David and told him bluntly that the Lord was now forbidding him to make that temple that was so dear to him. He was a man of war and blood, and God wanted the temple to be a place of peace and worship. His son could do the job when the time came.
I expected David to object strenously, but he didn’t. David knew I would not misrepresent the will of God in this matter. He trusted me completely to speak honestly for God. So, after a few brief questions, he went away sorrowful but accepting.
David continued to lay plans and to assemble materials, stockpiling them until such time as a son of his might complete the project. It was a deep disappointment but he was a man of deep trust in God and he accepted the disappointment well.
That’s one major thing I did in my role as prophet. I have had another run-in with David since that time, and I will tell you about it tomorrow.
Oh, friend, before you go, one more thing I just remembered. This is how I put it to David. David, I said, you want to build a house for God, but God is going to build a house for you. The house of David will sit on the throne of the kingdom of God forever. Be content with that.
Session 2
Nathan now reflects on David’s gross sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
(Based on 2 Samuel 12:1-25)
I am happy to see you again, my friend. I promised to tell you about another serious event that I was involved in with King David. It is an event that nearly destroyed my respect for him and, I am sure, undermined the respect of the whole country for him. How could this man after God’s own heart, as we like to think of him, do such an ungodly thing?
It was woman trouble. David saw this attractive woman who lived in the house next door. One day he saw her bathing and he became so aroused that he sent a messenger to her inviting her to come over and visit him.
You don’t disobey the king, so she came. David took her to bed and then sent her home. Shortly thereafter this neighbor lady, her name was Bathsheba, notified David that she was pregnant. What could David do about it? Bathsheba was a married lady and David had forced her to violate her marriage vows.
David tried to make it seem that Bathsheba’s husband Uriah was the father. He asked Joab, his army general, to send the husband back home. Uriah was a soldier in David’s army. But, being the good soldier he was, Uriah refused to visit his wife and instead camped out on the grounds of David’s palace.
So that trick did not work. Then David sent word to Joab to see to it that Uriah was placed in a very dangerous spot in the next battle, hoping he would be killed. That would make it possible for David to take Bathsheba as another of his wives. All that did happen, so that by the time the baby was born, Bathsheba was legally the wife of David.
But of course David was terribly in the wrong. Not only had he sinned in the matter of adultery with Bathsheba, but he sinned in the murder of Uriah. It soon became public knowledge. Everything that happened.
Well, I knew I had to confront David. I thought long and hard about it, and figured out a way to get David to judge himself. I went to him one day and told him about an incident – it did not really happen, but I told it as if it did – involving a rich man who tricked a poor man out of the little wealth he had.
I told him the story of this rich man who had flocks of sheep in abundance, but when he needed to kill one of his lambs in order to feed a visitor, he simply took the one little lamb his poor neighbor had, and killed that one instead of one of his own. David, as you can imagine, was indignant, shouting that the rich man deserved to die himself for this act of injustice.
I let a moment go by and then, looking my friend David in the eye, said to him, You’re the man. I let David try to figure out what I meant. In a bit I then explained, You have all the wives you want. Uriah your neighbor had only one wife. Yet you took his wife and had Uriah killed. You deserve the same penalty as the man in my story.
You can well imagine that it took a bit of courage to confront powerful King David like that. I had no idea how David would react. He could order me to be executed and my head could have been cut off simply by his saying so. But he looked back at me, lowered his eyes, and whispered, You’re right. I have sinned in the sight of the Lord. What now must I do about it?
David could not, of course, bring Uriah back to life. He could only acknowledge his wrongdoing, pray that God would forgive him, and then go on and try as best he could to do what was right all the way around. Actually David did repent honestly, and he even wrote a couple of poems acknowledging his sin. [We have them as Psalms 32 and 51.]
It is strange how things develop, though. The baby was ill from the day it was born and soon died. God had forgiven David but nonetheless punished him by not allowing the fruit of his sin to live.
Bathsheba became David’s favorite wife. There were several other wives, and there were many other children of David in his palace, but when Bathsheba bore another child a year or so later, it was clear to everybody that this little baby was dear to David, more so than any of his other older children. That second baby’s name was Solomon, and I want to tell you a bit also about him next time you come to visit.
Session 3
Nathan explains here why David abdicated the throne and made Solomon king.
(Based on 1 Kings 1:8-40 and 2 Chronicles 9:29)
I am an old man, as you can well see, and David is older still. I think I am in somewhat better physical condition than David, who is succumbing to the infirmities of old age. Today I would like to tell you about how Solomon became king.
You should understand that David had several sons who were considerably older than Solomon and who thought they should become the next king after their father died. There was Absalom and Adonijah and Amnon and some others. Normally one would expect the oldest son to be next in line. But that would depend on the elders of the people wanting him as king, as well as on the choice of David himself.
David, however, told me that he did not see in any of his older sons a genuine commitment to serve the Lord. He was disappointed in them because of their ungodliness, though in other respects they may have been good sons. So, as David watched his son Solomon grow up, and how his mother trained him conscientiously to serve the Lord, David promised Bathsheba that Solomon would become the next king.
But that promise made serious problems for the older sons. The oldest son Absalom, for example, wanted to be the next king and he tried to usurp the throne and depose his father David. I do not know how much of this history you know, but it was only by a severe battle in which Absalom was killed that David retained his throne. I, of course, remained on the side of my friend King David all the while.
Some time later the same kind of thing happened with the next oldest of David’s sons, a man named Adonijah. I would guess he was thirty or more years old when he decided to make a try for the throne. He persuaded some important people to come to his side.
The news spread quickly and when we heard about it in Jerusalem we knew something had to be done, and very quickly. Bathsheba and I confronted King David with the news of Adonijah’s actions. David wanted advice on what to do about it, and I, as his trusted prophet, told him to abdicate the throne and quickly announce to Jerusalem that Solomon was now king.
That’s what David did. He ordered his servants to get out all the royal paraphernalia, including the kings’ horse and chariot, put Solomon in it and have the town criers shout out, Solomon is king.
It was a hurry-up affair, but it worked. Solomon was paraded through all the streets of Jerusalem, soldiers blowing trumpets, and then in a central place the priest anointed him king. Then David himself appeared and formally turned over the throne to his son Solomon.
All Adonijah and his group could do was acknowledge it and then beg the new king for pardon. Solomon did pardon them, but he kept a close eye on them in the future. If they stepped out of line, they were dead. Solomon could not allow any of his brothers to try to usurp his throne, even if they were considerably older.
I’ve been writing all these stories about David for a long time, starting with the time prophet Samuel chose the son of Jesse to be the new king after Saul, and continuing until now. I expect to write about what Solomon does also, as long as I live, and then perhaps someone else will take up the task.
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Elijah
A long time has passed since the reign of David and Solomon. The country has divided into two kingdoms, and we are now visiting prophet Elijah who is the nemesis of Ahab, the most notorious king of the northern kingdom, Israel. We need five sessions to interview this colorful character.
Elijah was hard to find when he was young enough to remember what happened and yet old enough to tell it clearly. We thought it would be nice to bring him a banquet for the school of prophets where he was teaching at the time. The young men at the school had a feast of dark breads, thawed turkey,sweet potato,cranberry sauce, apple pie, and lots of other goodies – a regular Thanksgiving Day dinner.
Session 1
Elijah tells about his early conflict with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
(Based on 1 Kings 17)
You ask me how I became a prophet. I cannot really tell you that. All I know is that what I was seeing over there in Samaria on the other side of the Jordan River was so wrong that I had to do something about it.
A man named Ahab was king of Israel and he took a wife from the nearby country of Phoenicia. I suppose Ahab was an able enough administrator but he surely did nothing to lead his people in the paths of truth and godliness. He even let his wife Jezebel set up her own private idol-shrine in his backyard. People started following his example, and here and there all over the country shrines were being set up to various idol-gods, Baal included. Plus the goddess who was Baal’s wife, Asherah.
It made me sad. I hated seeing God’s people being misled like that, but I did not know what to do about it. I talked to everyone who would listen. Most agreed with me but shrugged their shoulders as if to say, After all, what does it matter? If Baal can give us good crops, why not? But I knew better, and every year I grew more upset, until at last I heard the Lord saying to me, Elijah, you have to do something about it.
But what could I do? Could I go up to Ahab and Jezebel and command them to stop their idolatry? Then, one spring, I heard the voice of Yahweh saying to me, Tell Ahab and the people of Israel that there will be a long drought; no rain until the people repent and turn away from their idols. I wasn’t sure at all what good that would do, but the Lord commanded me and I did what he said.
I went all over the country and spoke the Lord’s words. There will be no more rain until the Lord tells me and I tell you. Repent of your evil ways. Put away your idols, for the Lord will not send rain until I say so. Most people dismissed me as a madman. You think you can control the weather?
No, I cannot control the weather, but God can. That’s what I told King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and all the people.
It didn’t either. It didn’t rain. Year after year, no rain. People had to send to other countries to buy food. Wheat. Grapes. Figs. Barley. Pasture lands dried up and very little grass could be found for the sheep.
In the meantime God sent me to live by a little stream named Cherith. People kept coming to me complaining about the drought. I told them it is out of my hands. It will not end until God says so, and when God tells me I will tell you. But they kept pressuring me to pray to God, because some of the people did take it seriously and did destroy their idols. But not Ahab and not Jezebel.
Eventually the brook Cherith dried up too and then God sent me across country to Phoenicia, the same country Queen Jezebel came from. I found a widow lady there and she had an extra room where I could stay. There wasn’t much food in that country either, and when I first met this woman she was preparing a last meal for her little son and herself. I asked to share it with them. She looked at me askance, thinking, How can I share this little bit of food among three when there is hardly enough for one person? But she did share, and then found that the Lord – I mean the God of Israel, Yahweh – kept filling her jar of meal with flour and her jug with olive oil. She never ran out, no matter how many people she was feeding, or for how long.
One day her little son became sick and did not recover. He died. The mother blamed me for it. She was giving shelter to a stranger who did not worship and serve the gods of the land; instead he served a foreign god, the God of Israel, Yahweh. She knew better, though, because it was Yahweh who was causing her food to replenish itself all the while.
The little lad stopped breathing and the poor mother was distraught and berated me for ever coming into her life. I took the dead boy in my arms and carried him into my room. I prayed. Again and again I prayed. Lord, restore this little boy’s life; for the sake of his mother and of your own good name, restore him.
I kept doing this and then the boy gasped and began breathing again. Slowly his consciousness came back and I gave him to his mother, who cried with joy and gave thanks to the God who did this mighty work for her.
It was about three years that the drought lasted in Israel. I had disappeared from the land of Israel and people did not know where to find me and pressure me to pray for rain. But in time, it seemed, everyone in the land of Israel knew the story that it was not raining because I had said so. Speaking for Yahweh. And the time came when the Lord sent me back to my own country. I’ll tell you about that next time if you can come back.
Session 2
Here Elijah describes that great contest with the prophets of Baal.
(Based on 1 Kings 18:17-40)
As I told you yesterday, the people of Israel knew well enough why there was drought in the land. They all blamed me, a prophet of Yahweh, who was bringing this calamity on them. Most of them hated me for it; only a few repented and returned to Yahweh.
But the time came for the Lord to bring the whole unpleasant business to a climax, and I was in the middle of it. I returned to my country and went to meet King Ahab. I put the matter to him bluntly. I reminded him that it was according to my word three years ago that there would be no rain to produce the crops and pastures we need. He called me a troubler of Israel.
But I hurled the insult right back at him and told him, It is not I who is troubling Israel, but you. You have turned away from the God who brought us out of Egypt and into this bountiful land of Canaan, and have turned to the gods of the other peoples, idols who cannot hear and cannot speak and cannot give you good crops. You should know better. There is only one God, the God who created all things and who gives blessings to those who serve him and curses to them who turn away from him. You have seen this with your own eyes this past three years and yet you do not repent.
My words had little effect on Ahab. He was more loyal to his wife Jezebel and her foreign gods than he was to Yahweh the God of Israel.
I had more to say to him on this occasion. I challenged him to a divine duel. I told him to assemble all the priests and prophets of Baal that he could find and meet me at Mount Carmel, near where I had been living. We would make a test and see which God was most powerful, which was the true God, Baal or Yahweh.
Dozens of priests and prophets came, priests and prophets of Baal and Asherah. I challenged the people about their false idolatry. I said to them, This day you will see who is truly God. The God who can make fire come down from heaven and consume the animal on the altar will show that he is the true God.
You go first, I said to the prophets of Baal. So they prayed and prayed and prayed, louder and louder, again and again. Nothing happened. The dead animal just rested there on the altar.
They kept shouting and praying but nothing happened. No fire from heaven. So I taunted them and said, Maybe Baal is gone on vacation. Shout louder. Maybe he is sleeping. Wake him up. They became angrier and angrier, but it did no good at all. Neither Baal nor Asherah answered.
So finally they gave up, and I took my turn. It was afternoon. I told the servants to douse the altar with water. There wasn’t much water and nobody wasted it like that, but I insisted that they pour water all over the altar. Three times until everything was soaked and precious water was running all over the place.
Then I prayed in a loud voice to Yahweh, rehearsing his message for the benefit of all the people who were there. When I ended the prayer there was a brilliant flash of lightning, striking the altar, consuming the flesh of the animal, melting the very stones of the altar itself, and even evaporating the water around the altar.
The people were impressed. They shouted, Yahweh is God. Yahweh is God. Not Baal. Not Asherah. Yahweh is God.
I commanded the people to catch all those false prophets and false priests who served the foreign gods and bring them down the mountain. They did that and I ordered that all of them be killed then and there. That is what happened. Every last one of them that was captured. No mercy whatsoever. They were all killed. Purge out that cancer of idolatry.
What happened afterward I would rather tell you about later. I am ashamed, but please come back and I will tell you.
Session 3
Elijah is depressed as he describes this next period of his life.
(Based on 1 Kings 19:1-14)
Queen Jezebel heard of it next day. You can’t believe how furious she was. All her priests and prophets dead and gone, Baal discredited, Yahweh preeminent. Who does this upstart prophet of Yahweh think he is? I’ll hunt him down and kill him if it’s the last thing I do. So she vowed.
What was left for me to do? Jezebel made me an outlaw, to be hunted and killed on sight. What could I do against her and her soldiers?
With my servant I ran away. To the south, down as far as Beer-Sheba. I left my servant there and decided I had to get out of the country altogether, so I kept going farther and farther south until I came to Mount Horeb.
But the flight was almost killing me. Not only my body, for I had no food, but my spirit, for my success at Carmel was turning to defeat and disgrace in the wilderness.
One day, as I was resting at an oasis, I became so discouraged – hungry and thirsty as well as despondent – that I literally wished I would die. What good, after all, had I done? The people opted to serve the Lord Yahweh, but the king and queen did not. Sooner or later, if that continued, the people would forget their vow and fall again into idolatry. All my work and labor and prayer for nought. So it seemed and I prayed God to take away my life.
I fell asleep thinking and praying those negative thoughts. I wished I were dead. But then all of a sudden there was man waking me up. He had made a small fire and baked a loaf of bread and had drawn a jar of water from the well, and he said to me, Get up Elijah. Eat your breakfast.
I looked up in a daze and went right back to sleep. I thought it was a dream. But the man tapped me again and urged me to eat breakfast. I then realized that this man was a messenger from the Lord, sent to bring me back out of my dejection and to provide food from heaven to sustain me.