Day 162 Bible Readings – Acts 7: 37- 40 (ESV)

2 Samuel 16: 15-23, 2 Samuel 17, 2 Samuel 18: 1-18, Acts 7: 20-43, Psalm 89: 9-13

Acts 7: 37- 40 (ESV)

“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’”

In Acts 7 with verses 37 through 40, Stephen who was speaking before the Sanhedrin, reminds them that Moses said a prophet will come and the people must listen to him. But like Moses, this predicted “prophet” who is Christ will be rejected generations later by his people. Stephen argues before the Sanhedrin that the prophet that Moses predicted was Christ.

People celebrate how Moses freed the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, but we must also remember that they also rejected him when he didn’t come back from the mountain. But Moses came back down from the mountains and brought back the 10 commandments and wrote the first five books of the Torah. History repeated itself with Christ being rejected by his own people, and with his crucifixion Christ gave us a new covenant with God. Poor Stephen. He tried his best to tell the high priests that Jesus was the prophet whom Moses predicted.

Pentecost Illustrated from the New Apostolic Church

I found this illustration of Pentecost on Facebook from the New Apostolic Church. I love the illustration of Pentecost. It is so well done and thought provoking - Illustrated Pentecost.

Day 161 Bible Readings - 2 Samuel 16: 11-12 (ESV)

2 Samuel 15: 13-37, 2 Samuel 16: 1-14, Acts 6, Acts 7: 1-19, Psalm 89: 1-8

2 Samuel 16: 11-12 (ESV)

“And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”

 Verses 11 and 12 from 2 Samuel 16 shows how David handled a man named Shimei who was cursing him. David did not freak out and want to punish the man, even though his men wanted kill Shimei. David instead listened to the man as if he had been sent by God to chastise him. I love how David saw God’s hand in everything in his life including a man who was cursing him for things that the did not do. David knew that perhaps if he listened to the cursing man that God would repay him by not harming Shimei. Even though David was now once again on the run from his own son Absalom, whom he did not punish for killing his brother Amnon, he still had enough faith in God to know that God was taking care of him in the present and in the future.

I am reminded by David’s actions to always look at a troubling situation in my life as God having a hand in what is happening, and not overreact, get depressed, or act out in any way. Always having an eye on God in any situation brings perspective to any situation that comes up in our lives.

2 Samuel 13 in a PowerPoint flow chart

I used create many slide presentations for work, for my own and for the head of my group. I had inspiration to see how David's sins in 2 Samuel led to him to feel reluctant to punish his own son Absalom for murdering his brother Ammon.

Here's my flow chart - perhaps not the best but I like it.

This was very fun to do. I like the arrow pointing down to symbolize the fall or cascading down into more sin.