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.
In the fall after their return the returned exiles gathered in Jerusalem and rebuilt the altar of the Lord on its original location. They began holding the festivals prescribed in the Law of Moses. In the spring of the following year they began work on the foundation of the Temple. When they completed the foundation of the Temple, they had a celebration. Some of the older persons present, who remembered the first Temple, wept when they saw the completed foundation, but everyone else was overjoyed.
When the people living in the surrounding territory (the passage calls them the enemies of the exiles) heard that the exiles were rebuilding the Temple, they asked for permission to help with the rebuilding. The leaders of the exiles rejected their request to help with rebuilding the Temple. From that time forward the people in the surrounding territories truly were the enemies of the exiles and began making efforts to stop them from rebuilding Jerusalem. When Xerxes took the throne of Persia they sent him a letter of accusation against the people of Judah and again when Artaxerxes took the throne. Artaxerxes responded to their letter by giving orders that Jerusalem only be rebuilt if he gave his express command for that to happen. The leaders of the surrounding peoples then went in force to Jerusalem and forced the people of Judah to stop their rebuilding project.
It is never explained why the returned exiles refused to allow the people who were living in the land around them to help in the rebuilding of the Temple. My inclination is to consider that refusal a mistake. Certainly it is possible that the help was conditional on having a say on how worship would be conducted in the rebuilt Temple, which would have been a legitimate basis for refusal, the pattern of worship was laid out in the Law of Moses. Even if the leaders of the surrounding peoples did not demand a say in how Temple worship would be conducted, I can see a legitimate fear that they would later demand such a role. However, considering how things turned out, I do not see how accepting their help and avoiding alienating them would have been any worse.
As I said, the passage takes it as a given that the leaders of the exiles did the right thing by rejecting the help of the surrounding peoples, but the only justification it provides for that is their later enmity towards the Jewish people rebuilding the Temple.
Today, Paul tells us that while he does not attempt to use wisdom to introduce the Gospel to people, there is a message of wisdom for mature believers. But God’s wisdom is not the same as the world’s wisdom. God reveals His wisdom through the Holy Spirit. We have received the Spirit of God, not the spirit of this world. The Spirit of God allows us to understand the wisdom of God.
Once more I find that writing a synopsis of what Paul wrote was not working for me today. I summed up yesterday’s passage as saying that we will never convert anyone by the wisdom of our arguments for the Gospel. Toady’s passage tells us that that does not mean that there is not wisdom in the Gospel. On the contrary, there is wisdom which dwarfs that of the world. However, we can never learn to understand that wisdom until God’s Spirit comes to dwell within us. The only way to understand God’s will is for God’s Spirit to reveal it to us. To those without God’s Spirit the wisdom of God seems foolishness. That is because they do not start with an understanding of God. It is possible for someone in whom the Holy Spirit resides to evaluate the wisdom of the actions of those of the world, but it is not possible for those without the Holy Spirit to evaluate the wisdom of the actions of those with the Holy Spirit.
This is an important point for us to remember. It is possible for Christians to understand the priorities of non-Christians, no matter how misguided we think they are. This allows us to judge whether their actions can be reasonably expected to accomplish what they want out of life (that is whether those actions are wise by the standards the non-Christians use to judge wisdom). On the other hand, it is impossible for non-Christians to understand the priorities of Christians. This means that they always see our actions as foolish because they cannot understand what our goals are.
Paul continues by telling the believers in Corinth that he had been unable to share the wisdom of God with them when he was last there. He had been forced to give them nothing but the most basic spiritual food because they were as unbelievers or spiritual infants, they were not ready for anything more advanced. In fact, he says, they still are not ready for the more advanced teachings of Christ because they are quarreling with each other. They are busy trying to make themselves more important than others by claiming to be followers of this, or that, teacher, who they claimed was the greater authority on Christianity.
Am I ready for spiritual food that is solid? Or am I still only willing to drink spiritual milk?
The psalmist cries out to the Lord and begs Him to show him mercy. Later the psalmist says that he will praise the Lord because He has heard his cry for mercy. What is the difference between those whom God tears down and destroys and those whom He shields and to whom He grants mercy?
The psalmist tells us this about those whom God will tear down:
They care nothing for what the Lord has done
or for what his hands have made.
But as for himself he says:
The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trust him with all my heart.
If we are willing to trust God with all of our hearts, He will grant us mercy and shield us from all troubles that this world brings.
Our steps are directed by God, which makes it hard for us to understand how we end up in some of the places He puts us. We should not strive to understand how we arrived at our destination, rather we should seek to understand what God wants us to do now that we are here.