For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Let us seek after understanding and insight as if they were valuable treasures, because they are. If you truly seek those two things you will learn to fear the Lord and gain knowledge about God. Knowledge of God and fear of the Lord are an integral part of understanding and insight. All too many people seek to find understanding and insight apart from God and reject any that involve Him.

    Let us turn to God for protection, remembering that we will have to face the consequences of our actions. If we have sinned those consequences will be negative. If we do not repent of our sins, it will go even worse for us. It is only when we repent of our sins and turn to God that He will offer us protection from those out to destroy us.

    The first two teachings in this passage can be summed up by saying, “Do not put on a show about being righteous.” We should not give to charity in order to be recognized for it. We should not do good deeds in order for others to say how good we are. In the same way, we should not fast so as to attract attention and receive recognition for how righteous we are. Rather, we should do our best to keep others from being aware of our good deeds and self-sacrifice. Whether others see it or not, God knows what we do and will reward us accordingly. There is a limit to how stringently we should follow this instruction, because there is value in being a good example as well.
    Jesus then warns us against valuing and accumulating material wealth. If we put our efforts into acquiring wealth, we will make wealth the center of our universe. If we put our efforts into acquiring knowledge, we will make knowledge the center of our universe. If we put our effort into serving the Lord, the Lord will become the center of our universe.

    We have another story where it would be easy to choose one or another of the people as victims of circumstance. We could blame Sarai for mistreating Hagar. We could blame Abram for not controlling the situation. We could blame Hagar for being contemptuous of Sarai. It is quite clear that all of the individuals in this story bear some of the blame for how it turned out. After Ishmael was born, Abram asked God to apply His promises to Ishmael. God responded that Ishmael would be blessed, but Sarai (renamed Sarah at this point) would bear Abram a son. It would be through Sarah’s son that God’s promises to Abram would be fulfilled.
    This passage reminds us of the importance of being patient and waiting for God to carry out His promises. When we try to make things work out our way, we generate many problems we could have avoided by waiting for God to show us His plan.