For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    I like the NIV translation better here. Lashing out at others because your pride has been hurt is foolish. The wise choose their words carefully; using them to build a defense of their actions rather than to attack those who have offended their pride. If your first priority is keeping everything neat and orderly, you will never accomplish anything productive.

    The psalmist asks how long it will be until God brings justice to the wicked and the proud. Then he reminds the wicked who oppress the weak and powerless that God is indeed watching and keeping track of their deeds. God will exact justice from those who kill widows, orphans, and foreigners for their own benefit. Those who do evil may think that God can not, or will not, call them to account for their evil, but they are mistaken. It may seem that His judgement falls more frequently on those who only do minor wrongs. However, that is not His judgement, rather it is discipline to offer the chance to return to Him. Let us learn from God’s discipline and listen closely to His instructions. Then we will receive relief from troubled times and not fall subject to His coming judgement. God will turn the sins of those who do evil against them, but He will be a fortress protecting those who accept His discipline. Oh Lord, let me always respond to your discipline!

    Jesus reminds His disciples that when He sent them out to preach the Good News, they took nothing with them except the clothes on their backs and they wanted for nothing. Now He tells them to gather all the supplies for a trip that they can and to sell their cloak to get a sword if they don’t have one. Then when they tell Him that they have two swords among them, He tells them that that is sufficient. It seems to me that the message Jesus was conveying here is that there are times when we should go out on faith, fully relying on God to provide for our needs and there are other times when we should plan for trouble and gather what supplies we will need to get through the hard times ahead. It seems that His instruction about buying swords was to emphasize the importance of preparing for all eventualities, rather than an instruction to take up arms to do violence.

    When Deborah was judge over the people of Israel, they were oppressed because they had not kept God’s commands. However, God had Deborah call Barak, the war leader of the tribe of Naphtali, to raise warriors. Barak accepted her commission, but insisted that he would only go out to battle if she accompanied him. Because Barak did not trust Deborah’s prophecy enough to act on it without her at his side, the glory for the final victory went to someone else. Barak was the battle commander, but it was Deborah who told him when it was the time and place to attack. And it was Jael, the wife of a Kenite, who killed the general of the opposing forces. It was Jael who ended the war, because if Sisera had escaped he would have been able to raise another army and return to raid the Israelites. Barak and his warriors would have needed to disband so that they could return to their land to raise their crops.