I feel like I fell short on yesterday’s blog. I had somewhere to be early and was unable to do more than read the passages first thing in the morning. I then had a busy day and when I got back to working on it, I was rather tired. I got less out of yesterday’s passages than I have in a long time and I know that this is a product of not making it a higher priority for my day than I did. I do not know if anyone else noticed this lack, if so, I apologize for letting you down as well.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. 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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
After speaking with the leaders of Israel, Joshua summoned all of the tribes of Israel to assemble before God. He then recounts what God has done for them as a people in rescuing them from Egypt and bringing them into this land. Joshua tells them that they must decide what god or gods they are going to server. Are they going to serve God, the Lord Almighty? Are they going to serve the gods of the people in whose lands they are living? Or are they going to serve the gods of the people of the lands from which Abraham came? Then Joshua says one of those lines that resonate through time. “But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua here is declaring that even if all of those around him choose to worship some other gods, he, and all of those he is responsible for will worship God. There are two parts worth mentioning. The first is Joshua’s determination that he will serve the Lord, no matter what the rest of the people of Israel decide to do. The other is that he felt confident enough in the training he had imparted to his children to declare that they also would serve the Lord. There is an important point here. Our society, with its emphasis on individualism, stresses to our young people that they must make their own decision about what they believe. While that is indeed true, we must each make our own decision to follow the Lord, there is often an implication that if we adopt the belief system of our parents we have not learned to think on our own. It is most interesting that those in our society who put the most emphasis on children developing their own belief system independent of that of their parents are usually people who dismiss individualism in all other aspects of life. Children should be encouraged as they mature to come to their own understanding of God and of their faith in God. But they should not be encouraged to reject the beliefs of their parents. There is a fine line between encouraging them to develop their own understanding of God and even to encouraging them to come to their own heartfelt belief in God and between encouraging them to question things they believe because they are the same as what their parents believed. Looking back I realize that many of my struggles with my faith resulted from my attempts to do as these people, many of them youth leaders in the church, told me I had to do; reject my parents’ beliefs and build my own from scratch. They told me that it was “OK” if I then came to the same beliefs as my parents (although the implication was that I would arrive at different beliefs in certain areas, such as sexual morals), but only if I first rejected them and came to them entirely on my own. The interesting thing for me is that for the most part, those beliefs of my parents which I most question today are the ones which those who told me to reject my parents’ beliefs never suggested I question.
Luke now tells one of the most powerful stories from the Gospels (also told in the Gospel of Mark), the story of the widow’s offering. It is a short passage, but is often the theme of sermons. Jesus was in the Temple watching people place money in the collection box. He saw many wealthy people place large sums of money in the collection box. Then He saw a poor widow drop two small coins in the box. Jesus turned to His disciples and told them that the widow had put in more than all of the others. The wealthy had given out of their excess, while the widow had given out of what she needed to live. This passage always challenges me to find ways to sacrifice in order to give more to God’s purposes.
As they left the Temple, some of the disciples pointed out how majestic the stonework was. Jesus responded by telling them that the time was coming that the Temple would be completely demolished. The disciples wanted to know when this would happen. Jesus told them that there would be wars and earthquakes and famines, but that they should not panic because the end would not immediately follow those. He told them that His followers would suffer great persecution. They would be dragged into synagogues and prisons and forced to stand trial before kings and governors. This would be their opportunity to testify about Jesus and preach the Gospel. They were not to worry ahead of time about what to say because God would give them the words to say and the arguments to make that their adversaries would not be able to refute. After this armies would surround Jerusalem and it would fall to the Gentiles and be controlled by Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles came to an end. Then, sometime after that, there will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars and the people of earth will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and glory.
While I believe a large portion of Jesus’ prophecy here is regarding the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the time leading up to it, I, also, believe that some of that prophecy applies to us. We should not worry about what we will say when we are confronted by those who oppose us because we are followers of Jesus. God will give us the words to say and the arguments to make. This does not mean that we should not study God’s word and what people say against it so that we have a thorough understanding of what we believe. Remember, sometimes our answer can be as simple as the blind man Jesus healed, “I don’t know about that. All I know is that I was blind and now I see.” When confronted by those who oppose us because we follow Jesus, we must open our hearts and our minds to the Spirit’s guidance and pray to God that He manage the words that come out of our mouths, not for our glory, but for His.
I am not sure I know what to make of today’s portion of Psalm 89. The psalmist talks of how God had made a covenant with David, but now He has cast him off. It is not clear to me if this psalm is talking about a time of struggle in David’s life (such as when Absalom rebelled against him) or if it is referring to the troubles of one of David’s descendants. However, whichever it is, it talks about how life is short and all will die. There is certainly an element of Messianic foreshadowing throughout this psalm, foreshadowing that was fulfilled in Jesus. At the end, even though the psalmist wraps up with the king being mocked by those who are not only his enemies, but the enemies of God, he tells us to praise the Lord forever. I will praise the Lord, even when it appears that He has abandoned me because I know that He will turn His face to me once more.
Today’s proverb tells us to choose who we associate with carefully. If we spend time with those who are wise, we will learn wisdom and become wise(r). On the other hand if we spend time with fools, we will get caught up in their foolishness and suffer harm. Those who sin steadily will find themselves chased from one problem to another. While those who live righteous lives will see their troubles fade to be replaced by blessings.
Those who live good, wise lives will accumulate goods to pass on to their descendants, while those who are ungodly will see their goods pass to those who follow God’s paths.
God provides food for the poor, but there is still privation and hunger because human injustice takes it away from them.