For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
We should not hide the signs of aging, they are evidence of experience. Our society encourages us to hide our gray hair, when in fact we should embrace them as a sign of gaining wisdom. Those who are patient and maintain self-control will be more successful than those with great power and ability. Patience and self-control will yield success in places where power and ability fail.
The path to true joy is fear of the Lord. Our God is loving and forgiving, but when His power breaks out it is a scary and frightening experience. The more we know and understand about God, the more scared we will be of Him. However, at the same time we will experience His love and faithfulness, which will give us the courage to act according to His will. As John Newton wrote in the song “Amazing Grace”:
And Grace, my fears relieved.
Let us embrace that grace which both teaches us to fear God and relieves us of that fear.
Stephen continues his defense and showing how his beliefs have common ground with those putting him on trial. However, he shows how the people of Israel had rejected Moses in the same way that they had rejected Jesus. There is the implication in Stephen’s argument that those who had rejected Jesus have the opportunity to repent of that rejection and accept Him, just as many of the people of Israel repented of rejecting Moses and returned to following him in worshiping God. As we witness to those around us, let us not give up on those who initially rejected our message. The Holy Spirit may still at some point touch their hearts and cause them to turn to God.
Stephen goes on to point out that even though Solomon built the Temple God does not live in a house built by human hands. God will not and cannot be constrained by human action, whether that is the buildings we build or the rituals we follow. The Holy Spirit will move as It wills and settle into the heart of those It chooses. When God chooses to move in the world, He will not be constrained by human preconceptions. Let us not allow our beliefs to limit how God can work in our lives. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to act in us to accomplish God’s plan for our lives.
When Solomon had completed the Temple he built himself a new palace. The residence he built for himself, and for the daughter of Pharaoh whom he had married, was more luxurious and gilded than the Temple he had built for God (at least by my reading). He spent twice as long building it as well. However, having finished his own palace (or perhaps while building his own palace), Solomon then hired a skilled craftsmen to craft furnishings of great beauty for the Temple. In many ways this passage summarizes the conflict which marked Solomon’s reign, and many of our lives. Solomon went back and forth between working to bring glory and honour to God and satisfying his own wants and desires. Let us strive to focus wholeheartedly on serving and worshiping God and not allow our own desires to distract us from that.