For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
When disaster comes, the wicked are crushed because they place their trust and faith in material things. When disaster strikes and destroys their material possessions, they do not have anywhere left to turn. The righteous, on the other hand, place their trust in God so that not even death is able to threaten their peace.
Despite the good things which God had done for the people of Israel they refused to follow His guidance. They quickly forgot His displays of power and sought after other solutions to their problems. Are we the same? Do we forget what God has done for us? Or are we like Moses and Phinehas? Do we intervene with God asking Him to forgive those who have sinned against Him? Oh Lord, let me not forget what You have done for me. Move in me to stand in prayer, calling people back to following You and begging You not to strike them in Your just anger against them.
John recounts how Jesus fed the five thousand (actually much more as the count of five thousand only includes the men, not women and children). Philip could not conceive of raising enough money to feed so many, and Andrew pointed out that their available resources were too few for the task (five loaves of bread and two fish). Jesus demonstrated that when we set out to do God’s will, He will provide what we need to accomplish the task.
The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant. They thought this was because of their own prowess and the power of their gods. They placed the Ark in a position of subservience to their idol of Dagon (their chief god). However, when they returned in the morning they found their idol fallen down in a position of obeisance before the Ark. When they set the idol back up, it fell over again, this time it broke when it fell. In addition, as they continued to consider Dagon as greater than God, He struck them with a plague. God often works that way in our lives. When we set up idols to which we make God secondary, He will give us signs that they are to be subordinate to Him. If we insist on returning them to the primary position on our lives, He will break them. If we continue to refuse to recognize His sovereignty He will strike us with the consequences of our actions.