Chapter One | Power of sacrifice | “There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the LORD’s presence and sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings on it. That night God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, ‘What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” | 2 Chronicles 1:6-7

“God said to Solomon, ‘Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for personal wealth and honor or the death of your enemies or even long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people, I will certainly give you wisdom and knowledge you requested. And I will also give you riches, wealth and honor such as no other king has ever had before you or will ever have again!”

“Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold. This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each containing over 15 pounds of gold. He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each containing about 71/2 pounds of gold. The king placed these shields in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. | The king made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and there was a footstool of gold attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with the figures of a lion standing on each side of the throne. Solomon made twelve other lion figures, one standing on each end of each of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it! | All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s day! The king had fleet of trading ships manned by the sailors sent by Hiram. Once every three years, the ships returned, loaded down with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. | So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king in all the earth. Kings from every nation came to visit him and to hear the wisdom God had given him. Year after year, everyone who came to visit brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.”

And what is sacrifice?

The first sacrifice

“And the LORD made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.”

“At harvest time Cain brought to the LORD a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his offering. This made Cain very angry and dejected. ‘Why are you so angry?’ The LORD asked him ‘why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way.”

“Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and sacrificed on it the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the LORD was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though people’s thought and actions are bent toward evil from childhood. As long as the earth remains, there will be spring time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. | God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, multiply and fill the earth. All the wild animals, large and small, and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But now, you must have many children and repopulate the earth. Yes, multiply and fill the earth. | Then God told Noah and his sons, ‘I am making a covenant with you and your descendants and with the animals you brought with you all these birds and livestock and wild animals. I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creations and destroy the earth’. And God said ‘I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds: it is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with everything that lives. Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, ‘yes this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth.”

“When the human population began to grow rapidly on earth, the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In future, they will live no more than 120 years.’ In those days, and even afterward, giants lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old.” Genesis 6:1-7

God’s reaction

Covenant

Abraham

“Then the LORD told him, ‘Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon’. Abram took all these and killed them. He cut each one down the middle and laid the halves side by side. He did not, however, divide the birds in half. Some vultures come down to eat the carcasses, but Abraham chased them away. That evening, as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. He saw a terrifying vision of darkness and horror. | ‘The LORD told Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age). After four generation your descendents will retun here to this land, when the sin of the Amorites has run its course. As the sun went down and it become dark Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. | So the lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, ‘I have given this land to your descendents, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Henizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites”

Lot saved by sacrifices

“...One day about noon, as Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent, he suddenly noticed three men standing nearby. He got up and ran to meet them welcoming them by bowing low to the ground. My lord, he said, if it pleases you, stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree while my servants get some water to wash your feet. Let me prepare some food to refresh you please stay a while before continuing on your journey. | ‘All right’, they said. ‘Do as you have said’. So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, Quick! Get three measures of your best flour, and bake some bread. Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it. When the food was ready, he took some cheese curds and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them there beneath the trees.”

“Where is Sarah, your wife?’ they asked him. ‘In the tent’ Abraham replied. Then one of them said, ‘About this time next year I will return, and your wife Sarah will have a son...‘and the men got up from their meal and started on toward Sodom. Abraham went with them part of the way. ‘Should I hide my plan from Abraham?’ the Lord asked. ‘For Abraham will become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the LORD and do what is right and just. Then I will do for him all that I have promised’. | So the LORD told Abraham, ‘I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are extremely evil, and that everything they do is wicked,. I am going down to see whether or not these reports are true. Then I will know’. The two other men went on toward Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham for a while. Abraham approached his and said “Will you destroy both innocent and guilty alike?”

Chapter Two | Sacrifice your only

“Later on God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience. Abraham! God called; ‘Yes’; he replied, ‘Here I am’; ‘Take your son, your only son - yes, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you;”

“On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw the place in the distance. ‘Stay here with the donkey’, Abraham told the young men. ‘The boy and I will travel a little farther”

A little farther

“One day Moses was tending the flock of his farther – in-law, Jethro, the priest of Median, and he want deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. Suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames but it didn’t burn up. ‘Amazing!’ Moses said to himself. ‘Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this. When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!”

“Then, accompanied by the disciples Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, ‘Pray that you will not be overcome by temptation’. He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,”

“At that moment the angel of the LORD shouted at him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Yes’ he answered ‘I am listening’ ‘Do not hurt the boy in any way for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me.’ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar in place of his son. Abraham named the place, ‘The LORD Will Provide’. This name has now become a proverb. ‘On the mountain of the lord it will be provided.’ | ‘Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven’ ‘This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son, I swear by my own self that I will bless you richly. I will multiply your descendents into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, and through your descendents, all the nations of the earth will be blessed - all because you have obeyed me’ Then they returned to Abraham’s young men and traveled home again to Beersheba, where Abraham lived for quite some time.”

“It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, though God had promised him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted’. Abraham assumed that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

Altar

“Then Elijah called to the people, ‘Come over here!’. They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the LORD’s altar...”

“At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, ‘OLORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself. Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch!

Priest

“And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. As the scriptures express it.”

Offering

Chapter Three | I will pass through Egypt

“Now the LORD gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron while they were still in the land of Egypt: ‘From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice. If a family is too small to eat an entire lamb, let them share the lamb with another family in the neighborhood. Whether or not they share in this way depends on the size of each family and how much they can eat. This animal must be a one year- old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no physical defects. | ‘Take special care of these lambs until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then each family in the community must slaughter its lamb. They are to take some of the lamb’s blood and smear it on the top and sides of the door frame of the house where the lamb will be eaten. That evening everyone must eat roast lamb with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. The meat must never be eaten raw or boiled; roast it all, including the head, legs, and internal organs. Do not leave any of it until the next day. Whatever is not eaten that night must be burned before morning. | ‘Wear your travelling clothes as you eat this meal, as though prepared for a long journey. Wear your sandals, and carry your walking sticks in your hands. Eat the food quickly, for this is the LORD’s Passover. On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn sons and firstborn male animals in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD... celebrate this festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent regulation for you, to be kept from generation to generation.”

“Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. ‘Leave us!’ he cried. ‘Go away, all of you! Go and serve the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, and be gone. God, but give me a blessing as you leave. All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought ‘We will all die!”

Lord remember me again

Samson

“The angel of the LORD replied, ‘Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her. She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food’. Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, ‘Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat’ ‘I will stay’ the angel of the LORD replied, ‘but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as sacrifice to the LORD’. (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel of the LORD). Then Manoah asked the angel of the LORD. ‘What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you’. ‘Why do you ask my name?’ the angel of the LORD replied. ‘You wouldn’t understand if I told you’. Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the LORD did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the LORD ASCENDED IN THE FIRE. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.”

“So the philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he has bound with bronze chains and made to grind grain in the prison. But before long his hair began to grow back. The philistine leaders held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising their god, Dagon. They said, ‘Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson! When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying ‘Our god has delivered our enemy to us! The one who killed so many of us in now in our power! | Half drunk by now, the people demanded, ‘bring out Samson so he can perform for us!’ So he was brought from the prison and made to stand at the center of the temple, between the two pillars supporting the roof. Samson said to the servant who was leading him by the hand, ‘place my hands against the two pillars. I want to rest against them!’ The temple was completely filled with people. All the philistine leaders were there, and there were about three thousand on the roof who were watching Samson and making fun of him. | Then Samson prayed to the LORD, ‘Sovereign LORD remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of my eyes’. Then Samson put his hands on the centre pillars of the temple and pushed against them with all his might, let me die with the philistines, he prayed. And the temple crashed down on the philistine leaders and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire life time.” | Judges 16: 21 -30

If I perish, I perish

“Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai; ‘The whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him in more than a month.”

“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai; ‘Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king if I must die. I am willing to die.”

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

“But David persisted, ‘I have been taking care of my father’s sheep’, he said ‘When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and take the lamb form its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the Jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears...”

“Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bonze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. An armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield. | ‘Goliath stood and shouted across to the Israelites, ‘Do you need a whole army to settle this? Choose someone to fight for you, and I will represent the Philistines. We will settle this dispute in single combat! If your man is able to kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!’ When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.”

“As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it from his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in and Goliath stumbled and fell face downward to the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine Giant with only a stone and sling. And since he had no sword, he ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill the giant and cut off his head. | ‘When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran. Then the Israelites gave a great shout of triumph and rushed after the philistines, chasing them as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. The bodies of the dead and wounded philistines were strewn all along the road from Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. Then the Israelites army returned and plundered the deserted philistine camp.”

Dynasty of kings for you

“But that same night the LORD said to Nathan, ‘Go and tell my servant David, This is what the LORD says... Now I will make your name famous throughout the earth... | ‘And now the Lord declares that He will build a house for you – a dynasty of kings! For when you die, I will raise up one of your descendants, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house - a temple for my name. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will use other nations to punish him. But my unfailing love will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed before you. Your dynasty and your kingdom will continue for all time before me, and your throne will be secure forever.”

Chapter Four | I will pay the price

“That day Gad came to David and said to him, ‘Go and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite’, So David went to do what the LORD had commanded him. When Araunah saw the king and his men coming towards him, he came forward and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. ‘Why have you come, my lord?’ Araunah asked. And David replied, ‘I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the LORD there, so that the Lord will stop the plague’ | ‘Take it, my lord, and use it as you wish’ Araunah said to David. ‘Here are oxen for the burn offering and you can use the threshing tools and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. I will give it all to you, and may the Lord your God accept your sacrifice’. But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on buying it, for I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing’. So David paid him fifty pieces of silver for the threshing floor and the oxen. David built an altar there to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the LORD answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped!!”

David’s mighty men

Jashobeam the Hacmonite

Eleazar

Shammah

And the three broke the ranks

“David was staying in the stronghold at the time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. David remarked longingly to his men, ‘Oh, how I would love some of that good water, from the well in Bethlehem, the one by the gate’. So the three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from there, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out before the Lord. ‘The Lord forbid that I should drink this!’ He exclaimed. This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me’. So David did not drink it. This is an example of the exploits of the three.”

Chapter Five | Follow me! We came for you!

Stephen Bass

“For service as set forth in the following citation for extraordinary heroism while serving with the British Special Boat Service during combat operations in Northern Afghanistan on 25 and 26 November 2001. Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass deployed to the area as a member of a joint American and British Special Forces Rescue Team to locate and recover two missing American citizens, one presumed to be seriously injured or dead, after hard-line al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at the Qala-i-jangi fortress in Mazar-i-Sharif over-powered them and gained access to large quantities of arms and ammunition stored at the fortress. Once inside, Chief Petty officer Bass was engaged continuously by direct small arms fire, indirect mortar fire, and rocket propelled grenade fire. He was forced to walk through an active anti-personnel minefield in order to gain entry to the fortress. After establishing the possible location of both American citizens, under heavy fire and without concern for his own personal safety, he made two attempts to rescue the uninjured citizen by crawling towards the fortress interior to reach him. Forced to withdraw due to large volumes of fire falling on his position, he was undeterred. After reporting his efforts to the remaining members of the recue team, they left and attempted to locate the missing citizen on the outside of the fortress. As darkness began to fall, no attempt was going to be made to locate the other injured American citizen. Chief Petty Officer Bass then took matters into his own hands. Without regard for his own personal safety, he moved forward another three hundred to four hundred meters into the heart of the fortress by himself under constant enemy fire in an attempt to locate the injured citizen., running low on ammunition, he utilized weapons from deceased Afghans to continue his rescue attempt. Upon verifying the condition and location of the American citizen he withdrew from the fortress. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership; unlimited courage in the face of enemy fires and utmost devotion to duty, chief Petty officer Bass reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval service.”

THE UNITED STATES NAVY SEAL CREED

Chapter Six | I will preserve you

Let there be rain!

“Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go and enjoy a good meal! For I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!’... And sure enough, the sky was soon black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel”

Pay your dues

Bitterness into sweetness

“Now the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha, ‘We have a problem, my lord’, they told him. ‘This town is located in beautiful natural surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad and the land is unproductive’. Elisha said, ‘Bring me a new bowl with salt in it’. So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, ‘This is what the Lord says: I have made this water wholesome. It will no longer cause death or infertility’. And sure enough! The water has remained wholesome ever since, just as Elisha said”