For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I am starting to feel better and, God willing, should experience steady improvement to full recovery in a little over a week. I thank those of you have been praying for me.
There is no point in trying to educate a fool, they are not interested in learning. There is a very basic truth in this proverb. You cannot educate those who have no desire to learn. It does not matter how much money you spend on it. It will not result in them learning anything. Of course, there is another truth hidden in this proverb. Only a fool has no desire to learn. No matter why you think that you do not need to learn more, if you do think that you are a fool.
I always struggle with what to write about this psalm. It is an emotionally powerful psalm, but one with which I do not identify. I am glad that I have not experienced the deep sorrow expressed in this psalm and do not desire to see that changed. Yet I know that, because of that, I am unable to understand certain aspects of God’s mercy.
In this passage we have the first, and perhaps only, account of men being called to ministry by the Church. A group of leaders of the Church in Antioch of Syria met regularly to pray and fast. One day, the Holy Spirit led them to the conclusion that Saul and Barnabas were being called to a special mission. The group then fasted and prayed about what that mission was. Once it became clear what God’s mission was for Barnabas and Saul, they laid hands on them and sent them on their way. Notice that it was not Barnabas or Saul who suggested they were being called (although something like that happens sometimes as well). The message from the Holy Spirit grew out of the group spending time together in prayer, worshiping the Lord.
Barnabas and Saul went to the island of Cyprus and preached the Gospel. As they traveled across the island they met a Jewish sorcerer named Elymas, who was an attendant to the proconsul. It is not clear how the proconsul heard of Barnabas and Saul, but when he did, he wanted to hear them for himself. Elymas did not want the proconsul to believe and interfered with their conversation with the proconsul. Saul confronted Elymas directly, and for the first time is referred to as Paul. A couple of years back I looked into the meaning of “Paul” and discovered that it means “small” or “humble”. Ever since, when I read this passage I imagine Elymas being a tall, imposing person and Paul as a diminutive, mousy kind of person (in body type). If this is true, I think it explains a lot about why Paul was such an effective evangelist. Paul did not convince people by the force of his personality, nor by his “presence”. Rather Paul convinced people through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I enjoy the stories of Ben-Hadad attacking Samaria. In both stories, Ben-Hadad lost because of his arrogance. The first time he deployed his army while he and his commanders were drunk. Then he tried to capture the Israelite army alive rather than just defeat it. The second time, he convinced himself that he had lost the first campaign because God was a god of the hills. He was sure that he could defeat the Israelites in the plains, where he believed that God would be unable to help them.