Mike Blogs

Did I say that Abigail was clever? Actually, Scripture says “ The woman was clever and beautiful”  (I Samuel 25: 3). David said that she had good sense. At least one person in the marriage had good sense; Nabal did not.   Nabal failed in the basic community responsibility of hospitality to strangers and visitors. Nabal failed to discern God’s hand in the struggle of David against Saul. Nabal gave harsh treatment to David’s young men without a thought about the possibility of

Jeremiah 4: 19-22. My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!    Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly;    I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet,    the alarm of war. Disaster overtakes disaster;    the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed,    my curtains in a moment. How long must I see the standard    and hear the sound of the trumpet?“ For my people are foolish;    they do not know me; they are stupid childre

David was on the run from his maniacal father-in-law, King Saul. He left his wife behind. Michal was Saul’s daughter, as we are often reminded in I Samuel 18. That relationship got more complex as Michal was pulled between her father and her husband. David’s first wife was not so merry after all. Eventually, Saul gave her to another man.  David was hiding out in the wilderness of Paran in southern Israel, west of the Dead Sea. I Samuel 25 describes a rich man who was living t

Remember that Baruch the scribe recorded various prophetic sermons that Jeremiah preached. We cannot tell for sure where one ends and another begins, but this looks like the beginning of a new sermon. Let’s see.  Jeremiah 4: 5-8.  Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the trumpet through the land;    shout aloud (take your weapons), and say, “Gather together, and let us go    into the fortified cities!” Raise a standard toward Zion;    flee for safet

A disclaimer right up front, maybe two disclaimers. First, I just stole a title from Shakespeare; there is no evidence that David’s wives were merry. Some were downright sad, at least part of the time.  Second, in the story as told in the Bible, David is the main character; the wives ranged from little voice to no voice. They were in the midst of internal political strife in Israel; and they were often pawns or peripheral to the disputes (no surprise there!). Yet, they had a

Jeremiah 4: 1-2. If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence    and do not waver, and if you swear, "As the LORD lives!”    in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by you,    and by you they shall boast.   Notice the repeated phrases. When we talk to our children, we often phrase it like this, ‘If…, if…, if….’  In this case, God clarifies as he speaks (sounding a bit like Rob

Hannah had a promise to keep.  “ When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh, and the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the child to Eli. And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the LORD. For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me the pet

Sunday Sermon: Cason UMC,  November 9, 2025,  Michael Rynkiewich (sermon title is a reference to Eugene Peterson's Classic book by the same title) You know, this spot is a dangerous place. Jesus said that it would be better for a teacher to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown in the sea than for him to mislead one of these little ones. Not a millstone, actually, but a ‘great millstone’. One danger is the temptation to boast. Pray for me

It may seem odd that God is pleading with Judah rather than commanding them. However, our God is a God of love, and his commands, his judgments, and even his punishments serve that purpose. In our study, God is still talking with Jeremiah the prophet, and Jeremiah is still preaching God’s word while Baruch, the scribe, is recording it all on scrolls. Jeremiah’s ministry is to a public that is deluded about where their political and religious leaders are leading them. They do

Hannah had yearned for a child to love, and to take away her shame of childlessness, so common a problem in village cultures, ancient and modern. She poured out her heart before God and was overheard by Eli the priest at the worship center of Shiloh. God heard that prayer, and it was granted. Hannah had a son. Significantly, she named him Samuel meaning ‘I have asked him of God’ or ‘I have borrowed him from God’.   In her prayer, she promised that, if she had a son, she would

I asked last week whether or not God’s condemnation of Israel and Judah was his last word? Yes, in the short run, for some of the people, it was. Yet, no, not in the long run, for some people survived and became refugees, exiles in Babylon. Those refugees become the second audience for Jeremiah’s prophecies, and Oh, how the times have changed the message.      These are the days of Jeremiah, and we are reading summaries of his early prophecies that his scribe Baruch has writt

Hannah (Grace) and her husband Elkanah are making their annual visit to Shiloh to worship YHWH, the Lord God Almighty, and to make sacrifices. Shiloh was a major religious site during the time of the judges and before the time of the kings. For a while, it was the home of the Tabernacle (the tent that Moses used during the Wilderness Wanderings) and the Ark of the Covenant. Later, King David conquered the remaining Canaanites (Jebusites, actually) who held Jerusalem. Then Dav

Where are we in the story? The scribe Baruch wrote down on a scroll the prophecies of Jeremiah for the king and people of Judah in the...

Turn the page on the Book of Ruth and you will find yourself on page one of the Book of I Samuel. That book begins with an...

The cross-examination of the defendant, Israel and Judah, continues. God asks questions that make Judah think about why they are doing...

And so, Ruth and Boaz were married and lived happily ever after. Hah! Like that’s ever gonna happen!  We can presume that they were...

We are in a courtroom, and God is conducting a cross-examination. His questions are more rhetorical than real. God does not expect an...

Boaz was an honorable man, a God-fearing man. From a lifetime of devotion to God and through following the practices prescribed by the...

In God’s view, Israel had been like God’s bride, well taken care of. Israel was at first appreciative of God’s steadfast love and...

The next event in the Naomi and Ruth story reveals again just how far removed their time is from ours. Some people think that we can just...