I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. 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.

     Today’s Old Testament passage is a perfect example of why I started this blog. It is an account of the descent from Adam to David. It gives a straight line descent from Adam to Noah, with no mention of any of the other descendants of anyone before Noah. It then lists Noah’s three sons and gives the important (at least to the author) descendants of each of Noah’s grandsons. The passage then follows the genealogy to Abram/Abraham (telling us that he was born Abram and later known as Abraham). We are told the sons and at least some of the grandsons of Abram.
     The passage next takes up with Isaac and gives us first the descendants of Esau. It goes on to list the kings of Edom from before Edom was conquered by the Israelites. After giving us this, the passage then tracks the genealogy from Jacob to David. When it gets to David it goes on to tell us that certain key figures were David’s nephews (Joab and his two brothers, and Amasa, who Joab killed to prevent him taking over as general of David’s armies).
     All in all I found nothing to comment on here today, but there was still value in reading it. If I was not writing this blog, I would have read this once and moved on. However, because I was looking for something to write for the blog, I read it three times. I did not see anything significant at the moment, but I noticed a couple of things that may effect the way I read other passages.

     That night Paul had a vision where God told him that he was going to preach the Good News in Rome. The following morning a group of 40 Jewish men entered into a conspiracy to kill Paul. They asked the chief priests and elders to request that the Roman commander bring Paul before them again in order for them to gather more information about the case against him. While Paul was in route to meet with the elders, this group of conspirators would kill him. However, Paul’s nephew (his sister’s son) overheard their plans and immediately went to tell Paul. Paul sent his nephew to the commander. Paul’s nephew told the Roman commander of the plot.
     The Roman commander immediately ordered a large force of soldiers to escort Paul to Felix, the Roman governor, in Caesarea. The Roman commander sent a letter with the soldiers explaining why he was sending Paul to him. The commander told Felix that he had rescued Paul from the mob because he had learned that Paul was a Roman citizen (a slight distortion of events to put himself in a better light). He went on to say that he had met with the Jewish leaders to learn what the charges were against Paul. After hearing the charges, he considered them to be insignificant matters that did not justify death or imprisonment. However, when he learned of a plot to kill Paul, he sent him to Felix for Felix to pass judgement on the situation. When Paul arrived in Caesarea Felix read the letter and told him that he would hear the case when Paul’s accusers arrived.

     The psalmist tells us that many were against him, so many that said that God would never deliver him. The psalmist tells us that they were wrong. That when he cried out to the Lord, the Lord answered him from His Holy mountain. He did not fear even though thousands of enemies surrounded him.
     No matter what troubles we face, we need not fear because God will deliver us. When we face enemies and troubles, we do not need to worry and fret as to how we will emerge to safety because victory come from the Lord. God knows the challenges and enemies we face and He knows the path to see us through to safety. We need to remember that we will not be victorious by our own efforts. The only path for us to victory is to trust in God and have faith that He will prevail. Whether or not we have faith, God will prevail.

     It is not illness of the body which makes us depressed, it is when our spirits are crushed that depression sets in. Those who are wise are constantly seeking to acquire both more knowledge and more wisdom.