For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
I always read this proverb as saying that no one wants to be friends with the poor, but everyone wants to be friends with the wealthy. The second verse today is an important follow up. It tells us that it is a sin to despise our neighbors, even if they are poor. Blessings come to those who are kind to the poor and help the needy.
If we look at the world around us, we will discover that God is truly great. I cannot hope to improve on the psalmist’s words here. I read this psalm and it reminds me both of the beauty and power of nature, which God created. I will praise the Lord.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he had trouble understanding what Jesus was saying to him. We received physical life from our mothers, but the only way to receive spiritual life is for the Holy Spirit to enter into us. We cannot explain how it works, that is why we see some sinners struck down like Saul on the road to Damascus, while others continue without such intervention. Jesus goes on to discuss how those who do right do not attempt to hide what they are doing from others, instead they choose to do their work in the open and full light of day where anyone can see that they are doing what is right. On the other hand, those who do evil seek to hide in the shadows and avoid the light so that others cannot see what they are doing. Do I seek light to do my work, or do I try to hide my actions from others? Am I afraid to let others see what I am doing?
This story takes place a long time after Joshua, yet the tribe of Dan had not yet settled into the area allotted to them. It starts out by telling us about a man named Micah who lived in the hill country of Ephraim, although the passage does not tell us whether or not he belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. Micah stole a large number of coins from his mother. When she cursed the person who had stolen the money he returned it to her. She took the money and had an idol made for her son (I truly do not understand her motivation here). Micah set the idol up in his own house and began to worship it, going so far as to recruit a member of the tribe of Levi to be his priest. Micah was sure that now that he had his own god with a Levite priest that he would be blessed. After a short time, a group of men from Dan came and took the idol from him, convincing the Levite to go with them and be their priest. Micah was devastated by his loss.
Micah experienced what everyone who gives their allegiance to something other than the true God. That something will be taken from them and they will be left with nothing. Is there something I am setting up in place of God?