For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
God directs the path our life will follow. This means that we will not understand why some things happen, but we can be sure that they serve God’s purposes in directing us to where He wants us to go.
When we cry out to the Lord for mercy, He will hear us and answer us. He will pay back the wicked, those who speak friendly words while plotting harm. Those who have no concern for God’s work nor His creation will answer to Him. He will hold them to account. If we trust the Lord with all of our heart and soul He will support us and defend us. Let us choose the latter rather than the former.
The fact that we, as Christians, will seem foolish to those who have rejected the Gospel does not mean that we are foolish. We should not attempt to convince unbelievers by the wisdom of our words, nor by our well-crafted arguments. However, when we are speaking with our fellow believers we should seek to express God’s wisdom. Whether we are speaking or listening, let us let God’s Spirit guide us to wisdom. We will not be able to understand what is truly wise without God’s Spirit to guide us. The converse of that is true as well, we will only be able to speak with true wisdom if we allow God’s Spirit to guide our words. All of this leads to the conclusion that we are working from the world’s wisdom rather than God’s when we attempt to claim that we are wiser than others because we follow this or that particular teacher. Being a Mennonite, or a Baptist, or a Catholic, or a …, does not make us a better Christian than someone who practices a different denominational understanding of Christ’s teachings. Let us strive to uplift our fellow believers, no matter what denomination they are a part of. Let us listen to God’s wisdom, no matter what route He uses to communicate it to us.
As soon as the returned Exiles got settled into their new homes, they began work on the Temple. The very first thing they did was rebuild the altar. Notice their first priority was to be able to worship God. It was only after they had restored the altar, and with it their ability to worship God as they understood it, that they began rebuilding the Temple and the rest of the city.
When those who had been living in the land sought to work with the Exiles in rebuilding the Temple, their assistance was rejected. I always have a difficult time with this part of the passage. Perhaps, the returned Exiles rejected their assistance because they knew they would have demanded a say in the way things were done, thus making it harder to be faithful to God’s commands. However, I cannot help but think that the troubles which the Exiles later faced could have been avoided if they had welcomed these other seekers after God into their assembly. It is my belief that when we are working on God’s work we should accept the aid of any who are seeking to further that work.