For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    I am a firm believer that those who choose to deal with others honestly and fairly will do better in the long run than those who use deceit and false measures in an attempt to gain advantage. Good people allow honesty to guide them. They choose their actions and their words so that they can honestly answer when questioned. Those who are treacherous and choose dishonesty will find that the lies they told to save themselves bring about their downfall.

    Knowing that this psalm is about Doeg the Edomite, who killed the priest (and his relatives) who unknowingly helped David when David fled King Saul really sheds a light on its meaning. I have known people like Doeg, and like that described in the psalm, people who brag about doing wrong. The psalmist is correct. God will strike them down, making them an example of what happens to those who trust in their wealth and power rather than God. Meanwhile those who trust in God will thrive.

    Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is another model for us when we pray. He asked God to rescue Him from the suffering He knew was about to come. However, He also prayed that God’s will be done, not His own. When we pray we should similarly seek that God’s will be done, not our own. The key is not the words, but the attitude. Jesus knew that He was about to face excruciating suffering. He did not want to face that suffering and asked God to take it from Him. Yet, if that was God’s will Jesus was willing to face it. That is the difficult thing for me, being willing to face excruciating suffering if that is God’s will.

    We have two more examples of ways in which it is possible to resist God’s will. The first is Aaron’s and Miriam’s jealousy about Moses’ position. They thought that they should have a coequal role with Moses in making decisions. God clearly demonstrates that He has chosen Moses as His primary spokesperson. The passage suggests that Moses was too humble to confront them himself. There are two ways to look at this. The problem with Aaron and Miriam arose because Moses did not assert himself sufficiently in the role which God had given him. Or, Moses was correct in leaving it to God to sort out when Aaron and Miriam asserted their equal authority with Moses. I would suggest that the latter is the lesson we should learn from this. It was not up to Moses to assert his authority over others. It was better to allow God to demonstrate who had God-given authority in this situation. If Moses had chosen to assert his authority, the decision would have come down to who had the greater force of personality (and could have led to ongoing attempts by Aaron and Miriam to reverse the situation).
    The second example of resisting God’s will was the report given by most of the returning spies. The people were stirred up by the reports of how powerful the people living in the land were. This in itself was not the problem. However, when Caleb attempted to convince the people that they could be victorious, the other spies argued that they could not take the land. The other spies were realistic, but had failed to exhibit faith. The question that they did not ask was, “Is it God’s will that we take the land?” It is valuable to make a realistic assessment of the obstacles in our path. However, we need to recognize that if the task is one that it is God’s will we undertake, our success, or failure is in His hands.