For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The writer here asks two things of God. The first thing is something that we ordinarily think is within our own power. He asks that God keep him from ever telling a lie. Let us remember that we will only succeed in being totally honest, and that is what the writer is asking for, if we have God’s help in doing so. The second thing is two part. Most of us would certainly ask the latter portion of it, because no one wants to be poor. However, few people would think that there was such a thing as too rich. The writer points out that those who have great wealth often times think that they do not need God in their lives.
Yes, I will agree with the writer and ask God to help me to be always honest. Further, I will ask God that I be neither too rich to remember Him, nor so poor that I am tempted to sin to obtain my needs.
The psalmist tells us to give thanks to the Lord. He then proceeds to list some of the things which God has done for which we should be thankful. The most important one of which he repeats over and over: “His faithful love endures forever.”
When the seventh seal is broken, the prayers of God’s people will rise up to God as a fragrant offering. This analogy once more makes me think that perhaps the vision of the Lamb breaking the seals on the scroll represents something which has already happened/is happening. Elsewhere in the Bible our prayers are compared to a fragrant offering or an incense offering to God. So, how can it be that only at some time in the future will the prayers of God’s people be offered up as a fragrant offering to God?
Having said that about the seals and the scroll, I do believe that the seven trumpets represent something at the end of days. The idea of living through those days frightens me, even though I know that God cares for those who love and fear Him. I trust in God to care for me, and my loved ones, even if we go through the times mentioned here. However, there are people I care about who have yet to turn to God. I desperately want them to learn to know and serve God before those times begin, because without God those times will be unbearable.
The prophet Nahum reminds us that no matter how powerful a person, no matter how powerful a nation, if they turn against God, He will bring them down. The Assyrians were a mighty people. The kings of Nineveh led mighty armies. Wherever they turned their attention, nations fell. They accumulated wealth beyond count. However, when God had finally had enough of their wickedness they were destroyed to the point that archaeologists and students of history believed that they had never been. Those who did not accept the Bible as truth were convinced that the writers of the Bible who spoke of Assyria had made them up because there was no record of them in the histories kept by other nations. Such is the fate of those whom God destroys.