I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Hannah desperately desired to have a son. She went before God and poured out her heart to Him. She prayed so fervently that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk. When she explained to Eli that she was praying out of deep anguish and sorrow, Eli blessed her with the wish that her prayer be fulfilled. This lifted her spirits and she was able to eat again, the passage tells us that she was no longer sad. Just this part gives us some strong guidance on how we should live. Hannah was desperately sad but she did not wallow in that sadness, nor did she turn it to anger at herself or others. She turned to God and poured out her heart to Him. Eli listened when she told him she was not drunk and gave her a blessing from God which lifted her spirits. We should follow both of their examples. We should bring our troubles and lay them before God. And we should listen to those who tell us they are suffering and let them know that we are calling God’s blessing on them.
In due time, Hannah’s prayer was answered and she bore a son. When her son, named Samuel, was old enough they went to the Tabernacle and Hannah gave him into the service of the Lord. Samuel stayed and assisted Eli the priest. Hannah sang a song of great praise which contained a warning against boasting and arrogance and reminded us that no one succeeds by strength alone.
The passage concludes by contrasting Eli’s sons with Samuel. Eli’s sons abused their authority and position. I am having trouble wording what the passage seems to be saying was the worst of their sin. Rather than serve as facilitators of other’s worship of the Lord they interfered with it. They did so cavalierly in the pursuit of their own desires. However, we are told that Samuel served the Lord, even though he was but a boy. We are told that each year when his family came to sacrifice his mother brought him a small coat. Samuel knew that he was loved and grew up desiring to serve the Lord.
One time when Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days, He passed near the pool of Bethesda. Many disabled persons would lie there because it was believed that the first to enter the water after it was stirred up would be healed (and maybe they were the passage does not tell us). There was a man there who had been crippled for thirty eight years. When Jesus learned this, He asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man replied that whenever the water was stirred, as he was trying to get in someone would get in ahead of him. Notice that the man tried to take action to get better but was unable to accomplish it. He had not resigned himself to his condition, even after 38 years.
Jesus saw his faith and his desire and told him to get up, pick up his mat and walk. The man was healed and did as Jesus instructed. This happened on a Sabbath day. When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his sleeping mat, they told him that the law forbade him carrying the mat. The man replied that the one who had healed him had told him to do so. The Jewish leaders wanted to know who had told him to do that. Am I willing to listen to what Jesus tells me to do, even when the arbiters of what is acceptable in our society tell me it is wrong? That I am a “sinner” for doing so? Will I take up my mat and walk?
The passage ends with Jesus claiming to be the Son of God and explaining what that means. He tells us that the Son can do nothing except what He sees the Father doing. Further, the Son does whatever He sees the Father doing. He then tells us that the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. So, first He tells us that the Son does not do anything that He does not see the Father doing. Second, He tells us that the Son does everything He sees the Father do. Finally He tells us that the Father shows the Son everything that He, the Father, does. Based on other passages, I believe that this applies to us as well. We should be doing everything that we see Jesus doing and nothing that we do not see Jesus doing. I know that my problems in this life stem from my failure to keep watching Jesus to see what He is doing. At my best, all too often I am like a son who sees his father hammering nails into a board to carefully attach it to something he is building who then goes off and starts hammering nails into every board he sees. I need to watch closer and realize that the nails are only supposed to be hammered into certain boards and then only at certain places. Of course, that is at my best, all too often, I am not even watching Jesus and going off and doing my own thing without giving thought to what Jesus is doing, that I am supposed to be imitating. That results in me doing many things that are not only at the wrong time and place but are completely the wrong thing for me to do at any time or place. I pray to God that I listen to His Spirit when it reminds me to keep my eye on Jesus so that I can follow His cues as to what I should be doing.
The psalm I have been reading over the last several days that has been talking about how God molds His people. It tells us the purpose of all the things which the people went through (and of all of the things that we go through).
and obey his instructions.
Praise the Lord!
Let us remember that everything we go through is to teach us to follow God’s decrees and obey His instructions. Therefore, I will praise Him even for the difficult times.
The first proverb tells us that a growing population brings glory to a king, while a prince with no subjects is nothing. This weekend at meetings my congregation had it was brought up that there is a passage which says that we are kings in God’s service (Revelation 5:10). When I think about this in light of what Jesus says that he who wishes to be greatest must serve others, I think that I need to ask myself, “How many people am I serving?” Is the population that I am serving growing? Or is it no one?
The second proverb tells us that a hot temper shows great foolishness, that those who are wise control their temper. I have fairly good control over my temper, but this weekend God revealed to me that I have become complacent about my anger and have recently acted in ways that are not pleasing to God when I was angry. I have been convicted that I need to turn my anger over to God. I repent of my failure to allow Him to control my life in those situations and pray that His Spirit will remind of His will the next time I am angry.