For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
This proverb seems self-evident, but sometimes we overlook the self-evident. It is not just that those who do these things are an embarrassment to their parents. These are people we should be ashamed to be seen with. People who mistreat their parents as described should be ashamed to show their face in public. Society should consider them to be disgraced with no further action needed.
When I read this psalm my eyes were drawn to the middle of this passage:
to those with integrity you show integrity.
To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
What exactly does that mean? Well the first parts are easy, God will respond to virtue with virtue, but God is not able to do evil. So He cannot respond to the deceitful, the crooked, and the dishonest in like manner. However, God responds appropriately. The deceitful, dishonest, and crooked discover that God is not naive. He is not fooled in the least by their subterfuge.
Paul points out that if we have the Spirit of God living within us we are not controlled by our sinful nature. Further, he tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of God living within us we are not God’s people. What does this mean for us? It means that we need to examine our lives and seek out the places where we are allowing our sinful nature to control us. Or more exactly, we need to ask the Spirit to search us and identify those areas. Once we have identified those areas, we need to allow the Spirit to enter into them and take control. If we do not do this, but instead allow our sinful nature to control those areas we will die bit by bit.
However, if we allow the Holy Spirit to take control and stop us from doing the deeds of our sinful nature we will live. Doing so makes us children of God. So, even though we allow the Spirit to control us, we are not slaves. If we allow it, our sinful nature will make us slaves, but, on the other hand, if we allow the Spirit to do so, He will make us free. This does not mean that we will not suffer. No, it actually means that we will suffer. However, the suffering we experience in this life is nothing compared to the glory we will experience when this life is over. As we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, He will give us a foretaste of that glory. I hope that you have experienced that foretaste because even that little bit makes me excited about what is to come. My excitement is not based on my imagining what that glory might be but on the thought of experiencing that glory continuously rather than intermittently, as I do now.
We learn here that Solomon had married Pharaoh’s daughter. He thought it inappropriate that she live in the palace which David had built because the Ark of the Covenant had been there. I know that this marriage was a political one, but nevertheless, perhaps Solomon should have considered if it was appropriate to marry a woman who he felt could not step on holy ground. Certainly, I will advise anyone reading this to take that into account before entering into a relationship with someone.
The passage also describes how Solomon built a trading empire. Solomon sent ships on three year trading missions. He commissioned caravans. The land of Canaan was ideally suited for such an empire. If Solomon and the people of Israel had faithfully served God, this trading empire could have continued for many years.