For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Someone who offers to guarantee a strangers debt is likely a bad risk, make sure that they are good for the debt. Don’t offer to guarantee a stranger’s debt unless you know that you are able to pay it.

    Read this psalm and remember that God will stand beside us even when those we thought our friends turn on us as it describes. And let us never be like the psalmist’s enemies. God will save us if we are faithful to Him and recognize our need for Him.

    In yesterday’s passage the writer wrote that the sacrifices under the old system were not able to purify people from sin, which was why they needed to be offered over and over again. In today’s passage he writes that Jesus by His death offered a sacrifice which does make us clean. Thus we are allowed into God’s presence. As a result, let us seek ways to build each other up, encouraging each other to love and good deeds. The writer points out, almost as an aside, that if we are going to encourage one another (and be encouraged) we need to meet together.
    The writer than writes one of the most thorough debunking of the idea some people have that they can do whatever they like because of God’s grace. The writer tells us that if we deliberately and knowingly keep on sinning once we have learned God’s truth, there is no sacrifice left. We cannot be forgiven for sins we do not regret and we will not plan on repeating sins which we genuinely regret.

    Ezekiel compares the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to two sisters. They both married, but lusted after other men. Rather than relying on God for protection, the kingdom of Israel sought a protective alliance with Assyria. The Assyrians responded by completely conquering the land and taking the people of the Northern Kingdom into captivity. The kingdom of Judah did not learn from Israel’s example. They, too, sought alliance with Assyria, surviving that alliance only because Assyria fell before it could conquer Judah. Then they sought a similar alliance with Babylon, but rather than be loyal even to Babylon, they rebelled against Babylon and sought the protection of Egypt. The point of all of this is that rather than trust God to protect them, they turned to various human powers for security. God warned them, but they chose their path and paid the price. Let us not make the same mistake.