It was one year ago today that I began this daily Bible study blog. I am getting excited about discovering what God has in store for me as I begin blogging about the passages that I blogged about last year. I hope that my writing has improved as I have gone along. I pray that God’s Spirit continues to move in me as I write this. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. As I said, I am excited to see what difference going through these passages for the second time makes.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Today’s passage describes the territory that was assigned to the tribe of Judah, with specific mention of the land given to Caleb. The passage concludes by telling us that the tribe of Judah was unable to drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem.
A man of consequence approached Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. The man addressed Jesus as “Good Teacher”. Jesus asked why the man called Him good, since no one is good aside from God. I have heard different explanations as to why Jesus started His response in this manner. Considering the question which Jesus was answering, I believe that Jesus was saying that we cannot earn eternal life. After saying that, Jesus told the man that he should keep the commandments, listing do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false witness, honor your father and mother. The man proclaims that he has kept all of those. Jesus responds to that by telling the man that he still lacks one thing. The man should sell all that he owns, give it to the poor and come follow Jesus. The man was saddened by this response because he was wealthy and unwilling to part with his wealth.
I have seen many commentaries on this passage and most of them have missed what I think is a key element to this exchange. The man was looking for something he could do as an aside to living the rest of his life the way he had been. Jesus answer was that if we want to have eternal life, we need to make following Him the central focus of our lives. It is not enough to just fit “following Jesus” or “being a Christian” in to our spare time. Following Jesus needs to be what our life is about.
When the man turned away Jesus said, “In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” In other words, it is impossible. I have heard many preachers try and explain how He was just trying to say that it was very, very hard. Yet, the rest of the exchange seems to indicate that those who heard Him understood Him to be saying that it was impossible because they asked Him, “If this guy, who has ‘everything’ and has lived a righteous life can’t get in, how can anybody be saved?” Jesus answered them that it was indeed impossible for people to earn eternal life, but what was impossible for man was possible for God. In other words, our only hope for salvation is the grace of God.
Peter then asks, “What about us? We gave up everything to follow You.” I have read this many times before and today I noticed something about Jesus’ answer to Peter that I never saw before. Peter said that they had given up everything to follow Jesus. Jesus told him that everyone who gave up things for the sake of the Kingdom of God would receive back even more than they gave up and eternal life. The thing I never noticed here is the motivation for having given things up. The reward was not for those who gave things up to be part of the uprising against Rome, or for those who did it to be the followers of a “Great Teacher”. The reward was for those who gave things up for the sake of the Kingdom of God. This teaching raises two questions for me. Am I willing to give up what I have to serve God? And am I giving things up to serve God, or am I doing it to be seen as righteous?
This is a wonderful psalm. I was hoping for something that would connect to the Boston tragedy, but I think this is a good reminder that addressing all social problems begins with us as individuals turning to God in times of trouble. The place to start in dealing with tragedy is where this psalm begins:
answer me, for I need your help.
I call out to God because I need His help. I cannot deal with the problems of this world on my own. The psalmist tells us more about how we deal with troubles.
that I may live according to your truth!
It is only by following God’s ways that we can experience God’s salvation from our troubles, but it is only by God’s Spirit that we can learn those ways and only by the prompting of that Spirit that we can follow them once we know them. Even after a tragedy such as Monday’s, no, especially after such a tragedy, I will praise God and give glory to His name. No other god is like Him, nor can they do the deeds He performs. He can bring healing both to the victims and the perpetrators of this tragedy.
If we live a godly life, we will experience light and joy. If on the other hand we choose wickedness, our lives will be filled with shadows and depression.
If we are too proud to listen to advice, we will find ourselves surrounded by dissension and strife. On the other hand, if we listen to advice, we will gain the wisdom (in particular, the wisdom to avoid conflict when possible)